Michael Lord

Michael and me in Yercaud, India in 1982

None of the events described in the book ‘Meeting the Masters’ could have happened if the Masters had not been able to find and use an individual able to function as a medium for their manifestation in this world. In this instance that person was Michael Lord and it is only fitting that a section of this blog should be devoted to him.

For those who have not read the book I will briefly recap what is said about Michael there. He was born in the county of Buckinghamshire, England in 1919. His father served in the British Army in India, and his mother’s family also had a long connection with the sub-continent. In fact, Michael was conceived in India but his mother went back to England to have her baby, returning to India with him almost immediately afterwards. 

Michael’s parents’ marriage was not a success and his father left his mother soon after Michael’s birth, never seeing him again. Michael’s mother remarried but not until he was about 15 years old so his main relationship was always with his mother to whom he was devoted. He was sent to an English prep school, which he loved, and then a public school which he hated, the constant beatings for the mildest infringement of school discipline being a major factor. His mother, sensibly, took him out of that school, sending him to one in Switzerland which was more to his taste.

When the 2nd World War came Michael, following family tradition, joined the Indian Army which at that time had British officers. His regiment was the famous Corps of Guides. For the first years of the war he served as A.D.C. to the Viceroy of India but then his mother, who thought he was having too easy a time of it, encouraged him to seek a posting with a unit on active service. He was sent to Burma and promptly captured by the Japanese. He would never speak of his time in the Japanese prisoner of war camp but I know that what he saw and experienced there left an indelible mark on him.

When the war ended he left India and, not seeing much future in post-war Britain, went to New York where he did various jobs though apparently always put more energy into his social life than his professional one. His mother died when he was in America and, though he didn't return to England for the funeral (not so easy in those days), this must have affected him deeply for it was shortly after that he began to explore spirituality, eventually converting to Catholicism to become a Benedictine monk.

Michael spent a couple of years in the monastery but left because he did not want to become a priest which apparently he would have had to have done in the order he had joined. He would have preferred to remain a simple brother leading a contemplative life but he also said that he was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the rigid belief system. I think that the Masters intended him to experience the monastic life for a period to give him a grounding in spirituality but it was not his true vocation. He went back into the world, becoming secretary of the Carlton Club in London, and his spiritual life was put on hold. I take this as an indication that spiritual training, in the sense the Masters think of it, is a much broader thing than just following an overtly spiritual practice. That way of life might sometimes even cause us to stagnate if we stick in an old familiar cycle when a new one should be beginning. The primary focus of our life lessons can change and we must be sensitive to pointers indicating that it is time to move on. 

Michael had been interested in Indian spirituality even as a Christian monk, and in the early 1970s he went to Calcutta where he took as his guru a swami in the Ramakrishna order. He did not remain with this swami for long though he always had the greatest respect for him. I met him on a couple of occasions and he was a genuinely spiritual person. But something always drove Michael on until he encountered the Masters who were his true spiritual mentors. This did not happen until 1978 when Michael was 58 years old, around the time of his second Saturn return for those who are interested in such things. So it was not until that age that he finally found what he had been looking for, something perhaps to encourage all those who labour away at the spiritual coal face without any apparent opening.

Michael in 1978 around the time he was first contacted by the Masters

Thereafter Michael served the Masters faithfully as their medium. This was not without its sacrifices as offering yourself up for the use of beings as elevated as the Masters takes its toll on the emotional nature which is made highly sensitive. But Michael shirked nothing and asked for nothing for himself in return.

It has been said that the Masters do not speak through people in trance who have no idea what is being said through them because that would be infringing free will. Generally speaking, I would agree but there are exceptions that prove the rule and this was one of them. The Masters' use of Bill Coote, as recounted in the book 'The Boy and the Brothers' by Swami Omananda is another. Free will is not infringed if the medium is a disciple of the Masters and has voluntarily offered himself for this. Moreover, this is the only way that a message can come through without any adulteration at all because, in these cases, the medium is quite simply not there. The Master speaks with the Master's voice and what he says is precisely what he means. They are his words not the medium's verbal interpretation of impression. It really is as if he were physically in the room with you. I have heard the Masters speaking through Michael and I have heard recordings of purported channellings of the Masters where the medium is conscious of what he says. I have to tell you that, in terms of vibration, there is just no comparison at all. A conscious medium will always condition what comes through him or her and that is because it comes through the mind. In Michael's case, the medium's mind was not a factor because it was not there to influence the proceedings.

The Masters told me that very few mediums were sufficiently pure and without guile or desire for self-advancement for them to be able to be used in this way. There needed to be something in them that corresponded, to some degree at least, to the level from which the Masters spoke. Michael had two qualities that qualified him for this job. He was childlike in the best of senses, and he loved unselfconsciously. If you aspire to be a messenger for the Masters, in any way at all, you too must have a pure heart. This is a qualification that can't be sidestepped by any amount of meditation or spiritual practice of any kind.

I have been asked if my only contact with the Masters came through Michael and the answer is yes and no. Yes, my only direct contact, as in external contact, did come through him. This contact lasted for 21 years, from the beginning of 1979 until Michael's death in 1999. It was very regular in the early days, becoming less as time went by and ending at around half a dozen times a year. The Masters never advised me on personal matters and I would never have asked them about such basically unimportant things. Their only concern was with spiritual instruction.

But no, using Michael as a medium was not the Masters' only way of communicating with me. As they told me right from the beginning, this was an arduous form of contact, arduous for them and especially arduous for Michael. They also communicated inwardly but this requires sensitivity to the soul and relative freedom from mental conditioning, and who is perfect on these counts? As they put it, their impressions to me were sometimes coloured by wishful thinking on my part. So I try to be aware of the Master's word and not distort it by personal prejudice.  I can never be entirely sure that I am correctly interpreting any impressions given me but the attempt to be unattached and faithful to the highest truth one can is all part of the learning process.

Michael loved the Masters and was loved by them. He was far from perfect but he stands as an example of someone willing to give up everything in a worldly or personal sense in order to serve them. It's a good example to follow.

Michael and friend, India 1982