Lehal Library

However, a good many of the results were totally unexpected, and some of the serious trepidations were unfounded. For example, the fact that I was (and still am) well grounded and active in the material world of business helped greatly in the serious consideration of the book material. Another facet: I should have had more faith and confidence in the business mind as I know it. I had always maintained that business and industry respected "something of value" without particular regard to its origin. If it works, use it. Still, I was greatly concerned about the reaction to the book of the board of directors of the corporation of which I was president. (Who would want such an unstable person running their multi-million dollar operationl) At the first board meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after the book publication, no one mentioned it. Nor did I. However, as we cruised up the canal in the board chairman's yacht, on our way to dinner at the country club, the chairman's wife came up from below deck with a copy of JOURNEYS in her hand, "Bob, will you autograph this for me?" she asked. I complied, more than a little self-conscious and surprised. I should not have been. "Interesting stuff," the chairman called over his shoulder as he steered for the yacht club dock. "My wife is a real psychic. I never make a major business deal without a reading from her. It works, too." Needless to say, I was not asked to resign. Actually, I found little or no adverse effect on my business relationships as a result of the public disclosure of this "private" side of my life. Instead, many broad new avenues opened up to me, totally unexpected. Who could have guessed that I would speak on out-of-body experiences at such an august and conservative body as the Smithsonian Institution! It actually happened. Another miscalculation, or so it would seem: it has been stated that JOURNEYS was a book ahead of its time, that serious interest in the type of material it contains is only now reaching significant levels. This may have been true, yet what was it that precipitated such changes in a mere four years? I like to think a chicken-or-the-egg question is appropriate, that this book was and is part of a trigger or catalytic process that is now in chain reaction. This process states simply; it's O.K. to have strange experiences, to consider seriously as natural those events and activities beyond the present ability of our physical sciences to replicate or measure. Existence beyond death is one of these. Another decision made about the time of publication: that my conscious mind or self had insufficient experience and/or training to control in toto the scope