Sshhh, don’t tell anyone, but I’ve got a bit of a crush on The Barefoot Doctor.
There. I’ve said it.
The first book I read of his was Manifesto, which was a total mind-mess for me because according to the BD’s witty and irreverent guide, if you understand what you really want, you can get it without trying. A year after reading that book, I went and got myself the book deal I’d been dreaming of.

Who is the Barefoot Doctor? Apart from being my man-crush? Well, he’s quite the dude. He studied yoga and Tai Chi in his late teens, lived with the Native Americans for four years in New Mexico, has studied acupuncture and Taoism while also doing experimental performance events, workshops, seminars and talks, making healing music and teaching Tai Chi and meditation. He now spends his time writing, running the site and www.superchargedtaoist.com, making music, doing workshops, seminars, talks and musical events around the world and well, being 200 shades of awesome.

Spirituality – did you find it, or did it find you?
I was born with it and it just never went away. I think we all are but it gets obscured by the trance of everyday life. For whatever reason, and I do consider myself blessed, the everyday trance never really took proper root in me. I could always see there was something operating behind the scenes, within me and around me. And I had confirmation – at 6 I heard the universal om coming from the depths of space into my midbrain and knew it was the universe talking to me, for instance. And those instances of serendipity and telepathic connections you get, I had loads of those always. Then I got into martial arts at 11 with a master who also taught meditation and healing, so it was always going to be a spiritual ride in any case. Though I’d prefer calling it an adventure in consciousness rather than spirituality, as the word’s been so overused it’s lost all meaning.

Flow with the slow – how do we do it and why should we do it?
with dwindling space and resources, competitiveness naturally increases and with that the pace of life accelerates. The temptation is to speed your head up with it, mistakenly thinking you have to match the pace in order to make the right decisions. In fact, the opposite is true. The more you slow down your mental process, the more efficient they become and the better the choices you make. This is achieved primarily by slowing down your breathing and shifting your consciousness backwards inside your brain.

However slow is more of a metaphor than a measure of speed. It means being soft and sensitive enough to flow with the deeper underlying (hence relatively slower moving) current of life and consciousness – the Tao, the God or however you want to call it – and by doing so be led on a fabulous adventure in which you get whatever you need to succeed in your mission of expressing and fulfilling the uniqueness that is you. ACtually the phrase was coined by Ruby Warrington in Style magazine, writing about the Dub Spirit club night I do in Ibiza – it’s not that slow in fact, around 124-126 BPM but the feel is slow because the consciousness is deep.

You’re based in Ibiza – what drew you to the island?
The Tao. It kept whispering in my ear: you have to report for duty in Ibiza because of the music young Barefoot, then I got invited over to perform and one thing led to another. The magic of the island grabbed hold of me and hasn’t let me go yet.

2012 – what are your thoughts?
My thoughts vary. I lived with the Native Americans for 4 years once so know they know what they’re talking about when it comes to prophesies, hence wouldn’t be at all surprised if we all fell of the edge of the planet on the winter solstice that year – hence why it;s so important to love and celebrate being alive now and not waste time moaning and groaning because it isn’t going like you thought it should be or whatever. On the other hand I wouldn’t be surprised if nothing happened or if things continued happening in the same crazy mad way they are right now.
Main thing is to contribute as much as you can to the human experiment, to love as much as you can and to spread as much joy and warmth to everyone as you can.

What’s your motto for life?
rely on miracles

What book are you ALWAYS telling people to read?
Politics of Experience by RD Laing

What’s been your best life lesson?
That no matter how crap things get, they always swing round and get equally as wonderful – that it’s all just theatre and it doesn’t matter if one day you play the loser/idiot or one day the hero in the top hat, it’s all just a play and the point is to love it regardless.

What could you not possibly live without?
Breathing.

Your books rock my world – especially your recent book The Man Who Drove With His Eyes Closed – could you share a little about your writing practice please?
I relax. I love the laptop from my heart. I make contact with the Tao or whatever it is shunting the material through me, I rest my fingers on the keyboard (lovingly), I empty my mind, I remind myself I’m allowed to write utter nonsense if I want and then I let my fingertips dance as if there’s no tomorrow. Then I read back and delete the real rubbish and hey presto another few thousand words have been born. I tend to write a fair bit every day in the same way I do a fair bit of martial arts practice every day, simply to keep the relevant muscles in shape.
For a book – each one has been different – some have taken 8 days (and nights) to write 64,000 words, others four years – there’s no rule – the book itself dictates the pace of writing).

What can we expect from your MBS workshop?
a sound training in how to access the more profound level of life and hence feel the slow-down effect so you’ll walk away with actual methods to practice and make yours, and an real life experience of the state, which I’ll help engender as a taster for everyone there, enveloped in a lot of love and good humor.

If, like me, you want to experience The Barefoot Doctor’s workshop at the Mind Body Spirit Festival, he’ll be there on Saturday 29th May and will be hosting Flow With The Slow..Intensive Relaxation Technique.

The festival runs 26th – 31st May at the Royal Horticultural Halls, Victoria, London SW1 2QD
www.mindbodyspirit.co.uk or call 0207 371 9191 for full programme details, tickets and prices.