James Pletch Finding Spiritual Strength
Helping people increase spiritual strength in their lives in their own unique way, using loving values and practices from across the humanitarian and spiritual traditions.
About
Welcome to my website!
My name is James Pletch. I’m an Australian spiritual strength educator, based in Melbourne.
My own ongoing spiritual development journey began when I was very young.
My father served as a volunteer in the Second World War, fighting to successfully defend democracy from dictatorship. He did that from 1940 to 1945 aged 18 to 23. He returned from the war with problems. In 1952, within a year of marrying my mother – who was also a war veteran from age 20 to 25 in London through the bombings - he shot his way into a house my mother had fled to with me her six-month-old baby son, wounding a visiting divorce lawyer.
I had what American Dr Raymond Moody’s medical research in 1975 called a ‘near-death experience’, or NDE for short. In my case, it was a mystical experience of the light.
I consciously remembered the experience 40 years later in 1992 as the result of what I’ll call a series of soul intuition experiences. That launched me on an ongoing spiritual development journey. While imperfect like everyone else, that journey has allowed me to live with a lot of simple joy, and a complete absence of inner loneliness.
I’ve published a spiritual self-help book, Finding Spiritual Strength. Stories From the Frontline of Life. Loving Values From Across the Humanitarian and Spiritual Traditions. Spiritual is defined as love. Each chapter focuses on a different loving value or practice. Each contains real life spiritual strength stories drawing from 300 peoples’ lives. These include ordinary people like myself – we are all both strong and vulnerable in our own unique way - and famous people, right up to Buddha and Christ.
Here is a 2025 photo of me launching the book at Port Fairy on the southeast coast of Australia. You might notice this photo does not match the 2016 self-flattering and outdated photo of me at the top of this website (also on the back cover of the book!). Vanity, vanity, all is vanity…
If you’re curious, you can try out the Self-Assessment instrument below, to see how the book might be of use to you.
Spiritual Strength Self-Assessment Instrument
This instrument is private to you. It’s designed to help you increase spiritual strength in your life in your own unique way, by using 12 loving values and practices from across the humanitarian and spiritual traditions. Each corresponds to one of the 12 chapters of Finding Spiritual Strength.
I believe that we all have a loving Self and an unloving self, and we flip between them all day – I know I do! We increase spiritual strength in our lives by spending more time in our loving Self living the loving values listed below, and less time in our unloving self, living unloving values.
With each idealized loving value ‘I’ statement below, give yourself a ‘low’ (1), if the statement does not apply to you at the moment. Give yourself a high (10), if the statement is 100 percent true of you - congratulations! Often, you may be somewhere between 1 and 10. Draw confidence from any you score highly on. See lower scoring values as a golden opportunity to learn and grow.
[Website space constraints mean that only 1-4 and 11-12 are listed here in full. I use the full instrument in my workshops.]
One. Truth.
(See chapter 1 Truth. Our Past’s Gifts to Us.)
I am comfortable with my past and empowered by it. I use negative past experiences as opportunities to learn and grow. I use positive past experiences to give me strength and confidence.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Two. Meditation.
(See chapter 2 Meditation and Buddha. Selectively Learning From a Master.)
I can easily still my mind and objectively observe myself, choosing to starve my unhealthy attributes and feed my healthy attributes. I live by choosing rather than by just reacting. I make good decisions.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Three. Forgiveness.
(See chapter 3 Forgiveness. Releasing Buried Corrosive Anger.)
I am skilled at forgiving. This releases buried anger, fear and guilt in me, and allows me to live with gentle strength. Empowered, I healthily choose whether to reconcile or not.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Four. Death as love.
(See chapter 4 Death as Love. Finding the Light.)
I do not fear death. I know that the light of pure love is the deepest reality.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Five. Our Loving Self.
(See chapter 5 Our Loving Self. Finding the Light Within Us.)
Six. Faith.
(See chapter 6 Faith. Experiencing Infinite Loving Support.)
Seven. Healing.
(See chapter 7 Healing. Our Life’s Purpose.)
Eight. Joy.
(See chapter 8 Joy. Generating Happiness.)
Nine. Social Justice.
(See chapter 9 Social Justice. Society’s Expression of Love.)
Ten. Tolerance.
(See chapter 10 Tolerance. The Relief of Releasing Judgements.)
Eleven. Generosity.
(See chapter 11 Generosity. Giving to Ourselves.)
I am skilled at generosity, experiencing my bigger identity beyond narrow self-interest, while managing healthy boundaries and not allowing others to use me up.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Twelve. Assertive Love.
(See chapter 12 Assertive Love. Living With Gentle Strength.)
I am skilled at living with the gentle strength of assertive love, communicating assertively rather than aggressively or submissively, and treating others as I wish to be treated.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Buy the Book
One. Buy through Amazon.
Two. Buy at my in-person events: book talks, public speaking, or workshops.
James Pletch Services
To book a book-talk on Finding Spiritual Strength, or a public speaking event or an in-house workshop on Increasing Spiritual Strength in our Lives:
infojamespletch@gmail.com