Paul Hourihan was born, raised and educated in Boston, where he earned a degree at Harvard and a doctorate in English literature from Boston University. For 15 years he taught dozens of courses in Ontario, Canada, on the subjects of mysticism and great mystics such as Jesus Christ, Buddha, and Ramakrishna. He was a serious student of the world's mystical philosophies particularly the ancient Vedanta philosophy of India.  Dr. Hourihan was committed to the spiritual path and its lifestyle for most of his adult life and passed away peacefully in 2001, in Redding, California where he lived with his wife, Anna, who carries on his work.

As a young man he turned from his traditional religious upbringing to embrace literature and pursue his desire to write the Great American Novel. In crisis by his early thirties―atheistic, troubled, his dream unrealized―a deep transforming experience completely changed the course of his life. Spiritual development became his goal, eclipsing all previous aspirations.

In his middle age he began to bring together the two dominant threads in his life―literature and mysticism. In the early 1980s he finally started writing books in various genres on different subjects, but always with a spiritual basis. The special areas he concentrated on were: mysticism in literature; the Vedanta philosophy; and Tantric psychology.

His last twenty years were spent writing and polishing his works: he delayed publication until each was burnished by the flame of mystical insight, becoming a polished mirror in which the truth might shine forth. Three of the four books published thus far have won awards as Best Spiritual Book.

In the spirit of Swami Vivekananda, he boldly presents truths we may intuit, but which are seldom articulated.

Vedantic Shores Press is proud to provide the fruits of this synthesis of the spiritual and literary to the world.

[The black and white photograph is Paul Hourihan as a young man in New York City.]