The Rock Crystals

03/14/25 • 7 min

On this episode of Newsgram, we explore The Rock Crystals by Asif Saba—a journey beyond the physical world into the depths of spirituality, heaven, and the afterlife. Have you ever had a dream or meditative experience so profound it felt more real than reality itself? Meet Yusif, a devoted meditator whose recurring vision became a breathtaking reality. Join us for a tale of spiritual awakening, cosmic connection and the mysteries of the afterlife.

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Welcome to this edition of Newsgram!

For years, I’ve been fascinated by the idea of spirit guides, the afterlife, and the unseen forces that shape our journey. It’s a topic that once raised eyebrows, but today, more people are embracing the idea that there’s more to life than meets the eye. Now, this is not something I talk about all the time but when asked I will be happy to share my thoughts on the subject. God, The Afterlife, Angels and Spirit guides are all real. Yes, we all have Spirit Guides that help us on our journey through life and I’ve come to realize that the Heaven and Hell we were taught about may not be the full picture.

What if the visions we experience in meditation aren’t just our imagination, but glimpses of something greater—something real?

If any of this resonates with you, then you’re ready to meet Asif Saba, author of a book called The Rock Crystals.

Asif Saba – It was a book that came about by accident, really. It goes back maybe, you know, 30 years. I was at college and I was doing this English essay. And I wrote a really short, 4 page, you know, like a practice page of a little story as part of my English essay.

And then I put it away for a good five, ten years. And then I found it again after all that time. And I started reading it. And then I started thinking about it. And, you know, the thoughts wouldn’t go away. So, you know, I just started writing from there.

Some stories demand to be told. When your thoughts keep knocking on your mind’s door, sometimes you have to answer them. The Rock Crystals, Asif combines his talents as a fiction writer with his knowledge of the Quran and the afterlife to weave together a story that entertains and informs.

Asif Saba – Now, so where it starts is, I’ve got a character called Yusef, and he meditates daily. And he had a vision. Now, he had lots of little different visions, but one day he had a major vision that put all the pieces together, and he couldn’t work out why this vision existed.

Anyway, on one of his meditations, what happened is he came out of his physical body and went to the spiritual world. He met a couple of guardian angels, or these spiritual beings, and they took him further into the afterlife. And that’s where he had this adventure. And the adventure, it’s basically fraught with challenges and obstacles that Yusef must overcome as part of his journey. And these companions are like his guides, even in the afterlife.

His journey mirrors our own lives in a way, just like Yusif, we all face obstacles, but we’re not alone—we have guidance – There is wisdom out there that says we were put on this earth to grow spiritually. We all have a life plan that includes accomplishing certain goals throughout our lifetime. To help us do that we have spirit guides that gently nudge us along to keep us on track. Asif believes this story isn’t just fiction; it’s a reflection of spiritual truths we can all learn from.

Asif Saba – I think for people who like to meditate, and they are spiritual, I think they will get so much out of this book. It’ll help them maybe understand some of their own experiences, because of what Yusuf is going through. And so I think people will really find it fascinating.

Speaking of art mimicking life, one of the major lessons Yusef learns is to choose love over hate.

Asif Saba – The greatest lesson we can learn is to love each other and not hate, because that just brings our vibration down. And love raises our vibrational spiritual body and helps to ascend. And the beauty about love is that when you express love, you know, it opens your consciousne...

Subscribe with your favorite podcast player

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Welcome to this edition of Newsgram!

What if the visions we experience in meditation aren’t just our imagination, but glimpses of something greater—something real?

If any of this resonates with you, then you’re ready to meet Asif Saba, author of a book called The Rock Crystals.

Speaking of art mimicking life, one of the major lessons Yusef learns is to choose love over hate.

Previous Episode

The Cordillera

On today’s episode of Newsgram, we explore The Cordillera by Luis Rousset-Velho, a thrilling tale of courage, adventure, and resilience. Follow the journey of Jacques Laurent, a man shaped by the wild landscapes of Patagonia and the elite training of France’s École Polytechnique. From taming horses and conquering mountains to daring rescues in the Amazon and battling ruthless criminals across continents, Jacques’ life is a relentless pursuit of heroism against impossible odds. Join us as we dive into this gripping narrative of mettle, danger, and adventure.

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Welcome to this edition of Newsgram!

It was twenty years when I first felt the call of the mountains. Growling up in the midwest there was always something magical about traveling west. Maybe it was growing up with all those spaghetti westerns but the west was just so different than the flat midwest. For one thing it’s more dangerous. Plants and and animals that can live in such a harsh climate are not to be trifled with. But the beauty is beyond measure. Watching the sun fade behind a backdrop of majestic mountains can put your soul to rest. It’s no wonder there are so many retreats, salons and rehab centers out here. There are also lots of mineral mines. Arizona, where I now live, is the copper state but you’ve heard about the Gold rush right? Back in 1848 it brought hundreds of thousands of people to the west and the mountains and climate continue to do it to this day.

Luis Rousset – When I was younger, I was in the minerals field, and I used to travel a lot in South America and through Peru and Chile and Argentina and I got to see a lot of different places and very beautiful places, interesting places, and places that are never visited by tourists, by regular tourists.

That is Luis Rousset, a 1971 PhD graduate in Mineral Engineering from Stanford University. Throughout his career he traveled through the mining areas of Arizona, California and Utah as well as those he just mentioned in South America and it was there that he found inspiration for his new book, “The Cordillera” which is Spanish for Mountain range. In fact, let me be even more specific it was a small village in the Argentinian Patagonia where he found his inspiration.

Luis Rousset – And I started writing about this young man, and the mountain range, or the cordillera. It represents a kind of a challenge for a young person who must conquer. So I decided to give the book the title of Cordillera, although it takes place not only in Argentina, but in many other places.

The young man he mentioned is Jacques Laurent. The main character.

Luis Rousset – Jacques Laurent, yeah, okay Jacques Laurent.

Now, let’s talk more about Jacques as a character. A young boy whose first challenge is to conquer a mountain. The Fitzroy.

Luis Rousset – It’s too difficult! You must be a really, really good rock climber to go up the Fitzroy. I’ve done some of the easier climbs, but not Fitzroy itself. It’s very, very tough. So, I wanted to start the book in a situation where Jacques had finally conquered Fitzroy. So he had achieved this. And he says, look, I’m not even 17 and I’ve already done that. So this is the opening of the book. This guy promises a lot. So he’s an achiever.

Just to give you a little backstory El Chalten is the National Capital of Trekking in Argentina. It’s very popular and it’s a stunningly beautiful place with some of the toughest mountains to climb anywhere in the world. Luis takes us into this world right away with intense physical hiking, rock climbing, and traversing of slopes. So the hero of the story is Jaques, an over achiever who is fit and determined. Naturally he finds love.

Luis Rousset – And this is his first love with this girl, Anne-Marie. And how the story develops with Anne-Marie. So the second part of the book is more or less the story of Anne-Marie.

Romance aside, there is also a great deal of adventure. From saving missionaries in Central America and rescuing people in the deep Amazon Forest you could say Jacque has his hands full. He fights a ruthless gang of criminals and chases terrorists in the Middle East.

Luis Rousset – And s...

Next Episode

A Journey with Dyslexia

Today we explore A Journey with Dyslexia: Alienation, Assimilation, Acclimation, the inspiring story of Peter James Wilson, who refused to let dyslexia define him. Peter’s is a story of resilience, discovery, and the power of the human mind to adapt and thrive.

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Welcome to this edition of Newsgram!

Let’s begin our adventure today with a journey back to the early 1950s—a time of post-war recovery and cultural transformation. It was the era when we first met Elvis Presley, watched Marilyn Monroe light up the big screen, and were introduced to iconic figures like James Bond and Peter Pan.

Pop culture has romanticized this period in countless ways—just think of how many ‘50s-style diners you’ve seen.

But beneath the nostalgia it was a tough time for those who didn’t fit the mold. Back then, learning disabilities like dyslexia weren’t well understood. Instead of getting support, kids were often mislabeled and left to struggle in silence.

PJ (Label) Being labeled dummy was not something that any kid likes, and I certainly was labeled that.

That’s Peter James Wilson. He’s seventy seven years old and all those years have given him a great deal of perspective and wisdom. Like he just said, when he was growing up, children with dyslexia were often called dumb. I know it’s hard to hear but it was a different time. They were labeled by professionals as lazy, unintelligent, or “slow learners” and there was something else.

PJ – Well, there were all sorts of things that happened that contradicted the dumb label, and I was confused for quite a while because I did things that were really smart, and other kids noticed, and some kids would say, you know, you’re only pretending to be stupid. Excuse me. And that was one of the things that I kind of looked forward to in a way because although they were trying to put me down, I was realizing that there was something else there besides the inability to read and the inability to communicate.

He struggled a bit but Peter knew he wasn’t dumb. He could solve complex problems, impress his peers and people still dismissed him—some even accused him of faking his struggles. It wasn’t until much later that he fully understood why his brain worked differently. Thankfully that is all in the past and his recent accomplishment is a book titled A Journey with Dyslexia: Alienation, Assimilation, Acclimation where he documents his experiences in overcoming dyslexia.

PJ – Yeah, I wasn’t able to learn to read until I formed neural pathways, and that was something that I got the information from a psychologist who diagnosed me as being dyslexic. He gave me the information that I needed to be able to form the plan that I formed to create neural pathways. I didn’t know about neural pathways, and neither did he, but once I formed neural pathways, I then had time to learn to read, and I wanted to learn to read because I wanted to write. I’ve always wanted to write, even when I was in primary school, I wanted to be able to write.

I didn’t know much about Neural pathways either, at least not how they specifically relate to reading so I did a bit of research and I discovered that reading is like a team of brain pathways all working together. Your eyes see the letters, your brain figures out what they mean, and another part helps you understand the words. It’s like a road map inside your brain that helps you read and learn! Some people, like those with Dyslexia, have brains that take a different path and that can make reading trickier—but with practice and the right tools, they can become great readers! For Peter it wasn’t quite that easy because he had Autism to deal with as well.

PJ – I was 67 when I was diagnosed with autism, and it wasn’t until I was diagnosed with autism that I realized that the jigsaw pieces that I’d been putting together on dyslexia had a whole heap of other pieces mixed in with them that weren’t dyslexia. And it wasn’t until I sorted the autism pieces away from the dyslexic pieces that I was able to write this book, because along with learning about neural pathways, I was able to understand what had happened during my life with dyslexia and write the book. And that is the big thing that I wanted to be able to get across to people, is that there is a lot in this book that will help many people, not only dyslexic people, ...