Author Q&A with Laurent Weichberger

Author Q&A with Laurent Weichberger

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Laurent was born and raised in Manhattan, where he came to know about Meher Baba in 1986. On January 31, 1999 Laurent co-founded a spiritual center with a mission to recognize and freely share the light of divine presence with one and all. Participation at these spiritual gatherings included people of all faiths, including: Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Pagan, Jewish, Islamic, Sufi and others. In July 2004, Laurent founded OmPoint Innovations with support from Don E. Stevens and subsequently launched the OmPoint International magazine to share Meher Baba’s message of love and truth, and continuing to honor all spiritual paths, in the spirit of Baba’s “Beads on One String” message. Since 2012 Laurent has been working professionally on Big Data app development with Apache Spark, Hadoop, Kafka, Cassandra, Python, Scala, and more.

1. Tells us about your writing/published book(s):

I have been writing since before I was in high school. I was asked to write my first book in the 1990s, and that book was published as A Mirage Will Never Quench Your Thirst (2003). It is basically a book geared towards the younger generations and trying to help them stop using drugs. I followed this up with an article, Ayahuasca this Way Comes (2008), because when Mirage was published, Ayahuasca was relatively unknown to many. After this, I wrote a series of books with my spiritual mentor, Don E. Stevens, who was himself a direct disciple of the spiritual master, Meher Baba. By God’s Grace, my daughter Aspen has been my editor on my recent books, and she has given me priceless guidance. I have also invited my wife, sister, mother, and son to contribute to my books. 

These books and some of the articles are:

– Meher Baba’s Word and His Three Bridges, by Don E. Stevens with Norah Moore and Laurent Weichberger (London: Companion Books, 2003)

– Mandali Email, by Bhau Kalchuri and Don E. Stevens (London: Companion Books, 2005), wherein I wrote Don’s part with him.

– Meher Baba’s Gift of Intuition, by Don E. Stevens & Companions (London: Companion Books, 2006), wherein I wrote a few chapters, some with Don and some solo.

– Sexuality on the Spiritual Path, by Don E. Stevens, Charles Haynes, Laurent Weichberger, et al (London: Companion Books, 2007). I followed this book up with an article, “On Rainbow Flags,” by Laurent Weichberger (2007) dealing with the gay pride flag as contrasted with Meher Baba’s rainbow flag.

– Celebrating Divine Presence: Journeys into God, by Laurent Weichberger, Yaakov Weintraub, Karl Moeller, et al (London: Companion Books, 2008), wherein I have a number of chapters, and it is based on a seminar I presented at and organized right after September 11, 2001.

– The Doorbell of Forgiveness, by Don E. Stevens and his young people’s group (London: Companion Books, 2011), which is based on a seminar Don gave us in Los Angeles, and contains a chapter by me about my personal forgiveness journey.

– Three Snapshots of Reality, by Don E. Stevens with Wayne Smith (London: Companion Books, 2014), wherein I wrote a biographical chapter on Don’s life.

–  Article: “The New Physics, Meher Baba, Don Stevens and the New Humanity,” by Laurent Weichberger ( Flagstaff: OmPoint International Circular #4, July 12, 2009 ), p. 11-16. http://www.ompoint.com/OmPoint_Circular_4.pdf

– Forgiveness with Meher Baba, by Laurent Weichberger & Companions (Wilmington: OmPoint Press, 2016).

– Surrender with Meher Baba, by Laurent Weichberger & Companions (Wilmington: OmPoint Press, 2020).

I also have a magazine, OmPoint International where I contribute writing from time to time, available here: http://www.ompoint.com/download.htm

2. Where’s your favourite place to write?

My heart.

3. How do you approach starting a new book?

When I was young I read the small book, Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke. I was interested in poetry since my father was a poet and painter. Rilke was asked by the young poet what to write about, and Rilke wisely encouraged him to write based on direct experience. I took this advice to heart, and since then I focus on my experience, to keep it real and honest. Some of the books came to me, in that I was asked to write, or help write them. Other books were more of my idea.

4. Do you do research for your books? If so, what kind of research? 

Yes, I do. It is rather fluid, and intuitive. Before I write, I invite Meher Baba to use me as an instrument of His Love. While I am writing I allow the intuitive voice to flow through me. While this happens, sometimes unexpected things come up and find their way onto the page through my fingers. If it is something that I feel is true, but know little about, I fortify the writing with research about the intuitive communication. Think of it as a confirming type of research. An exception to this was, A Mirage Will Never Quench Your Thirst: A Source of Wisdom About Drugs (2003). For research for that book I volunteered to help counsel drug abusers, in two court ordered rehab programs, and I worked at a drug testing company, to better understand the multifaceted issues around illegal drug abuse. I even performed comprehensive drug testing in two American state prisons. I tested the entire populations of two Arizona prisons, twice, with a prison SWAT team in the middle of the night, thousands of inmates, lasting until dawn. 

5. Tell me about your current work: 

My current work is: 21 Spiritual Lessons for the 21st Century: How to find peace amongst the constant fuckery and distractions, by Lakshmi Dady & Laurent Weichberger (planned for 2021). Ms. Dady interviewed me live for her Instagram show titled “Conscious Hotline” (@Conscious.hotline). After the interview there was so much synergy between us that I suggested we write together, and she agreed. Ms. Dady came up with the title and theme of the book. She will write eleven spiritual chapters and I am currently writing ten. We agreed she will interleave the chapters into a book. We already have the twenty one topics nailed down, and have commenced writing.

6. Tell me about your main character: 

Meher Baba is my “main character.” I have been writing non-fiction spiritual books based on the wisdom of my spiritual master Meher Baba, who I believe to be The Avatar.

You can find Laurent on Twitter.