Here are 100 books that I'll Try Anything Twice fans have personally recommended if you like
I'll Try Anything Twice.
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My journey on the spiritual path began through my parents. They met their guru and moved to an ashram. As I grew older, I found purpose and meaning in my life. I wanted the liberation my guru promised. It was all good until it wasn’t.
I find reading books about cults or people who devoted themselves to a spiritual or wellness group helps us learn something about who we are and offers a broader sense of what draws people into a belief system or ideology. Here are my picks for new books that explore the seduction, allure, and pitfalls of the spiritual path, and what it means to escape from a cult.
We were both seeking deeper meaning in life, longing for personal and spiritual growth, and looking for a spiritual awakening. We found ourselves at the feet of a female guru, somewhat unique in the cult world.
Blair’s story explores the seduction and allure of the spiritual journey and exposes the pitfalls and manipulation that can occur in spiritual cult groups.
A cross between Glennon Doyle's Love Warrior and the classic Yogananda Paramahansa's
Autobiography of a Yogi, This Incredible Longing: Finding My Self in a Near-Cult Experience is a memoir about devotion, discernment, and the complicated beauty of spiritual seeking.
Blair Glaser thoughtfully stepped onto a path promising peace and purpose when she found Siddha Yoga, a movement led by a charismatic Indian guru and shaped by a community that would later be called a high-control group. What she found there wasn't exploitation: it was healing. Within the ashram's structure, she discovered confidence, calm, and belonging she'd never known.
The dragons of Yuro have been hunted to extinction.
On a small, isolated island, in a reclusive forest, lives bandit leader Marani and her brother Jacks. With their outlaw band they rob from the rich to feed themselves, raiding carriages and dodging the occasional vindictive…
My journey on the spiritual path began through my parents. They met their guru and moved to an ashram. As I grew older, I found purpose and meaning in my life. I wanted the liberation my guru promised. It was all good until it wasn’t.
I find reading books about cults or people who devoted themselves to a spiritual or wellness group helps us learn something about who we are and offers a broader sense of what draws people into a belief system or ideology. Here are my picks for new books that explore the seduction, allure, and pitfalls of the spiritual path, and what it means to escape from a cult.
I was fascinated by Ruwan Meepagala’s story of the One Taste group. It was the complete antithesis of my spiritual journey.
While Ruwan was exploring his sexuality and learning about the female orgasm through public masturbation and meditation, I was in a celibate group that was sexually repressed.
We both worked for the groups we were involved in; he was fired, and I chose to exit. Both were challenging, life-changing events. Like Ruwan, we were engaged in highly controlled groups, aka a cult, and found a way out.
An insider's true story of the "Orgasm cult” - written in the shadow of the 2025 federal conviction.At twenty-four, he was broke, anxious, and sexually dysfunctional. A postcard advertising a "Meetup on Female Orgasm" seemed absurd. He went anyway. What he found changed everything.Within months, he transformed from socially awkward to confident "stroker" living in an orgasm commune in Manhattan. The women were radiant and sexually empowered. The men possessed an almost supernatural ability to "feel" what others wanted. Every conversation was vulnerable. Every moment alive with sensation. It felt like he'd found the cheat codes to human connection.But there…
My journey on the spiritual path began through my parents. They met their guru and moved to an ashram. As I grew older, I found purpose and meaning in my life. I wanted the liberation my guru promised. It was all good until it wasn’t.
I find reading books about cults or people who devoted themselves to a spiritual or wellness group helps us learn something about who we are and offers a broader sense of what draws people into a belief system or ideology. Here are my picks for new books that explore the seduction, allure, and pitfalls of the spiritual path, and what it means to escape from a cult.
There is much that resonated with me about this book, which is part memoir and part cult guidebook.
Sarah Edmonson and Anthony “Nippy” Ames, both ex-cult members of NXVIM, share their personal experiences and highlight stories of several people who were also involved in cults.
They expose the fascinating similarities in the different types of cults and offer tips to see through the many ways people are manipulated into participating in a cult-like group.
Culty shit is everywhere—and this book shows you how to spot it, escape it, and heal from it.
From former NXIVM insiders turned whistleblowers and hosts of the hit podcast A Little Bit Culty comes a gripping, practical, and surprisingly hopeful guide to understanding how manipulative people and systems get their hooks into us—and how to get your life back when they do.
Drawing from their harrowing experiences inside NXIVM, their roles in HBO’s The Vow, and hundreds of conversations with survivors and experts, Sarah Edmondson and Anthony “Nippy” Ames pull back the curtain on the tactics of coercive control:…
When Annie Thornton, midwife and apprentice witch, falls through time to a 15th-century Yorkshire village with her telepathic cat, Rosamund, she befriends Will and Jack, two soldiers returning from the French Wars. Mistress Meg, Annie’s ancestral aunt living in the 15th century, is…
My journey on the spiritual path began through my parents. They met their guru and moved to an ashram. As I grew older, I found purpose and meaning in my life. I wanted the liberation my guru promised. It was all good until it wasn’t.
I find reading books about cults or people who devoted themselves to a spiritual or wellness group helps us learn something about who we are and offers a broader sense of what draws people into a belief system or ideology. Here are my picks for new books that explore the seduction, allure, and pitfalls of the spiritual path, and what it means to escape from a cult.
This is a fascinating, culturally urgent, eye-opening read.
Drawing on her firsthand experience in the Children of God cult, Young examines how cult dynamics have embedded themselves into mainstream American life. From Tony Robbins to Taylor Swift fandom, she reveals how belonging, identity, and promises of transformation are repackaged for the mainstream.
The research is thorough, the insights sharp, and the question she poses, "Are you in a cult?" will stay with you.
You’re probably in a cult. You just don’t know it yet.
In The Culting of America, cult survivor, military veteran, and bestselling author of Uncultured Daniella Mestyanek Young delivers a gripping investigation into the invisible systems of control shaping our lives. Raised in the notorious sex cult the Children of God, she escaped to America as a teenager—only to find herself inside another rigid institution: the U.S. Army. Years later, as a Harvard-trained expert in organizational psychology, she began asking a dangerous question:
What if we’re all in cults—and America is built to keep us there?
As a moral philosopher, I ask practical questions: What kind of person am I becoming? What kind of life will I live? What loves, hopes, and fears drive my choices and shape my relationships? Character formation moves us from vice to virtue. It starts with self-reflection and moves toward intentional practice. Over time, those practices shape us and add up to a way of life. You will be formed—but how? Glittering Vices, like my job, combines my passions for character development and wise teaching. Enduring the fiery furnace of cancer treatment made formation an urgent, life-changing topic for me. I hope these books open your life to renewal too.
This is the most “how-to” book on the list. Whether we are reflective about it or not, our character will be shaped and our lives transformed into something—the only question is In what way? and For what end? John Stott once said that “Spirituality is not a condition into which we can drift.” Steve’s book teaches you how not to drift through life.
Steve’s ministry (Leadership Transformations) helps Christian leaders and laypeople live renewed and beautiful lives. This book walks you through a process of self-reflection and intentional choice to create a “rule of life”—an intentional rhythm or pattern of our days that primes us for spiritual growth and attentiveness to God.
Your personal rule of life is a holistic description of the Spirit-empowered rhythms and relationships that create, redeem, sustain and transform the life God invites you to humbly fulfill for Christ's glory.
All of us have an unwritten personal rule of life. We wake at certain times, get ready for our days in particular ways, use our free time for assorted purposes and practice rhythms of work, hobbies, and worship. There is already a rule in place that you are following. Isn?t it time to give up your unwritten rule and prayerfully write one that more closely matches the heartbeat…
Raised in a fearful and toxic environment where love was completely absent and terror was always at home, I had to learn to let go of my many programs, fears, and traumas so that I could avoid making the mistake of thinking and believing that the story of my past was going to become the story of my life. Through a long journey of letting go, getting lost in order to be found, I realized that who I Am, and who we all are, is far greater and far nobler than what we are programmed to believe. And now my mission is to teach people from all over the world how to let go so they can thrive.
Imagine being able to feel a peace so deep that you never knew existed; a love so profound that it transforms you and your whole life… Well, by reading the wonderful words of Dr. Wayne Dyer and by following his wise guidance, you will get to experience all of that and even more. In fact, at the end of the book you will have this profound feeling that you no longer are the same person you were when you first started reading this book and that you have become better, wiser, more peaceful, and far more loving and trusting than you used to be.
In this inspiring new program, bestselling author Wayne W. Dyer shows us that there is an omnipresent spiritual force right at our fingertips that contains the solution to our problems -- from ill health, to financial worries, to relationship difficulties. Drawing from various spiritual traditions, especially from the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, Dyer helps us unplug from the material world and awaken to the divine within.
Chasing Light is a lyrical meditation on grief, memory, and the fragile beauty of everyday life. At its core, it is a story of resilience, forgiveness, and the transformational power of human connection. It sheds light on the overlooked realities of homelessness and addiction, while emphasizing the importance of compassion…
One piece of advice I give my kids is to listen to people who are wrong. One of two things happen: you’ll have to define, refine, and explore your personal positions in order to articulate why they’re wrong; or you discover you’re wrong and you grow. I spent 25 years in a church that made no sense to me. That caused me to read and think about why I didn’t believe what they said was “absolute truth.” My writing is the result of a long soul-searching experience that has led me to a place I’m comfortable with and others are finding comfort in the wisdom of The Infinite Jeff.
I stumbled onto the audiobook for this when I was commuting an hour and forty-five minutes one way. It was so powerful and deep that I ended up listening to it a second time. Tagore’s spiritual wisdom spans all the major religions. He talks about Christianity as passionately and profoundly as he talks about Buddhism or Hinduism and his wisdom resonates deeply at the core of who you are.
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
I have been to hell and back over the years. After experiencing childhood abuse, I lived through a succession of traumas with my family including fraud, painful experiences in church ministry, a death threat, and a catastrophic house fire accidentally started by my mother-in-law. While I was helped by counseling, prayer, and caring friends and mentors, something was still missing. I needed to process all that pain and loss but didn’t know how. I had to learn how to grieve. Over years of rebuilding, I’ve lived the lessons of lament and know the healing that is possible when pain is metabolized.
I discovered Cole Arthur Riley through her breath prayers and curated wisdom around liberation through her Black Liturgies account on Instagram. Her words in this book are poetry and good medicine for my soul.
Her story of learning to love her physical body as she lives with chronic pain is wise and freeing. I didn’t know how much I needed her wise reimagining of the story of the garden, the fall, and what it means to find home.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In her stunning debut, the creator of Black Liturgies weaves stories from three generations of her family alongside contemplative reflections to discover the “necessary rituals” that connect us with our belonging, dignity, and liberation.
“This is the kind of book that makes you different when you’re done.”—Ashley C. Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Somebody’s Daughter
“Reaches deep beneath the surface of words unspoken, wounds unhealed, and secrets untempered to break them open in order for fresh light to break through.”—Morgan Jerkins, New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing and…
I am a writer and lecturer who is irresistibly drawn to the spiritual and paranormal, but whose academic qualifications are in maths and science. So, I have struggled to find my niche in life: a belief in God and Spirit, a passion for the ‘paranormal,’ and an attraction to the scientific – subjects whose advocates attack one another without compunction. Then, I watched the film What the Bleep Do We Know? and found the communion of spirit and science that had eluded me for so long. Thus, I have a new passion: quantum physics, consciousness, and the creation of reality – which means, for me, the Universe is truly full of magic.
Not everyone has the time, patience, or ability
to read a complete book – so enter this enchanting volume! Mark Bajerski’s book
is a treasury of uplifting quotes. Each day, you arbitrarily ‘choose’ a page,
then read its spiritual message. Spirit guides your choice, so the message you
receive is the most appropriate for you at that moment in time. Then, you
simply Hold that Thought.
I have found that these uplifting spiritual
truths reinforce my spirit no matter what circumstances I face, and so touched
and delighted was I when a friend gifted a copy to me that I, in turn, gifted copies
to my friends.
A gem of a book and a daily reminder that the Universe
abounds with magic.
Are you open to receiving all the love that the Universe so freely intends for you? Do you limit yourself by a belief that you are powerless to change your life? Are you ready to rediscover your inner beauty and to share that beauty with the world?
Hold that Thought is an incredible collection of divine messages and truths that guides us to the greatest source of our inner light, healing and strength. Mark Bajerski, author and international spiritual healer, beautifully shares these ‘whispers’ from Spirit, whispers that are intended for each one of us. Mark spent years of his…
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman
by
Alexis Krasilovsky,
Kate from Jules et Jim meets I Love Dick.
A young woman filmmaker’s journey of self-discovery, set against a backdrop of the sexual liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s. In Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman, we follow Ana Fried as she faces the ultimate…
I’m an award-winning author of novels and magazine articles. You can find my articles—many on mind-body and spiritual topics—in Oprah magazine, Prevention, National Geographic, and more. I started doing yoga back in my twenties when a woman almost-literally floated by me at the gym. When someone said she was the yoga teacher, I got off the spin bike and followed her into the class. I’m now a certified yoga teacher and longtime meditator. I’ve studied many classic yoga treatises, but it’s so much more fun to read—and to write—books that deliver yoga’s deep philosophies in a lighthearted, easily digestible way.
This little memoir (some 200 postcard-size pages) packs so much yoga punch.
Clendenin goes through a lot of bad stuff—a lifelong drinking problem, the death of a relative, a life-altering medical diagnosis—but she relays it all in such a fun, girlfriendy way you can’t help but cheer her on.
Her saving grace is the yoga teacher training she begins as the book does, which carries her through the awful life events. My favorite is the way she summarizes and modernizes the four parts of the classic—and very obtuse—Yoga Sutras (e.g., one take: “don’t let that nasty ego tell you who you aren’t”).
“It was nothing at first. Just a little twitch. My left ring finger was twitching, slowly, almost languidly, the way fishing line does when you’ve hooked something without any strength. Like a baby perch. I hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet.
My first thought: Stress?
(Nope, think again)”
And here begins a journey that Anne Clendening never saw coming, tried to deny, avoid, postpone and otherwise reject. After all, how does a dark L.A. hippy chick who swore off booze at 22 fit an early onset Parkinson's diagnosis into a life of bartending in Hollywood rock clubs and yoga?…
