A Stand Against Hate Crime

"We must stand against crimes that are meant not only to break bones but to break spirits. No one in America should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hands of the person they love." ~President Barack Obama, while signing the new Hate Crime Legislation

The new law adds acts of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to the list of federal hate crimes.

~Linda

Messenger: Legacy of Mattie J.T. Stepanek and Heartsongs, New Book

“I believe that peace becomes possible when we choose to make peace an attitude and a habit. I believe that the reality of peace begins within each of us….”
~Mattie J. T. Stepanek, (1990-2004), Just Peace, A Message of Hope



I received an email this morning from Jeni Stepanek, mother of Mattie J.T. Stepanek, announcing her new book to be released Monday, November 2, with her appearance on the Good Morning America show. Her book, Messenger: The Legacy of Mattie J.T. Stepanek and Heartsongs, is not a book by Mattie, but the first book ABOUT Mattie's life, written by the person who knew him best, his mother, Jeni, who shared him with all of us. Mattie was a young poet, philosopher, and peace maker, who lived a short life but while here he gave us the wisdom, the vision, the poetry and essays, from a brilliant, yet young, mind who knew about love, peace and joy, despite his struggle with a terminal neuromuscular disease.

Mattie left this world days before his 14th birthday, but not only did he leave us with his books of poetry, but with memories of his beautiful smile, his wisdom of an old soul, his humor, his love, and his belief that peace was possible.

I will never forget Mattie, will never forget his smile and the sparkle in his eyes. For those of you who do not know about Mattie, please read my review of his Heartsongs books, including the last one he wrote with former President Jimmy Carter, Just Peace, A Message of Hope.

Jeni’s book is now available at Amazon. The Foreword is by Maya Angelou. If you want to know more about an angel, visit Mattie’s website.

“Peace is possible. It can begin simply, over a game of chess and a cup of tea.” ~Mattie J. T. Stepanek, (1990-2004)

This video song, a tribute to Mattie, He Was Just Like Me, was written and recorded by his young friend, Madison Cross. Madison is the daughter of singer, songwriter, Christopher Cross.





~Linda

A Consideration of the Human Experience

“Why are we here and what is our role in the ever-expanding reality of being? To question is the basis of all understanding, so join in the search for meaning and find that place wherein all of your answers for all of your questions may be realized!” ~Greg Pendleton

Greg Pendleton has published his book, What About Me: A Consideration of the Human Experience. Available at Amazon in tradepaper and Kindle

“Why has our world become such a crazy, unmanageable place? What is my role in its current state of affairs, and how can I be instrumental in the needed changes ahead? This book seeks to provide you, the individual, with these and many other answers to be found in your investigation of the mystery of Life.”

Greg Pendleton is the son of Don Pendleton. Greg, like his late father, explores the human experience and the steps to reawaken oneself to the true realities of life in order to find love and happiness moment to moment.

Greg's blog

~Linda

The Cosmic Breath: Metaphysical Essays of Don Pendleton

“Is there a reason for the existence of the world? This is perhaps the most basic question of metaphysics.” ~Don Pendleton


Don Pendleton’s Metaphysical Essays dramatically explore the human experience and the spiritual meaning of existence. In Don’s inspirational examination of religion, science, and philosophy, his findings are thought-provoking, inspiring, and, perhaps, even transformational for the true seeker.

Don Pendleton (1927-1995) was creator of The Executioner: Mack Bolan Series, Joe Copp, Private Eye and Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective Mystery Series. He published more than one hundred novels and has sold nearly two hundred million copies world-wide in more than twenty-five languages.

He wrote the nonfiction A Search For Meaning From the Surface of a Small Planet, and with his wife, Linda Pendleton, co-wrote the popular books, To Dance With Angels and Whispers From the Soul.

Don Pendleton considered himself to be a metaphysical scholar and although most of his writing career was devoted to fictional works he often wrote essays of his metaphysical ideas and beliefs.

Friend and fellow writer, Jon Guenther wrote a tribute on his blog to Don Pendleton on the 14th anniversary of Don's death, which was October 23, 1995.

The Cosmic Breath is now available at Amazon and will be available for the Kindle in a few days.

(Update) the book is available at Kindle.

~Linda

Dumping Emotional Garbage

“Guilt drives people to be deaf, dumb, and blind to their own drives, hopes and fears and wants, bias and prejudices therein.” ~ Spirit, Dr. James Martin Peebles, from Three Principles of Angelic Wisdom by Linda Pendleton



I was speaking with a friend today about feelings and letting go of the past. You know, dumping the garbage that one can tend to hold onto. So that brought to mind the late Dr. David Viscott, Psychiatrist—his books, his radio show, and his TV show.

I very much admired him and did know him on a social level. I had read his first book, The Making of a Psychiatrist, published in 1972, and then a few years later, in the late 1970’s, I found Dr. Viscott’s book, The Language of Feelings, to be insightful and it gave me a greater understanding of the dynamics of feelings, of emotions.

“Anxiety is the fear of hurt or loss.
Hurt of loss leads to anger.
Anger held in leads to guilt.
Guilt, unrelieved, leads to depression.”
~David Viscott, M.D., The Language of Feelings

And here from my book, Three Principles of Angelic Wisdom, Chapter 12, Dumping the Garbage:

More than a hundred years ago, Dr. James Martin Peebles wrote in one of his many published books, "The oak remembers not each leaf it bore; and yet each leaf and bough and brawny limb help to make up the towering tree. Many of the acts and minor events of our lives have died out, or cease to echo in the memory chambers of our souls; still, their results live in our characters. Let then, be forgotten! It is not wise to brood over the broken rounds of the ladder our feet just pressed. The summit of the temple is to be reached. Direct the eye upward, and press forward towards the higher altitudes of heavenly truth and wisdom.

"The toiling seamstress remembers not each stitch she took in the garment; and yet, every stitch helped to make up that garment; and so each thought, word, purpose, and deed, help to make up the real life of the soul; and backward-looking memory, tracing the effects, may--ay, must construct a mirror before which we shall be necessitated to stand, face to face with ourselves...We weave the moral garments in this life that shall in quality clothe us when entering the future state of existence."

I asked Dr. Peebles about that and he told me: “Hmm, much wisdom there, indeed. I did not refer to events as lessons as I now do but I would suppose my meaning is exact. Life is an upward movement toward heavenly truths, a remembering so to speak of our spiritual nature, a fulfilling of our soul, and it is true that every thought, every movement, every action and deed, become part of our very soul, at least in a deductive sense. It is the reflection in the mirror which enables one to have new understanding of self. I still agree with all that I wrote as one has to let go of the backward-looking memories in order to continue on a smooth path toward enlightenment. There is no point in retracing or brooding over where one has walked. The movement is forward and upward. To stop on one broken round of the ladder and to not step beyond to the next, stifles. Do you understand?”

I said to him, “Perfectly. I also opened this chapter with one of your more recent heavenly quotes which I think you are familiar with.” (the quote at the top of this posting).

Dr. Peebles: “Ah, yes. When one becomes blinded to life, closed to the echoes, the beauty of life becomes absent, silent, and fear takes hold. Fear of diversity, fear of love and intimacy, and the illusion of separation becomes overwhelming. Guilt disables, lowers self esteem, reduces hopes, kills dreams, destroys creativity, alters the ego to the point that self worth suffers tremendously. So what do you do about it? You release it by realizing that you don't need it any longer. It becomes a lesson learned. When you accept that you created that place, you also realize that you can create another place, one free of guilt, full of joy, full of love.”

“When one is faced with looking at all that garbage, what many refer to as baggage, recognize that it no longer serves you. And in all probability, the person who may have been the reason for your baggage, that is, in your own mind, has probably not even given you any thought, or the event any thought, so why do you continue to carry it with you? Remember, your world is your very own perception. You have the choice to perceive it as you wish. And if you wish to be the victim, so be it. But if you wish to be the pilot of your life, the one at the wheel, so to speak, then consider that you can shift your perception, let go, forgive, and move forward.”


In this video Dr. Viscott reads from one of his excellent books, Emotional Resilience: Simple Truths for Dealing with the Unfinished Business of Your Past, published not long before his untimely death at the age of 58.

~Linda

UFO and Alien Information

Today I go from angel connections to UFO and alien connections.

UFO researcher Billy Booth is webmaster of one of the Internet's largest UFO web sites, UFO Casebook Website. It is an excellent UFO site overflowing with information, sighting reports, documents, research, videos, photos, a forum, and newsletters.

BJ Booth is often called upon to evaluate UFO sightings. He has also spent many years researching UFO photographs and video film. He is known as an expert on UFO crash accounts, and had given his opinion in several books on the subject. He has been a guest on many UFO radio and television programs. He has written more than 400 articles on UFO and alien sightings. He is a longtime member of MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network.

I recommend his website and there is so much information available I would suggest bookmarking it as you will want to visit often to discover all the information available there, and it is updated often.

~Linda

Angel Connections

Photograph © Copyright 2009 by Sylvia Stites

Do you suppose the love and appreciation of angels can be in our genes? I’m wondering about that.

I always felt connected to my first cousin, Sylvia when we were young, although we didn’t spend a lot of time together during those early years. And then our lives went in separate directions for more than forty years, and just this spring Sylvia got in touch with me via one of my websites (thank goodness for the Internet and email). She and her husband, Tom live in Vienna, Austria, and recently retired from teaching. Sylvia taught school for forty-two years around the world; early on in the U.S, but for the most part in places such as Pakistan, Indonesia, South America, and Vienna. They are now retired.

It so happens Sylvia has a love for angels like I do. They just returned home to Vienna from a vacation in Switzerland and Italy. Syliva took this photograph of an angel for me. It is on the exterior door of the Duomo di Milan, a Gothic cathedral in Milan, Italy.

Duomo Milan is the largest Gothic cathedral and the second largest Catholic cathedral in the world.

By the way, our grandparents were born in Sicily. Our grandfather, Calcedonio Spera came to America when he was about eight years old in 1882, and in 1895 went back to Sicily and married our grandmother, Antonia Barcia and they both came to America.

~Linda

Bombing the Moon

Photo Copyright 2009 by Ted Grussing

I just realized my last post was my Post 100 on World of Spirit! Where does time go? Already well into October and it seems like the holidays were just behind us a little bit.

When my husband, Don and I wrote our book Whispers From the Soul, we had a chapter titled

The Natural Acceleration of Change with the opening Section, The Quickening.

A quick review of the recent history of change in the last 60-70 years just in America, will reveal a current pattern of natural and manmade disasters girdling the nation, from civil unrest and violence, devastating earthquakes and fires to the hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards and floods, occurring in virtually every region of the country...and even elsewhere within the world.

These are examples of the inconstancy of the human experience on this planet. It would perhaps be proper to state, then that change is the most compellingly natural state of existence throughout the universe. Without change we would exist within a totally static universe in which there would be no meaning to existence itself.

So why is it that most of us resist change with such tenacity and insist that "things" remain the same as they always have been? "Things" have never been "the same" in this world of time and space.

Change is a necessary state of being--whether we are thinking of a rock or a tree or a human being. Continual change is a mandatory state of all existent elements everywhere. The very planet beneath our feet could not survive without constant activity. In the cosmic sense, our planet is very much alive, very much involved in the process men call evolution--as is the entire manifest universe.

It is well to keep in mind that the basic stuff of which our bodies are made is precisely the same as the basic stuff from which was made the most distant star. We are of the universe and we are subject to the universal laws which keep the whole production functioning.

In speaking of the cosmos, I must say I do not feel good about NASA attacking our Moon in the coming hours. Is it always our nature to invade, to bomb? Think about it. What if some alien civilization out there in the universe decided to send a rocket our way to see if they could get a splash of water out of our blue planet? Don't get me wrong, I think man should have gone to the Moon again long ago, and call it conspiracy theory if you want, but I often wonder why we have not. What is it that our government does not want us to know, or to see?? But to send a $79 million dollar space craft crashing into the moon to stir up some dust to see if there is any water mist seems a waste of good money.

Some might say I'm not being visionary or looking for environmental answers for the future. Maybe not, but I'm not happy about this event. I am in favor of space exploration, but only with respect, and for some reason this does not feel like respect.

Do you have any thoughts on that?

Do you suppose this happened in Arizona when some off earth beings were looking for water in the desert? (well, they did find a 1,406 pound meteorite nearby, apparently not a rocket).

Meteor Crater, Northern Arizona

Photo Copyright 2009 by Ted Grussing

~Linda

History of Alternative Spirituality in America

“Self-trust is the first secret of success.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I read an interesting interview in the September 28 edition of Publishers Weekly Magazine with Mitch Horowitz, editor-in-chief at Penguin/Tarcher Publishing, and an author, and scholar. Tarcher’s list has always had a significant number of New Age, New Thought books. Horwitz has published some of the leading titles in world religion, metaphysics, philosophy, and spirituality. As a writer and speaker on metaphysical topics, he has appeared on television shows such as The History Channel, Montel Williams, and various radio shows such as Coast to Coast AM. His articles have appeared in various magazines.

He is author of Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation.
In the interview with PW, Horowitz was asked what political and religious values characterize today’s New Age movement. He spoke of the very diverse nature of New Agers, geographically and demographically but that they do seem to hold in common belief systems such as “liberal politics, the equality of all religions, body-mind-healing and the principle that our thoughts to some extent can influence outer circumstances.”

He went on to say: “they also believe that you can obtain spiritual understanding without belonging to a specific faith or religion, and there is a lack of emphasis on membership in a particular congregation or an allegiance to a particular doctrine. They move freely among religious movements and ideas, and believe that humans have some kind of intuitive faculty, and that it is possible for the mind to evolve to some kind of higher level. It is a theology, an ethics, a psychology and an outlook. In terms of politics, they tend to associate with various progressive political movements. And this is not a recent thing. Politics and esoteric spirituality grew up together in America. When Spiritualism began to sweep this country (in the 19th century), it created the first opening in the modern world for women to serve as religious leaders, in that case as trance mediums. So you had a tremendous crossover between the Spiritualist movement and the Suffragettes and voting rights activism. This was a civic, spiritual movement that provided an opening for women both politically and religiously. New Age has always been reformist.”

I discovered that to be so true while doing research on Spiritualism in the 19th century that I’ve done over the years and recently for my latest ebook, How Thin The Veil! 150 Years of Spiritualism. There was a merging of the Spiritualist movement with women’s rights but also with the abolitionist movement. Many of those leading Spiritualist, men and women, were interested in equality, religious and otherwise, were progressive and visionary and I believe a big part of the forward movement of America.

Although we often use the term New Age, there is really nothing new about it. Our country was founded on progressive and visionary ideals.

Mitch Horowitz had an interesting answer to this question by PW: “You also write about the positive-thinking approach that characterizes much of the esoteric, or New Age, philosophy. Do you see a vein of that in the mood that brought President Obama into office?”

His answer: “Yes. The positive-thinking approach is in the groundwater of our country. People who would never think of themselves as New Agers embrace the idea of positive or motivational thinking. This viewpoint arose partly out of transcendentalism. In 1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay called Success in which he discussed the power of enthusiasm. That aspect of the American character is so basic it travels across all our religious or political lines. Barack Obama identified Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance as an influence on him. This tone of positivism is a key part of American spirituality.”

Horowitz’s book sounds like a good look at the founding of America around the mystical elements that have moved us forward through the years to today.

I believe you can read more of his interview here, and more about him at his website.

~Linda

New UFO Documentary, History Channel; and UFO eBooks

This Sunday evening on the History Channel is the two hour documentary on UFOs, I Know What I Saw. From the History Channel Website:

“Director and host James Fox assembles the most credible UFO witnesses from around the world to testify on the subject and share their experiences and observations. Air Force generals, astronauts, military and commercial pilots, government and FAA officials from seven countries gather at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. to tell stories that, as former Arizona governor Fife Symington states, "will challenge your reality." These accounts reveal a behind-the-scenes U.S. operation whose policy, in the eyes of some observers, seems to involve confiscation of substantiating evidence from close encounters--to the extent that even Presidents have failed to get straight answers.”

“The most compelling film on the subject to date.” ~Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut

It should be an interesting show. I’ve had two sightings, and a few more that were not very significant. But once you have a sighting, or in some cases contact of some sort, it does tend to make you a believer that we are not alone in this universe, and that we may be under observation by off-earth beings—or gads, even guinea pigs of extraterrestrials.

If the show sparks some interest of wanting to read more about the UFO phenomena you might want to look into the ebooks I recently wrote, The UFO Phenomena: The Cosmic SOS, and the free ebooks that go along with the purchase of The UFO Phenomena: The Cosmic SOS.

Are we alone in the universe? Many people do not believe we are. A recent U.S. National Roper Poll showed seventy-two percent believe that our government is not telling us all it knows about UFO activity. Another CNN-TIME Poll showed eighty-percent believed the government to be hiding knowledge of UFOs.

Nearly half of Americans believe UFOs have visited earth in some form. And a Roper Poll conducted by the SciFi Television Channel indicated one in seven has had a UFO Experience. What do you believe? What do you know?

The UFO Phenomena: The Cosmic SOS
Chapter 1 ~ Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Chapter 2 ~ UFO Flap
Chapter 3 ~ The Cosmic S.O.S.
Chapter 4 ~ Reverberations
Chapter 5 ~ To the Rescue?
Chapter 6 ~ Flying Triangles in the Skies
Chapter 7 ~ Amber Orbs Over the Red Rocks
Chapter 8 ~ Off-Earth Beings
Chapter 9 ~ Messages From Beyond?

Embark on an exploration and discussion of extraterrestrial life. Let this eBook serve as one of your guides. Could the Earth's much needed healing be part of another planet's mission? Do astronauts know of extraterrestrial life forms? Together, we can begin to unlock long held secrets and mysteries about extraterrestrial life.

Free with Purchase:

Crop Circles in the Fields, Objects in the Skies, and Creatures in the Bedroom
by Linda Pendleton

This 97 page e-book is packed with a collection of compelling articles and credible firsthand accounts of sightings and experiences intended to shed light and insight into Crop Circles, UFOs, and abductions. Articles by Dr. John E. Mack; Nuclear Physicist and UFO Investigator, Stanton Friedman; Crop Circle Researcher Nancy Talbott; and more. Also find astonishing photographs of recent crop circles, courtesy of Lucy Pringle and others.

Have we been visited here on earth? If so, since when? Could Crop Circles be a message to us? If so, what might that message be? What are crop circles theories? How is a hoax (i.e., man-made) crop circle identifiable from the real thing? Has anyone or thing ever been caught in the act making crop circles? This eBook examines these questions and provides intriguing responses, as it explores life beyond this planet and contemplates our connection to it.

Also Included:

Read about my UFO sightings Here and Here.

~Linda