For the first time in well over a decade, I have started this year without much of a plan. I sense a New Dawn is coming, along with yet another death-less reincarnation.
Over the holidays, I mind-mapped the content I’d created since I morphed into being a storyteller, meditation guide and ambient composer. You will find a version of the map below. Note that there is another level of detail again to be seen, click here if you’d like to see it as it lists all my Insight Timer tracks.
Incidentally, I was a little surprised to find I had uploaded 300 tracks to Insight Timer in just over 6 years, that’s around 1 a week – and doesn’t include the courses !!
Having completed this task, it feels both cathartic and necessary in order to avoid running full tilt into 2024. This stock-taking has been brought about in no small part because we have been out of our home for nine months, while our home has been transformed into something more expansive, functional and eco. The refurbishment process will still take another month or so to complete but it’s getting there and we are now making our home into a home.
As a result, during this time, I am not doing too much apart from testing the water with a couple of ideas but largely just allowing the Universe to give me a sign or three … kind of having a sabbatical for an unspecified amount of weeks and months.
The first of these tests is the generation of a short meditation, with minimal guidance, but which invites the listener to embark upon their own journey of enquiry. If it goes down well, I have ideas for a whole series of them and their introduction will see the phasing out of the Just for Today style meditations (there are more than enough of those already).
The second is available exclusively for Insight Premium subscribers. I am merging and morphing the audiobook version of Soulwaves : A Future History and the ambient album of the same name into a multimedia version. The 100 chapters will be split into 10 parts of 10 chapters each. I plan to create one part a month but may publish them more quickly if the demand is there. The first ten chapters are available from today.
p.s. If you have any ideas or requirements for materials that will inspire, edutain and help you, let me know by way of comments below …
p.p.s. I plan to move all my legacy courses, as well as the Path to Overstanding materials, to a new platform (for me) called Systeme.io. Note though, if Insight Timer reinstate PDF and video uploads, I would rather consolidate them there … just putting that out there !
END OF 2024 UPDATE : Systeme.io turned out to be not fit for purpose but the legacy content is all now being published in The Adytum using Thinkific
This moonth two large projects are approaching completion – namely our house refurbishment and my ‘paving’ of the Path to Overstanding.
When you come to the end, or near the end, of a project a certain melancholy can tend to set it.
Firstly, you might wonder what’s next and even if it’s your last project?
Secondly, you might feel it was a waste of time or it didn’t quite meet your objectives.
Thirdly, and perhaps most crucially, you realise that the ‘real work’ could just be about to begin.
With the house refurb, we are weathertight, glass is in, 1st fix done and awaiting plastering to dry out so decorating can begin. Then it’s 2nd fix and a phased move back in. In 2024, we’ll tackle making the outside as good as the inside and bringing the home and garden to each other.
At the same time, my explorations of the Path to Overstanding are virtually done and dusted. The main body of work comprises of 100 or so audio modules which are a mix of explanations, explorations and overtasks. This ‘magnum opus’ is augmented by 22 meditations on the keys of the Major Arcana and 22 ambient tracks which are similarly inspired.
There’s a bit of content yet to be generated which I plan to do early in 2024.
I am faced with a quandary though about what to do next. It could just be converted into a book and sent out into the world, at relatively low cost, in order to reach a wider audience. This involves a considerable amount of marketing effort and none of my previous 18 books has ever gained wide reach or commercial success.
The other option I am mulling over is to train up Tour Guides to take others around the path. This again will take a considerable amount of effort. I did try doing this over a decade ago to no avail. I hadn’t of course developed the materials for the path then.
Such negative thinking can hold any artist back from really enjoying and celebrating their achievements. So I am going to pat myself on my back for completing what essentially the third in a trilogy of metaphysical tomes and my magnum opus.
Then the next thing I am going to do is nothing. The next move is to simply move back into the house, spend some time making it liveable and enjoying a new room with a spectacular view.
p.s. The ‘lungs’ of the house are being installed today – our MVHR system will help the house dry out by reducing humidity and introducing some distributed heat
p.p.s. The ladder to the new extension has been removed and we now have a staircase
After a blip last moonth where my voice left me and I had five days not eating or drinking much, the last orbit of the Moon has seen a return to form.
So my voice popped back and the muse came back to my door. This all happened all around the time Insight Timer finally launched Premium tracks (well sort of). You have to dig deep to find them so I’ve created a page on this site to curate them and give you direct access. Note that they are only available to Insight Timer Premium subscribers. This will be the place where I share serialised audiobooks and series of meditations and albums of music from now on. I will of course keep posting free tracks monthly.
This has a knock on effect. It means I don’t have to use Soundwise to host this material anymore but I will leave the content there for existing subscribers and purchasers.
What I will be doing is using Soundwise is to host, manage and support those walking along the Path to Overstanding with me. I am now just a moonth or two away from completing these materials. It has been a really engaging and rewarding project for me personally and I know many have already benefited from it.
When it is completed there will be over 100 audio steps of guidance in the Path to Overstanding and Cube of Overstanding soundcasts. There will be 23 Meditations on the Keys as well as 23 ambient tracks in the Arcanum album. All complemented by around the same number of Uberstanding conversations – along with a few explainer videos.
Next year will see the publication of the Tarot Deck of Overstanding, for which we are testing out an amazing platform called Deckible, which seems to be the answer to our prayers. More on this over the coming moonths.
What I am most excited about is what I have planned for 2024.
I will be writing to current subscribers shortly to tell them to cancel their subscriptions. They have helped me immensely by funding the platform and giving me feedback on the materials. They will continue to have access to the materials.
In addition, they will be invited to take part in a completely new and exciting initiative.
From today, the Path to Overstanding is available for self-study for a one-off investment of just $444.44. How do you set a price for something that is priceless and that works across multiple lifetimes?
Now that my house refurbishment is coming to an end, I will be taking on personal clients once again.
Firstly, I will create space to personally mentor around four clients a year, guiding them along the Path and supporting them in fulfilling their dreams.
Secondly, and most excitingly, those who have already walked the Path will be invited to train as ‘tour guides’ or ‘pathfinders’ to assist and mentor their clients along it too. There will be an investment of time and some money for this which I plan should come back many times over. So, as well as charging your own mentoring fees, we will share revenue from your clients who invest in the self-study pack.
If you are interested in personal mentoring or getting involved with this exciting initiative, get in touch here …
I have been blessed, on the whole, with good health for most of my life. Last week though, I was somewhat dealt a curved ball that really upset my apple cart when I came down with a sore throat.
It was so bad that it was painful to swallow anything so my liquid and food consumption went down to virtually nothing. What it also made me review was my ability to function with my life’s mission without a voice that could record audio.
Now I am sure there are many with much more severe afflictions of the throat, and other areas, that send their lives into a tailspin. I seem to be on the mend now and can catch up with my monthly commitments.
It did lead me to look at other options. I have already been playing with a kind of, but not quite, AI-based ambient music generator called Wotja. You can listen to something that it generated with minimal input from me here.
And here’s the dramatic effect the track that I named ‘Dreaming in Indigo’ had on one listener on Insight Timer :
“I have been meditating with you for a few years now and it’s been amazing to see how you have transformed your meditation practice. This was such a beautiful experience and a magnificent piece of work! So much detail, vibrations, movement, even color to this piece. I could feel movement and flight and peace, and relaxation. I think this is your best ever! Thank you for your creativity and for sharing. 🙏🏻💕”
The lack of a voice though lead me to investigate British AI text to voice engines. I found an intriguing one called Play.ht that even had a voice with the name of Thomas.
Then I dug a little deeper and discovered they can even clone your own voice from a 30 second sample. Here’s the 30 second sample I used to seed the engine.
[Note that this is a sample from my latest meditation on Insight Timer recorded while I had my voice intact]
What’s more, I then found it had a plugin for WordPress that allowed you to convert a blog post from text to audio. One of the benefits of this, of course, is to help create an alternate way for visitors to a web site to absorb content.
The two technologies together could of course be used for nefarious purposes to create deep fakes and even breach copyright. I have been a little sceptical about AI but I realised that they could be used to give a content creator a kind of immortality.
The lesson, of course, is a simple one. In all adversity lies opportunity. My condition is the inability to speak which I hope is temporary. What if more severe conditions visited a content creator’s door such as stroke, dementia or ultimately shedding this mortal coil?
In the meantime, let me share with you a synthetic audio version of this mindfully short moonthly blog.
P.s. and here’s the cloned audio version of this blog. I am very impressed it pronounce the non-English product name Wotja correctly though and, if you listen closely, you can hear the odd retention of breath in between sentences.
So our three month temporary rental has come to an end and we are now in the moho for the rest of Spring, all of Summer and we hope just the start of Autumn. The photo above is going to be our main location – one, cos of the view and two, as it is 3 mins drive to our house.
In other news, my audio studio has been reinstated which means that, at weekends I can record stuff (as no building work) and in the week write new stuff and edit old stuff. This is just perfect as I can keep the Overstanding project plate spinning. Also, Insight Timer are just on the cusp of launching ad hoc Premium content. You have to search for it at the mo but our profiles will be updated over June so it’s findable. I am in the beta release so have 8 tracks uploaded already see below.
It’s also inspired me to start a project I have had in mind for many years. One of my inspirations for my novel Soulwaves was Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. While not as funny as ‘The Guide’, the observant amongst you will spot the references, like Deep Thought and the teleporting dolphins.
To this day, the original radio show is by far the best version – better than the book, TV show or film.
In lockdown, inspired by the novel Soulwaves, I composed an album of ambient music to augment the book. Now is the time to merge the audiobook and album into a mullti-part ‘meditale’ … streaming soon exclusively via Insight Timer Premium. Watch and listen to this ‘space-time’.
When it comes time for extending yourself massively, you really need a strong support behind and underneath you.
Again, life is mirroring my art. In my metaphysical serialisation, the Path to Overstanding, the flavour of thought of extension features highly, as those walking the path with me expand their awareness and consciousness.
By way of physical contrast, piles have been sunk down by six metres and a massive steel frame is now sitting on top of them, poised to support our new ‘living space’.
In the front garden, a large hole has been dug to accommodate a 5000 litre rainwater harvesting tank. It is insurance against a warming planet to ensure we can water the garden and flush toilets.
Adding to all of this, at the end of the month of May, I am steeling myself to living in the motorhome for four to five months. To make this more palatable, we’ve acquired an air awning to give us extra space to hang out.
For most of this period, we will be close to our house so we can monitor progress. Most importantly, I’ll have my audio studio back in action so I can continue content creation. I am also hoping to get some reading and writing done. New locations often inspire new directions and openings.
On this front much is happening each month (and moonth) :
I write a daily Just for Today, inspired by the amazing artwork of Siri Opli
this gives me the script for the following month’s meditation which I upload for free on Insight Timer
where, shortly a huge archive of my back catalogue will be published under the new Insight Premium offering
I also try and upload a new ambient track each month but have held back on any Live events until the Autumn
in parallel with all of this, and sync’ed to the Moon Phases, I create four new assets for the Path to Overstanding – namely serialisation of the book, a meditation on a key, music inspired by the keys and an uberstanding conversation
All in all, a busy year and one that I am steeled for …
For the first time in well over a decade, I have started this year without much of a plan. I sense a New Dawn is coming, along with yet another death-less reincarnation.
What I am most excited about is what I have planned for 2024.
The lack of a voice though lead me to investigate British AI text to voice engines. I found an intriguing one called 
