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How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie

2009-03-15T00:42:00.000-07:00

Dale Carnegie

This grandfather of all people-skills books was first published in 1937. It was an overnight hit, eventually selling 15 million copies. How to Win Friends and Influence People is just as useful today as it was when it was first published, because Dale Carnegie had an understanding of human nature that will never be outdated. Financial success, Carnegie believed, is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to "the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people." He teaches these skills through underlying principles of dealing with people so that they feel important and appreciated. He also emphasizes fundamental techniques for handling people without making them feel manipulated. Carnegie says you can make someone want to do what you want them to by seeing the situation from the other person’s point of view and "arousing in the other person an eager want." You learn how to make people like you, win people over to your way of thinking, and change people without causing offense or arousing resentment. For instance, "let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers," and "talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person." Carnegie illustrates his points with anecdotes of historical figures, leaders of the business world, and everyday folks

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Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

2009-03-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Napolean hill

Think and Grow Rich! is a motivational book written by Napoleon Hill and inspired by a suggestion by Scottish-American billionaire Andrew Carnegie. It was published in 1937 at the end of the Great Depression. It was the biggest seller of Napoleon Hill's books, selling a claimed 20 million copies over the next 50 years (although Alice Payne Hackett's 70 Years of Best Sellers

suggests the figure was considerably lower).

The text of Think and Grow Rich! is founded on Hill's earlier work, The Law of Success, the result of more than twenty years of research based on Hill's close association with a large number of individuals who achieved great wealth during their lifetimes.

At Andrew Carnegie's bidding, Hill studied the characteristics of these achievers and developed 15 "laws" of success intended to be applied by anybody to achieve success. Think and Grow Rich! condenses these laws further and provides the reader with 13 principles in the form of a philosophy of personal achievement.

Reflected in these principles is the importance of cultivating a burning desire, faith, autosuggestion, and persistence in the attainment of one's goals. Hill also discusses the importance of overcoming many of the common fears that can adversely affect one's thinking and potential

In his introduction, Hill refers to the "Carnegie Secret", promising in the foreword that every chapter will indirectly describe the secret. He states that the secret is only available to those who possess a "readiness" for it; Hill explains that a readiness in the individual is essential to the meaning of the secret.

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The Interpretation of Dreams and the power of subconscious mind( From akash marathakam's homepage)

2008-12-26T23:49:00.000-08:00

The Interpretation of Dreams is a book by Sigmund Freud. The first edition was first published in German in November 1899 as Die Traumdeutung (though post-dated as 1900 by the publisher). The publication inaugurated the theory of Freudian dream analysis, which activity Freud famously described as "the royal road to the understanding of unconscious mental processes".
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The Power of Subconscious mind

The Higher Self is a source of positive thoughts and positive energy. The Chatterbox is the part of us that tries to drive us crazy. The Conscious Mind sends orders to the Subconscious Mind based on the information it gets from either the Higher Self or the Chatterbox. The Subconscious Mind does not question or judge.For an article on "The Power of Subconscious mind" visit akash marathakam's homepage

Free Inspirational and Motivational Books by James Allen

2008-12-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

James Allen (28 November 1864 in Leicester, England – 1912) was a philosophical writer of British nationality known for his inspirational books and poetry.
Allen was 15 when his father, a businessman, was robbed and murdered. He left school to work full-time in several British manufacturing firms to help support the family. He later married Lily L. Allen and became an executive secretary for a large company. At age 38, inspired by the writings of Leo Tolstoy, he retired from employment. Allen — along with his wife and their daughter, Nohra — moved to a small cottage in Ilfracombe, Devon, England to pursue a simple life of contemplation. There he wrote for nine years, producing 19 works. He also edited and published a magazine, "The Light of Reason".

Allen's books illustrate the use of the power of thought to increase personal capabilities. Although he never achieved great fame or wealth, his works continue to influence people around the world, including the New Thought movement.

Allen's most famous book, As a Man Thinketh, was published in 1902. It is now considered a classic self-help book. Its underlying premise is that noble thoughts make a noble person, while lowly thoughts make a miserable person.

Following his death in 1912, his wife continued publishing the magazine under the name, "The Epoch".

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As A Man Thinketh - James Allen
The Path of Prosperity - James Allen
The Way of Peace - James Allen
Book of Daily Meditations - James Allen
From Poverty To Power - James Allen
Morning and Evening Thoughts - James Allen
Sobre La Agitacion De La Vida - James Allen

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DEEPAK CHOPRA - book downloads

2008-10-11T01:03:00.000-07:00

(1)

DO YOU NEED TO LOVE AND BE LOVED? In this groundbreaking and helpful book, influential teacher and physician, Deepak Chopra, explores how our hearts have lost their centre and why love so often falls short of filling a deep, aching need within us. He also explains how we can rediscover the love we long for, one which is rich and meaningful, satisfying and lasting â€“ by restoring to love its missing element: spiritually. In presenting the long-forgotten, timeless laws of love, together with practical suggestions for bringing them to fruition, Deepak Chopra shows us how to transform our lives for ever and the lives of those whom we love.

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(2)
Fulfilling Your Dreams with the
Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

By Deepak Chopra, M.D.

There are many aspects to success; material wealth is only one component. Moreover, success is a journey, not a destination. Material abundance, in all its expressions, happens to be one of those things that makes the journey more enjoyable. But success also includes good health, energy and enthusiasm for life, fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, emotional and psychological stability, a sense of well-being and peace of mind. Even with the experience of all these things, we will remain unfulfilled unless we nurture the seeds of divinity inside us. In reality, we are divinity in disguise, and the gods and goddesses in embryo that are contained within us seek to be fully materialized. Although I call the laws I'm about to discuss The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, they could easily be called The Seven Spiritual Laws of Life. This is because they are the same principles that nature uses to create everything in material existence--everything we can see, hear, smell, taste or touch.

Now let's go over The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and see how we can apply them in our lives.

...............

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Robin Sharma

2008-08-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

Robin Sharma (born 1965) is an author of several internationally published books, and an expert on leadership and personality development.

His most famous book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, which is told like a fable, has been published in dozens of countries in dozens of languages.^[1]

Other publications include:

Who Will Cry When You Die?
Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
Discover Your Destiny With The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
The Greatness Guide: Powerful secrets of getting to World Class
Discover Your Destiny
The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO
Mega Living!

Sharma holds 2 law degrees including a Masters of Law and has had a distinguished career as a litigation lawyer. He is the CEO of Sharma Leadership International Inc., a global training firm whose clients include GE, Nike, FedEx, NASA, Unilever, Microsoft, BP, IBM, The Harvard Business School and Yale University ^[2].

In 2008, Sharma was awarded the number 2 rank on the international Leadership Gurus survey right after John C. Maxwell in the number 1 spot. The “Leadership Gurus 30” award, by Global Gurus International identifies the top Leadership professionals in the world by merit and public voting. This is the second year in a row that Sharma has been in the top 10.

Here is his book collection:

The megaliving(click to download)
The monk who sold his ferrari(click to download)

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Paulo Coelho( free book download)

2008-08-02T05:27:00.000-07:00

Paulo Coelho

The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist.

Coelho wrote song lyrics for many famous performers in Brazilian music, such as Elis Regina and Rita Lee. Yet his most well known work has been done with Raul Seixas. Together they wrote such successes as Eu nasci há dez mil anos atrás (I was born ten thousand years ago), Gita and Al Capone, amongst other 60 songs.

His fascination with the spiritual quest dates back to his hippie days, when he travelled the world learning about secret societies, oriental religions, etc.

In 1982 Coelho published his first book, Hell Archives, which failed to make any kind of impact. In 1985 he contributed to the Practical Manual of Vampirism, although he later tried to take it off the shelves, since he considered it “of bad quality”. In 1986, PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage.

In the following year, COELHO published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best selling Brazilian books of all time.

Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika decides to die (1998), The Devil and Miss Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for parents, children and grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005)

He also adapted The Gift (Henry Drummond) and Love letters of a prophet (Kalil Gibran).

To date, Coelho has sold a total of 85 million copies and, according to the magazine Publishing Trends; he was the most sold author in the world in 2003 with his book Eleven Minutes – even though at the time it hadn’t been released in the United States, Japan or 10 other countries!

Also according to Publishing Trends, The Alchemist was to be found in the 6th place of world sales in 2003. Eleven Minutes topped all lists in the world, except for England, where it was in second place. The Zahir, published in 2005, was in third place of bestsellers according to Publishing Trends, after Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.

The Alchemist was one of the most important literary phenomena of the 20th century. It reaches the first place in bestselling lists in 18 countries, and so far has sold 30 million copies.

The book has been praised by different personalities ranging from the Nobel Prize Kenzaburo Oe to the singer Madonna, who considers it one of her favourite books. It has equally inspired many projects – such as a musical in Japan, theatre plays in France, Belgium, USA, Turkey, Italy, Switzerland. It is also the theme of two symphonies (Italy and USA) and had its text illustrated by the famous French artist Moebius (author of the sceneries for he Fifth Element and Alien).

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The Alchemist

When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you realize your dream.

Santiago, the hero of the novel, already forms part of a select gallery of illustrious characters and leads us through his story to experience a remarkable adventure.

“When I wrote The Alchemist, I was trying to understand the reason for the existence of life. Instead of writing a philosophical treatise, I decided to converse with the child inside my soul.

To my surprise, this child was living inside millions of people around the world. With this book I wanted to share with my readers the questions which, precisely because they don't have an answer, make life a great adventure”. - Paulo Coelho

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The Zahir

It begins with a glimpse or a passing thought. It ends in obsession .

One day a renowned author discovers that his wife, a war correspondent, has disappeared, leaving no trace. Though time brings more success and new love, he remains mystified – and increasingly fascinated – by her absence. Was she kidnapped, blackmailed, or simply bored with their marriage? The unrest she causes is as strong as the attraction she exerts.

His search for her – and for the truth of his own life – takes him from France to Spain, Croatia and, eventually, the bleakly beautiful landscape of Central Asia. More than that, it takes him from the safety of his world to a totally unknown path, searching for a new understanding of the nature of love and the power of destiny.

With The Zahir, Paulo Coelho demonstrates not just his powerful and captivating storytelling, but also his extraordinary insight into what it is to be a human being in a world full of possibility.

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Maktub

Maktub is a collection of stories, parabolas that don't pretend to constitute an apprenticeship but offer a coloured treasure of fragmented wisdom from different cultures. Those short stories, inspired to the writer by vary different sources and folklores, were born from Paulo Coelho's collaboration with the daily Folha de São Paulo. Coelho selected texts published between June 1993 and June 1994, to offer readers around the world this Maktub, which deepens through the prism of a universal mosaic of oral tradition. According to Paulo Coelho himself, "Maktub is not an advice book, but an exchange of experiences", an excellent occasion to reflect and meet oneself again.

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Dan Brown 's Davimnci code Review and freedownload

2008-08-02T05:18:00.000-07:00

When I purchased this book after the New Year arrived in 2004, I was aware that it was a best seller in 2003 and that millions of people had read it. Until then, I had ignored the reviews and had little idea of the content. Some reviewers early on had said that author Dan Brown’s research was “impeccable.” Brown’s editor continues to stand by his man, saying that Brown made nothing up save the fictional, contemporary story wrapped around sensational religious controversy. Ahem! Pardon me while I clear my throat. After I browsed through the story initially, I realized what I was in for, and why all the ensuing critical flack from art historians, religious scholars, and Catholic apologists. I was about to go on another the-Catholic-Church-has-it-all-wrong, New Age ride. Once upon a time, I would read books like this with curiosity and excitement, wondering what new arcane knowledge the author revealed that the academy, the government, or the Church had kept from the masses and me, the poor lumpen proletariat. As a result, I can still identify with those who find inspiration from The Da Vinci Code, which relates the following tale.

At night in the Louvre Museum in Paris, an albino monk dressed in a hooded cloak shoots a curator in the stomach. The monk, Silas, is a radical numerary member of the ultra-conservative Opus Dei sect of the Catholic Church. He wears a cilice, a thong that cuts flesh, around his thigh, and he flagellates himself bloody as part of a self-purification cult, in accordance with Opus Dei guidelines. Silas works for someone he knows only as “the Teacher,” a wealthy Briton who we later finds out is obsessed with finding the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend. The curator happened to be the leader of a secret sect (the Priory of Sion) that hides and protects the Grail and a cache of ancient manuscripts that could prove Jesus Christ had fathered a child, Sarah, with Mary Magdalene. According to a fringe legend, Mary and her followers, as the true Christians, fled to France and perhaps England to avoid persecution from Peter and the Apostles. Their “secret” and the Jesus bloodline were protected through the centuries via other sects like the Templars. In the novel, a conservative Pope (guess who) has died, and a new, liberal leadership in the Vatican emerges, one that would rescind Opus Dei’s significant status as a prelature. The Teacher, identified at the end as Leigh Teabing, the wealthy Briton, finds a way to manipulate the Vatican and Opus Dei to get his hands on the Holy Grail.

Sir (he is a Knight) "money-is-no-object’" Teabing utilizes the latest in surveillance equipment and extensive research to pin down that the secret about the Grail should have been unveiled, but he does not want to be exposed as the one who forces the secret from the Priory. So he devises an elaborate scheme. He convinces the Opus leader that the Grail secret will indeed be revealed, thus creating a catastrophe for Roman Catholicism and wiping out Opus Dei’s reason for being. The Opus leader, a bishop, has a secret meeting with Vatican officials who now know about the potentially devastating Grail revelation, and they strike a deal. The Vatican pays the Opus leader 20 million euros in Vatican bonds to find the Grail and destroy the evidence. In return, Opus would retain its standing, and the Church could survive. Teabing, however, plans to get the Grail for himself in the end.

Enter Robert Langdon, a well-known Harvard professor of religious studies who specializes in symbolism and arcane wisdom. Langdon is a bachelor described as early middle aged with slightly graying hair, and he wears a tweed jacket. He was in Paris and was to meet with the curator. Langdon had written a manuscript that inadvertently revealed the secret that the curator and only four others held. The elderly and bleeding curator somehow managed to strip off his clothes, then arrange his body according to a famous Leonardo Da Vinci drawing of a naked man in a circle, “the Vitruvian Man.” The curator, Sauniere, also managed to write some symbols in visible and invisible ink and in his blood on and around his body before he expired on the museum floor near the Mona Lisa. Enter Sophie Nevue, a French criminal investigator and code cracker, along with Bezu Fache, the lead French crime investigator. Sophie happens to be the curator’s estranged granddaughter. As a result of the curator’s codes and mysterious anagrams created at the crime scene, Sophie and Robert are drawn in (so to speak) to solve the murder and, later, the Grail mystery (and they fall in love in the end).

Brown chooses character names with symbolic (hidden from the naïve) meaning to add literary spice to his wildly intriguing narrative that moves from Paris and France to the United Kingdom. Other reviewers have revealed most of these, so to repeat all that would be trivial. But I will say that his choice of Sophie Nevue is only too coy—Sophia is not only the Biblical and Greek Wisdom, but also carries weight in Gnostic myth as the goddess who sent/birthed the Christ to us to reveal true Gnosis. Brown’s Sophie ends up as a true daughter of the royal line of Magdalene and Jesus, as the renewed Sophia. I hope I’m not revealing too much in case any of my readers wants only to enjoy this pulp-fiction thriller—a good joke works only when one does not know the punch line.

So, if this is mere fiction, why all the fuss? The book inspired a one-hour, ABC TV news special and rounds of debates, as well as reviews that range from praise to vitriol. I think all the response is because Brown appears to take his thesis seriously: History would be very different had Constantine in 325 CE and the subsequent Roman Church not excluded certain sex rites, equality for females, and Gnostic texts from the Christian canon. Brown’s novel simplistically claims that, under Constantine and the Council of Nicea, at a single stroke Jesus was made divine, and Arius, who argued for Jesus as a human prophet, anathematized. The reality is that the divinity of Christ was never in question among earliest Christians, despite the fringe sects that derived new meanings and wrote contrary texts. Brown takes the premise seriously enough to have done considerable research to bolster the facts that make it appear that the Church really did destroy almost all evidence of the truth about Jesus. Brown’s primary characters explain to Sophie how the Churchmen executed more than 5 million witches (pagans) and suppressed the sacred feminine principle purportedly valued by Leonardo and other initiates of a goddess-based or sun-worshipping pagan cult. Brown does claim at the beginning of the book that “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” Derivative would have been more accurate than accurate.

We do not have to search far to find some of Brown’s sources as he mentions them within the didactic or preachy segments in the plot. I’ll mention a few that stand out: The highly speculative Holy Blood and Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln; The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ, by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince; and The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail, by Margaret Starbird, who publishes under Bear & Co. That Brown would mention these sources tells me he expects to be preaching to choirs that sing either in the superficial feminist wing of the New Age movement or to a secular audience that might believe anything about a Church plagued by controversy anyway. Scholars have found insurmountable flaws in all the books mentioned above. A book not mentioned, Daughter of God, by Lewis Perdue (2000), is close enough in plot and content that there has been some accusation of plagiarism against Brown by Perdue: See http://www.daughter-of-god.com/daughter-davinci.html.

The Perdue book presents a religious professor as the hero; he has a plot that involves arts in Europe and a mysterious, ancient document and shroud that prove there was a female messiah, Sophia, who was murdered around 310 CE by supporters of the Church and King Constantine. Again, if the truth leaks, the Goddess religion will be restored, and the patriarchal Catholic Church and Western civilization as we know it would fall. Perdue documents nearly 30 elements in The Da Vinci Code, including whole speeches that appear to be clearly ripped off from his Daughter of God.

Sandra Miesel, a medievalist, is one of the Catholic critics who, in her article “Dismantling The Da Vinci Code” for Crisis Magazine, September 1, 2003, “dismantles” Brown and his hero Langdon as a scholar. Miesel states, “So error laden is The Da Vinci Code that the educated reader actually applauds those rare occasions where Brown stumbles (despite himself) into the truth.” I will not list the errors she and others have found because you can go search the Worldwide Web anytime. I’ll merely concentrate on a few aspects, including one that intrigued me as an artist who is familiar with Leonardo Da Vinci.

Because the title features this renowned genius, let us see just what Brown claims Leonardo included, albeit secretly, in his paintings and drawings. In Brown’s book, the Mona Lisa is far more esoteric than merely the fine, idealized portrait of the lady La Giaconda. Brown’s character loads androgynous symbolism derived from an interpretation of seeming inconsistencies in the landscape behind the figure. In effect, Brown creates a mockery of Leonardo’s intent as an experimental artist. A pentagram (or star) that appears on the dead curator (drawn in his own blood) indicates to Langdon, the symbolist, that Sophie’s grandfather knew a code Leonardo had used to indicate the sacred feminine eschewed by the Roman Church. Leonardo allegedly inserted, as a kind of subtext, subliminal signals about the “goddess” and the female principle, about sun worship and pagan truths. In my view, Leonardo’s aesthetic use of geometry transcended any mere reference to goddess worship—his was a scientific as well as an aesthetic approach to beauty, not a devious one. Leonardo may not have been the ideal Catholic (Brown’s book relates that he was homosexual), but he certainly was not the conniving occultist described by Brown. According to biographers Antonina Vallentin and Vasari, at the end of his life Leonardo was reconciled with the Catholic Church, took communion, and lamented that “he had offended against God and men by failing to practice his art as he should have done.” In any case, the novel pivots on the pentagram as a feminist marker, and our heroes are off on a whirlwind detective excursion while running for their lives. The French police initially target Langdon as the prime suspect. During their flight from Fache and the police, Langdon and Sophie meet with Leigh Teabing, apparently an ally, at his sumptuous villa, where he shows them a large reproduction of Leonardo’s famous mural, The Last Supper. Wrongly, the novel wants us to believe that the mural represents the moment that Jesus instituted the Eucharist rite, but Leonardo’s work illustrates John 13:21 when Jesus warns, “One of you will betray me.”

Teabing, the Grail expert, points to the lack of a central chalice in the design as proof that the Grail is not a material cup. He goes on, with Langdon’s acquiescence, to point to a “V” shape between an Apostle to Jesus’ right, and Jesus as a symbol of the female. He identifies that apostle as Mary Magdalene, not the Apostle John, who art historians see. Indeed, Leonardo painted John as young and effeminate, but this was a convention that developed before and during the Renaissance. And one has to ask, if that is Mary, where is John? There are only thirteen figures. Teabing also claims that there is a disembodied hand with a knife (next to Judas) while St. Peter is posed with his left hand in a cutting gesture at the purported Mary’s throat. He says that Leonardo wanted to indicate that the Church had cut off Mary Magdalene as the chosen leader of Christ’s church. A transfixed Sophie can only think, “This is the woman who singlehandedly could crumble the Church?” Mary with her bloodline is the Holy Grail, the womb that held the seed of Jesus.

What I see is that Judas obscures Peter in Leonardo’s composition, so that Peter’s right hand appears awkwardly with the knife, but his left is merely resting as a caution on St. John’s shoulder as John leans an ear toward Peter. The composition rests on two “W” shapes that contain four sets of Apostles, with Jesus in a pivotal, central pose. If you want to find feminine V shapes, you can find many, but you can find nary a Mary. Unfortunately, this may be the novel’s weakest lecture, yet it contains the key to the Magdalene/Jesus union around which the entire quest revolves. Brown interprets the evidence in The Last Supper much like an astrologer interprets a horoscope for a client. I once studied astrology and could cast a horoscope in any of several systems. Astrology as a science is to a fault completely baseless and unreliable for character analysis, but astrologers, like good salesmen, can be very convincing, especially if you show interest in their product. Invariably, most folks who want a reading are easily impressed because the astrologer’s product is the client’s character and fate. We are all interested in ourselves, and most of us will find many “hits” or accurate statements in almost any reading (unless you happen to be an informed skeptic like me). Sophie is very impressed with her experts, Langdon and Teabing, she is in unfamiliar territory, and she has an emotional need to support her dead grandfather. Naturally, she comes up with an affirmative response. Brown’s novel wants us to believe that Leonardo played occult tricks such as this on the Church through his many, many lucrative Church commissions, when he had only one, which was not even completed.

The novel claims that Leonardo Da Vinci was a Grand Master of the secretive Priory of Sion, as were Victor Hugo and the twentieth-century French artist Jean Cocteau. There is no evidence that they or Leonardo were members. The Priory of Sion is essentially a new religious movement that appeared after World War II, having announced its existence in 1962 after formally establishing itself in 1956. This new Priory has no connection to the Order or Abbey of Sion of the Middle Ages, as the book claims as “Fact” on the opening page. The Abbey group was dissolved by King Louis XIII of France by 1619, with the premises turned over to the Jesuits. According to a TimeWatch BBC (1996) program, “The History of a Mystery,” the Order of Sion disappeared from history. Brown states that the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris “discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo and Leonardo….” as one of his “Facts.” A fact Brown does not mention is that the new Priory sect leader (Plantard), along with an accomplice, deposited the Dossiers Secrets into the Bibliotheque. As exposed on the same BBC program mentioned above, the parchments were fakes all along.

As for Jean Cocteau, I have a translation of an interesting autobiographical book by him called Opium, the Diary of a Cure. Cocteau wrote the journal account, liberally illustrated in his surrealistic style, in 1929 while in treatment for “opium poisoning” at an asylum in France. In the text, page 125, Cocteau, at the end of his “cure” at the clinic, says, “And I was wondering, shall I take opium or not? It is useless to put on a carefree air, dear poet. I will take it if my work wants me to … And if Opium wants me to.” He was a brilliant if radical writer and filmmaker who had a creative and highly productive life (1889 to 1963). He rubbed shoulders with the likes of Picasso and Diaghilev. I recall seeing two of his most famous films, Beauty and the Beast and Orpheé. There is no evidence that I could find that he was a grandmaster of any group, but, if he were one, one can only wonder what kind of cult this opium-addicted surrealist might have created. In any case, The Da Vinci Code states on page 327 that Jean Cocteau was Grand Master of the Priory of Sion from 1918 to 1963. The Brown book also claims that Victor Hugo was Grand Master from 1844 to 1885. Cocteau in Opium says, “Victor Hugo was a madman who believed himself to be Victor Hugo.” Awkward for Dan Brown, is all I can say.

A few final words about mistakes: Opus Dei has no official monks who wear monk’s robes. Brown’s albino, Silas, apparently sees very well without lenses—highly unusual for someone with albinism. Brown’s hero, Langdon, states, “Originally, Tarot had been devised as a secret means to pass along ideologies banned by the Church” (p. 92). Tarot playing cards (and they were playing cards, not magical texts used by initiates) arrived in Europe from the Middle East in the fifteenth century. Many varieties developed, but the occult Tarot, the progenitor of the Tarot decks found in today’s New Age/occult sections of bookstores, appeared and developed singularly in France during the hundred years between 1780 and 1880. There is nothing ancient about the occult Tarot, and they hid nothing from the churchmen who understood very well what they were about (see A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot, by R. Decker, T. DePaulis, and M. Dummett, 1996).

The number of poor souls condemned and executed by the Catholic Inquisitors is not 5 million, as Brown’s book claims. Scholars today set the number between 30 thousand and 90 thousand, with most splitting the difference. And to drive one last stake into Brown’s grail myth, the Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln claim that “holy blood” means “holy grail” originates with Sir Thomas Mallory’s misspelling in his fifteenth-century Le Morte D’Athur. Holy Grail should have been le saint graal and not Sang real. Unfortunately, Brown has his “Teacher” proclaim on page 250, “The word Sangreal derives from San Greal—or Holy Grail.” And “Sang Real literally meant Royal Blood.”

The Da Vinci Code is a decent thriller if the reader is either unaware of or manages to suspend the reality that undermines the story. In the spiritual-thriller genre, Brown’s book mimics its earlier Catholic-bashing, New Age cousin, The Celestine Prophecy, but it has similar flaws in fact and character development. In that regard, Brown does not come close to Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Speaking of Eco, his raucous ride through the occult in the 500-plus pages Foucault’s Pendulum (1988) takes the wind out of most other books with occult themes as he covers just about everything imaginable in that murky, mysterious world. Almost all of Brown’s themes, including Magdalene as Grail, conspiracies to protect hidden scriptures, and Disney cartoons that hide occult wisdom, are woven into Eco’s book already in 1988.

And like Eco's book, Brown’s novel also has this quest theme, but, just as with Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy, the implication is that there is some literal thing (a manuscript, a lineage, a casket of bones) that reveals the secret. Brown, like Redfield, titillates the reader with purported facts about the Church, government, established science—whatever is in power—that prove that some conspiracy abounds to keep the masses in ignorance and under control. This belies a quality of paranoia in the authors, and they also butcher history and fact to arrive at a conclusion. As a result, even though The Da Vinci Code is fiction, it fails. Brown’s Langdon criticizes those poor, brainwashed Catholics and Christians who would take things “literally” (the virgin birth, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus). Yet, in the end, we find Langdon kneeling in awe at the Louvre at the entry pyramid. He finally “knows” where the bones of Mary Magdalene are buried—and, perhaps, with the cache of secret manuscripts that would crumble the Christian Church. Talk about literal.

Langdon lectures Sophie (and the reader) that “Every faith in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith—acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove. Every religion describes God through metaphor, allegory, and exaggeration…. Metaphors are a way to help our minds process the unprocessible. The problems arise when we begin to believe literally in our own metaphors.” Langdon argues that he would not “wave the flag” of evidence in the faces of the millions of deluded souls who believe that Buddha was born of a lotus blossom, or Jesus of a literal virgin. “Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical.” He would not expose the truth because “Religious allegory has become a part of the fabric of reality. And living in that reality helps millions of people cope and be better people.” There’s more to his argument, but the gist of it is that we should let sleeping dogs lie—and I mean that as a pun, too—and not throw them any Magdalene bones.

So here we have a noble man who would spare the common believer the angst of revelation. As condescending as that might sound to the common believer, Brown also attempts to not offend Opus Dei, despite his exposure of some of its more radical practices. “Many call Opus Dei a brainwashing cult,” reporters often challenged. “Others call you an ultraconservative Christian secret society. Which are you?”

“Opus Dei is neither,” the bishop (Aringarosa in the novel) would patiently reply. “We are a Catholic Church. We are a congregation of Catholics who have chosen as our priority to follow Catholic doctrine as rigorously as we can in our own daily lives.”

“Does God’s Work (Opus Dei, translated) necessarily include vows of chastity, tithing, and atonement for sins through self-flagellation and the cilice?”

“You are describing only a small portion of the Opus Dei population,” Aringarosa said. “These choices are personal, but everyone in Opus Dei shares the goal of bettering the world by doing the Work of God.” The book does mention ODAN [Opus Dei Awareness Network] and its popular website—www.odan.org—in keeping with Brown’s effort to make the story as real as possible. I doubt that Opus Dei or its critics are happy about Brown’s book because he sensationalizes the cult aspect while minimizing any real activity the group promotes. What he did get right is that Opus Dei remains controversial, but that is another story that will continue to have repercussions within the Holy See, especially if a more “liberal” regime enters the Papacy.

I’ll end with a quote that Eco used in Foucault’s Pendulum as a comment on the occult quest, no matter what technique, magic, doctrine, theosophy or bones you might have: “Our cause is a secret within a secret, a secret that only another secret can explain; it is a secret about a secret that is veiled by a secret.” Ja ‘far as-Sadiq, sixth Imam.

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The Essential Dan Brown Collection!(free download)

2008-08-02T04:28:00.000-07:00

Dan Brown

Dan Brown is the author of numerous bestselling novels, including the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Da Vinci Code -- one of the best selling novels of all time. In early 2004, all four of Dan Brown's novels held spots on the New York Times bestseller list during the same week.

Recently named one of the World's 100 Most Influential People by TIME Magazine, Dan Brown has made appearances on CNN, The Today Show, National Public Radio, Voice of America, as well as in the pages of Newsweek, Forbes, People, GQ, The New Yorker, and others. His novels have been translated and published in more than 40 languages around the world.

Dan is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he spent time as an English teacher before turning his efforts fully to writing. In 1996, his interest in code-breaking and covert government agencies led him to write his first novel, Digital Fortress, which quickly became a #1 national bestselling eBook. Set within the clandestine National Security Agency, the novel explores the fine line between civilian privacy and national security. Brown’s follow-up techno-thriller, Deception Point, centered on similar issues of morality in politics, national security, and classified technology.

The son of a Presidential Award winning math professor and of a professional sacred musician, Dan grew up surrounded by the paradoxical philosophies of science and religion. These complementary perspectives served as inspiration for his acclaimed novel Angels & Demons—a science vs. religion thriller set within a Swiss physics lab and Vatican City. Recently, he has begun work on a series of symbology thrillers featuring his popular protagonist Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of iconography and religious art. The upcoming series will include books set in Paris, London, and Washington D.C.

Dan’s wife Blythe—an art history buff and painter—collaborates on his research and accompanies him on his frequent research trips, their latest to Paris, where they spent time in the Louvre for his thriller, The Da Vinci Code.

The Da Vinci Code has sold some 70 million copies worldwide and is now being adapted for film by Columbia Pictures.

In 1996, Brown quit teaching to become a full-time writer. Digital Fortress was published in 1998. Blythe did much of the book's promotion, writing press releases, booking Brown on talk shows, and setting up press interviews. A few months later, Brown and his wife released The Bald Book, another humor book. It was officially credited to his wife, though a representative of the publisher said that it was primarily written by Brown.

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Angels and Demons

It takes guts to write a novel that combines an ancient secret brotherhood, the Swiss Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, a papal conclave, mysterious ambigrams, a plot against the Vatican, a mad scientist in a wheelchair, particles of antimatter, jets that can travel 15,000 miles per hour, crafty assassins, a beautiful Italian physicist, and a Harvard professor of religious iconology. It takes talent to make that novel anything but ridiculous. Kudos to Dan Brown (Digital Fortress) for achieving the nearly impossible. Angels & Demons is a no-holds-barred, pull-out-all-the-stops, breathless tangle of a thriller--think Katherine Neville's The Eight (but cleverer) or Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum (but more accessible).

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is shocked to find proof that the legendary secret society, the Illuminati--dedicated since the time of Galileo to promoting the interests of science and condemning the blind faith of Catholicism--is alive, well, and murderously active. Brilliant physicist Leonardo Vetra has been murdered, his eyes plucked out, and the society's ancient symbol branded upon his chest. His final discovery, antimatter, the most powerful and dangerous energy source known to man, has disappeared--only to be hidden somewhere beneath Vatican City on the eve of the election of a new pope. Langdon and Vittoria, Vetra's daughter and colleague, embark on a frantic hunt through the streets, churches, and catacombs of Rome, following a 400-year-old trail to the lair of the Illuminati, to prevent the incineration of civilization.

Brown seems as much juggler as author--there are lots and lots of balls in the air in this novel, yet Brown manages to hurl the reader headlong into an almost surreal suspension of disbelief. While the reader might wish for a little more sardonic humor from Langdon, and a little less bombastic philosophizing on the eternal conflict between religion and science, these are less fatal flaws than niggling annoyances--readers should have no trouble skimming past them and immersing themselves in a heck of a good read. "Brain candy" it may be, but my! It's tasty.

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DIGITAL FORTRESS

Plot Summary of Digital Fortress
"Susan is one of the top Code breakers at the NSA. She monitors the use of the code breaking machine that can break all codes in less than 3 hrs and is used by all forms of US intelligance. She is called in when a program is still running after 12+ hrs. At the same time her fiance is sent to Spain to try and locate the "key" to stopping the release of a code program that will allow the NSA to break codes that Digital Fortress (the encrypting program) is used to protect. In Spain it becomes clear that someone is out to keep the key safe as people who have come in contact with it are killed.
The story follows the progress to not only figuring out who has planted the code but how to keep it from letting the world into the NSA files."

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Deception point

This Dan brown classic is much more scientific and moves around the political criteria that surrounds Washington D.C.the story revolves around Rachael sexton who works as the president Zach herney’s liaison and is his rival, senator sedgewick sexton’s only daughter.

She is being sent on an unexpected mission to the arctic circle by the president to view, what he believes as the discovery of that century.

Rachael had already been informed by NRO head William pickering that her journey might turn out to be a political favour for zach herney.

The story moves on as Rachael goes on an amazing ride through the snow scaped mountains in the arctic and finally reaches the habisphere, another brown’s scientific plot and she meets NASA’s scientist groups who greets her with contempt as her father had badly insulted the NASA for its failures and had used this as his ally to defeat his NASA friendly quarry zach herney.

Rachael then meets Dr.corky marlinson , a childish and renowned scientist, Michael tolland a celebrity oceanographer who had lost his wife, norah mangor another scientist and Dr.ming.

this crew of civilian scientists had been sent by the president to rate the discovery.

They explain this amazing meteorite fount 300 foot under the ice fossiled in 1716 meanwhile the three delta force soldiers view the habisphere from a distance with their remote controlled microbot.

Tolland had made a documentary about that meteorite that contained fossils of ET life with a large nest of bugs that were 2 foot long.

everything had been well set by zach to live telecast this discovery that would help for his victory when a series misfortunes happen. Dr.ming finds some glowing underwater insects from where the meteorite had been extracted and he is murdered by the deltas for his find.

The situation turns bad from worse as Rachael along with others finds the same thing, they are sent to investigate the crisis by Lawrence ekstrom, NASA’s commander. They find NASA’s forge play and were chased by the deltas.

norah gets killed as the others escape by a sub, CHARLOTTE .they inform their plight via the radio to pickering and had to inform it to majorie tench, president’s senior adviser when they tried to inform the president before he goes into public with the false information, they fail as zach informed the public.

A series of events takes place with the murder of pickering or so DAN makes you think with the deltas chasing after Rachael and the others on the GOYA, tolland’s sub shown in the television as they find the complete evidence for the forge and faxes it to sexton’s office.

These events that reveal the hidden identity of the commander who was behind all these murders are some of dan’s shocking sequels.

Who was that powerfull murderer, who wins the polls, does Rachael, tolland and corky die or do they escape from those well armed deltas, read it for yourself and go through this enthralling ride.

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Welcome to the free library of books-an introduction

2008-08-02T04:13:00.000-07:00

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf, and each side of a leaf is called a page. A book produced in electronic format is known as an e-book.

Books may also refer to a literature work, or a main division of such a work. In library and information science, a book is called a monograph, to distinguish it from serial periodicals such as magazines, journals or newspapers. The body of all written works including books is literature.

In novels, a book may be divided into several large sections, also called books (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, etc).

A lover of books is usually referred to as a bibliophile, a bibliophilist, or a philobiblist, or, more informally, a bookworm.

A store where books are bought and sold is a bookstore or bookshop. Books can also be borrowed from libraries or obtained for reading through the practice of BookCrossing.

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