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Paul O’Brien

Paul O’Brien is an author, speaker, mentor, founder of Tarot.com and Chief Visionary of the educational non-profit Divination Foundation.

He has been host for over 27 years of Pathways, a radio interview program focused on personal and cultural transformation, and is currently authoring the syndicated advice column Paulo’s Perspective and the Decision Maker’s blog — dedicated to helping people make more enlightened decisions for themselves and their organizations. Paul wrote the book Divination, which reflects decades of philosophical and theological research, as well as his passionate production of a suite of classical divination software and websites — in support of better decisions, better relationships, and less stress. In the process, he co-authored The Visionary I Ching — a modern, poetic and non-sexist interpretation of that ancient and revered divination system, which was incorporated in the software and website.

He’s currently working on the publication of his illustrated I Ching in book form, and another book entitled “Great Decisions, Perfect Timing” about his Visionary Decision Making system, giving the occasional talk, biking in the sunshine and spending time with his extended family.

Paul was recently interviewed by Carol Marleigh Kline on her radio show on September 2, 2011. Listen to the interview as Paul teaches how to use divination systems to stimulate the intuition in support of better decision-making and relationships.

Want to get Paulo’s Perspective on a dilemma or big question in your life right now? Submit thoughts and questions for the advice column.

Biography

  • The oldest of seven, O’Brien develops extraordinary levels of responsibility, resourcefulness, and resilience from a young age.
  • 1969: An undergraduate at UC Berkeley, he becomes a student of Alan Watts and Tai Chi, and is fascinated by the I-Ching, or Book of Changes, the ancient Chinese divination system. Takes up the serious study of Taoism and Buddhism.
  • 1970: Drops out of UC Berkeley and moves to a commune — a goat farm in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
  • 1973: Becomes fascinated with computer software and enters the field, starting out as a secretary/typist for the director of the non-profit Oregon Research Institute “minicomputer” center.
  • 1975: Creates software marketing position for the non-profit Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.
  • 1977: Becomes Director of Marketing for Edge Technology, an early developer of microcomputer systems.
  • 1980: Takes an 18-month sabbatical to study yoga and meditation in monasteries and ashrams of southern Asia; becomes trained as a Buddhist meditation teacher, travels the world as teaching assistant to famous Buddhist nun.
  • 1984: Becomes host of the Pathways radio program, interviewing leaders in personal and cultural transformation.
  • 1985: Teaches meditation for City of Portland adult education as well as for New Thought churches.
  • 1986: Becomes a single parent with custody of his 13 y/o son (just in time for adolescence :-) .
  • 1988: VP of Marketing for a high-tech software company, O’Brien discovers an intersection between two things he loves: software  and divination, and is inspired by an I-Ching reading to develop a software version of the I-Ching itself. Driven by a vision of creative freedom, he invests his life savings to create a prototype, become an entrepreneur and bootstrap his first company, Visionary Software in his basement to develop his revolutionary software idea and take it to market. His professional peers think he’s nuts. “You have a good job and there is no market for I-Ching software,” they accurately point out at the time. But this is a labor of love, and he perseveres, investing all his life savings, plus doing consulting — whatever it takes to help his new venture survive.
  • 1989: Visionary Software, publishes Synchronicity, his new I-Ching program for Macintosh, which turns out to be the world’s first divination software and one of the first multimedia titles (i.e. incorporating art and sounds on two floppy disks) ever published. In 1989, computers and divination are an unlikely mix, and this small multimedia program seriously predates CD-ROMs … divination software is at least ten years ahead of its time. But a few influential Mac users, including Paul Wenner (founder of Gardenburger) and John Gray (Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus) find it and credit improved decision-making to the use of Synchronicity, which becomes a minor cult hit.
  • 1990: O’Brien attends night school to become an ordained New Thought minister. He develops a 7-step Manifestation Practice, based on a pracitce he calls “enlightened decision-making” using the I Ching. Meanwhile, confronted by a negligible market for divination software, he reinvents his company to focus on “First Things First” time management, and corporate training programs. Thus he keeps his little company going (re-mortgaging his house to meet payroll a couple times).
  • 1994: O’Brien takes private ownership of Synchronicity, but otherwise ‘sells’ what has become a business software company to a management team eager to develop the market for its business apps. Unable to successfully raise capital, the newly organized company devolves from being debt-free to bankrupt within two years. O’Brien loses his entire stake.
  • 1995: O’Brien accepts position as Director of the non-profit Oregon Multimedia Alliance, to build emerging multimedia and internet industries in Oregon (and learns a ton while doing it). Meanwhile, he moonlights in order to finance production of two divination multimedia CD-ROMs, turning virtually all of his own paychecks over to programmers, authors and artists for the next few years.
  • 1997: Launches two new CD-ROMs – Oracle of Changes I-Ching and Tarot Magic. He restarts his entrepreneurial career by once again bootstraping a new company from his basement, which he now names “Visionary Networks,” and proceeds to acquire I-Ching.com and Tarot.com web domains. He invents a new form of online micro-currency (“Karma Coins”) with which to purchase online readings, use as an incentive to membership, etc.. Karma Coins become a successful and unique, new form of micropayments, rewards programs, discounts, etc.
  • 1999: O’Brien is honored as “the father of interactive divination,” based on the publication of Synchronicity program ten years earlier.
  • 2002: Visionary wins contracts to provide all astrology and divination for AOL, MySpace, Belief.net and other portals large and small (including co-producing the first horoscope “gadget” with Google). All of a sudden, millions of people are using interactive divination systems to gain insights and make better decisions with better timing.
  • 2007: Visionary Networks and Tarot.com are acquired by Name Media (see article – PDF document).
  • 2007: O’Brien sets up non-profit Divination Foundation to teach and promote Visionary Decision Making, featuring the skillful use of intuitive decision-making techniques.  Publishes the first in a series of books: Divination: Sacred Tools for Reading the Mind of God, as well as podcasting Pathways radio interviews on personal and cultural transformation via Divination.com. Makes himself available for interviews and speaking assignments.
  • 2012: Publishes art-illustrated Visionary I Ching as an ebook. Fall of 2012: Publishes Great Decisions, Perfect Timing—The Art of Visionary Decision Making.