Sunday, January 03, 2010

My New Blog

Hello All:

I am no longer writing posts to this blog.

To read my latest blogs, please visit my new location:
http://vitaebergmansbooks.com

Thank you for visiting A Writer's Chaos.

Cheers for now,
Vitae

Friday, August 14, 2009

Miguel Translation Coming!!

This is exciting news for me.

A new friend, a young professor of English at a University in Jalisco, a native Mexican lady, is translating my latest novel, Miguel the Barber.

How cool is that!

You can read a review recently posted at amazon Review by Kevin Ehrlich

You can read a free preview: Miguel the Barber - 1st 50 pages

Thursday, August 13, 2009

My 1st Review of Miguel the Barber

This review appeared the other day at amazon.com written by Keving Ehrlich:

Miguel the Barber, Vitae Bergman's sixth book and fourth novel, is not only a riveting murder mystery but also a moving spiritual journey.

Who is Miguel the barber and why is he living in hiding in an old Mexican fishing village with his granddaughter, Manuela? The novel's hero, a retired professor named Escudero, affectionately referred to as EhEh, is asked to dig up Miguel's past after the barber suffers a nervous collapse. What he finds is both horrifying and enlightening.

Vitae Bergman, by weaving a story through the points of view of several colorful characters that span three generations, creates unique visions of Los Angeles and Mexico City as well as the more mysterious and obscure areas of Mexico near San Carlos. The fishing village where Miguel resides, for instance, comes to life within the busy barber shop itself where fishermen must have their haircuts to entice their wives. The outside is filled with the sound of children playing soccer with a barely inflated ball.

The journey EhEh takes, at first with reluctance, to Mexico City and Los Angeles becomes one that is filled with surprises, both harrowing and wonderful. Vitae Bergman writes with an intimacy that keeps us in the mind of his hero, and through his experiences, we follow his spiritual awakening. Vitae's deep love of humanity comes through in his prose, and like all of Vitae's books, the characters' spiritual awakenings become our own, as little by little we are exposed to a new way of experiencing life; one that celebrates the trust we put in each other to both protect and discover those things which are most dear; love and the experience of truly feeling alive.
-Kevin Ehrlich


I'm very excited about this, to say the least!

You can read a free preview of the 1st 50 pages.
Just go to
Miguel the Barber - Preview

Friday, July 31, 2009

Free Previews of My Books

One of my friends gave me a wonderful suggestion, and I’ve taken him up on it.

He wrote, “Why not give away a free copy of the 1st 50 pages of my novels. Interested readers can then get a substantial preview of the book. Then, if they want to read the rest, they can order a printed copy at a discounted price.”

So, this is what I have done. Four of my titles, the fiction books, are now available in preview PDF files.

Just go to http://burkeshire-reports.com/vitaebergman/ebook.html

Pick out the book of your choice…or…get all four…!

Cheers for now,
Vitae

Monday, July 27, 2009

Miguel the Barber

Miguel Guzman is no ordinary barber. He comes from a long line of eminent barbers going back to Elizabethan times, barbers who cut the hair of kings and heads of state. His grandfather cut the hair of King Alfonso XIII of Spain. His father was the barber to Pancho Villa.

So why is Miguel hiding with his granddaughter in an obscure fishing village on the Sea of Cortez, as far away as possible from Mexico City where he was once the proud owner of a swanky beauty salon within walking distance to the presidential palace?

Miguel’s granddaughter, to uncover the truth about her grandfather who has become gravely ill and has fallen into a coma, enlists Señor Escudero, retired sociologist and family friend, to investigate the barber’s past. She is convinced Escudero will find the key that will bring Miguel back to consciousness. In the meantime, her neighbor and mentor, the curandera Consuelo, holds the grandfather’s fate in her hands.

The search for the truth encompasses political intrigue, drug wars, and family entanglements, bringing into question issues surrounding love, loyalty, revenge and consolation. In the process, Escudero learns as much about himself as he does of Miguel


I had much enjoyment writing this piece and have high hopes for its reception among the readers of this world. It’s meant to be a literary entertainment containing nuggets worth contemplating.

You can read a synopsis of the story by going to my book site
http://cli.gs/miguel

I feel I’ve published just in time for the great tradition of summer reading. Let Miguel be your choice for this summer’s enjoyment!

And please tell your reading buddies. They can go either to my site or to amazon where my books also are available. Just enter my name in the search box.

Friday, December 14, 2007

The Moment You Are Born

The moment you are born, your destiny has been set. But don’t panic! This doesn’t mean your life is pre-programmed, and there is no wriggle room. You are still in control. Free will is always the first law of the universe.

Yet, paradoxically, my first statement is true. A life plan has been set in motion. It is no accident as to precisely when you are born. On another level of existence, the time and date has been established.

Who put your life program into action? You. Yes, you did – and a few others, entities you could call your guides, allies, mentors, spirit friends. The “You” I am pointing to is not the person you know as yourself living in a body on this planet earth. This “you” is you as the Soul Being whom you are eternally.

From that level of existence, you made a plan for this particular life-sojourn. The day you are born and the name you receive from your parents [and that naming is also an event that has its origins in the spirit level of existence] represent keys to knowing the “Plan” for this life you have been given.

This “Plan” is your Destiny.

Whether you live up to the plan is another question. Life is always a gamble. Even the spirit being who you are, the You-as-Soul who has made the plan – that Being has no assurance whether the Destiny it has devised will be fulfilled.

So, you, as the personality, the egoic-being who is the executor for Soul, may have your own plans for this life, plans that do not necessarily coincide with the Soul Plan.

Such can quite frequently be the case. Lives lived out of sync with Soul Purpose, however, tend to be lives of struggle and discontent. No matter if the life appears as a successful life in the eyes of the world. No matter if you have attained to a position of prominence. Such accomplishments may be your ideal, may be seen as the perfect life according to the social ideals of your time and place.

But not what you-as-Soul really want and need to experience in this life-sojourn. This is a different matter, and one that needs to be examined. You must launch yourself into an inner journey, delve deeply within self, and come to know what those inner urgings wish for you. Intuitively, you have access to this inner knowing. Intuitively , you can sense what your life is intended for and what direction you must take to satisfy the inner needs of your real self.

All too often, in today’s world, we are the pawns of society’s needs, not our own. We must become authentically ourselves…and not a servo-mechanism for society. We must follow our Destiny if we truly desire supreme happiness, true contentment.

One way to get in touch with this inner-known life plan Soul has designed, is to employ one or more of the so-called esoteric tools, which, down through the ages, have been used and proven to be reliable.

One such tool is numerology. There are several systems available. The Pythagorean system, which I have expanded upon, delves precisely into this question of Soul Purpose.

This brief article cannot do justice to the subject matter. It’s meant primarily to whet your appetite for more information. Obviously. To learn more, please visit my web page, http://joyfulnumerology.com

Saturday, June 23, 2007

How to Make Opportunities Happen…

In my work as a spiritual coach, I am often asked by clients, "How
can I manifest my desires?"

You might wonder if this is a proper question to ask a spiritual
coach. Such a question raises the issue, what is the spiritual life
all about in the first place? Does chasing after egoic desires
constitute the spiritual life?

Here is my response: If you are living from the level of your
personality, which is to say, your egoic self, then those desires you
most likely feel compelled to manifest are probably not going to come
into your life very easily, or very soon. When we live from our ego
selves, our path becomes a struggle-the kind of struggle most of us
are very well acquainted with.

The ego feels itself separate from and opposed to the world it lives
in. The ego self believes it must seek friends and alliances in order
to get what it thinks it wants. Those who live out of ego
consciousness, seek health, wealth, and happiness through hard work.
Making the right connections, getting the right education, searching
out useful possibilities-we all know the routine.

And if through hard work we do manage to achieve the kind of
successful life we all seem to hanker for these days, we probably
believe we are well-functioning human beings. But are we actually
functioning that well?

When clients ask me how they can achieve abundance in their life, I
take it they are mainly referring to getting a money pile. It is as
if they assume having a big enough pile will take care of most, if
not all, of their perceived problems. And, of course, with or without
the big money pile, our problems persist. For generally, our problems
come from being possessed by a faulty personality; and secondly, the
effort itself to keep the flow of money coming creates even more
problems-physical, mental and emotional disorders (I leave the
details to you). To put it bluntly, the state of health, wealth and
happiness we seek seems to forever evade us.

And so, at some point in your life, the question ultimately arises,
"Might there not be a better way to go about this busy-ness? Does my
life always have to be an arduous struggle for survival?"

And of course, being the spiritual coach that I am, my answer is a
resounding, "Yes, there is a better way. It is the spiritual way; and
this way will provide you with all your needs-and even many of your
wants."

Why is this so? Well, to begin with, living from spiritual
consciousness, you automatically sense yourself belonging to the
whole. You know yourself as a full-fledged member of the universe,
which includes all and everything. You are not a stranger in a
strange land struggling for survival. What you need comes to you
practically effortlessly.

I realize that for many, the above statement is not easily believed.
Well, friend, I'm not asking you to believe. The spiritual life is
not based on belief. The spiritual life is based on practice. You
must commit yourself to practicing its principles. And the first step
is to remove yourself from the isolation-stop being entrapped within
your egoic mind.

Shift yourself to your heart consciousness. Focus your awareness on
heart feelings. Your heart does not pump blood alone. Your heart as
well circulates neuropeptides, which stimulate the feelings. When you
focus on your heart, you automatically experience powerful feelings
of well-being. Receptors in every cell of your body receive these
peptides. Every cell begins to vibrate with an emotional component
that can be verbalized as joyfulness. The cells of your immune system
grow stronger. All of your vital organs increase their functionality-
and your brain is one of those vital organs. Hence your mind, your
thinking aspect, becomes healthier. And thus, you are moving away
from egoic separateness. You sense yourself as belonging to the whole
of life, to all of humanity, to the cosmos, connected and integrated
with the Divine, encompassed by the All.

Contrary to the mind, which can vacillate between negative/depressed
states and bursts of high/manic states the action of which brutalizes
the cells' receptors with toxic substances, the heart sends out a
steady flow of those endorphin-like peptides that make you feel good,
alive, and eager for life. And in this balanced state, you are much
better prepared for receiving what your life requires.

Well now you must be wondering, "What does all this have to do with
making opportunities happen?" Doesn't this idea, "making
opportunities happen," sound like linear, cause and effect
conceptualizing? Indeed it does. I wrote the title this way simply to
get your attention. The actuality is, we can't make anything happen.

But we can arrange ourselves as receptors of opportunities. When we
live from our heart-self, we position ourselves as receptors. Our
heart desires are not the same as our egoic desires.

Our egoic desires are born from a sense of lack, of insecurity, of
limitation. Not thinking we are good enough, we strive for
perfection, for acknowledgement, for some kind of achievement reward.
Hence we tend to manipulate circumstances - make things happen, using
the faulty technique of cause and effect. Our egoic oriented society
develops concepts that attempt to regulate how to make things happen.
But such actions, we truly sense, are never fully capable of
achieving desired results. "The best laid plans often go astray," as
the old saying goes.

Plans developed out of our egoic minds are full of details, organized
to offset every contingency we can imagine.

Heart-desires contain no such detailed planning. The heart-self
connected to the whole, needs only to recognize its desires in a
generalized manner. Whatever the heart desires can only be fulfilled
if only such is in harmony with the whole. So there is never a need
to manipulate. Whenever a desire - or a need - arises, the being whom
you are requires only to commit to the intention of that desire.

No sooner do you commit to your intention (born from your desire)
than something almost like a miracle begins to happen. Opportunities
come into your awareness.

Opportunities appear in the field of your perception. Prior to your
commitment, the field was flat. Nothing in your world of perception
appeared useful to you. But suddenly, upon "knowing" your desire and
setting your intention, your field of perception takes shape.
Opportunities reveal themselves.

The word, opportunity, has for its components three elements that
point to its subtle meaning: "op" relates to vision; "port" relates
to carry; and tune relates to harmonics, or being in tune. Thus, the
whole word can be translated into a thought, something like "being in
tune with what you see."

So the real question is, how does one move from egoic consciousness
to heart consciousness? Most of us have spent almost our entire life
living from the egoic mind. Perhaps only when we were infants and
very young toddlers, did we live mainly from heart consciousness.
This may be the reason for Jesus having said, be like the children.

But how to do this? How can we become the child that we were? One way
that I am familiar with is a practice that can be done by anyone
willing to try. The practice is called "mindfulness" or "being
present to the moment." Living in the "now" is another expression
that points to this form of worship. I say "worship" because when we
are in this state of being, living from heart consciousness, we sense
we are in touch with the sacred aspect of life.

The egoic mind lives in the past and the future-two states that are
not truly real. They are only real to our egoic minds. In other
words, the past and the future are imaginary, fictitious. Only the
present moment is of reality.

And being in the present moment, we are in the reality of the Divine
Life. The more we live in the present moment, the more we experience
the magic of life. We become more aware of the vibratory essence. All
of life-nature-reveals itself. We see our fellows, and ourselves as
well, glowing with this vibration of life. We see the trees and the
other creatures of this world as if in a shimmering landscape.

We live from our hearts, and our heart desires come into being as if
effortlessly. We see opportunities that are like portals through
which we enter into the realization of our desires. Our actions move
in a straight-line motion toward our goals. No distractions appear to
us.

From our egoic consciousness, distractions appear as possible
opportunities, which we then chase after. And this is how we become
scattered, disoriented, frustrated and pinned to the wheel of karma.