100 Books Like Callings

This is one of the first books I recommend to Lyme patients who email me for advice about getting better. It’s a sad fact that most people with chronic Lyme disease don’t have “just” Lyme disease. Their condition is complicated by toxic mold exposure, environmental chemicals, other infectious bacteria and viruses, and/or a highly sensitized nervous system.

Whether they’ve been diagnosed with Lyme disease or not, I think anyone with complex health problems that they just can’t resolve could benefit from reading this book.

Dr. Terry Wahls is an absolutely brilliant physician whose accessible book describes a treatment approach that is enormously effective for treating the inflammation that is at the heart of so many conditions. She reversed her own illness with it. She had rapidly progressive degeneration of her nervous system due to multiple sclerosis, which resulted in her needing to use a wheelchair. Through implementing her own protocol, she is now back to riding her bike.

I recommend this book to 95% of the patients in my practice because the dietary approach that she clearly describes makes such a difference in their health and well-being. I like the fact that she outlines three stages of implementing her protocol so that a person can begin with the least restrictive and, if desired, can take it to the next level.

This approach offers flexibility and allows a person to ease into making lifestyle changes.… show more.

This is a highly accessible book that names and explains one of the most fundamental realities of our time, i.e., that we are all traumatized by the relentless cycle of frightening news, the breathtaking rate of change, and the existential threat due to climate collapse, which predisposes us to live in a perpetual state of fight, flight, and freeze, which is very destructive to our health and well-being physically, emotionally and spiritually.

I loved their clear description of the complexity of the function of the vagus nerve, which is the best I ever read. This book provides guidance and wisdom that can help us return our nervous systems to a sense of safety and highlights the importance of human connection and interpersonal exchange in self-regulation.

I found both the insight about what ails us compelling, but also the remedy described is congruent with my own personal and professional experience about… show more.

 I love this author’s voice, which feels very authentic and fresh. The writing is beautiful, both magical and earthy, and I loved the description of her spiritual journey growing up with atheist parents and her discovery of the helpful real presence of the ancestors in her life.

The author’s description of the presence of the dead in her life, her relationships with them, and their influence on her life have the potential to open up the reader to their experience of their ancestor’s presence in their own lives, which can be both so enormously helpful, enriching and comforting. I loved the description of the evolution of her relationship with her complicated father, both over the course of her lifetime and then as the years passed after he was gone.

The book models a reality, which I share, that our relationships with our loved ones continue in a very alive way… show more.

I love this book of poetry because it is so easy to pick up and read one poem like a meditation.

Each one invites the reader to explore Joy in their surroundings and inner world as something that is so accessible to them. I use it almost as a mirror to reflect back to myself my most powerful and Joyful capacity when I have forgotten it. It’s a perfect book for anyone’s bedside or altar. 

I love this book because it helps break down the false dichotomy between science and spirituality. I also love it because Ivy League scientist and professional psychologist Lisa Miller is not afraid to talk about her own spiritual experiences, which many of her colleagues might dismiss as fantasy. I teach humanities in medicine.

I am thrilled to learn from and share her findings that spirituality helps protect against mental suffering and can help bring healing. Miller’s view that our brains are hard-wired for spiritual awareness strengthens my own view that we are fundamentally spiritual beings but live in an era desperately in need of cultural and spiritual renewal.          

This is one of those books you don’t find–it finds you. At least, that’s what happened to me. When my friend first recommended it, I remember reading part of the first chapter captivated. But for whatever reason, I failed to continue reading it.

Years later, it fell off the shelf while I was trying to decide which of the books on my bookshelf was the one to read. Boy, did it catapult me into a wildly evolved level of consciousness. It ripped me open (in a gentle and inviting way) cleared me of fears and beliefs I didn’t even know I had and transformed me from being a human being reaching for spirituality to a spiritual being reaching out to humanity. 

Stanislav Grof co-authored The Stormy Search For The Self with his then-wife Christina. It was a follow-up to his earlier work, Spiritual Emergency, which emphasised that this was a global transformation in the understanding of mental illness and included contributions from other professionals in the field. It also indicated that more primitive societies viewed this situation with more sympathy than Western medicine did at the time. It was also the start of inclusion about how other phenomena related to this subject, including drug-induced states and UFOs. Current thought in recent years has also brought into the near-death experience and understanding has linked them all under the umbrella of consciousness studies.

Starr infuses her language with lyricism and in-your-face honesty. She opened a window for me into the counterculture of the 1970s as a bright young daughter of nomadic parents, landing in Taos among intellectuals and spiritual seekers.

Death crashes into the story in the opening pages with her child’s death and pervades it throughout. It offered me courage to write my own parenting story: fear, mistakes, devastation included. Starr doesn’t hold taboos, facing death, drugs, abuse, and despair as she unveils her story of unfolding adolescence to motherhood.

I felt like I’d kicked off my shoes and tucked my legs under myself to listen to a new friend’s life story, gaining a wise, quirky, compassionate companion.

I'm excited to share this book by New York Times bestselling author and scientist, known for blending science, spirituality, and human experience. This book explores the invisible field that connects all things—what Braden calls the "Divine Matrix." Drawing on quantum physics, ancient wisdom, and real-world case studies, he shows how our beliefs influence the universe, making miracles not anomalies, but natural outcomes of a deeply interconnected world.

What excites me most about this book is its invitation to live consciously. It suggests that we are not passive observers, but active participants, capable of shaping reality through heart, mind, and intention. For anyone drawn to the space between science and soul, it is both grounding and expansive, shifting your worldview gently but irrevocably.

Warning: It’s a challenging read. I tend to skip over the heavy science parts I don’t fully understand, so I don’t miss the heart of the message.