GSXR Compilation 122

1. SCIENCE OF EVERYDAY THINGS - neil schlader

The purpose of the series is to explain scientific phenomena using

common real-world examples. Real-Life Earth Science has about 40

entries covering various scientific phenomena and principles.

Information in each entry includes "Concept" (defines the

scientific principle or theory), "How It Works," "Real-Life

Applications," and "Where to Learn More." A "Key Terms" section

defines terms from the text. Examples of topics include study of

the earth, geology, geomorphology, soil science, geochemistry, and

meteorology. Under "Real-Life Applications" we can learn about the

greenhouse effect (under Ecosystems and ecology); mass extinction

(under Paleontology); and the 1812 New Madrid, Missouri, earthquake

(under Seismology).

Entries, written at a level accessible to high-school students and

the general reader, average about 10 pages in length. The "Where to

Learn More" section provides about 10 books and Web sites for

further information. Black-and-white line drawings and photographs

supplement the text. There are no color illustrations. An index

offers subject access to the contents of the volume; in addition,

there is a cumulative subject index of all 4 volumes. The basic

facts provided in these books are available elsewhere, but the

"Real-Life Applications" may be interesting to some.

2. Subjects of the World: Darwin's Rhetoric and the Study of
Agency in Nature - paul davies - 2009

Being human while trying to scientifically study human nature

confronts us with our most vexing problem. Efforts to explicate the

human mind are thwarted by our cultural biases and entrenched

infirmities; our first-person experiences as practical agents

convince us that we have capacities beyond the reach of scientific

explanation. What we need to move forward in our understanding of

human agency, Paul Sheldon Davies argues, is a reform in the way we

study ourselves and a long overdue break with traditional humanist

thinking.

Davies locates a model for change in the rhetorical strategies

employed by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species. Darwin

worked hard to anticipate and diminish the anxieties and biases

that his radically historical view of life was bound to provoke.

Likewise, Davies draws from the history of science and contemporary

psychology and neuroscience to build a framework for the study of

human agency that identifies and diminishes outdated and limiting

biases. The result is a heady, philosophically wide-ranging

argument in favor of recognizing that humans are, like everything

else, subjects of the natural world—an acknowledgement that may

free us to see the world the way it actually is.

3. Cracking the Einstein Code: Relativity and the Birth of Black

Hole Physics - fulvio melia - 2009

Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity describes the effect

of gravitation on the shape of space and the flow of time. But for

more than four decades after its publication, the theory remained

largely a curiosity for scientists; however accurate it seemed,

Einstein’s mathematical code—represented by six interlocking

equations—was one of the most difficult to crack in all of science.

That is, until a twenty-nine-year-old Cambridge graduate solved the

great riddle in 1963. Roy Kerr’s solution emerged coincidentally

with the discovery of black holes that same year and provided

fertile testing ground—at long last—for general relativity. Today,

scientists routinely cite the Kerr solution, but even among

specialists, few know the story of how Kerr cracked Einstein’s

code.

Fulvio Melia here offers an eyewitness account of the events

leading up to Kerr’s great discovery. Cracking the Einstein Code

vividly describes how luminaries such as Karl Schwarzschild, David

Hilbert, and Emmy Noether set the stage for the Kerr solution; how

Kerr came to make his breakthrough; and how scientists such as

Roger Penrose, Kip Thorne, and Stephen Hawking used the

accomplishment to refine and expand modern astronomy and physics.

Today more than 300 million supermassive black holes are suspected

of anchoring their host galaxies across the cosmos, and the Kerr

solution is what astronomers and astrophysicists use to describe

much of their behavior.

By unmasking the history behind the search for a real world

solution to Einstein’s field equations, Melia offers a first-hand

account of an important but untold story. Sometimes dramatic, often

exhilarating, but always attuned to the human element, Cracking the

Einstein Code is ultimately a showcase of how important science

gets done.

4. Seek to See Him: Ascent and Vision Mysticism in the Gospel of

Thomas - April D. De Conick

This monograph represents a critical juncture in Thomas studies

since it dispels the belief that the Gospel of Thomas originates

from gnostic traditions. Rather, Jewish mystical and Hermetic

origins are proposed and examined. Following this analysis, the

anthropogony and soteriology of Thomas are discussed. The

Thomasites taught that they were the elect children of the Father,

originating from the Light. The human, however, became unworthy of

these luminous beginnings and was separated from the divine when

Adam sinned. Now he must purify himself by leading an encratite

lifestyle. He is to ascend into heaven, seeking a visio dei which

will transform him into his original immortal state and grant him

citizenship in the Kingdom.

5. Thinking and Destiny - Harold Percival

In Thinking and Destiny, something new, although older than time,

is now made known to the world--about Consciousness. The

information is largely about the makeup of the human, where man

comes from, what becomes of him; it explains what thinking is; it

tells how a thought is created, and how thoughts are exteriorized

into acts, objects and events, and how they make his destiny.

Destiny is thus shown to be self-determined by thinking; and the

process of re-existence and the after-death states are told in

detail. A single reading of any one chapter of Thinking and Destiny

brings rich rewards in new understanding of life`s puzzling

mysteries. To read the entire book is to come nearer to knowledge

of one`s destiny and how to shape it than is possible through study

of anything previously written in the English language. Both the

casually curious glancer at books and the most avid seeker for

knowledge will be intrigued by the index, which lists more than 400

subjects in Thinking and Destiny, and by the fifteen chapter

headings in the Table of Contents, which identify the 156 sections.

The Foreword contains the only pages in which Mr. Percival uses the

first personal pronoun. Here he relates some of the amazing

experiences through which he was able to grasp the knowledge he

transmits, and to acquire the ability to do so.

6. The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism from

Ancient to Modern Times - Florian Ebeling

Perhaps Hermeticism has fascinated so many people precisely because

it has made it possible to produce many analogies and relationships

to various traditions: to Platonism in its many varieties, to

Stoicism, to Gnostic ideas, and even to certain Aristotelian

doctrines. The Gnostic, the esoteric, the Platonist, or the deist

has each been able to find something familiar in the writings. One

just had to have a penchant for remote antiquity, for the idea of a

Golden Age, in order for Hermeticism, with its aura of an ancient

Egyptian revelation, to have enjoyed such outstanding success."--

from the Introduction

Hermes Trismegistus, "thrice-great Hermes," emerged from the

amalgamation of the wisdom gods Hermes and Thoth and is one of the

most enigmatic figures of intellectual history. Since antiquity,

the legendary "wise Egyptian" has been considered the creator of

several mystical and magical writings on such topics as alchemy,

astrology, medicine, and the transcendence of God. Philosophers of

the Renaissance celebrated Hermes Trismegistus as the founder of

philosophy, Freemasons called him their forefather, and

Enlightenment thinkers championed religious tolerance in his name.

To this day, Hermes Trismegistus is one of the central figures of

the occult--his name is synonymous with the esoteric.

In this scholarly yet accessible introduction to the history of

Hermeticism and its mythical founder, Florian Ebeling provides a

concise overview of the Corpus Hermeticum and other writings

attributed to Hermes. He traces the impact of Christian and Muslim

versions of the figure in medieval Europe, the power of Hermeticism

and Paracelsian belief in Renaissance thought, the relationship to

Pietism and to Freemasonry in early modern Europe, and the

relationship to esotericism and semiotics in the modern world.

7. John P. Dourley ,Paul Tillich, Carl Jung and the Recovery of

Religion

Is religion a positive reality in your life? If not, have you lost

anything by forfeiting this dimension of your humanity? This book

compares the theology of Tillich with the psychology of Jung,

arguing that they were both concerned with the recovery of a valid

religious sense for contemporary culture. Paul Tillich, Carl Jung

and the Recovery of Religion explores in detail the diminution of

the human spirit through the loss of its contact with its native

religious depths, a problem on which both spent much of their

working lives and energies. Both Tillich and Jung work with a

naturalism that grounds all religion on processes native to the

human being. Tillich does this in his efforts to recover that point

at which divinity and humanity coincide and from which they

differentiate. Jung does this by identifying the archetypal

unconscious as the source of all religions now working toward a

religious sentiment of more universal sympathy. This book

identifies the dependence of both on German mysticism as a common

ancestry and concludes with a reflection on how their joint

perspective might affect religious education and the relation of

religion to science and technology. Throughout the book, John

Dourley looks back to the roots of both men's ideas about mediaeval

theology and Christian mysticism making it ideal reading for

analysts and academics in the fields of Jungian and religious

studies.

8. New Millennium Magic: A Complete System of Self-Realization -

Donald Tyson

The first incarnation of this work appeared in 1988 under the title

The New Magus: Ritual Magic As A Personal Process. The result of

several years of research into the principles and techniques of

Western ceremonial magic, coupled with an intense regimen of

personal experimentation, The New Magus evolved from my original

magical diaries. It was inspired by the need for a book that

presented the essential structure of modern ritual magic shorn of

its quaint but often confusing and contradictory traditional

trappings.
The book answers such fundamental question as: What is magic? How

does it work? What is ritual? Are spirits real? What is a magic

circle and how is one projected? How are objects cleansed and

consecrated? What are the dangers of magic? How are sigils, amulets

and talismans constructed? What instruments and furnishings are

needed for a ritual temple? How can one defend against astral

attacks? What is dream-making? How can I do finger magic? How do I

cast the pentagram? How do I banish spirits? What role does the

Tarot play in magic?

Although the book is firmly based in the ritual practices of the

Western world that descended from the Renaissance revival of magic

five centuries ago, almost every aspect of the ancient art has been

newly examined with a critical eye. Where necessary, basic ritual

techniques such as the method for drawing the pentagram and

hexagram have been revised and rationalized. All of the changes are

explained and compared with the traditional practices they replace

so that the reader can easily perceive why each revision was judged

useful. This process gives the reader an unparalleled depth of

understanding into the most basic aspects of ritual magic.

The New Magus proved so much help to those seeking a fundamental

grasp of the technical principles and techniques of ritual magic,

the decision was made to bring out a greatly enlarged new edition

in 1996 under the title New Millennium Magic.

Everything in The New Magus has been carried over into New

Millennium Magic, but in the process of revising the work it was

possible to correct a number of minor errors and to expand the

content to cover a broader scope. The way in which the integrated

original system of magic presented in this book differs from the

conventional system, which was derived from the Victorian

Rosicrucian society known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn,

is presented in much greater detail in this expanded and revised

edition. This comparison reduces confusion and aids in a more

complete understanding of the material.

9. The Magical Workbook - Donald Tyson

Everything that a beginner needs to start performing ritual magic

is in this basic training manual of daily study. These exercises do

not merely teach--they transform. When practiced regularly, they

will provoke changes in the body, brain, perceptions, emotions, and

the will--changes necessary for the successful working of magic in

any of its ancient or modern traditions.

This text contains 40 magical exercises to be done immediately,

along with a progressive 40-week schedule of daily study that

integrates inner mental conditioning with external words and

movements. It is a primer for the further study of the Golden Dawn

and other forms of Western magic.

Donald Tyson is a Canadian from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Early in life

he was drawn to science by an intense fascination with astronomy,

building a telescope by hand when he was eight. He began university

seeking a science degree, but became disillusioned with the aridity

and futility of a mechanistic view of the universe and shifted his

major to English. After graduating with honors he has pursued a

writing career.

Now he devotes his life to the attainment of a complete gnosis of

the art of magic in theory and practice. His purpose is to

formulate an accessible system of personal training composed of

East and West, past and present, that will help the individual

discover the reason for one's existence and a way to fulfill it.

10. THE LOGIC OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY: "One of the most important

documents of the twentieth century." Peter Medawar, New Scientist -

popper

First published in English in 1959, Karl Popper's The Logic of

Scientific Discovery revolutionized contemporary thinking about

science and knowledge and is one of the most widely read books

about science written last century. Described by the philosopher AJ

Ayer as 'a work of great originality and power', Popper presents

the two ideas that did more than anything else to make him famous:

that the only true knowledge is scientific knowledge and that

knowledge grows only when on testing a theory, it can be shown to

be false. Popper's now legendary doctrine of 'falsificationism'

electrified the scientific community, influencing even the methods

of working scientists. It also had a profound effect on the shape

of post war philosophy. Translated into many languages, it ranks

alongside The Open Society and Its Enemies as one of Popper's most

enduring and famous books and contains insights and arguments that

demand to be read to this day.