Park Bench Mojo

Park Bench Mojo, by White Feather

One late winter afternoon Penny Crawford sat down on a park bench....and her life was never again the same. This is the remarkable story of the profound transformation of Penny's life and the secret of what happened on that park bench.

A middle-aged cashier at Wal-Mart, Penny Crawford led a dismal existence. Everyone she loved had left her. Her financial situation was bleak. She suffered from numerous physical ailments. She had no social life. And then one day she sat down on a park bench....and everything changed. Hers is a story of radical transformation brought on by a secret she learned from a mysterious old man. Her dreams had all died but they came alive again after utilizing what the mysterious old man taught her. But when they came back alive they were very different. Indeed, Penny herself was very different......

A profoundly moving metaphysical story.

The Religion of Ayahuasca: The Teachings of the Church of Santo Daime

The Religion of Ayahuasca: The Teachings of the Church of Santo Daime, by Alex Polari de Alverga. An insider’s experience and personal transformation with ayahuasca and the religious philosophy surrounding it and an intimate account of the genesis of the Santo Daime tradition. In search of something to restore his spiritual connection to life after his release from captivity as a political prisoner in Brazil, Alex Polari de Alverga had a transformative encounter with Padrinho Sebastiao Mota de Mela, one of the two revered founders of Santo Daime. A potent synthesis of Christianity and indigenous Amazonian practices of entheogen use, mediumship, and healing, the Santo Daime church provided Alverga with an alternative to his disillusionment with modern society. His quest for spiritual initiation eventually led him deep into the heart of the rain forest to Mapiá, one of the spiritual centers of Santo Daime, where he became a teacher and leader of the Daime community.

The Religion of Ayahuasca is a story of a classic spiritual encounter comparable to the Tibetan Saint Milarepa’s search for his teacher Marpa. It is also an intimate account of the genesis of an important religious tradition from its modest beginnings in Brazil to its growth throughout the world, offering an inside look at the spiritually centered village of Mapiá--a model for communities in the 21st century--and at the religious leader who helped create it. Providing insight into the spiritual path the Daime offers, Alverga’s tale reveals the new depths of Being made available through the sacred use of ayahuasca.

Alex Polari de Alverga spent years as a political prisoner during the rule of the military junta in Brazil, enduring torture, brutality, and deprivation. On his release from captivity, he encountered the Santo Daime religion and is currently a padrinho (spiritual father) in the spiritual community of Mapiá.

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international church in Budapest

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle, by Daniel L. Everett. A riveting account of the astonishing experiences and discoveries made by linguist Daniel Everett while he lived with the Pirahã, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in central Brazil. Everett, then a Christian missionary, arrived among the Pirahã in 1977–with his wife and three young children–intending to convert them. What he found was a language that defies all existing linguistic theories and reflects a way of life that evades contemporary understanding: The Pirahã have no counting system and no fixed terms for color. They have no concept of war or of personal property. They live entirely in the present. Everett became obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications, and with the remarkable contentment with which they live–so much so that he eventually lost his faith in the God he’d hoped to introduce to them.

Over three decades, Everett spent a total of seven years among the Pirahã, and his account of this lasting sojourn is an engrossing exploration of language that questions modern linguistic theory. It is also an anthropological investigation, an adventure story, and a riveting memoir of a life profoundly affected by exposure to a different culture. Written with extraordinary acuity, sensitivity, and openness, it is fascinating from first to last, rich with unparalleled insight into the nature of language, thought, and life itself. Daniel L. Everett is the Chair of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Illinois State University.