About
This website is for people interested in experiencingthe transcendent reality that lies at the heart of our existence.
There is an infinite freedom beyond the realm of thought that has been cherished for millennia by saints, mystics, poets, and philosophers of many cultures. It has been given many names and enshrined in the doctrines of many religions. However, names and doctrines can only point towards it—one must transcend the conceptual realm in order to experience it as a living reality.
I created this website to support our shared journey towards a life sustained by that transcendent reality—that is, a life illuminated by the eternal light of the divine. Yet to speak of a “journey” is misleading, because the divine is not “out there”—not a destination outside of oneself that one can reach in time. As Augustine of Hippo writes in his Confessions, God is “more intimate to me than I am to myself.” Our journey, then, involves transcending who we think we are and plunging into the very heart of who we really are as eternal beings made in the image of God.
If these ideas appeal to you, you will enjoy reading my recent book Joy Beyond Belief: Transcending the Limits of Faith through Prayer and Meditation. It’s an in-depth discussion of the experience of transcending the limitations of thought, emotion, and belief and entering into the sacred silence in which we discover our true self, made in the image and likeness of God.
Is this blog for you? I welcome here people who are interested in the transcendent peace that is “beyond all understanding” (Philippians 4:7)—that is, beyond the boundaries of human thought, belief, and culture. However, I am not fond of doctrinaire assertions by people who believe that their particular dogma, creed, community, or practice is the only path to truth. This website is dedicated to learning and growth. If you are mostly interested in affirming what you already believe, this website is probably not for you.
My Personal Journey
I first became interested in these issues after attending a lecture given by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Yale University in November 1967, just two months after I had arrived on campus as a freshman. He spoke about the Transcendental Meditation® technique, or TM, which he described as a “simple, natural, effortless, mental technique for experiencing a state of restful alertness” that improves health, increases mental clarity, unleashes creativity, enriches relationships, and creates an influence of peace in the world. I enrolled in the next course, feeling that if even just a small fraction of what he said were true my life would change profoundly. And so it did. Immediately after graduating, I became trained as a TM teacher and then spent more than ten years teaching meditation courses, working for TM organizations in the United States and Europe, and studying Maharishi’s teachings in depth.
During this time, my love of Christ took seed and began to grow. About half-way through my senior year at Yale, I picked up the Bible and read the Gospels for the first time. Having grown up in a nonreligious family, I read them unencumbered by sectarian doctrines or other people’s opinions. I was deeply moved, and I wanted to experience more of what I had just encountered in the stories of his life and teachings. A few years later, as I traveled around the Southeast U.S. lecturing and conducting TM courses, I found a church in which I felt at home, was baptized, and delved into the Bible and other books about the Christian experience for a greater understanding of the journey that I had begun. 
Encouraged by a sympathetic minister a few years later, I began the daunting project of writing a book about Transcendental Meditation and Christianity that led me to a life-changing experience in a Trappist monastery and eventually to authoring Joy beyond Belief.
After a more than a decade of working full-time for TM organizations, I began developing training materials and train-the-trainer programs for use in organizational settings. As Vice President of Program Development for an international training and publishing company, I oversaw the design and development of workshops in leadership development, interpersonal communication, self-discovery, and personal productivity that were delivered to thousands of client organizations in more than 20 countries, including Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, government agencies, universities, hospitals, and religious organizations. I enjoyed this work, but I felt something was missing—it did not delve deeply enough into what I consider to be the really important life questions:
Who am I?What is the ultimate ground of my existence?What is my relationship to God?How can I experience conscious awareness of God’s presence in my daily life?What can I do to help others share in that experience?
This website is part of my attempt to address those questions. Thanks for being here to share in this learning adventure. I genuinely appreciate your interest!