Basic Book Recommendations

I had a call from a young woman in Texas the other day.  She lives in a small, very Baptist town where there are only Christian bookstores.  Yet she hungers to learn more about spirituality than is dreamt of in her community.  She ordered a deck of Psycards, but also asked my advice—what books would I recommend to her? 

Of course, there are many, many good books on all sorts of spirituality.  So I can only recommend based on personal experience.  Over the years, there have been a few books that—for me, at least—were life-changing.  

 

The first book I recommend anyone read—regardless of their specific spiritual nature—is Shakti Gawain’s Creative Visualization.  It’s probably in its gazillionth printing by now, but I first read it in the 1980s.  This is the finest book I have read about creating the life you desire.  It is practical, offers specific meditations (I learned that I could meditate and read at the same time!), and advice on how to manifest your greatest good in the world.

 

The second book I recommend everyone read—read it at the same time, if you will—is Melitta & Denning’s book Psychic Self-Defense, published by Llewellyn.  This book teaching you how to fortify your aura, how to deflect negativity, how to keep others from sucking your energy (even when they don’t mean to), and how to understand and use the various energies of the aura and the chakras.  Basic, how-to, instruction manual for your energy field.  The information in this book will help protect you in all your spiritual practices and help keep you balanced and grounded.

If I were to teach a six- or eight-week course in intuitive development, I would start by having my students read these two books.  Then we could all go get an aura photograph, so we could see our own energy fields—and that would lay the ground work for us to explore color, light, energy, stones, healing, etc.

 

And when you are ready to develop your own healing abilities, there is The Psychic Healing Book by Amy Wallace and Bill Henkin.  Again, very practical, hands-on, solid, usable advice. 

These three, when well-studied, will give any seeker of Truth a solid foundation upon which to build subsequent study and experience.

 

But there is one more I MUST recommend.  That is a little-known book written in the early 20^th century by Florence Scovel Shinn:  The Game of Life.  This book contains all the principles expanded upon by subsequent self-development authors like Shakti Gawain and Wayne Dyer and even Deepak Chopra (although Chopra brings a union of eastern and western though together in the most compatible way).  It was through Shinn’s book that I was able to finally and fully merge my early Christian teachings about Jesus with my New-Age/shamanic/direct revelatory spiritual path.  Sometimes it is just about finding the right words to turn the key in your mind.  Because of The Game of Life, I can now fully embrace my woo-woo from all directions.  (A special thank-you to Frank Slagle of the Mystic Forest bookstore in Mountain Home, Arkansas, for his recommendation of Shinn’s writings. I would publish a link, but Frank doesn't have a web site.)

There will be more books to recommend as we go.  I also publish a book review blog on my web site:  www.cattfoy.com.  If you have written a book that you would like me to consider for review, please send it and any promotional information to Catt Foy, P.O. Box 4225, Davenport, IA  52808.  I can't promise I'll review every book I receive, but as I read them and find them salient, I will post the reviews for all the world to see.