Book: Science, Story & Spirit: Self Growth in the Age of AI

I’m writing a series of books that expand on the themes explored here on Science, Story & Spirit: Self Growth in the Age of AI. Piece by piece, they take a deep dive into the transformative intersection of self-growth, artificial intelligence, and grounded spirituality, uncovering the ancient, enduring, and real in the pursuit of authentic realisation.

In a world where technology and AI increasingly shape our lives, this book explores how we can engage with these forces to deepen our understanding of the self, not distance ourselves from it. Drawing from timeless wisdom and modern insight, I will attempt to guide you along the pathways of growth that go beyond quick fixes, rooted in profound and lasting change.

This work is an invitation to reconnect with what lies at the core of our human experience, offering practical tools, hard-won insights, and a blueprint for a life of purpose and vitality.

The real question is, how far do you want to go?

We all have a history, so it is also an to communicate how I arrived here, the intense flux between the scientific, the human story and the endlessly sublime realms of experience available to those willing to go the distance. I've tried separating "me" from this work before; it doesn't work. I'll try to be as honest as I can.

My spiritual story definitely began from day one, but it kicked up a notch when I chanced upon a book called "Conversations with God". It's alright. But to my 14-year old self, it was pure revelation.

Four years later, I met my teacher, Eric Pepin, Founder of Higher Balance Institute. It all started with my discovery of "Foundation"; back then, you had to start here. Not many attempts to modernise spirituality age well but, if you ask me, Foundation holds up just fine. It sure as shit saved me from the new-age spiritual nonsense I was getting into at the time.

Finally, here was someone who talked about science and spirituality as if they were the same thing, without falling prey to the traps that exist too far on either side of that spectrum.

Foundation - Higher Balance Institute

Eric reveals in The Foundation, the brain and the mind are two uniquely different things with entirely different functions.

Higher Balance Institute

Don't be fooled by how your initial impressions reflect parts of yourself back at you from their marketing angle. If you're looking for a true mystery school, like the ones of old, you've found it. A little caution would not go amiss; these are deep, ancient currents. And once you're in, that's it. Sure, you can leave, but it won't ever really leave you.

You'll know if it's looking for you, too.

You'll just know.

In a way, you could say this began my "Conversations with Eric". For reasons I shall explain in due course, after 3 years I drifted away, continuing on the quest for the truth in clinical psychology. "Conversations with People". Lot's of people.

But no matter how far I strayed from the course, or how many other paths or teachers I found, the conversation with Eric continued within my mind, heart, body and soul. These "words" managed to find their way into more or less everything I did. My ability to extract what I did from all those side roads was, in hindsight, largely if not completely due to the spiritual software I had installed prior.

The only exception to that rule would be a genuine Zen Master, the real McCoy, Daizan Roshi.

Our Founder Daizan Roshi - Zenways

Zenways founder Daizan Roshi

Zenways

It was him that gave me the dharma name "Kaishin", which roughly translates to "ocean heart". It took me about another 10 years after that to begin cultivating more heart, less head, just as Eric had suggested years before.

Names are powerful. If you let them, they can change your heart. Thank you Daizan, for helping to change mine.

It was Zen that helped me get my first taste of equanimity, to not lose myself in the ongoing conversation. I definitely needed that. I needed to see that, more often than not, I was just a storm in a tea cup.

But it could not solve the quantum paradox built into the ongoing conversations with Eric; to be honest, it was as much a wrestling match as it was a conversation, but of course, there was only one wrestler in the ring.

Me.

But here I am, two decades later - perhaps by the grace of God alone - finding myself in conversation that has come back round full circle, feeling at home again where I started. He opened the door for me, and somehow kept it open as I tried just about every trick in the book to close it or pretend it wasn't there.

But as he had so often reminded me, "you can't un-know what you know".

I won't get into all the reasons why just yet - that's for the book - but I have come to the conclusion that the only way you can thank someone for so radically altering the course of your life, is to try and find some way of radically altering the lives of others.

And to do a good job of it.

"Words are cheap. Show me the code" - Linus

As it stands, the book is currently dedicated to "the charge of the light brigade". My great-great-great grandfather, Amos Hallett, was one of about half that returned home that day, where men on horses charged at row upon row of cannons and muskets.

Clearly, had he succumbed that day, I would not be writing these words. That seems a worthy dedication, but if there was only one person I could dedicate it to, it would have to be Eric. It's taken me a really long time to figure out the ways how what he gifted to me evolved and matured into something that is truly alive; the forces that now animate these typing fingers are no more owned by me than this planet is owned by anyone that grew out from it.

Perhaps, by the time I am done, the dedication will have been re-written entirely, in the same way that my life continues to re-write what I thought possible. If you're lucky enough to meet a true fire-starter, well, expect fire. I'd stick around, if I were you. It's cold out there.

But I'm not done, far from it, just a few crappy digital scraps I'm cobbling together as I try to work out how best to talk about meeting the infinite to a very finite audience. Frankly, I have no idea what I'm doing, but something else does, so I will follow the white rabbit for as long as it continues to show up.

And you know what? It always does. It's not a creature, it's a choice.

First stop? "Conversations with AI"

The world is flooded with AI courses promising mastery through endless lists of "prompt hacks" and technical jargon. They often feel overwhelming, abstract, and disconnected from the human experience of learning.

'Conversations with AI' offers a fundamentally different path.

Designed specifically for therapists, healers, coaches, creatives, and anyone seeking a more intuitive, insightful, and human-centred way to engage with and master their relationship with Artificial Intelligence, we cut the chaff and build a foundation upon which your wonderful body can do the rest.

It doesn't hold a candle to Eric's material, but this is born of the same "DNA", if you like.

Eric showed me how it is our experiences make up the actual fibres of our being, and its through experiences that I aim to bring people into closer, felt, living contact with themselves, AI and everything is coming. You don't need to go out there and read 10,000 books, you just need to read some of the good ones and put in the repetitions. Everything is an algorithm, including enlightenment. Get ready to do some loops.

Eric has been talking about the relationship of humanity, spirituality and artificial intelligence for at least 35 years; I've had some time to get in the reps. Have you?

Things are going to get a little rough for a while.

It's never too late to start.

So, until the work is done, the most I can offer in an attempt to say thank you is my own attempt to not get lost or watered down what he had to say. This book is just one of those attempts. I've got a lot of ideas. Give me a wide berth; I'm going to need it.

Thank you, Eric.

If you’re ready to explore age-old principles that sustain true self-growth, woven with the fresh ad ever evolving possibilities of AI, I think you’ll find something enduring here.

Subscribe and stay tuned—thank you for being a part of this journey!

Science, Story & Spirit: Dedication (v0.1 pre-release)

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