An intriguing tale of a man's struggle to reclaim his soul while on an expedition of higher learning. A culture may survive physical hardships, but can it survive offers of help? Soon a predatory envinronment develops that makes the jungle look tame. Mark leads us through the volital world of politics and guerrilla warfare in his fight for right. "The Treasure of Silustani" allows an insite into the cultural and political influences from internal and external elements shaping the development of South America. This book has diverse avenues of interest for the reader; written with directness and compassion for his characters. Anyone interested in off-road travel, history, politics, romance, or adventure will find something to enjoy.

This is a highly creative story with challenging vocabluary, by Stephen Van Rathje and fabulous illustrations, by James Baley is a very ambitious book about social justice. It tells the fanciful story of three pigs who live in the land of Wartonia, a land populated by Warthogs that is somewhere North of the South pole, who lose their home(hollow) to a Warthog bully named Crotchety. Together with the help of their Warthog friends Stephen Van Snout and Jimmy Swinefoot the pigs regain their home and have many adventures along the way. This richly illustrated and painstakingly detailed book presents complicated ideas and concepts, like voting and loopholes in the law in away that children will easily understand. It takes the time to establish each character for the reader that is often enlightening and always amusing. This is a book that an adult and child will enjoy sharing to together. The ideas presented and the sophisticated writing may present difficuties for younger readers, but everyone will enjoy the lavish illustrations. They are richly detailed and we come away with a real sense of what Wartonia is and what it looks like. You may find yourself creating games with the pictures, like trying to find Van Snout's pet, Sigmund the inchworm, in each scene, or trying to find the various featured characters in the grand tableau of the world of Wartonia. On every level this is a book suitable for all ages and I look forward to more adventures with the Warthogs in their land Wartonia.

In What Is Truth?, James Emery White presents an insightful examination of the concept of truth as it finds expression in the theological systems of five prominent Evangelical theologians: Cornelius Van Til, Francis Schaeffer, Carl F. H. Henry, Millard Erickson, and Donald Bloesch.

White rightly realizes the enormous challenge that postmodernism presents to Christianity, especially its Evangelical stream. Post-foundationalist thought tends to challenge not only objectivity in man's grasping and appropriation of truth, but even the very ontological reality of truth. While even so hardened a relativist as Richard Rorty admits the self-defeating nature of such a claim, it continues to garner support from many sectors of philosophy. White helpfully draws a clear distinction between the metaphysical and epistemological aspects of. This is his book's major contribution to the debate. He concludes that the metaphysical and ontological reality of truth as it is expressed in the traditional correspondence theory of truth is basic to Christian theology, indeed to all thought. The epistemological aspect of truth is a bit more problematic, though, as debate soon becomes mired in debates over epistemic justification, the nature of starting points, evidentialism vs. presuppositionalism, etc.

White provides incisive critiques of the five major thinker's systems. He appropriately questions Van Til's jihad against univocity, his attendant rejection of the necessity of the law of contradiction, and his claims that his system provided objective certainty and absolute proof for Christian theism.

The chapter on Schaeffer is rather well done. Schaeffer's shortcomings as a philosopher and historian (he claimed only to be a simple evangelist) are discussed. The best portion of the chapter deals with Schaeffer's failure to provide positive proof for Christianity. He failed to realize that disproving atheistic nihilism does equal proving Biblical Christianity. Schaeffer also tended to stress the pragmatic aspect of truth-claims, asserting that a worldview could not be true if it did not explain the 'mannishness of man,' not realizing that his values existed within his worldview and thus could not be a criterion for choosing a worldview.

Carl Henry likewise placed too much faith in the power of rational argumentation to prove the truth of Christianity. Henry is to be credited, though, for championing the universality of logic, and the propositional nature of reality and Scripture.

Millard Erickson is one Evangelical who has engaged in serious dialogue with postmodernism and post-liberal theology. He has attempted a synthesis which preserves the historic orthodoxy of the Reformation while incorporating the insights of recent trends in theology, including existentialism, structuralism, and narrative theology. While his synthesis tends more toward the former tradition than the latter, he has nonetheless been influenced by contemporary thought more than other thinkers. This influence is evident in his nuanced formulation of inerrancy, his emphasis on personal revelation, his coalition with evidentialism and its emphasis on empirical verification, and his openness toward progressive hermeneutical methods.

The last thinker examined, Donald Bloesch, can hardly be classed an Evangelical. He is a Barthian through and through. He embraces the dialectical theology of the neo-orthodox irrationalists and vitiates the doctrine of the authority of Scripture. Positively, though, he steers Evangelicals toward an appreciation of the theological implications of the Incarnation, as well as the concept of revelation as an event as well as a body of truth. Furthermore, his rejection of autonomous philosophy is a strong antidote to the Enlightenment strands in Evangelical thought.

White's book is well worth reading. White provides a good overview of the concept of truth in the thought of the thinkers he covers. I do have some gripes, though. First, numerous misspellings and typos mar the text. Second, White makes the same mistake he accuses most thinkers of making: that of confuting the metaphysical and epistemological aspects of truth. He does this when he asserts a dichotomy between the correspondence and coherence theories of truth. He wrongly portrays the latter as an ontological description of truth. Coherence and correspondence cannot be so easily dichotomized. Coherence proponents such as Gordon Clark and Cornelius Van Til believed in the ultimate unity of the two. Truth corresponds to the mind of God, which is completely coherent. Third, the book contains no index! Fourth, the selection of Van Til, Schaeffer, Henry, Bloesch, and Erickson is questionable. The issue is primarily philosophical. I would have selected Van Til, Gordon Clark, Arthur Holmes, Alvin Plantinga, and Norman Geisler.

I've read three of Van Praagh's works and liked this most. His stories about readings in previous books are, of course, fascinating, but I was glad to see him branch out a bit in this book. In it, along with the readings, he divulges stories from his own past (there's nothing more fascinating than knowing about the mediums themselves); he tells of paranormal incidents that have happened around him over the years, and gives practical advice as to how we can all develop our psychic sensibilities. Throughout, Van Praagh hints at a paradigmatic framework by which we may try to live a more spiritually aware existence.

I found the content of the book from first page to last very interesting and informative, and refer to it often. Van Praagh's warm and intelligent style of writing has made this a favourite book of mine on the subject of psychic development and the afterlife. I hope he'll publish another book soon.

Once I started reading this book, I found myself quite drawn to it and finished it within a few hours. I found it a very interesting read. Not only does Van Praagh discuss several stories of various clients, but also offers advice on several areas for those of us wishing to develop and expand our psychic abilities. While we all have them, some of us may have more developed abilities than others. However, that doesn't mean we all can't try to develop them the best way we can.

In one chapter he discusses auras, their colors and layers, and "defects." I never had any ideas auras were so complex. He also talks about spirit signals and guides and makes an important point about "living guides," people in our lives who may be friends that are also here to guide us through our life or to guide us part of the way. There's also an excellent chapter about psychic protection, things like "psychic vampires" or other harmful energies that may drain us, causing us to become irritable or depressed or tired. While these symptoms are most definitely NOT always or even some of the time caused by so-called "psychic vampires," it does make you stop and consider whether or not you know people in your life who may be sapping your energy. His chapter called "Miracles Every Day" makes you consider how you can change your life for the better and get rid of unwanted habits or fears. Pointing out that the universe does give you what you ask for, it brings to mind the old saying, "Don't ask too hard for what you want, you just might get it."

There are also sections in the book about meditation exercises, cleansing and strengthening your aura, and protecting yourself from negative thoughts and emotions. Like a fellow reviewer before me, this book has inspired me to continue to further develop my psychic abilities.

Reading this book could not have been more timely for me. Thank you James. I will take to heart your claim that "your endeavors into the psychic realms will not go unrewarded". Although I can see that this book may not have the same impact for others as it has on me (I read some of the other disappointing reviews), this book will have a profound effect on those in the process of developing their psychic awareness. The exercise such as "connecting with your spirit guides" and "dream journal" have become very beneficial for me. This book has inspired me to continue to "develop my mind and psychic awareness for the enrichment of the human race".

Possibly with repeated "sessions"- listening over and over again, one can truly call upon at will the intuition that supposedly lies within us all and see some progress. I can't see any effect with one "session". The message is soothing, yes, along with soft wind instruments in the background. And yes, one does get some education of the different physical areas that are psychic spotlights in us and their basic purpose. It's far from enough information. The tape is very short...too short. I wanted to know more about all of it! The tape skimmed the surface of the topic, only. Nothing more. It's relaxing, but not money well spent.

This is ONLY a meditation tape and it's incredible!! If you know how to meditate and understand or just even know about the seven chakras then I think you will find success even sooner. I felt such an expanding of awareness after listening to him on the first day but we're all different ~ so we will all grow at our own pace. The two meditations are beautiful and filled with so much peace. He did a great job on this one!!

Excellent Tape!!!

I saw James Van Praugh in person at a seminar & he is amazing.

Tape really helped me learn to relax & accept my intuition & allow abundance into my life.

Ever wondered what happened when the Enterprise returned home after its 5 year mission. Captain Kirk gets promoted to Admiral. Spock goes home to Vulcan. And McCoy haves some Medical Lectures. But All in all the crew reunites and this story has 2000 years in the making rather then 5. I enjoyed this tale. It keeps my attention span. A good edition to the star Trek Library.

"The Lost Years" starts 'The Lost Years' series, wich tells us the tale of the crew of the original Enterprise in the years between the original five year mission and "The Motion Picture".

"The Lost Yaers" the novel is very well written by Jean Mary Dillard and contains great characterization, but lacks seriously in terms of plot developement.

The book begins with the crew leaving the ship behind, an overly long phase with painfully uneventfull scenes, that contribute nothing important to the story, and offer frustratingly few character insights.

This phase is followed by the unsuccesfull introduction of some of the characters' (mostly Kirk's) new lives after Enterprise.

The story kicks in far too late, and is as predictable as expected from a plot that only covers the latter half of a book.

The biggest problem with this book is the fact that almost all characters involved in the story just happen to be the familiar characters of the Enterprise crew who are introduced to the story via ridiculously unbeliavable coincidences. Mix that with two-dimentional additional characters, magic, Tarod reading and prophesies, you get a slightly entertaining book with no credibility to back it off. A waste of a good premise.

this book. It was a good account of the period after the original 5 year mission. I enjoyed it so much I have bought the next 3 books in the Lost Years saga.

I am into reading Emmett Fox, Catherine Ponder, and Murphy and had read the reviews of this book and bought it. However, I was very disappointed. This author just sounds like he has read a bunch of other positive thinking books and have paraphrased his own book. I think it sounds so fake. I think I could have written this. Not motivating, I couldn't even stay with it.

I recommend the techniques to all my screenwriting students.

I've seen Lustbader's books around, never read one until I got handed a copy - I had known Japan and Asia were the mainstays of his books. "Zero" hasn't aged well, written as it was at the tail-end of the fall of communism, 1988. It reads like one of those run-of-the-mill action movies a la Steven Seagal, super-gaijin-turned-samurai with an unnatural understanding of mysterious eastern ways kicking Yakuza butt. Some of the dialogue is pretty bad, especially the conversations between Japanese people. Whenever a Japanese character is surprised they burst out saying "Buddha"! I'm living in Japan now, and though I'm no authority, I've yet to hear anyone say "Buddha" when surprised - usually they say "kuso!" or "chikusho!" your run-of-the-mill expletives! I thought this was funny. Other than that, I thought the sex scenes were really cool - learned some new words for the female anatomy so this book can't be all bad. If you want a fair, cliched exotic Japan read, this might do the trick on a long trip - otherwise, avoid. Read Alex Kerr for the real deal!

Micheal Doss tries to get away from all of the violence but after the death of his father he has to find the killer.

This tape is so unbelieveably boring and obtuse, I've listened to it several times to convince myself I wasn't missing something. Nope, nothing missed, just an extremely monotone voice droning on and on, taking 10 minutes for a 1 minute topic.
Mr. Van Fleet's comments would be well received in the 50's, but it's 2002 and most all his "helpful" points are dated or oversimplified.
"People like to hear you use their name"; well, Mr. Van Fleet, that is interesting advise Mr. Van Fleet. Tell me Mr. Van Fleet, how did you come to realize this gem of a pointer, eh James ?
If you want advice from the mid 1900's, buy anything from Carnegie - you can't go wrong.

Most of this tape is a rehash of Dale Carnegie principles - use people's names, make them feel important, etc. The program is 99% focused on business communications with very little focus on personal communications. 25% of the program gets sidetracked on how to reprimand an employee. I wanted the focus to stay on conversation skills. Also, the author uses way too many lists of steps (i.e. the 11 steps to improving in these areas with several of the 11 steps being 3 or 5 step items in themselves). You must take notes while listening to keep up with all the lists of steps.

I discovered these tapes about a year ago, listened to them more then once, and never got bored with them. The author is a strategist, he not only covers conversational skills but, more broadly, communications skills including bulding relationships and leadership. The autor builds his concepts on the deep understanding of the human nature. All points are presented in a very clear and systematic way and are well illustrated by examples. I learned a lot from these tapes. For me they are a good addition to Carnegie, Lowndes, Boothman, deLisser and other great authors.

BO-RINGGGGGGGGG...when is someone going to write a good foreign language text book that gives the students interesting stories in addition to verbs and grammar. How about a story about Mariachi bank robbers who hold a small Mexican town captive while their leader (we can call him El Loco Uno) holds the mayor's daughter captive. After a band of rebels (these are good rebels not bad ones) catch word, they quickly dispurse to the village, where they find El Loco Uno holding Marietta (the mayor's daughter) at knifepoint. The leader of the band of rebels, Rico, throws his lassoo out but misses, and instead catches Mariettas poodle, who is barking nearby. This is key later in the story. So now El Loco Uno is angry, and he sends his men after the rebels. They engage in bloody war for a long time. Finally, after many men have died, Rico sees El Loco Uno eating a sandwich. Rico sneaks up behind him and tries to strangle him, but El Loco Uno picks up his fork and stabs Rico in the neck. Rico stumbles backward, struck with pain, and El Loco Uno kicks him in the groin. Rico falls down, and El Loco Uno pulls out his knife, ready to finish Rico. Desperate, Rico searches for a weapon, but instead finds a small ball of fur. In a last ditch attempt to save himself, he picks up this ball of fur, which happens to be muffin, Marietta's dog, and hurles it at El Loco Uno. Now ordinarily muffin would be frightened, but what El Loco Uno doesnt know is that a piece of turkey is stuck to his lower lip, and muffin is very hungry. Anyway, the story ends with Marietta falling madly in love with Rico. Now that would be an interesting book.

This text is very informative. There are some pieces of cultural information about the Spanish-speaking world that give good insight into that culture. The one aspect of the book that I thought was not very useful, was the numerous group or team activities, because there are more activities than can be accomplished. (If the class time consists of three 50-minute sessions per week, and there are roughly 15 weeks per semester, the student doesn't benefit from these since most cannot be accomplished effectively due to time constraints.) If a few, rather than many, had been selected for the text, then not only could these be completed during class, but there would be more room in the text for other cultural passages.

The first edition of SQ blasted onto the market nearly 10 years ago and broke ALL the rules. It's a gutsy, interesting book that does what most other first year Spanish textbooks fail to do - gets you students using and understanding Spanish from the beginning of the school year! It is not easy to teach from Sabias que - you're going to have to work as hard as your students are, but the rewards will be amazing! This is not a teach-yourself Spanish text. It is meant for classroom use.