Tamara Park and a couple of friends flew to Rome and from there followed the footsteps of Helena, mother of the first Christian emperor of ancient Rome, on a meandering path to Jerusalem. Along the way, she sat on all sorts of benches and talked with all sorts of people about how they thought of God. This book is that story.

"Sacred Encounters with Jesus" is a discerning account of how Jesus heals and transforms people today just as He ministered to His disciples. Readers will enter into the miraculous experiences of a terminally ill girl who was healed by Jesus' touch and of a woman who touched Jesus as He knelt beside her and prayed. These experiences raise the possibility that only some people will readily accept: that Jesus can be experienced as directly and as personally today as when He walked the earth 2,000 years ago.

Drawing on narrative, postmodern, and other therapeutic perspectives, this book guides therapists in exploring the creative and healing possibilities in clients' spiritual and religious experience. Vivid personal accounts and dialogues bring to life the ways spirituality may influence the stories told in therapy, the language and metaphors used, and the meanings brought to key relationships and events. Applications are discussed for a wide variety of clinical situations, including helping people resolve relationship problems, manage psychiatric symptoms, and cope with medical illnesses.

Sacred Encounters is the culmination of 13 years of research bringing together the psychology of close encounters, spiritual experience, and ultimately enlightenment. Already the current surge of "subtle realm" encounters has unveiled the hidden dimension that surrounds us the realm of angels and aliens. Yet few Westerners realize that the same "enlightened"gurus enshrined in ancient lineages communicate with otherworldly beings. Sacred Encounters reveals starling evidence establishing this connection within Sufi, Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Dr. Janet Elizabeth Colli believes that those among us who sense the subtle realms herald a critical stage in human evolution. Subtle realm experiences are ushering in an era when close encounters, non-local (instantaneous) travel and communication will be unexceptional. Sacred Encounters prepares the modern world for our next evolutionary leap. Sacred Encounters presents psychological research and case studies, such as "Hayley," who demonstrates the transition from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to Interspecies Communicator. Trace her developmental process as she learns to transform her terror into love. Discover the pivotal role so-called aliens are playing in the transformation of human consciousness from those who are living it, firsthand. Praise for Sacred Encounters "A transfixing exploration of the human side of alien encounters. Entering into the storied lives of two life-long ´experiencers´ of alien contact, journeying from Dharamsala to the mists of Seattle, Dr. Colli discovers that the most important lesson for humankind comes not from the beyond but from within the heart; that compassion is the foundation for understanding even the most ´alien´ of experiences." Will Bueche, Communications & Media Director, Program for Extraordinary Experience Research (PEER), Founded by Harvard Professor of Psychiatry, John Mack, M.D. "Sacred Encounters is a remarkable and well-written study of alien encounters. Dr. Janet Colli, a major and well-published researcher, presents a gripping account of her investigations into alien phenomena. This book is a vivid reminder that what we don´t know about the universe far exceeds what we do know. Sacred Encounters is highly recommended reading for anyone interested in alien encounters or spiritual exploration." Jeffrey Long, M.D., Founder of Near Death Experience Research Foundation (www.nderf.org)

The biblical encounter between the Virgin Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, before the births of Jesus and John the Baptist, is at the heart of Gifts of the Visitation by popular speaker and syndicated columnist Denise Bossert. She uses their story to highlight nine gifts experienced by both women as they awaited the arrival of their sons and to encourage readers to develop these gifts themselves. In her debut book, speaker, columnist, and Catholic convert Denise Bossert showcases the seasons of birth, grief, newness, and challenge experienced in the hearts of Mary and Elizabeth at the Visitation and invites readers to see these times in their own lives as opportunities to let God make all things new. Within each of those seasons, nine gifts emerge—spontaneity, courage, joy, readiness, humility, adventure, hospitality, wonder and awe, and thanksgiving—equipping readers to present Christ to the world as Mary and Elizabeth did. Bossert's encounter with Mary, which led her to Catholicism, serves as the window for discovering and exploring the gifts and helps readers look inside their own hearts to discover what the gifts of the visit between Mary and Elizabeth mean to them and how they can be Christ-bearers to others.

Hearing from God is extraordinary. But the circumstances He uses to reveal Himself may be more ordinary than we think. Neighbors and Wise Men introduces captivating dialogues and unexpected moments with God that go beyond the confines of a conventional religious system and offer the chance for powerful life transformation. Get to know Tony Kriz (known by many as "Tony the Beat Poet" in Donald Miller's best-selling book Blue Like Jazz) through his real-life conversations and experiences that prove that God can and will use anyone and anything— from Muslim lands to antireligious academics to post-Christian cultures—to make Himself known. Through his own prodigal-son backstory and return to faith, Tony presents biblical truth in a conversational, but bold light that offers readers the courage to open their eyes to the unlikely encounters that are all around us every day; chance run-ins that turn out to be anything but chance. Have we limited God's ability to speak in our world today? Have we relegated God's creative voice to the select persons who share our particular religious system? Kriz himself felt like he was falling out of faith until non-Christians encouraged him to "fall toward Christ."