“The Digital Image and Reality: Affect, Metaphysics and Post-Cinema” by Daniel Strutt

"The media technologies that surround and suffuse our everyday life profoundly affect our relation to reality. Philosophers since Plato and Aristotle have sought to understand the complex influence of apparently simple tools of expression on our understanding and experience of the world, time, space, materiality and energy. The Digital Image and Reality takes up this crucial philosophical task for our digital era. This rich yet accessible work argues that when new visual technologies arrive to represent and simulate reality, they give rise to nothing less than a radically different sensual image of the world. Through engaging with post-cinematic content and the new digital formats in which it appears, Strutt uncovers and explores how digital...>>

“Spirit Tech: The Brave New World of Consciousness Hacking and Enlightenment Engineering” by Wesley J. Wildman and Kate J. Stockly

"Technology can now control the spiritual experience. This is a journey through the high-tech aids for psychological growth that are changing our world, while exploring the safety, authenticity and ethics of this new world. We already rely on technology to manage our health, sleep, relationships, and finances, so it’s no surprise that we’re turning to technological aids for the spiritual journey. From apps that help us pray or meditate, to cybernauts seeking the fast track to nirvana through magnetic brain stimulation, we are on the brink of the most transformative revolution in the practice of religion: an era in which we harness the power of “spirit tech” to deepen our experience of the divine. Spirit tech...>>

“The Psychic Workshop: A Complete Program for Fulfilling Your Spiritual Potential” by Kim Chestney

"A one-of-a-kind guide for harnessing the powers of the psychic world. In the age of spiritual awareness, this comprehensive guide helps readers tap into the psychic power that resides in everyone - with amazing results. The Psychic Workshop approaches psychic awarness as an integral part of daily living, an innate ability that should be cultivated like any other talent. In a unique workshop format, readers learn how to enhance their psychic ability simply by doing. From ESP to communicating with a loved one who has passed over, readers discover how to foster their hidden talents. Kim Chestney's workshop allows reader's to strengthen their skills through exercises and meditations that help them discover their own...>>

“Chinese Ghost Stories: Curious Tales of the Supernatural” by Lafcadio Hearn

"Chinese Ghost Stories are a selection of the most entertaining Chinese traditional tales of the strange and fantastic. Hearn had a great affinity for the traditional ghost stories of China, and these stories clearly inspired him as he penned subsequent works. Set in richly atmospheric locales, these tales speak of heroic sacrifice, chilling horror, eerie beauty and otherworldly intervention. This completely reset and pinyin-converted edition of Hearn's classic work contains a new foreword by Victoria Cass, which places the stories, their author, and his love for the strange and mysterious into perspective. If you're seeking insights into the traditional Chinese world of ghosts, goblins and demons—or just want to feel a chill run down your spine...>>

“Placating the Demons: Ritual Practices among Sri Lankans” by Gananath Obeyesekere

"This book critically examines dominant ceremonial practices in Sri Lanka. It presents key ideas and symbolic systems that exist to this day, in similar shapes or in different guises. It looks at issues such as misfortunes caused by demons (yaksa dosa), an important ceremonial practice known as the puna-yāgaya, ideas pertaining to spirit possession, trance, and mediums. It also deals with classical Ayurvedic theories of disease, urban ceremonial practices such as cases of the apotheoses from demon to divinity, as well as multiple forms of Buddhist ceremonial practices that are part of the Sri Lankan consciousness and have found their way into public cultural performances in Sri Lanka. As a comprehensive volume on ceremonial practices...>>