Annie Wilder Interview with Jim Willis, Author of The Quantum Akashic Field

Here is my interview with Jim Willis, Annie Wilder Literary Agency client and author of many books, including the December 2019 release, The Quantum Akashic Field. From the first partial manuscript Jim submitted, I knew we would work together. I love his writing voice and his wide-open, positive attitude toward life. He’s a very knowledgeable, down-to-earth guy who’s had incredible shamanic experiences that he shares in this book. (Big bonus: Jim’s book was published by Findhorn Press. I’ve been fascinated with the Findhorn story since I was a kid and it’s kind of a dream come true to be working with them.)

AW: Tell us about yourself ~ where do live, what do you do for work and for fun? 

JW: I’m now at that delightful time of life when I can work for fun. Because I’m a writer, my work is my fun. It’s never a chore. It’s what I look forward to doing every day. A few years ago I took a bicycle trip down the length of the Savannah River, from the source to the sea. It was fun. But then I wrote a book about it called Savannah: A Bicycle Journey through Space and Time. That was more fun than the trip itself. 

AW: What led you to write The Quantum Akashic Field

JW: That was another example of fun coinciding with work. For many years I had been skeptical of folks who dowsed for water with rods or pendulums. I thought it was all poppycock. Nonetheless, one day I decided to try it myself. Why? I don’t have the faintest idea. One moment I was a skeptic. The next, I wanted to try it.

I went to the local hardware store, got some solid copper wire in the heaviest gauge I could get, cut it into two 18-inch pieces, bent them into a shape roughly like the letter “L,” and went from there. In front of my house I took the step that has probably changed my life forever. One step — nothing. Another step — the rods suddenly crossed, all by themselves. I asked whatever “Powers That Be” if I had found an underground stream. But no, when I stepped onto the area with water on my mind, nothing happened. The only way I could get the rods to move by themselves was to concentrate on earth energy.

I had, in fact, discovered a ley line, or what is now called an Energy Lay. Once the ice was broken — the skeptic converted, so to speak — the sky became the limit. Over and over again, with expanding confidence, I discovered that there was almost no limit to what I could discover about the “magical” outdoors that I had lived in all my life. I also discovered what I soon labeled a spiritual presence that I could actually commune with. 

In effect, without realizing it, I had stumbled by accident into the Quantum Akashic Field of potential and possibility. Once I discovered it and began to explore, I knew I had to write a book about the experience.

AW: In The Quantum Akashic Field, you state: “Unseen worlds glimpsed in dreams and visions comprise the very realms, spruced up with newly minted scientific vocabulary, that shamans, dowsers, and mystics have been exploring for thousands of years.” 

What was your first experience with the quantum Akashic field? What was (one of) your most dramatic or meaningful experience(s)?

JW: Shortly after I detected a specific spiritual realm through dowsing I began to practice conscious meditation with the intention of engaging out of body experiences. I wanted to explore this world and knew I couldn’t do it while fenced in by my physical senses. Although I had been a minister all my adult life I really never had practiced an intentional prayer life. That sounds strange to most people. They just expect clergy to be people of prayer. But it’s not the case. Clergy are no different from other people. They’re busy and always planning the next activity. But I had retired just for this reason. My first OBE, even though I had been seeking just such an experience, came as a surprise. After a lot of practice I eventually experienced what I call my initiation. I write about it the book. Here’s an edited version:

“I woke up in the middle of the night, feeling wide awake. I decided to meditate in the quiet of early, early morning. Almost right away I felt my consciousness separate from my body and float free … I found myself standing, perhaps even hovering, over the rock below our back porch, where two lines of earth energy intersect … Suddenly I was bathed in all the colors of the rainbow. I saw my astral body as if I was standing off to the side while still being present in it … My feet were rooted to the ground … They plunged into the soil, but my legs consisted of many different colors. It was the same with my head. It was connected to the sky, seemingly turning to colors that just went up and up.  

“I hung suspended in space, a body of rainbow light and color “connected” to the four points of the compass and the four places of power, above and below, left and right .. I was in the posture of crucifixion, and can only assume that Spirit took the familiar image of the cross to use as a metaphor that I would understand.

“I saw a line of male shamans on my right and female shamans on my left, two long, single lines of people, each carrying a goblet (dare I say “grail,” or perhaps “cup?”) filled with a boiling hot, very frightening, steaming, vial of liquid. They approached me with faces that were resigned but somehow loving. “Tough love,” certainly, but loving. They seemed to say, “What must be done will be done.”

“With that, they began to pour the contents of those hot, boiling, vile, (“sinful” seems to be the word that best fits) goblets of fiery liquid into me. Somehow I wasn’t afraid, but waited for the pain to begin.

“It never did! It didn’t hurt. There was no pain. Instead, I took the dark liquid into myself and somehow transformed it into light. The more they poured, the brighter and more brilliant became the light. It was Alchemy—turning lead into gold. I had, in the words of Christianity, taken into myself the sins of the world, and turned it into glorious light. I had accepted the hurt and pain and turned it into blessing. 

“I will never think about biblical crucifixion in the same way again.” 

There was more, but that’s enough for you to get the idea.

AW: Can anyone learn to explore this realm? Is it safe? What are the benefits of opening one’s perception on this way? 

JW: I’ve very rarely had a negative experience. Usually I don’t want to come back. But I’ve never used any chemical substances either, where I might have a quicker, easier journey, but without control. In meditation you can always snap back into your body whenever you want. As for the practical benefits, once you move into perfect peace and unconditional love, you lose your fear of death. After all, what is there to fear about going to a place you can’t wait to get to?

AW: I love it that this book contains snippets of your journal entries as you started down this path of spiritual exploration. Can you share just one example of the impact of your spiritual exploration and OBEs on your physical world/everyday life? 

JW: When I retired from ministry, I never intended to give God a rest. Like Jacob of old I wanted to wrestle with God,saying, “I will not let you go until you bless me!” They say confession is good for the soul, so I have a confession to make. I’ve never found anyone who I consider to be a saint, in the general sense of the word. Catholics elevate people to sainthood, and the theology of Protestantism considers all Christians to be saints, but that’s not how I’m using the word here. What I mean is that although I’ve met many, many people who claim they have figured it all out — many, many people who say they know “the way” — none of them have ever stood up to close scrutiny. Without exception they have not experienced God in the way I was looking for. I wasn’t seeking some hope based on prayer and coincidence or a reasoned explanation about why we must “live by faith and not by sight.” I wanted to experience the Holy. If God could condescend to speak to Abraham, Jacob and Isaac, I figured God ought to be able to talk to me as well. That’s why my wife and retired to the woods. We weren’t moving away from something. We were moving toward something. We built the home we now live in, expecting to spend one year in seclusion. So far, it’s now been more than ten. Days go by when we don’t see or hear anybody. Our spiritual retreat was deliberate. And it’s been successful. I’d love to report that we live in constant bliss. But that’s simply not the case. If anything, sometimes it makes things more difficult. The aches and pains of a body growing older with each passing year and the confusion of the world outside our gate don’t offer much incentive to the peace and love we find in The Akashic perception realm. Sometimes I get homesick and want to cross over. But that time will come. Until then, I am content. 

AW: In your journal entries, you share some of the vivid and lucid dreams you experienced and some of the helpful dream messages and guidance  you experienced. Are OBE’s and lucid dreams different aspects of the same phenomena?

JW: Yes. But that answer comes with a caveat. Language is a barrier when it comes to talking about spirituality, OBEs, and the Quantum Akashic Field. It was designed to describe things on this side of the fence. Over there, you can never say, “This is how things are.” The best you can do is say, “This is the way things seem.” I’ve discovered, having been a systematic theologian for much of my life, that I like things neat, square, and circumscribed in tight little boxes. But it doesn’t work that way. It’s very frustrating for a writer to say that words don’t always work, but that’s the reality.

AW: Are guides and guardians present/more easily perceived in the quantum Akashic realm? If so, what is their role? 

JW: I think spirit guides are always present. It’s just that we don’t usually perceive them. We spend most of our time stuck in a materialistic perception realm. We experience this realm through the five senses, guided by an intellect that has been trained over the course of a lifetime to explain what we perceive. We call this reality. But it’s probably more accurate to call it a self-conjured bubble. Reality is a lot bigger than our perception of it. The Bible talks about “unseen angels.” In my experience, that’s pretty close to the truth. Some of these entities are interested in us. Some even attach themselves to us. I doubt we could get through life without them, but we are usually unaware of their presence. I have also come to believe that some of these entities are a residual energy we leave behind when we come here to live our material life. In effect, they are “us” on the other side. 

AW: Tell us a bit about Sobuko, who you dedicated this book to.

JW: Soon after I began dowsing I became aware of such an entity. He is me/not me on the other side of the perception fence. Soon after I learned how to communicate with him using yes and no questions with my dowsing rods, the name Sobuko came to me in a waking dream and just stuck. I became convinced that was what I should call him. I have no idea what the name means, and I’ve searched really hard. Surprisingly, as I relate in the book, my wife has heard him when I channel his presence. But whenever that has happened, I am not afterwards aware what he has said. I learn about it only because Barb writes it down to read it to me when I “return to my senses.” As far as I know during those experiences, nothing has happened. I’m always surprised. Once, my daughter Jan was even able to record it. That’s probably a good thing. Otherwise I sometimes wonder if they’re just playing a trick on me, even though I know they would never joke about something like this. He appears to me to be an incredibly ancient Indian who once lived on the spot of ground where we now live. I’m aware of the fact that might just be an image my mind has conjured up to help me relate to an otherworldly entity, but I feel sure that when I die he will be the first to greet me on the other side. I’ve written a whole book about Sobuko that I hope will one day be able to express the depths of my gratitude to him. I feel like it’s the most important book I’ve ever written. 

AW: Anything else you’d like to add?

JW: Near the end of my life, I finally became convinced, through a long, involved process that I fought every step of the way, that our “higher self” — or perhaps “soul” is a better word — consists of nonmaterial energy that is connected to the material body, and that has taken on the “stuff” of matter for a while here on Earth. I also believe this incarnation happens for a purpose that has to do with interacting with the material universe, and is probably some kind of school. Here, while experiencing the illusion of separateness, we learn about the nature of this reality in a way we could never learn if we remained united back in the One. This is just a writer’s lengthy way of saying we have a purposeful life to lead. Make it count!

You can visit Jim online: http://www.jimwillis.net

Purchase THE QUANTUM AKASHIC FIELD:

At Amazon

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The Quantum Akashic Field

What a year this has been… lots of change, a significant amount of loss, and some unexpected new beginnings. I will share more about the changes in my life in a winter solstice post in a few days. (Dudley is doing well, just to allay that fear.)

I want to write today with some good news ~ another book release announcement for one of my Annie Wilder Literary Agency clients, Jim Willis. 

Jim’s book THE QUANTUM AKASHIC FIELD was released last week by the very cool Findhorn Press. (For my publishing world friends: Findhorn is now an imprint of Inner Traditions with distribution by Simon and Schuster.)

I was fascinated from the very first pages of this book when Jim submitted it for my consideration. It’s got all the elements I love ~ true personal experiences of the mystical, a secluded haven in the woods, spirit guide encounters, even some land guardian/earth energy wisdom. Jim also shares how readers can safely explore these elements of the quantum akashic field for themselves.

Jim is an excellent writer and a prolific author. Because of the breadth of his knowledge of mystical topics and his engaging way of telling stories and presenting information, he’s a popular guest on the top paranormal radio shows and podcasts. 

If you like my stories and events, please take a look at THE QUANTUM AKASHIC FIELD.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Quantum-Akashic-Field/Jim-Willis/9781620559536