Beyond Heaven and Earth

by Steven H. Propp

  Nichiren Shoshu/Soka Gakkai: (www.nst.org & www.sgi-usa.org) Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism by Richard Causton, Buddhism and the Nichiren Shoshu Tradition by Yasuji Kirimura, and Soka Gakkai by Karel Dobbelaere.

  OAHSPE/Faithists: (www.angelfire.com/in2/oahspe/links.html) OAHSPE: A New Bible (by John Ballou Newbrough). Discussed in Martin Gardner’s book, Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery.

  Ouspensky (P.D.): His books are Tertium Organum, In Search of the Miraculous, The Fourth Way, A New Model of the Universe, and The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution.

  Out-Of-Body Experiences/Astral Projection: Susan Blackmore’s Beyond the Body was written prior to her adoption of a skeptical position. Other books include Robert A. Monroe’s Journeys Out of the Body and Far Journeys; Robert Crookall’s Out of the Body Experiences, and The Study and Practice of Astral Projection; The Projection of the Astral Body by Sylvan Muldoon and Hereward Carrington, and Mind Beyond the Body (ed. D. Scott Rogo).

  PL (Perfect Liberty) Kyodan: (www.perfectliberty.ca) Marcus Bach’s The Power of Perfect Liberty.

  Psychical Research/Parapsychology (see also Spiritualism): (http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/~spr/& www.aspr.org) The Society for Psychical Research 1882-1982: A History by Renée Haynes is a useful survey of the Society. The greatest works by SPR members are Phantasms Of the Living by Edmund Gurney, Frederic W.H. Myers, and Frank Podmore, and F.W.H. Myers’ Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death. Other important early works are Survival (compiled by James Marchant); Researches In the Phenomena of Spiritualism by William Crookes; Oliver Lodge’s Survival of Man, Raymond, Man and the Universe, and Reason and Belief; The History of Spiritualism by Arthur Conan Doyle of “Sherlock Holmes” fame, as well as his The Edge of the Unknown, and The New Revelation; On Psychical Research by William James; Miracles and Modern Spiritualism by Alfred Russell Wallace; On the Threshold of the Unseen and Psychical Research by William F. Barrett; The Ear of Dionysius by G.W. Balfour; Science and Psychical Phenomena and Apparitions by G.N.M. Tyrrell; After Death—What? by Cesare Lombroso; The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism: Fraudulent and Genuine by Hereward Carrington; The Riddle of Personality by H. Addington Bruce; Transcendental Physics by Johann Carl Friedrich Zöllner; Footfalls On the Boundary of Another World by Robert Dale Owen (son of the founder of the New Harmony commune); Experimental Investigations of the Spirit Manifestations by Robert Hare; Science and a Future Life by James H. Hyslop; Spirit Teachings by W. Stainton Moses; Mental Radio by Upton Sinclair (author of The Jungle); Objections to Spiritualism Answered by H. A. Dallas; Life Beyond Death by Minot J. Savage; Seen and Unseen by E. Katharine Bates; Death and Its Mystery at the Moment of Death by Camille Flammarion; William McDougall: Explorer of the Mind (ed. Raymond Van Over); The Mystery of the Human Aura by Ursula Roberts, and Fifty Years of Psychical Research by Harry Price. Recent works include the classic Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, Between Two Worlds by Nandor Fodor, J.B. Rhine’s books The Reach of the Mind, New World of the Mind, and New Frontiers of the Mind, as well as wife Louisa’s ESP In Life and Lab; Challenge of Psychical Research by Gardner Murphy, Modern Experiments In Telepathy by S.G. Soal, The Spiritual Frontier by William V. Rauscher, Para-Psychology by René Sudre, The Roots of Coincidence by Arthur Koestler, Experimental Psychical Research by Robert H. Thouless, The Medium, The Mystic, and the Physicist and Alternate Realities by Lawrence LeShan, Alan Vaughan’s The Edge of Tomorrow, Incredible Coincidence, and Dream Telepathy, Amazing Secrets of the Psychic World by Raymond Buckland and Hereward Carrington, Thelma Moss’s The Probability of the Impossible, and Charles T. Tart’s Body Mind Spirit. Far and away the best critical works are those published by Prometheus Books (linked to the Skeptical Inquirer periodical), such as the highly interesting debate between Joseph McCabe and Arthur Conan Doyle found in Debates On the Meaning of Life, Evolution, and Spiritualism, as well as The Adventures of a Parapsychologist by Susan Blackmore (formerly a “believer”), The Spiritualists by Ruth Brandon, Studies In Spiritism by Amy Tanner, The Faith Healers by James Randi, The Enigma of Daniel Home and The Medium and the Scientist by Trevor Hall, The Sorcerer of Kings by Gordon Stein, Final Séance by Massimo Polidoro, Are Souls Real? by Jerome Elbert, Ghosts by R.C. Finucane, ESP: A Scientific Evaluation by C.E.M. Hansel (the best of the ESP critics), Gudelines For Testing Psychic Claimants by Richard Wiseman and Robert L. Morris, How Not To Test a Psychic and Fads and Fallacies by Martin Gardner, and The Transcendental Temptation by Paul Kurtz. A classic work is Harry Houdini’s A Magician Among the Spirits, which should be supplemented with Houdini: The Untold Story by Milbourne Christopher. Other books critical of parapsychology are Weird Science by Michael White, Science and the Paranormal (ed. George O. Abell and Barry Singer), Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer (editor of Skeptic magazine), Science and the Supernatural by John Taylor, The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan, and The Fringes of Reason (ed. Ted Schultz, which is an excellent survey book). The Fox Sisters’ recantation is told in The Death-Blow to Spiritualism by Reuben Briggs Davenport. Critical works from a conservative Catholic perspective are Occult Phenomena by Alois Weisinger and Ghosts and Poltergeists by Herbert Thurston. One esteemed philosopher’s perspective is C.D. Broad’s Lectures On Psychical Research, and also Anthony Flew’s Philosophical Problems of Parapsychology.

  Ranjeesh, Bhagwan Shree (aka Osho): (www.osho.org) Ranjeesh’s voluminous works (transcripts of his talks) include I Am the Gate, Philosophia Perennis, and The Book Of the Secrets. A favorable portrait of the group at its peak is Dying For Enlightenment by Bernard Gunther. Critical books include The Golden Guru by James S. Gordon, The Promise of Paradise by Satya Bharti Franklin, and Bhagwan: The God That Failed by Hugh Milne.

  Rastararianism: (www.rastafarian.net) The Holy Biby (the “Black Man’s Bible”) and The Kebra Nagast (ed. Gerald Hausman) are their “scriptures,” along with the Bible. Other books are The Rastafarians by Leonard Barrett, and Rastafari: Roots and Ideology by Barry Chevannes.

  Reiki: (www.reiki.org) The Spirit of Reiki by Walter Lübeck (and others), and Essential Reiki by Diane Stein.

  Reincarnation/Preexistence: An excellent anthology of writings and quotations is Reincarnation: An East-West Anthology (ed. Joseph Head & S.L. Cranston). The famous (but now discredited) Bridey Murphy case is detailed in The Search For Bridey Murphy by Morey Bernstein and A Scientific Report On the Search For Bridey Murphy (ed. Milton V. Kline). Perhaps the most “evidentiary” cases are found in Ian Stevenson’s Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. Other books are Life Between Life by Joel L. Whitton and Joe Fisher, Journey of Souls by Michael Newton, Coming From the Light by Sarah Hinze, The Case for Reincarnation by Joe Fisher, The Case For Reincarnation by James Dillet Freeman, Reincarnation, Fact Or Fallacy? by Geoffrey Hodson, Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian L. Weiss, Reincarnation, Channeling and Possession by Loyd Auerbach, You Have Been Here Before by Edith Fiore, The Practical Side of Reincarnation by David Graham, The Search for Yesterday by D. Scott Rogo, Reincarnation In the Twentieth Century (ed. Martin Ebon), Reincarnation: The Second Chance by Sybil Leek, Life Beyond Life by Hans Holzer, You Will Live Again by Brad Steiger, A Veil Too Thin by Betty Riley, and Reincarnation For the Christian by Quincy Howe Jr. The best critique is probably Paul Edwards’ Reincarnation: A Critical Examination. A conservative Christian critique is Reincarnation: A Christian Appraisal by Mark Albrecht.

  Religious Science/Science of Mind: (www.rsintl.org) The basic text is of course Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes, whose other books include The Basic Ideas of Science of Mind, How To Use the Science of Mind, and Seminar Lectures. That Was Ernest is an interesting biography/history of the movement by Holmes’ friend Reginald Armor.

  Rosicrucianism: (www.amorc.org & www.rosicrucian.com) Rosicrucianism Questions and Answers by H. Spencer Lewis, The Rosicrucians by Christopher McIntosh, and The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception by Max Heindel. A general work i
ncluding a chapter on the Rosicrucians is Secret Societies: A History by Akron Daraul.

  Sai Baba: (www.sathyasai.org) Books about Baba include Howard Murphet’s Sai Baba: Man of Miracles, A Catholic Priest Meets Sai Baba by Don Mario Mazzoleni, Sai Baba: The Holy Man and the Psychiatrist by Samuel H. Sandweiss, and My Baba and I by John S. Hislop.

  Santería: The Santería Experience by Migene González-Wippler, Santería by Joseph M. Murphy, and The Altar of My Soul by Marta Moreno Vega.

  Scientology/Dianetics: (www.scientology.org) Books by L. Ron Hubbard on Dianetics include Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Dianetics: The Original Thesis, Self-Analysis, Child Dianetics, Dianetics 55, Dianetics Today, Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science, and Handbook for Preclears. Books by Hubbard on Scientology include The Fundamentals of Thought, Scientology: A New Slant On Life, Scientology 0-8, Scientology 8-80, Scientology 8-8008, Notes On the Lectures, Advanced Procedure and Axioms, Introduction to Scientology Ethics, and Scientology: A History of Man. Books dealing with the “church” side of Scientology include The Background and Ceremonies of the Church of Scientology and The Volunteer Minister’s Handbook. Other Scientology & Dianetics-related books by Hubbard are Have You Lived Before This Life?, Science of Survival, The Creation of Human Ability, The Phoenix Lectures, and Mission Into Time. Hubbard’s other non-fiction includes The Problems of Work, How To Live Though An Executive, and Modern Management Technology Defined. If you have trouble making it through Hubbard’s fiction (as I do), it is exhaustively summarized in The Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard by William J. Widder. Some of the volumes put out (often posthumously) by the Church of Scientology based on LRH’s works include What Is Scientology? (an excellent, broad-based introduction, which has at least two very different editions), L. Ron Hubbard: The Philosopher; L. Ron Hubbard: A Profile; The Dynamics of Life; and Purification. A genuinely objective book is The Church of Scientology by J. Gordon Melton. Purportedly “independent, objective” books about Scientology/Dianetics include Dianetics: A Doctor’s Report by J.A. Winter, Scientology for the Millions by Walter Braddeson, The Truth About Scientology by Trevor Meldal-Johnsen and Patrick Lusey, and The Hidden Story of Scientology and Playing Dirty by Omar Garrison. Critical works include The Scandal of Scientology by Paulette Cooper, Religion, Inc. by Stewart Lamont, Bare-Faced Messiah by Russell Miller, L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman? by Bent Corydon, and A Piece of Blue Sky by Jon Atack.

  Seicho-No-le (Truth of Life): (www.snitruth.org) Miracle Man of Japan is a biography and overview of the founder. Dr. Masaharu Taniguchi wrote a whole series of Truth of Life books, starting with The Magic of Truth (Vol. 1).

  Seventh-Day Adventism: (www.adventist.org) Ellen G. White’s writings include The Great Controversy (also published as America In Prophecy)—which is probably the best exposition of her distinctive doctrinal positions—as well as The Desire of Ages (a life of Jesus), Patriarchs and Prophets, Steps to Christ, The Ministry of Healing, and Counsels On Stewardship; Maranatha: The Lord Is Coming is a compilation of her writings. A very supportive biography of Mrs. White is Rene Noorbergen’s Ellen G. White: Prophet of Destiny. An excellent “general” book on doctrine is Questions On Doctrine (published 1957 by the Review and Herald Publishing Association), as well as These Truths We Hold by Bernard E. Seton. SDA works centering on their doctrines of life after death are Life, Death, and Immortality by Carlyle B. Haynes, Here and Hereafter by Uriah Smith, and Is Your Soul Immortal? by Robert Leo Odom. Books on current doctrinal controversies in the SDA church include Adventism In Conflict by A. Leroy Moore, and The Shaking of Adventism by Geoffrey J. Paxton. Critical books by former Adventists

  include A Theologian’s Journey by Jerry Gladson, and Seventh-Day Adventism Renounced by D. M. Canright.

  Shingon Buddhism: (www.shingon.org) The Weaving of Mantra by Ryuichi Abé.

  Shinto: (www.shinto.org) Shinto: The Kami Way by Sokyo Ono.

  Sikhism: (www.sikhs.org) Sikhism by Hew McLeod, Philosophy and Faith of Sikhism by K.S. Duggal, A Popular Dictionary of Sikhism by W. Owen Cole and Piara Singh Sambhi, and The Wisdom of Sikhism by Charanjit K. AjitSingh.

  Kirpal Singh: (www.ruhanisatsangusa.org) Morning Talks.

  Spiritualism (mostly as a religion): (www.nsac.org) Very important is the National Spiritualist Association of Churches’ Spiritualist Manual, as well as the Grand Souvenir Book of the World Centennial Celebration of Modern Spiritualism. Other key books are Andrew Jackson Davis’s Events In the Life of a Seer and The Diakka and Their Earthly Victims; The Missing Link In Modern Spiritualism by Ann Leah Underhill (the oldest “Fox Sister”), Spiritualism and Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine by J. Arthur Hill; Dictionary of Spiritualism by Harry Wedek, Uriah Clark’s Plain Guide To Spiritualism, This is Spiritualism by Maurice Barbanell, Principles of Spiritualism by Lyn G. de Swarte, Arthur Findlay’s On The Rock of Truth and The Edge of the Etheric; Concerning Spiritualism by Gerald Massey, and The Foundations of Spiritualism by Whatley

  W. Smith. An interesting study of a town famous for its Spiritualist summer camps is Lily Dale by Christine Wicker.

  Sri Aurobindo: (www.sriaurobindoashram.org) The Essential Aurobindo (ed. Robert McDermott)

  Sri Chinmoy: (www.srichinmoy.org) Chinmoy’s works include Sammadhi and Siddhi; The Vedas; Astrology, the Supernatural and the Beyond.

  Subud: (www.subud.org) Important is the founder Bapak Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo’s Sinar Pribadi. The most comprehensive book is Subud: The Coming New Age of Reality by Simon Monbaron. Other books include Subud Is a Way of Life by Harlinah Longcroft, and Emmanuel Elliott’s Revelation Subud.

  Sufis/Dervishes: (www.sufis.org) The Sufis and Tales of the Dervishes by Idries Shah, Sufism by Ronald Grisell, The Elements of Sufism by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haieri, Essential Sufism by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, and Among The Dervishes by O.M. Burke.

  Suicide (see also Euthanasia): Suicide: The Philosophical Issues (ed. M. Pabst Battin and David J. Mayo) and Suicide by David Wilkerson.

  Swami Satchidananda: (www.integralyogasf.org/swami.htm) A biography is Swami Satchidananda by Sita Wiener. A collection of his teachings is found in To Know Your Self (ed. Philip Mandelkorn).

  Swedenborg: (www.swedenborg.com) George Trobridge’s biography, Swedenborg’s Life and Teaching, is most helpful, as well as Swedenborg’s own works such as Heaven and Hell, True Christian Religion, Apocalypse Revealed, etc. Books about the Swedenborgian “New Church” are A New World Jerusalem by Many Ann Meyers, and New Church In the New World by Marguerite Block. Helen Keller was a famous admirer of Swedenborg—see her spiritual autobiography, My Religion.

  T’ai Chi/Qigong: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to T’ai Chi & Qigong by Bill Douglas, T’ai Chi Classics by Waysun Liao, Tai Chi: A Practical Introduction by Paul Crompton, and New-Style Tai Chi Ch’uan by Wei Yue Sun & Xiao Jing Li.

  Taoism: The Tao Te Ching, the Chuang Tsu, The Texts of Taoism by James Legge (includes translations of the Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu), The Way and Its Power by Arthur Waley, and Lao Tzu and Taoism by Max Kaltenmark.

  Tendai Buddhism: (www.tendai.org) Homa Rites and Mandala Meditation In Tendai Buddhism by Michael Saso.

  Tenrikyo: (www.tenrikyo.or.jp) Oyasama’s Ofudesaki, as well as Introduction to the Teachings of Tenrikyo by Teruo Nishiyama.

  Theosophy and Related Movements: (www.theosociety.org & www.theosophical.org) A sympathetic history is 100 Years of Theosophy by Joy Mills; an early history by the co-founder H.S. Olcott is the multi-volume Old Diary Leaves. The essential works are those of H. P. Blavatsky: Isis Unveiled, The Secret Doctrine, The Key To Theosophy, The Voice of the Silence, and others. Other important early works are Esoteric Buddhism and The Mahatma Letters by (or “to”) A.P. Sinnett; An Outline of Theosophy, The Life After Death, The Inner Life, and Science of the Sacraments by C.W. Leadbeater; The Ancient Wisdom, Esoteric Christianity, Death—And After by Annie Besant,
as well as her Autobiography. General works include Occult Glossary by G. de Purucker, Answers to Questions On the Ocean of Theosophy by Robert Crosbie, Theosophy: The Path of the Mystic by Katherine Tingley, and The Causal Body and The Astral Body by Arthur E. Powell. Critical works include Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon by Peter Washington, Madame Blavatsky: Priestess of the Occult by Gertrude Marvin Williams, Ancient Wisdom Revived by Bruce F. Campbell, and The Masters Revealed by K. Paul Johnson. Richard Hodgson’s critical report on Blavatsky (“The Theosophical Society: Russian Intrigue or Religious Evolution?”) is available on the Internet in various places. A response to some earlier critical works is Mme. Blavatsky Defended by Iverson L. Harris.

  UFO Religions/Exterrestrial Channelings: A fascinating survey is found in The Gods Have Landed by James R. Lewis. Books by “contactees” and/or channels include Ken Carey’s books The Starseed Transmissions, Starseed: The Third Millennium and Vision; Lyssa Royal and Keith Priest’s Visitors From Within, The Prism of Lyra, and Preparing For Contact; Barbara Marciniak’s books Bringers of the Dawn and Earth; The RA Material (in several volumes) by Don Elkins, Carla Rueckert, & James Allen McCarty; We The Arcturians by Norma J. Milanovich; Ruth Norman’s Have You Lived On Other Worlds Before? and Tesla Speaks; and Project: World Evacuation by Tuella. The very dubious “contacts” of Eduard “Billy” Meier are profiled in Light Years by Gary Kinder and The Pleiadian Mission by Randolph Winters, as well as in The Talmud of Jmmanuel; see the exposé, Spaceships of the Pleiades: The Billy Meier Story by Kal K. Korff.