I can only say that it was a constant itch, or inner urging that would not go away. I also found when I had a vacation even for a few days, I would sit at my computer with my library around me and just get lost in the creative clouds for hours. I would seem to leave my body and float into a creative world. When I would get up and go out, the elevator in my building would not work when I stepped into it. I had to use the stairs. After I came 'down' from the creative cloud, then the elevator would work again. I also had a web site which answered questions and helped people with Kundalini problems, so I knew the audience for this book was desperately waiting for it.

I read a lot. When I would find something relevant to what I had experienced in 1979, I would integrate it right away into the chapter. I would use the 'Find' feature in MS. Word to find that section of my book and immediately put in the quote, paraphrase and then add it to the Bibliography. I could not keep up a regular writing schedule, as I was a single parent and had a full time job. However, as a college instructor I had 4 month vacations a year, (one at Christmas and three in summer), so during this time I would get most of the writing done. One year, 2000, I went to an Ashram in California for a month and wrote about two chapters during that time. Several times I revised it completely. I would meet people that inspired me and I would then see them as my audience and decide that I needed to cut certain sections or add more.

Yes. I read "The Secret Science Behind Miracles" by Max Freedom Long which is about the mysteries of subtle energies. It was about the Kahunas of Hawaii and what they could do and did. This helped me understand that what I had experienced was not beyond science and could be explained. This helped me start researching. Also I must mention the books by Stan and Christina Grof who were so compassionate and kind about what I had gone through which looked very pathological to my family, but which actually was a spiritual emergency. The Grof's books were incredibly supportive and encouraged me to feel proud of this experience instead of ashamed.

This was very easy for me. My friend's daughter painted this image for me about ten years ago. She is a very well-known artist and sculptress today in Oregon (Cary Weigand). She had read my book's first few drafts, got inspired and sent this to me as a gift. I had it framed and professionally photographed. It said everything. It showed the peaceful meditator, the fiery Kundalini and the tiger who protected me through the process. I have heard from readers of my book that they had had this same experience in meditation as the picture shows. This is validation for me that it was truly inspired. I had Pat Rasch format it with the background and layout that you see on the book today.

I only read non-fiction. I listen to fiction on CD's in my car and I loved Dan Brown's "Lost Symbol" as it resonated so much with my own discoveries. My library as you can see from my Bibliography is extensive. I read Dean Radin, Stan Grof, David Wilcock, Bruce Lipton, Swami Muktananda, Dan Siegal, Dan Goleman, Yogananda, Eckhart Tolle, Izthak Bentov, Rupert Sheldrake, Jean Bole, Barbara Hand Clow, Graham Hancock, Gangaji, Shri Ramana Maharshi, Ken Carey, Arnold Mindell, Johan Carl Calleman etc.

I had a Kindle - the 2nd edition in 2011 and I took it everywhere, but it got broken. Now I use the Mini iPad and read on it with a nice little stand from which I can watch videos, read books, news, weather etc. The books are downloaded from Kindle, so I still have my library. I also read iBooks on my iPad. I take it everywhere with me.

I grew up in a very nurturing environment for a child. I lived in Somerset, England which is very rural. I wandered the fields where Llewellyn Powys walked as a mystic, and I wandered the lanes where Thomas Hardy wrote "Tess of the D'Urbavilles" and "The Mayor of Casterbridge" in Wessex. While my peers in San Francisco were trying drugs, sex and rockandroll, my meditations were against trees in peaceful meadows where rabbits frolicked and sometimes a fox trotted. I had mystical experiences while solitary and alone in nature, and although my writing was not great then, I knew I wanted to be a writer to express the wonderful feelings I felt in those times. Thus came my ambition to get a degree to improve my skills and fate made that happen in Texas.

I had an editor helping me in 2000, but she wanted to modify and put spin on everything. I knew that an authentic spiritual memoir would not be a best seller, so I was not interested in making it more "commercial." I just wanted to share the truth. Only the truth would reach the reader's heart and communicate authentically. That "interference" is why I devoted myself to the process of self publishing and although it was like climbing a mountain, I finally reached the top. I also had no idea how to write a proposal and do all the other very complex and specific tasks required! I write books; I am not a marketer! I have learned so much in the process and have to thank my formatter, Pat Rasch, for putting my manuscript into form for me.