I didn't set out to become a writer of spiritual books, or for that matter, a writer of any kind of books. I thought I was a human resource consultant. (OK, this does not sound like the most thrilling profession on the planet, but I enjoyed the puzzle of cutting through a job, any job, and finding the core attributes of the people who would love love love that particular line of work--and I always did--and the real attributes were always a big surprise to the execs who ran the company.)

But then my marriage fell apart in a rather dramatic fashion and I found myself pouring out my sorrows onto a journal page or two and asking deeper and deeper questions, questions that probed beyond the initial "Why?" or "Why me?" In the process of daily deep soul writing, I stumbled upon a unique form of journaling that kicks you out of conscious mind and into the theta brain wave state.

A few years later, Conari Press asked me to write a book about this kind of personal, healing writing and the result is Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within. Conari found me online writing columns for UPI's Religion and Spirituality website and UPI, in turn, invited me to write a column on practical spirituality after seeing my first product, Spiritual Geography, the deep soul writing system that heals the broken heart.

Before my writing/speaking/teaching life and before my human resource consulting life, I was a headhunter for a decade, and before that created the videojournalist hiring program at CNN, and before that taught deaf children for ten years in California. Somewhere in there, I studied acting and managed to acquire a SAG card. On first glance, even I think my life is a rather bizarre trajectory. But maybe not.

Degrees? Marquette undergrad in Speech Pathology. Northwestern graduate in Education of the Deaf. Everything else in the degree of life.

I live and write in Ozona, Florida in West Central Florida (think Tampa, Clearwater, St Pete). My son is a sophomore in college in New York city.

You could pray, or meditate, or dream, or visit a shaman, or a minister, or a hypnotherapist. With so many routes into inner consciousness, why write? Of all the ways to get in touch with God, as you understand God... to hear the small, still voice pointing you in the right direction... why take the time to write?

One reason: it works. It works amazingly well. If you want to engage in a vibrant conversation with the wisdom that dwells just a hair below your conscious awareness, write. Write every day, at approximately the same time, with passion, honesty, and the intention of speaking with and listening to the voice within.

Janet Conner was escaping a terrible situation of domestic abuse. While trying to figure out how she and her son could live and how they could eat, she realized she had hit rock bottom. With no other advisers, she listened to her own inner voice, which told her to start writing. As she did, Janet's inner voice gained clarity and strength, and she felt an incredible connection to the divine, and almost immediately miracles began to happen.

Today, research scientists in psychology, physics, biochemistry, and neurology are providing peeks into what consciousness is and how it works. Their findings give us intriguing clues as to what is actually happening in and through our bodies, minds, and spirits as we roll pen across paper. Writing Down Your Soul explores some of this research and instructs readers how to access the power and beauty of their own deepest selves.