drwill

Born and raised into a Strong southern Baptist family in the Midwest the author grew up attending church services three times a week for over ten years. Upon dropping out of high school at the age of 17 he enlisted into the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam Era. While in the Navy he began to study different religions including Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The author spent over a year practicing Islam and became disenchanted with the system of belief associated with this study. He then spent several years studying Zen Buddhism and several martial arts and found that he was no closer to understanding himself or our shared human reality. In the late Seventies he joined the Rockford, Illinois police department. After 12 years as a law enforcement officer/detective and withessing first hand our inhumane we treat each other he still struggled with who he was and what was his purpose on earth if indeed any of us had a purpose other than survival. In 1990 he resigned from law enforcement and began a quest for an understanding of the human condition. He enrolled in a community college and began an 18 year educational quest which culminated in earning a doctorate degree in Education in 2009. Throughout his life he struggled with the issue of God and religion. It was only during the summer of 2009 that the author came to an integrated understanding of spiritual and religious beliefs and how our connected consciousness with the universe could be understood and appreciated.