8. Alternative ways of looking at life through experiences

First, alternative ways of looking, certainly manifested in journeys, it manifested again in smoking.
I planted alternative lifestyle seeds and pursued a more harmonious lifestyle, but it started with a disconnection from harmonious life.

When I came back to England from Varanasi, I was invited to start a job at Chelsea College, London University, I started to be a lecturer. At that time, Rachel and I were living in London, in a legal squat that the Camden Council gave to a charity foundation. They gave houses that were destined to be knocked down eventually, but meanwhile, they were offered to people like us. We joined the charity, and they gave us a house. So, I had a house in the most expensive part of London, but it was a kind of run-down house. I would cycle off to work at Chelsea College every day, give lectures, and I had an office there.
We had a new baby then, in 1977. At the same time, I had this experience of India so deeply in my soul. Two things happened that were relevant. One is I moved the research in Chelsea College to research on Chinese medicines and herbal medicines. This was quite radical for them, and they resisted it, but I had PhD students that I encouraged to work on it. We produced some interesting papers on Chinese tonic remedies and how they affected the brain and the system in mice. I was treated as a kind of revolutionary, a weird transplant into the system. Eventually, I said I cannot stay here anymore. After two years, I left.
The second relevant thing is that I came home every day in the evening by bicycle at 7:00 PM and went again at 7:00 AM, while I had a new baby that I never saw. She was waking up in the morning after I left and asleep at night. I suddenly felt this wasn't a good way to live. I had to live according to the principles of a harmonious lifestyle, where the spiritual aspect and daily life fit together. I realized I couldn't do that there, even though I got it in my head. I decided to leave. The professor said, "You are out of your mind. If you just stay in your chair and be a good boy, you'll be a professor in a few years. Just stay at your desk." My family despaired, wringing their hands because they saw me as a successful Jewish academic, Dr., professor, whatever.
Rachel was so supportive. She was a great support, telling me, "You have one life. Live for the moment, live 100%. If you feel you want to stay at home, we'll have less money, no salary, but we'll manage because it's more important that you live right." Rachel was really backing this sense of adventure, of going into the unknown and taking risks for the sake of harmonious living. I said, "How am I going to live?" She said, "We'll be alright. Don't worry." So, I set on a path of writing books to live as a consultant, without the backing of institutions or earning a salary, but to live independently as a consultant on alternative medicine. To be a name, I needed to write books.