Anne and I connected through our blogs. We share many similarities in interests and experiences. I just finished her wonderful memoir and I’m happy to share it here.
Over a thirty year period, Anne was challenged by many happenings which left her baffled. As a skeptic, she tried to come to grips with them as she managed a career and family. But how does the rational mind grasp phenomena like atmospheres, ghosts, poltergeists, mediumship, premonitions, reincarnation, mystical experience, and telepathy and make sense of them? The prevailing worldview of scientific materialism insists they’re not possible. Using diary notes and drawing upon recall, Anne categorizes the events and digs deeper. Her writing is straightforward, honest, and from the heart.
Most of us have probably had some kind of weird experience that defies rational analysis. In 2009, a Pew Research study revealed that 29% of Americans report they have had contact with the dead and 18% have had an encounter with a ghost. Furthermore, 49% report mystical experience as defined as a “moment of sudden religious insight or awakening.” In this context, Anne is far from alone. Many of us dismiss these events because they’re uncomfortable. We shrug our shoulders and try to forget them. This is where one of the powers of Anne’s writing grabs us. As we read about her experiences, we begin to remember our own. Anne is fueled by open-minded curiosity coupled with rationalism in her search. And just like her, we’d like some answers too.
Anne turns to science and finds the reductionist materialism paradigm to be inadequate to address her experiences. At the same time, she knows that current theoretical physics has offered hope. New scientific theories are starting to make inroads toward the mainstream. In the final part of the memoir, she takes on the science and realizes the paradigm for our reality must shift to accommodate what many of us have experienced. Kudos to Anne for boldly sharing her journey. May her book encourage others to do the same.
You can purchase the book here: http://anne-whitaker.com/wisps-from-the-dazzling-darkness/
To learn more about Anne and her work: www.anne-whitaker.com
Anne Whitaker has worked in the fields of adult education, social work, and counselling. She has been a practicing astrologer, teacher and writer since 1983. Her first book was entitled Jupiter Meets Uranus (2009). She lives in Glasgow, Scotland.
Pew Study Link: http://www.pewforum.org/2009/12/09/many-americans-mix-multiple-faiths/
ellisnelson 
Looking forward to reading this book!
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I think you’ll enjoy it! Come back and share your thoughts and maybe your own experiences.
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Ellis, my heartfelt thanks for this briliant write-up! You have homed in on one of my key motivations for writing the book. Many people have had similar experiences, but have hidden them for fear of being thought odd or worse;
my aim is to encourage those folks to recognise that ‘normal’ spans a spectrum both wide and deep, a spectrum which the current reductionist view of what ‘reality’ is, cannot hope to accommodate. A further aim is to encourage more disclosure and sharing of experiences which have their own reality outwith the reductionist definition of what constitutes ‘normal’.
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I’ve had many of the same kind of experiences you’ve had. I grew up in a family where my mother and grandmother were pretty open about sharing these kinds of things. As a toddler, I repeatedly told my mother about a man who visited me at night who had a big hat with a feather. I liked him and wasn’t afraid. My mother always thought I was seeing the ghost of a Dutchman who had settled the area in the 1600s. Years later, a family photo taken at Christmas shows the shadowy image of a man (with perhaps a big hat). I have no memory of this childhood event, but the photo remains. Just one of my incidents.
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