Lantern Books Blog

Dreams and Symbols

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 06:00:00 CDT

The Ouroboros: eternal symbol

For centuries, oneirophants have sought to understand the mystery of dreams: what they tell us about ourselves, the future, and our needs and aspirations. In this collection of books from Jungian psychologists and published by Chiron Publications, which is distributed by Lantern, various authors examine the meaning of dreams and explore the symbols that often appear in them and are reflected in the outside world.

In Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams, Eugene T. Gendlin describes how your body's reactions to dreams can teach you what the dream is speaking to you. First, you'll discover what the dream is about, and secondly, you'll learn something new from the dream that will aid your own development.

Animals are of great symbolic significance to us: both when we're asleep and when we're conscious. In Animal Life in Nature, Myth, and Dreams, Elizabeth Caspari connects the world of real, living animals with the symbolic world of animal images in human thought. This book, fully illustrated with color photos, is a study of animals: their natural history, mythology, folklore, and religious significance around the world as well as their role in our lives, dreams, and everyday language. In The Archetypal Symbolism of Animals, Barbara Hannah, a student and close friend of C.G. Jung, presents lectures on the symbolic meaning of several domestic and wild animals, and illustrates how our animal nature can become the psychic source of renewal and natural wholeness.

Two of Chiron's most popular books are, first, The Herder Dictionary of Symbols, containing more than 450 illustrations and a thousand entries from around the world on the meaning of symbols in religion, archaeology, mythology, art, dreams, fairy tales, and literature. The second is The Chiron Dictionary of Greek and Roman Mythology, also pocket sized, which offers concise information on the mythology of these two cultures from Abdera to Zeuxippe, including gods, goddesses, heroes, kings, queens, and significant places. Geneological diagrams are provided to help understand the intricate web of kinship, while over 270 line drawins and charts enliven the margins and provide information on the cultural representations of these mythic figures throughout history.

Related Titles

The Wisdom of the Chakras Tools for Navigating the Complexity of Life Ellen Tadd	Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams Eugene T. Gendlin	Animal Life in Nature, Myth and Dreams Elizabeth Caspari
The Archetypal Symbolism of Animals Lectures given at the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, 1954�1958 Barbara Hannah, Emmanuel Kennedy-Xypolitas	The Chiron Dictionary of Greek and Roman Mythology	The Herder Dictionary of Symbols

The Great American Meatout

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 06:00:00 CDT

Make It Meatless

Back in the early 1980s, being a vegetarian was a lot harder than it is more than thirty years later. If you don't know, just ask Alex Hershaft, founder of FARM, and Mark Braunstein, author of Radical Vegetarianism, a book as nuggety, nutritious, and nutty as some of the meatloafs that no doubt graced the tables of veggies back then.

Actually, Radical Vegetarianism makes a strong case not simply for vegetarianism, but for raw foodism, and for all of us, however we might name our diet, to examine our food choices playfully but profoundly, for none of us is pure. Another book to do just that is Sistah Vegan, which explores a plant-based diet in the context of race, class, women's body image and gender as a whole, and a raft of other issues that remind us that being vegetarian or vegan can never simply be simply about which animal products you leave out of your diet.

Flummoxed about moving from omnivorousness to vegetarianism, let alone veganism? Want someone to be your cheerleader and BFF as you make the transition? Then Donna Beaudoin, a.k.a. Sister Vegetarian, is right there for you. Sister Vegetarian's 31 Days of Drama-Free Living is so fresh that it's like a bariatic chamberful of pure oxygen for your mind and body. She's got recipes, mantras, and a whole bunch of good ideas to get you from meat to veg, and then veg to vegan. Check it out!

If you're completely baffled about just what it is that vegetarians or vegans eat, then Lantern has a bunch of books that will help you embrace the plant-based diet without having to tell anyone that you've become a (sssh!) vegetarian. You'll see them listed below as images.

Related Titles

Sister Vegetarian's 31 Days of Drama-Free Living Exercises and Recipes for a Healthy Mind, Body, and Spirit Donna Michelle Beaudoin	Sistah Vegan Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society A. Breeze Harper, pattrice jones	Radical Vegetarianism A Dialectic of Diet and Ethic Mark Mathew Braunstein
The Philosophy of Animal Rights A Brief Introduction for Students and Teachers Mylan Engel, Ph.D., Kathie Jenni, Ph.D.	The Lantern Vegan Family Cookbook Brian McCarthy	How to Eat like a Vegetarian Even If You Never Want to Be One More than 250 Shortcuts, Strategies, and Simple Solutions Carol J. Adams, Patti Breitman

Healthy Body

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 06:00:00 CDT

Ruth Heidrich: She's got rhythm

Too often we celebrate the mind and the spirit and forget that we are incarnate beings, merely but magnificently mortal. While it's true that our flesh will ultimately fail and die, our passage on this earth is nevertheless contained within what the Anglo-Saxons accurately and evocatively called the "bone house," which in spite of how much we ignore it, abuse it, or forget we have it, remains incredibly resilient and resourceful for much of our lives. That's why we need to protect and cherish it, and that's why Lantern Books publishes titles that can help you do just that.

In Condom Sense, Dr. Monica Sweeney, director of the New York City Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, makes it clear that the AIDS epidemic is not over, not only in Africa and Asia, but in North America and Europe, where a new generation of young men and women are returning to sex without condoms, resulting in a dramatic increase in HIV cases after years of decline. Her message is clear and strong: The best protection is prevention, with latex condoms. Condom Sense uncompromisingly focuses on the reality of human lives and tells you how to stay safe.

Much of what makes weight loss work is having the right attitude: a feeling of joy in one's life and not the dread of deprivation. A case in point is Norris Chumley, author of The Joy of Weight Loss. He had been on virtually every diet, and they'd all failed. He tipped the scales at the 400 pounds time and time again. He felt hopeless, and, in rare glimpses of honesty, secretly admitted that he was slowly committing suicide. His book tells the dramatic story of how he turned his life around, discovered joy, happiness, and permanent freedom from obesity and offers a straightforward way for you to manage your weight.

Ruth Heidrich faced a different challenge. Diagnosed with breast cancer in her mid-forties, she underwent a double mastectomy. In the process of recovery, she realized that what she had took for fitness and a good diet was in fact killing her. She decided that her recuperation would be to set herself the goal of completing the punishing Ironman Triathlon, a test of endurance involving a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile marathon run. As she describes in A Race for Life, the Ironman led her on an odyssey for health and wellness that will inspire you. Now approaching eighty, Ruth Heidrich is still running, cancer-free, and positive about life. This is her story. In Senior Fitness, Ruth shows how you can maintain and even increase physical and sexual fitness at any age, and dramatically reduce the risk of diseases associated with aging.

Donna Beaudoin (a.k.a. Sister Vegetarian) felt fatigued, sick, and blah. She decided to listen to her deeper self and take her vegetarianism one day at a time. She lasted a week, then a month, then several months, and then over a year. She wrote a book about her experiences—the kind of book she wished she'd had when undergoing her transformation. This is Sister Vegetarian's 31 Days of Drama-Free Living: a recipe, inspirational guide, and fitness guide for anyone who wants to get up and get moving.

For Ginny Jordan, author of Clear Cut, the challenge was recognizing that her health, indeed her very identity, depended on finding something that was "her," even when parts of her body were being cut off to remove the cancer from her body. This poetic and incisive memoir of survival is an incredible testament to our will to survive.

Related Titles

Senior Fitness The Diet and Exercise Program for Maximum Health and Longevity Ruth E. Heidrich, Ph.D.	A Race for Life A Diet and Exercise Program for Superfitness and Reversing the Aging Process Ruth E. Heidrich, Ph.D.	The Joy of Weight Loss A Spiritual Guide to Easy Fitness Norris Chumley
Condom Sense A Guide to Sexual Survival in the New Millennium M. Monica Sweeney, M.D., M.P.H., Rita Kirwan Grisman	Clear Cut One Woman's Journey of Life in the Body Ginny Jordan	Carbophobia! The Scary Truth About America's Low-Carb Craze Michael Greger, MD
Sister Vegetarian's 31 Days of Drama-Free Living Exercises and Recipes for a Healthy Mind, Body, and Spirit Donna Michelle Beaudoin

Conscious Activism

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 06:00:00 CST

Julia Butterfly Hill: Psyche by name...

It is one thing to want to act; it is another thing to take action; and it is an another thing still to act consciously to bring about lasting change.

Sometimes the most effective activism takes place during ordinary encounters with family, friends, and even strangers—each interaction a chance to educate by example, embodying our ethical beliefs as best we can. In Living Among Meat Eaters, Carol Adams helps us become more aware of the message we're sending, with self-tests, strategies, meditations on vegetarianism, and tips for dining out and entertaining at home when meat eaters are on the invite list.

In Consciousness in Action: The Power of Beauty, Love, and Courage in a Violent Time, Andrew Beath has gathered the wisdom of several leading spiritual activists (John Mack, Julia Butterfly Hill, and others) to show how right mind and right livelihood can bring about enormous change. The activists talk about aligning their spiritual values with their wish to bring about social and political change.

Will Tuttle in The World Peace Diet: Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony offers a powerful and polemical call for us to recognize that our choices not only impact the lives of others but also make us healthy or sick. We can no longer separate our lives from the lives of the beings who live with us on this planet, and, conversely, working for the good of others is working for the good of ourselves.

In Aftershock, pattrice jones shows how important it is for activists to prepare themselves for their activism and to protect themselves from the trauma of living in a violent world where many of us turn away from suffering and pain and refuse to confront it. This is a vital work for all activists.

For Hillary Rettig (author of The Lifelong Activist), Josephine Bellaccomo (author of Move the Message, and Melanie Joy (author of Strategic Action for Animals, conscious activism means effective activism. Rettig provides abundant solutions for activists to avoid burnout and maintain a positive outlook on one's tasks. Bellaccomo's book is all about communication and presentation: how to write, speak, coordinate, organize, present, and in all ways move your message in the most effective and expeditious manner. Joy argues that animal activists in particular need to be less concerned with running from one demonstration to another and think more strategically—not only with the outside world, but in their own organizations and life.

Finally, let's not forget a couple of great animal activists—Bruce Friedrich and Matt Ball—whose primer on activism, The Animal Activist's Handbook, contains all you need to know from making a speech to handing over a leaflet.

Related Titles

Strategic Action for Animals A Handbook on Strategic Movement Building, Organizing, and Activism for Animal Liberation Melanie Joy	Radical Vegetarianism A Dialectic of Diet and Ethic Mark Mathew Braunstein	Muzzling a Movement The Effects of Anti-Terrorism Law, Money, and Politics on Animal Activism Dara Lovitz
Move the Message Your Guide to Making a Difference and Changing the World Josephine Bellaccomo	The Lifelong Activist How to Change the World without Losing Your Way Hillary Rettig	The Animal Activist's Handbook Maximizing Our Positive Impact in Today's World Matt Ball, Bruce Friedrich, Ingrid Newkirk
Consciousness in Action The Power of Beauty, Love, and Courage in a Violent Time Andrew Beath	The World Peace Diet Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony Will Tuttle	Aftershock Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies pattrice jones

Science and the Divine

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 CST

It's cosmic

For too long, science and religion have seen themselves in opposition.

Yet, as Harvard-educated theologian Gary Kowalski argues in Science and the Search for God, many of the ills of the modern world, from the rise of fundamentalist intolerance to secular society's spiritual emptiness, stem from the mistaken view that science and faith are antagonists rather than natural allies. Both science and faith, the author suggests, now compel us to move beyond materialism toward an understanding of the world that includes the realities of consciousness and spirit.

Someone who understands deeply the consonance of science and religious practice is Glen Peter Kezwer, who is not only an accomplished physicist but an intensive meditator. Using modern scientific analysis, he shows in Meditation, Oneness, and Physics that the descriptions of reality as put forth by quantum physics correlate with those altered states of consciousness achieved in meditation. He further describes how meditation can be incorporated into your own life to bring the benefits of good health, happiness, clear thinking, peace of mind, self-sufficiency, and fearlessness.

Related Titles

Science and the Search for God
Gary Kowalski

Meditation, Oneness and Physics
A Journey through the Laboratories of Physics and Meditation
Glen Peter Kezwer

Bird Flu

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 06:00:00 CST

Michael Greger: Nothing to sneeze at

From age-old scourges like smallpox and tuberculosis to emerging threats like AIDS and SARS, our interactions with animals have played a pivotal role as the source of human disease.

Before there was swine flu (H1N1), there was bird flu (H5N1). In spite of the visibility of H1N1, leading public health authorities still predict as inevitable a pandemic of influenza, triggered by bird flu and expected to lead to millions of deaths around the globe. The influenza virus has existed for millions of years as an innocuous intestinal virus of wild ducks. What turned a harmless waterborne duck virus into a killer? In Bird Flu, Dr. Michael Greger traces the human role in the evolution of this virus, whose humble beginnings belie its transformation into a killer mutant strain with the potential to become as ferocious as Ebola and as contagious as the common cold. In the face of the coming pandemic, Dr. Greger reveals what we can do to protect our families and what human society to can do to reduce the likelihood of such catastrophes in the future.

Related Titles

Bird Flu
A Virus of Our Own Hatching
Michael Greger, MD

The Black Experience

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:51:18 CST

Join the conversation

Lantern would like to believe that our books are of interest to anyone—no matter their color, creed, or sexual orientation. However, Black History Month is a good heuristic to draw attention to titles by African-American authors.

Unlike those in so many anthologies, Sistah Vegan's two dozen voices are not only very diverse in terms of the educational, social, and economic backgrounds, but they have markedly different—and sometimes completely antithetical—perspectives. In other words, the book is like a large and rambunctious conversation between friends who have no trouble calling each other out, but remain respectful and supporting.

Another book that I relished is Sister Vegetarian's 31 Days of Drama-Free Living by Donna Beaudoin who for a full month provides personal stories, practical tips, mouthwatering recipes, and empowering thoughts that will help you avoid the drama and negativity of family members, coworkers, and your own doubts as you set about supercharging your day by eating healthily, exercising with energy and joy, and becoming aware of your own strength.

By turns exuberant, mordant, self-aware and sharply observed, Joseph Holland's From Harlem with Love is part memoir of thirty years of activism on behalf of the dispossessed, part history of a storied neighborhood, and part celebration of the culture that emerged in the early parts of the twentieth century from this part of Manhattan: a culture that would reshape America.

All told, these books offer a compelling vision of a diverse and vital community engaged in finding a better way forward for themselves and other Americans.

Related Titles

Sister Vegetarian's 31 Days of Drama-Free Living Exercises and Recipes for a Healthy Mind, Body, and Spirit Donna Michelle Beaudoin	Sistah Vegan Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society A. Breeze Harper, pattrice jones	From Harlem with Love An Ivy Leaguer's Inner City Odyssey Joseph Holland
Aftershock Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies pattrice jones

Interreligious Dialogue

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 06:00:00 CST

Circle of faiths

After a twenty-year period as abbot of St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, Thomas Keating moved to St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, called by the late Fr. Theophane Boyd, the "Magic Monastery" because of the beauty of its surroundings, the peace inside its walls, and the extraordinary transformations that take place there.

During his time at Snowmass, Fr. Thomas was deeply involved in interreligious dialogue (see www.monasticdialog.com). Over a twenty-year period, a series of interreligious dialogues took place at Snowmass, the proceedings of which were kept private so that the participants could explore freely the wealth of their own traditions and dialogue from the heart about the differences and similarities between their paths of wisdom. These dialogues have now been captured in The Common Heart. Participants include Fr. Thomas, Roshi Bernie Glassman, Swami Atmarupananda, Dr. Ibrahim Gamard, Imam Bilal Hyde, Pema Ch�dr�n, Rabbi Henoch Dov Hoffman, and others.

For over a decade, Benedictine nun Sr. Mary Margaret Funk has engaged in a dialogue with American Muslims in an effort to bridge the gap that seems to divide Christianity and Islam, and to get to the heart of faith itself. In Islam Is. . ., Sr. Meg reveals what she has learned about Islam, lays out its fundamental beliefs, and courageously examines the controversial issues of terrorism, women's rights, and economic power. Discovering startling similarities with her own deeply held Catholic practice and beliefs, Sr. Meg offers Christians everywhere a way of viewing the spiritual essence of Islam in a way that is honest and authentic. The book contains a similarly honest and heartfelt afterword by her dialogue partner Shahid Athar, M.D.

As part of its commitment to interreligious dialogue, Lantern has continued to engage in publishing the work of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (MID) and its European correlative DIM. The most recent volume is the first volume of Dilatato Corde, a multi-language journal from DIMMID. In similar vein, The Attentive Voice is a collection of essays from individuals published in the MID Bulletin, who discuss the deeper rhythms and structures of their traditions.

The authors describe the ways dialogue with other religious traditions has enhanced their spiritual life, explain why interreligious relations have become such an important element of modern Catholic life, and reflect on the meaning of interreligious dialogue vis-à-vis the Catholic Church's teaching on revelation and salvation in and through Jesus Christ. In so doing, they show that interreligious dialogue is an engaging, enlightening, and spiritually enriching way to respond to religious plurality.

Related Titles

The Spiritual Life A Dialogue of Buddhist and Christian Monastics Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, Fr. James A. Wiseman	Green Monasticism A Buddhist-Catholic Response to an Environmental Calamity Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, William Skudlarek, O.S.B.	God's Harp String The Life and Legacy of the Benedictine Monk, Swami Abhishiktananda William Skudlarek, O.S.B.
Finding Peace in Troubled Times Buddhist and Christian Monastics on Transforming Suffering Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, Fr. James A. Wiseman	The Attentive Voice Reflections on the Meaning and Practice of Interreligious Dialogue William Skudlarek, O.S.B.	Sundays at the Magic Monastery Homilies from the Trappists of St. Benedict�s Monastery Thomas Keating
The Common Heart An Experience of Interreligious Dialogue Netanel Miles-Yepez, Ken Wilber, Thomas Keating	Islam Is... An Experience of Dialogue and Devotion Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, Shahid Athar, MD

Gethsemani Encounters

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 06:00:00 CST

Thomas Merton: Primum Mobile

In 1996, a group of monastics from the Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian traditions met at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky to share their experiences of the monastic life. This meeting took place for two reasons. The first was Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, who resided at Gethsemani, and pioneered interreligious dialogue, when he met His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1968. It was perhaps partly out of that curiosity and faithfulness to the idea of dialogue that the Vatican started an organization eventually called Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (MID) in the mid-1970s to encourage continued dialogue between those faiths with monastic traditions (Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism), an effort that continues to this day.

Lantern has published a number of titles on interreligious dialogue, including Islam Is. . ., The Common Heart, The Attentive Voice, and two books about Swami Abhishiktananda/Henri Le Saux (God's Harp String and Witness to the Fullness of Light).

In addition to this, Lantern is thrilled to have brought under one roof the three books that emerged from the main Gethsemani Encounters: 1996 (The Spiritual Life), 2002 (Finding Peace in Troubled Times), and Green Monasticism). The extraordinary range of voices—which include in The Spiritual Life the Dalai Lama—represent the fullness of a life dedicated to the principles of discipline, devotion, authenticity, practice, and compassion.

As part of its continuing engagement with interreligious dialogue, MID (with its European counterpart DIM) has now produced Dilatato Corde, a journal that brings together the most incisive and comprehensive work on interreligious dialogue, both theoria and praxis, currently existing.

Related Titles

Islam Is... An Experience of Dialogue and Devotion Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, Shahid Athar, MD	Green Monasticism A Buddhist-Catholic Response to an Environmental Calamity Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, William Skudlarek, O.S.B.	God's Harp String The Life and Legacy of the Benedictine Monk, Swami Abhishiktananda William Skudlarek, O.S.B.
Finding Peace in Troubled Times Buddhist and Christian Monastics on Transforming Suffering Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, Fr. James A. Wiseman	The Common Heart An Experience of Interreligious Dialogue Netanel Miles-Yepez, Ken Wilber, Thomas Keating	The Attentive Voice Reflections on the Meaning and Practice of Interreligious Dialogue William Skudlarek, O.S.B.
The Spiritual Life A Dialogue of Buddhist and Christian Monastics Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, Fr. James A. Wiseman	Witness to the Fullness of Light The Vision and Relevance of the Benedictine Monk Swami Abhishiktananda William Skudlarek, O.S.B., Bettina Bäumer

An Inadmissible Comparison

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:00:00 CST

The Union Stock Yard: The beginning and end of the line

What can we say about the Holocaust, and can we in any way talk of it in the same breath as the routine slaughter of billions of animals on today's factory farms?

In a thoughtful and thought-provoking contribution to the study of animals and the Holocaust, The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale, Karen Davis makes the case that significant parallels can, and must, be drawn between the Holocaust and the institutionalized abuse of billions of animals in factory farms. Carefully setting forth the conditions that must be met when one instance of oppression is used metaphorically to illuminate another, Davis demonstrates the value of such comparisons in exploring the invisibility of the oppressed, historical and hidden suffering, the idea that some groups were "made" to serve others through suffering and sacrificial death, and other concepts that reveal powerful connections between animal and human experience, as well as human traditions and tendencies of which we all should be aware.

In Eternal Treblinka, scholar Charles Patterson shows the links between the Chicago meat-packing industry, the assembly lines of Henry Ford, and Hitler's embrace of mechanized slaughter and eugenics perfected on animals: a deadly combination that led to the killing of over six million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and communists. Thoughtfully showing the ideology of purity and dehumanization that led to the Holocaust, Patterson reveals how the fascist mentality exists even today in the destruction of life unworthy of life in the factory farms of today.

In a related book, He Walked Through Walls, Myriam Miedzian describes the extraordinary life of her father as he managed to shepherd his immediately family to safety during World War II, and before that, himself survived numerous moments where he could have lost his life.

All in all, these three titles provide much food for thought about how cruel the twentieth-century was to both human beings and animals.

Related Titles

The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale
A Case for Comparing Atrocities
Karen Davis

Eternal Treblinka
Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust
Charles Patterson, Ph.D

He Walked Through Walls
A Twentieth-Century Tale of Survival
Myriam Miedzian

Effective Activism

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 06:00:00 CST

Hillary Rettig: An effective advocate

Many of us want to create change in the world, but face tremendous obstacles in getting our message out. The powers that be have vastly more resources at their disposal than activists do. But some of our authors have discovered how to shift the balance of power.

In Strategic Action for Animals, Melanie Joy explains how to use strategy to exponentially increase the effectiveness of activism for animals. Drawing on diverse movements and sources, she offers tried and true tactics and explains how to address the most common problems that weaken activists' efforts. Matt Ball and Bruce Friedrich's The Animal Activist's Handbook builds a ground-up case for reasoned, impassioned, and joyous activism that makes the most difference possible. They also suggest a variety of ways to live a meaningful life through effective and efﬁcient advocacy.

An activist needs to be savvy about a number of things: one of which is why some folks are resistant to some messages and not others. Nick Cooney, author of Change of Heart, has explored in great depth how message communicators (from social activists to advertisers) have found ways to penetrate people's consciousness and make them open to changing long-held habits or beliefs. Change of Heart is essential reading for anyone who wants to bring about social change.

Without question, one key strategic element of activism is maximally effective presentation—whether your audience is a single individual, a small group, a large audience, or the world media. In Move the Message, communications consultant and activist Josephine Bellaccomo delivers a step-by-step process, complete with tactics, strategies, examples, and exercises, to ensure that your message is focused, powerful, and reaches the power holders for winning results. The book not only makes a wonderful guide for those who wish to be an activist, it is an astonishing repository of tips on successful communication, and, as such, should be read by all those who want to become more effective in the world.

It's important as activists that we also take care of ourselves. Too often, however, we think that bringing about social change involves personal deprivation, poverty, rootlessness, and misery. We don't deserve to lead rich and fulfilling lives, we tell ourselves, while others are suffering. The tragedy is, however, that denying ourselves our needs makes us less and not more effective, and may in fact make us a burden for others trying to bring about the same change.

The Lifelong Activist teaches you how to avoid burnout by integrating activism consciously and joyfully into a well-balanced life. Its four sections ("Managing Your Mission," "Managing Your Time," "Managing Your Fears," and "Managing Your Relationships") offer easy and effective techniques to help activists both old and young, new on the scene and on the verge of burnout remain enthusiastic, passionate, and joyful.

Another book with its roots in the tradition of non-violence, is Peace to All Beings by Judy Carman. The book explores the meaning of ahimsa today as it applies to stopping environmental destruction and the cruelties of factory farming. Drawing upon all the world's religions and contemporary spiritual teachers, Peace is a wonderful manual for spiritual seekers and activists looking to sustain their souls as they bring about difficult and hard-fought change.

Finally, Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World, A Guide for Activists and Their Allies, pattrice jones illustrates how important it is for activists who have to face violence and trauma, protect themselves and each other. She provides the psychological and practical tools necessary to make it possible to pursue a long and sustained career in activism.

For more on Hillary Rettig's work, click here.

Related Titles

Strategic Action for Animals A Handbook on Strategic Movement Building, Organizing, and Activism for Animal Liberation Melanie Joy	Muzzling a Movement The Effects of Anti-Terrorism Law, Money, and Politics on Animal Activism Dara Lovitz	Change of Heart What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change Nick Cooney
The Animal Activist's Handbook Maximizing Our Positive Impact in Today's World Matt Ball, Bruce Friedrich, Ingrid Newkirk	Move the Message Your Guide to Making a Difference and Changing the World Josephine Bellaccomo	The Lifelong Activist How to Change the World without Losing Your Way Hillary Rettig
Peace to All Beings Veggie Soup for the Chicken's Soul Judy Carman	Aftershock Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies pattrice jones

Keeping Those New Year's Resolutions

kate [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Kate Lawrence) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 11:57:14 CST

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

As a new year begins, we hear much talk of resolutions, ways to improve one's life in the coming year. These might have to do with weight loss, increased fitness, decreased indulgence in sweets, alcohol or tobacco, controlling one's temper, and better budgeting of money. As a regular participant in fitness classes, I notice every January a sudden increase in attendance by new people I've heard called "resolutioners." These folks start out with the best of intentions, but unfortunately do not continue; within a month they are mostly gone.

The desire people have for personal improvement is something we as practical peacemakers want to encourage. Progress on any of the goals listed above leads to a more harmonious personal and family life, and thus a more peaceful society. However, the urge to make improvements that require discipline is fragile; it is no easy thing to change long-standing habits. In fact, it seems that the making of resolutions is considered a sort of joke: "yeah, sure, you're going to quit smoking--how long is that going to last?" "You say you're going to get up earlier in order to exercise--right."

How can we turn around this expectation of failure and make the keeping of resolutions more likely? I have three ideas.

The first is probably obvious: set goals modest enough to keep. Instead of expecting yourself to exercise five mornings a week, start out with two. Whatever amount of weight you want to lose, set the goal at half that. This way you can feel good when you complete your personal challenge.

The second is not to consider the project over the first time you fail. For example, you resolve to avoid cookies or chips and before long, in a weak moment, you eat some anyway. Instead of beating yourself up, just start over, and keep starting over as often as it takes.

The third way would be to pay as much attention at the end of the year about resolutions completed, as we do at the beginning about resolutions proposed. If people expected to be taking a hard look at year's end about how well they'd been able to keep their resolutions, they might set more realistic goals and keep on despite setbacks. The Jazzercise Center I attend keeps track of how many classes each person attends, and recognizes with prizes and a round of applause those who achieve certain goals. This is reinforcement that works.

For most of us, however, no one is going to recognize and applaud us for keeping our resolutions. Only you know how many pounds you've lost, or how many times you've chosen to save money instead of buying something frivolous. So we must keep track ourselves. I suggest writing on your calendar each time you've kept your resolutions. Then you'll have monthly totals, and at the end of the year you can review your resolutions and say, "I got up X number of days to exercise," or "There were Y times I could have gotten angry but didn't." The times you failed don't even register. This is how we're going to succeed at the resolution game.

Related Titles

The Practical Peacemaker
How Simple Living Makes Peace Possible
Kate Lawrence

Thomas Keating and Centering Prayer

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 06:00:00 CST

Thomas Keating

For thirty years, Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, has been reclaiming the Christian meditative tradition that he calls Centering Prayer.

It takes its roots from a number of sources: the ancient prayer practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert; Lectio Divina, (praying the scriptures); The Cloud of Unknowing; St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. With his fellow Trappist monks, Fr. William Meninger and Fr. Basil Pennington, and through his organization, Contemplative Outreach, Thomas Keating has shown that contemporary Christianity can be an enlivening, mystical experience, both free of dogma and deeply personal.

The fundamental transformation of Centering Prayer occurs when you enter what Thomas Keating calls "the inner room," a concept taken from Matthew 6:6 ("But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you"—NIV.) When you enter the room, God, acting as a divine therapist, begins to peel away the layers of emotional programming that have kept you from intimacy with God and uncovers the authentic self that has been hidden or repressed. All of the resistances, pathologies, and prejudices you have about the divine and your own self are lovingly removed, leaving you able to enjoy what Paul the Apostle calls "the fruits and gifts of the Spirit."

Lantern has (through its co-owners, myself and Gene Gollogly) been working with Thomas Keating and Contemplative Outreach for nearly twenty years, and Lantern has now published so many works by Fr. Thomas and about Centering Prayer that this blog would simply be too long to mention them all. We invite you to visit our religion page to read more about each of them.

For more on Thomas Keating and Contemplative Outreach, click here.

Related Titles

The Spiritual Life A Dialogue of Buddhist and Christian Monastics Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, Fr. James A. Wiseman	The Thomas Keating Reader Selected Writings from the Contemplative Outreach Newsletter Thomas Keating	And the Word Was Made Flesh Thomas Keating
Divine Therapy and Addiction Centering Prayer and the Twelve Steps Thomas Keating	Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit Thomas Keating	The God Who Is Here A Contemplative Guide to Transforming Your Relationship with God and the Church Peter Traben Haas
The Transformation of Suffering Reflections on September 11 and the Wedding Feast at Cana in Galilee Thomas Keating	Manifesting God Thomas Keating	The Divine Indwelling Centering Prayer and Its Development Thomas Keating
St. Th�r�se of Lisieux A Transformation in Christ Thomas Keating

Weight Loss and You

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 06:00:00 CST

Norris is there to make weight loss a joy

Much of what makes weight loss work is having the right attitude: a feeling of joy in one's life and not the dread of deprivation. A case in point is Norris Chumley, author of The Joy of Weight Loss. He'd been on virtually every diet, and they'd all failed. He tipped the scales at the 400 pounds time and time again. He felt hopeless, and, in rare glimpses of honesty, secretly admitted that he was slowly committing suicide. His book tells the dramatic story of how he turned his life around, discovered joy, happiness, and permanent freedom from obesity and offers a straightforward way for you to manage your weight. Likewise Victoria Moran. As she recounts in The Love-Powered Diet, she yo-yo'd in weight, until she realized that she had to love the body she had to get to the body she wanted.

Donna Beaudoin had tried to go vegetarian over and over again, only to be brought down by her own doubts and family, friends, and co-workers, who told her that she'd be giving up her culture, her looks, and a whole host of nonsense ("drama!") if she stopped eating meat. She finally decided to chart her own course and the result is Sister Vegetarian's 31 Days of Drama-Free Living, a book that will take you day by day through the process of changing your life. Donna (a.k.a. Sister Vegetarian) lost forty pounds, regained her health, and is now full of zest and zip.

For more on Norris Chumley, click here. For more on Victoria Moran, click here. For more on Donna Beaudoin, click here

Related Titles

Sister Vegetarian's 31 Days of Drama-Free Living
Exercises and Recipes for a Healthy Mind, Body, and Spirit
Donna Michelle Beaudoin

Senior Fitness
The Diet and Exercise Program for Maximum Health and Longevity
Ruth E. Heidrich, Ph.D.

The Joy of Weight Loss
A Spiritual Guide to Easy Fitness
Norris Chumley

God So Loved the World

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 06:00:00 CST

The Lamb of God

The radical premise of Christianity, too often forgotten in our anthropocentric age, is that it is the the world, and not simply humankind, that is redeemed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This means that the eschatalogical hope expressed by Isaiah that the wolf will dwell with the lamb and that the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord is not an idle wish that we might be nice to animals and nature. It is that all creatures and the earth itself will be transformed by lovingkindness into lovingkindness. Such a radical promise should challenge Christians to question whether the Biblical mandate of humankind's dominion over the animals and the earth should continue to lead to cruelty, exploitation, and indifference.

Norm Phelps, in The Dominion of Love presents a clear-eyed analysis of how we need to read the Bible carefully and thoughtfully to extract a message that challenges us to reflect on our actions toward others, including non-human animals. He also has another book The Great Compassion, which examines Buddhism from such a perspective.

The late Rev. J. R. Hyland, author of God's Covenant with Animals, believes that looking at the Bible as a book that documents the growth of spiritual consciousness of the Israelites and the Jewish Christians helps us understand Christianity as a living creed that can bring about change. In The Lost Religion of Jesus Keith Akers persuasively shows that the original Christians believed that Jesus' message demanded communal living, pacifism, and vegetarianism, a message that was diluted and perverted when Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire.

Finally, in Creatures of the Same God, the Rev. Andrew Linzey examines among other things how ecotheology can too easily look over our obligations to the individual animals in our care, and how we need to bring animals back into the theological discussion in general.

In all these books, the central message is that we need to reinvigorate the notion of care for the most vulnerable that lies at the heart of the Christian endeavor, something that extends also to animals and the natural world. After all, Jesus said it best of his care for Jerusalem: "How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings?"

For more on Christianity and vegetarianism, click here.

Related Titles

The Great Compassion Buddhism and Animal Rights Norm Phelps	Creatures of the Same God Explorations in Animal Theology Andrew Linzey	The Dominion of Love Animal Rights According to the Bible Norm Phelps
God's Covenant with Animals A Biblical Basis for the Humane Treatment of All Creatures J. R. Hyland	The Lost Religion of Jesus Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity Keith Akers

To Heal the World

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:00:00 CST

To Heal the World

One of the great spiritual mandates of Judaism is "tikkun olam," which means "to heal the world."

From God's first injunction, "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for food," (Gen. 1:29) the Hebrew Bible offers countless examples of how God intends a compassionate and caring attitude toward animals, our health, and the well-being of the planet. In Judaism and Vegetarianism, professor emeritus in New York Richard Schwartz shows how respect for animals and the environment can revitalize one's Jewish faith, while in Judaism and Global Survival he argues that a rediscovery of basic Jewish teachings and mandates, such as to seek peace and justice, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to act as co-workers with God in protecting and preserving the earth, can build a better world.

For more on Judaism and vegetarianism, click here.

Related Titles

Judaism and Vegetarianism
New Revised Edition
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Judaism and Global Survival
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Male Violence

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 06:00:00 CST

Spoiling for a fight

Why are so many boys and men so violent? And why do we tolerate this culture of violence?

These, as well as how to raise boys in a world of masculinist violence and macho posturing, are the subjects of Boys Will Be Boys. Philosopher and social theorist Miriam Miedzian argues that war toys, endless competition, tacitly approved bullying, violent films and music, brutal sports, and bigotry all systematically teach boys how to be aggressive. She offers strategies to break the mystique of aggression and restore young men's rightful inheritance to their true masculine dignity.

For many young people, contemporary society is alienating and full of pressures and unrealistic expectations. To be bullied, excluded or labeled as different can leave a child full of rage and fear, isolated and potentially suicidal. The results, as Brooks Brown and Rob Merritt explain in gripping and terrible detail in No Easy Answers, can be deadly. Brooks was friends with Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine High School murderers, and an acquaintance of the other shooter, Eric Harris. Brown and journalist Rob Merritt describe the warning signs that were missed or ignored, what life was like at Columbine High School before the shootings, and the evidence that was kept hidden from the public after the murders. Shocking as well as inspirational, No Easy Answers is an authentic wake-up call for all psychologists, authorities, parents, and anyone wanting to learn the unvarnished facts about growing up as an alienated teenager in America today.

How might we create a safe passage for boys from youth through adolescence to adulthood? This is the question that animates Brad Fern and Tom Lutz's Ashes to Gold. Using the Grimm Brothers' story known as "The Devil's Sooty Brother" as a template, Fern and Lutz explore the processes whereby a boy becomes a man, and show how they have used these processes in their work with delinquent youth.

Related Titles

Ashes to Gold
The Alchemy of Mentoring the Delinquent Boy
Brad Fern, MA, LAMFT, Tom Lutz, MA, LP, LICSW

Boys Will Be Boys
Breaking the Link Between Masculinity and Violence
Myriam Miedzian

No Easy Answers
The Truth Behind Death at Columbine High School
Brooks Brown, Rob Merritt

Each in His Prison

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 06:00:00 CST

Jens Soering

In 1986, Jens Soering, a naive and arrogant undergraduate, made a terrible decision.

Under the spell of a disturbed young woman, he became implicated in the horrendous murders of her parents. Infatuated and poorly advised, Soering assumed that as a German citizen he could take the blame for the murders, be extradited, and serve a limited sentence in his home country. He was wrong. He was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and placed in a maximum-security prison in Virginia. Twenty years later, and with little hope of parole or extradition, he continues to serve out a sentence for crimes he insists he did not commit.

Such a punishment might have destroyed him. However, a chance encounter with the work of Fr. Thomas Keating enabled Soering to leave the cycles of despair, anger, and emotional turmoil he was going through and discover the transformative power and practice of Centering Prayer. In The Way of the Prisoner, Soering explains just how he came to experience God's grace in the direst of circumstances and how that grace forced him to confront the past and recognize the beauty and redemptive hope possible in his current situation. A moving, true story that shocks and inspires, The Way of the Prisoner illustrates how we can all transform our crosses and our prisons (literal or metaphorical) into hard earned wisdom.

While Jens Soering manages to survive his incarceration, America's prisons continue to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of inmates, many of whom are either mentally ill, non-violent, or illiterate before being incarcerated, and utterly incapable of surviving in the world once they get out. In An Expensive Way to Make Bad People Worse, Soering avoids the usual bromides about prison reform to make an impassioned and fully resourced argument (one, uniquely, from a current inmate) that the current penal system is not only inefficient in controlling crime but inept at providing appropriate punishment for offenders.

Soering's next book, The Church of the Second Chance, explains how victims, offenders, and society at large can heal through a restorative approach. Each chapter features a scriptural lawbreaker who was granted a second chance through divine mercy, then examines a crucial problem besetting our jails and penitentiaries and demonstrates how people are working today, in and out of prison, to apply God's word to our own lives and times.

Soering's most recent title for Lantern is One Day in the Life of 179212, a disturbing, sometimes comic, hour-by-hour chronicle of the daily life of a prisoner, and a searing indictment of the twisted logic, lost lives, and hopeless situations that exist in America's prisons today.

For more on Jens Soering click here.

Related Titles

One Day in the Life of 179212 Notes from an American Prison Jens Soering	The Blessing Next to the Wound A Story of Art, Activism, and Transformation Hector Aristizábal, Diane Lefer	The Way of the Prisoner Breaking the Chains of Self through Centering Prayer and Centering Practice Jens Soering
The Church of the Second Chance A Faith-Based Approach to Prison Reform Jens Soering	An Expensive Way to Make Bad People Worse An Essay on Prison Reform from an Insider's Perspective Jens Soering

World AIDS Day

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 06:00:00 CST

Monica Sweeney: Telling it like it is

If there's one person who truly knows the costs of AIDS in the United States, it is Monica Sweeney, M.D.

As a doctor working in the heart of the inner city at the Bedford-Stuyvesant Family Health Center in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Sweeney saw how HIV/AIDS moved from being a disease of gay, white men or intravenous drug users to one that affects families, women, people of color, and the poor. In her trenchant and passionate Condom Sense: A Guide to Sexual Survival in the New Millennium, Dr. Sweeney and co-writer Rita Kirwan Grisman make relevant to today's young and at risk how essential it is that they protect themselves from risky sexual behavior.

Frank, practical, and straightforward, Condom Sense is an essential guide for public health advocates, parents, and any individual negotiating the world of intimdate relationships in the twenty-first century.

For more on World AIDS Day, click here.

Related Titles

Condom Sense
A Guide to Sexual Survival in the New Millennium
M. Monica Sweeney, M.D., M.P.H., Rita Kirwan Grisman

Family Bonds and Therapy

martin [at] lanternbooks [dot] com (Martin Rowe) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 06:00:00 CST

All kinds of hardships strike and stretch family bonds, whether it's the family as a whole or parents, siblings, relatives, or adopted family members. But despite harsh tribulations, families have time again shown that they possess a bond nigh on close to unbreakable. Lantern has published a number of books on coping with those family stresses:

Ashes to Gold talks about how we've lost the ancient rites of passage that enabled boys to become men. Brad Fern and Tom Lutz provide a practical and mythic outline for the journey from adolescence to maturity for young men.

Songs of My Families is about the a life story of Kelly Fern, who was both an adopted child and surrendered her own daughter to adoption. Told with refreshing honesty, Songs is the moving story of two generations of women forced to make agonizing choices as they coped with harsh economic realities and personal crises.

As children grow they're faced not with just physical problems but mental ones as well. Two books by John A. McKinnon (An Unchanged Mind and To Change a Mind) examine the problem with maturation in adolescents and how parents can help their children by setting boundaries and preventing the problem from happening in the first place.

Parents may need to work on themselves as well. This is the premise of The Parallel Process, by Krissy Pozatek, who shows how parents with troubled pre-teens, adolescents, and young adults can attune to their emotions, set limits, not rush to their rescue, and allow them to take responsibility for their actions.

Related Titles

An Unchanged Mind The Problem of Immaturity in Adolescence Dr. John A. McKinnon	To Change a Mind Parenting to Promote Maturity in Teenagers Dr. John A. McKinnon	Songs of My Families A Thirty-Seven-Year Odyssey from Korea to America and Back Kelly Fern, Brad Fern, MA, LAMFT
The Parallel Process Growing Alongside Your Adolescent or Young Adult Child in Treatment Krissy Pozatek, LICSW	Ashes to Gold The Alchemy of Mentoring the Delinquent Boy Brad Fern, MA, LAMFT, Tom Lutz, MA, LP, LICSW