things worth paying attention to
Read free. “A Learning to Learn Catalog… Everything we learn is only real to the degree that it contributes to what we are. Direct knowledge of ourselves, the reality of the world we live in, and the facilitation of our inner growth and change are the ultimate goals of education.”
Read free. “To start growing your own food without delay, put down this book, go out in the garden and select a spot in the sun. Dig over one square metre with a garden fork and remove all the weeds by hand. If digging up lawn, cut out the sods with a spade, roots and all, and stack them upside down under a tree as mulch. Come inside again and thoroughly wash your hands and clean your nails, as you must always do after working with soil. Pick up this book and in Part One select what you want to grow in your first Salad Plot….”
Read free. “Sound is created as the vibratory motion of particles and objects. The vibrations that produce sound represent an energy that is found throughout nature, not only within ourselves and our world, but far beyond, into the realms of moons, stars, and the Universe. Due to the limitations of human physiology, our own ears can detect only a tiny fraction of this vast vibratory spectrum. On the cosmic scale, sound is a universal, unseen power, able to bring about profound changes on many levels-physical, emotional, and spiritual. This book explains how you can harness and direct the power of sound-as the vibratory energies of your own voice, and as sounds from the world around, making them resonate through your body and mind, to heal and cure.”
Read free. “If you are an adult with ADHD, this book is your prescription to play. Other experts in the field may tell you to take a pill, get more rest, exercise, train your brain, or whatever else it takes to manage impulsivity, inattention, poor time management, lack of motivation, memory struggles, and other symptoms related to ADHD. But they might not talk much about how fun and play can have a substantial effect on how you manage your ADHD symptoms.”
Read free. “Self-sufficiency does not mean “going back” to the acceptance of a lower standard of living. On the contrary, it is the striving for a higher standard of living, for food which is fresh and organically-grown and good, for the good life in pleasant surroundings, for the health of body and peace of mind which come with hard varied work in the open air, and for the satisfaction that comes from doing difficult and intricate jobs well and successfully.”
Read free. “Today, many people dream of community, beautiful surroundings, and meaningful jobs. These people have an inner craving for a more balanced and spiritual life, a loving place for their children to grow up, and a lifestyle which does not force them to leave their children all day as a price for being full members of society. A place full of life, joy and sharing, of living close to nature with plants and animals around them, where love is more possible. All the necessary wisdom, knowledge and technology are available to help this dream come true for everybody on this planet. Ecovillages are emerging attempts at realizing it, or at the very least parts of it. They are paintings in progress, of an envisioned Paradise on Earth.”
Read free. “Representing every major natural building technique, and written by some of the most prominent innovators and advocates in the field, this collection … this book is far more than just a survey of techniques. It provides a philosophical framework for the entire natural building movement, as well as a set of design principles broadly applicable to ecological design projects everywhere. Our goal is a whole systems approach to natural building.”
Read free. “This book is designed to enable the amateur plant hunter to make accurate and certain identifications of edible plants. The 85 plants that are covered were selected because they can be easily recognized, can supply a wide range of food products throughout the year (although the pickings are necessarily somewhat leaner in the winter months), and can be found over broad sections of the U.S. and southern Canada. These 85 plants alone provide 28 different salad greens, 18 cooked vegetables, 8 substitutes for potatoes, 18 sources of flour, 5 cooking oils and butters, 21 cold beverages, 23 substitutes for coffee and tea, and 7 sources of sugar as well as numerous potherbs, fruits, confections, jams and jellies, pies, vinegars, and even salt.”
Read free. “What do the facts of precognition mean? Do they point to any particular view regarding the nature of the universe? How can the Future exist Now? In the light of these facts, how must we regard the law of cause and effect? What significance has precognition for living? Are our lives predestined or free? These and many other questions crowd upon the mind, for it is clear that we are face to face with data of crucial importance. I have tried not to shirk the issues, and have drawn certain conclusions regarding the nature of Reality and what they involve for our personal daily living.”
Read free. Mostly European minstrel songs.
Read free. “This is a book about people doing things, and doing them better; about the conditions under which we may be able to do things better; about some of the ways in which, given those conditions, other people may be able to help us (or we them) to do things better; and about the reasons why these conditions do not exist and cannot be made to exist within compulsory, coercive, competitive schools.”
Read free. “It is my hope that your child will find these ‘wonders’ simple, uncomplicated, and ‘ordinary.’ I refer to such things as playing with pots and pans, sorting knives, forks, and spoons, or just picking up a knife and looking at it.”
Read free. “Where There Is No Dentist is a book about what people can do for themselves and each other to care for their gums and teeth. Just as with the rest of health care, there is a strong need to ‘deprofessionalize’ dentistry—to provide ordinary people and community workers with more skills to prevent and cure problems in the mouth.”
Read free. The Secret of Light is Walter Russell’s seminal work in which he lays out a unified theory of the universe, based on the concept that light—not matter or energy—is the fundamental substance of reality. He presents a vision of the cosmos as a spiritual, rhythmic, and electrical phenomenon, governed by divine intelligence rather than mechanistic forces. Russell asserts that light is the source and substance of all things. Everything we perceive as matter, energy, motion, and form is a manifestation of light, which is divided into pairs of opposites (such as light/dark, male/female, heat/cold) through rhythmic processes.
Read free. “Conditions for Establishing Interpersonal Relationship that Builds Up Community: To build up a community one must be (1) sensitive, (2) open, (3) sharing (receiving and giving), (4) one must call others into existence, and (5) love, (6) in an atmosphere of freedom, confidence and understanding.”
Read free. “According to this hypothesis, systems are organized in the way they are because similar systems were organized that way in the past. For example, the molecules of a complex organic chemical crystallize in a characteristic pattern because the same substance crystallized that way before; a plant takes up the form characteristic of its species because past members of the species took up that form; and an animal acts instinctively in a particular manner because similar animals behaved like that previously.”
Read free. “This compilation of essays represents a wide variety of perspectives of what it will take to renew one of our most depleted resources—a sense of community with each other. In our modern quest for the ‘perfect part’ we have lost touch with the ‘interconnectedness of the whole’—a byproduct of our fixation with the Industrial Age and its requisite mechanistic thinking.”
Read free. “In this book, we present one possible pattern language, of the kind called for in The Timeless Way. This language is extremely practical. It is a language that we have distilled from our own building and planning efforts over the last eight years. You can use it to work with your neighbors, to improve your town and neighborhood. You can use it to design a house for yourself, with your family; or to work with other people to design an office or a workshop or a public building like a school. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction.”
Read free. Environmental Design Science Primer, by Howard Brown, Robert Cook, and Medard Gabel, undated. From the Foreword: “In order to have a significant effect on vital environmental and social issues, people need to acquire the skills that will allow them to act as planners and participants, rather than as spectators in the defining and solving of problems….”
Read free. Designing Earth Anew Together is a proposal for creating large-scale social and ecological change through collaborative global planning. Jan Hearthstone argues that humanity must move beyond isolated efforts and develop tools for co-designing solutions to today’s crises — including climate change, war, inequality, and environmental degradation.
