Meeting the Masters article

This is an article I recently wrote for a digital magazine called The Paranormal Chronicles. It concerns the story behind the book after which this blog is named. There's nothing new here for those who have read the book but if I compare page views on this blog with book sales then it seems likely that many visitors to this site haven't done that!

Do you believe there are spiritual beings who watch over and guide us? Not in the sense of guardian angels but human souls who have perfected themselves spiritually and realised their unity with God, and who now seek to help others do the same. If you hope this might be the case, perhaps my testimony here can offer some support for the idea.

My story goes back around 40 years. At the time I was a young man dissatisfied with conventional life. I had a job that bored me, prospects of a sort but that didn't interest me and I was searching for something more to life than a mundane existence dedicated to material success which was pretty much all that was on offer. I had a limited knowledge of the spiritual movements that were beginning to coalesce into what became known as the New Age but found them fairly shallow. Religion, such as I knew it, seemed moribund and concerned with something far off. I wasn't particularly interested in what happened after death. I wanted life to have some real meaning now. 

One day I wandered into a metaphysical bookshop near where I worked in London and began to browse, looking for something that might provide answers to questions I hadn't even properly formulated yet . As I searched the shelves a man beside me spoke asking whether he might make a recommendation. He'd seen I didn't really know what I was looking for and wondered if I'd like some help. Overcoming my natural reticence in such circumstances, I agreed. We got talking and I was sufficiently interested to accept his offer of lunch during which we discussed such subjects as meditation, reincarnation and vegetarianism, none of which were quite as mainstream then as they are now.

Here is not the place to go into details but six months later the two of us were living together in Bath, running an antiques shop by day and meditating in the evening. Michael, my new spiritual accomplice, had been a Benedictine monk and also lived in India for long periods, and I had decided to throw in my lot with him, pursuing the spiritual path together. For a few weeks we led this life uneventfully but then something rather unusual happened.

We were sitting in meditation as normal when Michael began to sound the OM, the Hindu sacred sound that is supposed to symbolise ultimate truth. The sound went on and on, becoming ever louder in the process. When it eventually stopped the room had a totally different atmosphere as though it had been cleansed, its psychic state uplifted. Now the silence that replaced it seemed a real thing rather than the normal absence of noise. Then Michael began to speak. Except it was not him speaking.

The words were coming from his mouth but they were not in his voice. They were spoken without hesitation and with an authority that should have quelled doubt. But, of course, I did doubt. I was a fairly sceptical person. That was what put me off the New Age type teachers I mentioned earlier. At first I thought Michael might be putting on a show but the words, the sense of presence, never mind subsequent experiences, showed this to be impossible. Then I thought that maybe the voice was that of a genuine spirit but of the kind contacted in spiritualism, that's to say, not a very elevated being. But this wasn't possible either. The whole tone of the communication, the power, the deep sense of love and wisdom, all these showed it to be a spirit of real substance, an exemplar of deep truth.

From then on this being and others like him spoke to me through Michael on a regular basis. They would come during our period of meditation and speak for between 10 and 20 minutes. Their subject was mostly the lessons I was here to learn, and they were compassionate but exacting teachers. When I asked them who or what they were they told me to think of them as messengers from God but never gave a name though I did ask. I think this was because names would bring the experience down to a more personal level and so detract from the pure spiritual message. However, from certain things they said, I gathered that they were human beings who had progressed beyond the need for experience in the material world, and now lived in higher planes which they described in terms of light, beauty, colour and spiritual glory. They were what are known as Masters.

It is often said that Masters do not communicate through mediums, this being a practice restricted to spirits still functioning in the lower realms of non-physical reality. I agree with that statement. The goal of true teachers is to bring their pupils up to their level and so they teach through impression, on a spiritual rather than a mental level. Indeed, my instructors told me as much. But there are exceptions and this was one of them. Of course, such an assertion cannot be proved but I do think that anyone who reads their words should be able to sense something of their quality. When studying channelled messages it is important to know that spiritual teachings have two levels. The obvious one is the words and information conveyed. But there is an inner level too which is actually more important. It is the tone of the teaching, its feel. A teaching coming from a higher source will carry a deeper truth and be more potentially transformative than one from a lower, even if the words are the same. In fact, even if the words are simpler. Don't think that just because something appears profound it is true. Look behind the words to the spiritual quality of a communication.

The fact of the reality of these beings I have called Masters tells us something about the universe. It is a spiritual universe. The physical level in which we live is merely the lowest level or outermost crust of a multi-dimensional reality with the higher worlds being worlds of greater light, freedom, beauty and consciousness. We can attain these higher worlds through proper spiritual development, and we have help in this, let's be honest, difficult task. We may not be aware of this help in our conscious mind but if we seek to attune our hearts correctly, through humility, meditation and prayer, then we can render ourselves susceptible to divine influence which will prompt us along the right path. But note, this is not a passive thing. We are only ever guided. Our will is our own. The most important thing we can do is to make right choices.

The book I wrote about this experience I called Meeting the Masters. It describes the first year of the experience when the communications were at their most frequent. They actually lasted for 21 years and stopped, appropriately enough, just before the end of the last millennium. Since then I have had no outer contact with the Masters but strive to put into practice what they taught which is a constantly ongoing process. I have been fortunate enough to have had living proof of the reality of the spiritual world and would like to pass that on to anyone who might be interested.