Spirituality

Near Death Experience: Surviving My Stepmother’s Abuse: A Story of Pain, Silence, and Strength – Series

The trauma inflicted by my stepmother echoed through every corner of my childhood. I was nine when my mother died. Two years later, George and I met our stepmother, Dotti, and our two half-brothers, Rick and Ron.

Ron was born the day after our mother died—October 15, 1962.

That date would take on deeper meaning in the years to come.

From the very beginning, Dotti made her resentment of us clear. Her abuse was constant and unrelenting.

She struck out physically—yanking my hair, slapping my face, locking me in closets, and denying me meals.

Her true cruelty lay in her emotional warfare: calculated, relentless, and all-consuming.

There was no respite, no safe moment. Her […]

By Doré Frances|2025-10-04T13:41:50-06:00June 1st, 2025|1161 Covington Road, Dore Frances, Near Death Experiences, Near Death Experiences, Spirituality, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Near Death Experience: The Ocean Took Me: My First Near-Death Experience as a Child – Series

It was 1959, under a sky dappled with clouds, when I spent a carefree afternoon at the beach with my aunt Dorothy, cousins, brother George, and mom.

The waves’ rhythm, the sand’s warmth, and the promise held by the distant horizon enchanted me. As George and I strolled along the shoreline, we searched for seashells and driftwood treasures. I glanced down, mesmerized by the frothy seafoam swirling around my ankles as the tide rolled in with quiet grace.

I closely watched the shoreline, hoping the waves might reveal a hidden treasure just for me. George lingered a few steps ahead, scanning the surf.

And then—everything changed.

A wall of water crashed […]

By Doré Frances|2025-10-04T13:42:17-06:00May 31st, 2025|Dore Frances, Near Death Experiences, Spirituality, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Woodstock: The Liberation Years: Spirituality, Intimacy, and the Revolution of the ’60s – Series

This is the first post in a series about the boldest adventure of my youth—running away at sixteen to attend Woodstock.

Some Sixties veterans compare Burning Man and iconic hippie gatherings like Woodstock, the Trips Festival of January 1966, the Summer of Love, and the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park the following year.

The parallels are unmistakable: Burning Man and those early countercultural events embraced free love, wild costumes, audience participation, and the exuberant spirit of loud music and psychedelics.

I experienced Woodstock firsthand, though I’ve never attended Burning Man.

To me, Woodstock carried a deeper power. We were a community of mellow, free-spirited hippies, gentle in our energy. From what I’ve heard from those who’ve experienced it, Burning Man combines a different […]

By Doré Frances|2025-10-04T13:46:27-06:00April 27th, 2025|Dore Frances, Spirituality, The Sixties and Seventies Counterculture, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think, Woodstock 1969 Series|0 Comments

Truth Isn’t Always Black and White: Embracing Life’s Gray Areas

The Truth Isn’t Always Black And White

We’re not here to agree with everyone but to coexist with compassion.

That means respecting others’ life paths and personal, political, or spiritual choices. Life doesn’t offer one truth for all.

Our beliefs grow with us—molded by our circumstances, culture, and personal stories. It’s no wonder we each see right and wrong through a different lens.

We all walk different paths, shaped by our truths.

Honoring someone else’s reality doesn’t diminish your own—it expands it.

Our version of truth may feel absolute, yet someone living a different life, in a different place or time, may see things in reverse—and still be right.

Embracing this possibility invites humility, patience, and the grace to forgive.

Tolerance DOES NOT mean enduring what is harmful.

Sometimes […]

By Doré Frances|2025-06-08T15:37:00-06:00April 22nd, 2025|Dore Frances, Frances Cascinai (Mom), Spirituality, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

From Liberation to Disillusionment: A Personal Journey Through the Spiritual and Social Upheaval of the ’60s and ’70s

Sexual liberation was at the heart of the social and spiritual upheaval of the 1960s and ’70s. With the advent of the Pill, intimacy was no longer tethered to reproduction—and everything began to shift.

Divorce shed its stigma, and single-parent households, for better or worse, became common across all walks of life. Once rigid in its doctrines, even religion began to loosen its grip, offering a more flexible, no-fault approach to faith.

Psychedelic drugs were a defining force in the counterculture of the 1960s and ’70s. Substances like LSD, magic mushrooms, mescaline, and peyote propelled countless baby boomers into altered states of consciousness—brief but profound journeys into expanded awareness and a deep sense of interconnectedness.

It’s an experience I’ve never forgotten and, if […]

By Doré Frances|2025-04-14T11:04:42-06:00April 14th, 2025|Dore Frances, Spirituality, The Sixties and Seventies Counterculture, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Living in the Redwoods: A Tribe, a Guru, and a Truth I Couldn’t Ignore

We watched the last of them drift out the door, laughter echoing faintly as the house finally quieted. Another long, lazy party had come and gone in our rambling house just beyond Big Basin State Park, tucked in the Santa Cruz Mountains off Highway 9. We were about 45 minutes from Santa Cruz, living amid the towering Coastal Redwoods—some of the most awe-inspiring trees on earth, found nowhere else but California.

The house was a sprawling 5,000-square-foot haven on eight acres, with a vegetable garden out front, composting toilets, a deep well we had to monitor, propane for heat, and a gas stove that got heavy use. An expansive wooden deck wrapped halfway around the […]

By Doré Frances|2025-04-12T11:13:52-06:00April 5th, 2025|Dore Frances, Relationships, Spirituality, The Sixties and Seventies Counterculture, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

From Bend to Boulder: A Journey of Spirit and Self

On August 1, 2011, I packed my Toyota Solara and left Bend, Oregon, bound for Colorado with my friend Jason. I had shipped a few of my larger belongings to his home, sold the rest, and fit everything I owned into the car.

The road ahead felt full of possibility — I was excited, curious, and maybe a little nervous.

What would life in Colorado be like?

What kind of energy would Boulder hold?

Jason had offered me a place to stay until I got settled, and while I didn’t know how long that might take, I was grateful for the chance to land somewhere soft.

By Doré Frances|2025-04-04T12:04:52-06:00April 4th, 2025|Bend, Oregon, Dore Frances, Spirituality, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Esalen: A Spiritual Journey Through Big Sur

My recollection begins at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California—the cradle of the human potential movement and the place where the spiritual energy of the Sixties first took hold along the California coast.

Esalen is more than a retreat center; it’s founded on the idea that human consciousness and potential constantly evolve.

The spirituality of the Sixties resembled a journey through comparative religion—a quest to find the mystical core shared by the world’s great faiths.

At Esalen, and within the broader Sixties spiritual movement, the focus wasn’t on believing in God.

It was about experiencing the divine firsthand.

I first visited Esalen in 1980, at the age of 27.

There, I encountered fellow baby boomers — Baptists, Catholics, Episcopalians, Jews, and Protestants — […]

By Doré Frances|2025-03-30T11:36:24-06:00March 30th, 2025|Dore Frances, Spirituality, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments