In this lyrical, exuberant tale, acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak, author of The Island of Missing Trees (a Reese's Book Club Pick), incarnates Rumi's timeless message of love The Forty Rules of Love unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives—one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz—that together explore the enduring power of Rumi's work. Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams's search for Rumi and the dervish's role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams's lessons, or rules, that offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi's story mir­rors her own and that Zahara—like Shams—has come to set her free.

Meditation and Modern Psychology examines meditation from two perspectives: first, from the perspective of religions and philosophies such as Zen, Yoga and from that of the Sufis and Christian mystics; and then from the modern psychologist's point of view -- what is happening neurophysiologically during and after meditation? By looking at meditation from both points of view, Ornstein produces a modern scientific synthesis - one sympathetic to the practice of meditation - enabling the reader to appreciate and understand meditation as a tool which can lead to a different mode of perception. Robert Ornstein, Ph.D., has written more than twenty books on the brain, mind, and consciousness since the publication of the first edition of this book in 1971. This work emphasizes our urgent need and ability to develop perceptions beyond our human inheritance.

More than ever, the world finds itself faced with common problems that affect most of the planet's population in some way: climate change, poverty, escalating violence, international conflicts, illness. And while an 'us v. them' mentality persists, a growing sense of empathy, of connection, with those in remote parts of the world has caught hold and is spreading. The authors argue that empathy and feelings of kinship with others are necessary to preventing the collapse of civilization. Through a careful examination of how humans must learn to relate to one another to avoid global calamity, they show how empathy can help to create a sustainable society of many billions of individuals.

Robert Ornstein and Paul Ehrlich explain that we are causing our own problems because we have created a world where our basic mental functions are no longer suitable. We evolved over a period of millions of years to survive in small tribal families on the wild grassy plains of East Africa. Now the way we live has nothing to do with that time and place, but the mental tools that were developed to survive on the savanna have remained unchanged. These instincts were wonderfully adapted to the environment that shaped them. But that world, the world that made us, is gone. Now these same instincts are causing us to destroy the world that we made. The threats we face are of our own making, and we can unmake them. If people learn how we have come to this point, we can restore our hope for the future. NWNM describes the way our minds have evolved, and offers suggestions for how to cope with who we are in the world we live in now. Recent decades have seen remarkable progress in many areas. For example, while not overlooking the abject suffering of millions of people, it is nonetheless true that there has been unprecedented alleviation of poverty and disease for the world's poorest people. There are so many promising and astonishing advances in medicine, technology, and the social and physical sciences that if we give ourselves a chance to survive, our species could enter a golden age.

This is a book that shows, in simple detail, one of the most startling findings of modern science: We don't experience the world as it is, but as virtual reality. And while much of the latest scientific work demonstrates this, as do many of the classical psychological illusions, it is an important meeting point for students of the mind, brain, philosophy and religion because, as we can now see in light of this book, all these disciplines begin at the same place. This is not an abstruse treatise, but part graphic novel and part direct address. It allows the reader a breakthrough understanding of the mind which is not available anywhere else. It is, in part, a summa of Dr. Ornstein's research and writing of the past 35 years (with pieces and references to many of his works) as well as a seminal introduction to new readers.