- this would certainly be one of them!!

In this book, Michael J. Roads describes a spiritual journey unlike any other I have ever come across. It is fascinating, breath-taking, mind-boggeling, almost unbelievable - and yet it FEELS very real and true. There are a multitudes of insights throughout the book, and each time I revisit this book I find new ones. If you have never read any books by Michael J. Roads, I would recommend to start of with one of his earlier books, like 'Journey into Nature' or 'Journey into Oneness', simply because 'Into a Timeless Realm' ties these into a much larger universe and it is always fun to begin a journey with the first couple of steps. :)

If you have already read his earlier books, treat yourself to this one - it will keep you at the edge of your seat from beginning to end!

Until the release of Michael's new book ("Getting There"), "Into a Timeless Realm" was my favorite of his books -- and I've read them all. His connection with, and love of, Nature is amazing, and is a connection I share (not yet with his depth and consistency yet, but it's coming).

"Into a Timeless Realm" takes you on his most incredible and insightful spiritual journey. Each time I read this book, I come away with more treasures.

I have read all of Michael J. Roads' books and found this one to be absolutely fantastic. It takes you deeply into the metaphysical realm and beyond. When reading it, I felt as though I had personally witnessed what the author experienced. I consumed the book quickly and then read it a second time in order to digest it. A great, well-written book! Definitely one I'm going to keep on my bookshelf.

The concept that nature is conscious is not new. It is only new to western thinking. This book can be read on multiple levels. It is a great story, in the story you can see how to contact nature yourself, and on a deeper level you can see that all live is One and Divine.

This book deals with the inner truth of nature and God. Before I read this book, I was an atheist and assumed the author was a babbling tree-hugger. Now, after reading this book, I view nature as a universified intelligence that accepts everyone. This book opened new passageways for inner truth and acceptance of God. What a great book to begin studies in the New Age/metapsychical movement!

This book is a breathtaking experience! It is well written and gives us account of the steps we can move up to our return of wholiness! A very grateful emotion for me and friends I have recommended it. But, as I live in Brazil and many people do not read English, I would like to know if there is the Portuguese translation...

What other state can claim as many notable small towns as does the Empire State? Cooperstown, Lake Placid, Sleepy Hollow, Woodstock, Watkins Glen, Chautauqua, Corning, Saratoga Springs, West Point, Oyster Bay, several Hamptons, Ticonderoga, Seneca Falls-- Norman Rockwell (who lived a short walk across the state line) might just have been a tad jealous. Only the first and last make it into this book, and just as well. When Country Roads Press sends America's top small-town journalist through America's top small-town state, you don't want to waste him on places you already know.

Bill Kauffman (of Batavia and Elba) has milked a career out of keeping the leaders of the land's great Lost Causes from, as he puts it, "going down the memory hole", in books such as America First! and With Good Intentions, and in frequent pieces in The Wall Street Journal, American Enterprise, Chronicles, Liberty and other magazines. Here he applies the same special talent to a "second tier" of New York villages, and one wonders if he chose these particular communities for an unusual richness in odd stories and characters, or whether he'd have dug these up anywhere he went.

Kauffman's at his best at home in the western snout of the state, where he unlocks the somewhat feudal nature of Geneseo, LeRoy and Angelica. (The obscurer the town, the more fun he has with it.) The pump industry of Seneca Falls, a quarter of the world's total, gets as much of his attention as the distaff business there. And why not? Sanitation has saved more lives than medicine. Hundreds of millions owe their lives to this important town, celebrated for the all the wrong reasons.

His subjects have given us three presidents, Mormonism, women's suffrage and colored gelatin, but if there's something else of note in town, Bill'l let us know. (And if it's in the next town over, he'll cheat and go there.)

Further afield Kauffman's more the tourist, especially across the "soda/pop" line, which is not as close to the city as he imagines. Cooperstown is not quite as cute as he paints it-- indeed, one of its charms is the relative lack of the boutique pollution that has ruined many similar places. And couldn't he find a "country town" left on Long Island? That in itself is sad. However, his analysis of the Burned-Over District is so sharp it will inspire the reader to try his hand at the built-over districs as well.

Finally, some things to look for which aren't in the book (and may no longer exist):

Westfield-- the weird, wing-shaped Theatre Motel and Drive-In on the lake;

Bath (in the Hammondsport chapter)-- the Chat-a-Wyle Café and its grape pie;

Palmyra-- where Winston Churchill's grandparents married, perhaps not in one of the four churches at the intersection;

Oneonta (in the Cooperstown chapter)-- the book mentions the NY-P League team there, but check out their Depression-era ballpark in the Susquehanna valley, one of the handsomest settings in all the sport. (And in "Soccertown, USA", no less.)

This book is another installment in the journey of a contemporary mystic, Michael Roads. In this fascinating account, he describes how he came to be a "participant in Nature". He meets the god Pan, who acts as his guide. Under Pan's tutelage, Roads merges his consciousness successively with water, minerals, plants, animals, and weather. The result is what seems like a description of Nature from the inside. The cynic will find not one thing believable in this entire book, but for those who can read it with an open mind, the book offers profound insights into Nature. I highly recommend this book to anyone whose primary experience of the Sacred is through Nature.

Good illustrations, tight bios of the buildings, not very gripping. For Main Line fans.