"Our willingness to bring forth the subtle fields of our deepest hopes and inspirations links our lives to those of the mystics of all ages who have chosen the same course. And our belief in the price of imagination and in the daring of the human heart can and does literally rearrange the physical world, making everyday life a mystical process," writes David La Chapelle, a contributor to the Institute of Noetic Sciences Magazine, a healer for 25 years, a teacher at the Naropa Institute, and a leader of Wilderness Quest groups.

If we listen to the voice of the world, we hear the painful cries of species facing extinction and trees succumbing to disease and stress. If we look at the scientific evidence, we notice the decline in herring and ocean perch and all the dire effects of global warming on food production and distribution. La Chapelle is convinced that we can navigate the tides of change swirling all around us if we have vision. He turns to the wisdom of indigenous peoples: the courage of moral mentors such as Harriet Tubman, Jane Adams, Florence Nightingale, Black Elk, Teilhard de Chardin, and others; and the premier agents of change in our time — the mystics of the world. He says of the last group: "The stories of the mystics are shells we pick up along the shore of the spiritual ocean; hold them to our ears and we will hear the roar of the sea. I must warn you that contemplating the lives of these beings is fundamentally dangerous."

La Chapelle himself is a mystic who enables us to imagine the power of love to have a formidable impact upon the course of the future. He writes poetically about the ties that bind us together with all people, the generosity that is at the heart of nature's bounties, the firepower of intuition, and the compassion that animates us to becoming caring human beings. This author is a visionary who deserves a wide hearing.