John has completed formal study in Core Belief Engineering and Neuro-Linguistic Programming as well as in the Chinese art of Qigong under the tutelage of Dr. Effie Chow of the East-West Institute, San Francisco. He is the author of books and articles on the art of common sense. John is a founder of Spiritual Frontiers Canada, having served as the organization’s first policy coordinator. He is also a founder of the Group Works Leadership Institute based in Ottawa.

John Heney was born in Montreal in 1956. After residing in Toronto for a time, his family moved to Stratford, Ontario where, from the age of seven, he received his schooling while enjoying one of the most enriching communities it is possible to grow up in. He set his sights on a career in journalism and subsequently obtained a Bachelor of Journalism with Political Science at Carleton University in Ottawa. Work with a national news service and in radio and public affairs led him to be the first to be hired at Bell-Northern Research (that would later be folded into what became Nortel) as a specialist in telecommunications regulation and policy. While at BNR, John became the first student to complete an M.A. in international affairs at the Norman Patterson School at Carleton University who designed his own program to include joint instruction at the faculty of law at the University of Ottawa.

John married Katharine Davidson of Verdun, Quebec in 1983. The couple has travelled to Poland, Egypt, England, Ireland, through New England and throughout Canada from Halifax to Dawson City.

John enjoys cooking, which he believes can be one of the holiest activities there is. His love of history is reflected in his writing and in many of his projects, including his interest in the early days of the recording industry.

In 1991, John suddenly collapsed in the shower, leaving him with compromised limb control, loss of voice control, and loss of his fine-motor skills. He travelled through the medical system and out the other side, and then through the model of alternative medicine and out the other side even as observers grappled with what turned out to be a combination of ataxia, aphasia, dystonia and the complications of his legacy of a form of cerebral palsy from birth. Dismissed within days of his collapse from his post that by then was as the managing editor of a publishing firm, John was left with no hope, no recovery program, no disability insurance, no explanation of his condition and nothing but dismissal from doctors who clearly did not know what they were dealing with.

John’s persistence and resilience in bringing himself back to being able to use a keyboard, to walk and to speak resulted in the writing of his first book “The Thunder Within”. Further observation and interaction as to how people relate to each other and tackle challenges resulted in his writing a book of observations entitled “Ladies and Gentlemen! Daring to Live What the Soul Already Knows”.

This has led him to study even more deeply the wellspring of economic benefit and health benefit there is to be found in greater respect, wider use of common decency and more formal teaching of what we can all obtain from interaction that is uplifting. Such is his practice and such is his path.

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