Summary
Where do we turn for wisdom and enlightenment in these challenging times? In Drunk with Wonder, Steve Ryals suggests that we are the heroes we've been waiting for, that each one of us contains an infinitely precious spark of the Divine. A new model for a new century, Drunk with Wonder offers truths that some have taken lifetimes to learn.
Using spirited dialogue, Ryals gently guides the reader to perennial wisdom echoed in the great traditions of Shamanism, Eastern and Western thought and contemporary science. Topics include:
—How our addiction to adrenaline shapes our experience.
—How we take on fear-based belief systems from parents, teachers, and our culture,
thereby perpetuating the story of "Them & Us."
—The "isness" of duality and the Great Passion Play.
—How we fashion our "stories" out of the core wounds of childhood. These stories
create context, or meaning, out of the "isness" of direct experience.
—How to safely empty our "emotional balloons" so that we may think more clearly.
—Neuronal pathways and the power of the subconscious mind.
—Using discernment to understand the illusion of separation.
—The trap of victim consciousness.
—Breath, mindfulness and the potent power of choice.
—Dropping the waterline and getting real.
Those new to philosophical inquiry or just beginning a spiritual practice will find Ryals' lively and engaging dialogue to be thoroughly engrossing. Cosmology, the nature of reality and many other often-challenging subjects are introduced in an easy-to-follow format.
Seasoned spiritual practitioners and philosophical seekers alike will glean a new, perhaps liberating perspective. Most notable are Ryals' thoughts around exploring the dark shadow of our sub-conscious. As he says, "Only when we are able to face and embrace our ego can we make it a trusted ally in our quest for spiritual wholeness."
About the Author
Steve Ryals, author of the newly released Drunk with Wonder: Awakening to the God Within (official publication date: August 15,2006), went from homeless and shooting drugs in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district at 17 to graduating form UC Berkeley on the Dean’s List six years later.
Steve was raised in a home filled with love but also filled with hurt, anger, secrets and both emotional and physical abuse (not sexual, just the "whacking" kind). Not surprisingly, Steve took to drugs & alcohol like a Rottweiler takes to delivery people. Though it took decades, Steve has now been free of alcohol for over five years.
Though a high-school dropout, Steve has three college degrees:
AA in Liberal Arts: Pasadena City College, 1971
BA in English Literature: UC Berkeley, 1973
AS in Business: Solano Community College, 1980
Steve is a minister of the Universal Life Church, a licensed Massage Therapist and a Reiki Therapist.
Steve co-founded a number of businesses. One, Ryals & Associates, Inc., is still in business 24 years later (though Steve is no longer associated with it). Another, Planet Earth Music, rode the dot-com boom of the late 90s, only to crash and burn early in the new century.
Steve has been writing poetry for over 40 years (over 20 appear in Drunk with Wonder) and has also writing numerous short stories and a science fiction novel or two, which have so far remained unpublished.
Steve founded Rock Creek Press in 1990, and has self-published three poetry books as well other authors. A graphic artist as well as a writer and editor, Steve continues to produce newsletters and other graphic materials for a small but avid customer base.
In 1992, Steve created an audio version of his poetry book Winds of Dawn with his friend BODHI, who played improvisational keyboards, piano or flute on each track. Using an original watercolor commissioned for the project, Steve created a package of book and cassette that still sells whenever Steve performs.
From 1994-2004, Steve was a free-lance music reviewer for New Age Retailer and then the Sedona Journal of Emergence. He wrote and published over 1,200 reviews, hundreds of which are still available online.
Steve has also had articles published in PC World and Electronic Design magazines.
For the past 10 years, Steve has lived in the wild mountains of Mendocino County in Northern California with his beloved wife JoAnn. They thrive in an off-the-grid environment, producing most of their electricity from solar panels, with hydro in the winter. Drunk with Wonder was written, edited and designed with almost no help from fossil fuels. Steve is proud to say that Drunk with Wonder is printed on 60# Thor Offset acid-free, recycled paper (85% recovered fiber, 30% post consumer) with soy-based ink.
Drunk with Wonder: Awakening to the God Within is the culmination of years of research and decades of personal experience. It's been hailed as where "Conversations with God meets What the Bleep Do we Know?"
