An ancient insight about higher human development states very simply: psychic development is not the same as spiritual growth. In the course of one’s spiritual growth—i.e., actualizing your potential for higher human development—there are dangers, dead-ends, byways and traps of which to beware.

A principal source of such difficulties is the failure to distinguish between the psychic and the spiritual. This lesson—the psychic is not the spiritual—has been given major emphasis in the teaching of all the world’s major spiritual and religious traditions.

All sacred traditions have made explicit warnings about it and have formulated doctrinal statements and instructional practices to guide people safely along the path to enlightenment and God-realization.

This book can help you to become more sensitive to the spiritual realm, to distinguish it from the psychic realm, and to be more knowledgeable about both. I also offer what I think are sensible, prudent cautions which ought to be taken by those who seek psychic development.

JOHN WHITE is an internationally known author in the fields of consciousness research and higher human development. He has authored 15 books, including The Meeting of Science and Spirit, A Practical Guide to Death and Dying, Pole Shift and the forthcoming Enlightenment 101. He was also General Editor of Omega Books (published by Paragon House), which is devoted to works about the nature of ultimate reality and higher human development.

His writing has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, including Reader’s Digest, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Esquire, Omni and the San Francisco Chronicle.

John was born in 1939, served four years as a naval officer, was director of education at The Institute of Noetic Sciences, founded by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, to study the human mind for personal and planetary transformation. Holds a bachelors from Dartmouth (1961), a masters from Yale (1969), and taught English and journalism at college levels.  He and his wife Barbara have been married for more than 50 years. They have four children and five grandchildren and live in Cheshire, Conn., USA