Sometimes Life is Stranger than Fiction

I wrote “Timeless” while I was recovering from my stroke, brain surgery and TBI.  Some say, I did not write the book, but the book wrote itself…

Prior to 1990, I struggled to write even simple essays. As my career evolved and the need to write grew, first for my dissertation and then for journal articles, it was always done with great effort and it was an arduous ordeal, never with a sense of pleasure or expression of my inner spirit. I used to admire my patients who loved to journal and express their thoughts through words. Then, in 1990, the life I knew was totally changed in one brief second on a crisp March day. I had a cerebral bleed from a cavernous hemangioma that had been leaking for 10 years. The bleed caused me to pass out while driving, resulting in a 60 mile-an-hour head-on automobile accident. Five months later, I had brain surgery to remove the cavernous hemangioma.

As a Board Certified health psychologist and thanatologist, I was known for my work using hypnosis for treatment of various medical conditions, including cancer and bereavement. In 1989, Maureen Schleicher became my patient. She had been diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer and was told she had 3 months to live. Maureen died two years later, on May 8, 1990. During those two years, she shared stories of growing up in Concord, MA, a rural area outside of Boston, not far from Harvard, MA where Laura grew up. I had never seen or been to either place before writing this novel, nor have I ever been to Chicago. I emphasize this because when the following story came to me, or through me, it was as if I were recalling or seeing memories of places I’ve known.

As mentioned above, I struggled to write prior to my accident in 1990. Maureen died in May of that year. Between May and August, while waiting for my brain surgery to be performed, the story you are about to read poured through me, in spite of my symptoms of traumatic brain injury. Those symptoms included severe short-term memory loss, fatigue, problems finding words, comprehension and organizational skills. I couldn’t recall what I had written moment to moment. Thank goodness for computers because, although I was able to hold a pen in my hand, I was unable to write.

As this novel poured through me, I wondered, How is this possible when I can only barely recall what happened moments ago? I had read and heard of channeling—as in Jane Roberts’ book, Seth Speaks—yet I had never thought I might experience those phenomena. Another explanation for what was occurring was explained to me by my neurologist, who used the example of Dostoevsky, who, prior to his seizures, was never able to write. My neurologist suggested that my auto accident might have triggered a seizure, resulting in my ability to write this story. All I know is that between May and August of 1990 I wrote furiously, 15 to 30 pages a day, never knowing the story or what was going to happen.

Get your copy of “Timeless: Who Am I” today!

When the novel was finished, I wondered about the events and locations of what I had written and wanted to see them for myself. For two years, I was unable to drive and relied upon others for transportation to and from doctors. One of the first things I did when I got my license again was to visit Harvard, MA, to see the location I had written about. I discovered that it was the home of Fruitlands, the Utopian Transcendentalist Commune founded by Amos Bronson Alcott in the 1840s. I told the curator of the Fruitlands Museum about my novel, how I’d written it and how I never knew about this location or Amos Bronson Alcott. His explanation was that it’s similar to the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind; hundreds of people have “just known” or been drawn to the location because of its spiritual energy. As for the location in Chicago, I spoke with the dean of the University of Chicago. Again, to my amazement, everything was exactly as I had described it.

“Quite a novel! Born of understanding from mystics and modern physics, Timeless is an absorbing novel that keeps you spellbound from beginning to end. And along the way it might just transform your understanding of life.” – Dr. Fred Gallo, author of “Energy Psychology” and”Energy Tapping for Trauma”

“Timeless is a book you won’t want to put down. The suspense keeps building from chapter to chapter. The authors’ use of details and imagery makes you feel like you’re right there with the characters. If you like mystery and suspense, you’ll love this book!” – Gail Neidig

“A phenomenal job with the details, the descriptions, the characters, the suspense, and the story. Of course skeptics probably have problems with it, and science fiction fans hair is probably pointing to heaven.”  – Ernest Weiss