Q: What made you want to write a book about enlightenment?

D: I actually did not start off writing a book, I was writing some articles with various meditation based exercises and tips on becoming more intuitive. As I started to write, it got longer and longer and in the end I decided to write an entire book.

In the work I do as a Reiki practitioner and teacher I am helping people all the time and on the courses my partner and I run we often help people with their spiritual growth. Learning Reiki and using it everyday is one way to eventually attain enlightenment. I wanted to write something that would be available to everyone, not just those who were going to undertake a Reiki course.

My life has transformed so much since learning Reiki. I never knew the meaning of real happiness until I started to heal myself everyday. There are so many people out there who could benefit from fostering their spiritual growth. Writing a book was a way to reach more people and not just the ones who are typically considered to be 'spiritual.'

Q: Do you consider yourself to be enlightened?

D: I consider myself to be a spiritual person and I am enlightened as I need to be for where I currently am on my spiritual path. I have not reached complete enlightenment. I still have much to learn and I do so everyday.

Q: What life experiences had you undergone that have helped you to write this book?

D: It was not necessarily my life experiences per se that helped me write the book. I lived very irresponsibly in my past and did many things that I am not at all proud of. Through learning Reiki and self-healing I was able to become far more intuitive, trust in my inner knowledge and become more myself. The past feels like a bad dream really. However, I accept that my past has helped me to learn some very valuable lessons and I am able to empathise with other people's experiences.

People might say, "oh she is only twenty-six, what can she have learned in that time?" but you can be one hundred years old and have learned nothing from all your life experiences, or you can be fifteen years old and have learned more in that short time than an older person has learned in an entire lifetime. Age is not necessarily a reflection on wisdom.

I have had a lot of difficult and challenging times in my life and I think that helps me to understand other people more effectively. In terms of my spiritual knowledge, that comes from my intuition. You can have been through the mill a million times and learned nothing spiritually. Spiritual wisdom comes from a profound connection with your soul and constantly adhering to your intuitive guidance. This is the only way you can ever hope to work towards enlightenment.

Q: What makes your book any different to all the other self-help books?

D: I am of course biased, but I would say that there is a lot more honesty and sincerity in my work. I am not going to spoon feed people and tell them that life is suddenly going to become perfect because they read a book about spirituality. Throughout the book I point out that personal and spiritual growth require dedication and commitment. The techniques in the book have to be used frequently to work and the reader has to make conscious changes in their life.

I am frank about the state of the world, to the point where some would probably consider me to be very pessimistic, but I would say I am just being realistic. The world is crumbling as far as I can see and I am not an advocater of one person trying to heal the world. We can help ourselves and those we are meant to be helping, but we cannot help everyone.

In essence I do not provide easy answers. Anything worthwhile in life requires hard work and perserverance. This is how we learn and grow. Even with Reiki, you have to self-heal everyday for your life to transform for the better.

In the Western world we often look for the easy way out, but the consequences that prevail are far from easy. It is better for us to put in the hard work and thus generate more positive consequences, even if the endeavour was not easy.

Q: Did you learn anything by writing the book?

D: I learned a lot by writing the book. I wrote from intuition and it made me consider a lot of things that I may not have even thought about had I not been writing a book. The answers just came to me, which is the wonderful thing about intuition. When you have that connection you always get the answers you need, when you need them. You will not always get the answers you want, because they may not be right for you at that time, but you get what you need. Eventually you come to only want the answers that you need, which is great!

Writing Passage To Freedom was not cathartic because I use Reiki to heal my emotional traumas, but it helped me to trust in what I already knew and gave me a greater level of confidence in my awareness.

Q: What do you hope people will get from the book?

D: I hope that Passage To Freedom will help people to trust in their intuition and follow their intuitive guidance, above and beyond all else. I also hope that it will encourage people to question their own lives and lifestyles and to make positive changes.

I believe that to progress spiritually we need to adhere at all times to two fundamental principles, right thinking and right living. Hopefully the book will encourage people to step onto their spiritual paths, find their true purposes in life and stick to these two principles. If everyone did this, the world would be a better place. Everyone won't of course, but some will and this book is for those people who are prepared to make the necessary changes.

Q: Who do you think will benefit from the book?

D: Everyone! In reality Passage To Freedom will benefit the people who are at the right point in their lives to start becoming more aware and trusting in their intuition. If someone is not prepared to graft then they will not gain anything, because great results require great actions.

This book is not only for the people who say they are spiritual, it is for the people who do not even know they are spiritual. Some of those people are more spiritual than they could ever possibly conceive of, if they would just break free from their conditioning and listen to the voices of their souls. It does not matter what walk of life people are in. Anyone can take steps in the right direction with some considered effort.

Q: What do you like to do when you are not writing?

D: Many people would probably think I am quite boring because I do not go to to pubs, clubs, restaurants and such like. I am happy just sitting indoors doing some self-healing and relaxing. I used to drink alcohol, but I gave it up after learning Reiki.

If someone needs to have their senses dulled to have a good time then they have some emotional issues that need addressing. We should be able to enjoy ourselves without the opiate effect of alcohol or drugs. These substances are just ways to avoid reality and the truth.

Apart from self-healing with Reiki I also enjoy exercising, weight-training, Qi-Gong, web designing and playing my guitar and singing very badly, when I get the chance. I also like watching some really unspiritual television programmes, when I am not doing all the other stuff! I especially like South Park, it's hysterical.