One woman's extraordinary journey from a life of physical and emotional pain to health and wholeness This book is about the divine personal journey from the darkness into the light, and the collective journey we have undertaken as human beings, incarnated on earth at this spectacular moment of transformation, to move out of the separation consciousness that keeps us locked into patterns of conflict, suffering, and destructive behavior. The author takes us through her troubled, tumultuous childhood in a deeply religious family who believed her extraordinary intuitive gifts to be the work of the devil. As she struggled to adapt to a world in which she felt completely alien, her desire for self-preservation and acceptance led her to actively suppress these gifts. The result was a great deal of suffering, including chronic migraines that regularly put her in the hospital, severe physical illness that nearly killed her, persistent, dark visions of tragedies she could not prevent, and countless sexual traumas and abuses that seemed to define every relationship in her formative years. This led to a deep distrust and fear of others, incredible self-doubt and loathing, and ultimately, a very dark depression. Finally, an encounter with a divinely gifted healer reawakened her gifts and taught her how to truly free herself from her trauma and experience a life she loves, invulnerable to programming, fear, shame, or external influences. The author’s experience serves both as loving encouragement for all those suffering under the current reality, and as a practical guide for reclaiming your sovereign soul, discovering your true purpose, and finding the courage to pursue it fearlessly.

This volume contains several presentations of new Manichaean source materials and provocative essays upon them. The studies are authored by an international group of leading scholars in the fields of ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern studies, comparative religion, early Christianity, patristics, Turkic studies, and Coptology. Throughout the book the studies present and discuss a variety of source materials representing the vast geographical spread of Manichaeism. This book should prove to be foundational for future research on Manichaeism and late antique religions in general.

“A luminous, moving and visual record of fleeting moments of connection.” —New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice A visionary work of radical empathy. Known for immersion journalism that is more immersed than most people are willing to go, and for a prose style that is somehow both fierce and soulful, Jeff Sharlet dives deep into the darkness around us and awaiting us. This work began when his father had a heart attack; two years later, Jeff, still in his forties, had a heart attack of his own. In the grip of writerly self-doubt, Jeff turned to images, taking snapshots and posting them on Instagram, writing short, true stories that bloomed into documentary. During those two years, he spent a lot of time on the road: meeting strangers working night shifts as he drove through the mountains to see his father; exploring the life and death of Charley Keunang, a once-aspiring actor shot by the police on LA’s Skid Row; documenting gay pride amidst the violent homophobia of Putin’s Russia; passing time with homeless teen addicts in Dublin; and accompanying a lonely woman, whose only friend was a houseplant, on shopping trips. Early readers have called this book “incantatory,” the voice “prophetic,” in “James Agee’s tradition of looking at the reality of American lives.” Defined by insomnia and late-night driving and the companionship of other darkness-dwellers—night bakers and last-call drinkers, frightened people and frightening people, the homeless, the lost (or merely disoriented), and other people on the margins—This Brilliant Darkness erases the boundaries between author, subject, and reader to ask: how do people live with suffering?

SYNOPSIS: Linda Phillips followed the light and found her joy after emerging from the overwhelming darkness of losing her son to suicide following a lifelong struggle with severe depression. In the decades since, the state of mental health care has declined. In this tender retelling of the most painful experience of her life, Phillips not only gives raw insight into the reeling effects of suicide on her family and herself, she examines the process that helped her regain herself in the aftermath. Her insights offer a hopeful, effective solution. A very simple idea that can be initiated by any passionate, caring person. In this case, the focus is on musicians and the creative community as well as the community at large. It's called Nuçi's Space.

This collection, based on papers from the 4th International Family Violence Research Conference, call for a collaborative approach to the study of family violence and examine theory, methodology, assessment, interventions and ethical concerns related to both child and wife abuse.

Ralph Peters' Darkness at Chancellorsville is a novel of one of the most dramatic battles in American history, from the New York Times bestselling, three-time Boyd Award-winning author of the Battle Hymn Cycle. Centered upon one of the most surprising and dramatic battles in American history, Darkness at Chancellorsville recreates what began as a brilliant, triumphant campaign for the Union—only to end in disaster for the North. Famed Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson bring off an against-all-odds surprise victory, humiliating a Yankee force three times the size of their own, while the Northern army is torn by rivalries, anti-immigrant prejudice and selfish ambition. This historically accurate epic captures the high drama, human complexity and existential threat that nearly tore the United States in two, featuring a broad range of fascinating—and real—characters, in blue and gray, who sum to an untold story about a battle that has attained mythic proportions. And, in the end, the Confederate triumph proved a Pyrrhic victory, since it lured Lee to embark on what would become the war's turning point—the Gettysburg Campaign (featured in Cain At Gettysburg). At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.