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My Spiritual Journey in this Life
by Rick Wicker
My first “spiritual experiences” were in my twenties after dropping out of college and dropping in to the hippy/free love/drugs movement; and following Timothy Leary, Ram Das and others down the rabbit hole of halucinagenics and “mind altering” substances. I read “Be Here Now” during this period as well as the many Carlos Castaneda books on Don Juan. Several acid (LSD) trips later and I was open to almost anything that had another worldly quality.
I was led to go to Sedona, AZ, “the boot camp of the Gods”, with my soon to be wife, where we lived for five years. My only son was born in a trailer park 8 miles outside of town surrounded by red rocks. We were involved in an experimental, alternative religion called Mind Freedom. It was a commune of sorts where we worked during the day and at night attended classes and group therapy sessions. We were encouraged to look deep and try to change our programs. There was a lot of cultish brainwashing, fear and self-flogging. They threw everything at us of a metaphysical or psychological nature in order to open up our minds.
Recovering from Mind Freedom, I eventually arrived in beautiful Sitka, AK where I worked in a college kitchen, making cinnamon rolls. A girlfriend introduced me to the Seventh Day Adventists. This began a 6-year association with the church which included schooling and summer camps for my young son. We became vegetarians, worshipped on Saturdays (The Sabbath) and did a lot of bible study. After six years of organized Christianity I had had enough. But during this period, I received my bachelor’s degree in environmental planning.
After a long period in the spiritual desert working at a job I hated, I moved to Oklahoma to help take care of my quadriplegic brother, I slowly was nudged into a more spiritual life, I was introduced to Aurobindo and we started doing Tibetan heart yoga, and Kriya Meditations, and we have studied many of the new though gurus of the day including Gregg Braden, Joe Despenza and Bruce Lipton. So now I am trying to figure out if I’m an old soul or a fairly young soul. There are different opinions on that score. All I know for sure is that I’m a spiritual being temporarily living in the body of a human being.
