Firetop

About ten years ago I went through a transitional point in my life, one which stole away the future path I thought lay before me and put me into a bit of a depression. At twenty-one years of age and in good health ‘depression’ is probably too strong a word compared to those facing some uphill battle with a terminal illness, but it was a traumatic time for me; my life was turned upside down and left lacking purpose, I felt all alone in the world and I had quite a few debts to face on my own. It was during this period of depression and self pity that I had something of a religious experience which lifted me way above my gloom and helped guide me to where I am today. Maybe I’ll blog the religious experience one day, but what followed it were some unusual opportunities offered up by the universe and one of these was a book by Dan Millman called ‘Way of the Peaceful Warrior’.

This was a story about a young Californian man (Dan Millman - the author) who in his late teens had been striving for a goal and purpose. He discovered a philosophical forecourt attendant (Dan calls him Socrates) who helped guide him through a period of spiritual awakening. Socrates teaches Dan to appreciate the finer things in life and unbeknown to Dan, prepares him to cope with having his future path also stripped away from him in a motorcycle accident. When I read this book I was quite addicted, I found myself very easily able to relate to Dan in almost every way and it was only the third book I’d ever read which I couldn’t put down (the first was ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ which sadly doesn’t say a lot!). The book came to me via my evening marketing class tutor, I can’t even recall how he came to think it would help me - I must have looked depressed. After I read Way of the Peaceful Warrior I wrote an email to Dan Millman thanking him for his book and explaining a little about how much I was able to relate to it. A few days later I even got a reply from him - so that was nice.

Last year the book was made into a film, it ran in several US cinemas but didn’t make the international scene; sadly there isn’t a great deal of box office money in philosophical tales of enlightenment. Thankfully this year Amazon began selling the DVD in the US and I imported a copy to see for myself whether a film could live up to the book in quality without turning cheesy. Having switched the DVD player over to Region 1 on the iBook, Suzie_Q and I sat down to watch the film together on Saturday evening and weren’t disappointed. Nick Nolte does a fine job of playing Socrates and the film is well directed, I’d liken it very much to American Beauty or Magnolia in its appeal and message. There are of course many things missed which the book otherwise covers in some detail, but on the whole it’s definitely worth watching if spirituality or Dan Millman is your bag.

Dan Millman has gone on to write a few other books since this first one, I’ve read the follow-up ‘Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior’ and more recently ‘The Journeys of Socrates’. I picked up the latter title at the Mind, Body and Spirit festival in London a couple of years ago, Dan was running a two hour session there which was why I attended, he even kindly autographed the book for me. I know lots of people can be quite pessimistic about the whole ’self-help’ spiritual scene, I myself am a little dubious about the more ‘hippified’ crystal wielding looneys one comes across at places like Mind, Body and Spirit. However, I know that there is a place for spirituality in all our lives, it’s often difficult to make time for it, sometimes scary to even start facing up to discovering things you prefer to ignore, but in my opinion Dan Millman is a good place to start.

Technorati Tags: dan millman, way of the peaceful warrior, spirituality, socrates, mind body sprit, religion, philosophy, yin and yang

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