Self development is perhaps the longest running interest in my life. I believe it all started in my twenties when I read How to Win Friends and Influence People. I remember the light bulb going on, “Oh, I can change myself.” The prospect of changing my life course from the inside out excited me. I wondered how far I could go and what I might become. I devoured self-help books after that.
I have experienced setbacks, pitfalls and disillusions. I discovered change is not so straight forward as I first thought and that there are many ways to delude one self into thinking advances are being made when they are not. But, on balance, I am encouraged. I continue to be well rewarded for my modest effort.
I was raised with vague Christian sentiments. I had some mystical experiences of God while attending vacation Bible school as an early teen. I had a traumatic experience when I was 16 that caused me to investigate Christianity more seriously. That pursuit eventually led me to become a spirit-filled, born-again Christian. I lost my belief in God while attending college and then embraced atheism. I think it may have been the act of reading Autobiography of a Yogi that caused me to believe in God again – this time I was able to entertain a much more expansive concept of God.
I gradually developed a sense that there is something larger going on in this life than what meets the senses. This caused me to investigate energy work and the esoteric. I have been greatly affected by the philosophy of Don Juan Matus as reported by Carlos Castaneda. I have also greatly benefited from the teachings of Susan Cerf, Leonard Orr, Chriss Lemmon, Ram Dass and Marshall Rosenberg.
I currently pursue development by way of Network Spinal Analysis, Qigong, yoga, meditation, rebirthing and ecstatic dance.
Education:
School of Conscious Hearts
Minister, Order of the Ascended Rose
Rebirther, Rebirthing Breathwork International
MogaDao Institute
Hamsa Yoga
Ananda
Personal Notes:
I retired from a career in sales and marketing for a small manufacturing company the end of 2011. I spent the next year traveling. In early 2013 I walked the Shikoku Pilgrimage. Since then I have focused my efforts on creative work. For the last twenty years I have lived in an old farmhouse on the west side of Portland, Oregon. I have completed two marathons.
by 