Paulo Coelho is celebrating a major milestone for The Alchemist. This fall, the beloved fable remained on the New York Times bestseller list for two years. Celebrities ranging from Russell Crowe to Jon Jonas cite The Alchemist as their favorite book. It has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.

The Alchemist is a classic tale about the importance of following your dreams. One of my favorite quotes from Coelho that summarizes his message is:

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and eternity.”

This hits the nail on the head about why it is so important that we follow our dreams: because of the meaning, joy and sense of purpose that the journey brings us. Reaching our dreams is a lot of fun. But, the real reward of following our dreams is the satisfaction and peace of mind in knowing that we had the courage to believe in our dreams and stay true to ourself.

Dr. Judith Orloth (www.DrJudithOrloff.com) interviewed Quincy Jones about intuition for her new book, Positive Energy. He bluntly answered by saying,

“I’ve counted on my intuition for 50 years. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t trust it. To me, intuition is paying close attention to God’s whispers. It’s the most natural part of us. Listening gives us energy and inner power. What you feel, not what you think. That’s what it’s all about. I live by goosebumps. I get them every time something really touches me…music, movies, poetry and emotion…Nothing to talk about unless I get the goosebumps. I believe all the answers to our questions are out there if we just slow down enough to hear….Jazz people really trust intuition. They have to. They live off of it. They exist because of it.”

It kind of makes you wonder:

What would have happened if Quincy Jones had ignored his intuition? Would he still have earned a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, won 27 Grammys or had the creative juice to produce Michael Jackson’s album Thriller? What would have happened to his lifework if he did not trust his intuition.

God: A Relationship Guide is a down-to-earth book about building an authentic lifelong relationship with one’s Higher Power. Spiritual Director and clinical psychologist, Judith E. Turian, Ph.D. uses personal anecdotes, professional training and deep faith to show us how to take a risk and let God in even though we may have inevitable second thoughts about sustaining the relationship. Each stage is illustrated by personal, heartfelt and often humorous stories from the author’s life and spiritual training–including some fascinating examples from when her faith was tested during her early career in the U.S. Navy.

The book is useful because it spells out in thoughtful detail how to know God’s will for us. One prayer that she mentions that is particularly helpful in discerning God’s will is:

“Take all of me. Take my liberty, my memory, and my understanding. All that I am and that I have has been given to me by You, God. I give it all back to You knowing that Your love and Your grace are enough for me.”

She follows that prayer with a bit of humor asking: “How’s that for courage? Or was it total stupidity?”

She reveals details of her own spiritual journey, tests of faith and how she learned to know God’s will. For example, she writes:

” ‘Let your will, not mine, be done.’ I believed with all my heart that I meant it. But when it turned out that God’s will was not the same as mine, I was angry and devastated.”

Throughout the book, she uses examples from her real life to show how she eventually learns how to distinguish God’s will from her own. These stories are illuminating, insightful and provide hope that we too can know God’s will for us and find the strength and ultimately peace in living It.

You can purchase God: A Relationship Guide on Amazon by Clicking Here

With myriad of crisis facing our planet from our monetary systems collapsing, to environmental depletion, nuclear proliferation, rise in fundamentalism and the hurried, disconnected pace of life, the future can seem bleak.

The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism, a new book by acclaimed author Andrew Harvey, offers sage advice and practical tools for overcoming these seeming insurmountable global catastrophes and shares an urgent yet passionately inspiring message for those seeking personal and planetary transformation.

The Hope is a long-awaited, compelling guide that helps people respond to current global challenges yet also serves as a much needed wake-up call to inspire action through Sacred Activism — what Harvey defines as the transforming force of love and compassion-in-action to affect meaningful and radical change in the world.

“When joy of compassionate service is combined with pragmatic and practical drive to transform all existing economic, social and political institutions, a radical divine force is born that is the vision or movement I call Sacred Activism,” states Harvey. He adds, “We need to not only fix the existing system but radically transform it so we no longer, by our choices, threaten our lives or the lives of millions of species.”

Harvey’s vision has drawn the attention of the United Nations where he will present his vision to the UN CONGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns representing the world’s leading NGOs this September.

Harvey believes the current crisis at hand drives us towards the positive practice of justice, equality and harmony with nature such as new movements towards ecological sustainability, social justice and non-violence, the advent of new alternative forms of technology and energy, a mystical renaissance and return of the divine feminine.

You can purchase The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism by Clicking Here

Ronda LaRue, M.S., is the author of Remembering Who You Really Are: The Journey of Awakening to Soul. In our interview below, she discusses why she wrote the book and her work as the host of Ojai Soul Arts spiritual retreats.She also reveals provocative details about the nature of the Dark Night of the Soul, why so many great mystics, Saints and spiritual seekers have to go through it and what to do if you think you might be in the middle of your own Dark Night of the Soul. Please click the link below to listen to the interview. For more information about Ronda, please visit www.RondaLaRue.com or http://www.ojaisoularts.com/

Drew Heriot, director of The Secret movie, is suing Rhonda Byrne, creator of The Secret, and her company for $340 million dollars. Heriot claims that Rhonda cheated him out of millions of profits that he is legally entitled to. The lawsuit includes a breach of contract claim, fraudulent inducement, unjust enrichment and unfair competition under California and Business Provisions Code. It should be noted that these are just allegations against Rhonda Byrne and not necessarily true. You can read excerpts from the lawsuit which includes actual emails between Rhonda and Drew at:

www.backgroundnow.com/background-check/what-is-dan-hollings-complaint-with-rhonda-byrne-and-the-secret-llc/.

Additionally, there is fascinating article written by Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks about the importance of using integrity with the law of attraction and the irony of how a leading proponent of the law of attraction managed to attract a multi-million dollar lawsuit and disgruntled team members. You can read that article at www.huffingtonpost.com/kathlyn-and-gay-hendricks/what-can-we-learn-from-th_b_198995.html

This is not the first disagreement Rhonda Byrne has had with ex team members of The Secret. Jerry and Esther Hicks and also Gay Hendricks provided footage for The Secret that did not end up in the final cut for reasons that are still a little unclear.

     In the interview below, Arielle Ford discusses her new book The Soulmate Secret: Manifest the Love of Your Life with the Law of Attraction.  She offers practical steps you can take today to begin to attract your soulmate, explains why some people struggle to find their true love and talks about how her 80-year-old mother in law used the techniques in the book to manifest a soulmate 5 years after her husband of 55 years passed away.  

      If you would like to download the audio of the interview and listen to it on your Ipod or MP3 player please visit our podcast feed by clicking here or subscribe to Spiritual Media Blog’s podcast on Itunes by clicking here. Or, you can listen to the interview without downloading it by pressing the play button on the video below. 

      You can purchase Soulmate Secret on Amazon by Clicking Here

      It is a rare gift to be able to combine spirituality with humor.  That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when I came across the video below with Robert Holden (author of Be Happy: Release the Power of Happiness in YOU) as he describes in detail how an Indian Guru laughed at him in front of a large audience after he tried to answer the question: Who am I?  This is one of those fundamental questions and having a sense of humor about it can lead to greater clarity and a little more fun in life.

      Robert Holden was on Oprah Jan. 1st 2009 and his 8-week happiness program was featured on a BBC-TV documentary called How to Be Happy that has been shown in 16 countries to 30 million television viewers.  His work came to my attention after I received an email from Wayne Dyer’s newsletter list today regarding the release of Robert Holden’s book, Be Happy: Release the Power of Happiness in YOU. 

    In the video clip below, Jack Canfield talks about how growing up in a lower-middle class family shaped his beliefs.  He knows a lot about overcoming adversity and developing perseverance.  His famous Chicken Soup for the Soul book series was rejected by 144 publishers.  They said that no one would want to buy a book with stories about other people succeeding or overcoming adversity and also that his idea was not dark enough… Those publishers who rejected him probably wish they had given him a chance now.

      Karen M. Black is the author of Moondance and perhaps the only karmic astrologer with an MBA.  Addictive, intelligent and unabashedly erotic, Moondance explores life, love, the nature of reality and plunges the reader full-force into the wake of an astonishing climax.

       I had the pleasure of reading Moondance and interviewing Karen.  Our interview below covers a wide range of topics from what it’s like having an MBA and being a karmic astrologer, working in the corporate world as an aspiring writer and why she chose to make Moondance so sexy.  Her answers are eye-opening and insightful.  For more information on Moondance and Karen M Black please visit www.KarenMBlack.com.