Thom Hartmann - The Prophets Way: a Guide to Living in the Now

This book is dedicated to the memory of Oakley and Nelle Hammond and Carl and Esther Hartmann. It is also offered in loving appreciation to Gottfried and Ursula Mller, who made possible its contents.

What people are saying about

The Prophets Way

This is the most important book I have ever read.... Now I can do no less than give my remaining years to its message.

JOSEPH CHILTON PEARCE, AUTHOR OF THE CRACK IN THE COSMIC EGG AND THE BIOLOGY OF TRANSCENDENCE

The Prophets Way produces its own butterfly effect: the simple act of reading it can change your life.

MICHAEL HUTCHISON, AUTHOR OF MEGA BRAIN POWER AND THE BOOK OF FLOATING

The Prophets Way draws you in like a novel, keeping you on the edge waiting to see what happens next, yet is a true story.

Like a painting by a great master that was painted over and hidden for centuries, Thom Hartmann peels away the layers of distortion heaped on original visions of religion and faith which existed 2,000 years ago, revealing once again the essence of humanity, spirituality, and mysticism.

This book helped me make a major change in my life for the better.

ROB KALL, COAUTHOR OF BIOFEEDBACK THEORY & PRACTICE; FOUNDER OF FUTUREHEALTH, INC.

Thom Hartmann is an absolutely original mind, with an original way of looking at the world: he has made an enormous contribution to our culture.

OWEN LIPSTEIN, FORMER EDITOR IN CHIEF OF PSYCHOLOGY TODAY AND MOTHER EARTH NEWS

This book represents the path of a spiritual initiate and the signposts he met along the way. We Coptics are honored that Thoms path included Hamid Bey and Master Stanley, two great lights of the 20th century.

JOHN DAVIS, DIRECTOR OF THE COPTIC FELLOWSHIP

Thom Hartmann exposes many of the ugly truths hiding beneath the surface of contemporary civilization. Hartmanns book masterfully combines autobiography, science, and Christian spirituality and shows us how to rehabilitate our world with acts of compassion rooted in spiritual humility and faith in the Creator of all creatures and cultures.

Easy to read, hard to practice.

JAY FIKES, PH.D., AUTHOR OF CARLOS CASTANEDA: ACADEMICOPPORTUNISM AND THE PSYCHEDELIC SIXTIES AND REUBEN SNAKE, YOUR HUMBLE SERPENT

Thom Hartmann is one of the great adventurers of our time, both in the world at large and the world of ideas.

JILL NEIMARK, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR OF BLOODSONG

From the time of the origins of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and continuing to the present, some people have considered the name of the Creator so holy that it should not be spoken or written completely except in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

In respect of this tradition, this book follows the custom of using a dash in place of the vowel (G-d) in the word we most often use in English to replace the name of the Creator.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks are deserved by many people. In particular, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my wife and children: Louise, Kindra, Justin, and Kerith; and my editors, in particular Dave deBronkart, Susan Burgess, Brad Walrod, and Kyle Roderick. Thanks go to Jon Graham, Ehud Sperling, and Jeanie Levitan for believing in this book and helping to make its publication and distribution possible. To Jane Shumway and Tim Englemann for their insights and thoughts. To Rob Kall for his quotes. To those who started before me in our spiritual work: John Davis, Hal and Shelley Cohen, Grace Felton, Gerhard and Gerda Lipfert, Father Ben Carreon, Bernie Cooper, Don Haughey, Bob and Millie DusSault, Vern Phillips, Louise Richards, Manfred Olzewski, Neva Hite, Lee Hite.

Also special thanks to those friends and acquaintances who helped me along my various paths which indirectly made this book possible: Raun Melmed, John Ratey, Edward Hallowell, John and Veronica Deane, Nigel and Corrinne Peacock, Luise Stssel, Michael Popkin, Bob Koski, Scott and Julie Cress, Skye and Jane Lininger, Scott Berg, Andi, Rick and Wanda Bogin, Rochel Haigh Blehr, Jerry Schneiderman, Michael Kurland, Michael Hutchison, Carla Nelson, Elisa Davis, Kathy Daya, Kathy Lynch, Judy Ybarra, Ken Kiyoshi, Horst Von Heyer, Jay Fikes, Jane and Clare Shumway, Michael and Heidi Garnatz, Jack and Norma Vance, Jack Reiley, Jaye, George Lynn, Dick Gregory, Brian Savory, Wilson Harrell, Will Krynen, Paul and Marilyn Nosie, Jane Merrithew, Rick Bogin, Peg Hopper, Patty Merrill, Maureen OHara, Leif Roland, Masanobu Taniguchi, Terry (Baba Rum Raisin) OConnor, Richard Zmijewski, J. Tevere MacFadyen, Kate Kelley, Peggy Ramundo, Owen Lipstein, Tom Allen, Gwynne Fisher, Tom Larsen, and all the people who made Salem New Hampshire happen.

Introduction

He who is swimming against the stream comes to the Source.

GOTTFRIED MLLER

Theres a mountainside path in northern Bavaria thats walked every Saturday by a friend of mine whos also my teacher. The path leads to a stone on which he has carved the tetragrammaton, the four letters of the name of G-d. The man is Herr Gottfried Mller, and he calls the path his prophets way.

He calls his path the prophets way because along this path he can call out to, and feel the presence of, the ancient prophets. In both the physical and the spiritual world, its his path for meeting divinity.

He has invited me many times to share his prophets way, as youll learn in this book. Ive traveled the world with him, seeing it now through different eyes and hearing it with different ears as a result of his instruction.

On this path, Ive learned some powerful lessons and transformational techniques that I feel an obligation to share.

I know, for example, that it is possible for all of usordinary, mortal humansto know divinity, if we, too, will follow the prophets way. And we can use this knowledge to transform the world. But, as Herr Mller is so fond of saying, you must do it!

When I was a child, I read a story in which a spiritual teacher said that there are always saints or holy people on the Earth, and that they hold the world together. Decades later, Gottfried Mller told me that Abram Poljak, his spiritual mentoran Hasidic Jew and scholar of Kabbalah whod survived the Holocaust to become a Christian mysticwas of the same opinion.

But Poljak (and Mller) took it a huge step further, saying that we all can become keepers of the flame of life on Earth, and both steadfastly refused to participate in or with any organized religion that may want to place itself between them and Spirit. There are no special entry requirements to spiritual awakening, they say, other than desire and willingness. Given that permission, Ive walked into their world, and invite you to join me.

So this book is a chronicle of my travels along the prophets way, both spiritually and physically, touching the lives of people on four continents. In here, youll find specific teachings and techniques you can use to change yourself and your world.

I invite you to walk with me along the prophets way, in the hopes that together we can globally touch the power of life, and thus re-create and transform ourselves, our planet, and our childrens future.

ATLANTA, DECEMBER 1996

Meeting Master Stanley

If the cask is to hold the wine, its water must first be poured out.

MEISTER ECKHART

Around 1969 I went to hear a lecture given by a Coptic Minister named Lee who traveled from Detroit to give speeches every week in Lansing, Michigan. Lee taught about meditation, prayer, the subtle or etheric body, and the return of the Messiah. He was a fascinating man with extraordinary piercing brown eyes and a contagious laugh; I began to attend his speeches every week, often taking friends.