Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
(Devi) Nina Bingham is an Author, Life Coach and Clinical Hypnotherapist. Her life coaching company, “Your Guru For Life” is based in Vancouver, Washington. Devi Nina has worked in mental health care since 2003. She lives with her spouse and dog, writes for her spiritual self-help blog, and enjoys kayaking and being a beach bum. Her latest book was the award winning autobiography, “Once The Storm Is Over: From Grieving To Healing After The Suicide of My Daughter” (Big Table Publishing, 2015) about her journey through grief. She also published a poetry trilogy, and “Never Enough: A Recovery Workbook,” a do- it-yourself workbook for addictions, eating disorders and OCD. In 2019 Austin Macauley publishing will publish her first channeled book, “Messages From Metatron: A Course in Self-Transformation.”
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Messages From Metatron: A Course in Self-Transformation” is my latest book to be published in 2019 (Austin Macauley Publishers). After I lost my teen daughter in 2013, I became interested in life after death. Because I am a researcher, I read about and researched the spiritual and paranormal which revived my childhood ability to channel. On the second anniversary of my daughter’s death I began receiving positive and fascinating messages which I felt compelled to write down by a voice who identified himself at first as “an angel.” Soon he revealed his name was Metatron, an Archangel. The thirty messages took two years to channel and I added a study guide. The book is a dictated course in self-transformation, similar to “A Course in Miracles.”
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’ve written for my blog since 2011 and it covers a variety of subjects from clinical mental health academic research papers to esoteric spiritual articles. I have published a trilogy of poetry, a recovery workbook, an autobiography, and now I’m writing spiritual channeled material, so my writing is unpredictably diverse. I am a Renaissance woman in that I have studied many different subjects in depth and am wisdom-based in my approach as a Life Coach. Though I have degrees in Psychology, my soul is pure philosopher.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My hero is Elyn R. Saks, whose quote is on the cover of my autobiography. She is Associate Dean and Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould Law School, an expert in mental health law. Saks lives with schizophrenia and has written about her experience with the illness in her award-winning best-selling autobiography, “The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness” (Hyperion Books, 2007). When my daughter died, her book literally kept me afloat. I have always been profoundly influenced by autobiographies of people who overcame tremendous odds, including: Dale Carnagie, Viktor Frankl, Anne Frank, Helen Keller, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Ghandi and others.
What are you working on now?
I have finished two channeled books, and am completing the third in a series of books dictated by Archangels. After these are published I will complete a book about the teachings of a Hindu saint named Ramana Maharshi, who helped me to understand the subject of enlightenment.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Amazon is where my books sell from now although they can be found on my first publisher’s website (Big Table Publishing).
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I started writing in 4th grade (and never stopped) because my teacher saw promise in my simple stories. She read them aloud to the class and I realized then that I had the gift of communication. No matter how inexperienced you are, your age, or even whether or not you have formally studied writing, go where your soul is leading you in your writing. Follow your heart-let it take you and your readers on a fantastic journey and you’ll never be disappointed or bored with life. Create your own mystery-push yourself to express the thoughts, feelings and experiences that have shaped you, for good or ill. Express the reality of life by sharing your unique perspective. The most important lesson I’ve learned is that to be a worthy writer you must write as bravely as you possibly can. Good writing is brave writing. I would also add that my 4th grade teacher was correct; she got after me about my bad grammar and spelling, and I’m glad she did, because it taught me that you can’t be a solid writer until you have mastered these writing basics.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I’ve heard it said that it is important to write regularly if no daily, and I agree. Don’t let your skills gather rust. If you stand in one place too long you’ll become ineffective, so keep writing even if it is in your personal journal. In fact, my autobiography was completely unintended. It sprang from the desperate journaling I did during my journey through grief. Pain can birth art, I think every artist in any medium has discovered this. So write through the good times, but definitely through the bad times. Use the pain as a springboard into self-discovery.
What are you reading now?
I am reading Raja Yoga by Swami Vivikananda at the moment, because I am a Hindu and meditate daily. I want to increase my comprehension of the ancient master’s meditation techniques.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Because I am an unpredictable writer (I never imagined I would be channeling books), I don’t want to predict which direction my writing will take me. I like it best when I’m just along for the ride.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
That’s a tough one, asking me to choose just a few books because I was a bibliophile for many decades. I suppose I would choose to take autobiographies of great souls, the Mahatmas who faced life’s worst yet turned it into a silent prayer. The greatest Hindu gurus and swamis like Sri Ramakrishna and Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi would undoubtedly be in my island book bag along with a more contemporary Hindu voice, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.
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