New Releases by David Gordon

Beginning in the fifth century A.D., various Indian mystics began to innovate a body of techniques with which to render themselves immortal. These people called themselves Siddhas, a term formerly reserved for a class of demigods, revered by Hindus and Buddhists alike, who were known to inhabit mountaintops or the atmospheric regions. Over the following five to eight hundred years, three types of Hindu Siddha orders emerged, each with its own specialized body of practice. These were the Siddha Kaula, whose adherents sought bodily immortality through erotico-mystical practices; the Rasa Siddhas, medieval India''s alchemists, who sought to transmute their flesh-and-blood bodies into immortal bodies through the ingestion of the mineral equivalents of the sexual fluids of the god Siva and his consort, the Goddess; and the Nath Siddhas, whose practice of hatha yoga projected the sexual and laboratory practices of the Siddha Kaula and Rasa Siddhas upon the internal grid of the subtle body. For India''s medieval Siddhas, these three conjoined types of practice led directly to bodily immortality, supernatural powers, and self-divinization; in a word, to the exalted status of the semidivine Siddhas of the older popular cults. In The Alchemical Body, David Gordon White excavates and centers within its broader Indian context this lost tradition of the medieval Siddhas. Working from a body of previously unexplored alchemical sources, he demonstrates for the first time that the medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha yoga were practiced by one and the same people, and that they can only be understood when viewed together. Human sexual fluids and the structures of the subtle body aremicrocosmic equivalents of the substances and apparatus manipulated by the alchemist in his laboratory. With these insights, White opens the way to a new and more comprehensive understanding of the entire sweep of medieval Indian mysticism, within the broader context of south Asian Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam. This book is an essential reference for anyone interested in Indian yoga, alchemy, and the medieval beginnings of science.

When Henry VIII died in 1547 he left a church in England that had broken with Rome - but was it Protestant? This pamphlet provides a clear guide to the main strands of historical thought on the topic, and the political & religious consequences.

"This is the first comprehensive book ever written about human-powered vehicles (HPVs). Filled with 180 impressive photographs, detailed drawings, and tables, Human Powered Vehicles explains the history of HPVs, offers practical insights into their design, and considers future possibilities of human-powered travel." "Allan V. Abbott and David Gordon Wilson, HPV designers and former presidents of the International Human Powered Vehicle Association, have assembled a list of contributors representing a who''s who of leaders in human-powered vehicles. They review the development of human-powered water, land, and air vehicles, focusing on the innovations that have significantly improved performance in recent years." "Inside this book, you''ll find applications of human power in history; a discussion of all major factors that enhance or limit the performance of the "human engine"; design issues for rowing shells, hydrofoils, bicycles, human-powered aircraft, and other HPVs; descriptions of famous human-powered vehicles, such as the Gossamer Condor; and an examination of the economic and environmental advantages of human-powered travel." "A fascinating read for bicyclists, inventors, hobbyists, and sports enthusiasts, this book is also an excellent human factors reference for sports medicine and exercise science professionals."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"An impressive and important cross-cultural study that has vast implications for history, religion, anthropology, folklore, and other fields. . . . Remarkably wide-ranging and extremely well-documented, it covers (among much else) the following: medieval Christian legends such as the 14th-century Ethiopian Gadla Hawaryat (Contendings of the Apostles) that had their roots in Parthian Gnosticism and Manichaeism; dog-stars (especially Sirius), dog-days, and canine psychopomps in the ancient and Hellenistic world; the cynocephalic hordes of the ancient geographers; the legend of Prester John; Visvamitra and the Svapacas ("Dog-Cookers"); the Dog Rong ("warlike barbarians") during the Xia, Shang, and Zhou periods; the nochoy ghajar (Mongolian for "Dog Country") of the Khitans; the Panju myth of the Southern Man and Yao "barbarians" from chapter 116 of the History of the Latter Han and variants in a series of later texts; and the importance of dogs in ancient Chinese burial rites. . . . Extremely well-researched and highly significant."—Victor H. Mair, Asian Folklore Studies