This is the story of an extraordinary journey that begins for author James Westly back in 1977. He was at the time happily married and involved in a successful corporate business career in Philadelphia. But something was missing. He didn't know quite what it was that he was searching for, but one day a small ad in the personals section of the newspaper caught his attention and started him on a path that totally changed his life. In the months that follow he set out on a journey of self-discovery that would within a year's time lead him to virtually withdraw from the world-to separate himself from his job, his house, his wife, his friends, and his material possessions. In the process he joined a retreat in Northern California and made a new life for himself there, where he began a profound intellectual, emotional, and physical transformation that opened up an entirely different way of living for him. "His account of his journey into this new world reads like a novel. He tells his story with a mixture of eloquence and insight that is both breathtaking and inspirational. The journey ends happily, but it is not without its moments of conflict, crisis, and peril."-Tom Hyman, author of Jupiter's Daughter