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TREASURE: A Hero's Journey is the true story of how Paulo Coelho's famous fable THE ALCHEMIST happened to Karen Williams in real life, at a time when she had never heard of the author or his fable. In 1995 Karen was living in Andalusia, southern Spain when 'cosmic forces of fate' entered her life, and she began a Hero's Journey in search of her soul. What she didn't know back then was that she would live out symbolically many of the events described in THE ALCHEMIST, and also journey to many of the places described in the book. Later on, Karen went on to discover the true meaning of Paulo Coelho's fable and finally that THE ALCHEMIST wasn't totally a work of fiction because Paulo had actually channeled the story from an invisible spiritual realm, leading him to predict Karen's future.
About the author
Karen Williams was born in London in 1958 to a Russian mother and English father. She was a misfit from the very beginning, worrying about the state of the world whilst her classmates played with dolls and kicked footballs around. Lost, and unable to find meaning in the society around her, she studied psychology at University, and then at the age of 26 took her mystic, misfit self off to live in Andalusia, southern Spain in search of greater meaning and color in her life.She worked as an English teacher whilst in Spain, and then after 10 years mysterious forces of fate seemed to enter Karen's life, prompting her to throw herself into a search for her soul. What she didn't know at the beginning of that search was that she would engage in the classic Hero's Journey described by the famous mythologist Joseph Campbell, and would also end up living out in real life Paulo Coelho's famous fable The Alchemist.The places in southern Spain and Africa which appeared in The Alchemist, and also the patterns within the fable began to happen to Karen in real life, and in so doing Karen not only continued her search for her soul, but also began to unravel the true meaning of The Alchemist. This journey lasted 24 years as Karen dedicated herself, body and soul, to a mystical path. As part of her journey she returned to England, and worked as a janitor, a healthcare worker, a cog on a production line in a factory, a clerk, and also as a care assistant with the elderly. However, nothing was accidental, but ended up being an integral part of her odyssey. Her spiritual journey finally ended in 2019, after she had spent more than nine years writing about it in various versions of her first book TREASURE.TREASURE: A Hero's Journey is Karen's final version of her extraordinary spiritual adventure. She also summarized her discoveries in a short fable called ANWAR'S STORY: The Other Hero, which she published in 2019 on Amazon.com. Karen is currently living back in Andalusia with her elderly mother, putting into practice everything she learned about what it means to approach one's life from a spiritual perspective - beyond the norms of any kind of organized religion. She no longer works due to having developed Chronic Fatigue over her 24 yearmarathon quest, but she is deeply passionate about political justice, Near-Death-Experiences, child welfare and the environment.
