We’re delighted to share a personal message from Ralph White announcing the imminent publication of his new memoir, The Jeweled Highway: On the Quest for a Life of Meaning.
A new story for our time by a pioneer of the consciousness movement.
Filled with beauty, transcendence and vitality, Ralph White’s memoir takes us on his quest for a life of meaning and the many ways he has found to share its secrets with others.
An adventurous story at the forefront of a deep cultural shift, it transports the reader from his early years in the Celtic world and gritty Northern England, down Route 66, hitchhiking to Machu Picchu, and across the Eastern Himalayas into Tibet. Readers gain an insider’s knowledge of the origins of major centers of holistic clearing and why they serve as focal points for the emergence of greater sanity, wisdom, and awareness in the world.
“Written with a poet’s eye and a seeker’s urgency, Ralph White’s hunger for truth leads him down many alleyways. He rewards the reader with hard-won wisdom.”
— Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way
“Ralph White is talented, original, and uninterested in convention, and his life
has been an adventure of the Joseph Campbell kind — a quest to find the secrets
of life and then give them to his fellow citizens. He is one of those rare men who
has said yes to life far more than he has retreated into safety.”
— Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul
Dear Friends,
Many of you know me as a friend, others as a co-founder of the NY Open Center, and a speaker on the Western Esoteric Tradition, the work of Rudolf Steiner, and the emerging holistic and ecological worldview. My new book takes the story back to my early years in Wales and Northern England, my adventures in South America and Tibet on the quest for meaning, and my deep involvement in the global network of holistic learning centers. I’m told it’s a page-turner of a book. I certainly wrote it to be enjoyable and entertaining as well as spiritually insightful.
I believe The Jeweled Highway is the first book to write about the Gathering of Holistic Centers, something I have been part of now for thirty years that has hugely enriched my life in countless ways. It contains chapters on three centers with which I have been intimately involved: Findhorn in the 70’s, Omega Institute in the early 80’s, and the New York Open Center from its inception in 1984 to the present. It also has a chapter entitled The Global Network of Holistic Centers with portraits of many centers on the West Coast of North America, and another section on supporting the emergence of centers in Russia and Eastern Europe in the aftermath of communism.
Here’s a short video of me talking about the book –
As you can see from the video, it’s also an adventure story with tales of South America and Tibet on my personal quest for meaning, as well as a book on the emergence of the holistic or consciousness movement worldwide. At its core, it tells the story of someone who needed to travel far inwardly and outwardly to find a deeper spiritual reality, an alternative to the materialism and consumerism so prevalent today, and who has devoted his life to the creation of a more holistic, ecological and sacred culture. It’s a story of hope that I hope will inspire readers of this site.
The book is now available for order and you can do so today by clicking here. I’m told that Amazon will triple the number of books it buys from the publisher on any orders it receives by September 15th.
You can also order directly from the publisher at a discount via this link. Or if you prefer to read on kindle, click here to download your edition. It appears on the kindle website in a slightly confusing way. Just to clarify: I wrote the book, Thomas Moore wrote the preface.
I will be launching the book at the Open Center on Tuesday, September 15th with a talk, reading and book signing. It would be a pleasure to see those of you from the greater New York area there. Details of the launch are online.
I will also be giving a series of talks/readings/book signings on the West Coast from California to British Columbia from mid September to early October. Details will be posted on my website at www.ralphwhite.net
I also expect to be doing a series of readings/talks in New York and elsewhere on the East Coast, in the Hudson Valley, and in the United Kingdom in the fall and new year. If you happen to have any contacts in venues that might be interested in hosting me in those areas, I would really appreciate it if you could pass on your thoughts.
A final word about the book from Robert Thurman, “If you want to know where we’ve been and where we’re headed in these times of great danger and opportunity, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.”
Looking forward to sharing the story of my life and my quest with you.
With warm regards,
Ralph
RALPH WHITE is cofounder of the New York Open Center, America’s leading urban center of holistic learning. An organizer of many international conferences, he was editor of the award-winning Lapis magazine. Born in Wales, he lives in New York City.
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