Malidoma Some Given the Passwords to Hear the Voice of Nature

Malidoma Some

I felt fortunate to be able to sit down face to face with Malidoma Some while he told me a story for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, I was fascinated by his experience with the mysteries of the universe and wish he were permitted to tell me more. At one point, he felt compelled to acknowledge that he had never told anyone this story before, but decided on the spur of the moment that perhaps it was time to share it with the world. I am grateful to be the messenger to deliver this important message for him. Here are excerpts from Malidoma’s story, beginning with his bio.

Malidoma, an initiated elder in his village of Dano in Burkina Faso, West Africa, is also a medicine man and diviner in the Dagara culture. As representative of his culture, he has come to the west to share the ancient wisdom and practices which have supported his people for thousands of years. He has authored Of Water and the Spirit, Ritual: Power, Healing and Community, and The Healing Wisdom of Africa. Click here to visit Malidoma’s website.

When the elders in my village approached me about becoming initiated into elderhood, my reaction was Why me, of all people? There were others in the village who were great healers with fantastic track records and I was nowhere near their level. I had always been fascinated with the traditions of my culture, but at forty-three, I considered myself too young to be an elder. Besides, I lived in the white man’s culture and only came home once in a while.

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Their reasons were convincing and I agreed to be initiated. Although I would also be responsible for the maintenance of three shrines, the primary responsibility of the council of elders was to

James Redfield’s Prophetic Vision in the Great Smoky Mountains

James Redfield

It was a treat interviewing James Redfield for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. James told me about a startling vision he experienced at the age of twenty-three that gave him the first inkling of the work he would be doing in the world, including writing The Celestine Prophecy, which quickly became a publishing phenomenon. Here is an excerpt from James’ story, beginning with his bio.

Redfield’s first book, The Celestine Prophecy, an adventure parable about a spiritual journey to Peru, was a global phenomenon. In 1995 and 1996, it was the top-selling American book in the world. The sequel, The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision, was published in 1996. The two books combined to make Redfield the best-selling hardcover author in the world that year. The third book in the series, The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight, was published in 1999. Redfield also co-wrote the screenplay for the film version of The Celestine Prophecy, which premiered in April 2006. Click here to visit James’ website.

Back in 1973, I was hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the North Carolina side. I must have been two miles deep in the woods, far away from any roads, just getting in touch with the beauty of the pristine, old-growth forest. Suddenly, I had what I call a birth

Bernie Siegel Struggles With the Story of Abraham and Isaac

Dr. Bernie Siegel

I wrote in an earlier post how thrilled (and later terrified!) I was that Dr. Bernie Siegel included a lyric I wrote in his book, Peace, Love & Healing. Nearly twenty years later I asked Bernie to share a life-changing story with me for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. Here is Bernie’s intriguing story, beginning with his bio.

Siegel, a former surgeon whose book, Love, Medicine & Miracles, catapulted him to the forefront of the mind-body-spirit revolution, founded the Exceptional Cancer Patients support group (www.ecap-online.org) near his home in New Haven, Connecticut. His latest books are Love, Magic & Mudpies, 365 Prescriptions for the Soul, and the children’s book Smudge Bunny. Click here to visit Bernie’s website.

The Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac has always been difficult for me to accept because the idea of sacrificing one of my children is so unthinkable. Well, ten years ago, I had some experiences that gave me a deep appreciation of that story. While talking to a friend on the phone about my travel schedule, she asked, “Why are you living such a busy life?” I suddenly and literally went into a trance-like state and saw myself with a sword in my hand, killing people. The same thing happened again a month or two later as I was sitting in an airplane looking out the window. It felt like I was watching a movie with me as the main character. I was a knight, and my lord told me that I was to kill the neighbor’s daughter because the neighbor had been imposing on his land. I agreed to do it out of fear that I would be punished if I refused. I learned where the daughter slept but when I walked into her room with my sword drawn, she awakened and turned toward me. I saw my wife’s face,

Yikes! Don’t Step in the Bolsta!

Barbara, my literary agent, e-mailed me yesterday with a publishing dilemma. A translated copy of my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, was going to press in Brazil—but the publisher there said the book would not be taken seriously unless we changed my name on the front cover.

Why? Because my name, Bolsta, without the “l,” leaves “bosta,” which in Portuguese translates to . . . ummm, well . . . excrement.

Hilarious! I told Barbara to publish the book under the name Philip Charles, which is my first name and middle name. An easy fix.

When I told this story to an Iranian friend of mine, she informed me that Philip in Farsi means elephant. So of course my sister started calling me Elephant Excrement.

UPDATE: In September 2011, I started to tell this story to my daughter’s yoga teacher, who is from Brazil. All I had to say was that my book was translated into Portuguese and that my name was spelled B-O-L-S-T-A . . . and she burst out laughing! As my daughter commented, it’s nice to know that I am the laughingstock of an entire country!

Brazilian edition of "Sixty Seconds"

Sixty Seconds is also being translated into German, Italian and Spanish. As far as I know, my name in those languages doesn’t equate to excrement or profanity, so we should be good to go!

Click here to visit the website of my Brazilian publisher.

Italian edition of "Sixty Seconds"

Click here to visit the website of my Italian publisher.

Click here to order the Italian translation from Amazon.

German edition of "Sixty Seconds"

Click here to visit the website of my German publisher.

Click here to order the German translation from Amazon.

Spanish edition of "Sixty Seconds"

Click here to visit the website of my Spanish publisher.

Click here to order the Spanish translation from Amazon.

Ironically, considering my Brazilian language snafu, I had written an article for Twin Cities Business magazine about companies that come up with names for products and organizations. In the following sidebar to the article, I wrote about foreign business translations gone bad. Get ready for some good yuks!

FOREIGN FIASCOS

In 2002, Nametag International was wrapping up a project to name a new-generation healthcare information solution for one of the leading global manufacturers of engineering and electronics products. Nametag had screened the name Soarus in eight languages by running it through World Test, a linguistic screening tool that helps clients understand what a name might mean in other cultures. At the eleventh hour, the company mentioned it was planning a joint venture with an Israeli company, so Nametag added Yiddish and Hebrew to the mix. Oops. World Test spat out a sound-alike Yiddish word, tsoris, which meant “trouble and suffering.” Undaunted, Levin and Young began tinkering away. A few tweaks here, a few tweaks there, and they ended up with Soarian, a name that retained the strategic position of “rising above new heights” and allowed the company to own a truly global brand with no cultural difficulties.

Not all companies are so thorough. Here are our favorite naming nightmares.

• Coca-Cola in China was translated to Ke-kou-ke-la on thousands of signs. Unfortunately, the phrase means “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax” depending on the dialect.

• In Taiwan, “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” was translated to

NBAer Jim Petersen’s Life-Changing Encounter with Brother Anandamoy

Jim Petersen

I enjoyed interviewing former NBA player Jim Petersen about hit spiritual awakening for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. Here is Jim’s story, beginning with his bio.

Petersen, a television analyst for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, played eight seasons for the Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, and Golden State Warriors. His best year as a professional came during the 1986-87 NBA season as a member of the Rockets, when he averaged 11.3 points per game.

I read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda when I was with the Golden State Warriors toward the end of my basketball career. Yogananda had founded a religious organization called Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in 1920, and his book made such an impression on me that I decided to check out a service at an SRF temple if I ever had the chance.

————

The next weekend would have been Yogananda’s one hundredth birthday. There was a big celebration at Mother Center, so Paul took me up to Mt. Washington with his whole family. I knew virtually nothing about SRF so Paul

Dr. Estehr Sternberg Discovers the Role of Belief in Healing

Dr. Esther Sternberg

When I interviewed Dr. Esther Sternberg for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, she told me how she came to understand and appreciate how the mind-body connection can enhance the healing process. Here is an excerpt from her story, beginning with her bio.

Dr. Sternberg, the author of The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions, is Chief of the Section on Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health. She is internationally recognized for her discoveries in brain-immune interactions and the effects of the brain’s stress response on health—the science of the mind-body interaction. Recognized by her peers as a spokesperson for the field, she translates complex scientific subjects in a highly accessible manner, with a combination of academic credibility, passion for science, and compassion as a physician. Click here to visit Esther’s website.

In the book proposal, my editor and I decided to include a chapter titled “Can Stress Make You Sick?” as well as a chapter called “Can Believing Make You Well?” The plan was to debunk the notion that believing could make you well, because there wasn’t much solid research that proved that believing in anything in particular could help a person heal.

As I was writing the book proposal at my new house on a rainy March afternoon, my next-door neighbors, Tarja and Dean Pappavasiliou, rang the doorbell to introduce themselves, carrying moussaka and all kinds of delicious Greek food. When they asked me if I was a writer. I said,

Don Jose Luis Loses His Sight, Regains His Vision

The radiant smile of Don Jose Luis

Don Jose Luis told me a remarkable story of faith and redemption for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. Here is his story, beginning with his bio.

Don Jose Luis grew up in a world of magic, a gift of his heritage. His father, Toltec teacher Don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements, oversaw his training in the ancient Toltec wisdom of the native people of southern Mexico. This teaching was handed down to Don Miguel by his grandmother, Mother Sarita, a Toltec faith healer, who learned the wisdom from her grandfather, Esiquio, a Toltec “nagual” or shaman. Through his workshops, steeped in Toltec wisdom, Don Jose shows participants how to illuminate their awareness and move toward transformation and authenticity. He also leads five-day Power Journeys to magnificent sacred sites in countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru. Click here to visit the Ruiz family website.

In June 2001, I drove from Malibu to San Diego for a dentist appointment. On the way back, I started feeling a terrible pain in my eyes when I looked to either side. It even hurt to look in the rearview mirror. When I arrived home, I told my wife my eyes hurt and that I was going to lie down. When I woke up, the pain was still in my eyes and I couldn’t see. I was very scared. I

Victor Wooten’s Close Call with the Guardian Angels

Victor Lemonte Wooten

Victor  Wooten told me a couple of very cool stories for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. Here is one of them, beginning with his bio.

Regaled as the most influential bassist since Jaco Pastorius, Victor is known for his solo recordings and tours, and as a member of the Grammy-winning supergroup, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones. He is an innovator on the bass guitar, as well as a talented composer, arranger, producer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist. Click here to learn about and order his first novel, The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music. Click here to visit Victor’s website.

I’m lucky to have grown up with very spiritual parents, both of whom came from very spiritual families. When my mom was growing up, for instance, everything from finding the right land to farm on, to what wood to build their house with, to the spot to actually build the house, was all governed by my grandmother’s dreams and visions.

My mother had the same gifts. I remember

Dan Millman Tastes Enlightenment While Peeling a Grapefruit

Dan Millman

It was a joy to work with Dan Millman on this story for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. As Dan’s story illustrates, enlightenment can come at the most unlikely times and in the most unlikely places. Here is an excerpt from Dan’s story, beginning with his bio.

Millman, a former world-champion gymnast, martial arts instructor, and college professor, has for three decades explored the heart of the spiritual traditions. His keynotes, seminars, and trainings present practical ways to live with a peaceful heart and warrior spirit. Millman’s twelve books have inspired millions of readers in twenty-nine languages, and his work has influenced people from all walks of life. His first book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, was made into a motion picture starring Nick Nolte. Click here to visit Dan’s website.

On an ordinary spring afternoon in 1967, I was sitting on a curb on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California, carefully peeling a pink grapefruit I had just purchased from the health food store behind me. In about an hour I would walk, with the help of a cane, down to Harmon Gymnasium to continue my strength-building and rehabilitation program. I was recovering from a badly broken leg, which I had injured in a motorcycle crash a few months before.

I was twenty-one years old, beginning my senior year of college. In that moment, though, I wasn’t thinking of past or future—I was just peeling that grapefruit, sitting on that curb, in a kind of peaceful reverie, watching the wheels of various cars drive by, noticing pieces of litter blowing in the street, and life was okay.

In the next instant, something happened. No

Barbara Winter’s Epiphany On a Bicycle Path

Barbara Winter

I love the story that Barbara Winter told me for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. Enlightenment used to be the province of monasteries; nowadays, you may experience a mystical awakening during a stroll with your daughter! Here is Barbara’s very cool story, beginning with her bio.

Winter, the author of Making A Living Without A Job, is a self-employment advocate who travels the world encouraging and inspiring people through her writing and seminars to choose their right livelihood. Her newsletter, Winning Ways, which helps readers “turn passions into profits,” has been inspiring readers for more than twenty years. Click here to visit Barbara’s website.

One sunny afternoon twenty years ago, when my daughter Jennie was ten, we set out to visit my parents’ house in Santa Barbara, California, for an informal family gathering. Jennie was riding her bike and I was walking along behind her on a little bicycle path. Two blocks into our mile-and-a-half walk, completely out of nowhere, an absolutely wonderful

A Pearl Crab Awakens Marilyn Diamond

Marilyn Diamond and Donald Schnell

I was thrilled to meet Marilyn Diamond when I attended a seminar conducted by Marilyn and her husband, Donald Schnell (a.k.a. Prema Baba Swamiji), in 2001 because her book, Fit for Life, had profoundly impacted my life back in the mid-1980s.

When I interviewed Marilyn for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, she told me about a memorable encounter she had on a Florida beach. Here is an excerpt from Marilyn’s story, beginning with her bio.

Author of six books and an internationally renowned pioneer in enlightened living, Marilyn Diamond is co-author of Fit for Life, the revolutionary diet book that, at the time, became the best-selling diet and health book ever written. It cracked the list of the top twenty-five best-selling books in history and has since sold millions of copies in thirty-eight languages. Marilyn and husband Donald Schnell later wrote Fitonics for Life as a lifestyle sequel to Fit for Life.

Donald and I were spending the last year of our first decade of marriage in southwest Florida in the picturesque community of Old Naples. It had been our plan to live there for many years, and sure enough, when the time came, we were blessed to find our beach retreat only a few steps from the sand. I delighted in going out at dawn every morning for my walk along the water. My day was always inspired by the brilliant canvas of colors the sunrise painted in the sky over the aquamarine Gulf of Mexico.

On my fifty-seventh birthday in June 2001, I

Deepak Chopra on Death, Timelessness, Fathers and Sons

Deepak Chopra

When I asked Deepak Chopra to share a moment when he felt deeply connected to spirit for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, he told me this moving account of his final farewell to his father.

Chopra, a pioneer of alternative medicine, has melded modern theories of quantum physics with the timeless wisdom of ancient cultures to change the way the world views physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social wellness. His Chopra Centers in New York City and Carlsbad, California, focus on enhancing health and nourishing the human spirit. Chopra’s books include The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire and Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. Click here to visit Deepak’s website.

My grandfather and I were very close. When I was six years old, my father was training in cardiology in England. One day my grandfather took us to the movies and the circus and then out for dinner. That night, he died in

Echo Bodine’s Heartbreaking Sacrifice

Author and psychic Echo Bodine told me a very powerful and very intimate story for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, that emphasized the importance of listening to and heeding our intuition. May Echo’s experience inspire you to find the strength and courage to listen to that still small voice within. Here is an excerpt from her profoundly moving story, beginning with her bio.

Echo Bodine

Echo Bodine, a psychic, spiritual healer, ghostbuster, and author, offers psychic development and healing classes at her Minneapolis teaching and healing center. Her abilities include clairvoyance (the gift of seeing), clairaudience (the gift of hearing) and clairsentience (the gift of sensing). Her nine books include Look for the Good and You’ll Find God, Echoes of the Soul and The Gift. Click here to visit Echo’s website.

When I was a sophomore in college, I found out I was pregnant. When my boyfriend and I talked about getting married, my inner voice very adamantly said, No! But I pretended I didn’t hear it and kept on trying to make this really difficult situation more workable for me, my boyfriend, and our families. Our premarital counselor said that, even though we were both young, we could probably make it work. But all along, my intuition kept saying,

Larry Julian’s Walk In the Desert

When I interviewed Larry Julian for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, he told me a deeply personal story about faith, fear and family. Here is that story, beginning with his bio.

Larry Julian

Julian, a consultant and speaker, specializes in Biblically-based leadership development and strategic planning. He’s authored two nationally acclaimed business books: God Is My CEO, God Is My Coach and God Is My Success. Julian’s mission is to help businesspeople integrate their work and faith to be the success God intended them to be. Click here to visit Larry’s website.

I have a strong faith, but a few years ago, I went through “a difficult walk in the desert.” My wife and I were trying to have a child and had already experienced a miscarriage. I had also had five years of nothing but failures and discouragements in trying to get my book, God is My CEO, written and published. I had wanted to quit a hundred times.

In November 1998, I got hit with a one-two punch that literally put me on my knees. I had

Suza Francina Helps an Elderly Friend Die Peacefully at Home

When I interviewed author and yoga instructor Suza Francina for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, she told me about her experience helping an elderly friend of hers die at home. It’s a sacred and powerful story, which I’ll start with her bio:

Suza Francina

Suza, who prefers to be known by her first name, is a pioneer in the field of teaching yoga to seniors. She is the author of The New Yoga for People Over 50, Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause, and The New Yoga for Healthy Aging. She is a graduate of the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco, a certified Iyengar yoga instructor, and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. A consultant for medical research studies on yoga, Suza teaches yoga internationally to people of all ages in a wide variety of settings. Click here to visit Suza’s website.

When one of Ruth’s friends called and said that Ruth wanted to see me, I didn’t think anything of it. When I walked into her apartment, her neighbor Betty, who was helping Ruth with her meals, was dumping oatmeal down the sink. She told me quite casually that Ruth was going to starve herself to death. Apparently, Ruth had had another stroke, was having memory lapses, and didn’t want to wait so long that she couldn’t make this decision.

Betty said that Ruth had considered this a few times before, and even had fasted for a short while, because she didn’t want to become dependent. The fact that she had lost control of her bowels and bladder was the last straw. She didn’t like people having to come in and change her diaper.

When I went into Ruth’s room, she was relaxing on her bed. I sat with her and she explained to me that she was ready to stop eating and that she wanted to

Conversation with Neale Donald Walsch

I was honored to include Neale Donald Walsch in my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. Neale told me the following story in a phone conversation and I’m pleased to present it here, beginning with his bio.

Neale Donald Walsch

Neale Donald Walsch is a modern-day spiritual messenger whose words are touching the world. He has written more than twenty books on spirituality and its practical application in everyday life, including the multimillion-selling, “With God” series: Conversations with God, Books I–III; Friendship with God; Communion with God; The New Revelations; Tomorrow’s God; What God Wants; and Home with God. Six of those books reached the New York Times Bestseller List. Walsch is the creator of four nonprofit organizations: The Group of 1000, Humanity’s Team, the School of the New Spirituality, and the ReCreation Foundation, all of which seek to create a new spirituality on the planet. Click here to visit Neale’s primary website.

How Conversations with God first came to me was the most profound experience of my life. it was a dreary morning in February 1992. Everything in my life had fallen apart—my relationship with my significant other had gone downhill, my career had reached a dead end, and even my health was deteriorating rapidly. I couldn’t understand what was happening or why. I had obeyed all the rules I had been carefully taught by my parents, teachers, ministers, and various other life mentors, but I simply hadn’t achieved what I thought I ought to have achieved. And so I was deeply in depression for a number of months.

I was awakened