black_panther
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Frank Demarco is getting set to self publish his next book which will be both in ebook form as well as as a printed book if there is enough interest. With his permission the following is some information taken from his blog as well as from TMI Explorers list.
Babe in the Woods
We’ve all heard of mystery schools, places where people can go to further their psychic and spiritual development. In our day, there are not a few people claim to be able to provide such training, but – as in most things in life – caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware.
But – how can the buyer beware? On the one hand, you don’t want to be giving your time and your money and your sincerity to something that is only self-delusion, or, worse, a sophisticated con. On the other hand, how can you judge something that (if real) is by definition beyond your ability to judge it? Sometimes there’s nothing to do but to jump in and see for yourself, and hope for the best.
As it happens, I have been fortunate enough to attend a sort of modern American shorthand version of such a mystery school, namely a series of week-long courses at The Monroe Institute. (A week is not a lot of time, but in the right circumstances it can be enough time to get you the tools you need. Then you spend the rest of your life applying them.) This novel is my attempt to give readers the flavor of the experience.
My protagonist, Angelo Chiari, is a fifty-something-year old news reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is sent to the C.T. Merriman Institute to do a week-long Open Door course and see if any of it is for real. He is skeptical of the assignment, figuring that of course it isn’t for real, and somewhat dreading the prospect of spending a week among ungrounded New Age crazies. But although he doesn’t suspect it, such an attitude of skepticism is actually a pretty good attitude to bring to the experience….
There’s a lot of me in Angelo, partly because it entertains me to put myself in other surroundings and partly–mostly–because there isn’t anyone else I know as well. Like Angelo, I have been a news reporter, and have known skepticism. Like him, I have had health problems. And, more importantly, many of the experiences he has in his Open Door are experiences I or my friends have had in various Monroe programs. Particularly the love story.
Angelo is the brother of George Chiari, who was the protagonist of my first novel, Messenger. Although George does not appear in Babe in the Woods, and is not even named, the fact that they are brothers will be important in the third novel (A Death in the Black Box) that will be forthcoming whenever it chooses to allow itself to be manifested.
I am publishing Babe in the Woods myself. For the moment this e-book version is the only one available. If and when we publish a print version (which will be a regular 6” by 9” perfect-bound paperback book, full-color cover, etc.) those who have bought this version will be able to apply half the cost of this e-book against the cost of the printed book.
This is from the TMI Explorers List:
I thought you might be interested in the acknowledgements page I just wrote for Babe in the Woods.
Dedication To my friends and family, some still living on this side, some on the other side Acknowledgements The C.T. Merriman Institute of this story, and its programs, surroundings, and underlying assumptions, are all based on The Monroe Institute, which, like the C.T. Merriman Institute, is located in central Virginia. I know the place, the programs, and the nature of the participants as well as I know anything in my life. It was there, as I often say, that my conscious life began at age 46. I owe the place and the people a tremendous debt of gratitude, and this story is my way of acknowledging that debt and of indicating to others something of the wealth of new experience and growth that many people have found there. However, having said that, I hasten to add that this is a work of fiction. It is neither history, nor biography nor autobiography. My portrait of C. T. Merriman draws on Bob Monroe as I remember him, but is not strictly factual, and is not meant to be. Similarly, Angelo Chiari shares much of my background and characteristics (as did his brother George in my novel Messenger) but he is not me. Nor are the other characters, nor the situations, limited to fact. Rather, I took people, places and situations that I knew, and some that I invented, and shuffled them, working to produce a story that tells a truth that is truer than any mere recounting of facts. And that’s the point, really: telling a truth that is truer than facts. I made up the story, but not out of thin air. I and others have experienced much more in the way of the “psychic” experiences than I dare describe here, for fear of losing credibility with those who do not yet know how much is possible. Babe in the Woods is an attempt to show just what it’s like to take those first tentative steps toward greater awareness.
It sounds like its going to be a fascinating book and will create a lot of interest in TMI.
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