Eckhart Tolle suffered greatly–he had bouts of depression and suicidal thoughts.  Then, one night, he woke up, thinking he couldn’t live with himself any longer.  He then realized that he must be two selves: The “I” and the “self” he couldn’t live with.  This was an utter shock to him.  Suddenly his mind stopped, but:

“I was fully conscious. … drawn into what seemed like a vortex of energy… my body started to shake… I heard the words “resist nothing” as if spoken from inside by chest… [I was being] sucked into a void… Suddeny, there was no more fear, and I let myself fall into that void.  I have no recollection of what happened after that.”  For the next five months he lived in an uninterrupted state of pure bliss.  After that, he was separated from everything.  No relationships, job, or home.  “I spent almost two years sitting on park benches in a state of the most intense joy.”  (From “The Power of Now” pp. 4-5)

Once he got on his feet again, people came in droves because they wanted what he had.  He simply told them they already had it, and he couldn’t really help them.  He wrote “The Power of Now” in an attempt to help people get it.

This book is amazing.  (Video is 4 min.):