This is a novella about spirituality and death through the eyes of a child. From the age of three Dillon finds that by sitting in his bear chair he can float out of his body. When out of body, Dillon is invisible, and can pass through solid objects and communicate with spirits. When he was eight, Dillon got a motorized tractor with an attached wagon. When his best friend, Daren, drives Dillons tractor into the road and is struck and killed by a truck, Dillon is able to communicate with Darens spirit, so he eventually overcomes his grief, but desperately misses the physical presence of his beloved friend.

In this unusual autobiography R. J. R. Rockwood describes the end of his previous incarnation, and how relieved he felt at separation from his physical body. He then viewed his future parents from the Afterlife. He was spiritually present during his own birth, after which his spirit became attached to his newborn self. Rockwood describes interactions with an invisible playmate and various ghosts. At the University of Florida his telepathic ability became the basis of a master’s thesis. During the Coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, he communicated telepathically with several spirits who had succumbed to COVID-19, asking what it felt like to die, and what separation from the physical body was like. This and other experiences in Rockwood’s life are described in his latest literary endeavor, The Body Dies but the Spirit Lives, 2nd Edition Revised and Enlarged.

R. J. R. Rockwood describes an interaction with an invisible playmate who teaches him that an out-of-body experience is the same as to die and cites an ancient saying that “If you die before you die, when you die you won’t die.” This book describes all aspects of Rockwood’s psychic abilities and his ability to communicate with Ghosts. His psychic ability was the subject of a master’s these at the University of Florida Dr. Rockwood has served on the full-time faculty at Florida Southern College, Florida Keys Community College, Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Florida. From 1978 through 2001 he worked as an industrial technical writer, editor, and web designer at such companies as Lockheed Martin, Unisys, NCR, and Talus. Starting in 2002 he taught online courses for the University of Phoenix. I Can Read Your Mind (2024) is his thirteenth book published by Xlibris. The others are: • Leopardo da Gotcha (2002) • The Passing of Merlin Zauber (2005) • The Last Ant (2007) • Dillon's Rocking Bear Invisibility Chair (2013) • I Don't Talk to Earthlings (2016) • Owen Often Beside Himself (2016) • The Primrose Path (2016) • The Spirit of Alchemy (2017) • The Eternal Life Ministry of Teenage Michael Maier (2018) • The Rhetoric of Inner Space: Student Writing Based on Dreams (2019) • The Body Dies but the Spirit Lives On (2019) • Thew Body Dies but the Spirit Livea, 2nd ed. (2020)

Now available for the first time—more than 50 years after it was written—is the memoir of Michael Dillon/Lobzang Jivaka (1915–62), the British doctor and Buddhist monastic novice chiefly known to scholars of sex, gender, and sexuality for his pioneering transition from female to male between 1939 and 1949, and for his groundbreaking 1946 book Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology. Here at last is Dillon/Jivaka’s extraordinary life story told in his own words. Out of the Ordinary captures Dillon/Jivaka’s various journeys—to Oxford, into medicine, across the world by ship—within the major narratives of his gender and religious journeys. Moving chronologically, Dillon/Jivaka begins with his childhood in Folkestone, England, where he was raised by his spinster aunts, and tells of his days at Oxford immersed in theology, classics, and rowing. He recounts his hormonal transition while working as an auto mechanic and fire watcher during World War II and his surgical transition under Sir Harold Gillies while Dillon himself attended medical school. He details his worldwide travel as a ship’s surgeon in the British Merchant Navy with extensive commentary on his interactions with colonial and postcolonial subjects, followed by his “outing” by the British press while he was serving aboard The City of Bath. Out of the Ordinary is not only a salient record of an early sex transition but also a unique account of religious conversion in the mid–twentieth century. Dillon/Jivaka chronicles his gradual shift from Anglican Christianity to the esoteric spiritual systems of George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky to Theravada and finally Mahayana Buddhism. He concludes his memoir with the contested circumstances of his Buddhist monastic ordination in India and Tibet. Ultimately, while Dillon/Jivaka died before becoming a monk, his novice ordination was significant: It made him the first white European man to be ordained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Out of the Ordinary is a landmark publication that sets free a distinct voice from the history of the transgender movement.

In Killing Hope, William Blum, author of the bestselling Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, provides a devastating and comprehensive account of America's covert and overt military actions in the world, all the way from China in the 1940s to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and - in this updated edition - beyond. Is the United States, as it likes to claim, a global force for democracy? Killing Hope shows the answer to this question to be a resounding 'no'.

Science, engineering, and technology permeate nearly every facet of modern life and hold the key to solving many of humanity's most pressing current and future challenges. The United States' position in the global economy is declining, in part because U.S. workers lack fundamental knowledge in these fields. To address the critical issues of U.S. competitiveness and to better prepare the workforce, A Framework for K-12 Science Education proposes a new approach to K-12 science education that will capture students' interest and provide them with the necessary foundational knowledge in the field. A Framework for K-12 Science Education outlines a broad set of expectations for students in science and engineering in grades K-12. These expectations will inform the development of new standards for K-12 science education and, subsequently, revisions to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development for educators. This book identifies three dimensions that convey the core ideas and practices around which science and engineering education in these grades should be built. These three dimensions are: crosscutting concepts that unify the study of science through their common application across science and engineering; scientific and engineering practices; and disciplinary core ideas in the physical sciences, life sciences, and earth and space sciences and for engineering, technology, and the applications of science. The overarching goal is for all high school graduates to have sufficient knowledge of science and engineering to engage in public discussions on science-related issues, be careful consumers of scientific and technical information, and enter the careers of their choice. A Framework for K-12 Science Education is the first step in a process that can inform state-level decisions and achieve a research-grounded basis for improving science instruction and learning across the country. The book will guide standards developers, teachers, curriculum designers, assessment developers, state and district science administrators, and educators who teach science in informal environments.

The text includes both classic pieces and original essays that provide the reader with a comprehensive, even-handed sense of the theoretical underpinnings, methodological challenges, and existing research necessary to understand the problems associated with racial and ethnic profiling and police bias.