This book invites readers on a journey rich in images, thoughts, musings, and inner dialogues. Spiritual, psychological, and ecological themes are explored in ways that reveal infinite vistas of possibility. Part oracle, part muse, this book inspires vision and originality, allowing readers to create, define, and live their own personal mythology.

This is a book to be experienced, not simply read. The Alchemy of Becoming series sets out a methodology that empowers you to raise your level of consciousness to levels never imagined possible. The first book and level of this process, Being of Truth, laid a foundation of authenticity and personal truth. In this second installment, Being of Love, the journey continues as you discover that love is not just a feeling or emotion but rather a powerful, life-enhancing and life-creating force. Level 1 reframed fear to trust. In Level 2, love is claimed over and beyond fear. This is transformation. Not just inspiration, but transformation to a state of higher consciousness available to us all. Einstein claimed that no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. It is only in higher consciousness that the intractable issues of our times can be addressed. This applies equally to our individual lives be it our health, relationships, and to our sense of worth and well-being. Higher consciousness takes you from life happening to you, to life happening by you and expressed as you. The seven-stage alchemic process is the framework for transformation and while the process is universal, no two people will have the same experience. The experience is personalized to you, meaning that it is aligned to your unique vibrational makeup. This is a powerful, affirming aspect of this methodology as what is revealed to you can only be known by you. It all starts with you. Transforming yourself to be the alchemist of your own life while serving as a gateway for the change our world so desperately needs.

Koji Alchemy guides readers through the history and diverse application of koji, the microbe behind the delicious, umami flavors of soy sauce, miso, mirin, and so much more. Devoted authors Jeremy Umansky and Rich Shih share processes, concepts, and recipes for fermenting and culturing foods with this magical ingredient. Then they take it to the next level by describing how they rapidly age charcuterie, cheese, and other ferments, revolutionizing the creation of fermented foods and their flavor profiles for both chefs and home cooks. Readers will learn how to grow koji, including information on equipment and setting up your kitchen, as well as detailed concepts and processes for making amino sauces and pastes, alcohol and vinegar, and using it for flavor enhancement with dairy, eggs, vegetables, and baking. With the added tips and expertise from their friends, Umansky and Shih have developed a comprehensive look at modern koji use around the world.

A “timely, informative, and fascinating” study of 8 inventions—and how they shaped our world—with “totally compelling” insights on little-known inventors throughout history (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction) In The Alchemy of Us, scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez examines 8 inventions and reveals how they shaped the human experience: • Clocks • Steel rails • Copper communication cables • Photographic film • Light bulbs • Hard disks • Scientific labware • Silicon chips Ramirez tells the stories of the woman who sold time, the inventor who inspired Edison, and the hotheaded undertaker whose invention pointed the way to the computer. She describes how our pursuit of precision in timepieces changed how we sleep; how the railroad helped commercialize Christmas; how the necessary brevity of the telegram influenced Hemingway’s writing style; and how a young chemist exposed the use of Polaroid’s cameras to create passbooks to track black citizens in apartheid South Africa. These fascinating and inspiring stories offer new perspectives on our relationships with technologies. Ramirez shows not only how materials were shaped by inventors but also how those materials shaped culture, chronicling each invention and its consequences—intended and unintended. Filling in the gaps left by other books about technology, Ramirez showcases little-known inventors—particularly people of color and women—who had a significant impact but whose accomplishments have been hidden by mythmaking, bias, and convention. Doing so, she shows us the power of telling inclusive stories about technology. She also shows that innovation is universal—whether it's splicing beats with two turntables and a microphone or splicing genes with two test tubes and CRISPR.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Zookeeper's Wife, an ambitious and enlightening work that combines an artist's eye with a scientist's erudition to illuminate, as never before, the magic and mysteries of the human mind. Long treasured by literary readers for her uncommon ability to bridge the gap between art and science, celebrated scholar-artist Diane Ackerman returns with the book she was born to write. Her dazzling new work, An Alchemy of Mind, offers an unprecedented exploration and celebration of the mental fantasia in which we spend our days—and does for the human mind what the bestselling A Natural History of the Senses did for the physical senses. Bringing a valuable female perspective to the topic, Diane Ackerman discusses the science of the brain as only she can: with gorgeous, immediate language and imagery that paint an unusually lucid and vibrant picture for the reader. And in addition to explaining memory, thought, emotion, dreams, and language acquisition, she reports on the latest discoveries in neuroscience and addresses controversial subjects like the effects of trauma and male versus female brains. In prose that is not simply accessible but also beautiful and electric, Ackerman distills the hard, objective truths of science in order to yield vivid, heavily anecdotal explanations about a range of existential questions regarding consciousness, human thought, memory, and the nature of identity.

The Age of the Discovery of the Americas was concurrent with the Age of Discovery in science. In The Alchemy of Conquest, Ralph Bauer explores the historical relationship between the two, focusing on the connections between religion and science in the Spanish, English, and French literatures about the Americas during the early modern period. As sailors, conquerors, travelers, and missionaries were exploring "new worlds," and claiming ownership of them, early modern men of science redefined what it means to "discover" something. Bauer explores the role that the verbal, conceptual, and visual language of alchemy played in the literature of the discovery of the Americas and in the rise of an early modern paradigm of discovery in both science and international law. The book traces the intellectual and spiritual legacies of late medieval alchemists such as Roger Bacon, Arnald of Villanova, and Ramon Llull in the early modern literature of the conquest of America in texts written by authors such as Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, José de Acosta, Nicolás Monardes, Walter Raleigh, Thomas Harriot, Francis Bacon, and Alexander von Humboldt.

The dramatic effects of downsizing, mergers, and reengineering have created a climate of fear in the workplace, fears that generally go unacknowledged. The Alchemy of Fear teaches us how to accept our emotions in order to become empowered and to take back our power over these fears. Our emotions are rich with information which could make our organizations run effectively, while freeing creativity, energy, and joy into our workplaces. The Alchemy of Fear is a handbook for action. Drawn from the author's extensive experience, it examines workplace fear, what emotional competence looks like at work, how we handle fears at work, and the love and energy that result when we do these things. Nothing improves a group's effectiveness or their spirit more quickly than changing the relationship members have with fear. Kay Gilley brings nearly 30 years experience working in general and human resource management to her current work as a leadership and organizational development consultant, specializing in guiding the development of leaders and what she calls "intentional organizations."