After summer in paradox, Helping Friendly Book Club returns!

Join us September 25th at The Wild Detectives to discuss the 31st book on our Quest to discover the lost Secrets to Eternal Joy and Never Ending Splendor - the original “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus” by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Facebook RSVP HERE

Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to the humans, is there a parallel here with our Quest for SEJNES? A parable, if you will? As we get closer and closer to discovering All the Inherent Knowledge in the Universe, we need to take every possible precaution to make sure we don’t inadvertently set off some sort of nuclear knowledge meltdown. Is it possible to illuminate too much curiosity, or do we just need to properly prepare our heart and soul first so we don’t grow out of proportion in one direction only? With great Knowledge comes great responsibility. Let’s discuss!

Come make brain honey will all your old friends and enjoy the convivial sociability of our favorite bookstore bar, The Wild Detectives in Bishop Arts on Wednesday, September 25th at 8pm.

We will be voting on our next three books to read at this meeting as well. If you know where we should search for the SEJNES next, be sure to send in your nominations ASAP so we can get them on the ballot.

Follow your pinecone, and bring a curious friend. Follow your pinecone and bring someone curious. We'll have a Cosmic Door Prize and a few tricks up our sleeves too, as usual. Can’t wait to get the band back together!

If you need a copy of the book, here’s the FULL TEXT.

Do you know what your "unconscious associative networks" are?
Have you ever had an experience with "anomalous cognition"?
Do you know what a Ganzfeld experiment is?
Are you a skeptic? Are you a pragmatist? Are you curious?
Are you familiar with your pinecone?

🧠🍯

Join us for a lively discussion and more about all these topics and others when the Helping Friendly Book Club returns on 3.12.19 to discuss our 30th book on the Quest for the Secrets to Eternal Joy and Never Ending Splendor - "Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind" by Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, Ph.D.

RSVP HERE

Helping Friendly Book Club has been going through a bit of a growth spurt lately, so be sure to stay tuned to this event page in the coming weeks as we roll out more of the exciting projects we're working on to help us keep with the pace. If you haven't had a chance to read the book yet there's a link to Amazon at the bottom so you can order yourself a copy today real easy like. You won't regret starting 2019 off on the most mind-blowing foot imaginable (and then some).

"Come for the convivial sociability, stay for the brain honey."

Sincerely,
The Helping Friendly Book Club
www.helpingfriendly.com/theplan

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Follow us on Instagram @hfbclub
#SEJNES
#followyourpinecone

***

About the Book

“In 1991, when her daughter’s rare, hand-carved harp was stolen, Lisby Mayer’s familiar world of science and rational thinking turned upside down. After the police failed to turn up any leads, a friend suggested she call a dowser—a man who specialized in finding lost objects. With nothing to lose—and almost as a joke—Dr. Mayer agreed. Within two days, and without leaving his Arkansas home, the dowser located the exact California street coordinates where the harp was found.

Deeply shaken, yet driven to understand what had happened, Mayer began the fourteen-year journey of discovery that she recounts in this mind-opening, brilliantly readable book. Her first surprise: the dozens of colleagues who’d been keeping similar experiences secret for years, fearful of being labeled credulous or crazy.

Extraordinary Knowing is an attempt to break through the silence imposed by fear and to explore what science has to say about these and countless other “inexplicable” phenomena. From Sigmund Freud’s writings on telepathy to secret CIA experiments on remote viewing, from leading-edge neuroscience to the strange world of quantum physics, Dr. Mayer reveals a wealth of credible and fascinating research into the realm where the mind seems to trump the laws of nature.

She does not ask us to believe. Rather she brings us a book of profound intrigue and optimism, with far-reaching implications not just for scientific inquiry but also for the ways we go about living in the world.”

Tune your ears and attend to the bones with us Wednesday October 17th* when Helping Friendly Book Club 29 meets at The Wild Detectives to discuss Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ storytelling masterpiece, “Women Who Run With The Wolves.”

The Path of Initiation is a recurring thread in our Quest for #SEJNES (think of Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”, Coelho's “The Pilgrimage”, “The Little Prince” and the Mystery Schools, etc.) and Estes elucidates it beautifully in this book. As a male member of the wolf pack of humanity, I’ve already learned an enormous amount of helping friendly information from this book, and not just about women, although a lot about women. I should have read it a long time ago. Seriously, guys, read this book.

One of the most popular and influential studies of the “Path of Initiation” in the relatively recent Western Canon is Carl Jung’s “Process of Individuation.” Dr. Estes is a Jungian psychologist, but she’s also a fantastic storyteller. She tells archetypal stories that resonate deeply with the collective unconscious in each of us, and then she squeezes so much meaning out of them, she extracts so much brain honey with you, it genuinely shifts the mind.

As I started reading this book, I quickly began to understand why it has such a mystical “following” of sorts. So many people I’ve mentioned to that we’re reading this book already have such a strong, emotional opinion of it. Either they’ve read it and it touched them deeply, or they’ve been meaning to read it for years, because everyone they know that read it told them to read it too. It’s just one of those Helping Friendly Books, you know? We hope you’ll join us Tuesday evening October 16th at 8:15pm at our favorite place The Wild Detectives for an evening of insight, friendship, and convivial sociability.

Plan to do some howling. We will also seek to keep expanding on our panel discussion format and livestreaming skills from last time. Come for the mental pollination, stay for the brain honey.

P.S. Join us Wednesday September 26th for Shakespeare in the Park's performance of Othello! All the info you need right here: https://www.facebook.com/events/874744659386099/

*Originally scheduled for October 16th we had to push it by one day to the 17th. We hope this still works for everyone!

---

“When seeking guidance, don't ever listen to the tiny-hearted. Be kind to them, heap them with blessing, cajole them, but do not follow their advice.” - Dr. Estes in “Women Who Run With The Wolves” #SEJNES

The stars are already aligning for 2018. How do I know? Because I’m thrilled to announce that the first Helping Friendly Book Club of the year will meet on none other than the ever auspicious, deliciously mysterious - 2/6. 

That’s right folks, 2/6!  THE TWO SIX! 

Join us Tuesday, February 6th at 8:15 PM at our favorite spot, The Wild Detectives in Bishop Arts. We will meet to discuss perhaps the most concise distillation of #SEJNES we’ve read on our Quest so far, “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom” by Don Miguel Ruiz. This powerfully transformative book is beloved by millions for its clarity and simplicity, as well as its easy application to daily life. What good isdiscovering the SEJNES if you can’t apply it to your life on a daily basis? 

// WHAT - WHERE - WHEN \\

Helping Friendly Book Club #27
“The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Freedom” by Don Miguel Ruiz
8:15 PM on Tuesday, February 6th, 2018
The Wild Detectives Bookstore Bar

RSVP AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Our first encounter with Toltec philosophy came through #CarlosCastaneda and “The Teachings of Don Juan”, who along with Don Miguel Ruiz tells us that the purpose of the Warrior (the ideal person in the Toltec tradition) is to transcend social conditioning as we discover our personal power, and learn to live with clear intent and impeccability. 

“The first step toward personal freedom is awareness. We need to be aware that we are not free in order to be free. We need to be aware of what the problem is in order to solve the problem.” - The Four Agreements

People in this country, especially politicians, love to throw the word “freedom” around, but what does freedom really mean? Who in our society do you point to as being truly free? Who's level of freedom would you like to emulate?

Now that we’re reading our 27th book on the Quest for SEJNES, we’re beginning to shift from the Discovery phase, into the Practice and application phase, and eventually into Mastery I hope. We’re beginning to see recurring patterns through all the books, and there's no better example of the practical day-to-day application of SEJNES than The Four Agreements. Their simplicity is their power. 

The Four Agreements:
Be impeccable with your word.
Don’t take anything personally.
Don’t make assumptions.
Always do your best. 

If you haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, fear not. It’s only 90 pages and you can download the full text here. 

I recommend you read the book over the holidays and frame your year ahead in the best possible light. 

“You just can’t live in that negative way. You know what I mean, make way for the positive day. Cause it’s a new day…” - Bob Marley

There’s a lot to be excited about in 2018. One of the reasons HFBC isn’t meeting until February is because the Helping Friendly Book Stand Steering Committee is meeting in January to kick off Helping Friendly’s biggest, boldest project yet. There’s much more to come on that front, so please stay tuned. We’re going to need everybody's help as we aim to create something greater than the sum of all parts here shortly.

If 2017 was the year of the Time Wharf, 2018 will be the year of the Helping Friendly Book Stand. We’re on a mission to Illuminate Curiosity for the Purpose of Forward Motion, Create Space and Stimulation for the Generation of Insights, Support Conscious Connected Community Building, and to Elevate Social Vitality through Literature, Art and Conversation. 

We want to change the way people feel about reading and bring Mystique back to Knowledge. Let’s elevate the public conversation and connect people through books, together. 

Here’s wishing everyone a very merry holiday season and a great start to the New Year. Whatever you're celebrating this holiday season, I can’t wait to celebrate the TWO/SIX with you in February. It’s going to be a great year for phyllotaxis.

More than a little,
Cole
@hfbclub

*

“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.” - Bob Marley

FUN FACT: 2/6, among other things, also happens to be Bob Marley’s birthday. (#notrandom) In honor of that I challenge you to find instances in songs where Bob’s philosophy overlaps with The Four Agreements. In the center of that Venn diagram you will find the SEJNES. 

Perhaps we should also celebrate Bob's birthday at our meeting on the 2/6 and start a new tradition of some sort... a White Elephant Book Exchange perhaps? Let's co-phorph a Helping Friendly Holiday together. Suggestion box is open. 

*

This is my invitation
I've got a special vacation
I need your concentration
Just to feel your vibration
At that soul shakedown party tonight
We gonna have a soul shakedown party tonight

- Bob Marley

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure I inform you that the ‘Ship of SEJNES’ will pulling back into port on October 10th at 8:30PM for a mind-altering discussion on “The Hidden Life of Trees” by Peter Wohlleben, at our favorite safe harbor, The Wild Detectives.

Trees, wouldn’t you know it, have a mind of their own. They make friends, they suckle their young, they defend themselves, they build social networks, they remember, they are connected to everything. Their wonderment knows no bounds.

The Secret to Eternal Joy and Never Ending Splendor is to never lose your sense of wonder, and trees, hidden in plain sight, are a mirror image of Divine Intelligence in action. And mirrors - are portals - which is why 10/10 feels like the perfect day to come together and behold the majestic mystery of trees together.

We are very much looking forward to catching up with everyone after summer vacations and hope you can join us. This will be our first gathering post-eclipse, which means the sap in your pinecone is especially ripe for oozing. No matter what you thought you knew about trees, we’re going farther.

Please stay tuned and share this Event Page as we will be starting the conversation in here. We’ll also have updates on the Time Wharf at this meeting too. Friends and first timers are welcomed warmly. As always, there will be a badass Cosmic Door Prize.

Our defense is to wonder. See you 10/10.

From the foam,
Cole

PS. The Tree of Knowledge in your Soul will grow, and the Helping Friendly Book will plant the seed, but I warn you that All Knowledge seeming innocent and pure becomes a deadly weapon in the hands of avarice and greed…

-- ------

“Under the appellations of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is concealed the great arcanum of antiquity— the mystery of equilibrium. The Tree of Life represents the spiritual point of balance—the secret of immortality. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as its name implies, represents polarity, or unbalance— the secret of mortality. The Qabbalists reveal this by assigning the central column of their Sephirothic diagram to the Tree of Life and the two side branches to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. "Unbalanced forces perish in the void," declares the secret work, and all is made known. The apple represents the knowledge of the procreative processes, by the awakening of which the material universe was established. The allegory of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a cosmic myth, revealing the methods of universal and individual establishment.” - The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly P. Hall

Helping Friendly Book Club returns June 13th to The Wild Detectives at 8:30PM. 

Join us for an evening of convivial sociability as we introduce ourselves to the Secret History of America's Ancient Roots.

We will be discussing Manly P. Hall's short but seminal book, “The Secret Destiny of America," and diving into the mystery of history to search for the Secrets of Eternal Joy and Never Ending Splendor.

We will also vote for the next 3 Helping Friendly Books at this meeting (details below), so set your intention extra strong to be there and vote on June 13th.

More good news is you can download the book (only 53 pages) for free right here:

 https://archive.org/details/SecretDestinyOfAmerica 

Have you ever wondered what the unfinished pyramid or the All Seeing Eye on The Great US Seal mean? Or why the number 13 appears so often? Did it ever strike you as odd that the Washington Monument is an Egyptian Obelisk? Have you ever been curious how these symbols got there in the first place? 

Most people are programmed to trigger when discussions about the role and influence of Secret Societies in shaping America’s past, present, and future come up, but not this time. On June 13th, once and for all, we are going to stare it in the face and talk about it. 

We would do well to remember that anytime we get into topics that have the potential to make us question the premises of our existing worldview, our psyche’s defense mechanism kicks into HIGH ALERT. 

But- if we can keep our IDENTITY from TRIGGERING long enough to consider the evidence, we’ll have a whole new type of “alternative facts” to weave into our MOSAIC.

I can't wait to see everyone and continue our Quest for the Secrets of Eternal Joy and Never Ending Splendor (#SEJNES). Stay tuned to this Event Page because we will be sharing all sorts of insights before the meeting, and don't forget to come and vote!

ROCK THE VOTE

This meeting is EXTRA important because we will be voting (using democracy) on where to search for the Secrets of Eternal Joy and Never Ending Splendor for the next 6 months. 

Please send your nominations to cole@helpingfriendly.com before June 1st to have them considered for the ballot on June 13th. This is what we have so far: 

'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' by Richard Bach
'Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates' by Tom Robbins
'The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom' by Don Ruiz
'The Hidden Life of Trees' by Peter Wohlleben
'Ask and It is Given' by Esther and Jerry Hicks
‘The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge’ by Jeremy Narby

"Live by the foma* that makes you brave and kind and healthy and happy."
--The Books of Bokonon. 1:5

The Helping Friendly Book Club continues our search for the Secrets to Eternal Joy and Never Ending Splendor Tuesday November 15th. We will be discussing KURT VONNEGUT JR.'S 'CAT'S CRADLE' and meeting for the very first time at our new location - 'Sundown at Granada.'

'Sundown at Granada' is immediately next door to The Granada Theater on Greenville, the best concert venue in Dallas. We will meet upstairs on Sundown’s awesome covered patio at 8:30PM. We are very excited about meeting here because rock and roll and reading should go together a lot more often, and now they will.

As an added bonus ‘Sundown at Granada’ has live music 7 nights a week starting at 10, so after we consult the Jaroracle, the late night questers can continue the conversation well into the evening.

About 'Cat's Cradle'-

First published in 1963, Vonnegut’s 4th novel is a “satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet’s ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist, a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer, and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny. A book that left an indelible mark on an entire generation of readers, Cat’s Cradle is one of the twentieth century’s most important works—and Vonnegut at his very best.”

Are you ready to learn about Bokonoism?

"We Bokononists believe that humanity is organized into teams, teams that do God's Will without ever discovering what they are doing. Such a team is called a karass by Bokonon ... "If you find your life tangled up with somebody else's life for no very logical reasons," writes Bokonon, "that person may be a member of your karass." At another point in The Books of Bokonon he tells us, "Man created the checkerboard; God created the karass." By that he means that a karass ignores national, institutional, occupational, familial, and class boundaries. It is as free form as an amoeba." - Books of Bokonon (Cat's Cradle)

See you on the 15th Questers. Let's hold in mind having another great turnout for our first gathering at Sundown!

*Harmless untruths

The Helping Friendly Book Club continues its search for the Secrets to Eternal Joy and Never Ending Splendor on Wednesday, September 14th with a discussion inspired by “Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit” by Daniel Quinn.

‘Ishmael’ is a book that stretches us to reconsider the value and influence of myth and Mother Culture in today’s world, to examine and reexamine the nature of Freedom and Captivity, to wrestle with the perennial mystery of ‘Identity’ from an outside-our-species perspective, and tells us the story of The Leavers and The Takers. As usual parts of this book feel eerily synchronistic with where we are on The Quest, and as a society. ‘Waking Up’ is certainly an important aspect of 'Ishmael' as well.

“Once you learn to discern the voice of Mother Culture humming in the background, telling her story over and over again to the people of your culture, you’ll never stop being conscious of it. Wherever you go for the rest of your life, you’ll be tempted to say to the people around you, “how can you listen to this stuff and not recognize it for what it is?” - Ishmael

Can’t wait to see everyone on the 14th and hear how summer vacations were! For now we will plan to return to The Kennedy Room at 8:30 PM, but if that location changes I will be sure to let you know.

Over the next few weeks, if you can, please remember that building a community is a big part of what we are doing. You are all encouraged to extend this invitation to people you think would be curious and invite them to join us. Feel free to coax them along with stories about the Cosmic Door Prize, and any sharing of the Ishmael HFB Event Page on your Facebook timeline get's brownie points. Edible Brownie points...

NOMINATIONS! We will be voting on what our next two books to read will be at this meeting, so be sure to send your nominations for the ballot to cole@helpingfriendly.com. Where should we look for the Secrets to Eternal Joy and Never Ending Splendor next?

If September seems too long to wait for more #mentalpollination, come hang out with The Red Red Rose Society at The Bottle Shop on Lower Greenville on August 30th for our monthly open mic poetry night. Details below. #getonyoursoapbox

August's Red Red Rose Society August 30th
https://www.facebook.com/events/1127401693999269/

#hfbclub
#redredrosesociety

If you haven’t started yet don’t worry, there's still plenty of time to read the book and you can download the full text HERE:

http://hec2011.wiki.usfca.edu/file/view/DanielQuinnIshmaeleBook.pdf/247980497/DanielQuinnIshmaeleBook.pdf

Questers!

Join us Wednesday June 29th to discuss “Breakfast at the Victory: The Mysticism of Ordinary Experience” by James Carse.

“This thought-provoking book turns ordinary experiences on their heads, almost forcing readers to find the mystical in their own subjective engagement of daily events. Carse ( Finite and Infinite Games ), who is director of Religious Studies and professor of the history of literature at NYU, interprets his own life with the help of the Sufi poets, Aristotle, Descartes and Freud. Drawing parables from daily experience (a golf match, a Halloween party, a mouse eating a grain), Carse gently prods us to see beyond the obvious in the world and in our lives. In so doing, he brings the profound within the grasp of everyone. The engaging and insightful stories reconsidered here also explain why Carse has gained an almost cult-like following on his own campus as well as beyond it.”

I was unable to find a .PDF of this book online so I recommend you order from Amazon or download to your kindle ASAP! A few Questers have already finished the book and reported back that they loved it.

Order or download on Amazon and Kindle here:
https://www.amazon.com/Breakfast-Victory-Mysticism-Ordinary-Experience/dp/0062511718?ie=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0

I know a lot of us travel during the summer which makes it harder to find times when we can all get together. Then again, summer and travel are great times to be reading. If you can’t make book club please join us for one of our monthly Red Red Rose Society Open Mic gatherings. Bring a copy of your favorite poem to share and get up on the soapbox for some convivial sociability. The Red Red Rose Society will gather next on Tuesday June 14th at The Bottle Shop on Lower Greenville at 8:30PM.

RSVP for The Red Red Rose Society HERE:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1068332719871602/

Wishing everyone a very MYSTICAL start to your summer! See you the 14th and the 29th if not sooner!

Yours in the foam,
Cole
cole@helpingfriendly.com



MYSTICISM

1: the experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality reported by mystics

2: the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience (as intuition or insight)