The story of my life is a huge one that I've never taken the time to write down. Years of travel, wild experiences with amazing people the world-over... In time I will fill it out more completely. For now, I will quote a brief overview I have laying around.
I wrote the following when i was trying to get a book on ending the aging process published. The book still languishes looking for the right publisher.
Background – the practical
Many of those who study the more esoteric fields approach them with more open-minded acceptance than effective critical judgment. The author is in a unique position in this respect. He began his advanced study with a degree in Engineering and extensive training in critical thinking. He went on to obtain a Master’s degree in a scientific field where, among other steps, he taught statistics and research methods. He has been a consultant for fortune 100 companies throughout the U.S. and Europe. He has worked for a number of consulting institutions including the prestigious Stanford Research Institute. He also holds a Doctoral degree. In his world travels and ongoing study, the author has applied scientific methods and critical thinking techniques to everything he has discovered.
He has traveled over most of the U.S., much of Western Europe, parts of the Middle East, and Central and South America. He was a monk in Egypt, in the oldest Christian monastery in the world. He lived in a Buddhist lamasery in Paris. He spent some time at a Taoist center in the south of France. He buried himself in various eastern and western philosophies. He spent many hours with the Bedouin in the Middle East. He discussed religion, belief, theology, and passion with the most devout Muslims he could find. He studied with Native American shamen and teachers. He interviewed doctors, priests, monks, alternative healers, vodun practitioners, wiccans, fortune tellers, atheists, and fundamentalists. He talked with the homeless and with travelers, with crazy people and with the most sane and stable. He interviewed musicians, poets, philosophers, scientists, drug addicts, psychics, mystics, seers, and every other truth seeker he could find. He studied hundreds of texts in several languages. He has worked in his spare time counseling hundreds of survivors of abusive relationships. Over those many years, he has spent innumerable hours in deep prayer and meditation. He has been led to and through some truly unbelievable experiences. Some of these he feels grateful to have survived at all.
This combination of critical thinking and the scientific method with the extensive travel and research into the esoteric fields have created a unique amalgam. It has left the author in a position to explore ideas which have been overlooked by those who have followed only one of these two more traditional paths.
Background – the esoteric
The author is one of a small but growing number of "neo-shamen" or "urban shamen." A traditional (i.e. tribal) shaman lives far from the technological world, closely tied to nature. In maintaining his intimate ties with the spiritual world, he tends to avoid contact with all things "un-natural." He stays far from anything not nature-related.
At the opposite extreme is the computer engineer or computer hacker. Think “Neo” in The Matrix. He typically lives far from the natural world, tucked away in darkened rooms surrounded by humming machines, lit only by a phosphorescent glow. He is, however, deeply connected to the 'Net. He knows everything about everything in the technical world. Concrete data—ones and zeros—define his reality. The meta-physical worlds hold as little interest for him as the mundane, physical world. They lack the purity and definition of the binary bitstreams that underlie the digital realm.
The urban shaman bridges these two unique approaches. He lives in the collective unconscious and dances amongst synchronicities and paradox. He knows the ancient mysteries and walks at ease in the other worlds. Mysticism is intricately interwoven into every moment. At the same time, however, he is immersed in the technological world. He surfs the 'Net with the ease of a hacker. He surfs the heart and soul of those he encounters with the same ease. He lives in a sometimes precarious balance, linking these two diverse realities. In doing so, he brings power and energy into each. He taps the understanding of the one and applies it to the other. To each, he introduces concepts that revolutionize and redefine. He is a bridge, a powerful channel, a revolutionary teacher, and a gentle guide.
Anecdotal
Places: I’ve traveled over most of the US, including Hawaii, seldom staying in one place long. I’ve lived in both Central and South America, several countries in Western Europe, been through Greece and Crete into the Middle East, and lived in several countries there.
Jobs: I have worked as a computer engineer, a professional hacker, a teacher, a programmer, a painter, a handyman, a plumber, a gardener, done most of the parts of construction, managed a coffee shop and a Dairy Queen, helped run a hostel in Italy, been a monk, ran a laundry, worked as a baby-sitter, been an electrician installing cell phone towers in -20 degrees Farenheit, worked as a tour guide, been a public speaker, and so many more. Whatever I feel guided to in my travels I take up for a time.
Formal studies: BSE (Bachelor of Science in Engineering) in Cognitive engineering, a field which combined computer engineering, cognitive psychology, and a critical study of languages. Purdue University, 1991. MA (Master of Arts) in Cognitive Science, a joint field based in Cognitive Psychology and including Math, Language, Sociology, Psychology, and Philosophy. Indiana University, 1995. DD (Doctorate of Divinity) in religious studies and holistic health. American Institute for Holistic Theology, 2001.
Religious and spiritual studies: I have studied: shamanism, with a few different Native American shamans; Buddhism, Zen, and Taoism with different groups in Europe; Vodun (voodoo) in New Orleans; Huna in Hawaii; Orthodox Christianity in Egypt; Fundamentalist Christianity in the mid-west of the U.S.; Scientology in California; Wicca in several places; Church history, also in several place; and about a dozen more…
Miscellaneous: I read more than 10,000 books before I was 20, graduated in the top 10 in my class, and nearly failed out of college. I've been a zen monk living in New Orleans through Mardi Gras, I lived with the buddhists in Paris, did plumbing in central france and played guitar on the streets of California and sketched in the streets of Paris. I’ve been a goth, a punk, a rebel, and a business man. I’ve taught rape prevention, languages, computers, security, and several others. I’ve studied 15 different martial arts, fencing and gymnastics. I traveled with a band for a year and ran their sound system. I’ve hiked homeless through the hills of Greece, wandered lost in the mountains of Crete, met the Arch-Bishop of Sinai and became a monk at a Greek Orthodox monastery in the Sinai desert in Egypt. I drank good scotch and smoked cigars with some of the elite among Israel’s archeologists in Jerusalem, been caught in a snow-ball fight with Palestinian youth during a freak snow storm in the old city there. I lived for a time among the indigents in Jordan was nearly thrown into prison for life trying to get into Syria. I’ve been a fundamentalist Christian, a devout atheist, an agnostic, a monk and a priest. I met a prophet in Athens and an angel in Northern Jordan. I slept outdoors in the train station in a rough part of Greece, knife in hand. I’ve hitch-hiked much of the way across the U.S. I got a ride from a man who spent the whole trip pointing out all the weapons he had in his truck. That was followed by two Native Americans who proceeded to get drunk and stoned and drive me to the worst part of some big city I barely remember. (They did finally get me where I was going, and played and sang some beautiful tribal music on the way.) I’ve had my life threatened by so many people in so many places I barely remember some of them. I did way too many drugs for a time, and once nearly got my ribs broken in a drunken brawl in London. I had 'psychic surgery' done in brazil and laser eye surgery done in Europe. I’ve written a book and am working on a few others. I’ve taught many of their intuitive Gifts and helped them learn to use them. I’ve had a lot and had nothing. I have been a healer and a teacher, a helper and a hindrance, a guide and a stumbler, a logician and a mystic, … and so much more. I’ve done things—and gotten good at them!—that I’d never even heard of in my overly well-read youth. Through it all I have learned so much of life and of Love, have grown so much in awareness and truth, and finally come to know a peace of such a depth that I’d never imagined was possible.
Peace :)
Dr. Nicholas Knoth
Meta-Intuitive Healer and Visionary
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