In April of 1992 I set out on a spiritual quest to India.  In this video, I share the story of my spiritual awakening and a journey that brought me to the largest planet in the universe, and my return home to the truth.

I was studying abroad...
in England during my junior year of university. On various occasions I crossed paths with English students who shared fascinating stories of their travels to India. Then one day an inspired idea popped into my awareness – travel to India on a spiritual quest! I extended the month long Easter break into six weeks and set out on my quest for enlightenment.

During the first few days of my adventure I met a man on a train just as I was leaving Bombay (now Mumbai). He invited me to his village to meet the local guru who interpreted dreams, like Joseph of the Old Testament. I accepted his invitation and a few days later the train dropped me off at the Chandor train station in the province of Goa.

As it turned out, my intended two or three day diversion evolved into a five-week immersion in the essence and the emanating vibration of this teacher and of India. I experienced a complete physical, mental and spiritual cleansing. I drank water from a bucket that I pulled from open wells. I ate food prepared with curries made by hand on the grinding stone. My left hand was the only toilet paper available and you could say I really got in touch with myself! As it was the hottest month of the year, the long afternoons were spent in the shade of the veranda resting on the reed mats and witnessing the stillness generated by the intense heat of the midday sun.

On one particular evening toward the end of my stay, several locals and I gathered in the courtyard of the guru for an evening meal (I was told later that the delicious “beef cutlets” were actually cow brain) and to share stories around an open fire. The guru told a story about a journey that involved ascending seven planets, each gaining in size through the ascension. The seventh planet was the largest in the universe. On this planet was the largest mountain in the universe.

After hearing the words, “the largest mountain in the universe,” in a flash I was transported to this mountain in a vision so visceral it felt real. From my vantage point I sensed that I was roughly halfway up the mountainside, and yet, I was so high up I could see the planet rotating in space – just as if I was in low orbit. The planet was rotating with such force that it rumbled and large chunks of debris were flung into space. The planet was pure white and the surface was formless.

A few moments later I was back at the fire again listening to the guru as he continued his story. My initial interpretation of this experience was that I had traveled outward into the universe to a place or realm of consciousness. Several years passed before I shared this story with someone and this is the first time I have shared this experience publicly.

It was only recently that I realized, after studying various spiritual teachings, I did not venture into the depths of outer space as I had first interpreted the vision, but rather, I ventured to the very depths of my own inner space. The authentic journey is a journey within. I had seen the light of my own consciousness. I had felt on a very profound level the power of my own inner aliveness.

Upon my return...
to Lancaster University, the full effect of my spiritual quest and the subsequent transformation came to bloom. The first few days back I spent in my dorm room lying in a pool of bliss, floating occasionally from my bed to the floor and then back again. At times I would sit by the window and watch the students lounge in the courtyard soaking up the early summer sun. I was so content to be in my own aliveness, at this point absolutely vibrant, I had no desire to interact with others.

When I finally did venture out and meet up with my friends, I had no words to convey my experience and resorted to gestures of freedom or liberation to express myself. Since no one understood me, what did resonate with me when I ventured outside was to stroll over to the rolling hills of the country estate that the university was built on. Once I found the perfect spot on a grassy slope, I would lie for hours and look up at the amazingly beautiful, blue sky. I was deeply present to the warmth of the sun’s rays. I was deeply present to the caress of the wind. I was deeply present to my oneness with the universe.

A few weeks later I was given cassette tapes of Stephen Mitchell reading his translation of the Tao Te Ching. I immediately embraced the truth of this teaching and submersed myself in the deep, still waters of the Tao. The entirety of this experience deeply penetrated my interior landscape and established roots into the field of consciousness that have never withered.

Throughout the rest of my twenties, I continued my journey resonating with the Tao Te Ching and the works of Deepak Chopra. I flourished creatively during this time, putting my university degree in theater to use as an actor and director in London and Minneapolis, and then later moving to Nashville to pursue songwriting. I also fell in love, got married, and a few years later I was devastated by a divorce that my ego fiercely resisted letting go.

A few weeks before...
my thirtieth birthday, a guy from California who I was co-writing with in Nashville, recommended The Power of Now. I was searching for pain relief, pain I was experiencing from my divorce, and he thought the book would help. I had recently been subjected to a day were I could not get out of bed because of my compulsive negative thinking, to me a sign of depression, so I was open to any information that would help me on a path to forgiveness, healing and acceptance.

Upon receiving my copy and after reading the publisher's preface, I literally felt the energy of the book pulsating in my hands. As I journeyed through the book page by page, deeps shifts in awareness birthed realizations about the truth of who I really am. I am not the temporary form of my body or the personal stories of my ego, but the infinite and formless field of energy at the core of my being. I am not unconscious pain, but the light of consciousness.

The Tao Te Ching and Deepak Chopra had led me to the edge of this realization. Then The Power of Now provided a powerful “space of clarity” that allowed me to integrate my experience of oneness in India to a teaching and a tangible language. As I passionately embraced the teaching and learned the language, I followed my intuition and volunteered to facilitate groups that gathered to experience The Power of Now. Shortly thereafter, a request to speak organically appeared and I was invited to present on Eckhart Tolle’s teachings for the Institute of Noetic Sciences local community group in Nashville. The opportunity to teach allowed me to further integrate into my being both the vibration of presence and the language of presence – knowing that presence is primary and language is secondary.

I have never felt more alive...
than I do today. To say this in another way, today I am aware of the vibrant aliveness pulsating from deep within my own body to a greater degree than I have ever experienced before. I experience it and I know what I am experiencing my Source! I cherish this awareness more than any possession in my life. This awareness allows me to deeply love my beautiful wife and embrace her with unconditional love and acceptance. This awareness also allows me to be completely present for my daughter and son and teach them by “walking the talk” how to be present. I can give them no greater gift.

So what have I learned over the course of my journey? Be present. Whether with my wife and children, family and friends, in the daily activities of my own business, driving on the freeway or just standing in line at the grocery store, the best thing I can do in order to fully give and receive in all of those situations is to simply be present. Learn to be present – in a nutshell that is the wisdom I offer you. I invite you to explore this site for tips and exercises on how to be present, and experience life happy as humanly possible!