Off the Shelf Author Blog

by Candice Covington, author of Vibrational Nutrition and Essential Oils in Spiritual Practice

When we cook for our family and friends, most often it is a dynamic way to show affection, to celebrate, to bring comfort, to aid in mourning, or to create space for quality time and being together. Cooking with intent does not need to be saved for a special occasion—you can also cook to help manage daily life, bringing ease and achieving goals. In the following article we will explore a recipe and some whole foods that help manage day-to-day affairs. 

by Von Braschler, author of Time Shifts

Every now and then, somebody reports somehow stepping out of normal time and space. It doesn't seem to matter where they live, the time of day or year, or their background. Nobody is exactly certain how they appear to sidestep outside normal reality for a short time before returning, because there is not enough empirical evidence from these random occurrences to study, and most people don't like to talk about it. In Time Shifts, my fourth book about time and time travel, I have included some very intimate real-life accounts of everyday people who have accidentally slipped in time. I also include stories of practiced time travelers with exercises to explore exactly how they do it.

by Kara Zahl, coauthor of Liberating Yourself from Lyme

Throughout my journey with Lyme, I worked with several shamanic practitioners, both Western and traditional indigenous medicine people, who greatly helped me connect to the healing power in plants and animals—a connection that had always been at my fingertips without my even realizing it. After those early days of opening the door to other ways of perceiving the world around me, I began to see teachers in many living things—from the plants growing in my backyard to the animals I would see when hiking in the woods. I don’t believe in coincidences, and I feel that everything that crosses our path has medicine or teachings for us.

by Rosemarie Anderson, Ph.D., author of The Divine Feminine Tao Te Ching

In the Tao Te Ching, peace is thought simple, ordinary, and the highest purpose of good government. To be at peace in the world is to grant privilege to what is most necessary for the greater good. For example, Poem 8 details what is “good” in everyday life, as follows...

by Marguerite Mary Rigoglioso, Ph.D., author of The Mystery Tradition of Miraculous Conception: Mary and the Lineage of Virgin Births

The Virgin Mary’s time has come. In fact, we’re long overdue for a revolutionary understanding of her that frees her from dogmatic baggage and restores her to her rightful place as a great holy woman. With all of the crises gripping planet earth right now, we need a powerful female role model—and the real Mary is about as powerful a feminine presence as we’ve ever experienced in our world.

by Eric Wargo, author of Precognitive Dreamwork and the Long Self

Throughout history and in most if not all cultures, the phenomenon of dreams seeming to foretell future experiences—what we now call precognitive dreams—has been accepted as a normal, even unremarkable, feature of sleep. Yet mainstream psychology continues to deny—or at least ignore—this belief. I’m here to tell you, with great confidence, that the skeptics are wrong.

by Tobias Churton, author of The Lost Pillars of Enoch: When Science and Religion Were One and many other books

One striking story to appear in Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews was unknown to the Bible. Josephus tells us of two pillars: one brick, one stone, on which the descendants of Seth (Adam’s third son) inscribe all they’ve learned of astronomy, to save the knowledge from a coming destruction of the earth by either fire or water, prophesied by God to Adam and passed on to his descendants.

by Fabiana Fondevila, author of Where Wonder Lives

Are otherworldly sunsets a prerequisite to experiencing wonder and awe? Do we need to see the Grand Canyon or the Taj Mahal for our jaw to drop open and the hairs on the back of our arms to stand up? I think not.

What is awe? This important but long forgotten emotion has come into focus recently, mainly thanks to the research undertaken by Dacher Keltner (and others) at the Greater Good Science Center in Berkeley, California. They have defined awe as “the perception of something so vast (in size, number, dimension, quality) that it challenges our understanding of the world” and forces us to reframe our thinking. In other words, what we are witnessing, when in a state of awe, does not fit into our pre-existing lens, and so we need to reach for a larger frame of reference.

by Vir McCoy, coauthor of Liberating Yourself from Lyme

What is a parasite? If we look at parasites objectively, we see that they suck or feed on others for their nourishment. Lyme itself is like a parasite and is usually accompanied by other parasites or coinfections, for example, nematode worms that can harbor Lyme spirochetes.

by Linda Star Wolf, Ph.D., coauthor with Vera Lopez of Shamanic Mysteries of Peru: The Heart Wisdom of the High Andes

One of my favorite places in all of the high Andes in Peru is Pisac. From the moment I stepped on the path and started climbing 10,000 ft I could sense the priests, priestesses, astrologers, and wisdom keepers of long ago who resided in this sacred community high above the village below. There was a sacred reciprocity that existed between those that could read the skies, the celestial beings, stars, etc., and those who farmed with the fertile earth (Pacha Mama) down below.

by Chris Kilham, author of The Lotus and the Bud: Cannabis, Consciousness, and Yoga Practice

According to ancient legend, the Hindu god Siva, lord of the mystics and yogis, imparted both the practices of yoga and the enjoyment of cannabis to humanity. Both were intended to enable human beings to experience deep states of unified consciousness and attain direct immersion into spirit.

by Vatsala Sperling, Ph.D., author of The Ayurvedic Reset Diet

In the very early days of my wellness practice, a 27-year-old woman came in seeking help with her chronic constant fatigue. When she described her daily food intake, her diet raised a red flag. But I faced a dilemma – to speak the truth or not? The risk for me was that she might not be able to face the truth and, having heard it, she might drop out of my practice. I was a newbie, and in the early days of my practice, the thought of losing a client was traumatic to me. I overcame the urge to retain client and chose to give her a dose of truth. “Your diet is the maintaining cause for your symptoms. I can give you the best remedy, but for it to work, you need to clean up your diet.”

by Charley Wininger, LP, LMHC, author of Listening to Ecstasy

Whenever I’ve found myself on fire in my life to the point where I’ve started approaching burnout, I’ve learned to follow an old adage: “Stop, drop, and roll.” I then carve out time, usually weeks in advance, to stop my life’s merry-go-round for a day, drop some MDMA, and allow the “roll” (the MDMA experience) to replenish my being.

by Erica Longdon, author of Vibrational Sound Healing

If we are what we eat, it is also true to say that we are what we hear. The vibrations and sounds we ingest carry huge potential to benefit or negatively impact our renewal processes. In modern times, we are very familiar with the concept of dietary vitamins to improve, adjust, and augment our health.

by Erika Buenaflor, M.A., J.D., author of Sacred Energies of the Sun and Moon and several other books

Happy Full Moon everyone! The Full Moon is an ideal time to work on manifesting your intentions and dreams. Here are some rituals for working with Full Moon energies for manifestation.

by Serge Kahili King, author of Dreaming Techniques

What I call the “In-Between” State is that range of consciousness with eyes closed where you are not quite awake and not quite asleep. This includes meditation, hypnosis, shamanic journeys, and others.

What you want to develop in this state is a form of controlled dreaming, where control consists mainly of purposely evoking at least a portion of the inner experience and of managing your own behavior during the experience. The main difference between this and “ordinary” lucid dreaming is the purposeful framework. In this article I will discuss three broad categories of practice.

by Lisa Tahir, LCSW, author of The Chiron Effect: Healing Our Core Wounds through Astrology, Empathy, and Self-Forgiveness

Responding as opposed to reacting requires that we develop skills and tools that allow us to consistently interrupt the thinking patterns that have led us to engage in unwanted behaviors. One such tool is the development of what’s called somatic screening skills to interpret, decode, and intervene in the emotional escalation system that is activated in the neural pathways of our brain.

by Sandy Taikyu Kuhn Shimu, author of Boost Your Natural Energy

We live in crazy and challenging times. The ever-increasing stresses and strains of daily life include the pressures of performance, competition, existence, or life itself. Pressure creates counter-pressure. This load weighs heavily on our shoulders, expends valuable energy and vitality, and can even cause stagnation and depression. Shoulder and neck tensions, headaches, sleep and digestive problems, skin irritations, irritability, anxiety, fears or nervousness: these are silent but clear indications that our energy is not in flow and that we are no longer in balance. It is important that we remain in our power, strengthen our inner center, and let our energies flow again. Below are three simple tips for daily life, three “energy pearls” for you to use at any given moment of the day.

by Candice Covington, author of Vibrational Nutrition and Essential Oils in Spiritual Practice

Mulled wine originated in the 2nd century and was created by the Romans who would heat wine fortified with spices and herbs to defend their bodies against the cold winter. As the Romans conquered much of Europe throughout the next century, their love for mulled wine spread across their empire and the regions they traded with. Europeans during the Middle Ages quickly grafted onto this idea and mixed heated wine with spices, herbs, and flowers as natural sweeteners to enhance the healing abilities. The following recipe is crafted to bring out your most creative impulse and offer support in finding this time fruitful and full of personal expression!

by Christine Arana Fader, creator of Dragon Wisdom cards and The Little Book of Dragons

The year 2021 is one that offers us the opportunity to awaken, explore, and live our creative power. This means that magic will return to us. There is no being in which magic vibrates more eloquently than in the dragon, so I will call upon the dragons for you using my Dragon Wisdom oracle deck. I will send four questions out into the great arena of the dragons and I am already very curious to see who will answer.

by Glen Park, author of Chakra Healing Therapy

Practitioners who work with touch know how impossible it is to separate the mind from the body. We constantly experience the effect that muscular release has upon the mind, generating feelings, thoughts, and memories for our clients. Alexander Technique trainee teachers receive a huge amount of gentle, releasing hands-on bodywork, while simultaneously working consciously with the way they think about their balance and movement. This includes mindful awareness and intentional directions to the body. They use themselves as a laboratory, applying the principles of the Alexander Technique to themselves before working with other people. As a result, a trainee emerges from this full-time training, which generally lasts three years, significantly changed in mind and body. In fact, during my training, I began to realize that I was having psychic experiences.

by Kathryn Hudson, author of Inviting Angels into Your Life

While many may have been told as children that guardian Angels are here to love, watch over, help, and protect us, often our time here on earth disabuses us of the notion. We can forget, in the hubbub of busy life, that there is no expiration date on that assistance, that as we grow older and our need for Angelic assistance increases, that help does not somehow evaporate. Angels do not somehow disappear!

Rather, they remain at our side, hoping that we remember to call on them… because we do not have to do this all on our own!

by Fay Johnstone, author of Plant Spirit Reiki and Plants That Speak, Souls That Sing

The source of much of our illness is disconnection, a disconnection from our true sense of self as well as our perceived separation from others and our environment. In my 20 years of practicing, I believe that Reiki helps us to journey deeper, open to love for ourselves and others, and heal this sense of disconnect, to rediscover a sense of belonging. I have also found that plants have a similar effect, which is why I encourage clients and students to develop a conscious and intimate relationship with the natural world, working with nature as a “spiritual ally.” Aligning with plants in this way helps us to remember the truth of who we are as creatures of this Earth and to feel a sense of connection to the web of life, which provides fresh insight and new perspective on the world.

by Nadine Gordon-Taylor, creator of The Heart Path Oracle Cards and Animal Love Oracle Cards

Humans have turned to divination for guidance and answers since biblical times and probably before. Divination is a way to give order to what seems like a random, chaotic, and at times perilous existence. In some ways, it also gives comfort knowing there is something much bigger than ourselves out there.

by Sharon L. McAllister, author of Awakening Your Crystals

During this challenging time, I have been working a great deal with a triumvirate of particular crystal energy that promotes the healing qualities of greater peace, energetic transmutation, and protection as well as a focus on a greater strengthening of the immune system. These three crystals have their own set of healing qualities, yet have the capacity to achieve additional alchemical properties when working in conjunction with each other. Like a choir coming together to make the most beautiful uplifting musical harmony, these crystals energetically complement each other to enhance a particular quality we require at this time: resilience.

by William F. Mann, author of several books including The Last Refuge of the Knights Templar

The dark aura that enshrouds Friday the 13th has certainly grown since its awakening on that fateful night in October of 1307.

by Russell A. Sturgess, author of The Spiritual Roots of the Tarot

In 1995 I was in Boston presenting at a conference for the American Massage Therapy Association, just a couple of weeks before Christmas. While Christmas shopping, I came across a game shop that looked interesting. As I moved through the store I passed a counter that contained a diverse display of tarot card decks. I had never owned a set of tarot cards even though I had been studying them, possibly remnants of my Christian upbringing. My eyes were drawn to one particular set of the cards and I heard a voice say, “Buy them.” I laughed at how ridiculous this all seemed and walked on. The voice then insisted I go back and buy that particular pack of Marseille Tarot cards. The insistence was so strong that I went back and bought the cards, my very first set of tarot cards.

by Ellen Evert Hopman, author of The Sacred Herbs of Samhain, The Sacred Herbs of Spring, and several other books

According to Celtic tradition, the dead come to visit the living at Samhain, especially in the dark of night. A welcome is extended to these wandering dead by leaving a door open, setting an extra plate of food at the table, and placing an extra seat near the hearth. Candles are lit and placed in windows and doorways to light the way home for departed ancestors.

by Michael Jawer, author of Sensitive Soul, Your Emotional Type, and The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion

As I explore in depth in my new book Sensitive Soul, our “felt sense,” our body-based awareness, can actually extend beyond our body—and result in perceptions that are far different than the ones we take for granted.

One form of “felt-sense” extending beyond the body is in people who have the condition called mirror-touch synesthesia. This is where he/she feels the sensations other people are presumably feeling—regardless of whether those people are physically present or being seen in a movie or on TV.

by Daniel Grauer, author of Psychedelic Consciousness: Plant Intelligence for Healing Ourselves and Our Fragmented World

The other night I was sitting around a fire with a friend, discussing the influence of psychedelics on our lives, when she uttered this statement, “after three years of working with these mushrooms, I love life. I just want to be and do the best I can. All the time. Now. Urgently. For myself, for others, for Earth.”

Is this not, in the simplest form, what we all hope for humanity?

“Ancient tribal spiritual knowledge never before revealed . . .” “Three keys to spirituality from a previously secret African ceremony . . .” “An ancient esoteric school of shamanism you can now become part of . . .” These kind of words are attracting many people. There is the promise of spiritual secrets, of paths toward spiritual progress, all cloaked in the mystery and fascination with remote and hitherto inaccessible sources of knowledge. And there’s the promise that these teachings can become part of our lives -- despite the enormous differences between the source of these “ancient” teachings, Indigenous people in all parts of the world, and the consumers of these teachings, primarily persons living in the industrialized/post-industrial world of the West.

Massage is not only essential for calming tense, overworked muscles and the mind, it also helps to re-calibrate the nervous system. I have personally found the benefit received from a massage with moderate pressure from a good therapist to be an invaluable investment in restoring my deep yin, adrenal reserves.

When the “Spanish Flu” struck in 1918 it was an all too familiar chapter in a long history of pandemics that Native Americans experienced since the first appearance of European colonists. The 1918 disease hit Indian residential schools hard, as it did reservations. Quarantines were put in place to stop the spread. But unlike our 21st-century efforts to contain COVID-19, a sense of communal continuity was not shattered by “social distancing.”

Because it is so easy to flip through a dictionary of crystal properties or search for their meanings online, many people will pick a few stones that seem to match the description of their situation and hope for the best. I’ve met countless people over the years who try this approach with limited success; some stones work for certain circumstances, but others do not. What results is a lot of discouragement and confusion. Here are three challenges—and three solutions—to selecting the right stones.

A recent New York Times article has added ayahuasca to the list of psychedelics with benefits for veterans and others suffering from PTSD and other mental health conditions. For author Alex Seymour, however, this is not breaking news.

Each of us is or can be a healthy multiplicity of selves, working together more or less well. To achieve and remain in good mental health, we need to learn how to be “in the right mind at the right time.” When you have this understanding, you will find that it immediately improves your understanding of yourself and others. It may even save your life, as we show through sharing a remarkable moment in the life of a remarkable man and how his well-developed ability to shift into the right self made all the difference.

Happy New Moon everyone! New Moon in Leo energies are ideal to get your self-love and passion mojo on! But any New Moon can help facilitate movement and inspire you to action, particularly if you intentionally work with the magical energies of the New Moon.

The next sentence you are about to read will transform your life forever and make you a master at using the Law of Attraction to create your own reality and manifest your dreams. 

At the end of July the New York Times confirmed that the U.S. government's UFO research program, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force (UAPTF), is still ongoing despite Pentagon spokespeople saying that the funding had "dried up" in 2012.

Food is an extremely effective medium for holding matter at specific vibratory rates. Eating foods with certain vibrations helps create specific states of being and is a simple way to influence the subtle aspects of self and, in the case of the following recipe, the mind and emotions. The following recipe is designed to promote being content, disperse heavy feelings, encourage one to play nice with others, and amplify zest for life.  

Imagine for a moment a substance capable of elevating you to the highest dimensions of consciousness. Not only is it free, legal, and completely natural, it’s available to you every moment of your life. The good news is that I’m not talking science fiction. Such a substance very much exists: it’s the oxygen in the air we breathe.

At the time I am writing this, we are in the midst of the Global Pandemic 2020. The time has come for the ultimate realignment of humanity. Through this realignment you have an opportunity to uncover or go deeper into your Soul Purpose. Through self-observation and contemplation, you are able to awaken and become the highest version of yourself.

Our world is transforming. Now is the time to step into our 5D frequency and embody our 5th dimensional nature. The more we do this, the less we can tolerate suffering of any kind, be it our own, that of other humans, or the suffering we have imposed on Mother Earth.

I'm a cannabis coach, with the long-term aim of helping people use the additive of cannabis to help spur emotional healing and cognitive expansion. What I can offer during this difficult corona retreat phase is information and guidance for using marijuana positively during the time of corona.

Eastern medicine is no stranger to plagues. Epidemics have been a major contributing factor to the evolution of traditional medicines for at least the last two thousand years. There are numerous treatises on the nature of pathogens, how they invade and travel through the body, and how to treat the body so it can push them back out. Just as traditional and modern doctors are doing today with COVID-19, ancient doctors learned the hard way the qualities of a pathogen, how to prevent it from invading the body, and how to treat the body if it does successfully enter. In analyzing this coronavirus, experienced Chinese medicine practitioners have classified it as a cold damp plague. What this means is that it has a congealing, constricting, sticky, fluid, and vitality-blocking action in the body.

Have you noticed an increase in your level of agitation, anxiety, or distress? Are you more volatile, all over the map, emotional, or depressed? Are you carrying around emotions and fears that you know are not yours or that are expressing themselves at an amplified, more-than-just-you level? It is crucial during this time of pandemic and upheaval that everyone – and especially empaths – engages in daily energetic hygiene to manage and clear their emotional body and personal energy field. Fear, confusion, grief, and chaos are sharply heightened in the world right now.

Can any herb, supplement, and/or diet help prevent or treat COVID-19? We simply do not know. In China, which has the longest experience (months) treating this disease, they have published extensive papers and notes (not research studies) on how they used TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) formulas to try to prevent this disease and for treating patients with COVID-19 infections. The doctors using these complex formulas claim they were very helpful, but only clinical trials or retrospective studies will actually show how useful they actually were.

From Reiki instructor and crystal teacher Nicholas Pearson: "Here are two of my favorite simple protection practices from Reiki and crystal healing work."

As of mid-May 2020, the CDC has not detailed a specific treatment for this potentially deadly virus. But before we panic, keep in mind that it’s not so much the severity of the infective agent, but the degree of immunity of the person contracting the virus and how well they are able to fight it off. Ayurveda has numerous methods to keep one’s immunity strong as well as dozens of treatments both to prevent and treat this, or any, virus.

As an investigator, writer, and teacher about the healing and spiritual qualities of crystals, minerals, and gemstones, I have come to view the stones as Beings rather than mere objects. I think of the energy currents we feel from stones as benevolent gestures of communication, like healing, loving, enlightening “songs” being sung to us by the Earth. I imagine the Stone Beings as the Earth’s angels, bringing us a multitude of messages from the Soul of the World.