The most recommended new age books

This book changed my life when one of my first holistic healers/life coaches I ever worked with recommended it to me. The practices blew me away and helped me to start cultivating an awareness of my sensitivities and subtle energetic perceptions. I can’t recommend this enough especially for someone just starting out on their path of empath empowerment. The simplicity in exercises is incredible – reminds me that the most simple practices can lead to the most potent transformation.

This is the book I wished I had when reading the classic Dion Fortune novels The Sea Priestess and Moon Magic, though Margie certainly is not writing commentary of those novels. She provides a context for the bigger themes in such stories I was ignorant of when first reading Fortune. Lady of the Sea weaves a grand vision of the Goddess from ancient roots, including Egypt, the Celts, indigenous lore, Avalonian traditions, and the modern New Age, but does so with such skill, grace, and practical purpose. It is the best book for deeply describing the inner temple of the Moon, Sea, and Stars and how to work in them as a modern mystic. For that alone it is worth it, but everything leading to and from those sections supports your understanding of why the Lady of the Sea is important to us all.  

I love frameworks. Especially ones that make simple and clarifying distinctions about our complex inner life. That’s exactly what Chamine has done with this book. When I read this book in 2012 and completed the accompanying free online assessment to identify my saboteurs, I was greatly humbled by the sobering accuracy of how I self-sabotage.

While reading the book, I was engrossed in the combination of logic, science, and stories helping to illuminate how and why we all have a unique mix of these universal saboteurs: Controller, Stickler, Hyper-Achiever, Restless, Hyper-Rational, Victim, Avoider, Pleaser, Hyper-Vigilant. I learned how to identify when I was coming from a place of self-sabotage and what to do to overcome unhelpful habits, (i.e., strengthen my PQ muscles).

It was fun, engaging, and motivating to read, and the practical tips made this book incredibly useful. I use his framework in conjunction with my own to make… show more.

Singer made distinct all the imperceptible knowings I’ve felt throughout my existence about the power of the mind, beliefs, and all the habits we have that hold us back. He made the invisible visible and with that came more choices and possibilities. I felt invigorated, at peace and also empowered while I read this book. I honestly couldn’t put it down!

I reveled in not just the content but the style with which he presents truths about our existence. (And it was just so enjoyable to read!) The last part about death changed me in a profound way and offered me the gift of presence in a way I’ve never been able to achieve through other means. 

The simplicity of this book is breathtaking—there’s just one central idea: life should feel easy.

And yet we all instinctively answer, “No, it’s not. It never will be.” And that’s Hamrick’s genius: she asks you to live, for a moment, in a world that lacks any resistance to your dreams or goals. A world where life fully and effectively supports you.

And then she unravels all your own resistance to this idea. 

This is one of those books you don’t find–it finds you. At least, that’s what happened to me. When my friend first recommended it, I remember reading part of the first chapter captivated. But for whatever reason, I failed to continue reading it.

Years later, it fell off the shelf while I was trying to decide which of the books on my bookshelf was the one to read. Boy, did it catapult me into a wildly evolved level of consciousness. It ripped me open (in a gentle and inviting way) cleared me of fears and beliefs I didn’t even know I had and transformed me from being a human being reaching for spirituality to a spiritual being reaching out to humanity. 

I discovered famous journalist Ruth Montgomery’s books many moons ago.

She fearlessly began an odyssey into the "unknown," and I went along with her, reading book after book on this fascinating subject. Recently, her work flashed into my mind as I began writing my next novel. Since aliens and their visitations have captured the news, I felt compelled to read Aliens Among Us and see what Ruth shared back in the 1980s on this timely subject.

Her connections to powerful people add credence to her sharing, but the “other” sources she taps into fascinated me the most. The book begs a reader’s open mind, and today, I think that’s a reasonable request. 

Ruth Montgomery opened the door to explore the here and the hereafter. Aliens Among Us is, at the very least, thought-provoking, but for me, it gifted incredible insights. Ruth, wherever you are, you are missed and loved.

This book hooked me because it’s deeply researched and a pleasure to read, with interesting and relevant case studies.

There’s a line that leaders must now "create the best job for the person, rather than finding the best person for the job,” which I think is right on the money in today’s environment. That’s hard to do, but the book offers a simple framework to make it a lot easier.

I found the advice very applicable to working not only with my own team, but also committees and groups in other parts of my life.

At 800 pages, this was the longest book I read this year by quite a bit. Despite its length, I believe the narrative does a great job at keeping you entertained and interested in what’s going on from start to finish.

There are a few key things that made this a top book for me.

First, the main character is someone who crafts (as in, they make their own equipment) gear that is near-perfect in a way that makes them truly unique. More than that, however, is how the author does an excellent job at making their knowledge of crafting and crafted items believable based on the main character’s background. Every is well-integrated, and minor details begin to matter as a result. Often enough, stories forget to make those things ‘matter.’

Secondary to that is the setting – an academy story, something we’ve all read before; Brian still does a… show more.

Growing up in small-town America, I learned that psychedelics were evil poisons that would rot your brain and seduce you into addiction. As I grew older I learned about the opposition to the establishment’s War on Drugs—the punks, hippies, stoners, and other countercultural miscreants who downed ecstasy tablets like candy and flew their freak flags high.

What I did not know, and what shocked me when reading The Harvard Psychedelic Club, was that these opposing factions had once been united. In the 1960s, people were hopeful about the potential of LSD and other substances, and researchers were conducting promising research into their merits. Perhaps the most intriguing was the Harvard Psilocybin Project, led by two promising professors: Timothy Leary, before he exhorted a generation to “turn on, tune in, drop out”, and Richard Alpert, who had not yet rechristened himself as self-help guru Ram Dass.

It's hard to believe now,… show more.