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| Visionary State, by Erik Davis and Michael Rauner |
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“Welcome, then, to California's theme park of the gods,” writes Erik Davis in the introduction to Visionary States—a hard invitation to turn down, and one well-worth accepting. Rather than taking a “highlights of” approach, Davis, with Michael Rauner, has traveled up and down the coast documenting through text and image the myriad religious and spiritual groups and their relics, leaving no mystical, sectarian, or acid-fueled stone uncovered. Their journey led them from church to temple to shrine, from the neon-lit Aztec Hotel on Route 66 to the candy-colored patchwork adobe hill in Slab City known as Salvation Mountain. 265 pages in all, Davis and Rauner's book is an exhaustive history and gallery of fellowship shrines, Pentacostal cottages, Buddha towns, fire rings, witch houses, and Rosicrucian fountains.
(Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape, by Erik Davis and Michael Rauner, Chronicle Books, $40)
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