CURRENT MISSION Moving around this beautiful planet while being open to substantive communication with people, situations, ideas and myself. ABOUT ME I have heritage from Africa, England, Spain, Italy and Native Americana. I have lived in sundry European countries for over a decade, in various parts of Africa for 4 1/2 years, the Middle East for a year and a half, the Caribbean for a year...with extensive traveling throughout the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico (22 months in Mexico alone); and well over a year in Central and South America.. During my stint in the U.S. Merchant Marines (2005-2010), I worked on seven ships, sailing between China and the Persian Gulf. So, traveling is a major aspect of my life. While I spend a reasonable amount of time on my own, I am very open to interpersonal communication with people of sundry backgrounds and interests. In fact, the essence of my life is communication. PHILOSOPHY I believe we are all here to go beyond previously-conceived and experienced limitations. At this point in our human evolution, we have options for personal growth available to us that were non-existent just a few years ago. I feel it is important for us to realize that we grow in consciousness more meaningfully when we seek out and develop substantive relationships with one another. Any process or experience that facilitates our coming together is worthy of honoring, which is why I am aligning myself with Couchsurfing. I affirm the worthiness and value of people of all cultures and consciousnesses mixing with and being open to one another.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am very available for contact with interested and interesting people; yet, I am sensitive to the needs of others. If I am visiting a host who is busy, for example, I am perfectly capable of being self-sufficient without needing to be "entertained." I am respectful of others' priorities and their privacy.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I joined CS in 2009. Since then I've had over sixty surfing experiences and they have all been positive. However, I have been with SERVAS - another international, peace-orientated travel organization - since 2001, and during this time I have stayed with over 180 hosts in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Central and South America.

Interests

Areas of interests include my three professions (Metaphysical Hypnotist, my specialty for close to fifty years; Professional Actor ,since 1994; and former Merchant Mariner). Also, interpersonal communication; movies, books, etc... too many areas of interest to include here. Being a former U.S. Army Special Forces Officer (Green Beret, with a Top Secret Security Clearance), I have chosen to live a rather adventurous life, which has included the following experiences: motorcycling, hanggliding, tactical military parachuting ("Airborne"), hot-air ballooning, mountain climbing, caving and sinkhole exploring, scuba diving, horseback riding, international sailboating, free dancing. Being metaphysically oriented, I attune to alternative health and healing perspectives and practices (including diet and nutrition considerations, meaningful exercise and specific movement/posture/stretching/balancing practices), esoterica, "realistic" conspiracy theories...all with the passion for aspects of life and living that involve all of us, and intrigue some of us, individually and collectively.

Music, Movies, and Books

As an actor, I see as many movies as I can, with a preference for foreign and independent films, when available. While I enjoy many American movies of merit, I have a particular fascination for Indian historical/mythological movies. I have a moderate eclectic interest in music; but when I have the choice, I listen to the radio for news and talk programs, to be aware of what is happening in the world and to hear more of what people are thinking and saying. The most influential book of my life is The Razor's Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham. Favorite movie: "Lawrence of Arabia."

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Taking license and liberty to write more than one:
The first time I rode a motorcycle alone across the country I was 20. It took me eight days. Eight years later I went the other way and it took a year and a half. I have learned the importance of slowness. It really can be a wonderful and insightful experience to take one's time.
So far, I have accumulated over 800,000 km (500,000 miles) by motorcycle(s) on four continents.
I worked on the Hospital Ship HOPE for 2 1/2 years (1969-1971): as the Chief of Medical Stores in Tunisia, and as the Assistant Administrator in Jamaica.
My brother and I had a great adventure traveling through Africa in our own Land Rover for 22 months back in the mid-'70's, journeying from the UK to Central Europe, down to Morocco and Algeria, through the Sahara Desert to West Africa, then across the continent to East Africa.
I've had the benefit of swimming with lone, wild bottlenose dolphins off the coasts of five European countries.
I worked on a kibbutz in Israel for seven months; then helped an archaeologist in the Sinai Desert doing last-minute surveys, just before the takeover of the area by Egypt in 1982.
I spent over three months at the Findhorn spiritual community in Northern Scotland the winter of '79-'80, in addition to having visited in a number of other intentional communities in my wanderings.
I experienced a nifty firewalk workshop in Germany where I walked the hot coals nine times.
At the age of 18, back in '63, as a student participant in Operation Crossroads Africa, I helped build the first library in the country now known as Botswana.
In 1973 I participated in a 5-week climbing/backpacking course with the National Outdoor Leadership School in the North Cascades mountains in Washington state.
I climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza, up the eastern side (a delicate and dangerous mistake, since, it is the NE corner that has been reinforced with concrete, which I found out during my descent).
I climbed both Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro in East Africa, during a year and a half sojourn in that part of the world back in the late '70's.
I helped set up a hot air balloon business with a French company in Maasai Mara Game Reserve, SW Kenya, in 1978. We lived at the game lodge for a few months where we flew tourists in the balloon most days when the winds were not too strong; otherwise, we could have ended up in Tanzania, and at the time the border was closed. I was not the pilot of the balloon, but I often flew in the gondola or drove with the chase vehicle to retrieve the balloon.
I ran with the bulls the first day of the seven-day event in Pamplona, Spain, back in1972.
I hitchhiked solo and extensively around much of Western Europe back in the eighties, mostly.
For just a few days I used a shallow water Navy diving device off Port Royal, Jamaica, in 1966, working with an American expedition that was looking for artifacts from Henry Morgan's pirate adventures. Six months after I left, the archaeologists there found $50,000 worth of pieces of eight. While I was there, all we were finding was bricks, bottles and bones. This was after I had spent the summer in Jamaica on an anthropological field study, working with isolated village people throughout the island, the Maroons, who were considered at the time to be the purest people of African descent in the Western Hemisphere.
Speaking of pirates, while serving in the U.S. Merchant Marines back in 2005-2010, I was on two ships off of Somalia: a cable-laying ship and a car carrier. We were attacked by pirates three times.

Teach, Learn, Share

I know I have a reasonable amount to share with interested people, based on the life experiences I have accumulated so far. The three professions I am involved in offer a world of information and insight for anyone wanting to know more about these realms of experience. While I openly invite questions from others about me and what I am about and what I have done and so forth, I am also comfortable, when the feeling is right, to ask people questions about their lives, their experiences and their feelings, thoughts, interests and aspirations. Meaningful, thought-provoking questions can provide worthy and insightful responses. That type and degree of interaction constitutes real sharing and learning.

What I Can Share with Hosts

All of the above, and more...Who and What I am....

[Concerning the questions about countries I have lived in and visited: I've never counted. The number simply doesn't interest me. I am not out to set any records.]

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