The following interview was conducted by:  NORM GOLDMAN: Editor of Bookpleasures. CLICK TO VIEW  Norm Goldman's Reviews       

To read Norm's Review of What If...? CLICK HERE

Today, Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest Gunnar Jensen, author of What If…?

Good day Gunnar and thank you for participating in our interview.

Norm:

Gunnar, please tell our readers where you grew up and something about your personal and professional background.

Gunnar:

I grew up in a very small Danish town in the north of Denmark where I spent a lot of time day-dreaming about adventures and foreign countries and of course playing a lot of football (soccer). I never had a real goal for my professional life; consequently, after finishing high-school I started on a new one-year education in information technology. I really chose that education for only one reason: It was short! Afterwards I spent 30 years working with business administration and IT - most of the time (25 years) in sales. In 1980 I met my Mexican born wife, Roxana, and we lived two years in Mexico City. We have two daughters, who are now 19 and 23 years old.

Norm:

Why do you feel that this was an important book for you to write and for all of us to read at this time? What do you hope to achieve with your book?

Gunnar:

I read many books and several of them have substantially helped me (a few even changed my life), but one thing that always disturbed me was the fact that most of them tell you exactly what to do in order to be happy. Many times I thought: How do you (the author) know that? How did you acquire that knowledge? Maybe I don’t accept your competence? And maybe there are several answers to the same questions! Also I have been struggling a lot myself to try to figure out what is the purpose (if any) with our lives. I really don’t know the answer, but I can imagine a possible “world picture” that makes sense to me. All this led me to write “WHAT IF …?”, a book without answers but hopefully all the questions can inspire people to contemplate their own personal answers.

Norm:

How would you describe spiritual power?

Gunnar:

I think that spiritual power is what gives us our inspiration, our bright ideas, our creativity but also what helps us in difficult times. I even think that (at least to a certain degree) we create our individual lives and environment by our own thoughts because we attract the energy that we represent ourselves. I also think that we can communicate with (and get a lot more information and help from) the spiritual power than we are aware of.

Norm:

What challenges or obstacles did you encounter while writing your book? How did you overcome these challenges?

Gunnar:

To write the book was quite easy for me. I felt very much inspired in several periods during the approximately two and a half years I used to write the manuscript. However, afterwards I spent some time trying to organize the content in a systematic and logical way. This was not easy because the book covers so many different topics, but I think that the result is quite systematic. I also have a chapter about physics and since I am not a physicist I received a great deal of help from one of my colleagues whom I worked with on my last job. He is a professional physicist and helped me to ensure that what I wrote is correct.

Norm:

What has your experience been like with self publishing? Do you recommend it over traditional publishers?

Gunnar:

When I started to write the book I knew absolutely nothing about book publishing. As I wanted to sell the book primarily outside Denmark, I decided that it would be much too time-consuming to try finding a traditional publisher, thus I bought a book about self publishing and made a thorough investigation of the self publishing market via the internet.

It has been a little challenging to simultaneously self- publish a book in different languages, however, I managed to have four languages (Danish, English, Spanish and German) on the market within one year after I stopped working in the IT-industry.

When you publish yourself you have to take care of many things yourself. I wrote the book in English (because I wanted to sell it first in English) and then I translated it myself into Danish. My wife and I translated it into Spanish and I hired a German translator for the German version. I did pay for professional editing and for proofreading in all the four languages.

The English version was several months delayed for various reasons and the Danish version actually hit the market two months before the English version. I have had a lot of practical challenges during the process but I don’t think it would have been possible to get four languages on the world-wide market within one year if I had chosen a traditional publisher.

The real challenge in self-publishing, however, is the marketing part of it. Here the Internet is a very important ingredient for a self-publisher. I think self-publishing requires a lot of effort from the author’s side and it is a big advantage to know something about economics, sales and marketing. On the other hand you can use oceans of time trying to get published via the traditional publishers, thus self- publishing is a way to be published quickly – even world-wide.

Norm:

Who or what have been your biggest influences and why?

Gunnar:

When I was a boy I was very influenced by the teachings in the Bible. Especially the words of Jesus made a deep impression on me. I have always thought that if everybody lived according to his teachings the world would be a wonderful place for everybody. Later in my life I have been reading a lot of books from Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra and very many others. One of the books of Wayne Dyer made me later buy “A Course in Miracles” and this book virtually changed my life. Also the Danish author from the last century, Martinus, has helped me a lot to try to figure out a “world picture”.

Norm:

How long did it take you to write What If and how did you go about deciding which questions to include and which to leave out?

Gunnar:

As mentioned earlier, it took me about two and a half years to finish the manuscript. Most of the questions and reflections came very easily into my mind and I more or less just wrote them down. Later I tried to order them in a systematic way and I excluded very few questions.

Norm:

Is there an underlying message in your book?

Gunnar:

No, I really mean it when I say I don’t know the answers and that I don’t want to tell people what to think or believe. However, the questions are organized in such a way that probably a lot of people will find positive and optimistic answers.

Norm:

Why is it important to keep an open mind when we ponder over the many “what if” questions you have included in your book?

Gunnar:

Most people accept many things as a fact because they have been told by others (scientists, authorities, schools etc.) that they are facts. Nevertheless, century after century the scientists make new discoveries that actually change the world picture. Also, remember that our individual perception of the world around us is made up by a mix of impressions from senses, experience, intuition, memories etc. So how much is really “fact” and how much is “impression”?

Norm:

What has been the reader feedback up to now pertaining to your book and where can we purchase your book?

Gunnar:

Until now the feedback has been very positive and the book can be purchased in almost any on-line book store like amazon.com etc. Traditional book stores in USA and UK can also order and sell the book if they want to.

Norm:

Who are you favorite authors and why do they inspire you?

Gunnar:

Martinus because he really presents a world picture that is logical and understandable (and luckily positive), Paulo Coelho (“The Alchemist” is a book of genius that really opens your eyes), Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra because they make you positive and optimistic about life.

Norm:

How popular are books on spirituality in Denmark?

Gunnar:

Day by day they are getting more and more popular. Today, people are much more open to spiritual matters than they were 10, 20, 30 or more years ago.

Norm:

How would you define happiness and how is the best way to achieve it?

I think there are different forms. Funny enough I am actually working on a book about different kinds of happiness. In general I think happiness as a permanent state has to do with trusting some kind of universal and eternal order and a purpose in life. People who are very afraid of dying (and spend a lot of time thinking about it) can’t be really happy whereas people who have a strong belief in some kind of eternal life and a belief that everything will have a happy-ending for everybody are much more relaxed and confident.

Norm:

Is there anything else you'd like to share with us? What is next for Gunnar Jensen?

Gunnar:

I am very busy marketing the book in English right now and I have also started marketing the Spanish edition. Later I have to start marketing the German version as well.  As mentioned I am also working on the next book which (at least in the starting) will be in Danish only. From time to time I also give speeches about the topics in my book.

Thanks once again and good luck with What If…?