Starting Over: Beginning the Field Notes

It's been nearly two years since I last wrote something in this blog.  During this time I've been publishing a monthly essay called David's Desk, available for free to anyone who signs up on the Lorian Association website (www.lorian.org).  This has satisfied my inner blogger.  Now I'm starting up yet another publication, a quarterly print journal available only through subscription from Lorian.  It's called View from the Borderlands, and it will contain overtly esoteric writings by myself and other colleagues.  However, I must have been bitten three times by the blogger bug, as I feel something else is needed: something which, like David's Desk, is free but which is not necessarily an essay, something in which I can share esoteric content arising from my interaction with the subtle realms of spirit but which need not go into the same depth and comprehensiveness as the articles contained in the View from the Borderlands.

I decided that what would fit the bill would be to take another run at writing a regular blog.  

A year ago I published a book through Lorian Press called Subtle Worlds:  An Explorer's Field Notes.  It was a big step for me in writing for the public an account of my engagements with the subtle worlds.  I am somewhat shy about these matters, so sharing my esoteric side so openly was not a small matter.  I'd been warming up to it through my classes over the years and also in writing a memoir about the training I received many years ago from my non-physical mentor, a being I called "John."  That memoir, entitled Apprenticed to Spirit, is now finally being published by Riverhead Books this August and is currently available for pre-order from Amazon-com.

I mention this because I view this blog as another iteration of these field notes.  But I hope they will also be a record, like Apprenticed, of what it means to me as an ordinary human being to be involved with the subtle worlds on a regular, ongoing basis.  This is not a usual thing in our culture, although over the years I have found that it's not so unusual either; it's just that most people don't talk about it for fear of being labeled crazy.

I happen to believe that contact and communication with the subtle worlds is going to become more common in the years ahead, so we will need more voices from people who are not afraid of this and, more importantly, can see it in a context of being a natural and ordinary occurrence.  We have a lot of baggage from the past to unlearn when it comes to dealing with subtle beings, and we also have a lot of toxic, negative images to deal with from modern media and its addiction to horror and drama.  I hope my voice will be one of these, but more importantly, I hope my voice, through my books, my publications, my classes, and yes, this blog, will inspire other, even more eloquent voices to come forward.

So this blog will constitute a starshaman's field notes as I continue to explore both the unseen worlds and the relationship between one person and those worlds.  I will try to offer something several times a week, even if they are only tiny snippets of thought or reflection.  Hopefully, they will be helpful to whomever reads this.

There's one ground rule.  I'm not going to take time in this blog to do much explaining. I'm not teaching a class here.  If you wonder what I'm talking about or where I'm coming from, you can read my books (Subtle Worlds or Apprenticed to Spirit are good places to start), take a class from me through Lorian, or check out our self-study modules.  If you would like to read what I have to say in a relatively non-esoteric context, you can check out David's Desk, either by receiving it in your email box once a month or reading past essays on "David's Page" on the Lorian website.  And if you would like more in-depth and comprehensive esoteric material, you can subscribe to View from the Borderlands.  That is where I can share material that will not fit either David's Desk or this blog. And periodically, I host an online webinar or forum so people can have a chance to talk with me, interact and ask questions.  The schedule for such things can be found on the Lorian website.

In short, this blog is only one of several ways in which people can engage with me, my thought, my teachings, and my worldview.  But hopefully it will be a personal and fun way, and I look forward to the field notes that will emerge.