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Urban Mystic: Discovering the
Transcendent through Everyday Life by Ken Mellor The Awakening Network Inc.
book review by Amber Whitman-Currier
"This is what we're here for—a community of people enjoying one another and sharing a spiritual way of living that makes a difference to us all."
Strange and adventuresome, Urban Mystic covers the life and times of Meditation Master, Ken Mellor, and his wife, Elizabeth. Ken is a spiritual mentor and master. In his youth, he experienced a life-changing event that led him on a complex search for spirituality. Through this journey, Ken and his wife meet three spiritual leaders Thakur, Krishna and a Divine Mother with profound effects.
Along the way, there are many descriptions of different meditation techniques that cause fantastical effects on people, such as glowing, floating, and other strange phenomenons. In one such meditation, Ken's body moved, twitched, and adopted various bizarre effects. His head shook and arms flailed, and he made loud noises. He also describes his sense of spacious transcendence when his body seemed to have dissolved. As if the meditations weren't enough drama, Elizabeth got caught in a firestorm while Ken was away and barely escaped with her life. This latter account is is both harrowing and touching.
Several years after Ken and his family established a community home with others of the same beliefs, there was a change in Krishna and the bond between the three was separated. Just prior to this break, Thakur's death dealt a horrible blow to Ken. Finally, a Divine Mother entered their lives, after a prolonged bonding period, and the results were among the greatest they had ever experienced. During a climactic moment toward the end of the book, Ken becomes ill and goes through a spiritual rebirth, transforming from old to young and then back again.
At the very least, Urban Mystic catalogues an incredible journey, but no matter what your beliefs, this book will take you on an adventure of the soul and the human spirit. In 1984, Mellor co-founded The Awakening Network Inc., a non-profit, educational, spiritually oriented organization with active members and associates in more than 30 countries. He has published numerous works in professional journals, magazines, and online; and has written, co-authored or contributed to sixteen books.