"..thrilling and compelling."
The Mind Travelers
THE BLADE
JACOB GLASS
BEST SELLING AUTHOR OF
INVOCATIONS
"A fascinating and engrossing tale of love, death, forgiveness and ultimately self revelation."
Get the Book (Kindle Edition)
Dr. Ian Alexander, a prominent psychologist and Vietnam Vet, despairs after his teenage son, Josh, is gunned down on the streets of Southern California. As Josh lays in a coma near death, Ian instinctively seeks vengeance and flashes back on the killing he did in Vietnam. Ian loves Josh’s mother, Mariya, an environmental attorney, but he also loves Seth, an American Indian artist. As his inner tumult of guilt, rage and love threatens to disrupt the quest to save his son, Ian unconsciously calls for his estranged father, Obadiah in Missouri. Though uneducated, Obadiah has an astounding gift--mind traveling--the ability to join with a person on the deepest level of their thought.
Obadiah answers Ian’s call and comes to California to help Ian untie his knot of misery. Ian refuses his help calling the healer “psychotic” and blaming Obadiah for abandoning him as a child. As medical options seem less and less viable, Ian finally agrees to mind traveling with Obadiah with the hope of saving Josh. Through a mind travel odyssey into Vietnam combat experiences and Ian’s childhood sexual confusion, Ian and Obadiah discover the barriers to Ian saving his son. The harrowing love story builds to a crescendo, as Ian must choose between his son, self-hatred and vengeance.
The Mind Travelers
Overview
The Blade
"You do not have to believe in mental telepathy or universal mind or universal love to find this story thrilling, and yes, compelling… Some of the most vivid “time traveling” occurs as the man recalls in horrifying detail his experience in the battlefields of Viet Nam. He does not just remember the past, but his present day self, and his father, are back there in Viet Nam right in the midst of the time trip. This intensifies the effect, far more than a simple “flashback.” Time travel becomes a guilt trip of things best forgotten unless somehow forgiven. Even present dreams of revenge must be yielded up. The reader becomes so involved in the recovery of Josh, the unconscious young gun shot victim, that all means of healing and forgiving are embraced. It is a novel of suspense, compassion and yes, sex…exciting fiction.."
Book Review
Jacob Glass
AUTHOR OF
INVOCATIONS
"A fascinating and engrossing tale of love, death, forgiveness and ultimately self revelation. Richard Gayton’s, The Mind Travelers, leads us through the thin veil that separates us not only from the other side of life, but from each other as well. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Lee Jampolsky, Ph.D.
AUTHOR OF
HEALING TOGETHER
"Dick Gayton brings us all his expertise on the power of forgiveness and delivers a powerful story.”
"Combining time travel, passion and forgiveness, Dick Gayton makes his first novel an adventure that will touch your heart and intrigue your mind."
Beverly Hutchinson McNeff
MIRACLE DISTRIBUTION CENTER
Hugh Prather
AUTHOR OF
NOTES TO MYSELF AND LOVE AND COURAGE
"An inspiration. Hold it to your heart."
Acknowledgments
This book began as a waking dream with wild imaginings and was turned into a story through the support, kindness and courage of many people. Courage because friends and even writing colleagues don’t always know if an author wants to hear their truth. And they are not alone. The author knows he needs feedback, but quakes at the prospect. Anyone who has engaged in an original, creative pursuit knows the wavering doubt when they submit their precious idea to the opinions of those they trust and respect.
Through mutual trepidation and the intervening tonic of grace, these people have stood by me, taken the chance and helped in the birth of The Mind Travelers. I thank them with all my heart.
My publisher, Harold Dawley, Ph.D, of the Wellness Institute, Inc. who urged me to craft the waking dream so that it would transcend the darkness of violence and pull the reader up with it.
Douglas Matthews, Ph.D., Ralph Roughton, M.D., Jack Day, Maralys Wills, Judith Pillsbury, M.S., Maureen Crowther, Walt Golden, Darin Zakich, Maria Zakich for critiquing early manuscripts.
Steven A. Reid, M.D. for generous advice on medical issues, which I frequently followed, but at times strayed from. For the times when I went afar from strict medical reality, I invoke poetic license, which is as good a reason as any for doing what you want.
And to Vicki, my wife, who stood by me above and beyond the world of dreams and storytelling, heart of my heart.
For all who know me, remember this is a work of fiction.
Fritz Klein
AUTHOR OF
THE BISEXUAL OPTION
"“…a wonderful piece of fantasy fiction, so well thought out that we want to believe it’s true. This gripping tale of love, violence and compassion “tells it like it is” with a bisexual main character honestly negotiating the complexities of loving both a woman and a man. Ian reminds me of the courageous men I meet in the bisexual community."