Author: Eli Jaxon-Bear

Publisher: New Morning books
ISBN: 978-0-692-59987-7

Eli Jaxon-Bear, author of An Outlaw Makes It Home, has quite a storied past. He has penned three other books. (2018, inside back cover; Wake Up and Roar, Sudden Awakening, and From Fixation to Freedom) Previously, Eli was a community organizer for VISTA in Chicago, IL and Detroit, MI. He lives with his wife in Ashland, OR. To engage him in a teaching or consulting session please visit the Leela Foundation at www.leela.org.

Eli speaks about how disconnected he was as a child with education and all it entailed which makes for his interesting journey into the world of education as an adult. He was outraged when his first grade teacher yelled at him for consistently being tardy to class. This was an art class. He never forgot this episode and this probably helped shape his dislike for authority.

There are stories about life from the 50’s thru the 60’s and what were hot topics around the globe. These adventures ranged from Fidel Castro taking Cuba from Batista to learning how to perform electrical work and install light fixtures and other rites of passage. Jaxon-Bear says “Decades do not start every ten years, but rather when an earth-shifting event changes the psychic landscape forever.” (2018, p.30) I do not disagree on premise.

He discusses at length what occurred during the Civil Rights movement and how he felt about that period of time. Eli says, “We entered a different world. “ (2018, p.39) He said he stood with the black community in this life changing ordeal. He even marched with them in Montgomery, AL. Shortly thereafter, he joined VISTA. To which he says the following, “VISTA’s training was both theoretical and experimental.” (2018, p.55) VISTA taught him community organizing.

During his heady days at college Vietnam was ramping up and then went full on. Eli talks about Kent State and other demonstrations against entering that ill-fated war. On is campus they started what they called Woodstock West. They staged sit ins and smoked inordinate amounts of marijuana along with free food and free people. Afterward, Eli became a dope dealer.

He learned to steal even though he did not need to for any reason. He was thrilled by getting away with it. He even spent some time behind bars on minor charges of possession.

At the age of twenty-five his mother died. Eli blamed God. He took double hits of LSD and listened to music to free his soul. It did. He became panic striken and paranoid. Then alone. He revealed this from that experience “I instantly knew that all of history led up to this. I saw that life on earth is a dream, a puppet show to advance consciousness to its awakening. I knew that in truth no one dies. I realized that I am not my body or my thoughts. I saw that souls reincarnate again and again in order to wake up to their true nature as immortal consciousness.” (2018, p.119) Wow, this is pretty heady stuff, but also very insightful and brilliant, in my esteem.

Many readers can probably identify with some of the things that Eli did in his journey to find self. Some of it was fun and some disturbing. All was educational.