Dear ,
I hope you are well. In the UK, spring has just about arrived. The world of trees and bushes and
flowers is reawakening and flaming into life with colour and beauty! The whole world seems to be ready to celebrate, almost in defiance of the crazy political and social tribulations we have been through recently. So let me begin this month’s newsletter with a spring poem:
Spring Poem
The world is celebrating.
Gardens are flashing and sparkling
like a slow-motion firework display.
Streets are scattered with blossom
as if a wedding party has just passed by.
We’re all getting ready
for a miracle.
The wind is blowing with an urgency
carrying messages from tree to tree
while the sunlight glints expectantly
and clouds rush home across the sky.
And flowers are blossoming inside me too.
The dark dusty corners of my soul
are being flushed with freshness, and stirring to life again.
And there the
certainty arises, from a deep forgotten place,
that all is well, and all will be well, always.
The Leap
For me, March has been the month of The Leap. Things have been pretty
busy, particularly with radio interviews. I’ve already done several already, and have another 15 lined up over the next two to three weeks. This is partly because the book has been selling so well - my publisher told me excitedly that within two weeks it had sold out the first printing of 5000, and had back orders for another 3000. It’s certainly been my quickest-selling book so far - which is great, although a part of me now wants to focus away from The Leap and on to my next book. I
have a new book of poetic reflections which is almost ready to go to a publisher, and another prose book which is very well developed. So this summer I’ll hopefully complete them both, and begin looking for publishers. Interview and Video I recently did an interview with Unity Online Radio which you can listen to online.
I also did a live online launch for The Leap a couple of weeks ago, and
the recording is available to watch.
Talks In Manchester and Grimsby
On April 13th I’m doing a rare ‘home appearance’ in Manchester, UK, taking part in a discussion on spiritual transformation with NDE researcher Penny Sartori and Kelly Walsh. I’m looking forward to this, as I’m an admirer of Penny’s work. It is being billed as ‘An evening with Dr Penny Sartori, Kelly Walsh and Steve Taylor,’ at Manchester Creative Studio, 16 Blossom Street, at
7pm.
On Tuesday May 2nd, I’m taking a two hour train journey to speak in Grimsby, at the Grimsby Institute. This is a free two hour talk on ‘The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening.’ For more information or to reserve a place, see the event page.
On May 25th I’m also giving a talk on ‘The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening’ in Totnes, Devon, at the Consciousness Cafe. I don’t have all the details about this yet, but if you’d like to know more, send me an e-mail at [email protected]. Reviews for The Leap One more thing about The Leap. Could I ask you a favour? My publisher has told me to remind readers to write reviews of The Leap. So if you have read and enjoyed the book, please consider writing an on-line review, if you feel inclined. Amazon is usually the best place. It’s here for the US, and here for the UK. New Transpersonal Psychology Article I’ve just had a new article (or academic paper) published in The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies. It’s an attempt to apply some of the ideas I've developed in The Leap to debates in transpersonal psychology. I've always felt
strongly that there is some kind of 'essential' landscape of experience behind different spiritual traditions, and their different interpretations of spiritual awakening, and this is my attempt to uncover this landscape.
Transpersonal psychology is my home in the academic world. It should really be called ‘spiritual psychology’, as its main aim is to investigate spiritual experiences, spiritual paths and
practices and other spiritually-related from a psychological point of view. As soon as I found out about transpersonal psychology - in a book by Ken Wilber, about 20 years ago - I know it was the place for me!
However, the field is in quite a discordant state at the moment - the traditional idea of it as a field that studies spiritual experiences and interfaces with spiritual and religious traditions has been
challenged, and some people are trying to adopt a kind of 'scientific' quantitative approach that ignores metaphysical issues, doesn't study individual spiritual experiences (except through psychometric scales) and denies the commonalities of spiritual traditions. The result has been a lot of infighting and ill-tempered arguing over different positions, all of which is pretty unhealthy. Hopefully the discord will clear up soon! Anyway, here's the article. New Research Project Finally, I have begun a new research project on transformational experiences - or spiritual awakenings - associated with bereavement. The question we’ve been asking people is “Has a
bereavement brought about a profound and permanent shift in the way that you see the world, live your life and relate to other people? Has the bereavement brought a new spirituality and sense of meaning into your life?' If that applies to you, and you think you might be interested in taking part in the research, please reply to [email protected].
Let me leave you with this final reflection:
All best wishes and blessings, Steve
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