87 books like When the Impossible Happens

By Stanislav Grof,

Here are 87 books that When the Impossible Happens fans have personally recommended if you like When the Impossible Happens. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Red Lion: The Elixir of Eternal Life

Viktoria Duda Author Of Twenty-Five Centuries Without You

From my list on spiritual adventure books to open new doors to your consciousness.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a writer, a hypnotherapist, and a consciousness researcher. Ever since I was a baby, I had the memory and the sense that there was more to our existence than meets the eye. Even though I started my career as a lawyer in Vienna, Austria, after a transformative illness and a series of spiritually awakening experiences, I left for Mexico to pursue my calling as a metaphysical explorer and writer. Ever since, I’ve spent my life mapping out various dimensions of the psyche. When I’m not traveling, I like to retreat into my small highland cottage with Marius, the border collie, and Kasiopea, the black magic cat.

Viktoria's book list on spiritual adventure books to open new doors to your consciousness

Viktoria Duda Why did Viktoria love this book?

With this Hungarian author, I share the same birthday, as well as our mystical philosophy on life. Her book is an epic alchemical tale spanning centuries that describes the evolution of consciousness through subsequent incarnations from one life to the next.

I find not only the book itself fascinating but also the story of how it came into being. The author began to write it in a bomb shelter during WWII. Afterward, the Communists banned it and burned it, yet a few copies were miraculously rescued and hand-copied during dictatorial times.

Today, the book enjoys cult status in its homeland of Hungary. Unfortunately, the English translation is currently out of print, but if you can lay your hands on a version you can read, don’t miss out on this masterpiece.   

By Maria Szepes,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Red Lion as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Conceived amidst the horrors and hellfire of the Second World War, Mria Szepes' novel about a man's search for the Elixir of Life offered a glimpse of hope at a time of con-flagration. By giving a broad cosmic perspective to the events touching the lives of everyone in Europe in those years, she put human existence in a broader scale extending beyond daily life and put forth a reason for existence within the entirety of the Universe. After the war this remarkable book was published in Budapest but was soon banned by the government. Following decades of hibernation, like the…


Book cover of The Celestine Prophecy

Viktoria Duda Author Of Twenty-Five Centuries Without You

From my list on spiritual adventure books to open new doors to your consciousness.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a writer, a hypnotherapist, and a consciousness researcher. Ever since I was a baby, I had the memory and the sense that there was more to our existence than meets the eye. Even though I started my career as a lawyer in Vienna, Austria, after a transformative illness and a series of spiritually awakening experiences, I left for Mexico to pursue my calling as a metaphysical explorer and writer. Ever since, I’ve spent my life mapping out various dimensions of the psyche. When I’m not traveling, I like to retreat into my small highland cottage with Marius, the border collie, and Kasiopea, the black magic cat.

Viktoria's book list on spiritual adventure books to open new doors to your consciousness

Viktoria Duda Why did Viktoria love this book?

I'm a Sagittarius. Promise me a journey that takes me to a far-away land, which along the way initiates into some secrets of our existence, and I will not resist the call. This book is a wonderful blend of adventure and mysticism. It reveals a world that you can access once you open your senses for the perception of energies.

I loved this book so much that I named my forest retreat in the Northern Highlands of Hungary Little Viciente. In the book, Viciente is a place of high vibrational energy located somewhere in the Andes Mountains of Peru. 

By James Redfield,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Celestine Prophecy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This extremely readable and addictive parable has become a breakout word-of-mouth hit for its uncanny ability to renew your understanding of life, connections and perspective with fresh vigour. From the multimillion-bestselling author, James Redfield, and perfect for fans of Paulo Coelho and Eckhart Tolle.

'The Celestine Prophecy has already reached cult status... It homes in on the deepest, most urgent search of our times - the search for meaning... This is a book like no other.' - THE TELEGRAPH

'If you've ever wondered what the formula is for an "inspirational" bestseller, with promising potential for cult status, look no further'…


Book cover of Demian: The Story of a Youth

Viktoria Duda Author Of Twenty-Five Centuries Without You

From my list on spiritual adventure books to open new doors to your consciousness.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a writer, a hypnotherapist, and a consciousness researcher. Ever since I was a baby, I had the memory and the sense that there was more to our existence than meets the eye. Even though I started my career as a lawyer in Vienna, Austria, after a transformative illness and a series of spiritually awakening experiences, I left for Mexico to pursue my calling as a metaphysical explorer and writer. Ever since, I’ve spent my life mapping out various dimensions of the psyche. When I’m not traveling, I like to retreat into my small highland cottage with Marius, the border collie, and Kasiopea, the black magic cat.

Viktoria's book list on spiritual adventure books to open new doors to your consciousness

Viktoria Duda Why did Viktoria love this book?

I read this wonderful coming-of-age tale when I was in my teens, but its magical mood remained with me ever since.

Reading the story of Emil Sinclair meeting the enigmatic Demian at school–who not only freed him from bullies but showed him that there was another world usually invisible to the common senses–set me on a life-long journey in search of the miraculous. 

By Hermann Hesse,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Demian as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

2011 Reprint of 1948 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The main character of this classic novel, Emil Sinclair, is a young boy raised in a bourgeois home, amidst what is described as a Scheinwelt, a play on words that means "world of light" as well as "world of illusion". Emil's entire existence can be summarized as a struggle between two worlds: the show world of illusion (related to the Hindu concept of maya) and the real world, the world of spiritual truth. In the course of the novel, accompanied and prompted by…


Book cover of The Soul Polisher's Apprentice: A Martial Kumite About Personal Evolution

Viktoria Duda Author Of Twenty-Five Centuries Without You

From my list on spiritual adventure books to open new doors to your consciousness.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a writer, a hypnotherapist, and a consciousness researcher. Ever since I was a baby, I had the memory and the sense that there was more to our existence than meets the eye. Even though I started my career as a lawyer in Vienna, Austria, after a transformative illness and a series of spiritually awakening experiences, I left for Mexico to pursue my calling as a metaphysical explorer and writer. Ever since, I’ve spent my life mapping out various dimensions of the psyche. When I’m not traveling, I like to retreat into my small highland cottage with Marius, the border collie, and Kasiopea, the black magic cat.

Viktoria's book list on spiritual adventure books to open new doors to your consciousness

Viktoria Duda Why did Viktoria love this book?

This was one of my favourite reads ever: I truly lived through all of its pages. It is the true story of Hayashi, an 8th Dan Karate master teaching his protégé student not only martial arts but life.

I savoured every page, longing and aspiring for a similar relationship to explore such depths of the human psyche. It was one of those rare occasions when I felt the urge to contact the author, which led to a unique and wonderful friendship between Hayashi and myself.  

By Christopher J. Goedecke,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Soul Polisher's Apprentice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Discover an American martial renaissance as it claims the heart of Asian fighting arts practice! Become a hae (fly) on the wall in the innermost chambers of martial knowledge. A true, down-to-earth, clearly presented and insightful unfolding of the inner martial journey as it winds through the training hall and into the personal destinies of two contemporary journeymen, Hayashi and White Tiger, who come to embrace the essence of authentic Martial Ways. Penetrating, positive, and refreshing insights are revealed about the nature of martial techniques, rituals, philosophy and spiritual wisdom.


Book cover of The Map of Consciousness Explained: A Proven Energy Scale to Actualize Your Ultimate Potential

Maryanne O'Brien Author Of The Elevated Communicator: How to Master Your Style and Strengthen Well-Being at Work

From my list on communication and building trusted relationships.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a work in progress, on my way to becoming a conscious communicator and an even better human being. I believe that intentional communication and (the) quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives, careers, and societies. I’ve spent decades guiding people and cultures to foster open communication, cultivate self-understanding, and deepen trust, from large Fortune 500 to small businesses. Building communication skills is a practice that leads to self-transformation and finding meaning, and happiness. Each of these books will help you to better understand yourself and others, and learn to communicate at the level of trust.

Maryanne's book list on communication and building trusted relationships

Maryanne O'Brien Why did Maryanne love this book?

By exploring the different levels of consciousness and how they manifest in our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, you will gain insights into your patterns of communication and how they impact the people around you.

It teaches you to be more mindful of your interactions with others, how to be more present and attentive in conversations, and to be able to see how you are perceived when communicating. And as you raise your level of consciousness, you will naturally become a more intentional, empathic, and compassionate communicator. 

By David R. Hawkins,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Map of Consciousness Explained as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Map of Consciousness Explained is an essential primer on the late Dr David R. Hawkins's teachings on human consciousness and their associated energy fields.

Using muscle testing, Dr Hawkins conducted more than 250,000 calibrations during 20 years of research to define a range of values, attitudes and emotions that correspond to levels of consciousness. This range of values - along with a logarithmic scale of 1 to 1,000 - became the Map of Consciousness, which Dr Hawkins first wrote about in his New York Times bestseller, Power vs. Force.

In this book, readers will gain an introduction and deeper…


Book cover of Conscious Mind in Search of a Fundamental Theory

Rita Carter Author Of Consciousness

From my list on how to start exploring consciousness.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was hooked on brain science from the moment in the 1980s when I saw the first blurry images that revealed the physical markers of thought. I set out to find out all I could about this astonishing new area of discovery, but there was practically nothing to be found – neuroscience as we know it barely existed. I pounced on every new finding that emerged and eventually wrote what was one of the first books, Mapping the Mind, that made brain science accessible to non-scientists. There are hundreds of them now, and these are some of the best.

Rita's book list on how to start exploring consciousness

Rita Carter Why did Rita love this book?

Chalmers is the philosopher who first called Consciousness the “Hard Problem” and this is his attempt to solve it. It’s a hugely ambitious work that puts up an entirely new theory then tests it so hard that he leaves nothing for his critics to do. You may not swallow the theory, but it’s worth reading just to follow the meticulous thinking and imaginative leaps of a terrific brain.

By David J. Chalmers,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Conscious Mind in Search of a Fundamental Theory as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What is consciousness? How do physical processes in the brain give rise to the self-aware mind and to feelings as profoundly varied as love or hate, aesthetic pleasure or spiritual yearning?

David J. Chalmers unveils a major new theory of consciousness, one that rejects the prevailing reductionist trend of science, while offering provocative insights into the relationship between mind and brain. Writing in a thought-provoking style, Chalmers proposes that conscious experience must be understood as an irreducible entity similar to such physical properties as time, mass, and space that exists at a fundamental level and cannot be understood as the…


Book cover of The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

James Blachowicz Author Of The Bilateral Mind as the Mirror of Nature: A Metaphilosophy

From my list on the nature and capacities of our bilateral minds.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always had equally balanced interests in the arts/humanities and the natural sciences. I like to think that I inherited much of this from my analytical “algebraic” mother, who was a nurse and tended to our family finances, and my holistic “geometrical” father, who was a carpenter. It’s probably no accident that my double major in college was in physics and philosophy...and, down the line, that I should develop a focused interest in human brain laterality, where the division between analysis and holism is so prominent.

James' book list on the nature and capacities of our bilateral minds

James Blachowicz Why did James love this book?

This book, more than any other on the subject, surprised and fascinated me.

Its thesis is deceptively simple. It suggests that the two hemispheres of the human brain were “strangers” to each other early in our evolutionary history (three millennia ago). The left hemisphere received the information from the right as a message from an unfamiliar source (an unseen “voice”).

Jaynes proposed that this was the basis for all religious experience. It was our intuitive right hemisphere that supplied the “voices” of the gods. True human consciousness only arose when this bicameral mind “broke down” and the “voice of God” was replaced with what had been speaking to us all along, the other more intuitive half of ourselves.

By Julian Jaynes,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion -- and indeed our future.


Book cover of Consciousness Explained

Matthew Hutson Author Of The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy, and Sane

From my list on consciousness and how our brain works.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a freelance science reporter and Contributing Writer at The New Yorker, with degrees in cognitive neuroscience and science writing. Growing up, I wanted to understand the fundamental nature of the universe—who doesn’t?!—and grew interested in physics, before realizing our only contact with outside reality (if it exists) is through consciousness. Today I cover psychology and artificial intelligence, among other topics. Can machines be conscious? I don’t know. Why does consciousness exist at all? I don’t know that either. But if there’s anything at all that’s magic in the universe, it’s consciousness.

Matthew's book list on consciousness and how our brain works

Matthew Hutson Why did Matthew love this book?

We tend to picture an observer inside our heads experiencing consciousness as if watching a movie. But that just pushes explanation back a level: What’s inside that observer? The prolific philosopher Daniel Dennett dismantles many common intuitions about awareness, showing them to be illusions hiding the intricate and deceptive mechanics of the mind and brain. This was one of the first books on consciousness I read. I don’t agree with everything Dennett has to say on the matter, but he’s a great guide to think with.

By Daniel C. Dennett,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Consciousness Explained as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Consciousness Explained, Daniel C. Dennett reveals the secrets of one of the last remaining mysteries of the universe: the human brain.

Daniel C. Dennett's now-classic book blends philosophy, psychology and neuroscience - with the aid of numerous examples and thought-experiments - to explore how consciousness has evolved, and how a modern understanding of the human mind is radically different from conventional explanations of consciousness.

What people think of as the stream of consciousness is not a single, unified sequence, the author argues, but 'multiple drafts' of reality composed by a computer-like 'virtual machine'.

Dennett explains how science has exploded…


Book cover of The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

Beth Kurland, Ph.D. Author Of You Don't Have to Change to Change Everything: Six Ways to Shift Your Vantage Point, Stop Striving for Happy, and Find True Well-Being

From my list on helping you change the way you see the world for well-being and transformation.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a youth, I longed to understand life and its meaning and purpose, and I sought books that opened me up to a world that transcended the more rational, tangible aspects of my life. I also became fascinated with psychology in high school and knew that would be my life’s path. In college and beyond, I was drawn to meditation and mind-body practices that became transformative in my life. This journey continues to this day, calling me to bridge the scientific and psychological with the more contemplative and spiritual traditions to find and help others find healing and wholeness. 

Beth's book list on helping you change the way you see the world for well-being and transformation

Beth Kurland, Ph.D. Why did Beth love this book?

This book blew me away when I read it. It completely shifted the way I see things and my understanding of “who” is doing the seeing.

I came to this book with some experience of meditation, but it deepened my understanding of the nature of consciousness, the ways that we humans create suffering for ourselves, and illuminated a path toward greater freedom. Essentially, it offers a profound shift from experiencing ourselves as the voice in our heads that follows us around all day long to a more expansive sense of a witnessing consciousness that we are.

If you are looking for a book that will totally and forever change the way you see things, this one is for you.

By Michael A. Singer,

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked The Untethered Soul as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Who are you? When you start to explore this question, you find out how elusive it really is. Are you a physical body? A collection of experiences and memories? A partner to relationships? Each time you consider aspects of yourself, you realize that there is much more to you than any of these can define. In this book, spiritual teacher Michael Singer explores the question of who we are and arrives at the conclusion that our identity is to be found in our consciousness, the fact of our ability to observe ourselves and the world around us. By tapping into…


Book cover of Power vs. Force

Joe Contrera Author Of Extraordinary Results for Life: Discover Your Path to Be UN-ordinary

From my list on transforming your business and your life!.

Why am I passionate about this?

For nearly 40 years, I have studied and written about blending the business world and the spiritual side of life together. By spiritual, I mean everything to do with our purpose and why we exist. I refer to this as being ALIVE @ WORK ®. We spend countless hours at work doing a j-o-b, when what we want most is knowing that we are making a difference in our lives and the lives of others. The key is taking 100% responsibility for our lives, knowing we have the power to change them in an instant. You will find this thread woven through all of my books and those I recommend.

Joe's book list on transforming your business and your life!

Joe Contrera Why did Joe love this book?

This book was a game-changer in helping to understand how quantum physics interacts with human behavior. It is a dense book with a great amount of research and science. That said, the point of the book is to explain, in an easily understandable way, how the practice of applied kinesiology can help guide us through life’s journey to discover simple truths.

I was introduced to this book back in 2009, and it started me on an incredible journey toward a better understanding of how the world works. It was instrumental in helping me to develop a Leadership Model in my 3rd book.  

By David R. Hawkins,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Power vs. Force as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This classic text explores how we as individuals can move towards our ultimate potential through understanding human behaviour and enhancing our level of consciousness.

Building on the accumulated wisdom of applied kinesiology (diagnostic muscle-testing to determine the causes of allergies and ailments) and behavioural kinesiology (muscle-testing to determine emotional responses to stimuli), David R. Hawkins MD, PhD has taken muscle-testing to the next level, in an effort to determine what makes people and systems strong, healthy, effective and spiritually sound.

Power vs. Force has become a spiritual classic and massively influential across the world. Now, Dr Hawkins reflects on his…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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