“A highly personal, richly informed and culturally wide-ranging meditation on the loss of meaning in our times and on pathways to rediscovering it.” —Gabor Maté, MD, author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction A neuroanthropologist maps out a revolutionary new practice—Hedonic Engineering—that combines the best of neuroscience and optimal psychology. It’s an intensive program of breathing, movement, and sexuality that mends trauma, heightens inspiration and tightens connections—helping us wake up, grow up, and show up for a world that needs us all. This is a book about a big idea. And the idea is this: Slowly over the past few decades, and now suddenly, all at once, we’re suffering from a collapse in Meaning. Fundamentalism and nihilism are filling that vacuum, with consequences that affect us all. In a world that needs us at our best, diseases of despair, tribalism, and disaster fatigue are leaving us at our worst. It’s vital that we regain control of the stories we’re telling because they are shaping the future we’re creating. To do that, we have to remember our deepest inspiration, heal our pain and apathy, and connect to each other like never before. If we can do that, we’ve got a shot at solving the big problems we face. And if we can’t? Well, the dustbin of history has swallowed civilizations older and fancier than ours. This book is divided into three parts. The first, Choose Your Own Apocalypse, takes a look at our current Meaning Crisis--where we are today, why it’s so hard to make sense of the world, what might be coming next, and what to do about it. It also makes a case that many of our efforts to cope, whether anxiety and denial, or tribalism and identity politics, are likely making things worse. The middle section, The Alchemist Cookbook, applies the creative firm IDEO’s design thinking to the Meaning Crisis. This is where the book gets hands on--taking a look at the strongest evolutionary drivers that can bring about inspiration, healing, and connection. From breathing, to movement, sexuality, music, and substances--these are the everyday tools to help us wake up, grow up, and show up. AKA--how to blow yourself sky high with household materials. And the best part? They’re accessible, by anyone anywhere, no middleman required. Transcendence democratized. The final third of the book, Ethical Cult Building, focuses on the tricky nature of putting these kinds of experiences into gear and into culture—because, anytime in the past when we’ve figured out combinations of peak states and deep healing, we’ve almost always ended up with problematic culty communities. Playing with fire has left a lot of people burned. This section lays out a roadmap for sparking a thousand fires around the world--each one unique and tailored to the needs and values of its participants. Think of it as an open-source toolkit for building ethical culture. In Recapture the Rapture, we’re taking radical research out of the extremes and applying it to the mainstream--to the broader social problem of healing, believing, and belonging. It’s providing answers to the questions we face: how to replace blind faith with direct experience, how to move from broken to whole, and how to cure isolation with connection. Said even more plainly, it shows us how to revitalize our bodies, boost our creativity, rekindle our relationships, and answer once and for all the questions of why we are here and what do we do now? In a world that needs the best of us from the rest of us, this is a book that shows us how to get it done.

National Bestseller CNBC and Strategy + Business Best Business Book of the Year It’s the biggest revolution you’ve never heard of, and it’s hiding in plain sight. Over the past decade, Silicon Valley executives like Eric Schmidt and Elon Musk, Special Operators like the Navy SEALs and the Green Berets, and maverick scientists like Sasha Shulgin and Amy Cuddy have turned everything we thought we knew about high performance upside down. Instead of grit, better habits, or 10,000 hours, these trailblazers have found a surprising short cut. They're harnessing rare and controversial states of consciousness to solve critical challenges and outperform the competition. New York Times bestselling author Steven Kotler and high performance expert Jamie Wheal spent four years investigating the leading edges of this revolution—from the home of SEAL Team Six to the Googleplex, the Burning Man festival, Richard Branson’s Necker Island, Red Bull’s training center, Nike’s innovation team, and the United Nations’ Headquarters. And what they learned was stunning: In their own ways, with differing languages, techniques, and applications, every one of these groups has been quietly seeking the same thing: the boost in information and inspiration that altered states provide. Today, this revolution is spreading to the mainstream, fueling a trillion dollar underground economy and forcing us to rethink how we can all lead richer, more productive, more satisfying lives. Driven by four accelerating forces—psychology, neurobiology, technology and pharmacology—we are gaining access to and insights about some of the most contested and misunderstood terrain in history. Stealing Fire is a provocative examination of what’s actually possible; a guidebook for anyone who wants to radically upgrade their life.

An authoritative biblical critique of the recent pre-wrath rapture theory popularized by Rosenthal and Van Kampen.

We Love You, But You’re Going to Hell presents a non-confrontational study of the conflict surrounding Christian faith, Scriptures, and homosexuality. It addresses the dichotomy of love and condemnation, sincerely expressed by Christians – and the pain experienced by gays and lesbians. • How do sincere, Bible-believing Christians balance their interpretation of Scriptures with everyday encounters with gays and lesbians? • How do we have conversations when we disagree? Without judging or calling into question someone’s faith or salvation? This book OPENS UP the conversation – with chapters devoted to the Author’s Story, Scriptures, Stereotypes, Marriage, Religious Freedom, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do in our families, churches, and society. It is easy to single-handedly dismiss an individual or church’s belief or stance by writing them off as conservative or liberal. No matter which side you are on, there is benefit to educating yourself on the beliefs and experiences of those with whom you disagree. The author asks that the reader consider viewpoints expressed by a variety of churches and ministers. Look closely at the Scriptures that are cited and decide for yourself. Look at the beliefs of well-known conservative ministers and doctrines of several church denominations in this book. Some Christians believe it is loving to demand denial of homosexuality, ending relationships, changing to heterosexuality, or remaining celibate – in order that the soul be saved. Others believe sexual orientation is God-given, cannot be changed and that it is cruel and unloving to demand it. If you believe homosexuality is a sin, the Scriptures condemn, sexual orientation doesn’t exist; read this book. Argue with it, confirm your beliefs, question, change your mind. The author invites your engagement. Kim O’Reilly cares deeply about the divisions she sees in churches today over homosexuality. How do we get beyond the disagreements, divisiveness, and polarization we see playing out in our churches and society? How do we honor the rights of each of these groups without denying the rights of the other? She attempts to answer these questions throughout her book. Love and/or Condemnation? “God doesn’t make mistakes. Humans do. God doesn’t make one gay. They make that choice on their own. It’s a fact that homosexuality is a choice. It has a cause – Satan.” “I was nine years old when I recognized my attractions for the same gender. Praying to God every night and pleading with Him to take my feeling away didn’t work. Practically living, eating, and breathing the Bible didn’t work. I tried repressing and denying who I was – but nothing changed inside of me. I was taught by my pastors, parents, and peers to hate myself – and that worked.” What does the Bible say about how we should treat those we disagree with or who we believe are going to Hell? The final chapter offers strategies and solutions on how to bridge the divide between Christians and gays – how to promote healing and not to inflict more pain.

The setting is a New York apartment where two long-estranged lovers try to resuscitate their passion. Kay is old enough to be skeptical about men–this man in particular–but still alert to the possibility of true love. Benjamin is a filmmaker with an appealing waywardness and a conveniently disappearing fiancée. As the two lie entwined in bed, Susan Minot ushers readers across an entire landscape of memory and sensation to reveal the infinite nuances of sex: its power to exalt and deceive, to connect two separate selves or make them fully aware of their solitude. Honest and unflinching, the result is a hypnotic reading experience.

You have been predestined for purpose. Life has an eternal meaning and purpose, therefore, God has a purpose for you beyond where you are today. Have you allowed your life to be an open door for bad habits, negative talk, and frustration? Do you desire to be free? Do you desire for Gods love, peace, and healing to be released to you? God is in the process of making you into a beautiful vessel; therefore, you must release the old vessel with its bad habits, negative talk, and frustration; yield to His will and repent. Now open the door of your heart, to a fresh start, with vibrant ideas and intriguing creativity. Come with me as we give our self totally to God and allow Him to mold and shape us into that beautiful vessel of honor, one that is fit for His Kingdom. God is not limited by our abilities; we must step aside and allow Him to work on our behalf. This book entitled, The Making of a Beautiful Vessel will challenge you to take heed on how you build your life in Jesus as spoken in the scripture, You are Gods fellow workers; you are Gods field, you are Gods building let each one take heed how he builds on it. - 1 Corinthians 3:9-10 NKJV. As sons and daughters of the King you have an unlimited amount of potential and abilities. There are no limits to what you will be able to accomplish through Christ, He has all power, so dream big, believe big, and receive much.

Winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize, "essential reading for the broken-hearted of all ages" (The Guardian) The effortless virtuosity, drama, and humanity of Carol Ann Duffy's verse have made her much admired among contemporary poets. Rapture is a book-length love poem and a moving act of personal testimony. But what sets these poems apart from other treatments of the subject is Duffy's refusal to simplify the contradictions of love and read its transformations-infatuation, longing, passion, commitment, rancor, separation, and grief-as either redemptive or destructive. This is a map of real love in all its churning complexity, simultaneously direct and subtle, showing us that a song can be made of even the most painful episodes in our lives. With poems that will find deep resonance in the experience of most readers, it is a collection that can and does speak for us all.