Featured Member:  Word Sculptures Publishing, L.P. (Janet Smith Warfield)

Janet Smith Warfield works with wisdom-seekers who want understanding and clarity so they can live peaceful, powerful, prosperous lives. Through her unique combination of holistic, creative, right-brain transformational experiences and 22 years of rigorous, left-brain law practice, she has learned how to sculpt words in atypical ways to shift her listeners into experiences beyond words, transforming turmoil into inner peace. Janet currently lives in Venice, Florida.

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Genesis of Shift: Change Your Words, Change Your World

When I was about thirty years old, I suddenly and unexpectedly had a “mystical experience.” At the time, I didn’t know what a mystical experience was. I just knew I was ecstatic. All the pieces of my life puzzle had suddenly come together. Of course, I wanted to tell everyone.

As I began speaking, I quickly realized that no one understood a word I was saying. The experience unified. Words divide. How could I use analytical, divisive words to communicate a unifying, holistic experience? It was like trying to hammer a nail using a screwdriver.

I spent the next forty years trying to figure out how to use words to communicate this life-altering experience.

Third person words didn’t work. They sounded authoritarian. The experience was about freedom and self-responsibility.

Second person words didn’t work either. They sounded as if I knew what was wrong with you and what you should do to correct it. All I really knew was how I perceived you.

NarAnon, a support group for families and friends of addicts, taught me the value of first person singular. I could share my stories and perceptions as my stories and perceptions without imposing them on anyone else. NarAnon’s mantra was take what you like and leave the rest.

My words were always right for me. They might never be right for anyone else. I simply saw things differently and had every right to see things differently. So did you.

The curses and blessings of my insights were that I was unique. So were you. This understanding moved me toward self-acceptance and tolerance and away from judgment. Simultaneously, I was sharpening my powers of awareness and discernment.

For two years, I played with paradoxical poetry. That worked, because it was clearly a creative art form. It also allowed me to balance “opposite” words, often synthesizing them into a harmonious underlying experiential resolution.

When I became really frustrated with words and their inadequacies, I drew pictures — bridges that didn’t meet in the middle and circles that didn’t close. I called them “perfection.” They weren’t perfect, but they were as close as I could come using the imperfect human tools we’ve created.

I also began working with optical illusions. They were such a wonderful analogy to the real world. The lines on the paper didn’t change. What changed was the way people’s minds shaped those lines, the words they chose to describe them, the emotions they felt as a result, and the actions they chose to perform.

I called my experience a “mystical experience” but that is just a word label for an experience that can’t be articulated, just as “God” is a word label for an experience that can’t be articulated. I called it a “mystical experience” because it seemed to fit the four characteristics enumerated by William James in his Varieties of Religious Experience. Those characteristics were:

1. Ineffability. (You couldn’t put it into words.)

2. Noetic quality. (You somehow just knew that you knew.)

3. Passivity. (You couldn’t will it to happen. It was simply given to you. Cf., the Christian concept of Grace.)

 4. Transience. (It happened and passed. You returned to your normal external routine, but internally you were totally transformed. You simply saw the external world through new eyes, with all its many creative possibilities. As the old saying says, “Before transformation, chop wood and haul water. After transformation, chop wood and haul water.”)

 I was beginning to discover and explore the relationship between words and experiences and understand that words are nothing but shorthand for our experiences. While they allow us to think, analyze, and communicate, they also separate, divide, and distort. Every religion on this planet is simply an attempt to communicate this amazing perception and consciousness-shifting "mystical" experience. The words are all different and all are fingers pointing at the same moon. None of them

This work/play is so very interesting and rewarding!

Here’s a downloadable information sheet (flyer) on Shift.

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Accolades for Shift: Change Your Words, Change Your World

 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards

*Winner in the New Age Non-fiction category

*Finalist in the Self-Help and Spirituality categories

2009 Amazon Best Seller

*Health/Mind/Body — Self-Help

*Health/Mind/Body — Self Help — Personal Transformation

*Health/Mind/Body — Relationships — Conflict Management

*Religion and Spirituality — New Age — Self-Help

*Religion and Spirituality — New Age — Mental and Spiritual Healing

2008 Coalition of Visionary Resources Award for Best Website

Foreign Rights Sales

Bulgaria — Kibea Publishing Company

India — Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited

Indonesia — Gramedia Publishers

Russia — Ves Publishing Group

Slovak Republic - Eugenika Publishing

(Currently being reviewed by publishers from Germany and South Korea and distributors from India.)

Published Articles by Janet Smith Warfield

Articles to be Published

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Advice for New Self-Publishers