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More About Writing with Beth Goobie

© Paula E. Kirman

Beth Goobie is an extremely prolific author. Perhaps it is because to her, writing is a form of letting go of past demons. At the time of this interview, which took place in the Spring of 1998, Goobie had just published The Only-Good Heart, a collection of short stories about ritual child abuse and cults, drawn partially on her own experiences.

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Kirman: What is it, then that you hope the book will achieve --is it only to show people the true nature of cults, or are there other things as well?

Goobie: To create a greater awareness. I don't expect to change the world, and I certainly did not write it to change the world. I wrote it to search out new areas of my own experience and to reclaim those areas of my experience and my brain tissue. But I hope that it allows other people who have had similar experiences to reclaim parts of their own lives, and I would hope that it would create a greater awareness in general for people in terms of cults and what they are doing, and also in terms of the paranormal in general, and how it is part of their lives and how it goes on around them.

Kirman: You are a very prolific writer. To what do you attribute the fact that you write so much and in so many different genres?

Goobie: The way I have structured my life; part of it is commitment. I think part of it is living without a phone, because you have a greater commitment to yourself and your self awareness when you are not being constantly interrupted and on call. You're not available constantly for other people to interrupt you and so you move into a more integrated space with yourself. I think part of it is -- I don't even know how to explain it -- I don't understand why I am alive if I am not always seeking a greater awareness with myself. The more aware I am of myself the more aware I become of society and the cosmos. I think we are all a blueprint of the cosmos, and that varies person to person depending on the alignment when you are born, but we all carry that blueprint within us. The more you tune into yourself, the more you become aware of the natural flow of things, and how you connect with many different dimensions and the cosmos at large. It's a very, very beautiful experience, very healing.

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