Travelers

Donald Altman's Travelers is a gripping mystical journey through Time and Space, rooted in the reality of a Psychiatric Hospital. A Psychiatrist journeys into his young patient's universe and together they fight his inner demons which turn out to be both real and imagined. The outer demons make this book a real thriller in the unique microcosm of the Hospital which reverberates and expands to illuminate the forces unleashed in our world today. Both chilling and moving.

The mutual reciprocity between Professional CareGiver and UnderCaredFor unfolds in various surprising and meaningful ways in this fascinating novel, and reminds me of K-Pax; of Ken Kesey's hero's Herculean labors to free the prisoners of Nurse Ratchet and her over-institutionalized mental health system; as well as initiatory and cosmic healing journeys of all kinds, outer and inner and beyond, physical, mental, spiritual, emotional - during which the shadows in the fearsome heart of darkness are revealed as nothing less than the light of spiritual love itself. It is insights like Dr. Banks' profound pith instruction, “Just remember no one is either all bad or all good,” that makes Travelers worth reading and savoring in the heart of awakened awareness during these tumultuous, confused and stressful times.

Travelers is a powerful and touching novel of loss, grief and healing. In the tradition of Herman Hesse, this thought-provoking story carries you into new realms of the psyche as it follows the main character in his search for authenticity, self-knowledge, and spirituality. Its timeless message is how love is given, not taken.

Travelers is a thrilling adventure and journey into the uncharted world of shamanic visions, paranormal states and new dimensions of consciousness. A clinical psychiatrist's theories, personal life, and medical career are jeopardized through his chance encounter with a mysterious “traveler” at the psych hospital. Donald Altman draws on his extensive experiences as a psychotherapist, former monk and spiritual seeker to weave a narrative full of twists and turns, as compelling as it is inspiring.

Travelers is a marvelous book that shows how we all have our little mental boxes, and for psychiatrist Dr. Ben Banks, his have become a prison cell. Then, a new patient, young Mason Delabrey, with his mind-blowing experiences, comes for help. And the boy's therapy quickly becomes a two-way street that broadens the doctor's limited perception of himself and his possibilities - even those that exist after death. Something we all need. Highly recommended.