But she says that as she was going through the motions, it was almost like someone else took over her body. "It doesn't even look like my handwriting," she says as she points to the finely rendered letters.

This is not a ghost story fit for Halloween, but what Cornelius believes was a message. As the author of A L.I.F.E. Blueprint: Spirituality Designed for the Non-Religious, she has contemplated the higher meanings of life in great detail since a spiritual awakening in the early 1990s. She currently teaches a class on the subject at the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning at San José State University and will speak about her book at the PlaneTree Bookstore in Los Gatos on Oct. 30.

For Cornelius, 67, the path that led her to this point has radically changed her life.

"In 1992, I had a mystical experience," she says. "I was the typical Saratoga housewife, the June Cleaver. But prior to that [mystical experience], I'd never been interested in anything spiritual."

Cornelius says that she started out attending a Presbyterian church as a child because of a friend, and she even married the son of a minister. But throughout her exposure to organized religion, she always found something missing. "People assume that religion and spirituality are the same, and they're not," she says.

Her experience made her realize that she needed to alter her life. "I was wondering about my purpose. Older women can feel like they're biding time, but I could sense a greater potential there," Cornelius says. "I didn't want to be one of the New Age-y types, but I did leave my comfort zone."

That involved leaving her husband and setting out to write a book on her newfound spirituality. She studied philosophy and metaphysics in preparation, but publishing was foreign to her. Cornelius graduated from UC-Berkeley with a degree in interior design and had made her living decorating people's homes. "As an interior designer I was working a different kind of interior," she says. She attended publishing seminars to learn the trade and went through eight drafts, self-publishing her book in 2002.

A L.I.F.E. Blueprint details what Cornelius calls "the science of the mind"—an alternative to organized religion that recognizes a higher power and extreme self-understanding as the keys to spirituality. To her, L.I.F.E. is a sense of energy that communicates love and joy, which is Cornelius's view of God. "I know that there are guides and angels available to us. It sounds so blasphemous, but the core of all religions is the same," she says.

She says that since she came to this understanding, the difference between her current mindset and her life before is like night and day. "It's like following the leader versus following my leader. I quieted down to listen to my inner voice. I've found my god that works for me," Cornelius says. She practices what she preaches through speaking to groups at bookstores and through the class she's currently teaching at San José State.

"I asked people why they came, and a lot of them say they're disillusioned with a particular church. They're seeking an alternative to a church that's feeding them ideas, and I offer them alternative ways to find connection to a higher power. People are thirsty for meaning," she says. "I see it in people's eyes—there's a little awakening, and they suddenly seem so comfortable and so serene."

Her class at San José State, which is one of the first of its kind and offered specifically for adults over the age of 55, is slated to last just for the quarter. But Cornelius says that referrals from her students could easily fill another class. In the past, she has spoken to groups like the Rotary and gatherings at local bookstores, but the success of her class had prompted her to consider offering sessions for small groups over the course of several weeks, possibly at her home.

In that case, clients could see the calming environment of soft, natural colors and natural textures that Cornelius surrounds herself with. Even though she dropped her interior-decorating business several years ago to concentrate on her publishing endeavors, she still fills her home with things unique to her—pictures of her two grandchildren, a grand piano that plays with the push of a button and a bathroom completely painted in chalkboard paint. Every visitor has to write a quote on the wall, imparting what words of wisdom work for them.

"I can see the depth now in people and in my world," she says.

Cornelius will speak at 10 a.m. on Oct. 30 at the PlaneTree Bookstore, which is located at 15891 Los Gatos­Almaden Road in Los Gatos. For more information, call 408.358.5667 or visit www.planetreesanjose.org.