Roger Nilson and Ann Sofie Lakso

During the end of a lengthy Q&A session following my presentation on "Living Without Conscious Thought: What Happened and How Functioning Is Affected" at the Towards A Science of Consciousness conference in Stockholm from May 3 to May 7, a fellow asked me if we could speak separately.

i agreed and he asked me if i would come to his house the next day and meet with he and his friends. He also agreed to give my wife and i a tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Royal Palace @ Drottningholm, which was outside Stockholm.

As it turned out, this "fellow" was Roger Nilson, one of the most famous "blue water"/ocean sailors, having served as navigator and doctor on 7 around-the-world voyages and many, many races including the America's Cup and the Jules Verne Trophy. He was the only "non Frenchman" on the world-record setting Orange II voyage.

After visiting Drottningholm, we went to his beautiful place on the Baltic Sea and met his wife, Ann Sofie Lakso, also Swedish, who has been a "supermodel" for the Eileen Ford Modeling Agency in Europe and the US, and is now a therapist/artist/designer with her own Ann Sofie Lakso Creative Solutions in Stockhholm. Ann Sofie spent many years in the LA area and is still much a delightfully US/CA folk.


Roger autographed a copy of one of his six books, Toward The Eye of the Storm, in which there are prominent photos of Ramana Maharshi (also a large photo in his house) and Byron Katie (with whom Roger spent much time). The chapter intro quotes are by Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, Einstein, the Eurythmics, etc. The forward quote is "The outer storm ceases the moment the inner storm ends, for they are the same storm." by Vernon Howard.

The meeting w/Roger and Ann Sofie and their friends was wonderful and went on for something like 2 1/2 hours with many questions. Ann Sofie and Roger are both active meditators and professional counselors so the discussion was both deep and wide.

After the meeting, we had dinner w/Roger and Ann Sofie at the restaurant simply called "J" (for J class racing sailing boats used in the America's Cup). Roger's efforts in sailing made the restaurant possible and the walls are lined with half hulls of model boats; a magnificent sculpture spouting into the Baltic frames the site.

A fascinating and highly improbable meeting, like so many. Impossible to have imagined that i would meet such fascinating folk deeply "into" Ramana Maharshi, Byron Katie and meditation in Stockholm and spend so much "quality time" with them.