{"id":257,"date":"2020-09-22T13:03:26","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T12:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/?p=257"},"modified":"2020-09-25T18:38:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T17:38:48","slug":"author-qa-with-laurent-weichberger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/?p=257","title":{"rendered":"Author Q&#038;A with Laurent Weichberger"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Author Q&amp;A with Laurent Weichberger<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*This post contains affiliate links*<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-259\" src=\"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Laurent_Weichberger_Head-236x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"236\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Laurent_Weichberger_Head-236x300.jpg 236w, https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Laurent_Weichberger_Head.jpg 736w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">Laurent was born and raised in Manhattan, where he came to know about Meher Baba in 1986.\u00a0On January 31, 1999 Laurent co-founded a\u00a0spiritual 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.\u00a0In July 2004, Laurent founded OmPoint Innovations with support from Don E. Stevens and subsequently launched the OmPoint International magazine to share Meher Baba&#8217;s message of love and truth, and continuing to honor all spiritual paths, in the spirit of Baba&#8217;s\u00a0&#8220;Beads on One String&#8221; message.\u00a0Since 2012 Laurent has been working professionally on Big Data app development with Apache Spark, Hadoop, Kafka, Cassandra, Python, Scala, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">1. Tells us about your writing\/published book(s):<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">I have been writing\u00a0since before I was in high school. I was asked to write my first book in the 1990s, and that book was published as <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3hQIJFg\">A Mirage Will Never Quench Your Thirst (2003)<\/a>. 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,\u00a0Ayahuasca this Way Comes (2008), because when Mirage was published, Ayahuasca was relatively\u00a0unknown 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&#8217;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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">These books and some of the articles are:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2FMoSKB\">Meher Baba&#8217;s Word and His Three Bridges<\/a>, by Don E. Stevens with Norah Moore and Laurent Weichberger (London: Companion Books, 2003)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2ZUYghb\">Mandali Email, by Bhau Kalchuri and Don E. Stevens<\/a>\u00a0(London: Companion Books, 2005), wherein I wrote Don&#8217;s part with him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/33PZ7Bf\">Meher Baba&#8217;s Gift of Intuition<\/a>, by Don E. Stevens &amp; Companions\u00a0(London: Companion Books, 2006), wherein I wrote a few chapters, some with Don and some solo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3mEcmgS\">Sexuality on the Spiritual Path<\/a>, by Don E. Stevens, Charles Haynes, Laurent Weichberger, et al\u00a0(London: Companion Books, 2007). I followed this book up with an article, &#8220;On Rainbow Flags,&#8221; by Laurent Weichberger (2007) dealing with the gay pride flag as contrasted with Meher Baba&#8217;s rainbow flag.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3mEUthR\">Celebrating Divine Presence: Journeys into God<\/a>, 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3iQcwzo\">The Doorbell of Forgiveness<\/a>, by Don E. Stevens and his young people&#8217;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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2ZXwKQa\">Three Snapshots of Reality<\/a>, by Don E. Stevens with Wayne Smith (London: Companion Books, 2014), wherein I wrote a biographical chapter on Don&#8217;s life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0Article: \u201cThe New Physics, Meher Baba, Don Stevens and the New Humanity,\u201d\u00a0by Laurent Weichberger ( Flagstaff: OmPoint International Circular #4, July 12, 2009 ),\u00a0p. 11-16. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ompoint.com\/OmPoint_Circular_4.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/www.ompoint.com\/OmPoint_Circular_4.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600763192215000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGZ1KrPYnguQiw5iNjTOL_cAL3H5w\">http:\/\/www.ompoint.com\/<wbr \/>OmPoint_Circular_4.pdf<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">&#8211; Forgiveness with Meher Baba, by Laurent Weichberger &amp; Companions (Wilmington: OmPoint Press, 2016).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">&#8211; Surrender with Meher Baba, by Laurent Weichberger &amp; Companions\u00a0(Wilmington: OmPoint Press, 2020).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">I also have a magazine, OmPoint International where I contribute writing from time to time, available here: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ompoint.com\/download.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/www.ompoint.com\/download.htm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600763192215000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFsNNEd4goOXQ8VjcRqQi86P2IdKw\">http:\/\/www.ompoint.com\/<wbr \/>download.htm<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">2. Where\u2019s your favourite place to write?<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">My heart.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">3. How do you approach starting a new book?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">When I was young I read the small book,\u00a0Letters to a Young Poet,\u00a0by\u00a0Rainer 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">4. Do you do research for your books? If so, what kind of research?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">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 href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3mDT8aZ\">A Mirage Will Never Quench Your Thirst: A Source of Wisdom About Drugs (2003)<\/a>. 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">5. Tell me about your current work:\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">My current work is:\u00a021 Spiritual Lessons for the 21st Century: How to find peace amongst the constant fuckery and distractions, by Lakshmi Dady &amp; Laurent Weichberger (planned for 2021). Ms. Dady interviewed me live for her Instagram show titled &#8220;Conscious Hotline&#8221; (@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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">6. Tell me about your main character:\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"; font-family: arial, sans-serif;\">Meher Baba is my &#8220;main character.&#8221; 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ac&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=ehollandautho-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=057873804X&amp;asins=057873804X&amp;linkId=38d41fa6c01842fef41e905c4877fb91&amp;show_border=false&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=false&amp;price_color=333333&amp;title_color=0066c0&amp;bg_color=ffffff\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><iframe style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ac&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=ehollandautho-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=0692722572&amp;asins=0692722572&amp;linkId=6fe0d0cb169df5c8187cf9c2d43bd0f1&amp;show_border=false&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=false&amp;price_color=333333&amp;title_color=0066c0&amp;bg_color=ffffff\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><iframe style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ac&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=ehollandautho-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=095250975X&amp;asins=095250975X&amp;linkId=f9229baaf1f7839f9e2ded033ef88a60&amp;show_border=false&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=false&amp;price_color=333333&amp;title_color=0066c0&amp;bg_color=ffffff\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><iframe style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ac&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=ehollandautho-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=0952509741&amp;asins=0952509741&amp;linkId=96ca25171c44f4a31fa83a1fcc792c0b&amp;show_border=false&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=false&amp;price_color=333333&amp;title_color=0066c0&amp;bg_color=ffffff\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/meherfalcon\">You can find Laurent on Twitter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author Q&amp;A with Laurent Weichberger *This post contains affiliate links* Laurent was born and raised in Manhattan, where he came to know about Meher Baba in 1986.\u00a0On January 31, 1999 Laurent co-founded a\u00a0spiritual 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.\u00a0In July 2004, Laurent founded OmPoint Innovations with support from Don E. Stevens and subsequently launched the OmPoint International magazine to share Meher Baba&#8217;s message of love and truth, and continuing to honor all spiritual paths, in the spirit of Baba&#8217;s\u00a0&#8220;Beads on One String&#8221; message.\u00a0Since 2012 Laurent has been working professionally on Big Data app development with Apache Spark, Hadoop, Kafka, Cassandra, Python, Scala, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Author Q&A with @meherfalcon","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[14],"tags":[9,13,12,11],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-author-interviews","tag-book","tag-indie-author","tag-self-pub","tag-self-published"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Black-and-White-Beauty-Quote-Pinterest-Graphic.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions\/334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethhollandauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}