Our Favorite Places On The Web
ESP Magazine: This is the online edition of the print entertainment weekly from Greensboro, North Carolina. Although most of the articles are local and specific to the region, they do host the column Alternative Approaches three out of every four weeks. Also, they’re the only publication that seems to be willing to pay our editor, Christine Hall, and Goddess knows, she needs the money.
Widethinker.Com: This is a great site for writers and readers alike, and it’s another place to occasionally read articles by our editor! Although they don’t pay as yet (they hope to be able to in the future), it’s a great place for beginning writers to get some exposure. Plus, every month they have a poetry contest where the first place winner walks away with $100. If you’re a reader who would like to support writers painlessly, tell all of your friends about this site and click on it often (so they can start generating some advertising revenue). This site is also upgraded frequently.
San Graal School of Sacred Geometry: If you’re a regular reader of the Alternative Approaches column who gets aggravated because it’s kept on such a simple level – then this site is for you. Without a doubt, this site is the most comprehensive site on all areas of “New Age science” (for lack of a better term) on the web. Beware: many of the articles require a master’s degree in advanced physics to be understood.
Terence McKenna Land: Terrence McKenna, who died of a brain tumor in 2000, wrote the definitive book on growing magic mushrooms, introduced the hippies to South American shamanism, developed the theory of “Timewave Zero” (which postulates, if we understand it, that the present is predetermined by the future and that the end of time can be scientifically measured), and with his brother wrote a definitive text on the I-Ching. This site contains much of his writing and many streaming audio interviews with him. There is also some interesting “Timewave Zero” free software available for download.
Ladyfire: This is a great women’s site, and a big supporter of AlternativeApproaches to boot. The site bills itself as “the award winning community for modern women” and features “romance and love stories, articles of empowerment, inspiration, women’s issues, health, self esteem, advice, horoscopes, chat and stellar recipes.” They also offer free email accounts with a “@ladyfire.com” address. How cool can it get?
EmergentMind.org: This highly open and egalitarian site represents just the sort of hopes we had for the “information superhighway” before it became a marketing tool. This is a well organized, but refreshingly anarchistic, site that attempts to take a scientific approach to the subject of consciousness. “For the past few decades, experimental evidence has been accumulating in almost all areas of science that non-local and mind-directed effects upon the physical world are more ubiquitous than we had so far cared to admit,” they explain at the beginning of their home page.
The Timothy Leary Home Page: As the song says, Timothy Leary’s dead, but he can still take you on trips that will expand your consciousness. If you are a bonefide survivor of the 60s or an up-and-coming neo-hippie, this site is a must visit. Be sure to spend some time while you’re there. You just might learn something from this foolish old man.
The Option Institute: While others in the New Age are content to merely brag about the amount of esoteric knowledge they’ve amassed, The Option Institute in Massachusetts is busy helping ordinary folks like us learn how to overcome our self defeating habits. Most impressive is their work to help children with autism. We strongly suggest that you take a look-see at this site.
The Art of Loving: We’re still not sure whether this site that’s devoted to the art of intimacy belongs on the Body, Mind or Spirit page, but since sex and romance are said to begin in the mind, we thought this would be an apt place. The site purports to be “your resource for advice on love and relationships.” Full of great articles and advice, we especially enjoyed taking the questionaire, but give yourself plenty of time...and be honest!
Rex Research: For those of you left-brainers who like to stay on the cutting edge of alternative science and culture, this site is for you! The thing we like the most is that most of the articles here are written in a style so that even poets like us can understand them. From the home page: “Rex Research was established in 1982 by Robert A. Nelson to archive and distribute hard-to-find information about unconventional, suppressed, dormant, &/or emerging technologies, inventions, theories and therapies that offer real hope of liberating humanity. Little has changed since then, except that Freedom and Earth are more gravely wounded, and Time is accelerating and compressing in the latter days of this cycle of civilization as we knew it...” Yep. He sounds like one of us.
Achievement Through Wholeness Of Awareness: We think that we like this site a lot, but we’re not quite sure. Unfortunately, the site is complicated and requires some thinking and work to navigate, so we haven’t been able to delve too deeply. From what we’ve gleaned, this seems to be the fairly groovy (we’re showing our age) and well thought out personal philosophy of John Paolucci. We’re hoping that one of our readers will have the patience to check this site out and let us know what it’s all about. Anyway, the cursor trails are pretty trippy.
Planet Lightworker. If we at AlternativeApproaches.com decided to start a new magazine that just concentrated on the New Age end of the “New Thought” spectrum, this would be it. This electronic magazine is published monthly, and contains lots of positive articles for the entry level New Ager. If we rated sights, we’d give this one four out of five stars.
Shandra MacNeil Tarot. Ms. MacNeil is an artist from Manitoba, Canada who contributed the May, 2001 cover art for AlternativeApproaches.com. On her site she displays some of her original Tarot decks which she offers for sale. Just think of the possibilities! You could have a Tarot deck that’s unlike any other in the world.
Belief-O-Matic: This site offers you the chance to answer twenty questions about your spiritual an/or religious beliefs. It then tallies-up the results and tells you which of the world’s spiritual systems most matches your personal beliefs. When our editor took the test, she came up 100% Neo-Pagan (which didn’t surprise her) and 98% Mahayana Buddhist (which pretty well sums up how she sees herself). Our business manager also scored 100% in the Neo-Pagan category and 93% Mahayana Buddhist. Try it for yourself. Some of the questions are quite thought provoking.
Spirit Search: This is another directory/database of sites dedicated to spirituality and holistic health. This site is a little less eclectic than some others (like Avatar Search or Sorcery Search) and we think it definitely deserves a bookmark.
The Indigo Sun: These New Agers are from Texas – and proud of it! Their site is a “monthly guide committed to providing ‘community’ for conscious seekers on their pathway.” Recent issues have had articles that run the gamut from a reprint of a message from the Dalai Lama to an article on feminism written from a male perspective.
Alchemy – Review of Metaphysical Sites On the Internet: What a great idea! As the subtitle suggests, these folks review metaphysical sites. A great resource for us all.
Atlantis Rising Online: This is the online version of Atlantis Rising magazine. From the ancient mysteries to unexplained anomalies – this site covers it all!
Circles of Light: This online magazine is published weekly and features articles on astrology, alchemy and metaphysics. Check your weekly horoscope for free.
Conscious Creation Journal: This web-zine focuses on the “you create your own reality” idea. The magazine is currently on sabbatical, yet archived articles are still available for viewing.
Lightworks: A site that combines a good sense of humor with valuable information for the consciousness community, Lightworks offers some cool fun features like “Astro-Weather” and the daily comic strip, “Alex’s Restaurant.” Articles on a variety of subjects – from yoga to holistic health.
Living Now: This Austrailian site’s stated aim is to “support the complete integration of body, mind, emotions and soul.” We particularly like their idea of including a section devoted to “Soul In Business” and hope that they work at expanding this section.
Living Traditions Online: Very pretty site without the annoying bells and whistles that are the bane of many sites on spirituality. Features articles on a wide variety of spiritual subjects.
The Messenger: Although much of this site seems to still be under construction – we like what we see. When completed, the site will contain sections on “Sacred Scriptures,” “Spacecraft Earth,” “Body Care” and more. We’re particularly looking forward to the section “Cinema Samsara.”
Magical Blend Magazine: It’s too easy to say that Magical Blend, once a cutting edge magazine of holistic spirituality, has sold-out. Even though they don’t offer as much substance as in days past – at least they’ve survived, which is more than can be said for other New Age publications. They remain a valuable resource for our community.
The Messenger, A Guide For Life’s Adventures: What we like most about this site is its regular columns – but we’re suckers for columns. Here there are columns on palistry, astrology, numerology and more. The site also publishes articles on a variety of alternative spiritual and health subjects.
Mystic Living Today: MLT is a monthly online magazine that features articles on a variety of subjects – mostly dealing with alternative spirituality. The site also includes columns, such as “Starz Scopes,” a weekly I-Ching horoscope reading; “Dreams & Symbols,” which deals with dream interpretations; and “Ask Louise,” an advice column by Louise Hay.
New Age: The Journal For Holistic Living: This is the online presence for the national print magazine. About a third of the articles and regular features in the print version are available here. If you like what you see, they’ll send you a free copy of the magazine.
Renaissance Universal: A web site from the folks who publish New Renaissance magazine. This is a very in-depth site, with an extremely wide variety of articles on a number of alternative topics – including Animal Rights, Ecology, Economics and more. Five out of five stars!
Oasis TV: If Yahoo or Netcenter were run by New Agers, this would be their site. As much as we want to hate this site, we find that we can’t help but like it – a lot. It has everything from frequently updated front page news articles geared towards a New Age readership to articles to screening rooms where you can watch videos on a variety of spiritual and health related topics. Try it. You’ll like it.
Positive News: The content of this site from the U.K. Reminds us of the underground press of old. Articles on everything from organic farming to awareness.
Spiritlincs : This rather unusual site might be one you'll want to bookmark since it's chock full of useful information. Instead of your usual collection of articles - this site features informative write-ups on a variety of topisc. For example, click on "Crystals" and you'll get a brief explanation on crystal energy, followed by some photos of commonly used magickal crystals and stones, with information on their uses. We also like the "Absent Healing" page.
AlienObserver.com : Although we tend to shy away from sites that deal with the UFO phenomenon, we just had to recommend this site. Our recommendation comes not because of the sites informative articles and up-to-date news stories, although there are plenty of those. Mostly we like this site because it contains some of the coolest UFO photos this side of Sirius. The photos alone give this one five out of five stars.
