Randy Lee Higgins’ remarkable journey began in the picturesque landscapes of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. His pursuit of knowledge took him from graduating summa cum laude at Virginia Tech to obtaining a master’s degree in Family Therapy, and eventually, a doctoral degree from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California. While his formal education played a crucial role in shaping his understanding of the human experience, Randy emphasizes that the most valuable lessons were delivered by the “School of Hard Knocks.” His unique gift lies in his ability to perceive the extraordinary in every aspect of life, even amidst tragedy and the ongoing global crisis. In this interview, we explore Randy’s incredible odyssey and the wisdom he has gleaned from a life that beautifully marries the ordinary and the extraordinary.
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now? Do you have any pets?
The mystical Blue Ridge Mountains are my home. It’s where I grew up, and after fifteen years in California where I got my doctoral degree, it’s where I am again. My town only has one stoplight, but since the sixties it has been magnet and haven for the counter culture and alternative communities. There is a plethora of yoga studios, meditation centers, alternative healing centers, music events and galleries, with no fewer than a dozen or so intentional communities or communes. The love of my life is Roji, a tuxedo manx. He meditates with me.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Books and writing have been in my life ever since I learned to read and write. In Elementary school I read the Illiad, which became a kind of road map for my own life. I have slayed–and better still, BEFRIENDED–many a dragon in my sixty odd years! My first book was a collection of horror stories I wrote in the fifth grade. My teacher told me she read it and she was too afraid to go to sleep that night! In the seventh grade I was the library assistant and took great pride in my knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System. Libraries and book stores have always been second homes to me.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read? Who inspires you in your writings?
When I was sixteen a sweet hippie lady gave me a copy of Seth Speaks by Jane Roberts. That was a pivotal year! I had my first dramatic out of body experience, left my childhood religion and started keeping a dream journal, which I still do. My favorite genre is experiential metaphysics. During my doctoral program, I read the entire Collected Works of Carl Jung on the Stairmaster at the Palo Alto YMCA. Yogananda, Ram Dass, Dolores Cannon, Barbara Hand Clow. This of course is the genre I write in today. Direct experience is everything.
Tell us a little about your latest book.
A little background will be helpful. On the night of December 23, 2016 during meditation I–quite by accident–entered the state of breathless Samadhi. The purpose of Samadhi is service. So although I’d been a writer my whole life, I knew that NOW, I finally had something to say to the world. My first published book was After the Rapture. In the tradition of Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi and Ram Dass’s Be Here Now, After the Rapture chronicles my journey from “little Baptist boy” to breathless Samadhi to author of “scripture for the Aquarian Age.”
My second book, Salvo, was written entirely in the state of breathless Samadhi, on my cell phone. Beings from our future–no longer human–began giving me these “pithy aphorisms,” with the intention of guiding us through the current apocalyptic labyrinth to our new home in the New Earth.
The two latest are Beyond Nirikalpa and Holy Love. These are being released as companion volumes. Beyond Nirbikalpa introduces a comprehensive meditation system given to me by these ET “future selves” or ours. The fabric of time and space are literally torn asunder and reconfigured into a kind of “private holodeck” which now becomes available to us. Through practicing Beyond Nirbikalpa we learn how to create our own realities, our own worlds, as we go. These worlds may or may not be “earth,” and it really doesn’t matter. Every world we find ourselves in is self-created, an ideal environment custom-designed to perfectly suit our every educational and entertainment need. My world will not be the same as your world. Everybody gets their own. With amazement we realize that there never WAS a “consensus, objective world” at all! Reality has always been virtual, private, educational and celebratory.
Once the meditation practice of Beyond Nirbikalpa has been mastered, you understand FROM DIRECT EXPERIENCE that all realities are composed of love, joy, bliss and light. Because you have BECOME love/joy/bliss/light, that’s all you can create and that’s all you can experience. So everyone in your life now is ALSO love/joy/bliss/light. You are holy, all of the people in your life are holy, and so now–for the first time in your life, for the first time in history–we have RELATIONSHIPS that are holy and made up entirely of love/joy/bliss/light.
Instead of human to human, our relationships are now EXPLODING GALAXY TO EXPOLDING GALAXY. Joy becomes the set point. Nothing and no one is unlovable because they–and you–ARE love. Our hearts are finally open, and our daily (and nightly!) experience is now a panoply of multidimensional wonder. “The primary urge will always be: to kneel before your holy loves, in worship and prayer.”
Find the Author
After the Rapture: A Real Life Fable
Journeys are rarely straight lines. Unlike a committed tradition such as, say, Buddhism or Catholicism, this is the spiritual path of “Whatever Life Throws At You.” In the tradition of Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi and Ram Das’s Be Here Now, this “little Baptist boy” leads you through the arduous spiritual journey of apostasy, mystical psychosis, sexual excess, drug addiction, homelessness and finally embracing death, all in a quest not only to know, but to ultimately become, All That Is.
Randy was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. After graduating summa cum laude from Virginia Tech and receiving a master’s degree in Family Therapy, he completed his doctoral degree at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA. By far, most of his education was delivered by the “School of Hard Knocks.” His gift is in seeing the miracle in everything, even in a tragedy — even in the current global catastrophe. He is now back in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the house he grew up in, where he is looking forward to growing old and dying. Or not.
One Response
Pretty amazing, Randy! Glad you’re “growing old” back at home.