The Unknown Target of Life Experiences

Book excerpt: David Thomson had a challenging childhood. His father abandoned his wife and seven children, leaving them to struggle with the bleak future that the desperation of poverty often brings. Determined to succeed, Thompson pursued a career with the Philadelphia Police Department where he worked for over 12 years. During that time he earned three official commendations, including a Heroism Award. Eventually it became clear to him that underneath the surface the department was rife with far more corruption than the public was aware of through the media. His opinion that the police should not be investigating themselves, nor should they be deciding on how to prosecute its own members, did not sit well with his superiors. He was terminated when he refused to take a position that would trap him within that false framework. In The Unknown Target of Life Experiences, Thompson tells how his life spiraled downward into a dismal, hopeless existence following that fateful day when he left the police for good. For seven long years he struggled with health problems, depression, paranoia, and PTSD due to the experiences he encountered there-all due to the actions of his superiors and colleagues, not the crimes and disturbing events he witnessed regularly on the job. Listening to his intuition-the "core stimuli noise" from the brain-enabled him to gradually begin to trust himself and others once again. In this book, Thompson tells how he found his way out of the darkness to rebuild his life....