The Astral Traveller's Handbook and Other Tales

Book excerpt: In this collection of short stories, David Michie offers life-enhancing insights with the same heart-warming compassion that pervades his Dalai Lama’s Cat books. “Whatever dreams he was having, Jason knew they had nothing to do with his physical body. His eyes were firmly shut and his consciousness withdrawn from his senses when all this was going on. Yet in his dreams he experienced sights, sounds and even visceral sensations much more intensely than when he was awake. From this he understood that you didn’t need a physical body to see, or smell, or endure any kind of experience with an acuteness that was more real than reality. From an early age he deduced that heaven or hell need not be material places so much as states of mind – and no less glorious or horrifying because of that. There were no limits to mind untethered from form.” What if you could re-live the enchantment of childhood bedtime—but with magic that is real? What if you felt the wonder you once sensed when you believed that anything is possible? Or were inspired to see the world through fresh eyes? In this compendium of delightful short stories, David Michie draws us into the extraordinary experiences of everyday people as they encounter those tell-tale cracks exposing reality as not quite what it seems. Four female book club members are unexpectedly propelled, by the same black and white photograph, to discover a shared purpose beyond their wildest imaginings. An earnest young seeker finds that drawing aside the veil to an immeasurably more wonderful reality, doesn’t depend so much on the arcane books he reads as on a source much closer to home. A cat-crazy woman, who wishes her beloved felines would talk to her, is shaken when she realises what they have been trying to communicate all along. Through intriguing storylines and revelations, David Michie offers life-enhancing insights with the same heart-warming benevolence that pervades his Dalai Lama’s Cat books. How better to gently unwind at the end of the day - and to prepare for the infinite possibilities we may encounter in the realms of our dreams?