Spiritual Surfing

Foreword DOWN THROUGH THE CENTURIES, PEOPLE of the world have yearned for a more peaceful and harmonious world. On January 1, 2000, an editorial in The New York Times captured the hopes and imaginations of Americans in a new millennium: ". . . in these first few hours of a new era, it behooves us to imagine the future with a sense of optimism, something that eluded our ancestors as they struggled just to survive. We have the humane vision and the technological means to lift the world family to new levels of liberty, affluence, health and happiness. Forging that possibility into reality is the task that greets us in the morning of the new millennium." Dr. James Catanzaro has taken up the challenge. He has gone in search of a way to lift us all to a life "above the struggles." He had a hunch that there is an undiscovered power within individuals that can be tapped for the good of humanity. In his search, he has talked to literally hundreds of interested people-a purposive sample, not a random sample, including people of evident virtue all across the United States, who are searching for the better life: the life above the struggles. Dr. Catanzaro "listened with his heart" as well as his mind and after hours of reflection, bit by bit, his thoughts settled into a configuration that gave him the insight of a metaphor that carries the theme of the book: surfing! In essence, this book explains, step by step, how one can be carried forward as on a great wave, experiencing a positive feeling that lifts one "above life's struggles." This experience Dr. Catanzaro calls Scend. (See his definition on page 54.) It grants perspective on life, an inspired attitude that turns the struggles into strength-building challenges, and raises human beings to a higher level of living. Is the surfing metaphor real? According to the sample of people Dr. Catanzaro interviewed, there is a phenomenon of "being carried forward as if by a great wave." Seventy-nine percent of Dr. Catanzaro's sample said they knew someone who had been carried forward as if by a great wave. Thirty-four percent said they had personally experienced being carried forward as if by a great wave. Scientists are schooled to be skeptical, but, when a phenomenon occurs, the question is not whether to deny or to believe but rather how to investigate, discover, and explain. The evidence is that Dr. Catanzaro has discovered the phenomenon Scend. He explains to us, step by step, how to achieve Scend and, thereby, how to achieve spiritual well-being. This book is a manual for spiritual surfing, for being Scent from struggle to spiritual well-being. It can lift the world family to new levels, to . . . ASCEND! Dr. Donald 0. Clifton, Former CEO, The Gallup Organization