• Members of the previous forum can retrieve their temporary password here, (login and check your PM).

Book bin

Migrated topic.
Some really good recommendations here. I feel like some Nexians might be interested in the works of Cesar Aira. He's an Argentinian "novelist," though most of his books are less than 100 pages long and lack many of the characteristics most people would associate with novels. His books tend to start relatively normal, then get really wacky and digressive really fast. Kind of like the magic realism of Marquez meets the controlled tone of Borges meets the absurdity and humor of Donald Barthelme. My favorite books by him, in order:

1. An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter
2. How I became a Nun
3. The Literary Conference
4. The Seamstress and the Wind
5. Ghosts
6. Varamo


*he has more coming out in translation. He's written over 100 of these novellas in Spanish!
 
Dictionary of the khazars, Milorad Pavic

Voyage to Arcturus, David Lindsay

I can't remember if i had already recommended these, but they merit a second mention.

As does Terra Nostra, Carlos Fuentes
 
St Peter's Snow by Leo Perutz

review said:
A novel published in 1933, describes the isolation of a hallucinogenic drug from an ergot-type fungus. It remarkably predates the discovery the hallucinogenic properties of the ergot-derived alkaloid lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) by ten years. It also identifies ergot as the secret psychoactive sacrament of the ancient mysteries forty years before this hypothesis became a matter of academic and scientific investigation. In the novel, a central character plans to use an ergot derived drug as an agent of popular religious renewal, prefiguring the New Age religious revival initiated by the popular use of LSD. The story involves the mass testing of a hallucinogenic drug on the unsuspecting inhabitants of an isolated village almost twenty years before the Pont St Esprit incident of 1951, which has been ascribed to the CIA's plans for experimental dosing of unsuspecting civilians with psychoactive drugs. This article investigates how the author could have managed to foresee these future events in such prophetic detail and reveals the sources that were available. In this article the history of psychoactive drugs is set in the context of the political, scientific, literary, and philosophical culture of the interwar period and shows that the cultural history of psychoactive drugs is enhanced by such context.
Click to expand...


Have not read this but I did not want to forget about it. Has anyone happened upon this novel?
 
Genesis Revisited- Zecharia Sitchin Genesis Revisited (Earth Chronicles, #4.5)
9780380761593_p0_v1_s260x420.jpg


Supernatural- Graham Hancock Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Man…

The Archaic Revival- Terence Mckenna The Archaic Revival

I feel like these may have already been posted somewhere in these 9 pages, but they are awesome books so I feel no shame reposting. Also seriously if you have not ready The Archaic Revival you it to yourself to go do so.

Also I grouped these three together because they all talk about the "Other" and its role in human history in some way.
 
Hi everyone,

I’d like to recommend Daniel Schulke’s recent tome, Veneficium: Magic, Witchcraft and the Poison Path (2012), which is a limited edition of 1250 copies. It is eloquent, scholarly, and crammed with all manner of pungent morsels, repugnant yet tempting. There are fewer descriptions of firsthand experience than I was expecting, but the few tidbits on display are carefully considered, for example:

“…[my] experiments with Henbane, wherein a feral, ‘hyperkinesthetic consciousness’ arises, a kind of muscular cognition which functions as a sensory organ, specifically with relation to perception of movement at one’s visual peripheries and imminent threat.”
Click to expand...

Here are a couple more excerpts to provide the flavor:

Blurb from the inside jacket:
“In many esoteric traditions, there exists an iconic or linguistic corollary between the concepts of ‘poisoner’ and ‘sorcerer’, suggesting a sinistral magical kinship. Indeed, the use of plant, animal and mineral toxins is a strand of magic originating in remotest antiquity and reaching the present day. Beyond its mundane function as an agent of corporeal harm, poisons have also served as gateways of religious ecstasy, occult knowledge, and sensorial aberration, as well as the basis of cures. Allied with Samael, the Edenic serpent of first transgression whose Hebrew name in some translations is ‘Venom of God’, this facet of magic wends through the rites of ancient Sumer and Egypt, penetrating European Necromancy, Alchemy, the arcane rites of the Witches’ Sabbath, and modern-day folk magic. This persistent thread, here referred to as the ‘Cult of the Green Snake’, finds diverse manifestations in the varied traditions it makes home.

Veneficium concerns the intersection of magic and poison. Of particular note to this study are the herbs of the so-called ‘Devil’s Garden’, which bear relation to the allied witchcraft concepts of the Graal of Midnight, the Witches’ Supper, and the Unguentum Sabbati, the flying ointment of the witches which has exerted fascination over scholars, historians, and practitioners alike. Beyond consideration of the toxicological dimensions of magical power, the concurrent thread of astral and philosophical poisons are also examined, and their resonance and dissonance with magical practice explored. Veneficium will be of interest to students of magic, witchcraft, alchemy, botanical folklore, medicine, and occult pharmacology.”
Click to expand...

and the requisite cautionary admonition:

“…For those who tread the Poison Path, perhaps the best Knowledge of Antidotes lies not in any enchanted balm or chemist’s receipt, but in the balanced and proper Devotion to Fear. In its exaltation, Fear is the simultaneous knowledge and respect of those powers which can annihilate us. Its irrational axis, manifest in action, is cowardice and impulse; its flowering is courage and prudence. Robert Cochrane cautioned that the use of the poison sacrament in the hands of the fool was a ‘quick way to the underworld of insanity’, and this skull and crossbones stands as a waymark on the Path Envenom’d. Other spirit-roads may abide the fool, but not the Dark Lady of Venoms, for Mercy is a virtue alien to her dark droplets.” (p. 26)
Click to expand...
 

Attachments

  • Veneficium+cover.jpg
    Veneficium+cover.jpg
    150.5 KB · Views: 0
The Ethics of spinoza - Baruch Spinoza

The new inquisition - Robert Anton Wilson

Quantum Psychology - Robert Anton Wilson

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Up next-

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

:d :lol:

1069 pages, here i come
 
Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time on Ayn Rand :)

Sorry to be a hater but imo she is a terrible writer and thinker. There are much, much better 1000 page novels out there :)
 
Matthew Pallamary Spirit Matters

P.D. Ouspensky A New Model of the Universe

I particularly enjoyed chapters titled 'In Search of the Miraculous' detailing his travels.

Victor Hugo The Last Day of a Condemned Man

Thomas Cleary Teachings of Zen
 
Learning said:
Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time on Ayn Rand :)

Sorry to be a hater but imo she is a terrible writer and thinker. There are much, much better 1000 page novels out there :)
Click to expand...

Eye, to each his own.

I don't agree with all of her ideas, but i think there's something of merit in that particular novel.

You advice is duely noted, but since i already bought the book, slim chance I won't be reading it.

peace

DT
 
Good day.
 

Attachments

  • DMT+the+spirit+molecule+-++a+doctors+revolutionary+research+into+the+biologoy+of+near-death+an...pdf
    2.3 MB · Views: 0
A confederacy of dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Illusions, adventures of a reluctant Messiah - Richard Bach
The alchemist - Paulo Coelho
The 12 chairs - Ilya Ilf/ "Eugene" Petrov
Siddartha - Hermann Hesse

...and the more obvious 1984, brave New World, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test...the list goes on and on...I read a lot ;)

PLUR
 

This is a new book about ayahuasca and other plants as used by several indigenous peoples throughout South America. It's chock full of mythology, traditions, preparations, and personal experiences. It also gets into the massive destruction happening to the rainforest, which poses a serious threat to these beautiful wisdom traditions that have been passed down for generations. I actually met the author in Costa Rica during some ayahuasca ceremonies with the most amazing Secoya shamans from Ecuador, whom he has worked with for years. He is a very dedicated, energetic, and giving person who writes from his heart and is constantly battling to protect the rainforest and spread the magic that exists there. Please buy a copy if you can, and check out the author's retreat site for volunteer opportunities and "council gatherings" with the real deal shamans themselves: Home - Ocean Forest Ecolodge
 
Just finished reading "A brief history of everything" by Ken Wilber.
I really really loved it, it gave me some really interesting insights into the nature of reality, our world and how it has evolved. Not only on the external level, but also on the internal level.

I recommend it to everyone!
 
What is life? ~Erwin Schrödinger

it's actually fairly short, good read, practical and sciency applications (physics/biology life in general)
 
Back
Top Bottom