Sunday, January 17, 2016

Dying to Know now avaible direct in the US


Just found out from my publisher, Big Sky Publishing, that Dying to Know now has a US distributor, Casemate IPM US and UK. This is fantastic news as people in the US can now order the book from their local bookshop or department store.

Previously anyone outside of Australia and New Zealand had to order the book and have it posted from here and pay hefty freight costs. Thanks to Denny and the team at Big Sky, people in the US no longer have to do that.
How to order Dying to Know if you’re in the US.
  1. Ask at your local bookshop.
  2. Target Online:
  3. Direct from the distributor Casemate IPM.
The other great news is that The Frog and the Well Books, Unconventional Happiness and Follow Your Heart will be available shortly in the US as well.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Guest Speaker at Paracon Australia

 
 
 
After telling everyone that it was Ok to keep their phones switched on so they could Facebook and Twitter my talk, I took a shot of the audience and told Andy to Facebook it for me, which got a great laugh.
 
 
 
Andy and myself with author Karina Machado




Great photo posted on Twitter by Scott Podmore author of Conversations with Mediums
 
 





Katoomba in the beautiful The Blue Mountains was the setting for 2nd Annual Paracon Australia Paranormal Conference. I was honoured to be guest speaker along with a host of other speakers from around Australia and the world.

Why I encouraged people to keep their phones on? I'll explain this later...

 

Monday, December 22, 2014

What is a Lucid Dream?

Here I use a Giraffe and Sophia Loren to describe what a lucid dream is and then recount a bizarre story that happened after reading Robert Waggoner's book Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self..

Read Dying to Know: is there life after death

Short extract from a talk an author talk at Bunbury City Library on October 28 2014.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Guest Speaker at Paracon Australia 2015




I'll be part an amazing line up of guest speakers at Paracon Australia 2015 where I'll be going behind the scenes of Dying to Know: is there life after death and revealing the best techniques for making your own contact with people that have passed over and getting personal evidence for the existence of the afterlife. It's going to be an amazing experience, I hope you can join me.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

What books are on the bedside table.



Apart from a beaten and bashed dream journal, I've just finished reading Adyashanti's  free ebook, the Way of Liberation and currently reading  The Book of Love and Creation by Paul Selig on my Kindle and Sam Harris's new book 'Waking Up - the guide to spirituality without religion'. The funny thing is, they're all talking about the same thing, just from slightly different angles.

A couple of the experiences I had writing Dying to Know and experiences I've had since, have been reflected in current reading material and seem to be pointing in a certain directing which I'm trying to make sense of by including in the follow up book, Turning Inside Out. Boy, there's so much stuff to get your head around (not to get your head around according to much of what I'm reading!)

I'll be sharing some of these insights at Paracon Australia 2015 and it'll be good to talk about it with a group of likeminded people. Hope to see you there.

BTW the alarm clock is about 25 years old!


 

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Author Talk at Bunbury City Library

  
I finally found my calling, my passion and my purpose and it involves a brave and enthusiastic group of people, lots of bubbles and a topic I'm deeply passionate about. My first real author talk for Dying to Know was a great success with about 25 or so people turning up to the Bunbury City Library to hear me talking about my brush with the afterlife and seeing if there's survival of consciousness after death.
 












 
 





Saturday, October 4, 2014

The results of my 30 Days without Facebook experiment and how it changed me.



I went without Facebook for 30 days and I think I found the meaning to life. I know it’s a bold claim but that’s how interesting I found the experience. I’m back on Facebook now, but use it very differently. Very differently indeed.

But this post isn’t about facebook. It’s about something far weirder. So hold on to your hats, this is going to go into the realm of the twilight zone.
For every day of September 2014, I lived by 5 simple rules (or guidelines you might say) as part of a special project for the next book I'm writing and they were: (BTW this is certainly not the weirdest part yet)

  1. Watch where I place my attention, keep my energy and thoughts within myself. This is where facebook comes in as it was drawing a lot of my attention and making me cranky and a host of other negative emotions, so I ditched it.
  2. Do more of what feels right and be neutral about things you don’t like doing. So instead of whinging about spraying the weeds, I just got on with it and then focussed my energy on doing things I really enjoyed, things that made my soul shine and my heart sing.
  3. Trust everything will be fine. I worry a lot, however I’ve experienced in the past that, when I do trust things will turn out ok and then let go of the mental worry everything does turns out fine or even better than I expected. So I need to do that more.
  4. Recognise different types of fear. I am a little timid creature and have all sort of fears and anxieties, but what I was being asked to do was identify whether the fear I felt was justified or could it be easily overcome? Was my fear holding me back from doing what I wanted to do?
  5. Notice subtle signs of connection, synchronicity and feelings in the body. I get the feeling that my body is a signal post for some subtle messages and I need to listen to it. Synchronicity was something I had to keep looking out for too as it indicted I was on the right path, whatever it was.

So they were the 5 tenants that I lived by for 30 days. But what may you ask happened that prompted me to make such a drastic course of action and even more so what was the outcome? Did I become Mother Teresa or some new age guru? You’ll see in a just a few paragraphs.
Now we get to the delicious weird stuff. It all started with a simple question, more like a question that would start a search. After finishing writing Dying to Know – is there life after death, I got the sense that there was some sort of guidance hovering around me, gently trying to communicate. Being a curious person and wanting to go deeper down the rabbit hole that is the afterlife mystery, I tried to communicate back to this guidance and asked what was the best way to do it.

I have a long history of not trusting my instincts and intuition, but it was after I read about 26 pages of mediation notes I’d taken, I was left in no doubt that someone or something was trying to communicate something to me or through me. There was shit there that I couldn’t have made up even if I tried. And it was how some of what they said made me feel that was the kicker. I was moved to tears by some it and at times I felt a deep connection to what it was saying. It made way more sense that what you’d see on TV or in movies. It resonated deep in my bones.

Was I channelling my higher self or some higher authority? I don’t know, I feel that’s not the point though, it’s what the message contained that was important. From the notes I’d taken and with my question in mind about deepening the connection, I extracted those 5 key tenants and decided to put them to the test.
I’ve put the results in a question and answer scenario as I felt it was the right way to get the message across.

How do I feel after 30 days of the experiment?

At times I feel I’ve forgotten about it altogether. Then other times I’ve been vigilantly holding on to the process for dear life in case I forget and get in trouble. Sounds silly, but at times that’s what I felt. Overall though I feel this has brought changes on the inside, people watching me may not have noticed any difference, but how I think and how I feel has slightly changed.

Spaciousness.
With the aim to drop some of the swirling negative thoughts that often cause me so much anxiety, I feel that grounding myself constantly, and feeling my feet does help create a spaciousness in my mind that I didn’t have before. Initially I felt I was gripping on to the grounding as a way of avoiding the thoughts, however I soon realised I could be more relaxed about it. Now I can gently remind myself that I’m babbling away to myself, drop my attention to the feet and my body and notice a comfortable letting go. It’s a spaciousness that is quite delightful and full of a deep connection to the earth and to my physical self.

Am I alone?
I can almost definitely say that no. There is something going on that I can’t exactly explain. I can feel / sense some sort of guidance whether that is in the form of feelings and sensations, writing down information that feels different that my own voice and there’s also synchronicity. I’ve resisted the urge to label who is delivering the information because I feel that’s not the point. Does the information make sense, does it resonate deeply and does it seem worthwhile to follow? If I connect with all that, then I know it’s genuine. Obviously I’m not getting messages like ‘Kill Joan, Kill Joan’, because that wouldn’t feel right or resonate with me and Joan wouldn’t like it either.

Am I happier?
It’s not about being happier, it’s opening up to something that’s really exciting. It’s living with your eyes wide open and your heart open as well. Every moment has the potential for adventure and understanding. It’s also when I act on guidance, and I drop my thoughts and maybe take my shoes off and feel the grass I feel deeply connected to the earth. There’s a peaceful silence that just makes sense. When I compare that feeling to the craziness of what goes on in my mind, I’d prefer to feel the grass!

Is this a religious experience?
No, for me there was nothing religious about it, it was just an experience. Some people may label it religious however I just call it opening up and acknowledging something bigger than my scared little self. The less I try and label any aspect of it, the richer and more fruitful the journey will be.

What about Facebook / social Media?
I noticed that facebook had become a habit and a negative one at that. This is only in relation to me though; I’m not speaking for everyone. I would feel myself drawn to check it all day long and used it as a distraction and also when I was bored. I found that without it, I was much happier, more focussed on what was happening in my immediate surroundings, less stressed and uptight and I had more time for creative pursuits. Being away from it has made me realised that life goes on without it and it don’t need to seek my identity through it. I’ll use it again, but do it very differently.

Is that it?
No, this is the start of an ongoing process and I have to trust where it’s going. I have the tools to be mindful, grounded and keep my energy up and will use them to help me discover new aspects of myself. When I keep focused on doing what I enjoy and being neutral about what I don’t then that keeps me focussed on what I want. The universe will the respond in kind.

Have it learned to let go?
Again it’s a process. I have moments where everything has fallen apart and I’ve wallowed in self pity but I think that’s part of process and they key is not to get caught up in it too much. The idea of completely letting go and trusting in something (even though I may not know what it is) excites me.

Less fear more adventure.
I feel an edging towards a sense of being able to notice my fears then feeling confident enough to move beyond them, However it’s wilding interesting to know that I have a fear of such things as success, popularity and achievement.
However all I need to do is bring people along on my journey as I’m not out to be claiming to be an expert only an explorer and we all can explore together. I’m willing to put in all the hard yards of self exploration so it paves the way for other people to do their own exploring.

I wonder if other people have had similar experiences or similar connections? I'd be interested to hear your stories. You can email me at josh @ frogandthewell.com

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Dying to Know makes it to The Monroe Institute.


Good friend and ex TMI Facilitator Irene Blanck, took her copy of Dying to Know to The Monroe Institute in Virginia in the US. Robert Monroe's daughter in law, Penny, is the one holding the book.
 
As readers may know I did the Australian version of the Gateway Voyage programme with Irene as facilitator in Byron Bay a couple of years ago. The experience was quite profound and opened up new ways of thinking and experiencing the world for me. I hope to actually get to the Virginia headquarters sometime soon and do more courses and even do a talk on my experiences writing Dying to Know and the current follow up which I've yet to title.