About me

I was born in Hong Kong when it was still a British Crown Colony. At the age of three, my parents immigrated to the United States, but I remained in Hong Kong at the insistence of my paternal grandfather who wished that I learn some Chinese culture before immigrating. He went on to teach me to recite a little Tang poetry, play Chinese chess and the basics of Taoism.

After joining my family in Los Angeles at the age of ten, I soon became a Sci-Fi nerd and started a UFO club at my junior high. At the age of 18, I surprised everyone and joined the U.S. Army Reserves without telling anyone in advance. A more mature me returned from Basic Training and began studying International Relations at SF State University.

During the last year of my graduate studies in International Relations, I passed the Foreign Service exam and was offered a position by the United States Department of State. After serving at Washington, DC and overseas in Taiwan, Japan and the People’s Republic of China, I was posted to the U.S. Consulate-General in Hong Kong where I declared as a member of the Baha’i Faith. While in Hong Kong, I was elected to the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Southern District and later the National Spiritual Assembly of Hong Kong.

After meeting my future mentor, Professor Heyong Shen at a diplomatic function to celebrate the professor’s achievement of becoming the first internationally certified Jungian analyst in China and the visit of a U.S. delegation of leading psychologists, I became interested in psychology. Invited to join the doctoral program at Professor Shen’s university in 2002, I leapt at the chance.

Following a minor “international incident,” I was permitted to become the first active duty foreign diplomat to concurrently hold international scholar status and enjoy unrestricted access to a university campus in the history of the PRC.

In 2005, I resigned from the Foreign Service to take care of my disabled mother and to focus on my doctoral dissertation. In 2006, I completed the oral defense of my dissertation in China and was awarded the degree Philosophiae Doctor.

For a few years, I worked as a therapist in Guangzhou and served as consulting psychologist for the Zhuhai International School while also caring for my mother. In 2009, I moved back permanently to San Francisco as my mother’s health situation changed and I began working at the Baha’i Center as assistant to the Spiritual Assembly. In 2010, I married a woman I met on a plane nine years earlier. A few years later, my whole life changed as I realized the true nature of the Ultimate Reality.