J. Harold Ellens

This informative and illuminating volume covers the entire field of parapsychology and paranormal events, exploring it from scientific, historical, and cultural perspectives. Readers will be fascinated by the existence of evidence supporting the possible reality of the paranormal but will also consider the arguments of skeptics. Parapsychology encompasses a wide range of phenomena and paranormal abilities, from psychokinesis and extrasensory perception (ESP) to near death experiences (NDE), life after death, and ghosts and haunting. While this field is viewed by some as a fringe science, parapsychology remains a popular and fascinating subject worthy of investigation and consideration. Probing the Paranormal: Exploring Modern Parapsychology investigates the full range of topics that have for centuries mystified all humans—a diverse world of experiences comprising a mysterious and unexplained field of mental, psychological, and spiritual perception. Regardless of whether readers believe events claimed to be paranormal are real or fake, they will find the information in this book enthralling, thought-provoking, and surprising. The book begins with an overview that explains what paranormal phenomena are—and what they aren't—and explores what parapsychologists claim is the underlying cause. Readers will learn about how the paranormal was seen and explained in previous eras, parapsychology's relationship with mainstream science, and the three main areas of parapsychological study—ESP, mind-matter interaction, and life after death. The chapters provide historical and cultural context to the discussions of specific phenomenon; describe famous cases, experiments, and research methods; and examine criticisms and alternate explanations offered by mainstream science. The book also considers the treatment of paranormal phenomena in popular culture and media today.• An ideal resource for students or general readers seeking in-depth information about paranormal experiences and events beyond the bounds of empirical science• Supplies an invaluable historical perspective that explores how the paranormal was conceptualized during earlier times, including religious and spiritual explanations• Explains how experimental research is conducted on paranormal phenomena and how both believers and skeptics interpret the results of these studies• Presents contributions from senior scholars and experts in the field of paranormal experiences and events

This two-volume work in biblical studies is a commemorative presentation to Simon John DeVries, noted Old Testament Scholar. Volume one offers a series of essays on issues in Hebrew bible studies. The topics addressed include the nature of Yahweh as God of Israel, a reexamination of the Exodus tradition, the Priestly code and practices, prophets and revelation, biblical poetry, issues in biblical linguistics, dramatic narrative in Hebrew Bible tradition and Yahweh's deliverance as redemption in Israel.

This book describes the psychospiritual facts of life about the pervasiveness of sexuality in all aspects of human life. The energy developed by our libido is the dynamic source of all the forces that shape our experience, life, motives, thought, feelings, desires, and spiritual longings. No facet of life is untouched or unshaped by this dynamo. Whether we are sitting in church at worship, in a meeting for business, in a party for pleasure, we are always aware of the gender of those who are around us and of their level of sensuality, as it impacts us. If we are not aware of that, some wounding has produced an impairment in us that has forced us to repress the awareness inappropriately. This work is not a how to manual so much as a description of the deep meaningfulness that can be found in the spirituality of sex. It is designed to enlighten us about ourselves, to give names to what we all feel all the time and do not know quite how to describe. It is about savoring the spiritual flavor of sexual play and sexual union. This is a book for everyone, from the inquiring adolescent to the mature adult looking for what is missing in sex and relationships. This is not a book mainly for Christians or Jews. It is about the generic human spirituality in every one of us, true believer and atheist alike. It is about being human more fully and with greater satisfaction. Human spirituality is best defined as our irrepressible hunger and quest for meaning in all aspects of life. Human sexuality is best defined as our irrepressible hunger and quest for union with other persons and the meaning of life found in the wholeness that such union brings. Sexuality and spirituality are not two different things. They are two names for the same thing: the irrepressible human quest for meaning, fulfillment, union, and wholeness. They are not two different forces, nor are they in any way at odds with one another, as they have been made to seem in the polarizing attitudes about sexuality and spirituality popular in human society, thanks to the excessive and negative moralization of sex. Here, Ellens sheds new light on the interplay of sexuality and spirituality through the use of anecdotes, observation, and thoughtful analysis.

Today most people feel less interested in religion and more interested in spirituality. If you ask what they mean, they will tell you that organized religion tends to turn them off, but, nonetheless, they feel a hunger in the heart that they cannot seem to fill. They do not mean that they would rather have disorganized religion; they mean that institutional religion does not seem to satisfy their spirits and feel there must be something more, some better way of experiencing whatever that is for which they are hungry. Much new experimentation is going on as a result. Some of it is a search for the meaning to fill the soul and satisfy the spirit; much of it is a search for meaning on the spiritual level itself. Spirituality reaches always toward the question about the meaning of God, the meaning of relationships with others, the meaning of intimacy, and the meaning of soul gratifying insights into truth. Here, Ellens carefully and sensitively explores the full range of our spiritual natures and the variety of spiritual experiences of which we are capable, describing the way our souls and psyches work in our hunger and thirst for meaning. He explains in an enlightening and unconventional way why and how every human desires to reflect upon, learn, and share a heartfelt experience of God and of others. Readers will find in this book a description of the meaning of the biblical stories about spiritual experiences in addition to descriptions of the kinds of spiritual experiences that ordinary people are having, how they are achieving them, and the ways in which they are filling their lives with meaning that goes beyond the horizons of material life. The author paints this picture in such a way as to let us in on what biblically based authentic spirituality and spiritual experience really is, and why it may or may not necessarily have anything to do with traditional institutionalized religion. He carefully and vividly explains the notion of spirituality as it is illustrated in the Bible and discusses spiritual experiences such as prayer, epiphany, visions, and other experiences. He considers whether spirituality is mainly a connection with God, with others, or with both. Readers hoping to get a better sense of what it means to be spiritual will have many of their questions answered in these pages.

The esteemed editor who brought us the acclaimed set The Destructive Power of Religion, turns his attention here to a similarly powerful, yet positive side of religion: how our concept of God can fuel healthy body and mind. This book contends that all health—mental and physical—is shaped, for good or ill, by our spiritual, theological, and psychological notions about the nature of God, and by the way we form an outlook on life as a result of these notions. Across history, a large percentage of people have believed that God is a threat, an attitude Ellens describes as sick gods created through pathological beliefs, or sick gods that make sick people. But Ellens grounds his brighter perspective in this text on God as a source of unconditional grace and goodwill, then illuminates the effect this perspective has on people who have incorporated it into their minds and lives. Ellens shows that people with firm faith in God's radical grace are psychologically strong and healthy. His offering of psychology interfacing with theology is reminiscent of Carl Rogers' teaching on unconditional positive regard and its ability to heal suffering persons. All readers, he explains, can benefit by this understanding that can inspire spiritual and psychological healing whether for ourselves, family, friends, or clients in counseling or therapy.

What is the Bible's stance on such controversial issues as homosexuality and polygamy? What does it have to say about sexual behaviors that some would deem perverted or criminal? Is sex always wrong if it is not used to create life? Ellens answers these and other questions in a book that argues that our understanding of what the Bible has to say about sex is frequently misguided. He corrects our impressions with a look at the Scriptures themselves, considers what they might have meant to people in the past, and reflects on how we understand, or misunderstand, them today. Focusing on early interpretations and contemporary misconceptions, Ellens guides readers through what the Bible actually says, showing how these messages have been interpreted in different contexts, and suggesting new ways of reading and translating them for use in our own lives. Readers hoping to reach a better understanding of the Bible's views on sexual practices and sexuality in general will find their questions answered here. What does the story of Adam and Eve reveal about sex and sexuality? What does the Old Testament say about sex and how might we interpret that in our own lives today? How does the New Testament say we should behave in our sexuality and our lives? What lessons can we learn from a closer examination of the Bible and its teachings on human love, marriage, and sexuality? These are among the many questions Ellens answers in an effort to help us all come to a better understanding of the gift of sexuality and its attendant behaviors in our lives. In non-judgmental prose, he elucidates the Bible and our understanding of its teaching on these and related issues.

This two-volume work in biblical studies is a commemorative presentation to Simon John DeVries, noted Old Testament Scholar. Volume two encompasses the worldviews of the Bible for Jews and Christians, the Holiness of God, Psalms in LXX, similarities in ancient Near Eastern narrative and Hebrew Bible, the Bible in the cultural settings of ancient Rome, Middle Ages, Oriental theologies, and contemporary cultural imperatives, and the function of biblical metaphors.