Thomas E. Whittingslow has written two books and published more than 200 magazine feature articles. His cover story on Havana, Cuba won Florida Magazine Association's "Charlie Award" for best investigative reporting. When he was only 36 years old the author was passed over for potential life-saving heart surgery. The cardiologists at Cedar-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles called him a "walking time bomb." At that point he set off on a journey to discover the purpose or the higher meaning of life. His first book Living Gods, Broken Idols documents his experience trekking to the Himalayas to study with a reputed reincarnation of Shiva, a 2,000 year old Hindu god. However, his search didn't end there. After reading every self-help book that he could get his hands on, Tom felt that something was still missing, that answers to his questions could be found much closer to home. Uncommon Wisdom Is the result of that search. Tom lives in Arizona with his wife Michaela and a German shepherd dog named Lupo. Now on his sixth pacemaker, he walks several miles daily and works out regularly with weights.