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The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Creator of El Topo

Alejandro Jodorowsky

The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Creator of <i>El Topo</i> Alejandro Jodorowsky Amazon Price: $12.89
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Editorial Review:

Jodorowsky’s memoirs of his experiences with Master Takata and the group of wisewomen--magiciennes--who influenced his spiritual growth

• Reveals Jodorowsky turning the same unsparing spiritual vision seen in El Topo to his own spiritual quest

• Shows how the author’s spiritual insight and progress was catalyzed repeatedly by wisewoman shamans and healers

In 1970, John Lennon introduced to the world Alejandro Jodorowsky and the movie, El Topo, that he wrote, starred in, and directed. The movie and its author instantly became a counterculture icon. The New York Times said the film “demands to be seen,” and Newsweek called it “An Extraordinary Movie!” But that was only the beginning of the story and the controversy of El Topo, and the journey of its brilliant creator. His spiritual quest began with the Japanese master Ejo Takata, the man who introduced him to the practice of meditation, Zen Buddhism, and the wisdom of the koans. Yet in this autobiographical account of his spiritual journey, Jodorowsky reveals that it was a small group of wisewomen, far removed from the world of Buddhism, who initiated him and taught him how to put the wisdom he had learned from his master into practice.

At the direction of Takata, Jodorowsky became a student of the surrealist painter Leonora Carrington, thus beginning a journey in which vital spiritual lessons were transmitted to him by various women who were masters of their particular crafts. These women included Doña Magdalena, who taught him “initiatic” or spiritual massage; the powerful Mexican actress known as La Tigresa (the “tigress”); and Reyna D’Assia, daughter of the famed spiritual teacher G. I. Gurdjieff. Other important wisewomen on Jodorowsky’s spiritual path include María Sabina, the priestess of the sacred mushrooms; the healer Pachita; and the Chilean singer Violeta Parra. The teachings of these women enabled him to discard the emotional armor that was hindering his advancement on the path of spiritual awareness and enlightenment.

Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult

Richard B. Spence

Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult Richard B. Spence Amazon Price: $16.76
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Aleister Crowley is best known today as a founding father of modern occultism. His wide, hypnotic eyes peer at us from the cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and his influence can be found everywhere in popular culture.

Crowley, also known as the Great Beast, has been the subject of several biographies, some painting him as a misunderstood genius, others as a manipulative charlatan. None of them have looked seriously at his career as an agent of British Intelligence.

Using documents gleaned from British, American, French, and Italian archives, Secret Agent 666 sensationally reveals that Crowley played a major role in the sinking of the Lusitania, a plot to overthrow the government of Spain, the thwarting of Irish and Indian nationalist conspiracies, and the 1941 flight of Rudolf Hess.

Author Richard B. Spence argues that Crowley-in his own unconventional way-was a patriotic Englishman who endured years of public vilification in part to mask his role as a secret agent.

The verification of the Great Beast's participation in the twentieth century's most astounding government plots will likely blow the minds of history buff s and occult aficionados alike.

Author Richard B. Spence can be seen on various documentaries on the History Channel and is a consultant for Washington, DC's International Spy Museum. He is also the author of Trust No One: The Secret World of Sidney Reilly (Feral House).

My Life With The Spirits: The Adventures of a Modern Magician

Lon Milo DuQuette

My Life With The Spirits: The Adventures of a Modern Magician Lon Milo DuQuette Amazon Price: $17.95
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 50 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An Interesting Read... 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Like some others who have posted a review, it was the title that drew me to this book. Never heard of the author before, but he had a `deep in thought' stare on the cover with mysterious writings... Who could resist possible diabolical behavior with secret magical workings? What turns out, it's mostly about a typical hippie from the 70's (haha, just a fun jab) and his struggles to survive various stages in his life of faith/magick. Contempt for God is evident, but after reading the chapters of his early life in Nebraska, you can see clearly how this developed. From birth, to a brief music career, to a hard life direction all the way to Crowley and beyond, you get a clear picture of how his choices on things come forward. There are a few magick moments in the book, but like many stories of practiced magick, it could go wither way, it ~could~ have been real, or it could have just as easily been chance or imagination or strong desire. But that is up to the reader on that. There are fun moments throughout, very well written! One of my favorite parts is the `mentally mooning' of bragging psychics and/or mystics. I love that, too funny. Expect fun moments like that. To me in the end it was a brief book of reflection on self discovery for posterity. No stale braggadocio here, or impossibly naïve claims of power like so many others. The author lays out his achievements and faults to bring together quite an interesting progressive story. I've read it several times. I have no patience or continued focus on boring things. A testament to the writer for an excellent read. Because of this book I've looked into other books by this author.

Editorial Review:

A rare glimpse into the fascinating, sometimes terrifying, sometimes hilarious world of a modern ceremonial magician. Hailed by critics as the most entertaining author and one of the most widely respected members of the magick community, Lon Milo DuQuette provides a beacon for aspiring magicians everywhere.

The Secret Life of a Satanist: The Authorized Biography of Anton LaVey

Blanche Barton

The Secret Life of a Satanist: The Authorized Biography of Anton LaVey Blanche Barton Amazon Price: $11.06
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Hell's Own Carny Barker 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I never knew Lavey. Sometimes, reading about him, one wonders whether anyone ever really did. If you can read between the lines though (too few can), there are some deeply funny and even profound brushes which can be had with the man.

In choosing to either deify or villify him, both his sycophants and his detractors seem to get it all wrong. Lavey is best evaluated warts and all, but also with an eye to the card hand that his critics desperately hide. A quick survey of the characters (or lack thereof) of his three biggest antagonists (the sources of basically every negative accusation making the rounds) speaks for itself. But to whitewash him of any fault would equally leave an impression unworthy of what his legacy suggests.

Much has been made about the fact that Lavey seems to have invented a large part of his 'past' and I feel, from reading this book that this is evidently true. This is supposed to prove that Lavey was a fake and that any of his ideas are suspect. If this is so, then the works of Andy Warhol, Vladimir Nabokov, Jim Morrison, B. Traven and Orson Welles should all be dismissed as counterfeit.

According to Freud, we all make up our 'personas' and attendant 'pasts' as we go along. However, if this book is any record, we don't all do it with equal skill or taste.

Perhaps Lavey's greatest feat of Black Magic was his ability re-enchant the world by awakening an interest in all that is lost, forgotten or damned by consensus reality. Perhaps... but even if he was nothing more than an endearing curmudgeon with a renaissance grasp of junk culture, all his 'artifacts' would still be worth a million kewpie dolls to those with eyes to see.

Yankee Rose indeed.

Editorial Review:

Here is the definitive biography of the notorious founder of the Church of Satan. The mysterious LaVey arouses even more curiosity today than during his heyday in the 1960s when his picture appeared on the covers of Look and Time magazines. Photographs.

Muchas vidas, muchos maestros (Millenium) (Millenium)

Brian Weiss

Muchas vidas, muchos maestros (Millenium) (Millenium) Brian Weiss Amazon Price: $14.78
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

UN LIBRO LLENO DE MENSAJES MARAVILLOSOS 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Este libro y todos los del Doctor Weiss nos muestran de que venimos a esta vida a aprender, que no todo se termina con la muerte,si no que es un ciclo mas, he estado aprendiendo mucho con estos libros, te recomiendo todos los libros del Doctor Weiss, si estas en busca de ti mismo, y le tienes miedo ala muerte o no entiendes cual es la finalidad de tu existencia estos libros te ayudarn enormemente como lo hicieron conmigo, quiza todos tenemos diferentes maneras de asimilar la verdad, pero el Doctor Weiss nos muestra como el, siendo un Psiquiatra con bases ceintificas descubrio la verdad de muchas cosas y situaciones que los cientificos jamas podran explicar con sus teorias, definitivamente una serie de libros muy interesantes y llenos de mensajes que te llenaran de paz y esperanza.....

Editorial Review:

In this narrative of the turning point in his psychiatric career, Dr. Brian Weiss describes being astonished and perplexed when one of his patients began recalling past-life traumas that seemed to hold the key to her recurring nightmares and anxiety attacks. His skepticism was eroded, however, when she began to channel messages from the "space between lives," which contained remarkable revelations about Dr. Weiss' family and his dead son. Using past-life therapy, he was able to cure the patient and embark on a new, more meaningful phase of his own career.

Emissary of Light

James F. Twyman

Emissary of Light James F. Twyman Amazon Price: $13.46
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This One Hits Home 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Emissary of Light offers a perspective on inner peace and tranquility. It is not a unique view for many who believe that God and peace are within each and every person just looking for a way out. But it is yet another way to explain it. The story of how James came upon this realization or I should say how it was shown to him. It starts slow but really takes off after the stage is set.

Inexplicably drawn to a conflicted part of the world he met those who try to preserve peace in the world. Not in the way you would normally think but in a spiritual way. By exuding the light of peace through mediation. The lessons on peace, love and life have been heard before but the book drew me in and would not release me for some reason. It was as if I was being told an old lesson in a new way. Is humanity ready for the next step in the evolution of their spirituality? The message of the book is that we are, although I tend to personally doubt that.

It speaks to the fact that all religions are man made and speak to the person in a way that they can understand. That it matters not which one you believe in but the fact that you believe in "The Divine Light". That people only see what they allow themselves to see and if it is Jesus or Buddha or Muhammad it makes no difference because it is the "Divine Light" behind the teaches of compassion and love that is what it is all about. I know this will not sit well with many people and this alone will turn them away from the book. But I believe there is a lot to be considered here.

I believe this book is a very good book that should be read by those interested in spirituality. And even if you don't agree with what is being said the story of the individual and his travels are interesting in themselves. As he explains what he felt and what he thought. It adds a personal dimension to the book that is interesting.

Editorial Review:

Traveling in 1995 around war-torn Bosnia and Croatia, where he had gone to stage a peace concert, this author encountered The Emissaries: a small group of mystics who meditated 12 hours a day. He went on to detail their message—that humanity was now ready to create a new world—in a book that was translated into more than a dozen languages. This new edition provides behind-the-scenes information about the people met on that trip and offers additional commentary on the monks' compelling mystic vision.

My Life as a Seer: The Lost Memoirs

Edgar Cayce

My Life as a Seer: The Lost Memoirs Edgar Cayce Amazon Price: $7.99
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A rare glimpse into the mind of a great 20th-century mystic 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 29 people found this review helpful.

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to see inside the mind of a great psychic? To be able to access information about people and places that reaches far beyond the physical dimension? Edgar Cayce's biography, expertly compiled by a professional journalist and editor from Cayce's never-before-published autobiographical notes, a personal diary, and lecture records, allows us just such a rare glimpse. Cayce (1877-1945) is the world's best-documented psychic, with over 14,000 verbatim transcripts of 'readings' on topics ranging from health concerns, reincarnation, astrology, spiritual development, earth change predictions, and other metaphysical topics catalogued in the Library of the Association for Research Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, VA.

Edgar Cayce is also known as the "Father of Holistic Medicine," whose unorthodox naturopathic cures, while helping many regain their health who had been given up as hopeless by the medical establishment, once led to his arrest on grounds of practising medicine without a licence.

In "My Life As a Seer," we get to know the Edgar Cayce who struggled with self-doubts regarding his psychic gift, and with concerns about the impact which the information from his readings might have on those who sought his counsel. We meet Cayce the family man, a photographer by profession, whose deep faith sees him through a series of defeats, including the destruction by fire of his studio; the closure, for lack of funds, of the hospital he had spent years trying to build; an eviction from his home; and physical injuries suffered while being the target of a humiliating attempt to expose him as a fraud. Through it all, Cayce remained a sincere and humble man,who was motivated not by fame nor by riches (which eluded him all his life), but by an overwhelming desire to serve God and help his fellow human beings.

"My Life As a Seer," as grandson Charles Thomas Cayce says in the foreword, represents "the first account of Edgar Cayce's life told completely in his own words. He does not dwell on all of the personal aspects of his life, but focuses primarily on those experiences that marked him since childhood as decidedly different from anyone else in his world."

Reading this fascinating book is the closest most of us will come to talking with Edgar Cayce in this lifetime.

Editorial Review:

Only recently discovered, this new memoir delivers Cayce's important message to the world at crucial time: the dawn of the twenty-first century. In this personal, moving story, readers learn how Cayce felt about his amazing powers; the angelic presence that told him he would become a healer to millions; his extraordinary ability as a child to learn his school lessons simply by sleeping on his books. We're also given a "behind the scenes" glimpse at his many psychic readings. Throughout his life, Cayce was the voice people turned to for advice on issues as diverse as health and world issues. Now, Cayce speaks once more on these topics and delivers his ultimate message to humanity for the first time. My Life as a Seer brings to life the emotional frustrations, motivations, fears, and visions of the century's premier spiritualist.

Adventures of a Psychic

Sylvia Browne

Adventures of a Psychic Sylvia Browne Amazon Price: $19.95
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 153 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

only if you're out of toilet tissue 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

What a load of tripe! This Browne lady is not only a felon, but a liar when it comes to her education, psychic abilities and being a non-smoker. She doesn't even write the books her name is attached to. Even watching TV is more entertaining than this garbage.

Her first book was her best! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

A common sense approach to life-keep it simple.Many of the things she
wrote about were things I felt I already knew on some level and this was the first time I had seen them in words.
Reassuring,comforting,thought provoking and humorus.

Mixed Feelings but I still follow her! 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed with Sylvia Browne. I have watched her for years on the Montel Williams Show. When I first bought this book, I was disappointed once I started reading about Francine who I come later to know as part of Sylvia Browne's psychic abilities. By studying psychics like Sylvia Browne, I gain a better understanding of myself more than her. I don't agree with her a hundred percent of the time but it doesn't mean that I don't love her or admire her ability. She's here to help us. Her life has been traumatic, difficult, and messy at times. That's because psychics too are human and make mistakes. We're terrible with predicting ourselves but we can guide our family and friends to better lives if they only listen to advice. Maybe the book is beneficial in helping us unload the stress of our lives. No, being human and alive is not easy. Psychics tell me that I'm going to live to be about 90 and I'm scared. I don't want to live that long. I'll outlive all my family and friends and be all alone. If Sylvia Browne might be outrageous, outspoken, and opinionated, it doesn't mean that she gets it wrong most of the time. All psychics make mistakes and are not perfect. But if you love Sylvia Browne, you will love this book. But by reading it, i had to seek out my own knowledge and it's been a whirlwind adventure of trying to become more psychic, intuitional, and better atuned to natures and our surroundings. We don't have to pack up and move to find serenity, peace, and love. We just have to close our eyes and let your mind go there. This book and other books about the paranormal are not suggested for skeptics, atheists, and those who seek to disprove her claims. That's such a waste of energy!

Editorial Review:

Reveals how the author, a famous psychic, has developed her paranormal abilities and used them to investigate hauntings and aid police in solving crimes. Book available.

After the Light: What I Discovered on the Other Side of Life That Can Change Your World

Kimberly Clark Sharp

After the Light: What I Discovered on the Other Side of Life That Can Change Your World Kimberly Clark Sharp Amazon Price: $15.25
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Death is nothing to fear - and life without fear can be lived to the fullest."

This is Kimberly Clark Sharp's message from her extraordinary experience during the time after her heart suddenly stopped beating and she lay on the sidewalk, not breathing, and without a pulse. Swept into a peaceful loving place of brilliant golden light and warm comfort, she saw, for the first time, the meaning of life - and death.

Thereafter, Kimberly, with hamster Toto at her side, left Kansas for Seattle - known as "the Emerald City" -- to fulfill a destiny devoted to the service of others as foreseen at the end of her near-death experience. Guided by a new sensitivity to the presence of angels, demons and other invisibilities, Kimberly attained a Masters degree in Social Work at the University of Washington and began a career in medical social work that put her in direct contact with dying people - and people who almost died and came back.

It is the inspirational stories of these near-death experiences, as well as Kimberly's own life challenges in love, family life and the diagnosis of breast cancer, that form the core of this surprisingly funny page-turner of a book.

All for the Love of God - Life with Mark Prophet, a Modern-Day Mystic

Alex Reichardt, Margaret Reichardt

All for the Love of God - Life with Mark Prophet, a Modern-Day Mystic Alex Reichardt, Margaret Reichardt Amazon Price: $10.17
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Happiness in Slavery 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 12 people found this review helpful.

"Today it feels important to tell you that I bless the day we met, and will continue to do so until I've taken my last breath. Your endless gifts to me bespoke a generosity of spirit that I'd never before been confronted with, and will be surprised to encounter ever again. Quite simply, you are the kindest man I have ever known. As I review my life, our time together was a landmark event for me...life changing. I knew at the time, and I know it still. I will never be the same."

The above quote is not, as one would surmise, from "All for the Love of God." It is written by an actual slave (to his master) and quoted from p. 141 of a book called "Slavecraft: Roadmaps for Erotic Servitude" by Guy Baldwin. I cite it here to demonstrate the close similarities between so-called 'chelaship' as recounted by Alex Reichardt, and masochistic submission as exemplified by people in the BDSM community who are involved in 24/7 consensual master/slave relationships. But BDSM participants are clear about their contract, and it is not maintained through intimidation, or threats of spiritual damnation. And that's exactly what held Reichardt in thrall to Mark Prophet.

Reichardt, p.29 "I saw his great love for people, his honesty and how down to earth he really was. There was nothing phony about Mark. He met each person where they were and treated everyone like his best friend. A very generous-hearted person, he was humble before God and man, always willing to give the other person the benefit of the doubt...He was as joyful as a child. Before long we were like the best of friends, and I viewed him as the caring father I had always wanted."

The similarity of these two quotes is striking. Sadly, Reichardt's feelings of friendship and loyalty toward my father were not reciprocated.

Consider the following. As a child of perhaps six or eight, I remember my father referring repeatedly to Alex Reichardt as an "idiot," and "nincompoop." My sister Becky remembers dad saying again and again, "Alex, you twerp!" At the time, I actually felt sorry for Alex. I listened to my father saying these things, and wondered what in the world Alex could have done to deserve such enduring scorn. Realize that this was a man who basically gave up his life for my parents. He waited on my dad hand and foot, rode around with him in the car, massaged his feet on a regular basis, (to help Mark Prophet carry "world karma" of course) and did whatever he was asked, at any hour of the day or night.

I remember specifically one incident when dad berated Alex behind his back because Alex hung his pants up crooked on a wire hanger. I never heard my dad remark even once how grateful he was to Alex for his service, only how clumsy he was. Another running joke with dad was how Alex had fallen asleep and forgot which of my dad's feet he'd been rubbing. "Which one?" dad would tell the story, mimicking Alex and curling his lip derisively, then he would guffaw. He blamed Alex for leaning the wrong way and causing a motorcycle accident where dad had been driving. (p.131) Both of them got pretty banged up. I was there when they came home and saw their torn clothes and bloody knees. A caring master who had Alex' best interests at heart would have humbly apologized.

Alex is a man who gave my dad total loyalty, even to the point of signing over his unemployment checks to help dad pay the bills when money was tight. Yet a short few years later when Alex forgot to pack my dad's shoes for a trip, Alex had to replace them at a cost of $15. Monthly staff salaries were coincidentally also $15.

It didn't end there. Alex was fined $45 (a whopping three month's salary) for letting someone into a service with liquor on their breath, chastised for picking onions off a sandwich, and blamed for his "doubts" supposedly preventing my dad from lifting the fog on one occasion. (Yes, you heard that right--dad claimed to be able to control the weather.) Alex was fined the total cost of postage when he sent a mailing out first class instead of air mail. His crime? He had sent the mailing as per standard procedure and not asked beforehand. Alex was told he'd made a "week's worth of karma" because he spoke louder than a whisper in the unoccupied chapel. He'd "disturbed the forcefield."

Dad mocked Alex by "knighting" him Sir Bernard, quipping that if he worked really hard he could become "Saint Bernard," implying that he was loyal to a fault, like a dog. (p.115)

Yet when things went wrong, Mark Prophet was quick to blame Alex. On p.143 Alex describes how he and Ruth Farnam were constantly singled out as examples of bad behavior. Alex excuses this public shaming as essential to the process of instilling humility. Again, humiliation is a staple of BDSM, and the more I read of this book, the more I realized how deeply this metaphor holds. And therein lies the problem.

It is important to understand that "All for the Love of God" is really two books. It is a book documenting the life of the author, and certain events which took place on staff of "The Summit Lighthouse" mostly in the late 1960's and early 1970's in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This section of the book is factual, and according to my recollection, highly accurate.

But there is a second book without which the first makes no sense. That second book involves flights of fancy so extreme and outlandish as to defy description. Only "in a world" of invisible (but real) masters, angels and past lives does the concept of spiritual training involving real-world humiliation make sense. Strangely, Alex recites his justifications without a trace of irony or acknowledgement of their absurdity (which is plainly apparent to anyone else).

The first and second books are thoroughly intertwined and inseparable. Alex describes past lives of the "messengers" and staff as if he were talking about well-established historical facts. He provides only self-referential evidence for any of the spiritual teachings. The book contains an appendix of "dispensations" of angels that he claims form some sort of spiritual "posse" around each person. To get an idea of just how ridiculous this is, on p.299, he tallies up the "posse:" "15 Seraphim, 4 Cherubim, 10 angel groups, 22 specific angels, 13 elementals, 1 Terton (whatever that is), 1 Ascended Master, plus your guardian angel." That's substantially north of 100 angels per person.

I'm sorry, even by the standards of garden variety religious hyperbole, this is over-the-top. This level of disconnection from reality would normally get a person institutionalized. We're expected to believe that these wild stories he presents are objective realities? It strains every fiber of credibility to the breaking point.

So how to analyze this book? It's utterly incomprehensible without the spiritual component. Otherwise it reads like the narrative of a non-consensual slave, and comes off painful and pathetic. It's surprising how similar "All for the Love of God" actually is to "Mark Prophet: The Man and the Myth." (Available at the Black Sun Journal site) Both recount nearly identical events. Peter Arnone rejects the supernatural component, and Alex embraces it. Peter's account makes much more sense. I'm sorry to say that it portrays Mark Prophet as a very ordinary weak, self-centered and manipulative human being.

But Alex seemed determined to reframe Mark Prophet's legacy in loftier terms. I only wish I could concur with him. But I cannot. In places, Reichardt even lets his exasperation show. But then he quickly self-justifies to let Mark Prophet off the hook and give him the benefit of the doubt--which is more than Alex ever got. Alex writes most credibly in this voice of the true and loyal slave.

Not satisfied with his own account, Reichardt bolstered it with no fewer than 16 co-authors. A lot of these people were my friends and mentors (or at least acquaintances). I grew up with many of them, and once looked up to many of them. These include Svend Andersen, Merle Bouma, Terry Canady, Timothy Connor, John Fox, Dorothy Lee Fulton, Donald Galvin, Alexandro Genis, Joseph Genito, Philip Hoag, Michael Kinchloe, Kenneth McNeel, Celeste Miller, Tom Miller, Paul Quintero, and Alex' wife Margaret. Regardless of how I may feel personally about these people, arguments from popularity don't really hold water. What's important is to be objective, and that would involve at least the examination of this entire story in more human terms.

As people arguing for a more realistic portrayal of Mark Prophet I can offer myself and my three sisters, Mark's five children from his first family, Peter Arnone (author of Mark Prophet, the Man and the Myth), John Pietrangelo (author of Lambs to the Slaughter), Randall King (my mother's third husband, who knew Mark very well in the years before his death). There are no doubt others. But that's beside the point.

Mark Prophet was neither a god nor a monster. He was a human being with typical desires and drives. He had the gift of gab, a thirst for personal power, and more than ordinary insecurities.

As a young man, he felt he had been unrecognized for his spiritual gifts, and had limited material success for the first 40 years of his life. But then he had hit upon a winning formula: by becoming a "messenger" he could express his spiritual beliefs and be materially rewarded at the same time. He finally managed to put together the support base and recognition he had been looking for. He left his first wife and five children and married my mom, who was twenty years younger. In essence, he did what anyone in his position would have done: he went all-out.

As his supporters grew and contributed more money, he began to feel beyond reproach. He began to believe his own press. He eventually became almost completely disconnected from what composed his real power base--the loyal members and staff. He could abuse them, he could treat them like slaves and damn if they didn't come back for more!

The more cruel and insensitive he and Elizabeth became over the years, the more the staff worshiped them. What human beings could handle that kind of positive feedback without becoming corrupted?

This book fails to address that question. As a historical record, I'm glad Reichardt wrote it. He has an excellent memory, and these events need to be documented. I'm glad to have it for my family history if nothing else. So I give it four stars. But that's where my praise ends. The flamboyantly fictional embellishments of supernatural fantasy take this book into another realm--that of a Paul-Bunyanesque spiritual tall tale which nonetheless reeks of abuse and dupery. The coup de'grace in that department was the account on p.178 where Alex was serving my dad breakfast in his bedroom. Dad thought that Alex looked a little nervous, so he threw the tray of food at him, saying "Forget about yourself and just serve!"

Any man who wasn't wearing an imaginary dog-collar would have quit on the spot. Alex justified the act as something he needed for his growth. This is the mentality of a slave.

I'm all for consensual slavery if that's what someone really wants. I've known several people in that situation. Some people thrive on surrender and self-effacement. They find a form of freedom there. I do think that under the right conditions with the right master, it's a viable container for psychological growth, but it's fraught with perils: In order for the slave to consent, s/he needs to first have full self-awareness and the absolute strongest grounding in objective reality.

As for the master: upon acceptance of the slave's submission, he becomes fully responsible for the slave's well-being. If he is a benign master, he will only give the slave tasks and correction designed to help him, rather than further debase him. It has to be a relationship based on true love and humility, not self-interest. The master should treat their slave as they would their own child--lifting the slave up, to add to the slaves esteem, rather than break it down. It's a rare human being who has the developed psyche to pull that off, which is why healthy submission remains so rare. In my view, my father was either not up to the task, or for some sadistic reason singled out Alex for his very special and extreme mockery and mistreatment. It takes a lot to shock me these days, but reading this book I was repeatedly shocked by Reichardt's justifications of my dad's bad behavior. Even if he's cool with it, I'm ashamed.

Because of his preoccupation with the (imaginary) spiritual pantheon of the Summit Lighthouse, in my view Reichardt lacked the self-awareness to evaluate his position. His narrative proceeds with one foot in the spirit world and he sees everything through that lens. No matter how bad it got, he held Mark Prophet as an unimpeachable guru in the spiritual "tradition of the eastern adepts." But unless you're a true believer and share that view (placing Mark Prophet in the company of the Dalai Lama), his story comes off as a caricature. I'm sorry, but you'd never see the Dalai Lama throwing a tray of food at one of his monks, nor making a fool of himself by engaging in any other of my dad's far-from-humble shenanigans. Epic fail in guruland!

It's a pity, because Alex is a man who really could use a dose of good news after the merciless pummeling he received from both my parents for most of his adult life. Instead, he compounded the error by writing a book turning it around. He recasts the humiliation as a badge of honor. This unfortunately leaves the entire episode glorified and therefore more likely to be repeated by other would-be gurus in the future.

To Alex: I know you're a good man and I know you have the best of intentions. Anytime you want to talk to me about what really happened, I'm there for you, and I'm truly sorry for the way my parents treated you. As Peter Arnone said, I know you are capable of figuring this out if you are so inclined.

Editorial Review:

This book is a window into who you really are, what you really can become, and what life is really all about. Those whose true-life experiences appear in this book have lived their highest dreams, realized their highest aspirations and found their greatest love. Their stories were written from their one-on-one interactions with Mark Prophet.

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