DREAMScene The Newsletter of DREAMWalker Group -- June/July 2008

Welcome from Dreamwalker

Namaste. Welcome to the fifth 2008 issue of DREAMScene — the electronic newsletter of DREAMWalker Group.

I'll begin by saying that this newsletter -- originally the "June 2008" issue -- is late in its arrival. Things in the world of several of the people involved it its release have been unforgivably chaotic. So it is with huge apologies that I offer you ... the June/July 2008 issue!

Next, some announcements and tidbits concerning the DREAMScene newsletter:

I've changed the name of the "Classifieds" section to "Bulletin Board" and added subcategories for "Appearances and Book Signings," "Calls for Submissions", "Literary Contests".
In the most remarkable kind of self-promotion you've ever seen, I've gone to the dubious trouble of adding a link to a photo album of myself to my profile page here at DREAMWalker Group. This album shows yours truly in various stages of development from the early 1950s well into the 21st Century. Hope you enjoy the album!
As part of my marketing endeavor -- and it's a great way to meet interesting people, too -- I belong to many social and business networks. These permit me to spread the word about DREAMWalker Group to as many people as possible. Some of those include Author's Den, Black Author's Showcase, Facebook, Friendster, GLEE, MySpace, Shelfari, and Yuwie. Let me know if there are others I'm missing!
DREAMWalker Group always had a blog (http://dreamwalkergroup.blogspot.com) -- which actually needs to be resurrected and updated. However, I've also created a new blog, DREAMScene: The Blog (http://dreamsceneblog.blogspot.com/) which is for folks who have been published in this newsletter. If you'd like to contribute daily or weekly musings to this blog, just let me know (writer_mike@yahoo.com) and I'll see to it that you've given administrative privileges. (Note that I also have my own personal blog at http://writer-mike.blogspot.com).
If you have a book coming out soon, why not list it at our Coming Soon to DREAMWalker Group page? (Once it's released, well move it to our New Releases page.)
Wonder who's been added to DREAMWalker Group recently? Check out our Recent Additions/Changes To Our Site page.

Michael Walker

Proprietor

writer_mike@yahoo.com

Miss an issue of this newsletter? Click here to view old issues online.

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This month's issue of DREAMScene includes:
- The 2012 Problem by Ralph Miller
- How to Get the “Search Inside” Option Set Up on Amazon.com by Tamara Wilhite
- When Something Bad Happens by Robert Schwartz
- My Religious Experience by Rich Goscicki
- Face -- a short story by Royston Tester
- Let's Get Physical: A Quantum Look at the Queer Space-Time Continuum by Joseph P. Goodwin
- From the Archives of C*NAQ: Where's the Beef? by Catherine Groves — another wonderful article from the Archives of Christian*New Age Quarterly (C*NAQ, Catherine Groves, ed.).
- Just Ask Gail: Turmoil on Campus by Gail Fonda

I hope you'll enjoy this inordinately varied and exciting issue and anticipate more frequent updates in the future!

Michael Walker

Proprietor

writer_mike@yahoo.com

Missed an issue of this newsletter? Click here to view old issues online

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Noteworthy at DWG

Remember that DREAMWalker Group is broken into numerous creative "communities" -- which more jaundiced folks might like to think of as "market segments." Each community, in turn, is broken into topics of interest.

For a list of all general topics of interest, go to the General Community. For a similar list of topics related to other communities, go to that specific community*.

To date, the communities include Arts, Disability, General, GayLesBi, Literary, Recovery, Seniors, Spirit-Guided, and Transgender.

Feel free to email us and offer suggestions for new topics or topics related to your own avocation or genre.)

*Note that a topic may be under construction.
Our DreamTeam consists of three very talented folks who help make DREAMWalker Group the magical place it is today. They are:

The DreamTeam

Proprietor

Michael Walker

Editorial

Catherine Groves
Michael Walker

Layout & Design

Michael Walker
Wayne Price

And we're extremely fortunate that mediabistro.com recently announced our DreamTeam. mediabistro.com is dedicated to anyone who creates or works with content, or who is a non-creative professional working in a content/creative industry. That includes editors, writers, producers, graphic designers, book publishers, and others in industries including magazines, television, film, radio, newspapers, book publishing, online media, advertising, PR, and design. Our mission is to provide opportunities to meet, share resources, become informed of job opportunities and interesting projects and news, improve career skills, and showcase your work.

Check out their announcement of our DreamTeam at http://www.mediabistro.com/DREAMWalkerGroupcom-profile.html.

Check it out and consider joining mediabistro.com today!

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Sources Tell Us

This space reserved for rumors, gossip, and other juicy tidbits related to writers and the literary community!

Write to writer_mike@yahoo.com.

Rumor has it that DREAMWalker Group may have to close down if people don't support the site by buying all their books from Amazon.com by utilizing the DREAMWalker Group/Amazon.com search engines and links to the left of this announcement and elsewhere at dreamwalkergroup.com.

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Across the Blogosphere

Interconnecting through blogs.

This month Robin Reardon continues her blog — a series of installments using logic and facts, in the form of an open letter to humanity, to prove that the only thing wrong with being gay is how some people treat you when they find out. The Case for Acceptance presents the thinking behind Reardon’s second novel, Thinking Straight, about a gay teen who is sent to a Christian de-programming center to straighten him out.

Parts III and IV of this open letter to humanity are now posted, as Robin continues the logical, rational process for deconstructing and demolishing those nasty virtual cards that homophobic bigots flash at gays. (Read the introductory installment on her blog and find out what a faggot-bag is and where it comes from.) Part III shreds “Abnormal” and “Promiscuous”, and Part IV takes "Pedophile" down.

And on another Blog front, author Tracy B. Evans, author of the suspense novel Fatal Kidnapping, has begun a "Write with me story" at her MySpace Blog. "I think I should give everyone on MySpace a chance to join the contest. So, more or less, it is a competition."

Continues Tracy, "I will start with a sentence, and anyone can add a line. Add your name in parenthesis after you write your sentence. If the story turns out good, then I will add the story to my next novel, coming out in a few months. I'm currently still writing it. Anyone who participates will get credit if this short story is published. It will be added as a bonus story on my next book - only if it's good. So, let's get to writing. Make sure to copy and paste the whole story when you add your line. It will make it easier to read. This will be fun!

Her story begins:

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, thinking about the horrible events of the day. (Tracy B.)

For the continuing results of Tracy's experiment, visit her MySpace Blog. Tracy's website is www.tracybevans.coms.

See also Hint to Writers: Persevere (below).

Richard David Kennedy's blog, The Portfolio — a repository for writers of all genres — continues to thrive.

Says Richard, "We've got some brilliant people here — not a joke! And I, for one, am always looking forward to seeing some really creative, exceptionally good stuff. This isn't about `politics, rules and regulations, or personality favs.' It's about writing and a place to express and share your work with others who really do appreciate the work of kindred souls. And you never know just who may be reading what is being posted here. Food for thought."

Check out DREAMScene: The Blog — which is for folks who have been published in this newsletter. If you'd like to contribute daily or weekly musings to this blog, just let me know (writer_mike@yahoo.com) and I'll see to it that you've given administrative privileges.

Check out my own personal blog at http://writer-mike.blogspot.com.

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By Ralph Miller

Ralph Miller has worked with people from all over the world in an experiential journey which he calls Heart of the Initiate as a way for people to remember their "authentic selves".

In the most recent issue of Rolling Stone Magazine there is a very interesting article on Daniel Pinchbecks, author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism, and his use of the Ayahuasca medicine. I wanted to let you know of this interesting article and reference a few quotations from it in this article.

Humanity exists in a relationship with the plant kingdom. Some plants give us nourishment for our bodies. Some plants have medicinal properties and can help to heal illnesses and injuries to our bodies. And still other plants can offer nourishment to our souls. Indigenous cultures that use these plants consider them to be 'teacher plants' because they transmit a wisdom that is outside of everyday human consciousness.

Ayahuasca is a teacher plant that has been in use by Amazonian cultures for thousands of years. It has only been in the last few decades that an awareness of it has emerged for people from modern western cultures. Many, like Pinchbeck, feel it is a bridge for humanity from a collective forgetfulness back to a human harmony with nature. If we can actually remember who we are and our connection to nature, it will create a quantum evolution in our consciousness.

"The thought came to me that human consciousness is like a flower that blossoms from the earth," writes Pinchbeck. "The stem and the roots are invisible cords, etheric filaments that lead back to a greater, extradimensional being. Our separation from that larger being was only a temporary illusion. The universe was, we would know if we could perceive its workings, purposeful and good."

Reference from article by Vanessa Grigoriadis, Rolling Stone Magazine entitled, Daniel Pinchbeck and the New Psychedelic Elite (quoting Pinchbeck)

What have we forgotten and why are we disconnected? Our collective reality … our worldview … has evolved over hundreds of generations from an intimate connection to nature, into a modern disconnect from anything outside of us. We have collectively exerted unbelievable control over our reality. We consider ourselves to be the masters of the planet. We are plugged into a self-created matrix of control that has us sprinting through our agenda filled lives, with little thought to the destructive footprints we leave behind.

Collectively we feel the crisis. We know that humanity is in the midst of irreconcilable religious and political struggles. We know that we are exhausting the natural resources of the planet. Even the announcement of another regional skirmish or war doesn't even cause us to raise an eyebrow anymore.

We look for answers. We hope for some kind of rescue. We know that great change is inevitable … but we don't know how it's going to happen. I think on some level many of us believe that something really big is coming … but it doesn't feel like another re-shuffling of the deck. It will be different. It's going to be a quantum change in who we are … in how we think.

Many spiritual seekers are keenly interested in the Mayan calendar. Allegedly, the Mayan calendar has continued for millennia and on December 21, 2012 the calendar ends. Because there are no days beyond December 21st in the Mayan calendar, many think that on that day time will end. Others think that it is a prediction of some kind of catastrophic event on the earth itself.

In the article in Rolling Stone Magazine, Pinchbeck is ardently cautioning humanity of the impending deadline imposed by the Mayan calendar.

I haven't finished my 'to do' list for December 21, 2012 yet … but if you think about it, the day is soon coming when we will all be doing exactly that. On December 31, 1999 we were all worried because Microsoft didn't program computers for more than 1999 years and that planet earth was like a car speeding down the road with its wheels about to fall off. People everywhere were storing food and water and making plans for the impending catastrophe.

2012 will be reminiscent of 1999 because we will all again be faced with deciding on plan A, B or C. Plan A: Going ahead with your scheduled podiatrist appointment at 2pm. Plan B: Cancelling the entire day's schedule, and finding the nearest Buddhist temple so that you can hopefully 'Om' yourself into the next planetary dimension. And my personal favorite, Plan C: Visit the establishment of a bar owner who hasn't followed plan B.

The concept of 'the end of the Mayan calendar - 2012' has in itself an imbedded idea that is connected to our consciousness around any future event. It's the same as remembering your husband's birthday. It's six years down the road … you can put it on the calendar. What if the whole 2012 thing … the whole 'end of time' thing … is actually about that exactly. Maybe it's about the end of time! What I mean is that our time-consciousness is going to shift dramatically. We have a fairly rigid concept of what the past is; of what the future is. We consider present events to have a causal effect on future events. The past is gone … and the future is coming. That's the way it feels … so that's the way we've always thought about it. That's our collective time-consciousness.

Perhaps 2012 is not about what is 'going to happen' at the end of time … but it's ABOUT the end of time.

Our time-consciousness is part of an illusionary structure that has shaped our consensual reality … the reality we all consent to.

The concept of time has certain imbedded structures that permeate our lives from birth to death. The calendar breaks the year up into 12 months. Birthdays, holidays, Mondays, Fridays, Tuesday's family agenda, the meeting you have at 2pm on Wednesday the 5th, and for the love of god don't forget your anniversary on the 10th! It's important to know what day it is … the calendar keeps us on schedule. You wouldn't want to show up for work at 8am on a Sunday morning if the company you work for is closed on Sundays.

Showing up for work on time requires more than a calendar. If your boss asks you what time you will be in to work, it doesn't quite cut it if you answer him, "I'll be there Tuesday." So in order to further control and manage our lives, we have clocks that tell us what the time of day is. Depending on how you look at it, the clock measures 24 hours or 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds for every day of our lives.

The clock gives us lots of useful information. For example, when you finish a simple call on your cell phone, a mountain of information on the call you just made is stored on your cell phone. If you're particularly detail oriented, you can find out that the call started at 2:14pm and lasted for 73 seconds, bringing your total minute usage to 728 minutes 47 seconds for the month. And by the way, you owe us $213.11 … your payment is due on the 5th. "If you need more information please press #49."

We live according to the structures of time, but we really have little understanding of what it actually is. Is it just there? Can you change it? If I get rid of my wristwatch, will my life change? Most of us would say, "Why ask any questions about it? You can't change it. It just IS."

The evolution of our current concept of time has been a very recent development in the course of human history. Our cultures are based on a calendar that is actually only several hundred years old. The Gregorian calendar decreed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 was adopted in most European countries in 1700's and in some countries in as late as the 1900's. It was a modification of the Julian calendar which was used in Rome since before the time of Christ, with most of the months named after Roman emperors or gods.

Before Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar in 45 B.C., the Roman calendar was a disaster where priests were exploiting it for political reasons by inserting days to keep favored politicians in office. The year was known as the "Year of Confusion," as Julius had added 80 days totaling 445 days for the year. In honor of his hard work, he had the month of July named after him. A few decades later, Emperor Augustus got August as his namesake, for correcting a slight problem where for a fourteen year period they were having a leap-year every three years instead of every four.

By the way, Pope Gregory knocked out 10 days in the transition to the Gregorian calendar, so technically October 5-14, 1582 never existed.

The arrival of the Gregorian calendar in the sixteenth century was a time of great change in human consciousness.

The sixteenth century closed out a 1,000 year period of time referred to as the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages are almost impossible for us in the 21st century to even conceive of. William Manchester, in his book titled A World Lit Only by Fire, propels the reader into the strange world of the medieval mind.

It is so difficult to imagine a time when few people had proper names or traveled any distance from the place where they were born. It was an age when the vast majority of people had no exposure to the written word. It was a world where religious authority dominated temporal authority and all of humankind. It was a 1,000 year period where there were almost no new inventions or innovations. Almost completely absent of any individual ego, for example, generations of stone masons would work on the completion of a cathedral that was commissioned by a pope that died hundreds of years before its completion.

"Each of the great soaring medieval cathedrals, our most treasured legacy from that age, required three or four centuries to complete. Canterbury was twenty-three generations in the making; Chartres, a former Druidic center, eighteen generations. Noblemen had surnames, but fewer than one percent [of people] were wellborn. Because most peasants lived and died without leaving their birthplace, there was seldom need for any [name beyond a first name]."

Reference from, A World Lit Only By Fire by William Manchester

As we know it, there was almost no concept of time.

"In the medieval mind there was also no awareness of time, which is even more difficult to grasp. Inhabitants of the twentieth century are instinctively aware of past, present, and future."

"Medieval men were rarely aware of what century they were living in. Life then revolved around the passing of the seasons and such cyclical events as religious holidays, harvest time, and local fetes. In all Christendom there was no such thing as a watch, a clock, or, apart from a copy of the Easter tables in the nearest church or monastery, anything resembling a calendar. Generations succeeded one another in a meaningless, timeless blur."

Reference from, A World Lit Only By Fire by William Manchester

For eons before Gregory, Julius and Augustus imposed their control on our concepts of time, humans were intimately connected to the natural rhythms and cycles of the planet and the natural world. Even today, shamanic and indigenous cultures are still connected to the life cycles of earth. They derive their 'calendar' from the earth, the moon and nature. Their concept of time is borne out of their spiritual, psychic connections to nature. They naturally determine ideal times to plant crops, celebrate solstice and other seasonal events and record their history around a lunar and 'earth cycle' calendar. Their memories and thinking patterns are linked to this natural cycle of the earth.

There is a forgotten inner landscape wherein we can perceive our connection to everything. We are irrevocably connected to the natural world. Ayahuasca represents a completely unique opportunity for humans. It is an eons-old sacred teacher that can reconnect us to our humanity and all of nature.

"If the leading edge of psychedelic exploration in the Nineties was characterized by ravers taking synthetic research chemicals, this decade has been about the spread of the Ayahuasca religion. At the same time, because it's an ancient jungle brew, Ayahuasca ties us to so much we have lost -- it gives one a sense of being part of something that is rooted in nature, which is such a source of longing and anxiety right now."

Reference from article by Vanessa Grigoriadis, Rolling Stone Magazine entitled, Daniel Pinchbeck and the New Psychedelic Elite (quoting Erik Davis, author of The Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape)

I am not suggesting that knowing the time of day or what day it is, is not relevant to who we are as human beings living in the 21st century, but I am suggesting that we should objectify it … we should look at it for what it is, so that it's power over us becomes much less. By objectifying it … you create a separation between your consciousness and the concept you are observing. You realize the concept is not you … it is separate from you. There is space between you and the idea. It is there and it is OK that it is there, but you don't feel its power because you see what it is. There is distance between you and it.

When is December 21, 2012 coming? We would have to do some work to really pin it down, based on our sloppy use of the 'calendar' over the centuries. Perhaps it is a continuum that is happening now. Perhaps in has happened and will happen at the same time. The sixteenth century was a renaissance in human time-consciousness that shifted the planet out of a 1,000 years of darkness. There is another renaissance of consciousness that is happening now. It is the end of time as we know it.

I never liked the idea of mountains coming down on my head or the earth's crust racing by my front door.

The real evolution of human consciousness … the real 'end of time' … is not about waiting for a date six years from now. It is a re-connection to yourself and this blessed living planet that we inhabit. That reconnection will bring an end to time as we have known, and will usher in an extraordinary evolution of consciousness. It will forever change who we are as human beings.

"We will then be released from the occult power of the Gregorian calendar, which is keeping us out of synchronicity with our psychic powers. We will receive the powers of telepathy and get to speak to our alien neighbors, not necessarily by mounting spaceships but through psychic evolution."

Reference from article by Vanessa Grigoriadis, Rolling Stone Magazine entitled, Daniel Pinchbeck and the New Psychedelic Elite

When you first notice the arrival of the red-breast robins in the springtime, you are reminded that they arrive in the spring of every year. Watching the bird, you see her pulling a juicy worm out of your front lawn. You marvel at nature … you loose yourself in an eternity contained in a mere moment. You are free.

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Author's Note: Initially I only wanted to pass along a quick personal note and a link to this interesting article. The more I thought about it … well … it turned into a little more than that. Sorry about that. I hope you enjoyed some of my thoughts. If you would like to read the Rolling Stone article please click on the link below.

Daniel Pinchbeck and the New Psychedelic Elite

© 2006 Ralph Miller. All rights reserved.

Heart of the Initiate offers tours to Brazil where they help people make sacred inner journeys through an intensive workshop experience. Their Brazil workshops incorporate shamanic ceremonies using the ancient plant teacher, Ayahuasca. Please check our their website! For more information on their healing retreats, please visit www.heartoftheinitiate.com.

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DREAMWalker Group topics related to this article:

2012 Alternative Health Alternative Medicine Anthropology Ascension Ayahuasca Buddhism Cosmology Gaia Meditation Metaphysics Mother Earth Native American Experience New Age Plant Medicine Psychedelics Psychic Research (Psychism) Religion & Spirituality Shamanism Spirit-Guided Community The Soul

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How to Get the “Search Inside” Option Set Up on Amazon.com

By Tamara Wilhite

Tamara Wilhite is the author of Humanity's Edge, Geronimo Redux (PDF Edition), Natural Talent (PDF Edition)” and Sirat: Through the Fires of Hell. She is also an engineer and the “IE in IT” blogger for the Institute of Industrial Engineers.

Note from Tamara:

After popular demand for these titles - and readers asking "How can I get these titles without Amazon Kindle?" - I'm now offering these titles IN PRINT.

"Amazon Kindle Publishing for Idiots"
"Writing Marketing Tips From Eric Enck and Tamara Wilhite"

Cost is $2 with SASE or $2.50 without SASE. Send check or money order and be sure to state which title you want and mention that DREAMWalker Group sent you!

Tamara Wilhite
2024 Oakmeadow St.
Bedford, TX 76021

Note: The Kindle edition of this article includes detailed graphics for these same instructions. Click here to purchase the Kindle edition.

Requirements

The book is listed on Amazon.com for sale

The person requesting the “Search Inside” option has the legal rights and copyright to the book – i.e. the author OR the publisher.

Note: If you’re the author, even if you have the PDF or word document version of your book, the publisher may retain the digital rights. Check your contract or check with your publisher.

How to do it

Go to your book’s listing on Amazon.com.

Click on the “Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book”.

From the Publishers and Authors: Join our Search Inside!™ Program website, click on the “Sign up now” link on the first line. You will have to do this even if you have uploaded prior books via the “Search Inside Program”.

Fill out the Search Inside! Publisher Sign-up webpage.

Don’t forget to read the “Participation Agreement” AND click on the check box that you’ve read it.

Click on the “Yes” check box that you have rights to the work.

Fill in all the fields.

At the bottom, click on the “Submit” button.

You will be brought to the confirmation screen. Verify the information before selecting the “Sign Up for Search Inside” button.

If Amazon.com agrees to the search inside submission (and they almost certainly will, if you have the rights to the work), they’ll want you to fill out forms, either faxed or mailed back. They’ll also need a PDF file of the book to tie to the “Search Inside” option.

The next page describes different methods for submitting the book to be scanned / uploaded to the “Search Inside” program.

What do you get for all of this work? This is an example of my book “Humanity’s Edge”. The “Search Inside” option is available from the cover graphic.

Users gain the ability to view your internal pages, as if flipping through a book on the book store shelf. The uploaded pages also add the content to the key word index on which users may search for different books. This increases the odds of key word hits that are of phrases not included in the title, author name, or synopsis.

For more tips on marketing, writing, and publishing, read more by Tamara Wilhite at:

Amazon Kindle Publishing for Idiots by Tamara Wilhite, Amazon Kindle Edition

Marketing Your Writing, an Amazon Short by Eric Enck and Tamara Wilhite

For technical assistance in doing an Amazon Kindle conversion, setting up Amazon Search Inside for your books, or interviews and presentations to groups, Tamara can be reached at: sirat@wilhite.homeip.net

© 2008 Tamara Wilhite. All rights reserved.

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DREAMWalker Group topics related to this article:

Creativity Literary Community Nonfiction Nonfiction Anthologies Technical Writing Writers & Writing

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When Something Bad Happens

By Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz is the author of Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth?. A free PDF with a large sample of the book is available on the About the Book page at www.CourageousSouls.com.

A new edition in German under the title Mutige Seelen is available at www.amazon.de.

So often, when something “bad” happens to us, it appears to be purposeless suffering. But what if our most difficult experiences are actually rich with hidden purpose — purpose that we ourselves planned before we were born? Could it be that we choose our life’s circumstances, relationships, and events?

In my research for my book Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth?, I found that the answer to this question is a definite yes. Working with four of the most gifted mediums and channels in the country, including one who is able both to see and to hear our pre-birth planning sessions, I’ve examined the pre-birth plans of dozens of people. These people planned such challenges as physical illness, having handicapped children, deafness, blindness, drug addiction, alcoholism, losing a loved one, and severe accidents. Courageously, they planned these challenges for purposes of spiritual growth.

Of the many people with whom I’ve spoken, there was only one who did not plan his challenge before birth. Yet, like everyone else, he did choose it. In Bob’s case, he made his choice shortly after birth, when an accident occurred in the hospital. The following comes directly from Bob’s session with the medium (Staci):

“The [spirit] guides were immediately by Bob’s incubator side, waiting for him to slip out of body and into that state of consciousness where the spirit or astral body is released. They knew it was going to happen quickly.

“My spirit guide wants us to start with the chessboard, the planning board. It’s a chart on which the steps of growth and development are plotted through one’s life, so that the soul has a visual reference. This board is like a flow chart. A flow chart is a question. If the answer is yes, you take one path. If the answer is no, you take a different path.

“When this accident happened to Bob in the incubator . . . the phrase I’m hearing is ‘back to the drawing board.’ Bob and two of his spirit guides got together and went back into the room with the planning board to diagram the alternate path that would be taken to still achieve the soul’s goals for this lifetime.

“They’re showing me the instant he [Bob] found himself back in spirit in the planning place…..very disoriented by this rapid and huge change and surprised to find himself there. He did not realize what was happening to the infant body. He recognizes his guides, trusts them implicitly, and is totally willing to be guided.

“I’m hearing one of the two guides, who is speaking for both of them, telling Bob that there has been a mishap in a procedure and that Bob’s brain has received too much oxygen. Bob appears to be in a state of shock about this — quiet, eyes wide, pupils dilated, numb and glum.

Spirit guide: The nurse involved in the operation of the tubes attached to your crib, where your physical body is even now, has made an error and has allowed too much of the elemental oxygen to flow through. This has elevated the oxygen levels in your brain, and damage is occurring.

“I see them showing Bob his eyes, the baby’s eyes. Bob’s spirit, while attached to the baby’s body, is out of the body. As they speak to him through telepathic thought, his mind’s eye sees those eyes. They show him the damage and how the eyes will look as he proceeds through childhood and into adulthood.

Spirit Guide: There is no damage to the brain; it is to the eyes. There is an increase in your intelligence. Though it is a minor increase, it will serve you well. You now have the option to reevaluate your plan for your life to see if these changes will serve your purposes. If you so desire, you may withdraw from this body, return to us, reevaluate a new host family, and draw up new plans.

“Bob fires off a lot of questions rapidly to his guides. He asks about his ability to walk. He wants to be reassured that his body will still be able to function as he expects. They assure him that it will. Then he asks:

Bob: What about my work?

Spirit Guide: This will be accomplished.

Bob: Will this handicap impede my evolutionary process in this lifetime?

Second Spirit Guide: Let’s see.

“Between the guides and Bob, in the middle of the air, is the planning board for his old life on the bottom, a transitional planning board above that, and above that the board for Bob’s life as it will be after this change. These boards are like a hologram — filmy in appearance, not solid. Their thoughts create these boards and draw lines on them. Lines represent the process of growth.

“A diagram forms. There are little branches along the way. Some of them are houses. For example, the home his family occupies at the time of his birth, the home they move to, and the places he occupies in adulthood, even college, are mapped out on this board. It all happens very quickly.

“With their thoughts, they move elements from one board to another. The first thing they take from the original planning board to the transitional board is his mother.

Spirit Guide: Let’s begin with your mother. She will remain in this life with you and will continue to be your mother.

Bob: That’s good.

“Bob looks reassured. He takes a deep breath and lets out a sigh [of relief].

Spirit Guide: Your father . . .

“They move him from the original board to the middle board