Future Books

Pauline Innis died in 2007 and was a personal friend. She was a prolific if eclectic author of around 20 books. Her subjects included children's stories (Ernestine the Pig, a true account of her pig during WWII in England); mysteries (I've Smashed the Devil 's Window--under the surname Inness and about her experience in Germany after the War); religion (she traced accounts that Joseph had travelled to England from the Middle East to sell purple dye, offering some evidence that Jesus accompanied him); lost buried gold in the Blue Mountains; nursing home care; gardens; birds, as well as many others. She is most famous for her book on social graces and etiquette, still the prime source for diplomats, Congress and US government officials.

Pauline loved to talk about her stories and most were based on her real life experiences. She was brash and daring (flying into hurricanes, being stranded in Antartica alone on an ice floa) yet grew up in an era that expected women to be sedate.

A friend of famed psychic Jeanne Dixon, who wrote the introduction to this book, she often amused guests at Washington parties by telling them things about their lives based on astronumerology. She advised people about numbers and names: choosing names whose numbers added up to good fortune. While I witnessed her doing this on many occasions, she never mentioned having written a book about it. So, it was with delight that I discovered it recently and could see for myself the technique Pauline used. While I cannot vouch for the validity of what she says in the book, there were many famed Washingtonians over the years who swore by her pronouncements.

The book is simply written and the techniques she used are easy to grasp. It would be an interesting addition to collections on this topic.

Do you know how your name affects your future? Why certain events you plan flop hopelessly, while others soar to immense success? That certain persomality traits have physical signs that could help you or a member of your family decide on a career?

In this exciting and entertaining book, Pauline Innis shows what the power of numbers - Astronumerology - can do for you. You will learn to make a complete Astrosearch of your future. Why struggle for years in the wrong job or circumstances? The Birth Matrix, a secret of the ancient Druids, can teach you how to choose the right partner in business and marriage, and can help you to select the right career.

Astronumerology can be fun. More than that, it can help you to realize your potential, to use your creative abilities to their best advantage, and to gain the rewards that you deserve.
--- from books dustjacket

Bad Predictions definitely has something for everyone. Even a person who doesn't enjoy books won't be able to put this one down after the first glance. It's divided into sections so everyone can flip to their favorite field first. Such as Society, Fashion, Transportation, Technology etc.

I found it not only fun and entertaining, but an educating and even humbling experience. While some of the bad predictions, are humorous, some such as "you'll never need more than 640k" make you realize how much things can change even in a few years. What's considered impossible today can be second nature tomorrow.

I think I enjoyed predictions from the early 1900's the best. But, I predict everyone will have their own set of favorites. Like Laura's other book, "The Names Familiar", "Bad Predictions" is a perfect ice breaker and conversation maker. It's a great coffee table book, and it's easy to read. Congratulations to Laura Lee for another great winner!

As an educator, I love having stories to share about those who thought they knew what they were talking about and didn't. Too often we take what others' say too seriously and here are wonderful examples of what people said that weren't so insigtful. The book is a delightful read full of lots of laughs as well as moments of deep contemplation as things hit a little too close to home. Thanks to Ms. Lee for another great book.

Wonderfully written and easy to understand brilliant book about the importance of SEX in our lives. Truly recommend it to all individuals seeking a deeper meaning and connection to our spiritual nature. A MUST READ!

One of the best things about being dead is the opportunity we have to explore and understand things from a wholly new perspective. One of the worst things about being dead, though, is regret- regret that we didn't know these things before we died.

Welcome to the second in a series of tours of the afterlife, following The Beginner's Guide for the Recently Deceased (Llewellyn 2004). On that tour we examined our surroundings and the capacities of our astral body; we explored what was going on in the astral world, and who and what we might bump into on our travels; and we delved into the whys and wherefores of existence. On this tour, however, we are going to explore just one subject - but the most profound and most mysterious of them all: sex.

During this tour we will determine the source of our sexual energy, and we will trace its course through our bodies to reveal some of its extraordinary power and capacity. We will see sexual energies that are imperceptible to physical eyes, and we will observe them with the benefit of additional dimensions of space and time. We will observe different types of sexual activity, and we will find sex in some very unusual places. We will look into the deepest core of the subject so that we can grasp its essence, as well as observe it in action from the foot of the bed.

Our primary objective is to present an expansive sexual philosophy - something we don't have but sorely need. Although sex is constantly being talked about, thought about and practiced, it all seems to happen with little real understanding. We experience sexual feelings without knowing where they come from, what they're meant to do, or how best to use them. We have virtually no comprehension of the sexual big picture and no solid philosophical basis from which to judge its phenomena. We therefore find ourselves subject to a great deal of ignorance and manipulation.

If you think sex is something that's only applicable to physical bodies, that it's all about pleasure, that it's simply a function of friction or a gathering of groins, then you have glimpsed but a tiny fraction of it. Sexual energy may well be the greatest power in the cosmos. It is capable of utterly transforming us, and it is the only power capable of unfolding all our potential. And if you think that's overstating the case be prepared to be amazed.

The future workforce promises to be quite different from that of the past. As global markets grow more closely integrated, companies are having to reinvent the workplace, which requires more skilled, more reliable, and more flexible employees. This book explores how anticipated workforce and workplace changes will alter the form and design of employee benefits.

From Noteworthy Books in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics, Princeton University (July 2004):
"The essays in this volume examine how benefits and compensation packages will respond to the need for economic restructuring, demographic shifts and changes in the role of government versus private sector. The chapters in the first section deal with developments in the future workplace and outline the implications for benefit coverage and design. The authors in the second section look at challenges to benefits and compensation design such as recession and economic volatility, the interaction of business conditions with the slower labor growth predicted for the future, and the benefit effects of the evolving labor-management relationship. The case and sector studies in the last three chapters provide insights into specific company and sectoral practices."

Nietzsche is the most inspiring of all modern philosophers excepting Ayn Rand, who used a very different approach for exposing her philosophy (The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged). Beyond Good and Evil is often touted as Nietzsche's greatest work, but I like Geneology of Morals ( On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo) at least as much, since I think it asks some questions that are at least as interesting as these, especially "Meaning of the Aesthetic Ideal". Some people imagine that philosophers are boring, and of course this book, like all important books, does take some work, but I often find myself laughing out loud when reading Nietzsche, since he has a really funny and often unexpected turn of phrase.

The important concepts in this book include the difference between slave morality and master morality. Nietzsche tries to help the reader understand that there are no absolutes and that everything can be understood differently from a different point of view. He sees the greatest danger as the mindless, instinctive herd, and warns strongly against it, including especially the flawed and oxymoronic concept of the "common good". Since the rise of the Jacobins, more people have been murdered, starved to death or enslaved for the "common good" than for any other excuse.

After Nietzsche went insane from syphillus, his sister tried to "reengineer" his works and portray him as anti-Semitic, which he definitely was not. The Nazis also propagandized that he was, or would have been, one of them. None of this was true, but it led many to avoid his work. What IS true is that he was an anti-Christian (read The Anti-Christ and Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for None and All) and THAT has led to his shunning by a different group.

Read Nietzsche for yourself and don't depend on some guide to tell you what he says. Ignore the boring Cliff Notes and get any translation by Walter Kaufmann, who is a terrific translator and famous Nietzsche scholar.

This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities.
Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of a "will to power" is central to his philosophical beliefs, and a recurring theme in his book "Beyond Good and Evil." When Nietzsche was a budding philosopher, he admired and was influenced by the writings of another philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer. However, Schopenhauer, like most scientists and philosophers of his day, attributed the "will to live" as the highest motivational life force in nature. Nietzsche observed that the "will to live" was not life affirming enough and that humankind needed a higher power. Therefore, Nietzsche theorized that living beings were not just motivated by a survival instinct to live. He understood that beings had a higher need, which he called the "will to power." One can easily interpret Nietzsche's "will to power" as a method by which people strive to grow and nurture their creative energies, and interact with the world. Nietzsche thinks that "will to power" was coupled with humankind's innate nature and passion to create. Nietzsche thinks that this "will to power" was the true driving force of humankind. "A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power, self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results" (Nietzsche Aphorism 13). The "will to power" causes humans to dominate and impose their will on others. Thus for Nietzsche, humankind's "will to power" meant that life and will is the exploitation of others, and it has been since the beginning of time, immemorial (Nietzsche Aphorism 258). In fact, Nietzsche believed that one could take his concept of the "will to power" one-step further, and use it to explain the motivations of whole societies, and nation states, as well as the individual (Nietzsche aphorism 257, 259).

Nietzsche tends to be very passionate and absolutist in his aphorisms. He wrote so much that one could find plenty of instances in his works where he has contradicted himself. Nietzsche's concept of "will to power" is a philosophic thought, which led to many interpretations. To assume that Nietzsche thought that the primary instincts of the human being came down to violence and little else, amounts to a gross underestimation of Nietzsche's views of humankind. However, most of his writings on the concept of a "will to power," if interpreted as being violent, have to be understood more in vain with what he saw as the constant struggle of overcoming one's individual weaknesses (Nietzsche aphorism 22, 260). Nietzsche envisioned his "will to power" more along the lines of applying one's will in self-overcoming. Nietzsche's writings about violence are usually meant as violence against giving in to the herd or slave morality. The herd, as Nietzsche names it, is the vast majority of humans who throughout history have obeyed and followed the status quo. The herd has stymied human development with their slave morality (Nietzsche aphorism 198, 199). The slave morality invented the dichotomy of good and evil. "Moral judgments and condemnations constitute the favorite revenge of the spiritually limited against those less limited" (Nietzsche aphorism 219). The herd morality causes people to sublimate their creative drive. Thus, Nietzsche is imploring the few noble humans--the few geniuses to struggle against following the herd morality. Nietzsche wants the noble people to invent their own morality and values to live their lives by, and to fulfill their own "will to power" and not indulge in an effort to attract others to their values (Nietzsche aphorism 199, 201, 260).

Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, history, and psychology.

As an entrepreneur who started a Family owned Business strugling with business succession planning, this booked helped the rest of the Family to understand.

I first read this book in the early 1990's. It was an eye opener for me. It spoke right to my heart with the issues that I was dealing with at that time.
Dr. Danco started an entire industry of family business advisors that now help families deal with the issues of succession of management and power. However, his work is still the best.
Do yourself a favor. If you have your own business, read this book!

What a great read! I gave this book a chance and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After the first few chapters, where the very unique characters were introduced and I "got them", it was so fun to see how the story played out. If you ever wondered about the phrase "skeletons in the closet," and what this means, this is truly a fresh explanation of just that - plus a LOT more!

Billy Bones: A Tale from the Secrets Closet

Billy Bones is a skeleton living in the skeleton's closet of High Manners Manor, home of the obsessively greedy Sir Barkley Braggety Biglum VI. Billy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bones, file and maintain all household secrets. Allowing a secret to escape can be explosive! Billy can't wait till he's trusted to begin training to become a secret's keeper himself. What he doesn't know is that some of those closely guarded secrets are his own.

After the death of her parents, Sir Biglum's niece, Millicent, must move to High Manners Manor, and is forced to live upstairs in the attic. But she is not totally alone. She is visited often by her parents, ghosts from the Afterlife. She is also closely watched by the housekeeper, Miss Hester Primly, who is not a ghost or a skeleton, but is infinitely more frightening.

Millicent, a natural explorer, finds that there are secret passages in the mansion and, as a result, learns she's not the only person living upstairs. Both Millicent and her newfound friend have the uncommon ability to see ghosts. It's not long before Millicent stumbles upon the secrets closet and meets the Bones family.

The secrets in the closet are piling up. The Bones have signed for an unauthorized shipment for Millicent, that has nothing to do with secrets, and which clearly violates rules of the Afterlife. Commissioner Pickerel, from the Investigative Branch of the Righteousness Department, pays them a visit and forces them through a glowing portal to the afterlife.

Without Mr. and Mrs. Bones to keep the mounting secrets organized, filed, and locked away, generations of Biglum secrets begin exploding at an alarming rate. Just as lies pile upon lies, one secret revealed, reveals another, and another. It's up to Billy and Millicent to discover the real truth of High Manners Manor.

BILLY BONES is a delightful, playful book. Christopher Lincoln's creativity is astounding and his knack for description is enviable. I completely enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone who's ever wished they could meet a pirate, scare a ghost, or...shhh...tell a secret.

Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger

To say that this book addresses a scientific-technological-political-economic-social issue of great contemporary importance and relevance is to state the obvious. Alternatives must be found to carbon-based fuels if catastrophic climate change and associated socio-economic-political chaos are to be mitigated in the 21st century. Energy from biomass is a possible alternative and it is in this context that Dr. Rosenberg's book outlines the case for biomass as the crop of choice for the North American Great Plains (NAGP) to produce ethanol and other alternative fuels.

The author's deep knowledge of and love for the NAGP come across clearly from the first few pages of the book. The history, geography, environment, economy, and sociology of the NAGP lay a fascinating background for subsequent discussions of potential climate change impacts on the NAGP and, in turn, the NAGP's potential role in mitigating climate change via soil carbon sequestration and biomass cropping for producing alternate fuels.

This is a well-researched book with cited references for further reading and should serve as a very good primer for those interested in the NAGP's future as well as in the Earth's future.

Multiple challenges confront researchers and policymakers in the area of energy and the environment. Perhaps foremost among these challenges is the problem of global warming and the security of the nation's liquid fuel supply. What unites these challenges is the importance of pursuing the twin goals of non-fossil energy and a significant displacement of conventional petroleum. To date, there has been an almost single-minded focus on corn-based ethanol -- in spite of substantial evidence that this route fails to be cost-effective, achieves questionable energy and greenhouse gas reductions, and inflicts significant damage to agriculture.

A viable longer-term biofuel scenario that an increasing body of researchers emphasize is cellulosic, as opposed to corn-based, ethanol. Though meeting that goal remains, for now, economically and technologically problematic, there is reason to be optimistic about achieving that objective within the next several decades.

In this context, Norman Rosenberg's meticulously researched and written study is precisely the kind of documentation that progress towards a meaninful biofuel future for the U.S. requires.

Ellias and Theanna's (his deceased wife and soulmate)story is an inspiring journey into who we really are : spiritual beings who have temporarily incarnated. As we enter the aquarian age,there is more communication with the other realms than ever before. The lessons are about love and suffering, this earthly planet with its gifts and pitfalls, the freedom and evolution of the human race.

I purchased this book some four years ago, when I found it in the Death & Dying section of a local bookshop. I had no idea what I was about to read.

The author of the book is Theanna Lonsdale, deceased wife to widower Elias Lonsdale, who writes through her husband in the manner of that otherwise often laughable New Age invention, "channeling." Reader beware: in the case of this book, the result is a voice of such breadth and astonishing vision that you may find yourself at a loss as to how such vivid, warm and living wisdom could be speakable at all.

Upon her death in the late '90's, the now-deceased Theanna speaks of her transmigration into subtler dimensions, in a Dantean-like tour of heavens and hells that left me quietly transformed by her reports in a way I still have not been able to quite come to grips with. Among her many meetings are included meaningful encounters with Rudolph Steiner, a most heartbroken and despairing Jesus Christ, and "The Lord of Death," with whom Theanna engages in a spiritual battle that leaves her immune to hell and able to tell about it, and many other beings and cosmic realities besides.

What Theanna has returned to Elias to say to the world is that this world, this Earth, is spiritually "blasted" and ready to give way to its spiritual rebirth. In the meantime, the drama that must play out is the difficult exhausting of the possibility for life upon it, with all too much in the way of human suffering, amidst a burgeoning birth of spirituality in its midst nevertheless. According to Theanna, we are here to navigate this bifurcation and find our way into the future against its heightening drama.

The quality of articulation that Theanna displays about the subtleties of spiritual suffering defy the rarest dharmas I have personally encountered. Though I cannot say one way or another whether Theanna is really a living being or not, the razored edge of fresh truth that flies off these pages leaves me more in a state of informed wonder than any kind of skepticism I could otherwise muster.

Most importantly, Theanna's voice itself acts as a strengthener to the soul, encouraging us to withstand our greatest suffering here and to value it as such. Part of why we are here, she says, is to carry the most destructive information about this dying planet beyond its lifespan (and our own), and to take the imprint of its failure (at the hand of mankind's historical condition of being overrun by the demonic) as primary information to carry with us beyond our stay here, in order to share it outward into the wider reaches of the cosmos -- yet untouched by the particular and devastating sorrows that our now ours to endure for as long as we are here.

Where has such a radically honest and yet altogether affirming wisdom as this ever been made available at large? Trust me, this book is at least as alive as it sounds, and well worth the read. Buy it used for a dollar or two and just read the first page....I only hope that it may inform your trust in our place here on this brutalized earth in this unbearable time a fraction as much as it has informed mine, and encourage you thereby to hang on and hold out through whatever lies ahead -- for the sake of everything that lies beyond.

From the opening pages of this extraordinary book:

"A Personal Note

"Our hope and dream is that we can encourage each willing reader to follow a path of destiny that is truly your own. We do not think of death as just the final curtain. It is instead the opening act into the next realm. Each one dies and lives on, changes and evolves, loses everything and finds what they did not know they could ever find again. Our story is your story. Take in it what you make your own and let the rest be for now. This is not meant to weigh you down, but to set you free. If the medicine is a bit strong, self-administer the dosage according to your tolerance. This is a supercharged path we are on and it does need to be taken up wisely, with inward attentiveness. We send you so much love with the words in this book that you can key on that love and imagine that the journey you are taking is entirely here for you. Let death be more life in you, a path into closeness to this Earth. For this is a book of dreams that just keeps on coming true. Whatever your apparent condition, you are beloved of the gods, now and always. Bless you."

For some, the above probably still sounds like New Age pap. So be it. It is but a taste of the reality living inside.

Just think, at any one space in time, inside your brain, 15 billion interactions are going on right now - thinking,feeling, sensing, caring, comparing, judging, deciding . . . I found this book to be very deep and comprehensive - certainly fascinating in that I will never look at the brain the same way again. This one is a real "keeper", to be shared with anyone that may be interested in this subject.

Explore the brain with neurologist Restak as a basis of our emotional and mental capacities, as it affects language, health, and personality. Explore it as...The Last Frontier in man's understanding of life itself.

Can we make a robot that can really think?
Can we discover how to turn off pain?
Can we retard the effects of age on the mind?
Can we eliminate some diseases by correcting malfunctions in the brain?
Restak, even more sharply than Sagan, puts into provocative focus what has been learned by psychologists, biologists and other scientists...he makes clear the true difference between computer 'thinking' and human thought: the mystery which some call soul.