This book builds on the most recent research from the Institute of HeartMath about the connections between the heart, nervous system, and emotional processing. It promotes a type of biofeedback application called FreezeFrame which uses heart rhythm coherence monitoring with emotional skill-building techniques to help handle anger, anxiety, and other negative emotional reactions. By integrating the body (especially the heart and nervous system) with subconscious emotional processing and conscious awareness a holistic model of resolving emotional issues is outlined. This approach is quite valuable, and both experimental and clinical evidence are increasingly showing the superiority of mind-body approaches as compared to drugs and talk-oriented therapies. A new book by a University of Pittsburgh doctor called "Instinct To Heal" discusses this trend further. In fact, my own clinical observations lead me to conclude that medications tend to perpetuate psychological difficulties, as they merely repress natural symptoms produced by the mind-body feedback system and often trigger further impairment of internal balancing mechanisms. Just as people can feel "better" while they are taking alcohol and other recreational drugs [especially when they have ongoing access to drugs to avoid the withdrawal phase], people will often feel better under the influence of prescribed psychotropics, not realizing that they are just suppressing a natural feedback system and temporarily escaping from an opportunity for healing and integration. Once the drugs wear off you can have major problems in addition to any immediate adverse effects that may have been triggered by drug use. Fortunately, HeartMath techniques can be used with or without medications or any other types of therapies and interventions, and I suspect that they would be very useful in helping people wean themselves from drugs by helping restore the body's natural coherence and regulatory abilities. The HeartMath approach can provide lasting emotional healing and is supported by solid research, some of which has significant implications about the nature of consciousness and reality that challenge status quo beliefs in the healing arts and sciences. This book explains the HeartMath research and therapeutic approach clearly, and anyone seeking more information about the technology and software can visit the Institute's web site.

Bamford has put together a text that alleges U.S. Intelligence operations have been politicized, allowing intelligence gathering and security to break down and miss opportunities to prevent the 9-11 events while the Bush administration sought to prepare a case for attacking Iraq. The apparent thesis of this book blatantly ignores the obvious possibility that having 9-11 occur was itself part of the plan to facilitate an attack on Iraq, making the 9-11 attacks an intelligence "success" rather than a failure from the perspective of those guiding U.S. "National Security." This is ironic considering Bamford is the author of Body of Secrets, a book that describes Operation Northwoods, a plan in the early 1960's to stage terror attacks on American targets and blame them on Cuba as a pretext for invading Cuba to overthrow Castro. Thus, Bamford's analysis of 9-11 and the drive toward the Iraq war turns out to be distorted to ignore the most disturbing conclusions and the evidence that would support the idea that 9-11 was an inside job. While Bamford has documented some aspects of the warped motives of the Bush administration and its benefactors and directors, he spins his thesis to ignore the full extent of treachery and criminality behind the U.S. Government and global power structures. Intelligence operations have always served the agendas and security of those controlling the agencies and associated military-industrial-occult cabals rather than the safety and interests of ordinary citizens. Bamford has exposed this to some degree, but for unknown reasons he does not pursue a full examination of how intelligence operations function.

This soundtrack accompanying the new Spiderman sequel is dominated by a mix of rock music acts followed by brief score tracks of generic-sounding Danny Elfman music. There are a few tracks that I really liked, such as Hold On, by Jet, We Are, by Ana, and Someone To Die For, a song featuring Brian May that reminds one of vintage Queen. Yellowcard's song is interesting and nicely incorporates instrumentation and tempo changes. The edgier, punk-oriented tracks are alright for the genre but not very memorable. Dashboard Confessional has a sound that is good for being in the background, but isn't very captivating. Recent hits by Hoobastank and Maroon 5 make their contributions to this soundtrack seem mediocre. I find this album to be above average in my comparison to other soundtrack albums, mainly because soundtrack albums dominated by rock music often either recycle old hits or collect second rate tracks from popular artists. This album is best for those who want to have something connected with the movie or who'd like to have an album with one of the more memorable songs from this collection. If you are looking for Danny Elfman music you won't find much here.

When I saw this movie I wasn't expecting it to be as entertaining as the original. However, this movie has a solid plot for a youth spy caper and is a bit funnier than the original. Frankie Muniz is likable as the serendipitous child CIA agent, who begins the film at CIA summer camp. After the camp director turns out to be a rogue agent who has stolen mind control technology Cody is sent to London to help catch the rogue agent and stop the devious plans that have been made to use the mind control technology to gain control of world leaders. Seeing dignitaries (including the Queen of England character) dancing to the tune of "War...what is it Good For?" at a "G7" event is amusing, and Cody's CIA "handler" posing as a bumbling chef specializing in Southern cuisine is also suited to this type of movie. I'm still trying to figure out when Cody's parents will discover he is really a spy - I guess that humorous plot device can be recycled in Cody Banks 3. Well, anyway, this is a fun, fast-paced movie that can entertain children and adults.

This is a repackaged version of the research and photos of Dr. Emoto that were originally in a set of books that included a Japanese version of the text. This research has been popularized by a number of holistic health practitioners and new science/new thought metaphysical advocates. Emoto's evidence is very impressive, although I don't think he fully understands how the water reacts to its environment in some instances, such as the response of water to specific words. Words are energetically connected to human concepts, so the word actually transmits the concept/idea/feeling that people associate it with rather than the word actually having an energy apart from the consciousness of those who have used the word. If everyone suddenly decided that "satan" "devil" and "Hitler" were positive forces then those words could become positive influences on water. Water is inherently a neutral compound - neutral pH, etc., which is perfect for transmitting energy and information without corrupting the information. Emoto has done wonderful work examining water all over the world and seeing how water reacts to a variety of environmental stimuli. Follow-up controlled research would be useful to examine how human beliefs, intentions, and consciusness may influence how water responds to various tangible or recordable stimuli. This book is valuable even just for the water crystal photos throughout the book, and should inspire more people with materialistic, mechanistic views to expand their awareness.

This book presents a brief examination of several issues in which social institutions and authoritarian structures in society are disempowering and exploiting people. The author has a readable style that tends to interconnect the various topics he explores. Unfortunately, each topic is worthy of a whole book and this text can only briefly examine the issues involved. Interestingly, if common sense were truly common then there would be no need for a "rebellion" against institutional non-sense. Having been in the mental health field, which this book focuses on a great deal, I concur that this field has the blind leading the blind in many instances, particularly in the case of pharmacotherapy and behavior modification. Unfortunately, people in general are irresponsible, insecure, and eager to give their power over to bogus authorities and faulty belief systems. Kudos to this book for helping people reclaim their power and stirring some critical thinking.

I first became familiar with Novak's work when he contacted me to suggest I visit the website he had built in association with his first book on "Division Theory" and add it to the directory of online resources I maintain for a variety of paranormal, metaphysical, and spiritual topics. His first book was impressive, displaying excellent integration of many sources into a cohesive theory about consciousness and the death experience. This current book expands and refines the initial ideas and is more comprehensive and powerful an assessment of the topic. There are certainly questions left unanswered here, and I find the theory to be incomplete in some ways, which all theories must be, since theories can only describe what is perceived from a particlar level of awareness or perception. This is truly an exceptional book for anyone involved in metaphysical and psychological exploration, as it explains the distinction between soul and spirit, conscious and unconscious, and how they each continue when separated from the physical body.

Bracken, an unconventional conspiracy author who seems inspired by Robert Anton Wilson at times has thrown his hat into the ring of anti-establishment theories surrounding the 9-11 attack. This is not at all an exhaustive or definitive look at the events on the day and surrounding the attacks. Bracken's theories are logical - far more so than the U.S. Administration's theories that are full of internal contradiction and lacking in evidence other than hearsay or planted items. Evidence that would confirm the government story is conspicuously lacking - either non-existent (like black boxes which would be present after an actual jet crash), destroyed, or kept secret (like the surveillance cam focused on the Pentagon which likely revealed that the plane hitting the target was actually a holographic projection cloaking a missile). More and more people who objectively examine the evidence and information available have concluded that 9-11 was an inside job. Those who refuse to even consider this possibility have earned a cruise along "d" Nile. Bracken is a talented writer, although his style is not ideally suited to a straight historical research book. This is a solid book, but there are better books available detailing the information surrounding the September 11 saga.

This book is a caring, compassionate examination of what's amiss in our educational and medical systems' approach to non-conforming children. Mercogliano offers his extensive experience and insights to explain how children can grow into motivated learners when they are given a non-threatening, non-repressive, and caring environment. Having worked several years as a mental health clinician I have seen how accurate this author's insights are and how disempowering and counterproductive the expedient, coercive approaches to challenging children are. When a physician says a child needs psychotropic medication that person is basically acknowledging that they are ignorant about how to truly help and they wish to repress the symptoms to appear that they are able to offer a solution or to conform with what all the other misguided "professionals" have been indoctrinated into doing. When you rely on unnatural behavior modification systems and disruptive synthetic chemicals to control a child's attention and behavior you are likely to impair that child's natural self-expression, intrinsic motivation, and internal regulation of biochemistry. It's wonderful to see a knowledgeable teacher offering insights into how to help children in a caring supportive way and to shun the demonstrably erroneous beliefs that some children "need" drugs that artificially manipulate chemistry in fundamentally the same ways as illicit drugs that children would get in trouble for using.

Walter Russell accessed an extensive amount of knowledge and insights during his mystical awakening. He wrote extensively about his understandings and related scientific, philosophical, and metaphysical subjects. In this book, he talks about the nature of creation, light, life, polarity, balance, electricity, gravity, radiation, waves & vibration, and the imagination and thought projections of the Creator. These are truly some weighty topics, but Walter's text is clear and informative, even when he gets into technical topics. This book is quite enlightening and actually better than some more popular metaphysical texts. The electric universe concept is truly brilliant, and Walter Russell's understanding of creation greatly exceeded most of what scientists erroneously believe, based upon their perceptions colored by persistent illusion. The "new" physics is just catching up with Russsell's ideas.