New Releases [music + books]

WITHIN YOU WITHOUT YOU, by Gary Stroutsos with special guest David Lanz (CD recording), White Swan Records, 9 tracks, 63:25 minutes, $16.98, listen: http://tinyurl.com/stroutsos
When George Harrison’s song “Within You Without You” made its debut on the classic Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, few people knew that it was originally composed as a 30-minute classical Indian raga. In tribute to Harrison, woodwind master Gary Stroutsos opens his newest album, Within You Without You, with a stunning raga-length interpretation of the timeless classic, and breathes a vibrant stillness into songs steeped in reverence for his lush Pacific Northwest home and global flute tradition. Stroutsos’ suite of Zen-quiet tone poems, jazzed with Chinese flutes, cello, percussion and koto (Japanese stringed instrument), attest to the depth of still waters. Within You Without You is perfect for meditation, relaxation, and bodywork.

CADUCEUS: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE SPIRITUALITY OF MAN, by Robert Hamilton (paperback), Apollo Publications, $19.99, 251 pages, www.thelightattheendofthetunnel.net
Caduceus is a unique spiritual text for a new era. Unique in character as Hamilton bases this text on fact and best evidence from a variety of sources which transcends the globe and its religions. After posing difficult questions to the “scientific fraternity,” Caduceus opens the mind with anomalies in ancient histories and thereafter reveals details of a specific and profound subjective experience. This “illuminating” occurrence is evidenced in many ancient spiritual and religious texts and several philosophical works. Indeed it has been experienced, spoken or written of by some of the greatest minds in history such as Plato, Nietzsche, Jung and by many others, but moreover by the initiators of our religious and spiritual movements. With this preponderance of evidence, how has this experience remained unacknowledged by so many and for as long? Hamilton cites this very specific experience as being at the emergence of our religions, at the very foundations of our spiritual thought and therefore the codes by which we live today. It has pervaded our lives and our existence yet we know little of this experience and of the global unifying potential it affords. Furthermore evidence is provided pertaining to the remarkable and perplexing parallels of this experience to that of the “near-death experience.” What does this all mean? You let the evidence decide.

THE ENNEAGRAM OF PASSIONS AND VIRTUES: FINDING THE WAY HOME, by Sandra Maitri (paperback), Tarcher/Penguin, $16.95, 231 pages, www.sandramaitri.com
From the popular author of The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram comes the illuminating title that explores the human experience beyond the personality. In The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues, Sandra Maitri demonstrates how the ancient and multidimensional nine-pointed symbol elucidates the most intractable pitfalls of our psyches, and yet can lead us to our highest qualities. In this, her second book on the enneagram, Maitri shows how this ancient symbol can be used as a tool for inner transformation. Drawing on her decades of intensive study (Maitri was a member of the first group of U.S. students to learn the enneagram from Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo), Maitri develops a detailed explanation of how the enneagram maps the heart, and how one can utilize this map to navigate the spiritual journey to self-understanding.

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