I have a strange way of learning things, and I mean a very strange way of learning things.  Here's what happens:

I hear someone talking about something and something inside of me feels uncomfortable with what's being said.  Often the person's reasoning seems logical enough, but it just doesn't feel right.  In other words, my heart tells me that something about what I'm being told isn't true.

Often I'll ponder this for a while, listening to whatever it is that my heart is trying to tell me.  Pretty soon, I'll start to clarify what was wrong with what I was hearing and ideas will start to form about what the actual right answer is. 

That's when the weird part happens.  Just about the time I start reasoning out for myself what ought to be true, information will come into my life supplying evidence that what I've been coming up in my head and heart is absolutely correct. I'll just "happen" to spot a book or someone will just happen to give me a book or something like this.

That's what happened with the book Killing Sacred Cows. 

I'd been thinking a lot about money because of the problems with the economy and I'd formed several conclusions about why our economy was in trouble and why people's incorrect perceptions about money were at the root of our nation's financial woes.  Some of the ideas I'd formed were things I'd never read before, but just "made sense" both to my mind and my heart when I figured them out.

Not a week later I got this book in the mail.  It was a free promotional book.  I didn't order it.  It was just sent to me.  The title caught my attention, since I'm a habitual "sacred cow" killer myself and when I started reading it, here were the very ideas I'd been thinking about expressed in a very clear and very well-documented way.   Once again I was blown away.

This "top down" form of learning may be a strange way to acquire information, but it's one of the reasons I have come to trust my own perceptions more and more.  Still, it would have taken me years to gather the research and formulate my basic ideas into such a clear volume, so it was nice to see that someone else had already done it.

I highly recommend Killing Sacred Cows because it puts forth one of my own fundamental beliefs about money—money isn't valuable in and of itself. Money is only a means of exchanging value and money itself cannot create a happy, prosperous life.  The book also clearly articulates one of my fundamental beliefs about life and acquiring money, that money flows to you when you are fulfilling your Divine purpose in this life and offering value to others.

My free "energetic" webinar for the month of April will be about money and it will be based on many of the ideas this book puts forth so clearly.  What I want to help people understand is that your well-being is NOT tied to the economy, unless you are caught up in the same prevailing mindset that has created these economic problems.  If you learn how to free yourself from the prevailing attitudes about money and economics held by the majority of those around you, you will also free yourself from being a "victim" of the current economy.

If you'd like to learn what money is really all about and how to find real happiness and peace of mind about your finances, then I highly recommend reading this book and attending my free webinar on money.  You can learn about the free "energetic" webinars by clicking here, and you can purchase Killing Sacred Cows from Amazon.com by clicking on the link below.

Have you ever felt frustrated with situations that you wanted to change, but didn't know how?  Perhaps you wanted to influence your spouse, your children, your work environment or even yourself to make changes, but failed to achieve your desired results.  Maybe, like me, you want to be an influence for change on a broader, social and political scale.

Well, if you want to be someone who is able to successfully influence change, you absolutely have to read this book. It is nothing short of amazing. 

I heard one of the author's speak at the Nature's Sunshine Leader's Conference in Los Angeles in February 2009, and he had me on the edge of my seat as he talked about people who have been able to influence remarkable changes in very complex problems.  One of the most impressive is the Delancey Street Foundation, which has several dozen highly successful businesses, all staffed by criminals, gang members and drug addicts—90% of which she is able to successfull rehabilitate. 

I bought the book right away and have been slowly reading it ever since.  I stress slowly, because a book with this much "meat" in it needs to be read carefully and pondered.  It's full of real, useable material, which in my experience you need to read in small chunks and carefully consider how to utilize it in your life.
 
This book is so valuable to me, that I plan to not only read it carefully several times, I plan to map what it teaches on the energetic models I use as a "simplest case" paradigm.  (To understand what that means, download and listen to my free webinar on the system of energetics I use.)  I can already see how this book meshes perfectly with other simplest case paradigms I've added to my collection. 

The biggest thing I'm pondering is how to use this book to influence society at large to start focusing on working on root causes of problems such as our health, instead of simply treating effects.  I see this is as the number one problem causing our nation's current woes.  Our addiction to "quick fixes" keeps us from looking at the deeper, underlying issues that we really need to address to make things better. 

I say this because the biggest change in my health came not from switching to using herbs and nutrition instead of drugs, but by shifting the entire paradigm of the way I saw health and disease.  It was making the paradigm shift that allowed me to take a whole new approach to healing that wasn't based on fighting symptoms. 

In a similar way, I've had paradigm shifts in just about every other area of my life, from parenting and education to economics and government.  I'm going to be sharing these in these webinars, but I mention it here because this book has given me a major breakthrough in understanding what motivates people and facillitates change.  That's why I'm so excited about it.  It's one of those "key idea" books that I think everyone should read because it is so practical and profound in its implications.

I love the native American concept that information isn't really useful unless it "grows corn."  This means that really valuable information is the kind that you can actually utilize to achieve dependable results.  This book clearly "grows corn" when it comes to knowing how to influence change.

I highly recommend you get a copy of Influencer: The Power to Change Anything and read it carefully.  Better yet, do what I'm doing and start figuring out how to put it to work in your life.

This is another book by Anthony de Mello that I also enjoy.  It's a collection of stories about a fictional spiritual master.  The stories can be funny or serious, but they are almost thought provoking.

Here's one of my favorites.  I like it because it reflects how I often feel:
Said a curious disciple, "Give us a sign to know when one is Enlightened."
Said the Master, "Here's one: You find yourself asking, 'Is it I who am crazy, or is it everyone else?'"

And, one more:
"How long will it take me to solve my problem?"
"Not one minute longer than it takes you to understand it," said the Master.

If you enjoy this kind of thing, I highly recommend this book.  However, I think you should read the other book I've recommended here, Awareness: The Way to Love, first.

Available at Amazon.com

I find that a person's mental and emotional state is just as important to their healing as their diet and lifestyle.  Sometimes, it's even more important, because people often won't take care of their body until they heal their emotional wounds.  The process of working with this aspect of healing has taught me a lot, but there are also some great books which have helped me.
I've read lots of spiritual and self-help books, but I honestly feel that this is one of the best I've ever read.  I like the fact that Anthony de Mello teaches these concepts using the Christian tradition.  This is only natural since he was a Catholic priest. 
Anthony de Mello had a spiritual awakening when he found a man who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer who seemed extremely happy.  It was the first time in his life that the thought had occurred to him that our emotional state is independent of the circumstances of our life.  In fact, our emotional state is something we have the ability to manage, while often the circumstances of our life are not in our complete control.
I particularly recommend the chapters Love One Another and The Blind See as they are the best descriptions I've ever read of the unconditional love I've learned about in my emotional healing work.  If you want to learn to have more peace and joy in your life, I highly recommend this book.

Available at Amazon.com

Kimberly Balas introduced me to this book when we did a DVD on cholesterol and since I just posted an article about the topic of cholesterol, I thought I should also feature this book.  This book totally busts the notion that cholesterol is the cause of heart disease.  In fact, it clearly demonstrates that driving your cholesterol too low is extremely dangerous to your health.  If your cholesterol is less than 275 and your doctor is pressuring you to take statins, read this book and defend yourself. 

Available at Amazon.com

I'm currently researching heart health for my January Nature's Field and it caused me to take another look at a book I read many years ago called The Heart's Code by Paul Pearsall.  This book discusses the phenomenon of cellular memory, the idea that all cells of the body house memory, not just brain cells. In particular, the book deals with the issue of memory transfer in transplant patients, particularly in heart transplants.  It contains some amazing stories about how people "remember" things or acquire tastes and preferences from the person who donated the heart.  I highly recommend this book, as it really shows the heart is far more than a mechanical pump.  It is actually the "emotional" brain of the body.

Available at Amazon.com

I loved Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now and his new book, A New Earth is even better.  Eckhart Tolle has an incredible grasp of how our ego (our sense of separateness from God, each other and the world) caused pain and suffering in ourselves and others. He provides practical insights into breaking free of this ego self and awakening to create a new earth.  A wonderful book for spiritual development. 

Available at Amazon.com

This book is absolutely brilliant.  Anybody who has taken one of my courses where I talk about the six tissues states, this is the definitive work on the subject by my friend Matthew Wood who developed the model.  Matthew explains the history of Western energetics and helps a person understand the real keys to getting food results with herbs.  I highly recommend this book.

Available at Amazon.com

This book really woke me up as to how almost everyone growing up in modern society is deeply wounded emotionally because of a lack of traditional care and affection as children. Can you imagine growing up in a culture where no one ever physically punished a child? Where no one every yelled at or belittled a child? Where there a child's cry was considered a cry for help and someone was always around to help? That's how traditional cultures raised children. This book will really help you understand how wounded our culture really is and why almost all of us need emotional healing work.

Available at Amazon.com

I've been studying nutrition for years and have read more books on diet and nutrition than I can count. I've tried all kinds of diets and approaches to nutrition and I can honestly say this is the most practical, useful and sensible book on nutrition I have ever read. It is based on the work of Weston Price who studied the traditional diets of native peoples who were incredibly healthy. It talks about food quality, methods of food preparation that enhance nutrition and a sensible approach to eating for health. It contains recipes, great quotes from other books on nutrition and resources for good food.  And, as its subtitle suggests, it is The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. This is a must-have for anyone who wants to eat healthy.

Available at Amazon.com