CRYSTALS, CROSSES, AND CHAKRAS: A WOMAN'S MYSTICAL EMERGENCE

Wilma Wake recounts her own remarkable transformation as she followed her inner voice over the past three decades. Rejecting her parents' traditional Christianity, moving through Eastern and New Age philosophies, and now embracing a relationship with the Divine that stresses social commitment, Wake reflects the longings and confusions that are part of growing to spiritual maturity.

A car crash in 1972 left Wake in constant pain, pain that led her to yoga and breathing exercises. Deep, mystical experiences began to arise that troubled her rational mind. She underwent strange, psychic states of consciousness and sought to understand the mystical forces causing them. Wake studied Christian and Sufi mysticism, participated in Unitarian-Universalism and Episcopalianism, and finally found her perfect home in the Swedenborgian church, which offered rational explanations for her nonrational experiences.