Elif Chronicles

My interest in what I now call 'life-force', 'orgone' or 'qi' probably started when I was still a child. My dad had a psychotherapy library with most of Wilhelm Reich's books. I think Peter Reich's, 'A Book of Dreams,' caught my eye and started my interest in orgonomy (Peter was Wilhelm's son). Orgonomy is the science of life-force named after orgone, Reich's term for this energy. At a deeper level orgone is a force rather than simply an energy but that is another story.

I did not know what I wanted to do till much later in life. Music seemed a good idea. A soul/pop type band that I was a part of in Liverpool broke up just as we were about to be signed to Sony - after many years of hard slog. I had also trained as a nurse so after the music folded I went back to this occupation. Eventually I trained as an Chinese medical acupuncturist.

Then at the end of the acupuncture course we were offered the chance to do a Master's research degree. Someone, or something sparked my childhood memory of Wilhelm Reich's work. I decided to to a research degree looking at the common foundation of Reich and Chinese medicine. Little did I know then what I had taken on. It was gruelling both in terms of work and from the sheer opposition I encountered. From this came a controversial and ground-breaking practical and theoretical study which became my first published book (look me up on Amazon to find it).

I have a leaning toward academia and I love fiction, quiet music and mountains. Neil Gaiman and Anthony Horowitz are amongst my favourite mainstream authors. I also love neo-classical piano and new age music. My favourite musician at the moment is Fabrizio Paterlini. I will be forever grateful for being introduced to his work. It is so beautiful and so melancholy, its wonderful! Ludovico Einaudi is a big influence and Andreas Vollenweider, is also very important to me, especially his 1980's pre-Jazz era. Around the same time that I discovered an academic side to me I started writing fiction. I tend to lean towards young adult science fiction/fantasy my writing. SpiritRunner is my first novel. I am interested in geo-politics, spiritual, cosmic and paranormal phenomena. Richplanet.net is a good jumping off points on those subjects. My own website leosouthgate.com has links to my research work on life-force (orgone) and its links to acupuncture (see my book on this area too based on my MSc). There is a cross referenced annotated bibliography of the post-Reich research literature available from the website or from here on smashwords.