RECENT REVIEWS:

March 2020

“John Stephenson has written a wonderful saga that connects the worlds of the adventurous, the enlightened, the sea dwellers and business moguls. A combination of Dan Brown, Ernest Hemingway and John Grisham at their best. It’s a book about business, friendship, family and growing up in a world that has expectations of you that are different than yours. How to develop yourself as an authentic human being who accepts his own powers and also learns to accept the limiting beliefs of others.

The Atua man is truly a page turner, that you’ll especially like when you are familiar with sailing and traveling across wild seas. John describes his characters with vivid imagination and brings them to life in such a way that you’ll miss them when you finish the book. I can’t wait for John to write his next novel.” T.G. Tilburg, Netherlands

February 2020

“In each new decade, there is a breaking away from the way we hold spiritual teaching, to embrace the spirit fresh and rid ourselves of old dogma. John Stephenson, in his book The Atua Man charts the journey of this evolution. In a riveting story, you enter the journey of those who are endowed with spiritual presence, experiencing their raw power and how it is awakened into transcendence. Through the story, you brace against the resistance to change, exploring the desire to control and contain consciousness into cozy belief systems. Living through the archetypical design of each character, John exposes the struggle of deep devolution and the quest for power. In reading this journey, something awakens inside that allow a taste of freedom. The question of what it means to be true to a larger transcendent consciousness is acted out through the struggle of belief systems. This tells the story of spiritual freedom and what happens when one is gifted with the ability to transcend death.” N.S.R. Kailua, Hawaii

January 2020

“A deep and moving experience of the oneness of the mystical path infused n a narrative that is genuine and profound.” Mia *****on Amazon

“Loved the adventure this novel took me on… did not want it to end… a age turner for sure! M.M Keegan *****on Amazon

“I just wanted to say thank you for such a great read with The Atua Man! It was thoroughly enjoyable, insightful, and easy to read. The Atua Man shows a variety of personalities grappling with spiritual ideas and principles, and I loved to read of the characters’ struggles with that. Also, how they did live relatively normal lives (except for some very extraordinary events), with everyday hopes and desires and struggles with the ego. I almost wish I could have read it in my 20s to dispel a few of my own illusions about the spiritual life. Thank you, John, for The Atua Man and all the work you continue to do!” Steven

December 2019

“Just finished reading your wonderful novel. Fast moving and compelling story. Drenched in the integrity, I know as you. My heart is full with the love that is expressed through your writing … I feel truly blessed and grateful for what you have put forth. You are the man our dear Isaac describes. He is doing very well with his love of his life for now, Flo, in London of all places! So synchronistic–while I have been reading your novel.”  T.A. Colorado

“I just finished Atua Man- Wow what a story. It really is the most powerful story I have ever read and I read Body and Soul by Frank Conroy…I am so moved by the depth of Jason St John and still ponder him on the sacrificial altar- the human fear and the transcendent will in him: One Life, One Power…ONE..Oneness as he holds himself to the principle as he forgives while is is being raped and held up as sacrificial bait. I thought if he can in such strain…so can I in far more petty circumstances. I am inspired really. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjun asks Shiva what does an enlightened man look like, how does he feel, how does he behave and how does he live? Jason’s life is an answer to that question. It certainly answered it for me and I felt a deep connection with that family for they imaged for me what a life lived by grace looks like. Difficulties most assuredly arise but it is the tools they have at hand and how they use them that bear the stamp of enlightenment. I love so much about the book: I love that spirituality and its quest are at the center of the narrative, I love the insight into the ST John’s daily life(Their meditating together) I loved seeing Jason’s humanity, I love their success and its trappings, I love the family’s elegance especially Lilian’s.  I love the tattoos on Jason’s body, I love the travels across the Polynesian islands. I love David. I love the divergent points of view that are at the heart of the ministry for it frames profound debate.  You truly have written a masterpiece of a story one that I will read again and again. I will share with as many as I can.”  M.A. Paris, France

“I see The Atua Man as a sacred spiritual masterpiece, beautifully anointed. I felt of high consciousness while reading. I noticed it going to the refrigerator for a drink after an hour or so of reading— I felt as high as deep meditation and in another dimension.

I found the reading deeply moving. I realized how much vilification and misunderstanding there has been as a mystic — how many things that happened to Jason that I could relate to. Though there was the contemplation of them having no power at the time of the events, the book somehow has taken that to a deeper level, lifted something (a pain) that had been there.  Page 273 brought tears “there are elements in our society that have no other purpose than to accuse, denigrate, and try to invalidate anything that doesn’t conform to their own beliefs and personal agenda.” I sat with that awhile and felt a deep peace, a greater impersonalization, something washing away.

I found the literary writing of high caliber, stunning imagery and intriguing writing, foreshadowing of events to come with hints in the writing. The characters were so well developed that I actually think they are real! The book feels real, or at least as real as the dream life span life feels.  The formless always feels more real than anything of form and the book is full of the way of the Infinite Invisible.

The Atua Man brings depth of clarity and revelation, a revealing of the emergence now of the ever-existing spiritual principle, of incorporeal mystical experience, in the midst of the dissolution of religious dogmas and patriarchal distortions of spirit Life. It hones in on the precision of our response as mystics in the midst of persecution. When Jason was on the sacrificial altar, you brought to life how deeper than deep the knowing of truth has to be, so deep that the sense of the material world cannot hold and the one power, no power, Is.” A. N. Tarpon Springs, Florida

“I have actually read this book from cover to cover and can honestly say that I was impressed with this well-constructed, well-written, and insightful imaginative work of literature!! I have known John for many years now, but I had no idea that he is a master storyteller!! The book is a page-turner, with extraordinary insights into human nature, cross-cultural encounters, and the world of the unseen. I found myself fascinated and wanting to know more, and am grateful to a storyteller that treats me as an adult and takes me to “the end of the line”, knowing that I am quite capable of handling the truth about who we are as humans: adventurous, flawed, but capable of personal growth beyond the material, the concrete, the mundane, and the constraints of fear and conventions that keep us rooted to the ground, unable to find our wings so we can fly and soar, in our imagination, if not in real life! Bravo John for your courage and your wisdom in teaching us how to find our wings!” V.H. Honolulu, Hawaii

PUBLISHER’S ENDORSEMENTS:

A compelling epic sea-adventure that weds high action with spiritual revelation. A page turning exploration into the nature of reality. The Atua Man faces the trials of living in a material world from an illumined consciousness, and in the process takes us on an unforgettable journey into the fabric of creation. John Stephenson makes us ask ourselves, what is true and what is illusion?   Gerald Jampolsky, M.D.    Founder – Attitudinal Healing International

The Atua Man, beautifully written by John Stephenson, is one of those rare books that brings together the hero’s journey with sacred teachings and modern-day magic. John weaves together friendship, loyalty, self-discovery and spiritual awakening painted over a scrumptious canvas of the Hawaiian Islands, the open seas, Polynesia and London. A very unusual and mystical tale indeed!  Sunny Chayes, Host of ABC Solutionary Sundays and MindaliaTV Pioneers of Possibility

John Stephenson’s new book, The Atua Man, grapples with the complexities of wealth and power; love and forgiveness; life and death. This soul-searching journey begins with a mysterious healing that breeds chaos in London and pits a global healing ministry against its celebrity founder.  Loved reading this! Just didn’t want it to end… Christine Wagner, President, Raymond Wagner Productions