Body of Work

Extraordinary Experience and Advanced Consciousness

Richards, together with his wife Patricia, has authored dozens of books and recorded thousands of hours of audio and video lectures, experiments, observations, and exercises, aimed at integrating extraordinary perception and expanded consciousness into the search for daily personal and professional excellence and profoundly effective, genuine states of being. His work, while widely inclusive, is geared for those with science, engineering, medical, technical, or academic mindsets who want to explore several classes of perceptual or experiential phenomena that, though encountered by many, have often been characterized in terms so unrigorous as to discourage serious personal inquiry. For those wishing to explore one of the most sophisticated and pragmatic maps of consciousness and extraordinary experience presently available, Richards' body of work can be accessed via The Sente Center Website.

Aerospace and High Reliability Technology

Richards invented and coinvented a number of components, systems, and devices used in aereospace, and electronic manufacturing. Many of these were system specific responses to customer requirements. His multi-application terminal pin system, allowing interconnection repairs and changes inside the belly of military aircraft, could be wired and rewired using Stitchweld, I-Bond, and wirewrap techniques, and has been flown in space and in military aviation applications. He also co-created tooling allowing for singled-handed soldering on electronic assembly lines, and devised a hand-held wiring tool capable of wiring or repairing sophisticated space and military circuit boards on-site and in ultra short time frames. These repairs or revisions met or exceeded strict military specifications for circuit speed and high reliability in mission critical applications.

Martial Arts and Movement

Much of Richards' initial interest in extraordinary experience derived in part from early exposure to remarkable capacities demonstrated by extremely advanced martial arts masters. These capaciaties included the ability to fend off multiple attackers while blindfolded, and the ability to generate inordinate power, accuracy and speed in the face of tremendous time pressure. Many of these practices involved a force that Paul's tradition referred to as "chi". This or a similar principle was cited as the active mechanism underlying accupuncture and Chinese medicine. Richards leveraged his unusual level of access to the chi phenomenon and his systematic technical approach derived from aerospace to create an original movement practice which he later codified as a system, "Infinite Moment."

Music and Radio

Paul and his partner, George Bowen, won a radio contest on KGB Radio (serving greater San Diego County) in the early 1970's with a version of Simon and Garfunkle's "The Boxer" recorded in their garage. This led to their being hired as studio musicians, working in to the professional recording studio environment. This led to the production of their first album, Bowen and Richards, released on Ranwood Records by media mogul Randy Wood. Wood had discovered many hit artists of the fifties and sixties. Their album, which was self-written, was well reviewed in Billboard and singles from it were widely played. Its' mild success led to more recording, which was later heard by Clive Davis, who arranged for them to be educated in professional songwriting by the president of Arista publishing. They worked throughout the seventies, recording for themselves and other artists and songwriters, until their retirement from professional music in 1980, prompted by the rise of disco music and the shift away from pop-rock. They were reunited in the mid-1980's by Kirk Pasich, presently a founder of Blue Elan records, who arranged for the partners to record a project with one of their heros, legendary drummer Jim Keltner. A single they cut during those sessions was resurrected thirty years later, and Paul's Song, Destiny, is now included on Cindy Alexander's fifth album, Curve, performed by her. George Bowen and Paul Richards recorded with a number of musical luminaires of their era, included Bob Merritt (nicknamed B-Bob) famed hitmaking engineer at the Record Plant in Los Angeles, as well as Sneaky Pete Klinow of the Flying Burrito Brothers, Jim Soldi (later the lead quitarist for Johny Cash) and Glenn Miller's lead trumpet player, the incomparable Johny Best.

Paul and his family emigrated to New Zealand in the late 1980's in search of the perfect lifestyle, and while there Paul operated a music production facility that specialized in radio and television commercials and projects for New Zealand artists. Paul continued to perform occasionally, including an appearance with the widely known New Zealand rocker Ritchie Pickett.

Upon returning to the United States in 1991, Richards continued his audio production activities, creating a high quality weekly comedy-drama-variety radio show, The Max Image Radio Theater, that featured as a series regular, among others, Amelio Delgado (Luis of Sesami Street) and a wide array of guests that included the third astronaut to land on the moon, Pete Conrad, as well as as members of the cast of Star Trek.

Books and Other Print Media

Paul's experience as a published author began when he was in the sixth grade. His teacher had allowed him to read a book he was writing aloud to his class each day, in serial form. A fellow student retold the story every evening, over dinner, to her parents. As it turned out, the student's parents were publishers- they approached Paul and offered to serialize his novel in a regional newspaper. His first mainstream published book, The Unblessed, was published internationally by Zebra Books on March 1, 1982. The book went into a second print run and sold over a hundred thousand copies. Other books include the nonfiction adventure "Once and Forever in Africa", and most recently, "Wild Attraction", co-written with Patricia Richards.

Movies and Videos

In the course of operating the Sente Center, Richards writes, performs, edits, and produces an elaborately produced multi-hour video program every week of the year. In addition he produces special programing on a regular basis. Over a three year period, he and Patricia Richards wrote, directed, and produced a full length motion picture, "The Empty Headquarters Affair", as an exercise to illustrate Richards' contention that there are few meaningful obstacles preventing the man or woman on the street from accomplishing remarkable things on significant scales. His experments with dance and video, notably with "Thriller, Rained Out" were aimed at the same goal- advocating experiments with personal power that go beyond the current norms and help create more empowered individuals.