Last weekend I was a guest speaker at a small women’s conference. One of the other speakers was Hypnotherapist Dale Arend sharing about her book, Follow the River: Lost in the Mountains of Mexico. I recognized Dale as a kindred spiritual explorer. Of course, I purchased her book.

Follow the River captures a period of time in 1981 when Dale lived and worked in Mazatlan, Mexico. Her Mexican friends quickly named her “Dahlia” for the lovely flower and it has become her author name. Mystical experiences began early in Dahlia’s life, so when she felt led to leave California for the opportunity to practice healing energy work in Mazatlan, she knew spiritual adventures lay ahead.

It wasn’t long before she noticed mysterious lights moving over a distant plateau, in and out of a mountain appropriately named Mountain of the Lights. When she asked people about it, they casually replied, “Oh, those are orbs.” Dahlia’s curiosity was piqued. She wanted to meet the orbs up close and personal. She ultimately persuaded four young Mexican men to join the American woman on three-day hiking quest to find the orbs.

Three days turned into nine days and a remarkable tale of mysterious encounters, mind-blowing happenings, and an intense, but short-lived, romance. Dahlia’s recount is a pageturner. She tells the story cleanly, without waxing poetic, or taking off on long epiphanies. She describes her 30-something self and the unique personalities of her companions. Her interpreter, friend, and perhaps, soul mate, Huram takes on a gentle, heroic persona by the end of the book.

She allows the reader to draw their own conclusions about what the experiences might have meant and why she was pulled into the journey. If Dahlia’s life has continued to be as interesting as Follow the River, I’ll definitely be looking forward to the next book!