To The Ocean Floor

After a couple of months of radio silence, I am delighted to tell you that my latest book To the Ocean Floor is about to hit the bookshops. This new book tells the story of my second cancer and how it became a gateway to a profound encounter and connection with God.

When I was first diagnosed with advanced breast cancer nine years ago, I was given a scripture from Psalm 118:17 ‘I will not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord,’ — a commission that led to the publication of my memoir Sea Changed which tells my unconventional story of faith and healing. I have since gone on to write two more books with my publisher Authentic, to speak about my story all over the world and present the TV series Living a Transformed Life with TBN.

During these seven glorious years of remission, I began to get used to the idea that I was going to live. But in 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, a routine mammogram revealed that the cancer had returned with a vengeance.  Within weeks of starting chemotherapy I became desperately ill, and on one of the toughest days of that journey, I sank beneath the waves of consciousness where I had a profound mystical encounter with God.

As I recovered, I was left with a powerful yearning for that connection and as I sought to recapture the intensity of what I call my ‘ocean floor’ experience. I began to explore a contemplative practice that dates back to the dawn of Christianity which points towards a more intuitive connection with God – the kind of connection that I had experienced in the depths. And in this new book, I recount my exploration of a meditative tradition that goes all the way back to Apostle Paul, Desert Fathers, Celtic Christians and Medieval mystics; a tradition that has been been developed by modern monastic spiritual masters such as Bede Griffiths and John Main. I write about the joy and challenges of nurturing an intuitive connection with God and signpost some resources that readers can use to explore various contemplative traditions.

I haven’t written a great deal in this blog about my ‘ocean floor’ experience partly because I wasn’t sure how to put into words what God had shown me. Since my first diagnosis, I have written a great deal about meeting God in the challenges of life, so from the outset of this second cancer journey I began to record the physical details of my cancer journey. But then God took me deeper and I had to find the language to describe an experience that goes beyond our everyday reality. Paradoxically To the Ocean Floor is a book about an experience of God that beyond words, and as I sought to convey the profundity of this encounter, I found that the Spirit took over and words began to arrange themselves I unexpected ways;  prose morphing into poetry. It has certainly been my greatest challenge as a writer as well as a patient.

There’s no doubt about it, the road I travelled was not easy and it brought the very borders of death. But it has also been a time of profound discovery; an inner journey into the mystery of God and what reviewer called ‘the richness to the be found at the border of life’s journey’. My hope and prayer now are that this book will inspire and encourage you to also be still, to wonder and to know at the deepest core of your being that He is God.

If you would like to find out more about my journey join me on Zoom at 7.00 p.m. on 19^th October when I will be talking with author and journalist Claire Musters about my story. Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/716017897807?aff=oddtdtcreator

You can also pre-order my book at www.katenicholas.co.uk