As a teacher of world religions, I have many students who either did not grow up within a spiritual tradition or had bad experiences with religion. Barbara reminds us that half of Americans reveal that they have had some kind of mystical experience. As a parish priest and college professor, I value Barbara's contribution in this book for my students. She is honest about her upbringing in an atheist, anti-religion family and her education and passion for science. But she finds the Cartesian rationality limited, especially when she tries to make sense of a powerful, mystical experience she had in Lone Pine, California fifty years ago (which is my own spiritual homeland). She gives voice and description to help others who have experienced a Presence/theOther/The Holy without requiring the vocabulary and theology of traditional religion.