Wayne Bloemhof

We all know the formula. The author bio is supposed to summarize my experience and my credentials, list my accomplishments, and give you a good, safe feeling about buying the book. It's supposed to be short and crisp, and professional.

I could do that, but somehow I feel that would be cheating – and besides, who prefers a formula over something real and original?

Instead, what you probably really want to know about me can be best expressed by describing one particular afternoon in my life. I don't even remember exactly which day it was anymore, but I remember everything else about that day.

I was sitting in the garden with friends, after band practice, drinking a beer, and inventing a silly game we called 'hedgehog.' We found a big woolen pom-pom that had fallen off a knitted scarf, and we were using chop sticks to throw and catch. It was a beautiful, innocent moment of joy, but not particularly interesting, all on its own.

Then I noticed an odd, but very pleasant sensation in the center of my chest, and down in the pit of my stomach. I've tried to describe it many times since then, but I've realized that it's quite impossible to do using words, much as that irks me as a writer.

I could say it felt like bubbling optimism. I could say it felt like a giant sigh of relief. It seemed like I had spontaneously pierced some kind of veil into a new dimension – except that it also felt so natural, and so familiar. My mind was utterly silent. I started smiling, and kept smiling for a very long time. I experienced waves of joy, relief, and wonder sweep over me, again and again, growing and swelling. It continued. On and on it went, growing more and more intense.

Everything I looked at seemed to be overflowing with radiance, meaning, splendor, and natural harmony. Everything. Even the 'ugly' things.

I had no idea what was happening to me, but I went with it, because it felt so wonderful. I tried to explain it to my friends, but I didn't know where to begin.

I'd been high before, and very high, and low, and very low, but mostly, somewhere in between, in that dull, insane, grey mediocrity I used to call 'life.' This was different.

It wasn't on the same page, or in the same book, or even in the same library. It was a new language, without words. It lasted for about a week, during the first, most intense phase. Then it mellowed, and the waves subsided, for about a year afterwards. Some of my family members thought I was having a breakdown at the time. They were just waiting for the insanity bomb to drop. But it didn't.

Ever since then I've been figuring it out, and trying to bring it back, but gradually I'm learning to let even that go. I came to understand many new things about myself, the world, religion, philosophy, the universe, and everything. It's really simple. It's love.

That probably doesn't help you, though.

I don't label myself as a guru, a Buddhist, or even a 'spiritual' person, and I'm not a member of any religion. I'm not an atheist either. I've let go of my beliefs, and most of my theories and opinions. You're welcome to them, and you can label me any way you choose.

I discovered that other people have had similar experiences, and I dug deeper and deeper until I became utterly sick of reading about transcendence, kundalini, mindfulness, chakras, energy, spirituality, consciousness, and awakening. I realized that what I was reading was simply confirming and explaining what I already knew. It gave me a useful new vocabulary, though, which comes in handy for work.

Then I started writing about it, feeling a desire to uplift other people, and help them to get a taste of it for themselves, rather than convince them to believe anything.

What I write isn't new – in fact it's ancient knowledge – as old as consciousness. There's a place for it here and now, though, because a modern world needs modern words, and we could all use a little inspiration and insight.

I've spent years reading and writing, and these days, to earn an income, I ghostwrite for mentors, life-coaches, and gurus in disguise – among many others. I also write my own books, newsletters, short stories and blogs.

I live in Knysna, South Africa, otherwise known as paradise. Life is beautiful.



“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it."

Osho

Website: http://waynebloemhof.com
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awakening    consciousness    meditation