Hello! I am "J. Rainsnow", the author of the Rainsnow books. Of course, "Rainsnow" is not my "real" name, it is a name connected with my inner spiritual life and visions, signifying the act of falling (coming naturally) from the sky (symbol of the spirit realm) to the earth. Hopefully bringing (expressing) some of that life-giving spirituality here.  The name, which came to me during trance, not in the form of words but in the form of imagery and an understanding about that imagery, reflects the idea that we often "get in the way" of our divine energy, become disconnected from our spiritual nature and lose the gifts we are meant to bring to the earth, by succumbing to our fears and social conditioning, and by drowning out the truth we come from with the loudness of our struggles, and the sometimes distractive nature of our dreams.  The image of falling snow and rain is the opposite of the metaphor of struggling up the mountain to reach truth and wisdom; a reminder that we already come from the truth, and that all we need to do is let ourselves come from it.  This is not a dismissal of the hard work needed to develop ourselves as spiritually-empowered human beings, but rather, a reappraisal of where the effort needs to be put.  We do not need to be who we are not, only to rediscover who we truly are, and return to it.

I think it is important to make clear, at the very outset, that I do not come here presumptuously, as a "messiah type", in spite of the prophet-tone that sometimes surfaces in certain trance-generated passages of The Message of Rainsnow, when a voice more powerful and confident than my waking voice insisted on being heard. I am just one of many people trying to help the world as I can, a man with strong ideas and vivid visions of the dark and light, very human, plagued (and enriched) by doubts, marred (and humbled) by weaknesses.  Nor do I come here from an exclusively spiritual point of view. I am internally motivated by my spiritual understanding, but also by basic human traits that are shared by people of many different faiths, the world over, and by many rational, non-religious people as well. I seek to cooperate, on many different levels, with many different kinds of people, united by compassion and concern for our human future.

In the battle between Science and Religion, I do not take sides. I believe in the importance of fusing intuition with reason, mysticism with common sense, and spiritual insight with earthly knowledge; of finding ways to balance and move between "conflicting" worldviews, without becoming either intellectually anemic or spiritually paralyzed. I believe neither in the premature adjustment of tensions - internal peace obtained by clipping the wings of truth - nor in the helplessness of leaving oneself at the mercy of mutually-annihilating opposites.  It is a difficult but critical art:  the art of successfully relating to very different dimensions of existence in the same life, without becoming lost or powerless in any one of them.  As I see it, it is the human way of being a waterbird, who floats on top of the water, then dives beneath it; who rests on the surface of the land, and then flies above it; who is connected to earth, sky, and water, and understands how and when to use each of these mediums.  It is this art which I believe in most of all, and which I seek to perfect.

While, on the spiritual level, I see myself as driven by a series of Native American past lives, which have given me a different sensibility regarding our modern civilization, and imparted to me a mission from the past, I am also very much a part of this time, and able to relate to it on its own terms. Which is just my way of saying that even though the past has widened my perspective, and deepened my awareness, I see the world I live in with the eyes of the present, not through the lens of any other place or time.  For those who worry - "O no, another one who's gone off the deep end!" - I can only, once more, offer the reassurance that I believe in a balance between rational and mystic thought, and that I accept my own past-life visions (which came to me during a series of past-life regressions, and years of dreaming) as personal truths which motivate me, but which no one else has to believe, and which may be either: psychological metaphors/fantasies reflecting elements of my life and human experience; genuine remembered fragments of historical reality; or alternative forms of "spiritual communication."

In terms of my personal history, in this life I was born in the U.S.A., in Los Angeles, California. But the city around which my life has revolved has been New York: a city that a whole book could not explain, filled with beauty and ugliness, with hope and despair, with magnificent dreams flying towards Heaven, and pieces of broken dreams being swept up from the street.

For years, I pursued the "artistic dream" here, struggling to write novels, short stories, poems, and songs, to publish, be recognized, start a band, affect the world. Underneath it all was a primal craving to be loved, and an idealistic urge to right wrongs and transmit a new consciousness to society; to fall and rise in art, and carry my generation with me, from low places, into the light.

No doubt, I was inspired by the art of the Beatniks, and the 60s folk musicians and rock bands, though I had serious reservations about some of their work, even as I received their influence.

At this time, I also explored various political movements, human rights movements, and solidarity movements, seeking to find some way to help others that also worked for me. But I often ended up feeling "not quite right" about the situations in which I found myself - like I was being herded down a path that was not quite my own.

Of course, through all this, I also had to survive. Although I had a solid university education, majoring in Political Science (and specializing in Latin America), I threw much of it away, like many of my generation. Inner dynamics impeded me from gaining the maximum benefit from my credentials, and I survived by working as a New York City messenger, working in a factory and in bookstores, and working as a substitute teacher, and then as a "regular" teacher, in the New York City public school system.

Somewhere along the road, my spiritual path opened up and blossomed. (How it developed in the queen city of our very materialistic, rational culture, is one of the main themes of The Journey of Rainsnow.) During this time, I learned the art of hypnosis, and became a certified hypnotherapist; I explored my inner spiritual world by means of self-hypnosis, and also studied the tarot. Perhaps, most importantly of all, I deepened my ability to understand human beings, and learned to be more tolerant of those I did not agree with; to refrain from making premature and overly harsh judgments of people whose behavior, at first, offended me, seeking ways to reach them, instead. (Of course, I was not always successful!)

Now, thanks to evolving technologies - which include the Internet, and new Print-On-Demand/electronic publishing capabilities - I am finally able to break through the silence that kept me isolated for so many years. I am finally able to share my life and soul.

As time goes on, I hope to find out more about you, and to begin to work with some of you on the incomparably important project of healing our wounded earth, and rescuing the endangered promise of our great human family.

For more about my books, click here: The Rainsnow Books

For more on my project to help to transform and heal our world - a project I hope you will consider joining - click here: The Rainsnow Project.

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