by Tom Evans | Sep 30, 2018 | Scribing
In 2012, on September 3rd, I started writing what became my quickest book called This We Know. 14 days later, on the 17th September (that same year), a copy of the print version arrived in the post – and it was available worldwide.
This blog tells the story of the slowest book I have written. It is novel which foretells the end of life on Earth, as we know it, within 100 years. While it is channelled fiction, some the events I first wrote over 14 years ago have already come to pass.
Genesis
Back in 2005, I was on holiday in South Africa, on the Garden Route at a place called Hog Hollow near Plettenberg. I had a shock when I ended up sharing a shower with a tarantula. A strong G&T later, I calmed down. At the time I was reading a book by Teilhard de Chardin called The Phenomenon of Man – it is deep and profound but also a little inaccessible.
A combination of tarantula shock and the G&T brought a light bulb moment along. What if I was to die when I know a lot of useful ‘stuff’ that could be shared? I had a pile of books that went some way to explaining the Universe and how we came to be. Many of them were as complex as Teilhard’s.
The idea was, what if I was to decode them, distill them and explain them?
I started mind mapping what I could share, along with imbibing a second G&T. The memory is still so vivid, I can even remember we were playing this amazing album, African Groove.
The Light Bulb Moment
This idea came in. What if the Universe was built on soulwaves? They were waves of energy that connected everything to everything. This was the missing dark energy and dark matter. I had no proof and no theories, just intuition.
So what if I shared what I knew in a novel? No proof would be needed, it would just be a story.
A few months later, I had about 60,000 words written. Then it ended up sitting on my hard drive for what would be 12 years, until I picked it up again.
What happened next was that 16 other books came along. I did release a short story version of a snippet of the book for Kindle in 2011. That got some good reviews that told me I should really finish it some day. At that time, the Universe was busy making an unexpected meditation guide out of the unsuspecting author though – and This We Know was about to arrive!
Winding on several books later, I ended up spending my 59th birthday, in 2017, at my best friend from school’s funeral. I resolved then to get this story our before my 60th, just in case I wasn’t around for much longer.
I ended up rewriting it from the ground up, and inserting some new intertwining plot lines, but I only got 90% of it done. Just the last 20 chapters or so need finishing off.
The reason I only got 90% of the way last year was that yet another book project that I didn’t plan came along. The Big Ü is done now and was published on the 8th August 2018.
Of course, these diversions are not irritants. In a Universe connected by soulwaves, all is ‘meant to be’. Apart from anything, I know more stuff now than I did back in 2005 and I hope that I have become a better writer. I am certainly more internally confident at the very least.
So the latest planned schedule is to get the print, ebook and audiobook published on the 21st September – all in 2019 that is.
Tuning into cosmic timings is one of the many memes touched on in the book!
What’s It About?
I have now discovered that the book now has a genre – post-dystopian cyberpunk.
It starts in 2059 when humanity has got its act together after the excesses of the last few centuries. Sadly, it is all a little too late as something triggered off in 1959, 150 light years away, that would lead to the end of life, as we know it, on Earth.
Our hero is sent from the ‘gods’ to help at the time of transition – as often happens cf Jesus, John Lennon, Kermit the Frog. Like all such characters, he doesn’t know this. He hatches a plan at the last minute to save some of humanity. All along though the dolphins, knew so, so much more.
So the book explains how the cosmos goes through cycles and how death is an integral part of life. Even stars have to die to create more stars … and us!
by Tom Evans | May 17, 2018 | Expanding
This month I reached a milestone which was not in my wildest of wild dreams and not on any To Do List, or set of goals. My meditations and podcasts on mindfulness have been listened to over 1 million times.
When we hit milestones like this, it’s a good idea to reflect back on how it was achieved and what unexpected events happened along the way.
It also pays dividends to say thanks, so big thanks to Insight Timer for making it happen and thanks to all the 280,000 meditators who listened in. This means many of them tuned in multiple times.
How it happened
The reflections are nicely captured in this podcast with fellow Insight Timer meditation guides, Louisa Tanner Munson and Carl Munson.
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The unexpected events
#1 : I made a transition from an author who had some meditations as accessories to his books to becoming a popular meditation guide who happens to be an author.
#2 : This directly lead to a new career as a keynote speaker and trainer in practical applications of mindfulness.
#3 : I was commissioned to create seven meditations to help with weight management directly as a result of a meditator, and his 3 year old son, listening. The composer of the ambient background music is Eternell, found through the app.
#4 : The popularity of Just for Today, my most listened to meditation, lead me to creating a series of daily nuggets of mindfulness of the same name. They attracted the illustrator, Siri Stiklestad Opli, and ended up in a book I didn’t plan to write and the formation of a contribution currency initiative on Patreon.
#5 : my new found status has lead to co-authoring a new book called The Big Ü and the creation of an advanced personal development programme called The Biggest Ü. It has been immensely useful in giving credibility and authority to this initiative.
#6 : a steady stream of new clients for my more esoteric self-study courses and 1-2-1 mentoring.
#7 : giving me confidence at the grand old age of 60 to finally put my head fully above the parapet.
Above all it has been the most enjoyable journey and gives me such pleasure to know that 3000 or so people each day are calmer, more relaxed and hopefully a little more enlightened.
All because Maddy Gerrard reached out in August 2016 to ask if I’d like to upload a meditation.
“It only takes one domino to make many others fall down …”
Big thanks to Maddy, Chris, Nico, Bayley, the rest of the team and the generous benefactors who make the impossible possible. Thanks also to the 4 million and more meditators and all my fellow meditation guides for making the best by far free app on the planet.
Related Links
My meditations on Insight Timer
Louisa Tanner Munson on Insight Timer
Carl Munson on Insight Timer
Eternell on Insight Timer
Weight Management Meditations
IncentaHealth
Just for Today : Daily Nuggets of Mindfulness
The Big Ü and Biggest Ü
by Tom Evans | May 10, 2018 | Illuminating
From time to time an angel reincarnates on the Earth plane. They are normally from the lower ranks. Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart is good example of one. They are known as Humangels.
They come to re-learn or re-experience. They come to observe. They come to support at time of transition. Like all forms of life, they are sometimes Angels-in-waiting.
They are all around us and here’s how to spot one:
- They are drawn to the caring, teaching, healing or creative professions.
- They often don’t know what they are.
- They are too humble, and can be quite scared, to acknowledge what they are.
- They have a twinkle in their eye.
- They can heal with a touch.
- They can heal with a thought.
- They see the world with different eyes.
- They see the future and can change what’s past.
- They are mavericks and abhor convention and dogma.
- They bring messages and fresh wisdom.
- They bring oodles of serendipity.
- They are both claircogniscent and clairsentient.
- They perform what looks like magic.
- They turn up repeatedly in your life at your turning points and forks in your road.
- Their messages arrive in unexpected ways and forms.
- They are the harbingers of serendipity.
Pay attention the next time a bell rings … it might be for you.
by Tom Evans | Apr 30, 2018 | Chatting
After somewhat of a hiatus, due to not one but two books being written, I’ve started podcasting again, as both interviewee and interviewer. Like buses you’ve been standing around waiting for, they seem to all come at once. So I thought it was a good idea to assemble them all into one place to save a bit of searching.
Podcast #1 : Kerri Hummingbird : The Soul Nectar Show
Kerri and I talk about the phases of our lives using the metaphor of caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly – a magical conversation in many ways.
For the full interview, go to The Soul Nectar Show
Podcast #2 : Paul Averill : The Man Bits Podcast
In this podcast, Paul and I talk about doing what you love and how daily meditation is the key to opening a door into a new world.
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For more enlightening interviews, go to The Man Bits Podcast
Podcast #3 : Judith Morgan : The Own It Podcast
Judith extracts from me some of the weirder aspects of temporal alchemy that I have experienced. It’s all about owning your time rather than time owning you.
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For more intriguing conversarions, go to The Own It Podcast
Podcast #4 : Renée Hassledine : Share Your Passion
And last but not least (for April at least), in conversation Renée Hassledine on how to get more done in less time and how to make more of your day on the Share Your Passion podcast
… and the Zone Show is back
Well it’s back not quite at the frenetic rate of one podcast a week that I used to do. I am now only interviewing people who I am co-creating with or people who have had me on their show. So Paul, Judith and Renée, you are on my list for when my head finally comes up and the two books are out there.
Podcast #1 : Hugh Byrne
Two Insight Timer meditation guides meet on a park bench in Bushy Park, London and talk about mindfulness and meditation.
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Podcast #2 : Kerri Hummingbird
The reciprocal interview from the one above which was recorded a week before.
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Podcast #3 : Alison Jones
How writing a book will give you the best business card you will ever have.
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by Tom Evans | Mar 1, 2018 | Expanding
This month I begin my 61st orbit of our home star on Spaceship Earth. This means I turn 60.
Incidentally, that’s a journey of over 35 billion miles around the Sun!
It seems somewhat appropriate to mark the occasion with a blog and I was invited to join in with Judith Morgan’s blogfest in January to share some gems of wisdom of how I go about running my business – and Doing It My Way.
If you want to discover how to run your life, as opposed to it running you, I can highly recommend reading Judith’s new book, Your Biz Your Way
The Journey So Far
At 17, I had four A levels, took a year off to work and then went to University with money I’d earned in my bank, and a student grant. My, are things different these days?
I left Uni in 1979 with a Desmond (a 2.2) in Electronic Engineering, a specialisation in TV engineering and walked into a choice of jobs. I said things were different back then. I had to choose between a career at the BBC or ITV. The Beeb paid a little more and sounded more fun, so I did that.
At 23, Sony headhunted me and doubled my BBC salary. At 25, a company in London headhunted me and paid double again. My interview with them was at a David Bowie concert, the Let’s Dance tour, in Rotterdam. Three months later, the company went bust. I could have gone back to Sony, and corporate life, or go forward into the unknown. I chose the latter and within a year, I had formed my own business and had staff. I’d been thrust into entrepreneurship.
This was no problem as I was innovative by nature my new company won two Royal Televion Awards for its products, which had started selling to broadcasters worldwide. By the time I was 30, I had a £750k turnover business. Along the way, the TV industry delivered my life partner too!
The company was sold to another in 1992 and I became Tech Director. I told them we have to get into this thing called the Internet but they said it would never be fast enough for TV and audio. Toys thrown out of pram, I left and became a TV journalist for a year to work off my non-compete clause.
I took a job-job in the CCTV industry and, after a few years, got promoted to the board but then got head-hunted again to create an Internet business. It took me a year to turnover its first £1m. Then the wheels came off the bus. They gave me a £2m turnover in year 2. This stressed me out as I was also heading up project delivery, and commuting 3 hours a day too, so I left.
Mid-life Hiccup
So I’d experienced rapid career progression and had no problem innovating on my feet and creating stuff from nothing but I’d had the stuffing knocked out of me. I cashed in my shares in the new business and started freelancing. I was bored, lost and disillusioned.
Things changed dramatically when someone said I looked haggard (I did) and I should try meditation. At first, like many, I thought it was a waste of time but I persisted. On days I meditated, I had a better time all round. If I didn’t get around to it, I struggled. So the engineer in me started a quest to find out how all this mind magic worked.
Before I knew it, I’d written my first book by accident in a 747 at 39,000 feet. It was called 100 Years of Ermintrude and its publication lead directly to me walking around London for 26 miles in the Walk the Walk marathon. Another unexpected turn of events happened. Quickly afterwards, people started approaching me to help them write their books. I started to write more and more books to support my new career.
The Bookwright Was Born
I went on a few courses and started studying with two estoeric schools. There was also an incident with an Earth Angel and a Demon that doesn’t belong in this blog. In short though, I ‘switched on’ and became a ‘see-er’.
I had become adept at clearing writer’s block (always a life block) and tapping people into their Muse. I’ve lost count of the number of authors I helped get published.
I thought I had found my métier and calling as a creative mentor but the Universe had other ideas.
The Path Found Me
I started to add meditations as accessories to my books and one day I got an email from an app, called Insight Timer, asking me if I would like to upload one. I did and within a month had over 6000 downloads and loads of messages saying people liked the English accent, the sense of humour and how accessible I made everything.
Three years later, I am at over 900,000 downloads and one of the most popular meditation guides on the app, rubbing shoulders with many of the world’s top mindfulness luminaries. Every single day over 2,500 people meditate to one of my meditations, all over the world.
One meditator got in touch with me to commission a set of seven meditations for weight management to be included in his app which is making waves in corporate America.
So the BBC-TV engineer, who became an author who did meditations on the side, became a meditation teacher who happens to have written loads of books – all without setting foot inside an ashram.
Along the way, I also created the world’s first time management course based on mindfulness and coined the term ‘timefulness’. The engineer discovered how to change the speed of time by changing the speed and nature of thought. This is what is now opening yet another new door.
Something else happened from nowhere nearly three years ago. I started to send out daily nuggets of mindfulness called Just for Today (which are now illustrated thanks to Siri Stiklestad Opli). These are changing the world one thought and one person at at a time and are just about to go viral. The first book of a collection of them also got published, kind of by accident.
What’s Next?
Before I wrote any of my current 14 books, I wrote a novel. Ten years later, it’s now been updated and is being published in my 61st orbit. It’s called Soulwave and is a future history of the Earth. It’s got all the revelations in it I couldn’t get into my non-fiction books.
At the same time, after knocking on doors many times, I have finally broken into corporates. It means I can fund Tom the novelist from some very nice consultancy, speaking and training work, teaching businesses how to work smarter, leaner and faster using mindfulness techniques. I’m also running my first live 8 week course on Practical Mindfulness this Summer.
This work will be encapsulated and distilled in a new co-authored book, web site and philanthropic joint venture which is going live in Summer this year.
Even though I am now on a path which has been shown to me, I know intuitively there are more unfoldings and iterations to come. I was given some esoteric information several years ago which has yet to be fully decoded and reconstructed. I hope to share it, at least, by the time I write the follow up blog to this one when I am 70 !
Useful Links
Judith Morgan Your Business Your Way
My books
My meditations on Insight Timer
Introduction to Practical Mindfulness course
My weight management meditations
Just for Today Daily Nuggets of Mindfulness
Mindfulness-based Time Management
One Big Coincidence
Judith Morgan’s Blogfest
Blogfest for Solopreneur & Small Biz Bloggers
