Richard Smoley is one of the world's most distinguished authorities on the mystical and esoteric teachings of Western civilisation. A graduate of Harvard College and the University of Oxford, he was a longtime editor of the venerated spiritual journal Gnosis. Smoley is the author of several books including Inner Christianity, The Essential Nostradamus, and Forbidden Faith: The Secret History of Gnosticism. He is currently editor of Quest: Journal of the Theosophical Society in America.
Enormously comforting, encouraging and inspiring. [This] is a book of tremendous service to spiritual seekers.... The threads of sanity, academic integrity, and conservative, evidence-based claims are of inestimable value in anyone's spiritual quest.... Sheer delight, page after page, chapter after chapter. --Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Healing Words and One Mind Smoley is a crucial guide to the ancient traditions, and to how a greater understanding of those traditions can make our lives today more meaningful. --Eben Alexander, MD, author of Proof of Heaven I have a standing rule: I read anything Richard Smoley writes. --Larry Dossey, MD Smoley...is adept at unknotting the paradoxes of spiritual traditions and making new connections across centuries and languages. --Library Journal One of the liveliest, most intrepid, and most gifted explorers of the spiritual landscape writing today. --Ptolemy Tompkins, author of Paradise Fever