Books published by Attar Books

Learning Who You Are offers a contemporary take on the age-old questions of who we are and why we are here. The book builds on current scientific knowledge to show how the physical and spiritual realms are interlinked. It does this by presenting a number of innovative models and conceptual frameworks that mesh with twenty-first century understanding. The book also discusses the process of validating these models and concepts empirically, through observation, and explains how meditation may be used to expand vision within and beyond the everyday self. Throughout, the emphasis is on practical processes, focused on the here and now, yet which have the potential to open a doorway into the beyond.All this is explored using an open-ended, experimental approach that challenges the rigid dichotomies of the past, such as the mundane many vs the enlightened few, and the profane human vs the sacred divine. Historically, the notion of divinity has erected a barrier between humanity and the spiritual realm, which signals that whatever happens in the spiritual dimension is distant and so must remain an unfathomable mystery. Learning Who You Are alternatively, and controversially, asserts that the spiritual domain is not divine; individual human spirits, enlightened or otherwise, are not special; and the spiritual is neither distant nor unfathomable.The absence of divinity means no Divine Being is pushing or pulling any of us during the course of our lives. So understanding the fundamental nature of our existence doesn't depend on divine decree or sacred revelation. We are already spiritual, hence appreciating the spiritual bases of our existence may be achieved straightforwardly-should we wish to do so, and be willing to make the effort required to discern them.Learning Who You Are offers the spiritually inquisitive and adventurous a unique, contemporary perspective on what it is to be human, and what may be achieved while living on this often perplexing planet.

I always maintained he would amount to something. Thank goodness I never put money on it. - Aunt JoanStrength: Looks good in uniform. Weakness: Not inclined to study. Potential career: Flight attendent. More likely: Carrying sandwichboard outside local pizzeria. - Year Eight School ReportEvery time he posts honking geese rise into the sky. - Asuka (#instapoetfav)New Zealand literature has no one like him. Always surprising,a genuine original. - Roger HorrocksIs this book ticking? - Receptionist, Ministry for CultureQUESTIONS FOR TODAYWhen your house is lapped by water due to sea level rise should backstroke or breaststroke be preferred?People say education is wasted on the young but isn't it foisted on them because no one else wants it?If computer chips double capacity every 18 months why do we \still use combustion engines invented 200 years ago?When discussing big issues do people prefer to shoot from their hip because it's closest to their arse?Does your left hand only start telling your right hand what it is doing when both are tied behind your back?Write your answers on a postcard and toss it without ceremony into the void.

When Peter Calvert gathered a small group of meditators and set them the task of opening their minds to whoever arrived, he didn't anticipate the astonishing encounters that would result. Two situation rapidly emerged.The first was that the meditators discovered a small percentage of people become confused after death. Lost in a transitional zone, they need guidance to move on to the next phase of their existence. This book offers a selection from the many rescues the meditators performed.The second situation was profoundly troubling. In a series of vexed visits, nature spirits pleaded with the meditators to share an urgent message with humanity regarding the dire state of the planet's ecosystems, which have reached a point of crisis.Spirits have long been viewed as meddling or dangerous. People of the Earth shows this assumption is incorrect. The book offers a new perspective on spirits, indicating their diversity, their differing functions and perspectives, and suggests how they may be categorised. Through a sequence of intriguing dialogues between the meditators and visiting non-embodied beings, People of the Earth provides sobering insights to those who seek to understand what is required of us spiritually to sustain the health of the planet's ecosystems.

2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Best Book Finalist2020 Ashton Wylie Best Mind, Body, Spirit Book Awards: Best Book FinalistLights with no apparent source, heating her back while she walks along a riverbank, initiate American anthropologist Judith Hoch into a decades-long process of spiritual renewal. In this vividly written memoir, Judith describes what happens when she and her husband struggle to restore newly-purchased New Zealand land to native forest. It quickly becomes a spiritual as well as ecological task-and proves far more difficult than she ever anticipated. In a rare meeting of the Afro-Cuban Lucumi and Aotearoa M¿ori cultures, Judith uses skills learned as a student of Orisha divination and mediumship to delve into the tragic events that historically impacted the land as she seeks a way to heal it. Guided by her Miami-based padrino, Ernesto Picardo, and working with her Waitaha M¿ori friend, Aroha Ropata, Judith connects with the land's ancestors and the spiritual forces required for her ecological efforts to succeed.

2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Best Book Finalist2020 Ashton Wylie Best Mind, Body, Spirit Book Awards: Best Book FinalistEach of us is a conscious individual living in the world. Most daily experiences are predictable and humdrum. Occasionally we have a deliciously or shockingly intense experience. Very occasionally we have a profound experience that leads us to change our life. Then there are marginal experiences so bizarre we have difficulty understanding what occurred. The Lantern In The Skull explores a selection of these unsettling yet intriguing experiences. A camera previously in perfect working order, which inexplicably won't photograph a fetish in an African village chief's basement, provides the first stop on Hugh Major's engaging survey. Using his own experiences as a springboard, he considers telepathy, psychic perceptions, psychedelic insights, artistic transports, near death experiences, and much else. Human consciousness is sufficiently elastic to accommodate all these experiences. Yet the nature of consciousness itself is a conundrum, and the evidence for marginal experiences remains contentious. Hugh Major provides a timely snapshot of current research into "marginal zones of the extraordinary". In precise, jargon-free language, he indicates the territory being explored and outlines major directions researchers are travelling. There are numerous captivating, and surprising, discoveries along the way.

Why are we the person we are? Why did someone significant enter our life at the precise moment they did? How is it we're naturally attracted to certain people, situations, work, opportunities and not others? Why are we living this life and not another life with different people? And where does God and our spiritual identity fit into it all?Our life seems to be an enigma impossible to unravel. We feel we're living behind a veil, suspecting something more is going on but knowing we're not in on whatever it is. Yet what if there ismore to us being here? What if we canidentify the influences that shape the path our life takes? And what if we areinvolved in the selection of those influences?In this, the third book in a channelled series, discarnate guides illuminate the deep aspects of our exist­ence:"When you are born no one knows where precisely your life will lead. There is a plan, but no one either on Earth or in the spiritual realm knows how much of the plan will be realised in a particular life. That is the reason each life keeps everyone involved on their toes. That is the wonder of incarnation. That is its mystery. It is because people are aware a mystery beats at the heart of their life that they question their existence. We say this because, like you, we have lived many lives and so are speaking from experience when we say it is common for people to feel that a veil hides the deepest aspects of their life. Our perspective is that by closely examining your life, by looking behind the daily flow of what is happening, it is possible for you to lift the veil, shine a light into the mysterious heart of your existence, and identify the contours of your life as you intended it to be."

';The particular form of meditation is unimportant. Some people sit, others stand, walk, sing or sway rhythmically; different cultures and traditions have different practices. What is important is that the meditator attains a focused inner state in which the external world is shut out and the mind is directed to pay attention to subtle communications. That such a state is attained and sustained is what matters. How such a state is achieved does not matter.'Author Keith Hill questions discarnate guides about how meditation can be used for spiritual discovery. In their answers the guides consider current approaches, extending them in often startling ways. In particular, where meditators have traditionally focused on silencing the chattering mind, disconnecting from the stresses of everyday life, and merging with the ground of being, the guides discuss how meditation may be used to access non-everyday information and help awareness travel beyond standard human perceptual boundaries. They also provide fresh insights into the relationship between the spiritual, energetic and psychological levels of perception, and the inter-dimensional nature of human awareness.Topics include:*; How meditation provides access to the spiritual realm*; The roles of energy and intention in meditation practice*; How to develop sensitivity to subtle communications*; What people perceive during visions of saints and angels*; The attitudes of mind required for a successful meditation practice*; What to be wary of when spending time in heightened states*; Fear and how it inhibits the exploration of non-ordinary states*; How energetic rebalancing helps supports meditation practice*; The nature of the Akashic Records and the information they contain*; Meditation's contribution to humanity's possible future evolution

Like much in the modern world, mysticism is undergoing a fundamental change. Evidence-based approaches are replacing traditional religious outlooks while also challenging the scientific materialist worldview. Keith Hill engagingly situates this transformation into its cultural and historical context, showing the new ways reality is being explored.