In the Vietnam War a mortar landed nearby that blew Bart into a clear and brilliant blackness that, "Felt like home. I would have gladly stayed in that blackness, but instead I was brought back into a world I could no longer view in the same way." When he returned in 1968 he experimented with LSD, read everything he could find that might offer clues to what had happened to him, studied meditation and attended workshops. After 20 years he hit a wall as a seeker and then met the teacher Richard Rose whom he studied with for 5 years. It was after a weekend with Douglas Harding that a breakthrough finally happened. "Being the source of everything that is nothing - everything and nothing, only this emptiness."