He is a man of mature age who has been happily married to a lovely woman named Jackie for three decades. He has worked as an engineer for most of his career involved in the development of various technologies. He loves to help others using his God-given gifts.
Q.1 Tell us something about yourself not many people know?
A. I loved to learn and understand how “things” work since being a young child. Since his early forties, “things” have included spirituality, our incredible humanity, and the invisible spiritual realm.
Q.2 Are we going to read more from you shortly? Any new project you’re working on?
A. As far as books are concerned, my next book is several years away. However, I’ll be writing blog articles posted on my website from time to time.
Q.3 When did you decide to write An Introduction to Spirituality?
A. I decided to write An Introduction to Spirituality in 2016.
Q.4 What’s the difference between being religious and being spiritual?
A. Being spiritual involves the following of spiritual principles so that actions serve the greater good and overall life is enhanced, especially for the person being spiritual. This entails learning spiritual truths in life and living them while resisting temptations to be selfish - in order to become more heavenly in nature.
Being religious involves the following of religious principles (which are fundamentally spiritual principles) in a mindful manner and typically includes adhering to religious practices and doctrine. A religious person who learns and lives the genuine truth found in doctrine will be living a spiritual life. A spiritual person who is not religious is seeking their spiritual truth from sources outside of a religious framework. As has been said before, “There are many paths up the mountain”.
Q.5 What do you want readers to take away from your book?
A. I want them to appreciate how wonderful it is to be human and that we all have been gifted with finite qualities from the Divine to enjoy as we use them in our lives. I also want them to appreciate that there is an infinite source of heavenly gifts from the Divine that we can receive if we express love through wisdom to all of life. We are taken care of throughout our physical life and our life thereafter, even though we can’t always see or appreciate this.
Q.6 What are some of the challenges you faced when you started writing?
A. When starting to write this book I had learned a great deal that I would draw upon to write it. However, this book covers a vast topic and so there were many smaller pieces of the spirituality “jig-saw” puzzle that I needed to come across and understand where they fitted into the overall picture. Fortunately, my life experiences while writing this book and some more reading was able to fill in the gaps that I ended up writing about.
Q.7 What kind of impact would you like to make with your book?
A. I would like my book to wake up many people to the fact that we are all finite transceivers of life from the Divine. We receive His life and we send it out to others and life in general and finally back to Him. I would like the book to bring sensibility to the term “spirituality” and lead the wider community to the realization that our brain does not create our thoughts and emotions. Rather it plays a major role in our everyday conscious awareness. It is the system comprising our spirit working with our auric field, brain, and body that creates our thoughts and emotions.
Q.8 What is the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you?
A. Listen carefully for the quiet and gentle good thoughts and feelings that come into your mind. For they are the heavenly influx from God gently leading you towards goodness and heavenly life in this lifetime and the next.
Q.9 Your work is highly influenced by Emanuel Swedenborg’s teachings; any specific reason for that?
A. I came across Emanuel Swedenborg’s teachings while I was not looking for them. I hadn’t heard of him. I was led to them and when I did come across them they made a lasting impact on me. I had been to other churches in my younger years and also in my early forties, however, their teachings lacked completeness in their ability to really explain spirituality and in particular Christianity. Emanuel Swedenborg’s teachings make sense and that is why I have learned so much from his writings.
Q.10 What were your feelings when you first saw the cover of the finished product?
A. I was thrilled to finally see the finished book cover which a good friend of mine, Karl Forssling, had produced from an image I sent to him. I really like the colors, crisp text, and wave-like graphics.
Q.11 Does your family support your career as a writer?
A. My career is really multifaceted. I am an engineer and author. My family supports all my career activities.
Q.12 What was one of the most surprising things you learned while writing this book?
A. How complex and wonderful our auric field is and the role it plays in our overall existence. I did not know that when we die, part of our auric field is left behind and the rest of it (which forms our spiritual body) remains in the spiritual world.
Q.13 What is your work schedule like when you’re writing?
A. Because I work full-time as an engineer, my writing takes place sporadically in my after-hours periods, mostly on the weekend. I’m studying at the moment and so my writing has to fit around that as well.
Q.14 Do you have any unique and quirky writing habits?
A. I have written both of my books using Microsoft Word and have done all the formatting, diagrams, and layout, etc. I like to print out my books and mark them up as I read since I pick up more mistakes and improvements reading paper print outs.
Q.15 What makes your book stand out from the crowd?
A. My book stands out from the crowd because it covers spirituality clearly, concisely, and holistically. It explains the essence of why we are alive and “where” we can head towards on our “journey”.
Q.16 What would you share with folks who are skeptical of reading Non-Fiction?
A. Trust your intuition as you read a book. The truth will ring true!
Q.17 Who edited your book, and how did you select them?
A. I edited both my books. On both occasions, my books have been produced in advance reader form for review by many people and I have been fortunate to receive valuable feedback to improve the books. Throughout this process, I have edited my books to reach a very high quality.
Q.18 Which famous person, living or dead, would you like to meet and why?
A. If it was just one person then I would have to say, Jesus. Jesus was the ultimate spiritual teacher and I would love to directly experience a meeting with Him.
Q.19 As an individual, how much do you grow on a spiritual level? How was your life before you delved into this subject?
A. It is possible to be tested for your level of spiritual growth (level of consciousness) using a technique known as “muscle monitoring” (this is explained briefly in my book). Spiritual growth takes place in stages as a person works against their particular aspects of selfishness. If a person is able to resist very strong temptations over time, they can raise their level of consciousness by a great amount.
Before I was awakened to live a more spiritual life with strong conviction, I was more anxious about life and I focused more on material things than I do now. My relationships with others were more reactive than they are now. These days I have a much greater appreciation of why people do what they do and how I can relate in better ways to others.
Q.8 What is the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you?
A. Listen carefully for the quiet and gentle good thoughts and feelings that come into your mind. For they are the heavenly influx from God gently leading you towards goodness and heavenly life in this lifetime and the next.
Q.9 Your work is highly influenced by Emanuel Swedenborg’s teachings; any specific reason for that?
A. I came across Emanuel Swedenborg’s teachings while I was not looking for them. I hadn’t heard of him. I was led to them and when I did come across them they made a lasting impact on me. I had been to other churches in my younger years and also in my early forties, however, their teachings lacked completeness in their ability to really explain spirituality and in particular Christianity. Emanuel Swedenborg’s teachings make sense and that is why I have learned so much from his writings.
Q.10 What were your feelings when you first saw the cover of the finished product?
A. I was thrilled to finally see the finished book cover which a good friend of mine, Karl Forssling, had produced from an image I sent to him. I really like the colors, crisp text, and wave-like graphics.
Q.11 Does your family support your career as a writer?
A. My career is really multifaceted. I am an engineer and author. My family supports all my career activities.
Q.12 What was one of the most surprising things you learned while writing this book?
A. How complex and wonderful our auric field is and the role it plays in our overall existence. I did not know that when we die, part of our auric field is left behind and the rest of it (which forms our spiritual body) remains in the spiritual world.
Q.13 What is your work schedule like when you’re writing?
A. Because I work full-time as an engineer, my writing takes place sporadically in my after-hours periods, mostly on the weekend. I’m studying at the moment and so my writing has to fit around that as well.
Q.14 Do you have any unique and quirky writing habits?
A. I have written both of my books using Microsoft Word and have done all the formatting, diagrams, and layout, etc. I like to print out my books and mark them up as I read since I pick up more mistakes and improvements reading paper print outs.
Q.15 What makes your book stand out from the crowd?
A. My book stands out from the crowd because it covers spirituality clearly, concisely, and holistically. It explains the essence of why we are alive and “where” we can head towards on our “journey”.
Q.16 What would you share with folks who are skeptical of reading Non-Fiction?
A. Trust your intuition as you read a book. The truth will ring true!
Q.17 Who edited your book, and how did you select them?
A. I edited both my books. On both occasions, my books have been produced in advance reader form for review by many people and I have been fortunate to receive valuable feedback to improve the books. Throughout this process, I have edited my books to reach a very high quality.
Q.18 Which famous person, living or dead, would you like to meet and why?
A. If it was just one person then I would have to say, Jesus. Jesus was the ultimate spiritual teacher and I would love to directly experience a meeting with Him.
Q.19 As an individual, how much do you grow on a spiritual level? How was your life before you delved into this subject?
A. It is possible to be tested for your level of spiritual growth (level of consciousness) using a technique known as “muscle monitoring” (this is explained briefly in my book). Spiritual growth takes place in stages as a person works against their particular aspects of selfishness. If a person is able to resist very strong temptations over time, they can raise their level of consciousness by a great amount.
Before I was awakened to live a more spiritual life with strong conviction, I was more anxious about life and I focused more on material things than I do now. My relationships with others were more reactive than they are now. These days I have a much greater appreciation of why people do what they do and how I can relate in better ways to others.
Overall, I now experience much greater periods of peace, joy, contentment, and true happiness. I accept the state of the world from moment to moment, realizing that we all are given the freedom to chart our own course without knowing all the details of our journey ahead, but trusting that God ensures that the greatest good will ultimately manifest into the future.
Q.20 Share the experience of your writing journey so far?
A. My writing journey began in 2001 when I commenced co-writing a book titled Interfacing with C++, Real-World Applications. This book was targeted at technicians, engineers, and students who wanted to learn to program and at the same time gain knowledge of interfacing electronics. I co-wrote this book part-time while I worked full-time as an engineer. I produced all the diagrams, formatted the book, edited the book, and produced advanced reader copies that were used in University classes for two years. Then we secured a publishing contract with Springer Verlag and the book was published in 2006.
I started writing my second book, An Introduction to Spirituality in 2016 in my spare time while I worked full-time as an engineer. The book took five years to complete on this basis. I produced all the illustrations, performed all text layout and editing, and had my friend Karl Forssling produce the cover designs. During this time I produced several versions of advanced reader copies that I had eight people read and provide feedback so I could improve the book. I would often have a copy of the book printed and spiral bound so that I could edit it - I find this the best way to find things I need to correct or otherwise improve.
I would frequently read and re-read source material to reach a very good understanding when I had gaps in my understanding of matters since I was covering a great breadth of material. I also had two ministers proof-read several versions of the book to ensure its correctness. I worked extremely hard to ensure that the book was very truthful, even going to the extent of having sentences, paragraphs, sections, chapters, and the book overall, tested for their truthfulness. This can be done using a technique known as “muscle monitoring” as explained briefly in my book (as was done for Dr. David Hawkins's book “Power vs. Force” ). The finished book has turned out even better than I could have hoped for - thank you, God.
Share your social account links -
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006732556811
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bentleykim/
Website - https://kimbentley.com.au
Q.20 Share the experience of your writing journey so far?
A. My writing journey began in 2001 when I commenced co-writing a book titled Interfacing with C++, Real-World Applications. This book was targeted at technicians, engineers, and students who wanted to learn to program and at the same time gain knowledge of interfacing electronics. I co-wrote this book part-time while I worked full-time as an engineer. I produced all the diagrams, formatted the book, edited the book, and produced advanced reader copies that were used in University classes for two years. Then we secured a publishing contract with Springer Verlag and the book was published in 2006.
I started writing my second book, An Introduction to Spirituality in 2016 in my spare time while I worked full-time as an engineer. The book took five years to complete on this basis. I produced all the illustrations, performed all text layout and editing, and had my friend Karl Forssling produce the cover designs. During this time I produced several versions of advanced reader copies that I had eight people read and provide feedback so I could improve the book. I would often have a copy of the book printed and spiral bound so that I could edit it - I find this the best way to find things I need to correct or otherwise improve.
I would frequently read and re-read source material to reach a very good understanding when I had gaps in my understanding of matters since I was covering a great breadth of material. I also had two ministers proof-read several versions of the book to ensure its correctness. I worked extremely hard to ensure that the book was very truthful, even going to the extent of having sentences, paragraphs, sections, chapters, and the book overall, tested for their truthfulness. This can be done using a technique known as “muscle monitoring” as explained briefly in my book (as was done for Dr. David Hawkins's book “Power vs. Force” ). The finished book has turned out even better than I could have hoped for - thank you, God.
Share your social account links -
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006732556811
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bentleykim/
Website - https://kimbentley.com.au
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