Novel - Dying to Know

I started as a pre-med student, but then went into medical research while an undergraduate. I remained in science for a while after graduation teaching Human Anatomy and Physiology in a nursing program, as the nature of health and disease had always been of interest to me.

When I left science, I began to explore the nature of life and our universe from a new perspective, that of metaphysics. I referred to my major interest as human cosmology for my explorations leaned more toward that of a scientist/philosopher than anything having to do with religion. When quantum reality became a topic of discussion beyond the labs of science, I read about it avidly, for I knew that quantum reality would prove to be the Western world’s entrance into a worldview that had existed in Eastern philosophy for thousands of years, that being a view of the universe as an infinitely interconnected Whole, as described in Vedanta (the ancient spiritual philosophy of India that formed the basis for Hinduism, Buddhism and eventually Taoism. In fact, it would also have been part of Christianity had the powers to be, understood what Jesus meant when he talked about Oneness- “the Father and I are one.”)  What was so fascinating was seeing western science finally offering a description similar to that of metaphysics. The possibilities that result from viewing the world from that perspective of interconnected Oneness are inordinate. And that’s when I decided to see if I could write about disease and healing from this new perspective: What would disease and healing look like in a universe, our universe, of interconnected Oneness? But quite frankly, you could replace the word disease with the word dis-ease, and the story in Dying to Know become a universal one–the journey to grow beyond our pain and suffering of any sort, to transcend a level of conditioning that has limited us to seemingly the only creatures on earth who can’t live in harmony with the world around them. That is not our destiny.

The challenge came in that I wanted to create such a story but without any jargon.  I wanted it to be comprehensible to anyone willing to take the journey with Callie Morrow, the novel’s protagonist. That proved more difficult than I’d imagined. It took me three years to craft the language as I wanted, while not reducing the novel to a textbook. What resulted was a fascinating personal journey for myself as well as the for protagonist and her friends. By creating two characters whose cultures offered a worldview similar to the picture quantum reality and Vedanta suggest — Joe Kuptana, an Inuit artist and sculptor, and Mary Chang, a Chinese cafe owner and student of Taoism, I was able to have a philosophical resource to provide underpinning for the reader.

Dying to Know offers the reader a most uncommon adventure as well as a touching love story on many levels. And what you as readers get to experience is the nature of the journey that results when someone wants to see the world from a different point of view. If you care to trust me, may I suggest that is the most amazing adventure this world offers any of us.

Novel - Dying to Know

Available in Kindle and Paper format