Intro
Henry David Thoreau was a 19th century American writer and philosopher. He wrote several books and essays during his lifetime but is best known for his book, Walden and for his essay known as Civil Disobedience. Thoreau’s philosophy of civil disobedience influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. His simple manner of living that he wrote about in Walden and his plea in defense of the rights of man have influenced millions of people.
In 1984, Cathryn McIntyre moved to Massachusetts. She settled in the hometown of Henry David Thoreau, Concord, when she first encountered a spirit during a psychic reading at a home near Walden Pond. The sprit said he wanted to work with her. It would be decades before she would understand who that spirit was and why it was that she had always felt so drawn to the Boston area and to Concord in particular. So, why would Thoreau return? What more could he have to say?
On a Sunday in November of 2006, McIntyre’s connection with Thoreau began with the words,
“I am born, David Henry Thoreau, in this American town, in this place called Concord.”
Cathryn McIntyre shares her story and the words she received from the spirit of Thoreau in a most beautiful and inspiring way in her book, The Thoreau Whisperer: Channeling the Spirit of Henry David Thoreau.
Excerpt from the book The Thoreau Whisperer by Cathryn McIntyre
The Universe in You
“The mysterious grows more mysterious at times.”
‘’However intense my experience, I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is not a part of me, but spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it, and that is no more I than it is you. When the play, it may be the tragedy, of life is over, the spectator goes his way. It was a kind of fiction, a work of the imagination only, so far as he was concerned. This doubleness may easily make us poor neighbors and friends sometimes.’’
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
As the months went by and the transmissions continued, I became more aware of that part of me that was, as Thoreau describes, the spectator. To me, that was my higher self, the true me, the sum of all my parts, my totality, and the one who I credit with having agreed to this collaboration with Henry and Brad in the first place. The trouble for me was that I, as puppet, often lacked faith in the I that was my puppet master. So, no matter how consistent and reliable the communications with Thoreau were and no matter how many times I was reassured, both by him during the transmissions, and by the psychics who I sometimes consulted for a “reality check” along the way, I continued to wonder whether what I was experiencing could be considered real at all. Still, it went on, and each day that I sat at my computer connecting with spirit, I allowed myself to venture deeper into their realm. I would become totally focused and completely lost in what I was doing, no longer conscious of time or of my surroundings, and after a while I could no longer hear the incessant and endless sounds of truck engines that emitted from what I called the “dirt farm” that was located on the property behind the townhouse where I lived then in Bedford.
I never understood what it was they were doing at the dirt farm. I knew their business was in some way connected to New England Nurseries, a gardening center that was just a short distance up on Route 62, but every day, as I sat at my desk perfecting my ability to connect to spirit, and learning to trust more fully in the words I was receiving, those trucks were there, pushing, pulling, re-stacking and rearranging their piles of dirt – that most basic element of the physical planet on which we live and rely. Surprisingly, it was in those moments when my focus most intensified, not on the noises and the distractions of this physical world, but on my own consciousness and the consciousness of the universe as well. The louder the trucks became the easier it was for me to connect with spirit and the more the words flowed. There was a sense of drifting in those moments that was truly liberating. It was in those moments that I would let go of the doubt. It was in those moments when I felt gifted and blessed. I knew happenings like this were rare, but I was not dreaming. It was real. I felt alive. I felt free.
WEEDS
You are different in your mood of late. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what caused the change. The mysterious grows more mysterious at times. This is a difficult thing to process, no doubt of that. How you walk through a normal life with this reality is baffling for even me to discover and of course from here we see that it is all quite real and valid. From your perspective it is so much more like a dream, like something that is experienced but is never thought of in real terms, or acknowledged as existing at all, and yet spirit is there, always there, and people are tripping over it, walking into it, walking through it. In your case, gentle you who sometimes warms to it, talking as you lie in bed to the one in spirit. That is a pretty picture to me, a dear exchange and you should view it in that way. Do not question those moments, they are well received, and well experienced in the loving way they are intended. Most of the weeds in your garden if overlooked will simply fade away. There are only weeds as you allow them to grow. I say, grow no more weeds!
It amuses me that you have taken on the challenge presented to you, although at first you fought fiercely against it. I, too, was like you, fighting authority in all forms. You must not ever tell me what to do, I knew what I should do, knew what was best. I suppose in many ways I did know and I support wholeheartedly your right to personal sovereignty of all kinds, up to the point when your sovereignty overtakes mine, but alas those are more difficult topics.
THE INNER MAN
I do not think that any man who lives can deny the levels of emotion within him. We have each felt every emotion be it anger, rage, jealousy, loneliness, compassion, or love. All emotions are expressions of the God force that is at work on this planet. Perhaps the truest expression is the combination of all of these, the mixing of all into a healthy pot.
At the pond I would make stew, some part of this and some part of that, all stirred together to create a delicious brew. It is the blending of the different seasonings that make such a fine stew, and that is a metaphor that should be understood for every aspect of life. It is the mixing of the various cultures and ideas and perspectives on life that make the finest and truest brew.
No one who claims a particular perspective should claim that perspective as the only worthy one. There isn’t only one perspective or one path in life. There are many different paths available for many different people. It is up to the individual to find the best path for themselves, and that is what I advocate most. The more variety, the more knowledge, the more experience of the individual, the more we each experience collectively. Each one of us feeds the pot.
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
PERSONAL FREEDOM
If I stand for nothing else, let me stand and be remembered as a voice that spoke to freedom, freedom for the individual to self-determine, and to find within himself his truest nature. That is what most inspires and inspired me.
Society has no right to tell a man how to live, to hinder his personal freedom in any way, so if a man chooses a particular path because of events of his life that have formed him in a certain way, then so be it his choice and his destiny. Let him have the freedom not to conform, but to find instead another way to live, and let him live without judgment. There should be no judgment upon a man who chooses to live life outside society’s frame.
There are many like me, and like this author, who find meaning in life by their own design. There is this born within each of us, this ability to construct and design our own lives. This is what lies at the core of true spiritual experience and expression, when we recognize ourselves as part of this greater whole and we learn to view ourselves in co-sponsorship with it.
“As long as possible live free and uncommitted.”
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
Chapter 8 from the book The Thoreau Whisperer by Cathryn McIntyre
Copyright 2018 – All Right Reserved – Not to be copied or reproduced without written consent.
Cathryn McIntyre
Cathryn McIntyre is an independent author and researcher who has studied the literary history of Concord, Massachusetts for over 25 years, both in university setting and independently. She was born and raised in the Midwest and moved to the Boston area in 1984. She has a B.A. in English from Michigan State University and has done graduate work at both Harvard University Extension and Leslie University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is also a natural psychic and clairvoyant; an astrologer; a UFO experiencer; an occasional ghost investigator; and an avid genealogist with ancestral ties to the Mayflower and to writers, Margaret Fuller and Henry David Thoreau.
