My Experience with Paul Brunton
I In 1974, two years after a painful divorce, I first became acquainted with Paul Brunton’s writings. The divorce was the hardest thing I had ever done. We had been married for fourteen years and had three children. I loved my husband but he suffered from bipolar disorder and self-medicated with alcohol. I felt that I had to make a better life for my children. I wondered why this had happened to me and what the meaning of my life was. Why was I here? In my pain I sought answers.
I joined a group in Columbus studying The Quest of the Overself. I was fascinated by the thought that I could actually search and perhaps find and be in union with my soul. I read Discover Yourself and found myself agreeing with the ideas. It was as though they were my own, and I had finally found someone who agreed with me. One book led to another, and eventually I had read them all.
When Paul Brunton visited Columbus in 1977, I served as his secretary. I remember the first time I waited for him to come so that we could begin to work. I was in complete and wonderful peace. It was the closest I have ever been to “the peace that passeth all understanding.” It was as though everything I had ever done in my entire life had brought me to this moment.
We sat out under the tree, and he dictated ideas to me. At one point he asked me to go in the house and tell the others that we were ready for tea. When I went into the kitchen there were three or four people working there, other students only too happy to be of service to PB, as he liked to be called. An amazing thing happened. It was as though vibrations of energy moved simultaneously toward me from each of the people and within that energy were their voices revealing what each was thinking. I was stunned. I had never before had a paranormal experience like that. In fact, in a somewhat typical western scientific way, I was skeptical. This experience was truly earthshaking for me. It shifted my perspective of reality and opened my mind to consider other possibilities.
I was fortunate to have a private interview with PB. He answered questions for me that still resonate today in their importance to my life. His writings continue to be of particular value to me because they encouraged me to take an independent path, absent of dogma. This left me free to choose the best in all philosophies, to think for myself and to begin to understand the truth of my existence. My physical teacher became my everyday experiences as I tested these ideas through daily application. I found them not only soul-satisfying but practical as well. They have helped me find the meaning I was searching for and have changed my life in positive ways.