Featured Interview With Michael Lanfield
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am a vegan educator, filmmaker and author the highly acclaim book The Interconnectedness of Life with foreword by Dr. Karen Davis, author and president of United Poultry Concerns. I grew up in Toronto, Canada and had a vegan awakening in 2009. In 2011 I was bearing witness looking into the eyes of the animals in trucks going off to slaughter. I couldn’t believe what I had seen and had to take my activism to a new level. These animals knew they are going to slaughter. They are not stupid. Everyone needs to bear witness, looking into the eyes of the innocent and to be their voice. Animals being the most defenseless, need our help. And I vowed to be their guardian for life.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
When I had the vegan awakening I wanted to describe the experience to everyone, I just didn’t know how. In August 2010 after months of contemplating, I started writing my book, The Interconnectedness of Life. I actually didn’t like books until I started awakening. As I became more spiritually aware of the world around me and all the suffering and destruction, I started to write down my thoughts and feelings of my life experiences. My story is unique, but at the same time it is a story that some people can relate to. Visiting the zoos and circuses and seeing animals suffer, the only difference between then and now is, I understand the what goes on behind the scenes. I understand what the animals go through, and I understand what it does mentally and physically to us as spiritual beings. It has changed my life and I am so thankful for being given the opportunity to experience it.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I am really inspired by the animals. They taught me that in order to stop the suffering on this planet, we need to start with the beings that are most vulnerable, which is non-human animals themselves. I saw into their eyes and I knew I needed to help them, I know that in order to save ourselves we need to stop seeing them as property and food. It is that simple. Dr. Will Tuttle the author of the #1 amazon bestselling book The World Peace Diet has taught me a lot. He is my mentor, my dear friend and a fully enlightened being. He is a former Zen Buddhist monk and has been vegan since 1980. I few months after reading his book, listen to his audio and video recordings of his interviews and lectures I knew that his message was clear, in order for us to survive on Earth, we need to stop seeing animals as property and food. It was that simple. There is no way around it, and my book dives just into that.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Interconnectedness of Life is simply realizing that we are all interconnected and in order to be free and spiritually aware we need to see ourselves in all creatures. We won’t be truly free if we’re oppressing others. And others includes non-human animals as well. My book is just that, it goes into the heart and soul of the world’s dilemmas and gives a true solution, for us to be free, loving and compassionate. If we want to know what the meaning of life is and why we are so riffled with the problems of our own making, then The Interconnectedness of Life does that justice.
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