Presence of Mind begins with a deep exploration of how dark things can get from the inside, and a description of the painful process of peeling back the layers of inner programming and a distorted belief system with the help of a compassionate and brilliant guide.The author explores the roots of his personal and philosophical influences, which led him to question much of what he saw around him and took him on a search for answers to questions that many feel it is safer to avoid ask...

The Next Chapter describes what it was like to live through the horrors of World War II in occupied Czechoslovakia, endure concentration and labor camps, and then try to resume a "normal" existence in a hostile and alien world.My mother's account emphasizes, however, that this is not a Holocaust book but rather an examination of reality under totalitarian oppression. She makes it a point of explaining that the Nazis were not only after the Jews—but wanted to exterminate all disside...