Spiritual Biography

Many people worldwide view Romania as being one of the most beautiful and historic European countries, having marvelous castles, monasteries, and breathtaking scenery. That wasn't the case for Viorel Matei, being born in Buzias in 1953, the place of the heart, known for its healing waters, just eight years after World War II had ended.

Chattanooga 1906. The town erupts when a young white woman is assaulted in a dark cemetery. After a quick, flawed trial, a black man named Ed Johnson is convicted of the crime and sentenced to death. Despite a direct order from the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, a mob lynches Johnson. The infuriated high court holds Captain Joseph Shipp, the ambitious county sheriff, responsible for the outrage and charges him with contempt.

In Ley Lines of Love, Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle shares wisdom gained from a lifetime of spiritual seeking and devoted practice. A dedicated practitioner of Buddhism, she shares many remarkable stories about her inner journey, including the joys of learning from enlightened teachers. She also recounts how her years of involvement with a devotional tradition from India ended in an archetypal story of disillusionment.

When Julie Jacky was 38, she felt shame and heartache as she took money out of her son's savings account to keep the lights on. After she climbed her way out of bankruptcy, she realized she needed to deal with other shameful secrets from her past that were holding her back and preventing her from becoming the person she wanted to be.

Kathryn Hulme's life was radically changed and enriched by the influence of Gurdjieff. Undiscovered Country is a tribute to him and his teachings, a vivid personal memoir of her experience as his student, and of the burning spiritual intensity that dominated her life as a result of his influence.

Growing up in abject poverty, terrorized by a boarder who lived in the root cellar, Athena Demetrios repressed the memories, thrusting her into a downward spiral of melancholy and despair. Transcendence and healing would come through reliving the horrors of her past through hypnotic regression. A powerful spiritual experience opened doors into other dimensions, which began an odyssey where truth became stranger than fiction.

More than any other world leader in recent times, George W. Bush is a man of faith...a conservative Christian who has brought the power of prayer and the search for God's will into the Oval Office. His faith has proven to be a bedrock of strength and resolve during two of the most tumultuous years in our nation's history.

Life can be one of the most beautiful things an individual experiences; nonetheless, in the blink of an eye, major life events can present a new reality. Now I Can SEE the Light describes Clive Clarke's journey in pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering and the ways the fragility of life changed his trajectory. Although becoming a mechanical engineer is still a possibility, achieving this goal has become increasingly difficult because of unexpected challenges. Furthermore, this book discusses the ways Clive deals with the new normal in his life.

Starting in 1994, Dr. Rhiannon Lloyd pioneered a workshop called "Healing the Wounds of Ethnic Conflict" in post-genocide Rwanda. This workshop has now been attended by well over two million people from all over the world, and from some of the darkest and most conflicted countries. The workshop is now called "Healing Hearts, Transforming Nations". Fire Lilies: Finding Hope in Unexpected Places is her story. It demonstrates that for God’s children, nothing is wasted, and that He can skillfully craft all our experiences to eventually bring blessing in totally unexpected ways.

Andy Schoening is a Christian race-car driver from Southern California. He and his brother, Jim, have built and raced stock cars for over 20 years. Please join them on a journey that includes racing train cars (three cars tied together), boat trailer racing, roll-over contests, skid-plate racing, enduros, and of course…The Outlaw Figure-Eight. In this book, Andy will also give you a behind-the-scenes look at Saturday night racing. On top of all that car stuff, Andy will also share with you his views on life.

Enlightening, revelatory, and bold, Beyond Jesus reveals how our political and religious institutions are an outward manifestation of the inner beliefs we hold about who we are, and that beneath the layers of dogma about Jesus lies a key to our spiritual evolution and the astonishing possibility it holds for the future.

Although Andrew Jackson gained notoriety as a rakish young man, religion's influence on him ebbed and flowed as he established himself as part of the South's planter elite. With his devout wife, Rachel, he attended church and knew his Bible and religious subjects well, and while his determination to preserve his reputation involved him in numerous personal conflicts—including a duel that led to his killing a rival—he blended the principles of the antebellum South's honor-based culture with his belief in a traditional, orthodox version of Christianity.

Defeated in her marriage and disheartened with the church, Angela Sue Garvey recalls growing up in the evangelical church during the purity culture of the '90s. Once married, she found herself sitting across from an evangelical pastor who advised her to be quiet and submissive to a husband who routinely destroyed her. She recounts her spiral into a decade-long spiritual crisis and the growing bitterness and cynicism she felt as she questioned her place in the church and with God.

"Operating with God: A Surgeon's Stories of Emunah/Faith" by Dr. James Elist is a captivating journey through the life of a prominent surgeon, driven by his unwavering connection to His Creator. This remarkable memoir explores Dr. Elist's career, filled with unexpected encounters, Divine providence, and life-altering decisions. Dr. Elist is keenly aware of how God's hand weaves through his everyday experiences, and teaches us to be similarly attentive.

Fighting against an addiction to pornography while trying his best to live as a Christian, Matthew Robert Payne is a sinner who has gone through a lot in his efforts to conquer the challenges that life throws at him. In his memoir he speaks of his battle to overcome the past and ensure that he will walk in the future in the grace of God. Yes, there are days when the darkness seems to be gaining ground, but he perseveres and keeps a tight hold to his faith.

“For thousands of years, the hope of heaven has called to people through miracles. When we stop to consider their stories, God’s voice calls to us as well.” In our age of constant innovation, technological achievement, and the sad tendency to see ourselves as the captains of our fate, we...

My memoir is an accumulation of wisdom and guidance wrapped up in the compelling story of my overland rite of passage to India with nothing but a knapsack and an eagerness to find my raison d'être. By being transported to unfamiliar terrain--a time in the past, in parts of the world rarely explored--the listener becomes a witness to appreciating sacredness by being present in the moment, honoring and experiencing feelings, finding meaning in life, and resolving past psychological injuries.

The emergence of this project is due to a fascinating discovery by coauthor James Harman; his great-grandfather Robert Slothower (born in 1871) had left an incredible handwritten life-story manuscript behind. Plains to the Pacific is a well-written and gripping time-capsule account of a lost world. Some have remarked that the author's style reminds them of Hemingway’s. Plains to the Pacific is an engaging listen, the tale of a man who survived more hardship and excitement before he was 30 than most of us will experience in our lifetime.

In this examination of Solzhenitsyn and his work, Lee Congdon explores the consequences of the atheistic socialism that drove the Russian revolutionary movement.

When I navigate the currents of the soul, I find myself within my ancestral pool. I find myself swimming in their grief, and the longing during the great event and initiation called the Middle Passage. I find myself in their collective soul journey from a place of homeland to a dream of the Promised Land. This audiobook is a telling of the soul-striving of people of African heritage into the American experience of creating a community - a community created for the possibilities of new covenants within the larger collective sphere of human life.