Future Books

I want to read all the book.

I want to read all the book.

I want to read all the book.

I really like this book. It's a fast read, yet you might want to take your time. It pieces together alot of "unknowns" in a very simple and loving way that anyone can relate to. It makes knowing yourself alittle easier.

Marian Eileen Charlton is a well-known psychic counselor who began receiving messages from her deceased parents. Their dialogue and the information that came through is on the level of the Conversations with God series, though of a different nature. This is a thoroughly unique book, the likes of which you will not encounter elsewhere. Everyone wonders what happens when you die. This book has answers, presented in a very clear, concise format. There are no strange terms or complex ideology here-just a talk with parents about "what it's like" out there. There is far more to this book than satisfying curiosity, however. Clara and Carl, as loving parents, pass on information to their daughter that is helpful to the living. There is a wealth of useful information here on such topics as family communication, energy relations, happiness and choices, illness and healing, love, negative people, stress and chaos, sexuality, Christianity, the dying process, and many other subjects. With clarity and love, the two bring their gifts of insights from the other world to this world. This is a profound book of great value to all

All those questions we have about what goes on after we pass over. This book helps give you a better understanding. I enjoyed all the subject matter and found myself enlighted by the perspective of those who communicated this information for our benefit. You finish reading this book with a feeling of lightness of being, rather than fearful of hell and damnation. If life's a school, this is the textbook filled with the answers to the everyday quizzes we create for ourselves, like "what's it all about anyway?" There is reason and purpose for everything and if you read this book, it was meant to be...for there are no accidents in this life. Enjoy!

This is a beautiful compilation of the personal stories of many of the most famous and dedicated scientists of our times. It starts with James Lovelock, author of the many books on Gaia- our living, breathing, self-regulating life-support system. His "Healing Gaia" is one of the best dissertations on the cycle-science and proper stewardship of our Earth.

Next, is Dr. Paul Ehrlich, population science and author of such greats as, "The Population Bomb". Then, Peter Raven, head of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Thomas Lovejoy, David Suzuki, Lester Brown- founder of the prestigious "Worldwatch Foundation" with their yearly "State of the World" reports.

Henry Kendall, who worked on crafting the "World Warning to Humanity" and released by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 1992 and signed by over 1,700 world scientists to call attention to the dire state of ecological disrepair that is threatening all life on Earth.

And many, many more whose personal stories are dedicated to the betterment of life on Earth- very inspiring!

If you want to comprehend the environmental challenges that face the human family, read to the personal, emotionally moving, and scientifically potent words of the men and women whose lives have been devoted to the cause. Powerful and brilliant.

Heather Newbold has done the high priesthood of scientists and laypersons a huge favor in compiling first-person accounts of how science is individually done. It's great to hear from James Lovelock himself who and what Gaia is and from Max Nicholson the political background of the Nature Conservancy. These very personal sixteen essays by notable scientists cover mostly environmental research projects, but physicist John Firor makes clear that nuclear power and military policy makers are the real culprits when it comes to finger pointing of who's responsible for the trashing of our own habitat.

By Wilton S. Dillon
Senior Scholar Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution

During my close association with Margaret Mead during the last 30 years of her illustrious life, I learned a lot about time perspective. Past, present and future are a seamless web. She shared with Erik Erikson a keen interest in the human life cycle and how to count in biological time--by generations. When looking at a baby, she could simultaneously flash back to wonder about the infant's ancestors and fast forward to speculating on the potentials of that child. She was a genius in linking the microcosm of an infant to the macrocosm of many larger universes in different time frames.

Shortly before my only child was born in Ghana in 1961, she wrote my wife and me a letter included in a recently published collection, To Cherish the Life of the World: Selected Letters of Margaret Mead. She was already putting our embryo son into the context of race and politics of that epoch and anticipating his future, as well as ours as new parents.

The World Ahead inspires me to re-read many of her classics, including World Enough: Rethinking the Future, her collaboration with Ken Heyman whose photographs appear in Textor's collection. In her News Lives for Old, one can see pictures also of John Kilipak, a "stone age child" who grew up to be a United Nations advocate--another story inspiring her to look to the future of a warless world. Warfare, she asserted, is just an invention, and can be unlearned.


Margaret was also keenly interested in the coincidental history of my association with Robert B. Textor. Both of us, almost twins in age, were in our early 20's when we worked in Japan for the Civil Information and Education staff of General MacArthur. Margaret knew that we were both influenced by Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, a key to our own understanding of past, present and future of nations. Japan proved to be the phoenix to rise from the ashes. Textor joined Mead in pioneering anticipatory anthropology. To both of them, I am indebted for making me acutely aware of the long-term potential consequences of choices we citizens make today. That is the true stuff of morality.

Wilton S. Dillon

THE WORLD AHEAD ... collects and situates in the contemporary social context M.Mead's persistent efforts from 1943 to 1977 to apply anthropology in anticipating and pre-figuring the future. She sought to clarify images of the future as they were current and to articulate images that would be preferable.

Her work in this regard anticipated and likely inspired the emergence of `futures studies' in the mid-50's by more than a decade, and actively inspired and fueled the burst of interest in the future by anthropologists in the 70's.

Textor's commentaries connect these 25 papers and articles in a way that establishes `the future' as a proper central focus in anthropology, a focus co-equal in importance with the past (archaeology) and the present (the ethnographic present), and the role of `the future' in the thinking -and acting- of peoples past and ethnographically present and in contemporary application.

SHAPING THE FUTURE

by Wendell Bell*

In The World Ahead: An Anthropologist Anticipates the Future, anthropologist-futurist Robert B. Textor has brought together for the first time most of Margaret Mead's historic contributions to what today has become known as "Anticipatory Anthropology." The 25 items selected by Textor were written from 1943, long before most social scientists showed any interest in the systematic study of the long-range sociocultural future, to 1977, one year before Mead's death.

The items themselves have been thoughtfully selected and constitute a treasure of pioneering thinking about the future, aimed sometimes at other anthropologists and often at leaders and ordinary citizens to alert them to the coming future and what they might do to avoid possible disasters and to realize opportunities. Mead, of course, was not only a scholar and a thinker, she was a public anthropologist who willingly entered into public dialogues concerning what might and ought to be done to create a better human future--about what is possible, what is probable, and what is preferable.

Textor writes about Mead with respect and appreciation, even with affection, but always with a deep knowledge and understanding of her work. He weaves a critical evaluation of Mead's work into his appreciation and moves from the abstract to the concrete by giving fascinating examples, such as her and her associates' work at Columbia University in the 1940s that led to several important governmental policy decisions, including the decision not to execute the Emperor of Japan at the end of World War II.

As Textor points out, by "the 1960s Mead had become one of the most famous women in the world--perhaps the most famous." And he proceeds to explain why she deserved her fame. Among other things, Mead's anticipatory futures work, which she did for more than thirty years, put her a "full generation ahead of almost all of her contemporaries." Mead told her colleagues "frankly and bluntly that too many of them were wedded to past and provincial habits, and were failing to apply their anthropological knowledge and wisdom effectively to the world's needs for future survival."

Her leitmotif in her own words was: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world, indeed it's the only thing that ever has." She viewed the human future as "neither predetermined nor predictable: it is, rather, something which lies within our hands, to be shaped and molded by the choices we make in present time."

Some of the topics covered by the articles in the book are the family in the future, possibilities of the melting pot, the psychology of warless man, alternatives to war, prospects for world harmony, the university and institutional change, changing cultural patterns of work and leisure, aging and retirement, education for humanity, the contributions of Anthropology to the science of the future, and ways to deal with current social transformation.

Reading this book, I developed a new respect for Margaret Mead and her work. Her anticipatory anthropological thinking was not only a pioneering effort for Anthropology, it also created part of the foundation for the development of modern futures studies. She, clearly, was a pioneering futurist in her thinking. Beyond that, she had insights into the possibilities for the human future that can still inspire us today. We can all learn from this book. I strongly recommend it to all readers with any interest in what the world ahead might--and ought--to become.

Finally, Textor's mini-introductions to each of Mead's articles are alone worth the price of the book. They are straightforward, honest, and, as necessary, critical. They are informative and insightful and often establish the context within which Mead wrote a particular article. I found them tremendously useful. Finally, Textor, a pioneering anticipatory anthropologist himself and the inventor of Ethnographic Futures Research, is the ideal editor and interpreter for Mead's work.

Read the book. You'll love it and you'll learn from it.

[*Wendell Bell is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Yale University, and author of the two-volume work, The Foundations of Futures Studies, Transaction Publishers.]

This book was honest, funny, and thoroughly entertaining. Mr. Collins obviously is not afraid to appear less than cool or all-knowledgeable about his subject, but he obviously knows enough to give his reader a ton to think about. In my life, I've encountered many traders who come up with systems, but I haven't met one who doesn't frequently circumvent them. Collins' own experience with such improvisations merely confirms what I've observed--a winning trading approach is incompatible with human emotion. The trades we feel the most sure about are almost always the ones that lose money. But it's obviously hard to stay one-hundred percent committed to a mechanical approach, as Market Rap confirms. I don't know how effective the systems in the book are, (I will get around to testing them), but they seem simple and straight-forward; characteristics that work the best in my portfolios also. Finally, most traders can't get enough of trading books just because they love the subject so much. What's especially cool about this book is, the author obviously shares our passions.

This book was honest, funny, and thoroughly entertaining. Mr. Collins obviously is not afraid to appear less than cool or all-knowledgeable about his subject, but he obviously knows enough to give his reader a ton to think about. In my life, I've encountered many traders who come up with systems, but I haven't met one who doesn't frequently circumvent them. Collins' own experience with such improvisations merely confirms what I've observed--a winning trading approach is incompatible with human emotion. The trades we feel the most sure about are almost always the ones that lose money. But it's obviously hard to stay one-hundred percent committed to a mechanical approach, as Market Rap confirms. I don't know how effective the systems in the book are, (I will get around to testing them), but they seem simple and straight-forward; characteristics that work the best in my portfolios also. Finally, most traders can't get enough of trading books just because they love the subject so much. What's especially cool about this book is, the author obviously shares our passions.

Market Rap: The Odyssey Of A Still-struggling Commodity Trader is the story of Art Collins who left a job with a generous, secure income to pursue the frantic and frenetic life as a full-time floor member of the commodities exchange. In making this transition Collins endured loss of security, the consternation of family, and personal demons that threatened to undermine his dream. Market Rap is funny, poignant, harrowing, and a riveting read. Included throughout Collins personal story are highly effective trading ideas and methods. Market Rap is immensely rewarding reading for anyone who aspires to become a successful commodities broker, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in this significant aspect of the American economic system.

Matters Of Consequence: Creating A Meaningful Life And A World That Works by Copthrorne Macdonald is a kind of intellectual "self-help" guide to achieving a better understanding and control personal reality. From the arts of predicting and influencing the future; to learning to better understand human mentality; to the complexities of the question of cosmic purpose, and more, Matters Of Consequence is a thoughtful, holistic, far-reaching, "reader friendly" guide to framing self awareness amid the bulwark of personal responsibility. Densely informative, Matters Of consequence is also available in a hard cover edition and would make an excellent addition to any personal or community library Philosophy or Human Ecology collection.

`Matters of Consequence' is a wonderful guide to answering the age-old questions that confront all human beings: What should I do with my life? How should I spend my time? The book provides great resources and wise advice for discovering a larger purpose and meaning in life that will lead to positive and productive engagement with the world.

A central message of the book is that direction and purpose will come naturally to a person who acquires what the author calls `deep understanding'. To achieve deep understanding, two key ingredients are necessary. The first is knowledge of humanity's place in the cosmos and of the complex processes that impact on humanity and will determine our future. The second is self-knowledge and spiritual development. The author argues convincingly that it is only when this second essential ingredient is added that individuals will know how to respond appropriately to the great challenges facing humanity and will find the motivation and energy to do something positive about them. Knowledge alone, no mater how comprehensive and intelligent, is not enough.

Importantly, the book makes out a strong case for a spirituality that is fully and deeply engaged with the world and that will drive social and political activism. It convincingly rejects a sterile and sequestered spirituality that is disengaged from the human condition and disinterested in political and social issues.

In large part `Matters of Consequence' is a manual for achieving `deep understanding'. It provides an integrated and cutting edge survey of all the key areas of knowledge that must be mastered for a proper understanding of the human condition - the book includes wonderful syntheses of cosmological, evolutionary, socio-cultural, economic and environmental knowledge. It then integrates these with approaches to developing introspectively-acquired self-knowledge and creating a life of purpose, meaning and significance. The book concludes with a thorough examination of the key challenges facing humanity over the next 50 years and how deep understanding can be put to use to respond to these. It identifies the personal and societal transformations that we must implement. A series of detailed Appendices identify further resources that we can use as we engage with these challenges.

Despite the complexity and breadth of the issues and knowledge that the book covers, I found it effortless to read. It is written extremely clearly and simply.

I do not know anyone who would fail to learn something of significance from reading `Matters of Consequence', and who would not enjoy doing so. This is an important and timely book.

Matters of Consequence marks Copthorne Macdonald as one of the few authors who attends to deep matters in the domains of science, humanism, and spirituality, and does so in a way that can be understood by any reader. He offers solid, viable, visionary solutions to the serious brokenness of the human condition.

People, today, seem to be divided into a few "camps," so to speak. Those who choose to live in the past have little to offer, and we can only hope that those individuals interested in consumption, power, and money will shift their perspectives as the seriousness of the human situation becomes ever more obvious. There are those who are interested only in their own personal growth and spiritual development. If they stay with it, they will mature and care for what is outside of themselves as well as what is within.

There are "progressives" who spend all their time exposing failures and wrongdoings of the moment, but never extrapolate from that to the creation of solutions. Career activists are valuable, to be sure, but some of them seem to have based their lives solely upon campaigning AGAINST something - never seeming to move forward to creation of something better.

Then we have the very few who think and feel holistically. These are the people who have real wisdom to offer. Paul Ray, author of the Cultural Creatives study, frankly states that Matters of Consequence is the one book he always hoped he would find.

It really is the most comprehensive piece of writing I have ever read - particularly between the covers of one book. Wisdom resides on every page, and his deep research, and the breadth and scope of his knowledge and vision are astonishing.

Given the truly desperate situation facing humanity today, if you read only one book this year, I honestly hope, for all our sakes, that you consider making it this one.

While there is no question that medical science has dramatically improved over the last two centuries, the medical community is still an extremely conservative group. The social environment has also changed; socialized medicine and governmental management now means that even relatively slight changes can have a billion-dollar price tag. The massive pharmaceutical companies pull in billions of dollars in revenues, which they will do a great deal to protect.
However, despite all the massive machines and the broad spectrum of medicinal chemicals, medicine is still largely an art. There is also a great deal about the workings of the human body that is not known, in fact most of the knowledge in some areas is little more than informed speculation.
In this book, Brown interviews several people that are very knowledgeable, but operate on what would be called the fringes of medicine. Their feelings are diverse, yet none is what you would describe as beyond the bounds into quackery. Each person truly believes in what they claim, and nearly all of them practice their beliefs on themselves. Most of their claims involve holistic or a form of natural medicine.
What makes this book different from many others is that the interviewees are very knowledgeable in what would be called hard science. They cite scientific findings, biological processes and historical precedent. If you do not have a fairly solid background in science, specifically biology, then you will have a difficult time following many of the interviews.
It is certain that not all of the claims made in this book will ultimately prove to be valid. However, if it were possible to look ahead one hundred years, there is no question in my mind that at least one of these visionary proposals will be part of the medical mainstream. The key question is of course, "Which one(s)?"

David Jay Brown has chosen a remarkable set of scientists and other personalities in the medical arena to interview for this book. I am privileged to be among them. Whatever your speciality (if any) or your areas of biomedical interest, most if not all of these interviews will be highly informative and enjoyable. Highly recommended.

This is a major piece of work. A must read for those of us
that don't have the time to sift through all the medical and science journals but are nevertheless interested in science and our own
bodies. If you want to know something always go to the top person in
the field and that is exactly what David Brown did. Thanks David, just reading the book was good medicine and perhaps adding a few years to my life.

Excitement and anticipation at the advent of a new millennium is nothing new. In The Millennium Myth: The Ever-Ending Story, Sean M. O'Shea and Meryl A. Walker trace end-of-the-world and new-beginning rituals from their prehistoric origins to current times.

O'Shea and Walker point out that "in the many cycles that our ancestors witnessed and experienced {day and night, the crop cycle, the four seasons, or life and death}, they were far too astute to miss the corresponding application to their entire world: someday it too will end." They define millennium as referring "to the end of the current age" with the implication that the transition from one age to the next "is marked by events of the most horrible nature: an apocalypse."

The authors' analyses of each major religion shows how cultural beliefs about the end of the world and new beginnings are woven into the tapestry of worship. They also show how millennial beliefs made their way into fairy tales and folklore, and how those beliefs affected the daily lives of ordinary people.

The chapter on contemporary America discusses the rapid technological advances made in the past hundred years, the "psychic apocalypse" of mass genocide, the development of our ability to totally destroy the world with nuclear weapons, and the proliferation of deadly diseases like AIDS. In life today, "there is no safe haven," leading some people into cults or following messiahs like David Koresh or Jim Jones.

The final chapter deals with prophesy. As man is aware that the world must sometime end, "his ongoing concern [can be] confined to a single question: When?" Prophesy attempts to provide an answer to that question. Millennial prophesies include those of Nostradamus, and the Bible Code.

The Millennium Myth is a scholarly work, heavily annotated. Each chapter has its own bibliography. It will appeal to readers wanting a broad perspective on millennial beliefs through the ages.

The "Millennium Myth"offers an outstandingly thorough and interesting exploration of this impending historical phenomenon that holds fascination and wonderment for us all . It is an eye-opening presentation of both the origins and potential of this occurrence, from virtually every perspective -cultural, political, religious, psychological and social.

Thoroughly researched and documented, it is at the same time compellingly narrated, intelligently organized, and beautifully phrased. In short, a literary and scholarly triumph for these talented young authors.

We --as a humanity, a society, a culture-- are living in a time of great uncertainty. Although technology and science are providing us with giant steps, these distinctly human concepts are overshadowed by a universal unknown-- the great sceptor of time. The authors have done a fabulous job of interpreting our unknown fears of the new millenium and given us the history behind this fear. I recommend this exciting book, and in fact am considering using it for a history course here at Osaka University.

This book was a very fun find for me, especially as I live in a more rural area and missed a lot of the "Cyberculture" including most of Mondo 2000's run... Oh, well...

I really liked reading from it, and even now it would be worth a look.

A very 1990 look at the future, but well done withgood graphics. Covers music, fashion, Industry,etc.

If you have read Mondo 2000 before, then nothing in this book will be much of a surprise. In fact in 1998 this book is clearly retro. Still, to the new reader you will find much of the information interesting. The format is basically an A-Z of popular memes and cultural phenomena with a pseudo hypertext interface.
High gloss and flashy. Suitable for a coffee table, but you might want to keep it on your reference shelf.

What a great find! This gorgeously illustrated book is truly a work of art. The story will captivate the young reader, and enchant the adult, as well. The Money in The Honey will be welcomed in any young library.

I loved this well-written book. The story approaches the Biblical characters from a unique vantage point, which is entirely refreshing. The illustrations are rich, bold, and detailed - each page is worth pondering.

The Money in the Honey will appeal to young children of all faiths, especially as its prose is so graceful and easy to follow. It's a story with a moral, yet avoids preaching. Rather, it entertains. This is what you always hope to find in a great children's book. The Money in the Honey is superb!

With its breathtaking and vivid pictures, this book brings a classical tale of King David to life.

This book is easy an easy 'kid read' which even parents will enjoy.

A must have!

Illustrated and adapted for young readers by Aidel Backman, The Money In The Honey is a Midrash-based picture book, showcasing a classical Biblical tale of King David's childhood. Thoughtful color illustrations, and a straightforward narrative text bring this timeless parable alive. Enthusiastically recommended reading for children of all faiths and backgrounds who are almost ready to make the transition from picture books to tales that require more reading comprehension, The Money In The Honey is an exceptional picture book and would grace any family, school, or community library collection.