Mystic | Nude swimmer | Chocolate addict | Sleeps under stars | Irish humour |
Tanis Helliwell
TANIS HELLIWELL is a mystic in the modern world who has brought spiritual consciousness into the mainstream for over 30 years. Since childhood, Tanis has seen and heard elementals, angels, and master teachers in higher dimensions. Wanting to assist others with their spiritual transformation, she conducted a therapy practice specializing in spiritual transformation for 16 years, and has led tours and walking pilgrimages to sacred sites for over 20 years.
She has presented at conferences alongside such leading new thought luminaries as Rupert Sheldrake, Matthew Fox, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Gregg Braden, Fritjof Capra, and Jean Houston. To develop spiritual intelligence in the mainstream, Tanis also worked for almost 30 years as a consultant to business, universities, medical organizations and government. Her clients include IBM, McKinsey and Company, David Suzuki Foundation, International Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans, University of Calgary, The Banff Centre- Leadership Programs, Alberta Medical Association.
In January 2000, she founded the International Institute for Transformation (IIT), which offers courses in spiritual transformation to assist individuals around the world to become conscious co-creators and guardians of our world. She is the author of several books including: The Dragon’s Tale, The Leprechaun’s Story, Manifest Your Soul’s Purpose, Decoding Your Destiny: Keys to Humanity’s Spiritual Evolution, Hybrids: So you think you are human, and High Beings of Hawaii.
https://www.tanishelliwell.com/about-tanis/
My 10 Best
(In no particular order)
The Lost World of the Kalahari
This is the first book I remember reading as a pre-teen that affected my day-to-day life. I was so moved that I wrote to the author to express my shock at the fate of the bushman and asked if there was anything I or anyone else could do. He never wrote back. It was the first time I realized that all humanity is interconnected and to feel a sense of responsibility for others less fortunate than myself. Also, I learned how important it was to respond to inquiries and always answer emails that others send me about my books. Never having re-read this book, I can’t say if it would still be of interest to me, but I think It would still be an important book to read, as any book about our vanishing brothers and sisters around the world is important.
Childhood’s End
I was born seeing and hearing other realms, and by the time I was in secondary school, I felt very alone and wondered if anyone else could see and hear the other realms that I did. I read a great deal, mostly historical fiction but somehow picked up Childhood’s End by A. C. Clarke. This book was my introduction to science fiction, which became an obsession during my teenage years and I still love reading it today as science fiction often points the way to what will manifest physically in the near future. The topic of this book introduced the idea of other sentient races of beings that might impact on humanity and decades later I remembered this when I wrote Hybrids: So you think you are human. I wouldn’t recommend this book to others as I don’t know if it would appeal but it was meaningful to me.
Four Quartets
The common theme in these four interconnected poems is man’s relationship with time, the universe, and the divine. Eliot blends his Christian background with mystical, philosophical and poetic works from both Eastern and Western religious traditions. I studied this when I was in my fourth year of an English degree at university. Other poets and poems have moved me over time but nothing as deeply as Four Quartets. For me, it is a journey through the dark night of the soul, something I specialize in my own life and in assisting others. The journey leads to consciousness and bliss and this poem described this in a blend of Christian and Indian terms which are two traditions that touch my heart. I would recommend this poem, especially if you are interested in the Christian mystical tradition.
Cosmic Memory
Cosmic Memory, which I read in my early 20’s, was my introduction to “spiritual books.” Steiner talks about Atlantis and Lemuria and the spiritual evolution of humanity. I was already glimpsing past lives and what I experienced was confirmed in Steiner’s writing. He founded anthroposophy (the study of man and his purpose) and many of his followers feel comfortable with my books on elementals as it agrees with his work. I did not realize this, however, until I began working with elementals and writing about them in Summer with the Leprechauns in my mid-40s. Although I am not an anthroposophist, my lifetime work to assist with the evolution of consciousness with humans is aligned with Steiner. Steiner is not an easy read and the writing style is old-fashioned. If you are fascinated by Atlantis and Lemuria, however, and are more interested in content than presentation I would recommend this book.
The Mists of Avalon
Back to novels and this time fantasy…an imagined history of King Arthur, the knights of the Round Table and this time told by the women of the story and especially by Arthur’s sister Morgan who is a powerful woman with mystical gifts. I identified with her as a mystic and healer who is betrayed by the patriarchy and who eventually destroys their world. I read this book at a time when I was strengthening my mystical gifts but also stepping out as a management consultant world in a man’s world…that of IBM, accountants, and banks. For over 30 years I was a consultant and tried to bring spirituality into the mainstream just as Morgan did. The Mists of Avalon is a must for woman especially but also for anyone interested in the Arthurian tradition. It bridges the genres of history and fantasy excellently.
Pathways Through Space
On August 7, 1936 Franklin Merrell-Wolff awakened. For a hundred and one years, this process of Awakening continued. At its culmination, Merrell-Wolff had developed the ability to enter a state of infinitely expanded consciousness. Pathways Through to Space offers a coherent, practical guide from a personal account on how to reach higher consciousness. There were only three books I took to Ireland when I went to meditate to become enlightened and experienced the leprechauns instead. The books were The Bible, Dante’s Inferno and Pathways Through to Space. I had the good fortune to meet Dr. Wolffe a few years previously and was catapulted into an altered state by his energy alone…something that had never happened with any other spiritual person. He was the real deal. His book is not well- known and it deserves to be. It is especially helpful to mental types who want the path to consciousness described in some detail.
A Path With Heart
I read this book in my 50s at the end of two long-term relationships and many years of meditating when I no longer wanted to follow the Tibetan tradition of countless gods and goddesses. A Path with Heart introduced me to insight meditation which suited my introspective nature and assured me that it was possible to become enlightened this way by living in the world but not of it. It is a compassionate, profound book written by Jack Kornfield a deep seer and seeker. I would recommend this book to anyone on the spiritual path as it is well- written, current, accessible, with great stories and examples.
The Untethered Soul
A great book for merging psychology with spirituality. Singer focuses on how our thoughts and feelings affect our energy and happiness and he takes us on a practical route on how to analyze ours. Not only did I read this book myself, I led year-long study groups on both The Untethered Soul and his next book, The Surrender Experiment. Not all writers have experienced what they are writing about in theory. You deeply feel that Singer does. The Untethered Soul is a great self-help guide for those folks who want to study by themselves and it also works well for group study. I am a psychotherapist by training and I had a practice for 16 years specializing in spiritual transformation and I find this book accurate in all its teachings.
The Gene Keys
By the time I was introduced to the Gene Keys about eight years ago, I was tired of spiritual books. I only wanted to meditate and receive my insights directly. I felt full of other people’s ideas and was in a simplifying, stripping process. Yet, a friend I respected highly recommended the book so I read it. WOW. It’s a brilliant blending of scientific information about DNA, psychology and spiritual teaching based on the I Ching. . . all that we can apply in our own lives to see both our shadow patterns and our genius. I refer to Richard Rudd as the new Carl Jung and highly recommend not only this book but all his work. I was fortunate that he wrote the foreward to my book Good Morning Henry: An in-depth journey with the body intelligence which also links psychology, spirituality and science but in a totally different way.
Autobiography of a Yogi
I first read the Autobiography of a Yogi in my 30’s and loved it as a personal story of an enlightened Indian yogi, his trials, humour, compassion and unwavering commitment not only to his own enlightenment but to that of others. Decades passed and I read many of his other books of talks and, while finding them inspiring and informative, I did not feel drawn to commit to Paramahansa Yogananda as my spiritual teacher until about ten years ago. I had just finished writing my book, Hybrids: So you think you are human about 22 possible races that had entered human evolution and I was re-reading the autobiography where I was stunned to read that his guru, Sri Yukteswar, referred to many of these same evolutions of dragons, merpople and elementals as dwelling in other realms that he was working with. At that moment, I realized that Yogananda and his guru had overseen my thirty years of writing books about these evolutions. I committed to consciously following his teachings and I’m still doing this today. I recommend the Autobiography of a Yogi to everyone. It transcends genres and can be read as a novel, a memoir, a self-help book and spiritual guide.