Swami Bill and Drywall Counselling
By: Bill Alliston.
Publisher: Bill Alliston]
Published: 2004
Place of publication: [Ladysmith, B.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 344
First sentence: Somewhere, I heard or read that going on blind dates can be a symptom of a sickness in people living lonely, unfulfilled lives.
Description: Some mystics claim that to achieve enlightenment a person has to cross their personal Ganges River, (the Ganges is metaphorically the ego) and those who succeed in the harrowing journey gain the insights of the true mystics.
   Swami Bill and Drywall Counselling is about a person seeking himself. His effort for self-discovery begins in the alcohol-sopped fantasy of finding love within the realm of the sexual relationship. It doesn’t take him long to find out that there's a leak in the boat so he tries another way. He seeks out the guidance of an enlightened Master and is soon swimming in rough waters with a group of other dysfunctionals as they attempt a marathon swim across the Ganges. Swami Bill didn’t know that the river was full of crocodiles and piranhas. The story is about his own ego fabricated encounters with these creatures.
   The story takes the reader into the real world of so-called mysticism. The reader who’s searching for the ultimate la la land experience of out of body participation will have to accept that the closest Swami Bill ever gets to leaving his body is when he’s drunk and someone hits him on the head with a beer bottle. The book is about a naive construction worker’s attempt to journey across his ego. The goal is simply to reach the other side and gain the illusive normalcy that so many others seem to have, but on close observation Swami Bill discovers that the allusion toward a defined normalcy is just a trip to nowhere and all that really exists is the playful journey.
Notes: Bill Alliston was born in Toronto. He spent most of his adult life working in the construction industry. He gained his education on the streets and in the bars. He learned about human nature through his raucous interaction with people like himself who had lost their way and were struggling to find the path. He writes about intense sexually explicit relationships with women.
He takes the reader on the back of his Harley as he enters into the strange world of Eastern mysticism. He has survived to tell his tale.
Bill Alliston now lives on Vancouver Island with his wife, Kathy.