Okay my suggested essentials are:


'Mavericks of the Mind' &
'Voices from the Edge'
(I know...ain't I a stinker?)
~David Jay Brown & Rebecca McClen Novick

Excellent, excellent series of interviews with many of the authors already listed in this thread! These first two are the best though because Rebecca Novick balances the interview equation perfectly, in my opinion.

Interviewees (from all works):
Ralph Abraham, John Lilly, Matthew Fox, Jerry Garcia, Allen Ginsberg, Nina Graboi, Alex Grey, Nick Herbert, Julia Butterfly Hill, Fakir Musafar, Albert Hofman, Jean Houston, Laura Huxley, Oscar Janiger(!), Rupert Sheldrake, Stephen La Berge, Ram Das, George Carlin, Bruce Sterling, Noam Chomsky, Kary Mullis (!), Candace Pert, Edgar Mitchell, Deepak Chopra, Rupert Sheldrake, Robert Anton Wilson, Peter Russell,Douglas Rushkoff and many many more...

The website has many of these in their entirety. Check it out!
www.mavericksofthemind.com/


*Reality Isn't What It Used to Be: Theatrical Politics, Ready-to-Wear Religion, Global Myths, Primitive Chic, and Other Wonders of the Postmodern World
-Walter Truet Anderson

Don't let the word "post-modern" keep you from reading this non-condescending, practical book that I definitely categorize as essential reading!

As one Amazonian puts it:
"This book explains post-modernism in a way that is stripped of jargon and academic excess. It is an enjoyable book to read, and quite informative. The author makes a good case that the world has been altered by the existence of post-modernism, even for those who do not accept it as their worldview. I found that argument to be compelling, and the book as a whole to be a useful insight into the entire post-modernist enterprise. "

Table of Contents:

Part One: The Collapse of Belief
1. Welcome to the Postmodern World
2. To See the Wizard

Part Two: Postmodern Visions
3. Science and the Creative Brain
4. The Meanings of Literature

Part Three: The Theater of Reality
5. Making Beliefs and Making Believe
6. Being Someone: The Construction of Personal Reality
7. Democracy's Dilemma

Part Four: Faith and Freedom
8. The Magic Bazaar
9. The Two Faces of God
Part Five: Worldview
10. All the World's a Stage
11. The Emergent Fiction


lastly...

The Prophet
~ Kahlil Gibran
A book so well known that people sometimes overlook it's potency! On the surface it's a story of a man leaving a town and talking about topics that the townspeople throw out for him to pontificate upon.But one can explore some of Gibran's analogies for hours thinking of all the different angles and how they accurately apply to different issues. Some serious grist for the mill. He's also a prolific author with over 20 English language titles!