Over 700 years ago in Paris, on June 1, 1310, the Beguine mystic Marguerite Porete was burned at the stake for having written a popular book, "The Mirror of Simple Souls." Its primary message was that divine grace alone-not the religious precepts of the Church-inspires and activates a direct communion with God. That was her experience, and her refusal to retract it led to this terrible moment.

Marguerite's book consists of a conversation between Love and the Soul. Her powerful dialogue inspired James F. Twyman to go deeply within. What came through Twyman is another transforming dialogue-The Annihilated Self-in which what is "annihilated," or dissolved, is the separated sense of self (the ego), which reveals the path to Love and Truth, and releases the soul into final spiritual freedom.