Belief in paranormal prompts book on spiritual phenomena

Belief in paranormal prompts book on spiritual phenomena
November 4, 2009
Kelly Norrell
knoxnews.com

The same vital energy that allows Gatlinburg chiropractor Thomas Walker to do splits at age 54 in kung fu, which he teaches, powers the earth's processes and explains psychic phenomena like clairvoyance, telepathy and precognition.

So argues Walker, who has written a book on his beliefs called "The Force Is With Us: The Higher Consciousness That Science Refuses to Accept." The book has received favorable reviews in both the U.S. and the U.K.

Walker describes his book as "a manifesto of spiritual phenomena". He defines the "force" as a universal energy field that gives movement and life to everything. The longtime alternative healthcare practitioner, master level martial artist and former U.S. Army Green Beret cites an unusual sequence of events which led to his writing this book. These include the agonizing loss of his 27-year-old son, Clint, to testicular cancer in February of 2008.

"I'm interested in the truth with a capital T. Much of science is involved with technology, but science does not answer the really important questions of life like: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Is there a meaning to it?" Walker said.

"My operating assumption is that ancient advanced and traditional cultures had a more correct understanding of the world than modern science does. The ancient Mayan calendar is more accurate than our Gregorian calendar. The ancient Chinese knew that everything is energy thousands of years before Albert Einstein discovered it in the West."

Walker says he has a knack for presenting complicated material. "I wanted to write something that is fun and interesting to read and can convey these deep scientific and spiritual concepts to everyone. That's my talent, my gift. I'm a teacher. I have the ability to explain things to people so they understand."

Walker learned of his son's cancer diagnosis in 2006 and helped him get the best of both traditional and alternative medicine. Treatment was ultimately unsuccessful, however, and Walker said he told Clint in his last hours, "Son, if you can, please contact us and let us know." He believes Clint has made contact with family members at least 18 times since his death.

Raised in McMinnville, where his father was a welder and owner of a trucking company, Walker said he had an early aptitude for science and an interest in spiritual and paranormal phenomena.

"I remember thinking in junior high school, 'The scientific community is incorrect about this.' Things like psychic phenomena, ESP and telepathy. If a Native American holy man can perceive an event happening thousands of miles away, I don't think that's too farfetched. We're all energy."

Walker graduated from Warren County High School in the top 10 percent of his class, married at 19 and was a father at 20. After working at a pulp mill, a heating and air conditioning plant, and then as a weapons sergeant with the US Army Special Forces, he moved his family to Albuquerque and enrolled in the University of New Mexico.

He earned his doctorate in chiropractic medicine at Life Chiropractic College in Marietta, Ga., in 1986 and practiced in Knoxville and then Jacksonville, Fla.

Walker began his book in 1995 after a series of business disappointments. "In November of 1995, I was 40 and burned out. I was disgusted with where my life had gone. I made a commitment to do a book on subtle energy and spiritual phenomena."

He said he spent four years on research while working full-time as a chiropractor and teaching at Florida Community College in Jacksonville. He moved to Gatlinburg in 1999, finished the manuscript, and self published it in 2004. In 2005, Walker met Richard Smoley, editor of Quest Books, publishing arm of the Theosophical Society of America. Quest published the book in September 2009.

The manuscript that began as 500 pages shrank under editing to 222. But Walker received endorsements from the likes of Stanford University's William Tiller, author of Psychoenergetic Science, and film director Mark Vincente.

Now he is working on a book about the survival phenomenon, or life after death, prompted by his experiences with his son. Walker is divorced and has one daughter, Rachel, who is a movie costumer just finishing a project in Louisiana.