# Book Review: Universal Tides



## MJM (Oct 9, 2006)

*Cosmic Green*
By JENNIFER MALONEY Staff Reporter, The Outlook
Apr 20 2006

BIG THEMES – Marilyn Milne brings corporate corruption, spirituality and saving the world together in her new book, ‘Universal Tides: Barbed Wire Blues,’ available online in e-book format at universaltides.com

Whether the conversation leads into her 12 years as a city bus driver, her fascination with alternate realities or her belief in the human spirit, time tends to disappear when one sits down with MJ Milne.

Today, the elegantly dressed screenwriter was unexpectedly given the day off from Thomas FX, a local special effects company, which she informs, has been selling out of fake blood as fast as it can order it. The film facility is one of several places Milne, “the office nanny,” minds on the North Shore.

But horror flicks nor office duties are top of mind for the North Van resident today. Milne has just finished publishing a controversial online book entitled Universal Tides: Barbed Wire Blues, and is anxious to discuss it.

The book is inciting interest from Trekkies and the cosmic conscious, but the author hopes its environmental message will reach even those who don’t believe in second sight.

“Here we are living on this planet, but we’re not taking responsibility for it,” she says from a restaurant booth at Park and Tilford. “That’s the only option I believe we have on the Earth today.”

The story follows a university microbiologist who discovers the 12 golden keys, survival skills that allow her to escape planetary ruin by visiting parallel universes. In order to leap through galaxies, the character must enter an altered state of consciousness.

While the idea of space surfing without rocket fuel may seem far fetched to some, Milne insists the concept is being proven possible through quantum physics.

The theory magnetizes skeptics, but the book’s controversy doesn’t stem from non-believers.

“You either believe it or you don’t,” Milne explains. “What’s controversial about the story is the corporate dictatorship of North America.”

The story also features a North American dictator who uses an experiment from a kidnapped scientist to control the populace. The dictator is one of the “global elite” who is raping the world of its gold and oil and gaining total control over its population.
Milne stands behind the implications of her story line, which overtly criticizes North America’s present leadership, however this close to Earth Day the soft-featured writer is more interested in discussing the planet than politics.

The idea for the story actually came to her 25 years ago, she explains.

In 1976, Milne started hand writing her vision. Effortlessly she transferred the 500-page manuscript into a book using a Smith Corona typewriter. But finding some one to publish it was next to impossible.

“It was before it’s time,” she contends. “I threw it in an old wooden chest and left it in my parent’s basement.”

Decades later, the author was caring for her dying father at her family home in Vancouver when she came across the chest. She re-edited the manuscript and believes its content is more relevant than ever.

With dramatic events like Hurricane Katrina, the South East Asian tsunami, and the massive earthquake in India, Milne says more people are questioning the future of Mother Earth. The natural disasters have also given fuel for a younger generation.

“The youth of the world now have a cause, and watch out because they’re our future and we have to listen,” she says. “They’re all about saving the planet.”

The only way to prevent planetary disaster, she contends, is to take responsibility and create a sense of community among the world.

“There’s definitely hope, but we have to start now,” she advises.

Milne herself only eats pesticide-free organic foods. She prefers her bike or the bus to a “gas guzzler,” and doesn’t buy anything plastic. These small steps are part of a planetary revolution she believes will be championed by the young generation. The rest is all about balance.

“The story line of Universal Tides has a light side and a dark side, the twin aspects of life,” she says. “We all have two choices in life: to live from love or to live from fear.”

The secret, she contends, is realizing love always overcomes fear. And one doesn’t have to believe in beaming up Scotty to figure that out.

(Milne’s book can be found at UniversalTides.com)


----------



## Brian G Turner (Oct 10, 2006)

Moved to Press Releases.


----------

