Regaining Paradise: Forming a New Worldview, Knowing God, and Journeying into Eternity received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Paul Corson.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Regaining Paradise: Forming a New Worldview, Knowing God, and Journeying into Eternity. Published in 2020.
What’s the book’s first line?
We’ve all had things happen to us that we cannot easily explain to ourselves, much less to others. It may have been a flashing feeling that we can’t put into words, something that we find ourselves describing as strange or eerie, a feeling that there is something more that’s not tangible out there, something that would be fulfilling but lies just beyond our grasp.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
The book is about adding another dimension of understanding to our lives that involves seeing ourselves from within a much larger perspective. The book is about reprogramming the way we see ourselves, which is primarily as being a physical individual. Using reason and science, the reader is led to recognize that the material that constitutes Earth and our bodies are not creative in any stretch of the imagination. To encourage the reader is given reason to understand that because our mind and our conscious sense of first person physical–that is emblematic of being alive–is not material in nature, but are in fact spaceless and weightless, their origin had to be beyond the natural universe. The universe’s activities are limited by the conservation laws, which cannot be overridden, unless by something that is beyond the universe, an unnatural force. The role of this unnatural force in our lives is described throughout the book, leading to the reader understanding that this force is wedded to us. It keeps us alive and is responsible for the weightless, spaceless mind.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Five years after my series of two vision experiences, I was in a state of limbo, denying the information that I had received. Then by chance I read Gregg Easterbrook’s article in The Atlantic, Are We Alone” which spurred me to write the book. The article’s focus was SETI (the search for extraterrestrial life). In the article Easterbrook declared that if we made contact with extraterrestrials that had made contact with God and was willing to tell us what they had learned, “human society would shake to its foundations.” I knew I had not met God but still, I believed that I had been “reached” and that I was compelled to share the knowledge I had been give. From that point on I felt compelled and inspired to write this book.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
I want to have people understand that they indeed are veritable miracles due to the definition of that word: An event that could not happen unless it was caused by a supernatural force, a force that is infinitely creative. When we realize this truth about ourselves, our core self image changes and our actions change. We have a sincere respect for ourselves and for others. Each of us is a divine expression of a force that is beyond common imagination. We all share in the divine life giving energy, the light that leaves our eyes at death.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
Tom Hanks.
When did you first decide to become an author?
After I read Gregg Easterbrook’s article in The Atlantic
Is this the first book you’ve written?
My first book was Touched by God: Search for Higher Truth.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I’m a retired pharmacist.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
About eight hours a day that is when I’m engaged in a writing project
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
It’s being involved in a creative activity and working with creative people.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Keep on truckin’. Give your project your all.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
It would depend on the goals of the publisher.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
To make a difference in the way that people perceive themselves.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Howard Fast.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Don Quixote.