About the Book

The American Tao books, of which Meditation's Secret Treasure is the first, are unlike anything you will read. They present the true story of what happened when a skeptical, spiritual neophyte sat down to begin a daily practice of meditation and somehow slid through a crack between worlds, ultimately ending up in a strange new psychic dimension of the Soul. Unbeknownst to him, he had been called. He had become the accidental mystic, a traveller of worlds.

In repeated visits over an extended period, the author experienced over seventy strange visions and apparitions. These led him on a journey across multiple realms and worlds, ultimately taking him into the celestial chambers of a mysterious white-bearded presence, where a final secret was revealed. The complete chronicle of these travels is presented in this series.

And every bit of it is true!

You Will Learn:

• The truth about meditation and the doors it can open, including not only how to do it but also how not to
• Revelations about the forms of spiritual being, including the many faces of the Soul and its hidden lives in other worlds
• The meaning of the mystic teachings in the Taoist classic, the Tao-Te-Ching, by Lao Tzu
• What it is like to experience the esoteric realms and transformational energies described by spiritual alchemists, including chakras and Kundalini-like events
• New techniques for uncovering the meanings hidden in your dreams and visions. You can use these to journal your own encounters
• How to use methods developed in I Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes, to chart the progress of your spiritual journey by matching its diagrams of energy patterns with the imagery in your visions and dreams
• The teachings of several other authentic spiritual explorers, including Ken Wilber (integral and transpersonal philosophy), Sri Aurobindo (integral yoga and Hinduism), Michael Harner (contemporary Shamanism) and C.G. Jung (theory of archetypes and collective unconsciousness)

As you can see, these books will take you considerably beyond where self-help books usually go. They will teach you not only about the nature of revelation but also the philosophy behind it. Due to the number and intensity of the visionary events, three books will be needed to complete the story. You will be able to witness the author's entire investigative process from beginning to end, as his story unfolds like a spiritual detective story in pursuit of a philosophical mystery.

This Book Gets You Started

This first book covers the initiation events of the first few weeks of the author's meditational experience, describing how visions tested and prepared him for more far-ranging travel and deeper revelations. It presents everything meditation beginners need to start their own practice, while introducing the mystical teachings of Taoism.

Topics include:

• The author's meditational methods, as well as a detailed discussion of their philosophical underpinnings
• The layered nature of the Self and the components constituting the experience of selfhood
• The phenomenon of emergence and its relationship to consciousness
• Jung's concepts of the Anima and Animus
• The different types of visionary consciousness and the doors between realms
• The possibility of psychic precognition and whether meditation can help develop it
• Strange mystical events from the author's past, including his childhood encounters with occult entities and his experience of the void
• The visits by mysterious Watchers who evaluated his practice, later leading to his first meeting with the Teacher, who was destined to accompany him on many of his visionary travels

Please click Look Inside for more details about the book.
About the Author: When I began this endeavor I was not a mystic. In fact, I was as far from a mystic as you could get. But I kept myself busy, running here and there, hiding from my calling. I was always seeking something, always in pursuit of the next job, the next title, the next distinction, etc. I just didn't know what I was looking for. Only meditation would provide the answer. Over the years, I picked up degrees from some of the best universities, including a BS from MIT, a PhD in philosophy from Harvard and an MBA from UC Berkeley. With these in hand, I worked in biotech as an engineer at Agilent Technology and Silicon Genetics, a researcher in space biology at NASA Ames, a computer programmer at several start-ups, and a philosophy professor at Stanford University. I've managed engineers at IBM and Silicon Graphics. I received eight patents in the technology navigating the virtual worlds found in computers. I worked as a computer animator and digital artist. I still train as a Chinese martial artist, having accumulated boxes of dusty gold medals in local and national competitions, as well as a couple of all-around championships in the internal martial arts. Looking back at all this, I had to wonder what in the world was I looking for. What unfulfilled desire was driving me? But then, magically, I somehow stumbled on a method that opened doors to the hidden worlds of the Soul, pulling me in. All these other things turned out to be just so much smoke and mirrors. I had become the accidental mystic, a wayfarer on the American Tao. My background may not have prepared me for the journey I was to undertake, but it did help me tell the tale of what I encountered along the way, so I could begin to mark the trails for you to follow on your own journeys. I welcome you to my story and, perhaps, the beginning of yours as well.