About the Author

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D. B. Sleeth was introduced to psychology as an undergraduate student in 1981 at the University of Washington. One of the discoveries he made at that time was the remarkable sophistication of psychological theory present in certain religious systems, especially Advaita Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism.This extraordinary discovery ended in a personal transformation—psychology supplanted by spirituality. At this time, the author also received an unexpected spiritual epiphany, outlining the details of his integral theory. Soon thereafter, he embarked on a six-month pilgrimage that took him throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East in search of a tradition for his own spiritual practice. 

Upon his return, D. B. Sleeth became the devotee of an accomplished spiritual master, the Divine Avatar, Adi Da Samraj. In the company of this remarkable spiritual adept, the author has pursued his spiritual growth since 1983. He has investigated and directly experienced many higher states of consciousness in the course of his spiritual practice with this spiritual master, including the ecstasy known as hridaya shaktipat. The occasion of these experiences includes a miracle healing in which an etheric lesion was removed from his navel chakra, presumably implanted there by incidents of abuse during his childhood. As a result, he recovered the ability to love, an ability that had been compromised throughout his life. 

A further benefit of this healing was his efficacy as a psychotherapist. D. B. Sleeth has worked in numerous therapeutic settings, including: psychotic adults residing in an institutional setting (1987-91), developmentally delayed adults residing in a group home setting (1991-92), severely emotionally disturbed children residing in a group home setting (1993-1995), psychotic adults residing in a group home setting (1993 and 1996), and emotionally disturbed children and adolescents in a clinic setting (1999-2005). These various populations have provided him an extraordinary and comprehensive overview of clinical and developmental psychology, as well as the opportunity to work extensively with cultural diversity.

D. B. Sleeth has received two M.A. degrees, one in general psychology from Sonoma State University in 1998 and another in counseling psychology from Argosy University in 2003. He also received a Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology from Saybrook Graduate School in 2006. He retired from Marriage and Family Therapist practice in 2020. In addition, the author has numerous articles in print. He has also written a program guide for parents with special needs children and at-risk youth transitioning into adulthood, which has been used the community mental health clinic where he worked, as well as other local agencies.

D. B. Sleeth currently lives in the ashram of his spiritual community in Northern California known as Adidam, accompanied by his wife of twenty-five years, who is also an accomplished psychiatric nurse practitioner with a Psy.D. degree.