10  About the Author

Probably my least favorite part about the book is about the author. A good book, I think, should make the author disappear. The reader should be so engrossed in whatever the author has written that the identity of the author should matter little to none. Of course, that is an ideal world, where people do not want to make connections on projected images of identity. Usually, these parts of the book are supposed to tell you all about the author and what they do in their spare time, and what their life is like when they are not authoring. I suppose it humanizes them and gives you a window into their life that makes you feel like you understand something about them, although I am not sure how knowing where I live and what my hobbies are really helps anyone have any context as to who I am. For the sake of honoring the form of book publishing in the modern era, I will observe the ritual.

Most of my spare time I spend reading or tinkering with the boundaries of free information and my current computer. My college degree was in IT because they did not, surprisingly, supply a degree for Metaphysicals with a Masters in Meditation technique. So, I had to find something to do that people could then label me with, and IT was interesting in no small way because it allowed publishing and interaction with information which, in times past, would have required a library visit.

I therefore became decent at small network /medium network/large network care and maintenance, and learned to hate Microsoft Windows which put me on a decidedly Linux path. In a perfect world, I would probably be making my entire living from authoring various works as I have published poetry and have a novel length work I have written, but I am not really what you would call a “Great Marketer” in the sense that I do not enjoy pushing my work before people. I suppose many others lack that skill because being an author usually means you are rather solitary and not especially good or desirous of going out in crowds and being extroverted. Furthermore, if you have written some metaphysical work the market is usually smaller for that and unless it is something like “The Seven Secrets To Getting Everything You Ever Wanted” is probably not going to be widely read. What is an author to do that lacks a large, clear, audience? Find a publisher I hear you say! Yes, yes. Then there are the contracts, and losing rights over what you have written, and, and and…..

Put rather tersely, partly to do what you might want to do in the world first you need a million dollars. If you do not have that, you are probably going to need that. Lacking either of those, you had better prepare for a fairly hard road of trying to have other people understand why what you do should be valued and supported. Usually, this proves to be a difficult if not an impossible job, and so becoming a cantankerous, hermit-author is the best recourse. Fortunately, I am married, and I imagine my wife is one of the few things that keeps me from buying a wooden shack in Montana with my faithful sidekick dog, Striker.

Ironically, when I first developed this meditation, I was concerned with how best to try to help humanity not suffer. In hindsight, I realize more humanity, in keeping with the plot line to the movie The Matrix, KIND OF LIKES TO SUFFER as an addiction. It is somewhat like an aversion to having a soul or something. Call it a sign of the times, or the end of days, but I suspect you cannot reach that special status without having some other serious problems as a civilization. Nonetheless, there are likely some people out there somewhere that I do not usually meet that also do not like suffering and want to understand these mystical techniques. As opposed for the masses it is more for them that I write this book. Having said all of that, I have a cat named Holly who my wife and I retrieved from a tree as a kitten. I am not sure how she got up there, but she did, and she screamed. Good thing, because otherwise she would probably still be up within its branches. She is mostly a good girl, although she likes to meow loudly at inopportune times.

Finally, when I am “not taking the vax” and “not arguing about not taking the vax on Facebook” since I do not have a Facebook, I help maintain a small Church of believers in a more Messianic tradition. Now, before you say, “Hey, I’m interested in joining that” I am gonna tell you something unusual. I am not looking for anyone else to join it. It is a TON of work having a Church in this format, and I suspect all the people that are supposed to be in it are all ready here. If you want to donate to it or read some literature produced in part by it like this book, for instance, you can either purchase this book or contact me at jbschirtzinger@theroyalrainbow.com and say something pressing like “I would really like to give you money” which, I will swear to you, has never earnestly been said to me by anyone. If you speak crypto, I speak crypto. If you speak fiat, I speak fiat. If you speak gift certificates, yep, fork it over! If none of that, well, perhaps you bought the book. Thanks!

As to my future plans, I would say my biggest short term plan is to “survive the apocalypse” that everyone appears content on creating. I preferably would like to do that from a lake of water, or in a swimming pool where I can get some exercise in as 1/3rd of the world population explodes, implodes, or does whatever it has in mind. If there is one thing I have learned, you surely cannot stop humanity from destroying itself, and so I say, “Get on with it” so we can all move on to doing something else that is less uh, traumatic.

So there you have it. Now you know the author. Doesn’t that feel all warm and fuzzy and like you know me better and understand my work now? No? Well, that’s just one more illusion I guess. Better meditate on why you expected anything else.