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Books are a boon companion.
Stop staring at the shelves of your local bookstore – let us point you towards some of our faves.
Spirituality, Purpose & Big Questions
Guided: The Secret Path to an Illuminated Life, Laura Lynn Jackson
I first came across Laura Lynne Jackson’s work when I stumbled upon her book Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe. Having grown up in a deeply spiritual household, I’ve always believed we exist in two realms.
There’s the horizontal world — the rational, physical reality we experience through our five senses. And then there’s the vertical world — our relationship with something greater than ourselves, something that can’t always be measured, proven, or explained by cause-and-effect science.
To me, a life lived only in the horizontal realm risks becoming hollow. It’s the vertical realm that gives life meaning and depth. That connection shows up differently for everyone — through religion, spirituality, God, nature, or simply the awareness that there are larger forces at play. I love stepping into that vertical world, and Laura Lynne Jackson’s work has consistently been a beautiful gateway.
Her Goop Lab episode “Are You Intuit?”, along with her earlier book The Light Between Us, only deepened my curiosity. So when her latest book, Guided, was released, it felt like a natural next step.
Laura Lynne Jackson is a teacher, speaker, and psychic medium, certified by both the Windbridge Research Center and the Forever Family Foundation. In Guided, she explores mediumship, universal communication through signs, and the growing body of research that supports humanity’s connection to the vertical realm. Interwoven throughout are powerful stories from clients, strangers, and loved ones who have tapped into this realm for comfort and guidance during some of the most challenging moments of their lives.
I’ll admit — I’m deeply sentimental. Reading this book in public was impossible. I found myself regularly in tears, not from sadness, but from being profoundly moved. These stories reflect our shared human experience — love, loss, grief, hope — and remind us that we’re not alone in navigating it all.
The stories themselves are too rich to summarise here, but below are some of my favourite takeaways from Guided — insights that might help you decide if this book is for you.
Key Takeaways from Guided
1. Plants may experience fear
In 1966, scientist Cleve Backster discovered that plants appeared to respond emotionally — much like humans — when under threat. Initially dismissed, his findings were later supported by Russian scientist Konstantin Korotkov, suggesting plants may possess a form of extrasensory perception.
2. ESP has been observed in humans — particularly in people with autism
Research by Diane Hennacy Powell suggests that some autistic children demonstrate ESP abilities, potentially because they are less tethered to material distractions and more attuned to the present moment and shared information field.
3. The Butterfly Effect is real
Meteorologist Edward Lorenz showed how tiny, almost imperceptible changes can lead to dramatic outcomes — a concept now applied far beyond weather, reminding us how small actions can have vast consequences.
4. Trauma can be passed down through generations
Emerging research suggests trauma may influence DNA and affect future generations, either biologically, behaviourally, or through collective experience.
5. Unselfconscious art is a powerful intuitive practice
Children create freely because they haven’t yet learned self-judgement. As adults, reclaiming creativity without expectation or critique can reconnect us to intuition and something greater than ourselves.
6. Dreams can lead to genius
History is filled with breakthroughs born from dreams — from the discovery of insulin, to the periodic table, to iconic songs by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Dreams can be inspirational, lucid, pre-cognitive, or deeply connective.
7. Earthing (grounding) supports wellbeing
Direct contact with the Earth — like walking barefoot on grass — has been shown to improve sleep, reduce pain, relax muscles, and support overall health.
8. Nature is being prescribed as medicine
In some countries, doctors now prescribe time in nature: walking a dog, touching the sea, appreciating clouds, feeding birds, or simply feeling the wind.
9. Art can be medicine
Observing or creating art has been shown to boost serotonin, increase pleasure-related brain activity, foster new ways of thinking, and help us imagine hopeful futures. Even more fascinating — shared artistic experiences can synchronise our heartbeats.
As Laura Lynne Jackson reminds us, many ideas once ridiculed — from germ theory to quantum physics — are now accepted truths. The same may one day be true for concepts like reincarnation, life after death, and past lives.
To live an engaged, guided, and illuminated life is to remain curious, open, and willing to explore the unseen bonds that connect us all.
Guided is a powerful place to begin.
Happy reading!
Jacqui x
This One Wild and Precious Life: The path back to connection in a fractured world, Sarah Wilson
This book is filled with soul—written with profound vulnerability, honesty, and a fierce desire to embrace life in all its messy beauty, inspiring us to do the same.
In a world that often feels disconnected, Sarah Wilson's latest work resonates profoundly. She addresses the collective sense of spiritual PTSD many of us face, urging readers to reconnect with joy, purpose, and each other. Drawing from science, literature, and her personal experiences, Wilson introduces "wild practices" that inspire meaningful living, such as hiking and embracing discomfort. This book serves as a call to action for those seeking a more fulfilling life, inviting us to imagine boldly and reclaim our wild, precious existence.
The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life, Arthur C. Brooks
Harvard professor and bestselling author Arthur C. Brooks offers science-based insights on work and life in this curated collection from his ‘How to Build a Life’ column in The Atlantic.
Imagine if your life were a startup. How would you lead it and shape it to be most successful?
That's the question behind The Happiness Files, a rich selection of enlightening and instructive essays by Arthur C. Brooks, known worldwide for his inspiring yet practical wisdom and advice in his weekly column for The Atlantic and in his bestselling books, From Strength to Strength and Build the Life You Want (coauthored with Oprah Winfrey).
The simple answer, as Brooks wisely explains, is to manage your life in a way that leads to truly valuable rewards: love, enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning — in other words, happiness.
Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose, Jennifer Breheny Wallace
From award-winning writer Jennifer Breheny Wallace, a deeply consequential look at restoring closeness in our relationships and how feeling connected – mattering – can bring purpose and happiness to our lives.
In a world where loneliness, burnout, and disconnection have reached crisis levels, Jennifer Breheny Wallace offers a transformative solution: mattering. Through vivid storytelling and groundbreaking research, Mattering: The Secret to Building a Life of Deep Purpose and Connection reveals how feeling seen, needed, and valued isn't just a nice-to-have ― it's essential for our wellbeing and society's future.
The Signs:
The New Science of How to Trust Your Instincts, Tara Swart
Have you ever experienced a coincidence that felt too unlikely to be true? Or have you seen or heard something that seemed to be a message from a lost loved one?
It’s all too easy to dismiss synchronicities or signs like these as chance. But what if they weren’t? And what if, by learning to tune into them, you could access a guiding wisdom that would help you overcome challenges and live with purpose?
In this groundbreaking book, world-renowned neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart draws on her experience of grieving her beloved husband to explain how. Bringing together breathtaking real-life stories with teachings from cognitive science, near-death experiences and much more, she’ll show you how to:
Tap into your most important decision-making tool – your intuition
Break free from the distractions and stress of modern life and focus on what matters most
Shift your mindset from fixed thinking to openness and wonder, so you can see life’s limitless possibilities
With compelling theories about the nature of consciousness, honest reflections on grief and transformative tools to create a deep connection with the signs around you, let this book empower you to trust your instincts and thrive like never before.
Signs: The secret language of the universe, Laura Lynne Jackson
A modern guide to connecting with the other side, Signs is full of stories of hope. It teaches us how to recognise and interpret the life-changing messages from loved ones and spirit guides, by a renowned psychic medium.
Laura Lynne Jackson is a psychic medium and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Light Between Us. She possesses an incredible gift: the ability to communicate with loved ones who have passed, convey messages of love and healing, and impart a greater understanding of our interconnectedness. Though her abilities are exceptional, they are not unique, and that is the message at the core of this book. Understanding 'the secret language of the universe' is a gift available to all. As we learn to ask for and recognise signs from the other side, we will start to find meaning where before there was only confusion, and see light in the darkness. We may decide to change paths, push toward love, pursue joy, and engage with life in a whole new way.
In Signs, Jackson is able to bring the mystical into the everyday. She relates stories of people who have experienced uncanny revelations and instances of unexplained synchronicity, as well as others drawn from her own experience. There's the lost child who appears to her mother as a deer that approaches her unhesitatingly at a highway rest stop; the name written on a dollar bill that lets a terrified wife know that her husband will be okay; the Elvis Presley song that arrives at the exact moment of Jackson's own father's passing; and many others. This is a book that is inspiring and practical, deeply comforting and wonderfully motivational, in asking us to see beyond ourselves to a more magnificent universal design.
The Life-Changing Power of Intuition: Tune into Yourself, Transform Your Life, Emma Lucy Knowles
In a noisy world addicted to validation, there has never been a better time to go within and learn how to hear and trust your own intuition.
How do we filter out what feels right from what feels wrong? How do we become more in tune with who we really are and what we really need?The Power of Intuition by Emma Lucy Knowles is a guide to harnessing your inner voice for personal transformation. Through practical exercises and meditations, Knowles teaches readers how to tune into their intuition and navigate life’s challenges with confidence. This book provides essential tools for self-discovery and positive change, inviting you to trust your instincts and create a life aligned with your true self.
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, Eckhart Tolle
To make the journey into The Power of Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind.
Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle offers simple language and a question and answer format to show us how to silence our thoughts and create a liberated life.
Surrender to the present moment, where problems do not exist. It is here we find our joy, are able to embrace our true selves and discover that we are already complete and perfect. If we are able to be fully present and take each step in the Now we will be opening ourselves to the transforming experience of The Power of Now.
The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, Michael A. Singer
Who are you? When you start to explore this question, you find out how elusive it really is. Are you a physical body? A collection of experiences and memories? A partner to relationships? Each time you consider aspects of yourself, you realize that there is much more to you than any of these can define.
In this book, spiritual teacher Michael Singer explores the question of who we are and arrives at the conclusion that our identity is to be found in our consciousness, the fact of our ability to observe ourselves and the world around us. By tapping into traditions of meditation and mindfulness, Singer shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and let go of painful thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and self-realization.
Divided into five parts, the book offers a frank and friendly discussion of consciousness and how we can develop it. In part one, he examines the notion of self and the inner dialogue that all of us live with. Part two examines the experience of energy as it flows through us and works to show readers how to open their hearts to the energy of experience that permeates their lives. Ways to overcome tendencies to close down to the rest of the world are the subject of part three. Enlightenment and the embrace of universal consciousness are the subject of part four. And finally, in part five, Singer returns to daily life and the pursuit of "unconditional happiness." Throughout, the book maintains a light and engaging tone, free from heavy dogma and prescriptive religious references. The easy exercises that figure in each chapter help readers experience the ideas that Singer presents.
The Dream Dictionary from A to Z: The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams, Theresa Cheung
Yes, you can absolutely wake up, remember your dream, and discover what it actually meant. The most addictive dictionary you’ll ever own!
Have you ever awoken from a dream, curious about its hidden messages? The Dream Dictionary by Theresa Cheung is your go-to guide for unraveling the mysteries of your subconscious. With an extensive A to Z collection of dream symbols and their meanings, this book allows you to decode your nighttime visions and gain insight into your waking life. Whether you’re curious about recurring themes or looking to make sense of fleeting images, Cheung’s engaging approach makes dream interpretation accessible and enlightening.
The Seat of the Soul: An Inspiring Vision of Humanity's Spiritual Destiny, Gary Zukav
Probably our all-time favourite book on spirituality and our relationship with a higher purpose. We cannot recommend this read enough for those wanting to explore their spirituality and find a stronger sense of meaning and purpose in their lives, as well as a better relationship with themselves.
Gary Zukav’s The Seat of the Soul invites readers to explore the deeper dimensions of life and spirituality. This updated edition includes new insights and reflections on personal growth, encouraging readers to become the authority in their own lives. Zukav’s profound teachings emphasize the importance of harmony and cooperation, making this book a transformative read for anyone seeking greater meaning and purpose.
What Are You Doing With Your Life?, J. Krishnamurti
Who are you?
What are you?
What do you want from life?
One of the world’s great philosophical teachers, Krishnamurti, offers his inspiring wisdom on many of life’s hurdles from relationships and love, to anxiety and loneliness.
He answers such questions as ‘What is the significance of life?’ and 'How do I live life to the full?' to reveal the best way of being true to yourself.
Read by millions from all walks of life, Krishnamurti shows us there is no path, no higher authority, no guru to follow, and that ultimately it is our own responsibility as to how we live our lives.
‘One of the greatest thinkers of the age’ — The Dalai Lama
'One of the five saints of the 20th century' — TIME magazine
'Krishnamurti influenced me profoundly' — Deepak Chopra
How to Meet Your Self, Dr Nicole LePera
Are you ready to meet your Self?
In recent years, Dr Nicole LePera has become the leading voice in psychological self-healing, helping millions of people around the world rise out of survival mode to consciously create authentic lives they love. In her first book, How to Do the Work, Dr Nicole offered readers a revolutionary holistic framework for self-healing. Now, in How to Meet Your Self, she shares an interactive workbook designed to help every reader uncover their authentic self.
We all fall into conditioned habits and patterns - products of our past - that lead to cycles of stuckness, pain, and self-destruction. But as Dr. Nicole shares, we also have the innate ability to awaken to and change the behaviours that no longer serve us, allowing us to step into the highest versions of ourselves. By objectively and compassionately observing the physical, mental, and emotional patterns that fill our days and create our current selves, we can more clearly see what we do not wish to carry into the future.
As you work through this book and witness your default habits - from sleep to movement to eating, through emotional reactivity and core beliefs - you will never again have to ask, "But where do I start?" How to Meet Your Self is a revolutionary guide, a kind and encouraging companion and a comprehensive masterwork of self-understanding that will radically transform your inner work and outer world.
The Prosperous Heart, Julia Cameron
How do we keep a roof over our head without losing sight of our soul?
And how can we meaningfully follow our passions and seek community in a fast-paced world?
In this dynamic creative renewal programme, the celebrated author of The Artist's Way draws on decades of experience to confront the vulnerabilities of modern life.
Granting readers courage to reflect on how our values are grounded in our art, Cameron offers tools, insights and prompts to help us tune into our inner wisdom and achieve spiritual fulfilment alongside creative purpose.
Guiding us back to prosperity, this generous volume places us on track pursue our true passions and live in abundance.
The Light Between Us: Stories from the afterlife. Lessons for the living. Laura Lynne Jackson
'We all have psychic experiences in our lives that connect us to one another and to those we love on the Other Side. Not just once in a while, but all the time.'
Laura Lynne Jackson has been receiving communications from the afterlife since she was a child. In The Light Between Us she takes us through her struggle to come to peace with her gift and use it to help others.
Through her moving and uplifting stories of the people she has helped, Laura Lynne shares her knowledge of how to understand these messages of love, and how we can use those lessons to help us live more peacefully in the present.
What The Light Between Us has meant to readers:
'A genuine and honest testimonial'
'This book has made me laugh, made me cry and make me think'
'I love this book. It really helps you realise that the ones we love are never far from us.'
'The stories are heartfelt and had me in tears towards the end'
'Very uplifting'
'It has given me so much comfort and understanding'
On Our Radar – Recent Releases
What To Make Of A Life, Jim Collins
Jim Collins, international bestselling author of Good to Great, offers transformative lessons on constructing — and reconstructing — a life through the cliff moments and transitions we all will face repeatedly in our lives.
THE QUESTION
What to make of a life?
It is a question we all wrestle with more than once. How do we find our way in the world? How do we make it past the cliffs — significant events that can radically change a life? How do we keep the inner fire burning bright, long and late?
Inspired by relentless curiosity, Jim Collins devoted a decade to studying these questions and to minutely analysing those moments when life flips from clarity to confusion and casts us into a befuddling fog.
THE STUDY
His exploration compares various lives side by side, paired together at cliffs, and analyses the different choices made and divergent paths taken.
Two rock musicians confronting a future without the group that had brought them success.
Two suffragists achieving their epic goal and then left with the puzzle of what to do next.
Two public figures tainted by scandal having to make decisions about how to rebuild their lives.
Two figure skaters seeking new purpose when their Olympic careers come to an end.
What emerges from Collins’s extensive studies — of writers, actors, scientists, leaders, and many others — is a framework for understanding how individual lives can be built, sustained, and constantly renewed.
THE FINDINGS
By examining the long arc of these remarkable lives, Collins tackles life’s questions.
What does it take to:
Discover a deeply fulfilling role in life — one that you are naturally 'encoded' for — and then find a second one, if the first one ends?
Overcome a major cliff — a fracture point that forces choices about what’s next and calls for you to re-envision the years to come?
Make your personal economics work so that you can focus on One Big Thing that feeds your inner fire?
Navigate the fog when you feel uncertain or even outright lost, and build confidence step by step
Minimise the impact of bad luck and ensure the maximum return on good luck?
Build personal momentum decade upon decade, so that your most creative and energetic years are spread across an entire lifetime?
Achieve the imperative to 'Know Thyself' and apply self-knowledge to each phase of life?
THE TRANSFORMATION
For the first time, Collins movingly chronicles his own story to reveal how undertaking this project transformed him, changing his thinking and reshaping his emotions in fundamental ways. 'After this study,' writes Collins, 'I will never look at life the same ever again.'
Surprising, story-driven, deeply researched, and uplifting, What to Make of a Life is a book like no other and convincingly shows how a richly fulfilled life is within reach for us all.
I Eat The Stars, Sarah Wilson
However, with the loss of hope comes relief. Relief that we can stop pretending, release the exhausting effort to believe against evidence, and finally acknowledge our communal fear as we watch our world changing irreparably.
Instead of falling into panic and disillusionment, Sarah shows us how to embrace this era with presence, courage, and awe. Drawing on years of research and over 200 interviews with philosophers, scientists, spiritual leaders, and everyday seekers, she weaves hard truths with soulful practices to help us rise above fear and use our energy to reconnect with what matters most.
Readers will discover how to:
· Confront collapse with honesty while cultivating resilience and creativity
· Find beauty, joy, and connection in chaos
· Reclaim agency through radical simplicity, community, and compassion
Sarah invites readers into a post-hope consciousness rooted not in denial, but in meaning. I Eat the Stars is a vital companion for navigating the times we live in ― and for living fully, fiercely, and beautifully despite them.
We are already living through collapse. Climate extremes, political turmoil, and fractured communities are no longer on the horizon – they are here now. For decades we held on to the hope that everything would turn out fine; but our deadlines have passed, tipping points are unfolding, and clinging to hope can deepen our confusion and despair.
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