Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return is the first novel in the The Path of Return Trilogy series by T.L. Orcutt, originally published in September 2005.
Set against the Aquarian optimism and affluence that dawned the new millennium in 1995 San Diego, Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return is a paranormal and mystical adventure marbleized with humor. Baby-boomer Bob Kramer arrives in mid-life crisis with a job loss and recent divorce. Jamayah, an unlikely cosmopolitan guru, mysteriously recruits Bob as an initiate on the Path of Return, a fusion of wisdom traditions tempered toward paranormal mastery and cosmic awareness. The progressively intense challenge is how Bob will reconcile his scientific skepticism in a paranormal and mystical adventure that embraces a strip bar, demands trusting synchronicity in the face of homeless humility, and a past life regression realizing the horrors of war.
Three of the four initiations on which the story unfolds, in this first novel of The Path of Return Trilogy, focus on experiencing the optimal possibilities of human awareness: (1), mastering paranormal ability to explore an altogether different universe from the homogenized world view that is anchored in materialistic reality, (2), experiencing humility and trusting intuition and synchronicity, and (3), unattached observation of life in the moment. In the end, Bob returns to ordinary life, but feels detached, alone, and indifferent, a malaise Jamayah reframes as having passed a sacred rite of passage.
Rickshaw Lubowski - Rickshaw Lubowski (alias Bob Kramer): Bob Kramer was a college acquaintance’s name that Rickshaw uses to maintain his anonymity during his adventures in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return. Born in 1954, and now a Berkeley graduate, his first job is as a biochemist for Bhaisajya Pharmaceuticals until the company needs to downsize. At the time of being laid off, he is in divorce settlement with his unfaithful wife. Without job or wife, he begins an apprenticeship with Jamayah in 1995 at the age of 41. More information about his early family life, college friends, and intimate relationships is disclosed in the immediate sequel, Collateral Karma, at which time, his real name is revealed.
Jamayah (nickname for Jose Guerrero): Jamayah is a genetic and cultural blend of Spanish, Native Argentinean, Italian, and English and speaks Castellano, Basque, and English. He is an educated and senior gentleman, dyslexic, over six feet tall, chestnut skin, lanky frame, large appetite, and passion for fishing. Jamayah is an unconventional visionary and healer who sells Bob Kramer on the commitment to become his singular apprentice in an inner wisdom tradition oriented toward paranormal mastery and cosmic awareness. Jamayah does not get wet in the rain and has powers of: forecasting the weather, clairvoyance about events and people arriving and departing, seeing auras, ghosts, and disembodied entities, exorcism, soul retrieval, medical intuition, healing, herbology, and astral travel. He lives aboard a gifted sailboat, a forty-foot gaft-rigged yawl named Zephyra, moored in a luxurious San Diego marina. A chocolate-pointed Siamese cat, named Bamboo, makes home aboard the vessel as well. Jamayah cannot solo sail and must hire a captain for Zephyra’s lengthy excursions along the west coast of North America.
Carmela de Avila - A voluptuous Wiccan sorceress who is a former lover of Jamayah. Raoul Guerrero is their only child conceived together out of wedlock. With a different lover, Carmela gave birth to Crystal Meadows. Carmela’s surname is taken from Avila where she was raised, a town in the south of Old Castile, Spain and the capital of the province by the same name. She has the abilities to levitate astral travel, and heal. Carmela chooses Bob Kramer as the appropriate apprentice for Jamayah and is the healer who gives him a past life regression in a castle on a mountain outside Tijuana.
Raoul Guerrero (nickname Snake Wizard) - The only son of Jamayah and Carmela, he is the same age as Bob Kramer, has a husky physique, broad facial features like an indigenous Indian, penetrating eyes, and a tattoo of a snake winding around his left arm. Raoul lives in Tijuana, surfs, and works as a healer, supporting himself by selling poisonous snake venom to hospitals. Earlier in life, he was given the nickname Snake Wizard. He is a serious meditator and was an apprentice to Jamayah on “The Path of Return”.
Naomi (no last name) - A Piscean crone and clairvoyant who divines from cards and birds. Living aboard a fishing boat across the docks from Jamayah, she “sees” Bob Kramer astral travel. Along with Jamayah, Naomi gives Bob an exorcism of a demon that enters him during a seance. More than Carmela, she is a continuing source of consolation to Bob Kramer/Rickshaw Lubowski throughout the “The Path of Return” series.
William Randolph Sterling (nickname Weird Willie) - A subcontractor-mentor for Jamayah who supervised Bob Sterling’s second initiation about humility and trusting synchronicity. In Vietnam, he was Army Special Forces, received two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a Distinguished Service Cross for bravery and heroism. Choosing to live as a homeless person in downtown San Diego, he is an artist who lives on a ranch in Julian, where he makes masks for children of poverty, disability, or disease. Willie rescues Cinnamon immediately after her automobile accident.
Todo (no last name) - Having tired of the rigid requirements of his monastery and now living in San Diego, Todo is a Japanese Zen Master who was Jamayah’s primary mentor. He golfs with only a three iron and teaches Bob Kramer to empty his mind by playing golf with an imaginary golf ball.
Reception for Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return was limited though generally favorable. Stanley Krippner, international parapsychologist and coauthor of Becoming Psychic, The Mythic Path, and Mysterious Minds, referred to the work as a "magnificent tapestry, one that is more like a web from which readers will find hard to escape until they finish the final and most expository chapter." Catherine Kitcho, editor of Hot Lava! Book Reviews, called the book ”a wonderful blend of contemporary fiction and metaphysics”, and further stated, ”You will enjoy this tale of an ordinary guy discovering a world that is not so ordinary...Once you start this book, you won't be able to put it down, except occasionally to ponder some of the book's profound insights. Bravo” Duncan Sings-Alone, a Zen Buddhist priest and author of Sprinting Backwards to God said in a review, "Not since I discovered Carlos Castaneda years ago have I read a book so captivating and truth filled. If you want to explore the outer limits of your potential, read this book. You will love it."
