"As a man thinketh, so is he-thus is the biblical King Solomon often quoted by proponents of New Thought, one of the most influential native religious movements in America. Albert Amao provides an engaging and serious history of this and related movements from the eighteenth century to the present. His discussion ranges from Phineas P. Quimby, the father of New Thought, and Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, to Myrtle Fillmore, cofounder of Unity Church of Christianity, William James, the father of American psychology, and leaders in the emerging field of Energy Psychology. Amao's aim is to provide a rational explanation of the power of thought to heal the mind and body. All methods of mind/spiritual healing are self-healing, he says; we all have an inner capacity to heal ourselves. He examines cases of contemporary New Thought leaders who self-healed from "incurable" diseases free of medicine, and he describes the mechanism that triggered their healing. Their experiences have benefited millions of followers worldwide. The beauty of New Thought, says Amao, is that it empowers us to become conscious co-creators of our well-being and achieve success in other areas of life beyond recovering our health"--

"Sufism, Islam's mystical dimension, is often dismissed as the delusions of an irrational and backward people. Ken Lizzio corrects such misperceptions in this firsthand account of the year he spent in 1991 living with the head of the Naqshbandis, Afghanistan's largest Sufi order. He presents the order in all its dimensions--social, economic, political, and spiritual--at a pivotal moment in history. He also gives a rare glimpse of everyday life in an Afghan Sufi school and of how the school has coped with the upheavals in its country. Poignantly, the Naqshbandi way of life faces threats to its very existence. One threat lies in the creeping secularization of Islamic society, another in the dismissal of Sufism by various fundamentalist Islamic sects claiming the franchise on truth. But historically, Lizzio points out, Sufism has always been Islam's wellspring for spiritual revival. And because Sufis deal in matters that transcend time and cultures, they help outsiders understand not only the true nature of Islam, but the deeper meaning of all religions. The sound of that meaning echoes throughout the eloquent and fascinating memoir"--