I am often asked if I recommend any books about self-healing, manifestation and magickal arts.  

I have compiled a list of books that I have read and recommend here.  I have included my own notes and a summary of the book from GoodReads in quotations.

This list will be ongoing, so be sure to check back again later.

Vibe-raising & Reality Changing 

Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World by Cynthia Sue Larson 

Cynthia has a degree in physics from UC Berkeley, an MBA degree, and a Doctor of Divinity. Cynthia reminds us to ask in every situation, “How good can it get?”  She is the best-selling author of six books, has been featured on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, and the BBC, and has presented papers at international conferences on science, spirituality, and consciousness, Cynthia has shared findings from scientific research in the fields of quantum physics, quantum biology, the placebo effect, positive psychology, sociology, and alternative medicine, and she hosts Living the Quantum Dream on the DreamVisions7 radio network. 

“Have you noticed things mysteriously move around? Keys don’t stay put, wallets transport to different places, and socks go missing from the laundry. We observe reality shifts when things appear, disappear, transform or transport and when we experience changes in time. Reality shifts range from the sublime (missing socks and synchronicity) to completely astonishing (the dead seen alive again; objects appearing out of thin air; spontaneous remission; traveling far in a very short time). Learn how to live lucidly to create a life you love, positively influence the future and the past, and transform sabotage into strength.”

(I interviewed Cynthia in 2021 – you can watch it here) This conversation really delves into the way that the western scientific method has some blind spots, such as the way that the Hypothesis step sets limits that can then act as filters by which scientists miss key possible observations that fall outside those narrow constraints.  And then a whole cycle of stagnation can begin for individuals who seek positive signs and indicators, yet viewpoints steeped in empiricism will often become cycles of self-fulfilling beliefs.  These chaotic times present us with great opportunities to accept change in all that is not eternal.  They also present us with opportunities to see the heroic qualities in the cartoon character, Mr. Magoo, who faces all manner of dire situations and circumstances without succumbing to feeling victimized, anxious, or angry.

The Science of Miracles: RE-Membering the Frequency of Love by Dr. Sharnael Wolverton Sehon

Dr. Sharnael is a Naturopathic Doctor, Speaker, Author, and Teacher on Divine Health and the Human Body. She is passionate about reconciling all people to an integrative life: mind, body and soul.

“You can’t pee in the pool and hope it doesn’t get everywhere! With energy it is the exact same way. Issues in one area of your life affects everything. Tired of cycling the merry-go-rounds of negative patterns in your life? Join Dr. Sharnael and understand the simplified beautiful marriage of Quantum Physics and Spirit. Apply her easy formulas to your own life and experience your personal quantum leap miracles today. You deserve a Super-natural life every moment of every day. Start today! “What a beautiful harmony of science and Spirit! Dr. Sharnael has taken the mystification and superstition out of many misunderstood realities and made it in an easy to understand book based in the spiritual and physical laws of God.” -David Stewart, PhD”Read this book and be divinely timed for your highest good and waking up to a new future of reserve manifestation!” -Dr. Marcella Vonn Harting, PhD”The hallmark of a good author and teacher is to present complex information in a simple way. Dr. Sharnael skillfully unmasks the Spirit and Light in us so we can have the necessary shift within ourselves and process the miracles we desire. Dr. Sharnael is a leader who knows the way, shows the way and goes the way!” -Thomas Lucky MD, P(MD)”Dr. Sharnael is the “Real Deal.” I consider Dr. Sharnael a Master Teacher, Inspirer, Leader, Doer and Servant of our Creator on every level. Her vast study of Scripture, Science, Quantum Physics and life raise others!” -Robert Tennyson Stevens”

(I interviewed Dr. Sharnael in 2021 – you can watch it here)

In the video she answers the following questions:

What kind of minister were you and how did you expand from limited Bible beliefs to understanding the message of consciousness in the scriptures?

With your expanded perspective, how do you now view the dogmatism and judgement that many people have due to religious teachings?

Let’s talk about the biofield, which you discuss often in your book. How can we understand our connection with the planet, other people and experiences on this planet and our part in creating or manifesting those experiences?

Many people don’t understand the practical way that the phrase “be the change you want to see in the world” applies to us or how our own frequency contributes to the world we see. Could you give us an example of how we are creating the very things in the world that we see and practical ways to change our reality?

In your book you mention trauma loops such as 9/11 and how memorializing such events keeps the loop alive. How do our individual traumas relate to or connect to the grander scale of the global traumas?

Are we feeding the global trauma loops due to our personal trauma loops?

How can we recognize and begin to heal our own personal trauma loops?

Finally, based on your knowledge, what advice would you give to those who are suffering from anxiety, fear and low self-worth?

You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero

I read this book at the very beginning of my awakening around 2013 or 14.  It may have been what inspired me to create a vision board, which completely changed my life.

“In this refreshingly entertaining how-to guide, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author and world-traveling success coach, Jen Sincero, serves up 27 bite-sized chapters full of hilariously inspiring stories, sage advice, easy exercises, and the occasional swear word. If you’re ready to make some serious changes around here, You Are a Badass will help you: Identify and change the self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviors that stop you from getting what you want, blast past your fears so you can take big exciting risks, figure out how to make some damn money already, learn to love yourself and others, set big goals and reach them – it will basically show you how to create a life you totally love, and how to create it now.

By the end of You Are a Badass, you’ll understand why you are how you are, how to love what you can’t change, how to change what you don’t love, and how to use The Force to kick some serious ass.”

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle

This is a very popular book and I read this at the beginning of my awakening.  This book is good for people who are new to spirituality, who are looking for the relief from the stress of daily life that we experience on this planet.

“To make the journey into the Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. From the very first page of Eckhart Tolle’s extraordinary book, we move rapidly into a significantly higher altitude where we breathe a lighter air. We become connected to the indestructible essence of our Being, “The eternal, ever present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.” Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle uses simple language and an easy question-and-answer format to guide us.

A word-of-mouth phenomenon since its first publication, The Power of Now is one of those rare books with the power to create an experience in readers, one that can radically change their lives for the better.”

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson 

I like Jordan Peterson’s psychological and spiritual approach to life.  He is intelligent, inspiring and thought provoking.  This book is a result of someone asking him what is his advice for life.  It’s a good book for everybody. 

What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson’s answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research.

Humorous, surprising, and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.

What does the nervous system of the lowly lobster have to tell us about standing up straight (with our shoulders back) and about success in life? Why did ancient Egyptians worship the capacity to pay careful attention as the highest of gods? What dreadful paths do people tread when they become resentful, arrogant, and vengeful? Dr. Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure, and responsibility, distilling the world’s wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith, and human nature while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its listeners.

Psychology and Self-healing

COMPLEX PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker

(A best seller in neuropsychology on Amazon and available in Dutch)

This book has helped me to reach the core of my emotional pain.  It has facilitated my understanding of the coping skills I developed in my childhood due to severe neglect, abandonment and mental & emotional abuse, and has shown me how to disagree with the critical voices that were created by the abusive parent I could never please.

“Key concepts of the book include: managing emotional flashbacks; understanding the four different types of trauma survivors; differentiating the outer critic from the inner critic; healing the abandonment depression that comes from emotional abandonment and self-abandonment; self-reparenting and reparenting by committee; and deconstructing the hierarchy of self-injuring responses that childhood trauma forces survivors to adopt.

The book also functions as a map to help you understand the somewhat linear progression of recovery, to help you identify what you have already accomplished, and to help you figure out what is best to work on and prioritize now. This in turn also serves to help you identify the signs of your recovery and to develop reasonable expectations about the rate of your recovery.”

Healing the Child Within by Charles L. Whitfield

As an adult child of an alcoholic, this book has helped me to understand the impact of my primary caregiver being addicted, emotionally unavailable and unpredictable.

“This book offers a clear and effective introduction to the basic principles of recovery. Physician and therapist Charles Whitfield describes the process of wounding that the Child Within (True Self) experiences and shows how to differentiate the True Self from the false self. He also describes the core issues of recovery and more, and provides a strong introduction to recognizing and healing from the painful effects of childhood trauma.”

Psychic Self-defense by Dion Fortune 

Whether you believe in multi-dimensional reality or not, we are all affected in some way by beings and energies in the astral plane. As a psychic child who was unsupported and invalidated, never knowing that most of what I experienced as trauma was happening to me psychically, I benefited greatly from learning that I am not crazy, that psychic attack is very real and that I can protect myself from it.  

“This book is a detailed instruction manual for safeguarding yourself against paranormal malevolence. Dion Fortune explores the elusive psychic element in mental illness and, more importantly, details the methods, motives, and physical aspects of psychic attack, and how to overcome this energy.”

We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but in The Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary people—one in twenty-five—has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoever to feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans, therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, your neighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all and feel absolutely no guilt.

How do we recognize the remorseless? One of their chief characteristics is a kind of glow or charisma that makes sociopaths more charming or interesting than the other people around them. They seem ‎more spontaneous, more intense, more complex, or even sexier than everyone else, making them tricky to identify and leaving us easily seduced. Fundamentally, sociopaths are different because they cannot love. Sociopaths learn early on to show sham emotion, but underneath they are indifferent to others’ suffering. They live to dominate and thrill to win.

The fact is, we all almost certainly know at least one or more sociopaths already. Part of the urgency in reading The Sociopath Next Door is the moment when we suddenly recognize that someone we know—someone we worked for, or were involved with, or voted for—is a sociopath. But what do we do with that knowledge? To arm us against the sociopath, Dr. Stout teaches us to question authority, suspect flattery, and beware the pity play. Above all, she writes, when a sociopath is beckoning, do not join the game.

It is the ruthless versus the rest of us, and The Sociopath Next Door will show you how to recognize and defeat the devil you know.

Deep Self-Healing by Louise Armitage 

In Deep Self-Healing, Louise Armitage, a professional natural therapist, describes her unexpected journey of mind/body/spirit healing and personal transformation through mindfulness meditation. Her story explores how she faced healing the many faces of hard-personal circumstances and bitter emotional pain common to many peoplelike relationship breakdowns, grief, worthlessness, powerlessness and anxiety. As well as providing an in depth-account of her own self-healing process, woven through her story are thoughtful discussions of important spiritual-healing concepts such as the role of karma, past-lives and soul evolution.

Deep Self-Healing is therefore a unique blending of an intimate and honest personal story, with the important spiritual-healing principles underpinning it.

Universal Vision: Soul Evolution And The Cosmic Plan by Scott Mandelker 

Universal laws behind UFOs and ET contact. Self-healing and the body/mind/spirit system. Earth changes and global shift through 2013 A.D. Practical advice for working with emotions. New teachings on Buddhism and meditation. Dozens of Q & A and personal stories. Special charts on Cosmic Plan, ET/Earth History. Advice for counselors, healers, and ET contactees.

(Scott has a YouTube channel where he expounds on deeper spiritual topics – you can check it out here)

Esoteric & Occult

Sane Occultism by Dion Fortune 

A collection of articles written by Dion Fortune complied and published as a book in 1920.  

Contents: What is Occultism? Is Occultism Worth While? Deeper Issues of Occultism; Credulity in Occult Research; Meditation & Psychism; Use & Abuse of Astrology; Records of Past Lives; Numerology & Prophecy; Group Karma; Authority & Obedience; Secrecy in Occult Fraternities; Left-hand Path; Occultism & Immorality; Psychic Pathologies; Mental Trespassing; Occultism & Vegetarianism; Eastern Methods & Western Bodies; Standards of Judgment; Ideals of Occultism.

Science and Spirituality 

I haven’t actually read the books I have listed here, however, if you are more academically minded and looking for scientific evidence that spirituality is real, you might want to have a look at these books and their authors.

Most of us know it well–the almost physical sensation that we are the object of someone’s attention. Is the feeling all in our heads? What about related phenomena, such as telepathy and premonitions? Are they merely subjective beliefs? In The Sense of Being Stared At, renowned biologist Rupert Sheldrake explores the intricacies of the mind and discovers that our perceptive abilities are stronger than most of us could have imagined.

Sheldrake argues persuasively in this compelling book that such phenomena are, in fact, real. He rejects the label of “paranormal” and shows how these psychic occurrences are in fact a normal part of human nature. Combining the tradition of pragmatic experimentation with a refusal to accept the conventional answers to explain such phenomena, Sheldrake pioneers an intriguing new inquiry into the mysteries of our deepest nature. Rigorously researched yet completely accessible, this groundbreaking book provides a refreshing new way of thinking about ourselves and our relationships with other people, animals, and the world around us.

There are 4 parts:
Part 1: Telepathy
Part 2: The Power of Attention
Part 3: Remote Viewing and Foreshadowings of the Future
Part 4: How does the 7th Sense Work?

The book begins by explaining how the “Sixth Sense” has already been claimed by biologists working on the electrical and magnetic senses of animals. Eels use electrical fields to sense objects around them, sharks and rays use similar fields to hunt, migratory birds and fish have a magnetic senses (biological compass), snakes have heat-sensing abilities, spiders detect web vibrations, etc.

Mr. Sheldrake explains how the 7th sense is biological, not supernatural. It extends beyond the body, though how is not exactly known. “To brush aside what people have experienced is not to be scientific, but unscientific. Science is founded on empirical method…” (experience and observation). “But despite an impresssive accumulation of evidence, psychic research has never been accepted within institutional sciences. It has been kept on the margins as a result of powerful taboos against the “paranormal.”

“In the background lurks the archaic fear of witchcraft.”