John William Polidori was an English writer and physician. He is known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction. His most successful work was the short story "The Vampyre" (1819), the first published modern vampire story. Although originally and erroneously accredited to Lord Byron, both Byron and Polidori affirmed that the story is Polidori's.
Transcendental Meditation (TM) refers to a specific form of silent, mantra meditation and less commonly to the organizations that constitute the Transcendental Meditation movement. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created and introduced the TM technique and TM movement in India in the mid-1950s.
The Radical Faeries are a loosely affiliated worldwide network and countercultural movement seeking to redefine queer consciousness through secular spirituality. Sometimes deemed a form of modern Paganism, the movement also adopts elements from anarchism and environmentalism.
The Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest intentional communities in Britain. It has been home to thousands of residents from more than 40 countries. The Foundation runs educational programmes for the Findhorn community, and houses about 40 community businesses such as the Findhorn Press and an alternative medicine centre.
Caroline Myss is an American author of numerous books and audio tapes, including five New York Times Best Sellers: Anatomy of the Spirit (1996), Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (1998), Sacred Contracts (2002), Invisible Acts of Power (2004), Entering The Castle (2007), and Defy Gravity (2009). Her most recent book, Archetypes: Who Are You? was published in 2013. She describes herself as a medical intuitive and a mystic.
Due to its complexity folklore does not have a single definition. However, it can be considered as "the traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practices that are disseminated largely through oral communication and behavioural example". It can also include traditions, beliefs, worldviews, knowledge and skills, and talents. All in all, folklore is an important part of group and national identity. As it can be studied as an understanding of how people live, giving an insight into people's daily life, it can have an academic value.
Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual teacher and best-selling author. He is a German-born resident of Canada best known as the author of The Power of Now and A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. In 2008, The New York Times called Tolle "the most popular spiritual author in the United States". In 2011, he was listed by Watkins Review as the most spiritually influential person in the world. Tolle is not identified with any particular religion, but he has been influenced by a wide range of spiritual works.
Jon Kabat-Zinn is an American professor emeritus of medicine and the creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Kabat-Zinn was a student of Zen Buddhist teachers such as Philip Kapleau, Thich Nhat Hanh and Seung Sahn and a founding member of Cambridge Zen Center. His practice of yoga and studies with Buddhist teachers led him to integrate their teachings with scientific findings. He teaches mindfulness, which he says can help people cope with stress, anxiety, pain, and illness. The stress reduction program created by Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), is offered by medical centers, hospitals, and health maintenance organizations.
Lev Grossman is an American novelist and journalist, most notable as the author of The Magicians Trilogy: The Magicians (2009), The Magician King (2011), and The Magician's Land (2014). He was formerly the book critic and lead technology writer at Time magazine (2002–16).
Samuel Benjamin Harris is an American author, philosopher, neuroscientist, and podcast host. His work touches on a wide range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, neuroscience, meditation, philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. Harris came to prominence for his criticism of religion, and Islam in particular, and is described as one of the "Four Horsemen of Atheism", along with Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett. His academic background is in philosophy and cognitive neuroscience.
The New Series Adventures are a series of novels relating to the long-running BBC science fiction television series, Doctor Who. The 'NSAs', as they are often referred to, are published by BBC Books, and are regularly published twice a year. Beginning with the Tenth Doctor, a series of 'Quick Reads' have also been available, published once a year. With exception to the Quick Reads, all of the NSAs have been published in hardcover to begin with, and have been reprinted in paperback for boxed collections that are exclusive to The Book People and Tesco. Some of the reprints amend pictures of the companion of the novel from the cover. Some of the hardback editions have also been reprinted to amend pictures of Rose.
Within the modern system of Thelema, developed by occultist Aleister Crowley in the first half of the 20th century, Thelemic mysticism is a complex mystical path designed to do two interrelated things: to learn one's unique True Will and to achieve union with the All. The set of techniques for doing so falls under Crowley's term Magick, which draws upon various existing disciplines and mystical models, including Yoga, Western ceremonial ritual, the Qabalah, and several divination systems, especially the tarot and astrology.
Stephen Russell, who writes under the pseudonym "the Barefoot Doctor", was a practitioner and teacher of Taoism, its medicine, philosophy, meditation practices and martial arts and manifesting system, or wu wei. He is also known for his work combining personal development with electronic dance music and runs 'conscious' electronic dance music events around the world.
Sir George Lowthian Trevelyan, 4th Baronet was a British educational pioneer and a founding father of the New Age movement. In 1942, after listening to a lecture by Dr Walter Stein, a student of Rudolf Steiner, he transitioned from being agnostic to a new age spiritual thinker, and even studied anthroposophy in the coming years. He first became a History teacher at Gordonstoun School, pioneering radical education methods. After World War II, in 1948, he became the Warden at Attingham Park, a pioneering adult education college in Shropshire, from where he retired in 1971 to found the Wrekin Trust, an educational charity. He was subsequently associated with the Soil Association, the Findhorn Foundation, the Teilhard de Chardin Society and the Essene Network. In the last 15 years of his life he was the focus of many lecture tours and meetings. He also wrote numerous books, including A Vision of the Aquarian Age (1977), Operation Redemption (1981), Summons to a High Crusade (1985) and finally Exploration into God (1991). He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1982 for "educating the adult spirit to a new non-materialistic vision of human nature."
Findhorn Ecovillage is an experimental architectural community project based at The Park, in Moray, Scotland, near the village of Findhorn. The project's main aim is to demonstrate a sustainable development in environmental, social, and economic terms. Work began in the early 1980s under the auspices of the Findhorn Foundation but now includes a wide diversity of organisations and activities. Numerous different ecological techniques are in use, and the project has won a variety of awards, including the UN-Habitat Best Practice Designation in 1998.
Ian Campbell Bradley is a retired British academic, author, theologian, Church of Scotland minister, journalist and broadcaster. At the University of St Andrews, he was Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History, and was previously Principal of St Mary's College and a University chaplain. He also served as the associate minister of Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews.
Mark Pelczarski wrote and published some of the earliest digital multimedia computer software. In 1979 while teaching computer science at Northern Illinois University, he self-published Magic Paintbrush, which was one of the first digital paint programs for the Apple II, the first consumer computer that had color graphics capabilities.
The Tej Gyan Foundation is a humanitarian organisation based in Pune, India. The objective of the foundation is to create a "highly evolved society" through the motto of "Happy Thoughts". The foundation is best known for its spiritual retreats and events, which included the Happy Thoughts World Peace Festival which was held on 10 October 2010, where the Dalai Lama was a guest and speaker. The foundation is also in the Limca Book of Records for their book Magic of Awakening and Warrior's Mirror.
"Night" is a poem in the illuminated 1789 collection Songs of Innocence by William Blake, later incorporated into the larger compilation Songs of Innocence and of Experience. "Night" speaks about the coming of evil when darkness arrives, as angels protect and keep the sheep from the impending dangers.
