The Engine Stopped. The Volcano Didn't.
A near-crash above Hilo in 1997 wasn’t an accident.
It was an invitation.
We were banking south over Hilo Bay in a rickety Piper plane
— the late sun turning the ocean a deeper blue below, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa rising through the clouds like sleeping gods.
Then a splutter. A shake. And silence.
The pilot turned in his seat. “Oh, this happened earlier. Don’t worry, it started right away.”
He tried the engine. Not a cough. Not a sputter. Just the dry cranking of a motor that had decided it was done.
I looked out the window at the beauty below me — and stilled the fear.
It did not feel like my time. It felt like a sign.
That was August 18th, 1997. I had been on the Big Island for one week.
My question to the ʻāina was simple and enormous: Is Hawaiʻi my home?
The volcano answered.
It has been answering ever since.
This Book Is That Answer — 28 Years in the Making

typo: Attitude, not Altitude
The Engine Stopped. The Volcano Didn't.
High Attitude Hiking the Hawaiian Maunas: From Corporate Burnout to Cosmic Clarity — A Rebel’s Guide to Thriving in Perilous Times is not a trail map.
It is a field manual for anyone who has ever stood at the edge of something enormous — a career collapse, a health crisis, a life that no longer fits — and felt the pull of something wilder, clearer, and more alive on the other side.
The Maunas are the laboratory. Your body is the experiment. The journey — not the summit — is the revelation.
What You’ll Discover in Chapter 1 — Free
Chapter 1 opens on that Piper plane above Hilo Bay. It ends with a decision that changed everything.
Inside, you’ll find:
- Why a near-crash above an active volcano became a 28-year apprenticeship with the ʻāina
- The difference between conquering a volcano and listening to one — and why it changes how you move, breathe, and think
- What happens to your cellular voltage, your nervous system, and your biological sovereignty when you stop performing and start paying attention
- The decades after I stopped being a GE development engineer — and finally arrived a Longevity Architect
This is where the journey begins. Not at the trailhead. Not at the crater rim.
Here. With a quiet engine. And a volcano that refused to let me leave.
→ Download Chapter 1 Free
Enter your name and email below. You’ll receive Chapter 1 instantly — and a reserved place on the May 27, 2026 launch waitlist
– The plane engine that died 3000 feet over Hilo—and the omen that changed everything
– Why surrender isn’t weakness (it’s the most powerful stance you can take)
– How to recognize the signs your body and intuition are sending (before it’s too late)
– The hidden cost of saying “yes” to everyone but yourself
– Why your ancestors hold the keys to your own resilience in uncertain times
– What happens when you finally stop running and start listening
Release date: May 27, 2026 — Benedick’s 75th birthday.
Waitlist Warriors get first access.
The Engine Stopped. The Volcano Didn't.
Who This Book Is For?
You don’t have to be a hiker.
You don’t have to have been to Hawaiʻi.
You don’t have to have survived a plane that lost its engine over an active volcano.
But if you’ve ever felt the sick-care system couldn’t give you what you actually needed — if you’ve ever suspected that the answers to your health, your clarity, and your next chapter are somewhere outside the boardroom, the hospital, and the algorithm — this book was written for you.
Specifically, it’s for:
- High-achieving professionals who built the career and lost the body, the clarity, or the will to keep performing
- Executives in transition who know the next chapter has to be different — they just don’t know what different looks like yet
- Adventure-seekers who want more than scenery — who want the volcano to mean something
- Anyone drawn to Hawaiʻi not as a vacation, but as a calling
The Maunas don’t care about your résumé. They care about your attitude.
About Benedick Howard
I am a former GE development engineer turned Longevity Architect, with over 40 years spanning electro-bio-physics, SCENAR bioelectric therapy, strategic fasting, Ashtanga yoga, and circadian biology.
I live off-grid in Kurtistown on Hawaiʻi’s Big Island. I have hiked Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa more times than I can count — often fasting, always intentional, frequently stopping well short of the summit because the journey was already complete.
I founded the Ageless Warrior Alliance for one reason: because biological sovereignty is not a luxury. It is a birthright. And the volcano taught me that long before any clinical study confirmed it.
Biology is physics first.
The volcano understood that before I did
Claim Your Free Chapter + Join the Waitlist.
– The plane engine that died 3000 feet over Hilo—and the omen that changed everything
– Why surrender isn’t weakness (it’s the most powerful stance you can take)
– How to recognize the signs your body and intuition are sending (before it’s too late)
– The hidden cost of saying “yes” to everyone but yourself
– Why your ancestors hold the keys to your own resilience in uncertain times
– What happens when you finally stop running and start listening
High Attitude Hiking the Hawaiian Maunas releases May 27, 2026.
Waitlist Warriors receive:
- Instant access to Chapter 1
- Pre-launch field dispatches from the Mauna
- First notification when the book goes live
Priority access to the companion Big Island Biological Reset retreat
Go forth, question everything.
Many mahalos from Hawaiʻi. Warrior out.
— Benedick Howard
Longevity Architect | Founder, Ageless Warrior Alliance | Kurtistown, Hawaiʻi