The Teacher

EXTRAS - Afterword, Interview

AFTERWORD

On behalf of our writing ream, let me like to thank you for taking the time to read The Teacher. The story was designed to take you on a literary adventure while also opening your mind to new possibilities where your spiritual evolution is concerned.

Though fiction, some of the characters and much of the theological subtext were inspired by information that I found on the website, www.share-international.org.

Christians have been waiting 2,000 years for Jesus to return as promised. All the world's other great religions are also expecting a World Teacher to emerge to guide mankind into age of peace brought about through the application of the important principles of Justice and Sharing applied globally. That World Teacher goes by many names, but the important thing is that humanity will hopefully finally be ready to do their part to change the world for the better because when The Teacher does come among us as there will be no waving of magic wands to right every wrong.

No one can say with absolute certainty what happens when we die, where we go, if we live on or simply vanish into oblivion. We can't know for sure and that's a good thing because that's where faith comes in. Faith allows us to believe in things not seen and trust that even without tangible proof, they can be real.

It is our hope that The Teacher has taken you on a spiritual journey through a soul-shaping literary experience to help you pursue the higher Truths you'll be learning along life's journey. Continue to expand your spiritual horizons and one day we'll all be reunited on the other side to share our personal stories in the Hereafter.

INTERVIEW

What inspired you to write The Teacher?

Talk to any writer and more often than not you'll find that the story behind the story can be almost as engaging as the novel itself! One night I was listening to the radio, Coast To Coast AM with host George Noory. He was interviewing Benjamin Crème who was explaining something that happened to him one day that changed his life.

He'd always had an open mind when it came to religious studies and had been exploring the esoteric traditions which aren't anything like the religions we all know about. One day he started receiving a transmission of energy and information. A spiritual being was communicating with him and later recruited him to lead an effort to prepare the people on planet Earth for the World Teacher who was coming to help us transition into the next spiritual age. He embraced the mission and soon began sharing what he was being taught with the world through a series of public lectures and interviews, by writing a series of books, through his art, and the web site, .

It would have taken a lifetime of study to fully understand his teachings, but to adapt the basics of his beliefs to fiction was not only possible, but I found it to be a great inspiration to the overall process of writing Maitreya and its sequel, Hereafter, now combined into one volume, The Teacher.. I would encourage any reader to look further into the real Maitreya to see if there is any Truth behind my fictional story.

There's an amusement park scene in your sequel, Hereafter, to Maitreya. Where did you get that idea and do you really think there could possibly be something like Six Flags Great America going on in heaven?

Most serious writing involves extensive research. Once a story idea begins to inhabit and prod on your writer's mind, you find yourself devouring anything and everything having to do with the subject.

When I knew that the sequel to Maitreya was going to take place in heaven, all things on the other side began to flood into my writer's world. I'd see articles in newspapers and magazines and hear authors being interviewed. In the minor-miracle world of Synchronicity, there seemed to be a string of authors being interviewed on television and on the radio who claimed to have gone to heaven and returned having retained at least some of the memories of what they experienced. Their books and those interviews became the fertile soil from which the seeds of my Hereafter story ideas would grow.