LEY LINES OF LOVE

Hoblitzelle describes her ever-evolving journey toward enlightenment in this spiritual memoir.

The author is a seeker: as she writes in the introduction, “I seem to have been born with an undying curiosity to understand the mystery in which we live: where we come from, including our ancestry; and the perennial questions of identity—who am I? Where am I going? And above all, what is the meaning of this life?” After experimenting with various charismatic strands of Christianity, the author met her future husband, Harrison “Hob” Hoblitzelle, while in graduate school at Columbia. Hob introduced her to Chinese Taoism, and, after they married, the couple together explored Transcendental Meditation, Zen Buddhism, the “insight meditation” practice of Vipassana, and eventually Siddha yoga. Informed by these philosophies, as well as by Western psychology, Hoblitzelle began a career as a therapist and instructor of behavioral medicine, helping pioneer a field that grew increasingly relevant as the 20th century passed into the 21st. Even now, in her 80s, the author is still seeking—though she has gathered enough knowledge about the world to set some of it down. With this memoir, Hoblitzelle recounts her journey and the many surprises along the way, including her spiritual and intellectual schism from Hob; her experiments with psilocybin and LSD; and the ley lines of her life, which seemed to continuously bring ideas and people from her past back into her present. The author’s bubbly narration combines the biographical and the philosophical in an appealing blend. Here, she discusses her thoughts as she attended a Ram Das talk in a Boston University gymnasium: “I had fallen into that perplexing space between the guru and the teachings. The depth of my inner life on this path had held me in my love of the practices.” The author’s story will be of greatest interest to fellow seekers, as it provides a front-row account of the last 70 years of syncretization of Eastern and Western thought.

A well-told, often fascinating memoir of spiritual exploration.