Are Thoresen is a healer and spiritual researcher whose life’s work has been devoted to one essential task: learning how consciously to enter and relate to the spiritual world. Inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s challenge that true knowledge arises not from belief but from living experience, this book is Thoresen’s deeply personal response. Idiosyncratic, experiential and uncompromising, it speaks not to the intellect alone, but directly to the heart.

Based on decades of work with pulse diagnosis, acupuncture and clairvoyant observation of humans and animals, Thoresen discovered that true healing arose when he ‘faded’ into elemental and spiritual realms. Having developed childhood abilities of seeing through physical form, conversing with nature and moving beyond ordinary time and space, in Opening the Heart he distils a lifetime of research into clear concepts and practical guidance on the art of ‘fading and merging’.

Building on his work on the Northern Path of Initiation, Thoresen introduces us to the four great Doors of the spiritual world: the Sun, the Elements, Death and the newly revealed Door of Light (Love), along with the four principal Paths that lead to them.

This is not a book for the hesitant or the excessively rational: it is at once a challenge and an opportunity. For those willing to persevere, it offers a rare initiatory path for learning to walk between worlds.

‘Full of eye-popping, mouth-dropping moments… Hold on tight and get to the end. Welcome to the Future.’ – Malcolm Gluck

ARE THORESEN was born in Norway in 1952. A Doctor of veterinary medicine, he has studied anthroposophic medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, osteopathy and agriculture. Since 1981 he has run a private holistic practice in Sandefjord, Norway, for the healing of people, horses and small animals. He has lectured widely, specializing in veterinary acupuncture, and has published dozens of scholarly articles. In recent years, his work has focused mainly on spiritual medicine – based primarily on a deeper understanding of anthroposophy and the medical teachings of Rudolf Steiner – and investigating the spiritual world, resulting in eight books: Demons and Healing (2018), Experiences from the Threshold (2019), Spiritual Translocation and The Lucifer Deception (both 2020), Transforming Demons (2021), and his trilogy: Travels on the Northern Path of Initiation (2021), Encounters with Vidar (2022) and Meeting Michael (2024).