THE MANY IN THE ONE AND THE ONE IN THE MANY The School of Athens frescoe by Italian Renaisance painter Raphael (1511)  For centuries Western culture has been divided between Plato and his student Aristotle. What do I mean by that? Take a look at their fingers. Plato has one finger pointed upwards, indicating the One in the vertical transcendence of all that is. Aristotle, however is more worldly minded and has several fingers projected out horizontally, indicating the many. That says ...

-- or maybe not. Just cool. Real cool. Especially this last winter. But my book is HOT... hot off the press. So light your fire and get your copy of Elysium's Passage: The Summit. You'll like it. No, you'll love it! How do I know? Because really smart people like you do. That's why you read these posts... right?  So where can you buy this literary gem? Thought you'd never ask. If you want to come over, I'm sure I still have a few extra ...

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself American President Franklin D Roosevelt during his campaign in 1932   But why should we fear fear since this too is fear? Maybe it would have been better to use some other word rather than fear, but I can’t think of anything quite as catchy. Saying the only thing we have to be concerned about is worry doesn't do it... and so Roosevelt made his point most convincingly. In this post, I have featured ...

I've posted a few sample photos of what I enjoy doing when not writing the Elysium's Passage series, Mostly these are from my mountain climbing ventures in western Canada over the last 15 years. That's me. Made it 1300 metres to the peak of Mount Kidd, Kananaskis. Still able to do a few jumping jacks on the summit. Pics above and below: I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it across a precipitous chasm nearby. There wasn't much footing and what ...

. The Soul passes from form to form; and the mansions of her pilgrimage are manifold.Thou art old, O Soul of Man; yea, thou art from everlasting.                                                               Book of Hermes Every soul… comes into this world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats of its previous life.          ...

. After five long years, the first of the Elysium's Passage series, The Summit, has been released and is now available at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. Soon it will be available at various bookstores.  . Last June it was about ready for publication but after I received a one-off copy for final review and approval, I knew it still required more work. So I went back to editing and revising The Summit for another eight months of very hard work most every day. This is a rather ...

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger; who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.             Imagination is more important than knowledge.                                              ...

A pilot glanced outside his cockpit and froze. He blinked hard and looked again, hoping it was just a mirage. But his co-pilot stared at the same horrible vision. "My God, this is a nightmare," the co-pilot said. "He's going to destroy us," the pilot agreed. The men were looking at a grey German Messerschmidt fighter hovering just three feet off their wingtip. It was five days before Christmas 1943, and the fighter had closed in on their crippled American B-17 bomber ...

I had a dream, which was not at all a dream - Lord Byron . There was a time several years ago I would pay attention to my dreams. And funny thing, I found when I did this, they seemed to pay attention to me, or at least they seemed to be there for me. All that was required of me was to intend to remember them when I awoke. And so, first thing in the morning after getting out of bed, I ...

This is a very brief summary of some of the important events and people in my life.  I was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1949. My father served with the Royal Canadian Air Force in Britain during WWII before passing away from cancer in 1951. See more WW2 pictureson    In 1952 my mother and I moved to Whitehorse, Yukon where she worked at a native school for a few years. There was little pay, other than being provided room and board ...

You can't blame gravity for falling in love.                                             Albert Einstein Who can give law to lovers? Love is a greater law unto itself.                          Boethius 470-524 (De Consolatione Philosophiae) The Elysium's Passage series has many themes, but perhaps none greater than love. Though there are countless expressions of love, the ancient ...

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek - Joseph Campbell Failure is a greater teacher than success - Clarissa Pinkola Estés  Recently I was thinking about how we all experience failure from time to time and yet not realize how much we can learn and benefit from the experience. At times its feels like a huge loss, but mostly failures are minor setbacks. As Joseph Campbell seems to suggest in the quote above, the cave we fear may contain ...

For those readers interested in keeping pace with the progress being made with the book series, I will continue to update my progress on this post. There's still much to do as I continue to revise and edit the second book before proceeding to the third. May 26, 2018 I will be having a book launch in Calgary on Sunday, 4:30 pm, June 17. Please contact me at nmeyers@shaw.ca if you are interested in attending. It should be fun and very interesting with ...

I assert the nature of all reality is spiritual, not material or a dualism of matter and spirit.     Werner Heisenberg, Nobel Prize in Physics (1932) For anyone interested in the question of who and what we are, I have included a short excerpt of a discussion on this topic that occurs between the two main characters James and Mo. This is taken from chapter 7 of Elysium's Passage. Are we spirits or are we just material beings that have ...

What is it?  Whatever it might be, it seems something or someone is on my trail. If we allow our imagination, we may see it as an orb from interdimensional space looking for some crazy person to take a picture of it. And yet I don't recall anything whizzing by that day while climbing in the mountains. But let's keep an open mind -- that doesn't mean something wasn't there. Obviously I don't I see what my digital camera sees or ...

You see what you’re looking for, so look to the light to see the light I received a lot of interest in my orb pictures last week with hundreds of views in just days. Since I have many others stashed away in my external drive, I thought I pick a few more out to display on a new post. I have enlarged and enhanced most of these for contrast purposes. I am not representing they are anything more than natural phenomena ...

. There are hundreds and hundreds of books I’ve read and studied over the years that have influenced and enriched my thinking. Below I have provided a brief summary of a few books and a couple of thinkers that had special significance for me while writing the Elysium's Passage series over the last five years 1.      A COURSE IN MIRACLES (ACIM) I repeatedly make reference to ACIM throughout the series. I found it fascinating to learn that the book came into existence in the late ...

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. William Shakespeare PART ONE Introduction What has happened during the five years was truly extraordinary. Perhaps that's why it's with some trepidation I put myself out there, since this is a very personal story and not just a little bizarre. However, it may help future readers of the Elysium's Passage series understand why the books are so different from 'normal' fiction. In fact, I'm not sure which will ...

The Meaning of Elysium Elysium is described by Homer, Hesiod, Virgil and many other poets as the mythological paradisiacal plains reserved for deceased heroes. The name may have its origins with the Greek verb eleuthô, meaning release for the souls of heroes and virtuous men.  Some traditions considered this a realm of the netherworld, others certain eastern islands in the Aegean Sea, and later, a place by the Black Sea. Perhaps the best way to explain the meaning of Elysium within the ...