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The Pathworkings of Aleister Crowley: The Treasure House of Images by Aleister Crowley and J.F.C. Fuller

This beautiful collection of meditations on the astrological signs and the paths of the Tree of Life was originally titled 'The Treasure House of Images.' At one time it was primarily perceived as an inspirational text. This edition treats it as a unique instruction on magical technique. With additional material by David Cherubim, Christopher S. Hyatt, Lon Milo DuQuette and Nancy Wasserman it has become a powerful tool for self-transformation.

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The Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley edited by Stephen Skinner

I believe there comes a point in reading and research on a subject you love where you need to feel closer with the artist. What motivated me to purchase The Diaries is the same thing that motivates me to buy books about the lives of musicians if their music has deeply influenced me. Basically, that 'human' side of the artist that you don't get to experience in their artistry, often even if you exhaustively listen to the records or read the books.

I feel like it's easy to miss that human touch in Crowley. You're concentrating so hard on his qabbalistic and other such writings sometimes that he seems more an enigmatic teacher than a real person who actually experienced the kind of troubles he did. This book is a wonderful break from, say 777 or Magick in Theory because you get to experience the 'human' side of Crowley.

I agree whole-heartedly that these diaries were written when Crowley was at a major down slope. At the same time, I felt like I understood him more by reading this book, and that really grasping his writings may not be such a task. If you hold Crowley as a God, you're going to see him in an entirely different light here, and you shouldn't purchase this book. His nasty health problems are graphically discussed in the book, so if references to diarrhea are a problem for you, then skip this one. At the same time, such little romantic, even tragic nuances about people (e.g., Crowley's grief over the loss of his child) endear them even more to me. I found that type of endearment in the Magical Diaries.

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Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge by Paul Feyerabend

Feyerabend was probably the first philosopher of science who really stated that science as it is practised by scientists themselves is NOT an enterprise which can be strictly constructed or even fully described in any conventional methodical way such as the philosophies of positivism and even rationality or idealism for that matter propose. As is true for any human enterprise, no matter how strongly this is denied by the popular science press, it is, as Feyerabend puts it, an anarchaic enterprise, this does not mean random chaos or a process with no order rather he refers to the fact that scientists just as authors of great literature or poets, pursue their subject via many paths rather than the strict methodologies which are supposed to define science, in fact these methodologies fail to be `...capable of accounting for such a maze of interactions'. Einstein is noted as saying that `The external conditions which are set for the scientist by the facts of experience do not permit him to let himself be too much restricted, in the construction of his conceptual world, by the adherence to an epistemological system'. Feyerabend goes on to say that `The attempt...to discover the secrets of nature and of man, entails, therefore, the rejection of all universal standards and of all rigid traditions.' So starts his book "Against Method" and through detailed analysis of the scientists and the phenomenon in question Feyerabend proceeds to demolish any assertions which compress science into a box which stands alone outside of all other influences such as religion, history, culture or philosophy.

The idea that irrational means are used by scientists to form theories and understand phenomena is stressed. Similarly the fact that an observation is made does not necessarily imply the theory which follows eg the moon seen through Galeleos eyes. Also, reason is sometimes discarded in favour of new, seemingly unreasonable, ideas which explain the phenomenon and finally science itself becomes a kind of tradition in its own way. The blindness of the usual ways of thinking about science as expressed in the popular press is made clear and it is shown science is not and never has been or will be the only true way of understanding the universe.

Feyerabend's book is very entertaining given the radical and playfull nature of the man himself (see `Killing Time', his autobiography), nonetheless it is very well researched and his argument is solid. He does not shirk his academic responsibilities but rather writes as he thinks is best in order to explain his ideas without necessarily having to write in a cold or overly rational way.

Feyerabend also includes excerpts from his experience of famous scientists during his life such as the radical Felix Ehrenhaft, the young Popper full of vitality or Wittgenstein. He further explores his own misgivings when teaching people of cultures other than his own eg native Americans, Mexicans and so on and his own understanding that he had no real right to say his own phiosophical view or rather the one pushed by his society was any better than theirs or that intellectual procedures which approach a problem through concepts are the right way to go. Feyerabend stresses that the phrase "anything goes" is far more relavent to the progress of human knowledge and science.

An excellent book written with style.

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The Religious Dimensions of Advertising by Tricia Sheffield

This groundbreaking work explores media scholar Sut Jhally's thesis that advertising functions as a religion in late capitalism and relates this to critical theological studies. Sheffield argues that advertising is not itself a religion, but that it contains religious dimensions--analogous to Durkheim's description of objects as totems.

"Sheffield's book is meticulously researched and provides an excellent bibliography and overview of the work of key scholars of theology, communication, sociology, and cultural history."
--Journal of Media and Religion

"The Religious Dimension of Advertising is much more than an academic critique. Drawing on anthropology, religious studies, and feminist theory, Tricia Sheffield demonstrates how advertising mediates matters of "ultimate concern" in U.S. society.  And, Sheffield also suggests ways that critical consumption can disrupt the panoptic gaze through which advertising would have us develop our sense of self and our relations to others. She, thus, opens the door to means of fulfilling needs and desires that contribute not to hierarchy but to justice."
--Janet R. Jakobsen, Director, Barnard Center for Research on Women

"Sheffield's sparkling interdisciplinary analysis blends historical, theological, and other cultural approaches to show how advertising works. Ads, she claims, enchant us into a sense of belonging by creating totemic clans of consumption around certain products. Sheffield pushes beyond facile claims that advertising is a religion by providing a nuanced analysis of how advertising has taken on some of the functions of religion in the modern world.  This smart work provides historical and theoretical tools to understand advertising and the intellectual energies to resist its dispiriting effects."
--Jesse Terry Todd, Associate Professor of American Religious Studies, Drew University

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Make-believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment by Michael Parenti

In Make-believe Media, Parenti turns his eye to entertainment for an absorbing, challenging look at the way America’s “free and independent” television and film industries actually promote the ideas of the economic and political forces that control them.

Through thoughtful analysis of specific entertainment programs from family sitcoms to medical dramas, cartoons, and blockbuster movies, Parenti explains why entertainment can alter our view of history, politics, race, sex and class differences. Although programs may seem apolitical in intent, Parenti argues that they have a powerful influence not only on how we dress, talk, and spend our money, but also on how we define social problems and which ideological images we embrace. Viewers who think what they’re watching is “only entertainment” are less likely to challenge prejudices implicit in the program—including militarism, xenophobia, and ethnic bigotry—and more inclined to accept a prefabricated understanding of the world as it is portrayed on the screen.

Even viewers who claim to be immune to the obvious messages of film and television will find Parenti’s analysis provocative and compelling as he urges us to become more critical about what we choose to watch.

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The Worst Enemy of Science? Essays in Memory of Paul Feyerabend

This stimulating collection is devoted to the life and work of the most flamboyant of twentieth-century philosophers, Paul Feyerabend. Feyerabend's radical epistemological claims, and his stunning argument that there is no such thing as scientific method, were highly influential during his life and have only gained attention since his death in 1994. The essays that make up this volume, written by some of today's most respected philosophers of science, many of whom knew Feyerabend as students and colleagues, cover the diverse themes in his extensive body of work and present a personal account of this fascinating thinker.

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https://anonfiles.com/file/90bbc7d2bf052faeafe7b6b73b3e6588