Funny how things happen, like publishing a book on miracles in a year as fraught as 2020. But Michael Grosso’s Smile of the Universe: Miracles in an Age of Disbelief is certainly not your run-of-the-mill book of miracles. David E. Presti, professor of neurobiology at the University of California, Berkeley, says that “Michael Grosso has written a sophisticated philosophical and scientific analysis of miracles—a universal phenomenon perhaps never-before investigated so thoroughly in such a sober and open-minded manner.” Bob Ricard, in his review the book in Fortean Times, writes: “Grosso discusses in detail an extensive range of phenomena with which ‘science’ has failed to engage, except to argue that they have no reality or causation within the ‘scientific’ doctrines of physicality and materialism…Grosso’s prose is clear, methodical, and open-minded, and like Fort, exhorts us to have confidence in questioning limitations set by others, because ‘miracles violate nothing but intellectual provincialism.'” And Michael Peter Langevin, editor of The Echo World, sees in this tale of “unexplainable, documented occurrences” Grosso’s underlying optimism: “In this wonderful book Michael puts forth the premise that the transformation of society and human nature is possible.”

Our newest book is subtitled “Miracles in an Age of Disbelief.” We think that at this perilous moment in time everyone—including disbelievers—would welcome a miracle. While we can’t make that happen, we can offer you philosopher Michael Grosso’s examination of miracles in Smile of the Universe, in which he looks beyond religion and science to better understand the parapsychological roots of miraculous phenomena. Prepublication reviewers love the book: “a tour de force,” says David E. Presti, professor of neurobiology, University of California, Berkeley, and Stafford Betty, Ph.D. in theology, calls the book “a brilliant and inspiring reading adventure.” Oh, and if you’re wondering about that title: The word miracle is rooted in a Sanskrit syllable smi, from which we get the English word smile. So a miracle refers to a smile induced by certain sensations of awe, beauty, and wonder. Let the universe smile upon us. Please.