Donald J. Nichol's father worked for the Canadian National Railway and as he was often relocated by the company. His family never remained in one place for more than four years. However, he spent the greater part of those first twenty years in the suburban areas of Vancouver, Winnipeg and Thunder Bay where his favorite playground and refuge was the forests and woods which fortunately were always near home. He also spent many long hours painting scenes of wildlife and landscapes inspired by the work of the renowned Canadian artists known as "the Group of Seven," who had developed a fresh and exciting approach to depicting the Canadian wilderness areas. His love of art, music and nature made it difficult for him to decide upon a profession, and as high school days drew to a close, he was trying to choose between becoming a forest ranger or an architect. He finally decided that the latter might prove more creative and challenging, which eventuated in graduating from the University of Toronto School of Architecture in 1962. Although architecture proved to be a wonderful profession, it did not satisfy his need to understand more deeply the larger issues of life. This quest led Don to explore psychology and psychotherapy in the 60's and eastern philosophies and then some of the western esoteric teachings in the 70's. These explorations opened up vast horizons of understanding as well as leading into many adventures and into the company of many interesting people. In 1977, as a direct result of these pursuits, Don became a founding member of the Canadian Lorian Association along with several other friends including Dorothy Maclean one of the co-founders of the Findhorn Community in Scotland. After the death of Dr. Richard St. Barbe Baker, Don and friends held several public events to help encourage a greater awareness of trees and the plight of our forests. In order to prepare himself he set about to write a short article on this topic. The more he looked into this issue, the more the territory broadened and deepened. This book is one result of his research. He hopes that more people might feel inclined to look into an issue which touches the life of every one of us and the life of almost every living thing on our planet.