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Two-Strangers – One Soul

Two-Strangers – One Soul

 By Bob Norton

twostrangersApril 2007. I was 59, enjoying a life of undemanding ease. Two friends called round for a chat. We hadn't known them long and we talked the usual, harmless exchange. Quietly, Tom started to describe people who were standing between myself and my wife, people who weren't there. One person he described was my wife's former fiancé who had died suddenly some 20 years earlier. Tom even gave his name. We had been in the south of France for a year and neither of us had spoken to others of our former lives. Strangely, on reflection, this experience seemed quite 'normal' and relaxed. Little did I know then that my life of quiet comfort was going to take off in a different direction.

 

Tom described himself as a medium, the other a psychic healer. They invited us to a séance. When we asked why us, they said it was because we were ready. We forgot all about it for a while and then, when they repeated the offer, we thought why not. The séance was a revelation for both of us, starting a new, unending journey of exploration and discovery. Conversations with Spirit continued and deepened, covering our past lives, apart and together, giving stark warnings of 2012, how life on Earth would change, how my wife would be a medium and me a writer.

 

I found myself suddenly confronted with all kinds of proof of life after death, proof that stared me in the face, proof that spoke to me of thoughts that were mine alone, proof that was sometimes loud in my ears. The thought came to me - if there is life after death or rather lives after deaths, what is the purpose of being here and now? That question became something of a compulsive mystery.

 

Over weeks and months I started to reflect more searchingly on what I had called 'success' in my life. On the one hand there had been a relatively smooth history of jobs although collectively calling them a career path was something I could not bring myself to do. On the other hand, there was the private me with expectations that were rarely met, with undisclosed fears of an uncertain future, with happiness that seemed shallow or fleeting and with self-inflicted suffering which filled my mind along with unending, empty clutter from a past which seemed all too present. None too gradually the rock I had made of myself became hollow inside.

 

Stilling the clutter and noise from the past took a while but, in time answers came from voices which didn't seem to be mine.

 

Two Strangers - One Soul is the story of an awakening and the account of a journey which attempts to make sense of the questions and enigmas which perplex, cause anxieties and create stress.

 

The book tells the story of the narrator who comes across a chance acquaintance. He immediately strikes up a rapport with the stranger who appears to know all about him. The narrator is struck by the compelling and informed nature of what the stranger has to say. They embark upon a series of dialogues which comprise the fears, hopes, concerns and aspirations of the narrator, indeed, of all of us. These conversations are interspersed with dream sequences with a second stranger. The content of the dreams often reinforces a recent conversation, revealing an alternative setting or perspective.

 

Each chapter focuses on a value or concern which is central to human existence, some of which we all get wrong most of the time. These values or concerns are crucial to the re-building of human life on Earth. Whether 2012 is the outright disaster foreseen by the prophecies or not, the world still needs re-building.

 

You don’t have to be a prophet to see that breakdown is fast approaching on every level of personal, social and economic life. Many current nation states and their governments are inadequate and no longer viable. Industries devouring fossil fuels will soon be obsolete. Nature is groaning at the strain of supporting seven billion of us, yet we only tinker around the edges of our destruction of natural resources. Hunger is trapping more and more of the poor at an alarming rate. It is astonishing to realise that the world’s population has doubled since the late1960s. With too many of us living on finite resources, we have not changed our behaviour towards each other, or towards the planet which sustains us, in recorded history. The depletion of resources merely gives us extra incentive to fight more on every front, with self, power and greed still uppermost in the forces which drive us.

 

When some mention change, most of us still close our minds, smile and walk away, caught up in and blind to the 'economic progress and development' trap which we have invented as the 'only' way to live. While the have-nots multiply, we create indices to measure how much they are not having.

 

The book holds that each and every one of us is responsible not only for ourselves but also for the conditions in which we find ourselves. Nobody else is responsible for my life, nor leading it for me, nor creating the circumstances in which I find myself. The narrator gradually recognises this, as the ‘stranger’ he meets draws this out, chapter by chapter, with questions that probe and push for re-evaluation from within instead of loading blame and excuses on everything outside. And, chapter by chapter, he elicits and suggests solutions – solutions which are at times simple, at times strong, even harsh, at times soft and heart-warming, and at times obvious and straightforward. But caring; all of the solutions are loving and caring.

 

Towards the end, the narrator begins tentatively to strike at his own answers and the stranger knows that this particular journey is coming to a close.

 

Just as this part of an individual journey closes, so too will the old ways disappear, or be wiped out, and many will recognise and know this. We shall live according to new values, not based on greed, power and destruction, but based on love, understanding and co-existence. The diverse aspects of these three values form the storyline and subject matter of this book.

 "Through dialogue and dreams the author communicates simple and creative ways to free ouselves from fear and anxiety and shows us how to live a life of hope and imagination.  I can recommend this book wholeheartedly."  Satish Kumar, Editor Resurgence magazine.

"Two Strangers tackles a leading edge topic with great sensitivity and an enticing style that brings the reader to a point of gentle reckoning with him or herself"  Dena Michelli, Author of A Woman's Way.

"Two Strangers is an honest, open and highly readable look at one's self".  Vicki Clarke, Spiritual Healer, Medium & Reiki Master.

"This book gently, but firmly, challenges us to re-balance our scale of values in the Western World."   Dawn Tame, Reiki Master

"This is one of the most inspirational books I've ever read, combining philosophy, spiritualism and quantum physics within the dialogue of an easy to read, enlightening and refreshing book."   Deborah Brown, Managing Director, Suga Brown Creative Arts.

 

Two Strangers - One Soul, Bob Norton, Roundfire Books, 9 December 2011.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Strangers-Soul-Bob-Norton/dp/1846949920

 

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