Book Covers

 When I had to choose a cover for By No Means Equal I followed my usual course of looking at pictures of places where I had lived. My first book showed Beachy Head lighthouse on the Sussex coast. I didn't actually live in the lighthouse, though I did once climb up the ladder that is attached to the outside which was a windy experience.

The second book Remember the Creator had a rather dramatic picture of le Mont St Michel, featured because I lived for 8 years in the nearby town of Avranches. Then came St Catherine's Chapel in Abbotsbury for Earth is a School, chosen for when I lived down the road in Bridport, Dorset. It didn't occur to me at the time but all these places are right on or even in the sea. 

By No Means Equal had a view from the top of the Shevaroy Hills in South India. This was for when I lived in the village of Yercaud which is in those hills, albeit a less magnificent part of them. I found a photograph in a picture library and cropped it for the portrait style of the cover since it was originally in landscape mode. Here is the original.

You can't tell it's up on the hills because of the clouds but normally you can see down to the plains 5,000 feet below. This is what that looks like.

Following the logic of tracing back through places I have lived, the cover for the tentatively titled Surviving the End Times will have to be of somewhere in the town of Bath or nearby. I like this picture of the West Front of Bath Abbey which shows the angels ascending and descending Jacob's Ladder but I can't really see any connections to the theme of the book.  Now, if only it were in ruins.....

Turner painted a picture of the Abbey which I include here for no other reason than that Turner painted a picture of the Abbey.

But these are both too fussy for a book cover so I will have to carry on looking. Since the book is only half-written there is no hurry.

Added note: See the comments below for an explanation for this picture.

A Manual for the End Times

Undaunted by the reluctance of my previous books to enter the bestseller lists, I am currently working on a new one. The subject will be the end times which most readers of this blog will agree is the period we find ourselves in now. The provisional title is A Manual for the End Times though that may change as it is slightly dull, even if it does have the merit of describing the contents.

The book will consist of various essays looking into what the end times is, how it manifests, or is manifesting because it surely is, and how we should react to it/them. There are at the moment, though this may change, four sections which are End Times, Spiritual Tradition, Spiritual Practice and God and the Soul. The basic theme is that the end times represents that period at the end of a cycle when the spiritual energy that was initially injected into the world, in one sense at the Incarnation though the actual start of the cycle dates from farther back, begins to run out which means that matter reasserts itself over spirit with all the consequences you might expect. We have been seeing some of these consequences over the last couple of centuries, but today the situation is becoming worse as the process, which is essentially the working out of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics on the spiritual plane or as it relates to the spiritual in the material, has reached the stage in which the balance has definitely tipped. This tipping of the balance will result in a speeding up of the process though it also means there will be a concomitant reaction to the increase of inverted energy, as one might think of it. For even in the darkest times when spirit is apparently almost completely absent, we all still have an inner connection to reality. That cannot be destroyed and might even become stronger as the external world descends into outright denial of truth.

The end times might seem disastrous when you are caught up in them but they are a natural process and inevitable in a material world. Matter is intrinsically unstable. Only spirit is permanent. And they also present opportunity if we react to them correctly though that does mean standing against the flow.

I may be posting here slightly less often while working on the book but will continue to maintain the blog and perhaps will sometimes include sections from the book here.

Book Published

My new book By No Means Equal was published in the US on November 1st. It came out last Friday in the UK. If I worked in marketing and had a flexible relationship with the truth I could say it contains definitive proof of the soul but I don't and it doesn't. What it does do, though, is lay out the grounds for the spiritual primacy of individuality and freedom, and say how the reality of these fundamental principles stands in direct opposition to the contemporary ideology of equality. Which, it could be argued, amounts to almost the same thing as my imaginary marketing man is saying. For my contention is that the current obsession with equality, which sometimes presents itself as an almost spiritual belief, is in fact deeply materialistic as it reduces the individual to a unit in the collective, a unit that can be weighed, measured and slotted into the System. A controllable and controlled unit. It robs the human being of its humanity.

I suppose one of the reasons the belief in equality has taken root is because it seems to offer a degree of fairness. It also assuages the guilt of the rich and powerful who can carry on being rich and powerful as long as they are seen to disapprove of such things in theory. It is also a more feminine way of looking at the world and society has become increasingly feminised over the last few decades. Men are more naturally hierarchical and competitive but women tend more to cooperation which fits better with the equality dogma. But one could just as well say it has come about because of the desire of those at the lower end of the scale of whatever it might be to chop down those with more. This is certainly a factor but only one of many, some rooted in the desire to be fair and some in envy.

However, all of that is besides the point. The simple question to ask about equality is, "Is it true?". Everything else is irrelevant. We might want it to be true for whatever reason but if it's not true there's an end of it. And the fact is it's not true. Those who see themselves as superior might feel guilty about that and those who see themselves as inferior might feel resentment but these emotions do not alter reality. Equality is a lie.

Of course, an argument might be that equality may not exist now but we should work towards it for a fairer and better society. But what are you saying if you argue that? That society should be built on a palpable falsehood? This could never work as reality would sooner or later break through. In the meantime the inevitable result of your foolish experiment would be a lowering of standards because that is what enforced equality means. The only way you can bring it about is to bring down the higher to the level of the lower. Destroy the ladder of hierarchy and there is nothing left to climb. You remain earthbound. Examined properly, equality is just about the most anti-spiritual doctrine you could have.

This is what the book is about.

A Trilogy

 It didn't occur to me until after I had written it, but my new book By No Means Equal has turned out to be the third part of a trilogy, the first two being Remember the Creator and Earth is a School. On the most obvious level, the three might be seen as meditations on words of my teachers, those words being the titles in question. But there is more to it than that for while the first book focuses on the reality of God, the second looks into the reason for our lives on this planet and the third is about the soul and how that is a real immaterial thing. The book is framed in the context of a discussion on equality, that most sacred of cows of our modern secular age, but the ideology of equality is shown to be false by the fundamental reality of individuality and freedom which are spiritual qualities and the defining characteristics of the soul.

Thus we have God, the world and the soul or absolute reality, objective reality and subjective reality, the three facets of our existence. These are all intertwined and at the same time separate but part of an over-arching unity. Problems arise when you give one too much significance so that the others are thereby diminished such as Islam does with God Transcendent (God is all, Man is nothing) and certain forms of Indian mysticism do with God Immanent (the world and the individual soul are illusion), or scientific materialism does with the world or much modern thought does with the soul, or its phenomenal aspect, that being all it recognises, which is regarded as totally sovereign and independent of any higher authority, able to do whatsoever it wishes long as that is within the laws of society. In fact, God, the world and the soul are all real and all important even if God remains the source of the other two.

By No Means Equal brings this run of books to a conclusion. Here is the introduction to the book.

"All cultures have a defining belief or myth on which they base themselves. In most cases it is a religious one which takes various forms but all of them are rooted in a reality beyond this world. However, that of the contemporary West does not follow the traditional pattern for it derives from a belief in the primacy of matter rather than spirit. The modern myth is egalitarianism, the insistence that all men are equal. This idea blossomed at the time of the French revolution with its rallying cry of liberté, égalité, fraternité though the seeds were sown much earlier, going back to certain streams of thought in the medieval period. But, in the sense we understand it today, it is a product of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.

Egalitarianism did not form a part of traditional Western belief except for the idea that we were all created by the One Father, God. But that doesn’t mean we are all equal. The natural order in tradition, not just in the West but more or less everywhere in the world where civilisation has developed, was hierarchical and this reflects the belief that there is a vertical dimension to life. That implies transcendence, the denial of which is virtually the definition of modernity which, with a singular lack of imagination, has reduced reality to the world of appearance or what can be grasped by the senses, ignoring the fact that the senses filter as much as they reveal.

Now, in the twenty-first century we have arrived at a belief in radical equality through the spread of communism for communism, whether we realise it or not, underpins the philosophical assumptions of almost all contemporary thought. Not so much in the overt political or economic sense but culturally speaking it does where it has become deeply embedded since the 1960s. It has reached the point at which to challenge this assumption marks you out as an immoral person.

Communism is atheistic and materialistic. There are occasional rather feeble attempts to dispute this but they fail as they must since communist ideology is entirely concerned with this world and has no sense of a spiritual goal for humanity. Hence, it should not be hard to see that egalitarianism, though it too sometimes claims to have a spiritual basis, is in fact a thoroughly materialistic and atheistic doctrine. This makes sense chronologically since the two came about at the same time. The belief in equality in the form it is held nowadays did not arise from any religious principle but from a rejection of religion and its substitution by a belief system centred on the human being in its earthly form. If you want to associate it with religion you would have to say it took what belongs to the spiritual level and applied it to the material level, in the process abolishing the spiritual or, at the very least, making that secondary to the material.

In this book I will start with a series of essays that examine the modern ideology of equality and show that it is essentially an anti-spiritual doctrine, one that denies the reality of the soul using that word to mean the non-material essence of our individual self. Some of the arguments might appear too simplistic to cover all the complexities of socio-economic and political life but I am looking at the question from a metaphysical point of view here, and ultimately everything is downstream from metaphysics anyway. Whether this ideology has arisen now as a natural outcome of humanity reaching a stage in its growth roughly analogous to adolescence when it throws off outer (transcendent) authority and tries to go it alone or whether it is a well-meaning attempt to create a morality in a materialistic society with no higher values or whether it has been put through by forces antithetical to spiritual development specifically to derail higher values, for when everything is equal there is a strong tendency to revert to the lowest common denominator, I shall leave the reader to decide as we go along.

Then we shall proceed to looking at ways in which the egalitarian ethos has affected and corrupted the spiritual search. For it undoubtedly has. Religion is not democratic any more than science or art are but in many instances it is being made so. Misunderstanding the true idea that God is within all of us, we fall into the trap of thinking that he is equally within all of us. Even if that were true, he does not manifest equally in all of us. Like all heresies, if you can call it that, egalitarian ideology takes a piece of the truth and exaggerates its importance while minimising the significance of other aspects of truth. Truths that apply on the level of the One do not apply on that of the Many, and certainly not to the Many as the Many. The Absolute and the Relative are both part of the totality of life but they are different and should not be confused."

By No Means Equal

 My new book is set to be published on October 27th in the UK and November 1st in the US. Here is the front cover.

and here's the back with the blurb and a typically generous quote from Bruce Charlton whose suggestion it was that I bring out a book centred around some of the writings on the idea of equality that I have produced on this blog. Professor J.M. Smith of the Orthosphere was also kind enough to write a few words about the book which you will find on the Amazon listings, links to which are below.

Those writings were the seed from which the book developed but much of it is new. The theme is the modern concern with equality and how that is actually an anti-spiritual doctrine because it denies both individuality and freedom which are fundamental spiritual principles. This is not on the basis of a crude left/right perspective but something much more important which is true spiritual versus material or false spiritual which I put in the same camp. Thus, equality is a metaphysical matter not a political one. That is a trap which ensnares many people who see the insanity of so much that passes for rational understanding these days but react to it on a worldly level instead of rising above the argument to a spiritual plane which puts both sides in perspective. I am not saying that on the worldly level both sides are the same but the solution to their battle is only found by rising above them as they are in this world. Ultimately, the battle is between God and Satan, to put it in traditional terms, and there are solid grounds for thinking that everything that is not consciously and intelligently for God becomes absorbed onto the side of Satan. Equality which seems so bright and shiny on the outside becomes a means of separating human beings from their spiritual role and purpose. That is why the sub-title of the book is Reclaiming the Soul.

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon here and here. Also elsewhere, of course, but I don't have those details yet.

Some Books

 I won't be posting here for a couple of weeks so this is one of my occasional reminders of the books that don't appear on the right hand side, the first of which are collections of posts compiled from the two blogs I have been involved with.

The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man comes from 2019. It comprises essays from this blog, sometimes expanded a bit, arranged thematically. There is more detail here.

Albion Awakening was published in 2020. This was a collaboration with John Fitzgerald based on the blog we shared with Bruce Charlton which delved into the mystical aspects of the British Isles. Details are here.

In addition to these there is my new book By No Means Equal which will be published in October. More about that here.

The Reign of Equality

 When I submitted By No Means Equal to the publisher I was asked to name another book it might be compared to. I imagine this was to position it in the market. I hadn't thought about this and at first couldn't come up with anything. It had no obvious influences though, of course, many things had fed into it. But then I thought about equality and how that actually meant focus moved from spirit/quality to matter/quantity and that reminded me of the famous book by René Guénon called The Reign of Quantity. It's been 20 years since I read that book and, to be honest, I can't remember much about it but I do remember that his broad theme is the materialisation of consciousness and how that has impacted the modern age which is an age in which quantity supersedes quality. This is more or less what my book is about and so when it came to the time to write a 'blurb' for the back cover this is what I came up with.

"Equality is the rock on which our modern Western liberal democracies are built. When we talk of Western values this is the one that underlies the rest. But what if this rock is made of sand? This book explores the idea of equality and suggests it is an ideological belief with no foundation in reality. It may seem a progressive belief from the political point of view but in reality its acceptance is spiritually damaging with consequences for the evolution of the soul.

The Traditionalist writer René Guénon said that we live in an age of quantity, one in which nothing is allowed to exist that cannot be measured. This is the age of equality which directly opposes the idea of the individual soul as a spiritual reality.

The equality myth pervades almost everything these days so while the first part of the book examines this myth from various angles, the second part looks at how it has influenced and adversely affected the spiritual search. We go back and look at first principles from a metaphysical perspective and even consider the nature of God. Then there is the opportunity to see how this idea impacts on the end times scenario.

The book is similar in construction and focus to Remember the Creator and Earth is a School, and in that respect could be considered the third part of a trilogy."

As I say, I hadn't thought of Guénon when writing the book but there certainly is crossover between our two approaches to the vexed question of the modern world. The difference is that he appeared to retreat to the past and became a Muslim, albeit one heavily influenced by the metaphysics of the Vedanta, whereas I believe that the modern consciousness is part of proper human development, simply one that has gone wrong. It is like a fruit that has become poisoned rather than a poison in itself and once we are able to submit it to the light of God it will prove to have many benefits. If human beings are on a path to becoming gods themselves, which in my view is part of the divine intention, then the phase of self-consciousness is a necessary stage to go through. The modern consciousness was a risk but one that can bring great spiritual progress if handled correctly. Of course, that is just what is not happening on the collective level but God always works with individuals and, on that level, who can know how much success his experiment is having?

By No Means Equal - Reclaiming the Soul

 I mentioned in June that I was finishing off a book to be called By No Means Equal. See the post here. The book was accepted for publication and the production process has been completed though the book won't be published until next October because, the publisher says, "It takes ten months (sometimes more) for information about your book to circulate through the trade worldwide, and this is essential to maximize your prospects of long-term success. Budgets for buying in new titles in the chain retailers are set many months in advance – they will not look at titles coming out before then. Some key catalogues, like the NBN sales catalogue in North America, the bumper Bookseller Spring and Autumn editions in the UK, cover six months of titles; they need the information on ISBN, page extent, price, sales copy and cover three months before that, so ten months only just gives us enough time." Luckily the book is not topical!

The book is actually called By No Means Equal - Reclaiming the Soul because although it started off as a discussion about how the idea of equality was founded on a false metaphysics, it became clear early on that this metaphysics is based on a denial of the spiritual component of man, even a denial of the very notion of individuality. So it turns out that the rejection of equality is actually an assertion of spirituality and, far from equality being humanistically grounded as it is generally portrayed as being, it is in fact a profoundly anti-human doctrine. Thus, the book is not just about equality but also a plea for the recognition of spirit and soul.

Here is the front cover. As with the covers of my previous books it shows a place I have lived, in this case the Shevaroy Hills in South India. 

And here are the chapter headings. Some of these chapters have appeared as posts on this blog, though have been edited and sometimes expanded for the book, but many are new.

Introduction

Part I

Liberty and Equality

No Rational Basis for Equality

We Are All One

Quality and Equality

Don't You Want to Live in an Equal Society?

What Is the Great Modern Orthodoxy?

An Attack on Cosmic Order

What Is the Devil Most Seeking to Destroy?

The Elizabethan World Picture

The Descent of Man and the Prophecy of Hermes

Against Inequality

Body, Soul and Spirit

 

Part II

Secular Spirituality

God, Man and Woman

The Humanitarian God

Ideology and Freedom

A Vulgar Age

End Times

Technology Is Not Neutral

I Am God

Why I Am Not a Conservative

Tolerance and Humanism

The Lowest of the Low

The Most High

Death, the Great Equaliser?

Good and Evil, Spirit and Matter, Creator and Creation

Extreme Times

Demons

A Universe of Persons

Conclusion

The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man

 In the spirit of shameless self-promotion I thought I would bring attention to a book published a couple of years ago that drew together the posts I saw as most representative of the thinking behind this blog. It's not one of the three on the right of this page, all of which are proper books i.e. written as such. It is just posts from the blog. These are arranged in various sections such as God, Truth, Christ, The Spiritual Path and Spiritual Practice, Love, Masculine and Feminine, Modern Times plus a few more, and the overall theme is given in the title.

It can be found in paperback and Kindle versions on Amazon UK here and here and for the American market here and here. I mention it now for any newcomers to the blog who might like to explore its past in an easier form, or what I regard as an easier form, than that permitted by the blog itself or else might appreciate a ready reference, something I would value from some of my favourite blogs. It is, in effect, a compilation or 'best of' of the blog up to the beginning of 2020, just before everything took a turn for the worse.

Here's an extract from the introduction.

"After the publication of my first book Meeting the Masters I started a blog of the same name to develop themes from that book, and they have developed, sometimes in ways I hadn't anticipated. My second book Remember the Creator was the product of that. But the blog has continued and it has been suggested that I gather together some of the posts in book form. It is true that old posts on a blog tend to be consigned to history like old newspapers and no one ever looks at them again. But if they are not topical, and most of mine aren't, they can still be relevant. For the few that were vaguely topical I have put the date of their composition.

So here I have assembled essays under various subjects though there is some overlap. Most of them were written after the end of 2017 when the last book was prepared for publication so they represent a kind of continuation of that, in some cases possibly even a progression.

In case anyone reading this is unfamiliar with what started me on a spiritual course let me briefly set out here what is more fully described in Meeting the Masters. Between 1979 and 1999 I was spoken to by spiritual beings who told me, when I asked them who they were, to think of them as messengers from God. Going by their manner and what they said that is exactly what they were. They spoke to me through a medium who acted as a kind of oracle for them. But they told me that they also communicated to me through mental impression and would continue to do so when the other method stopped which it did when the medium died in 1999. I feel this is the case and that they do inspire me with their knowledge. However, this inspiration has to come through my own mind and is subject to my own limitations and prejudices so it is not going to be anywhere near as pure as the source. Nevertheless, I have always tried to respond to thoughts that come to me 'cleanly' and without subjecting them to personal opinion. I am certainly not claiming any kind of divine inspiration for anything written here. It is my work not the Masters and I am the one responsible for it. At the same time, I would be lying if I said I thought they had nothing to do with it. They probably do the best they can with me, as I am sure they do with many others who may not be aware of them, but they have to cut their coat according to the cloth there is at hand.

I have called this book The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man because that is what we are currently going through. It is made worse by the fact that it is largely unrecognised. People talk of environmental problems, social problems, political problems, problems to do with climate change, with capitalism, the relation between the sexes and so on. It is all fundamentally a spiritual problem. Resolve that and the rest will fall into place. A more accurate title might have been The Spiritual Crisis of Post-Modern Humanity but that is a bit of a mouthful and sounds like the title of an academic treatise whereas this is meant as a call to spiritual arms."

By No Means Equal

 In a comment on a post on equality Bruce Charlton suggested I should draw together some of my writings on the subject to be the basis of a book. It seemed a good idea so I have started to do just that. The book will be called By No Means Equal and will use some of the relevant posts on this blog as a rough skeleton which is then fleshed out and to which I will add new thoughts, some directly pertinent, some peripherally so to make it more interesting (I hope) and less one-dimensional as banging on about a single theme with no let up might be. But the thread of equality and how that notion impacts us will be woven throughout as an underlying background.

Actually, the equality myth pervades and contaminates almost everything these days so the range can be quite wide. It also gives one a chance to go right back and look at first principles from a metaphysical perspective and even to consider the nature of God. Then there is the opportunity to see how this idea impacts on the end times scenario. So, quite a lot to work with.

The book will be similar in construction and focus to Remember the Creator and Earth is a School and, like them, takes the Master's words for its title. In that respect it could be considered as the third part of a trilogy.

Added note - see comment below. 

Potential cover images showing Jacob's ladder on the facade of Bath Abbey.

Earth is a School review request

 The publisher of Earth is a School has reminded me that it has received no reviews on Amazon yet and reviews generate sales, to put it bluntly. Bruce Charlton and J.M. Smith of the Orthosphere were kind enough to provide endorsements and it has received a few favourable reviews elsewhere for which see below but nothing on Amazon so if anyone has read and appreciated it and doesn't mind saying so, I would be very grateful.

Lynne Jordal Martin at foxnews.com reviewed Earth is a School on NetGalley  
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. "I will consider inviting the author to write an op-ed for Fox News Opinion based on this book. It's a thought provoking, intriguing perspective on life that deserves a wide audience"

David Lorimer, the Programme Director and Editor at Paradigm Explorer, also reviewed the book. “Many spiritual teachers see Earth as the school, and in this book the author suggests that we are in an end of term examination period. It is based on 40 years of study and experience, arguing that we ignore invisible spiritual forces at our peril in a dense age of materialistic bureaucracy. There are valuable discussions of the nature of spirituality, cycles of change, reincarnation and evolution, and the role of Christ. We are encouraged to follow the line of most rather than least resistance, holding fast to our spiritual core while balancing immanence with transcendence. In this way, we can light a candle in the darkness.”

Ana Isabel of the In the Light-Growing Your Soul podcast reviewed the book on Good Reads and gave it a 4 (out of 5) star rating.

“Why are we here? This is possibly one of the oldest and asked questions in history. In this book, William Wildblood presents his understanding learned through communication with Ascended Masters. He looks at how each Soul develops and grows through each life on Earth. This is a deep and thought provoking book which can inspire us to be the best that we can be.”

 

Earth is a School is now published

 It is available in paperback and on Kindle through Amazon UK here.

In the US here

and from the publisher's website here

I expect it can even be ordered through bookshops.

If you read it and like it a review would be very much appreciated.

This is a good time for me to thank all readers of this blog. Earth is a school but it's currently also a battleground and we, believers in God and Christ and Creation, all need to work together to proclaim and support the truth. That is actually not so hard once you decide to ignore the lies with which you are surrounded and trust your inner voice. Know that you are a soul, a divine son or daughter of God, sent here to learn and to grow but also to fight against sin and evil both in your own heart and out there in the world so as to be a living example and guide to others still ensnared by the darkness. The fact that spiritual truth has almost completely been chased from the world today gives us a great opportunity for it means that we must look for God within and therefore, if we will, become much more attuned to him as the living, breathing (God does breathe) core of our own being. Then we start to become more like him which is his dearest wish.

Earth is a School pre-order

 My publisher has sent me a handy link to a page on their website that has pre-order buying links for Earth is a School at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kindle and so on. On the Amazon page you can have a look at its contents.

https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/axismundi-books/our-books/earth-school

St Catherine's Chapel

 A few people have commented on the cover of my new book Earth is a School. As with my two previous books published by Axis Mundi, I selected the cover from images associated with places near where I have lived. In this case it was Bridport in Dorset where I lived from 1985-1988. My first book Meeting the Masters has a picture of Beachy Head on the Sussex coast. I lived in Eastbourne from 1996-2000. The cover of Remember the Creator shows le Mont St Michel on the Normandy/Britanny border. I lived in the nearby town Avranches from 1988-1996. So you see I am working my way backwards. If I do another book it will have to be a picture of somewhere around Yercaud in South India where I lived from 1980-1985.

St Catherine's chapel stands on a hill near the village of Abbotsbury in Dorset in the south west of England. It's assumed to have been built in the 14th century from its style though no documents survive to confirm that. It was used by the monks of the nearby Benedictine monastery presumably for retreats for private prayer and contemplation. Although at 260 feet the hill is not very high it does command spectacular views over the coast and may have been used as a beacon for ships at one time, a light on a hill. So in a way there is a connection with Beachy Head lighthouse and le Mont St Michel. For me they are all spiritual beacons.

One of the others pictures I considered for the cover was a very striking image of the chapel under the Milky Way. The symbolism of souls ascending to the heavens in the form of stars was very tempting but, from a practical point of view, the image was probably too dark for a book cover. But here it is to compare with the eventual choice.

Because that is a sample from a picture library it has a watermark on it but here are two unstamped photographs fished off the internet.

St Catherine herself was, of course, a famous Christian martyr who lived in the 4th century in Alexandria. Her nobility, heroism, devotion, wisdom (she is supposed to have beaten fifty pagan philosophers in debate) and unshakeable faith led to her being one of the most venerated saints in the Middle Ages even though most of the stories around her are probably legendary. Joan of Arc claimed that Catherine was one of the saints who advised her. In Orthodox Christianity she is known as a Great Martyr and Holy Helper. Her feast day is on the 25th November, by happy coincidence shortly after the book comes out. Legendary stories or not, I am sure that there is such a person in Heaven.

Earth is a School

 I have a book coming out at the end of October, though it was actually written last year. It's called Earth is a School and presents the case for the material world being a spiritual school specifically designed to develop consciousness and bring the human soul to an understanding of its own divine nature. The idea is that this world, though corrupted by evil, is still the perfect environment for the job it was originally intended to do which was to develop infant humanity into mature sons and daughters of God to the point that they could become co-creators with him. This, however, is an entirely voluntary process. There is no coercion. That having been said, the book suggests that the present time is a time of real decision, foretold in the New Testament, when the souls of all human beings are examined to determine their future path. Professor J.M. Smith of the Orthosphere and Bruce Charlton were kind enough to provide endorsements, and I would like to express my thanks to them here.

It's listed on Amazon UK here and Amazon US here and you can read excerpts there, but it should be available in the proverbial "all good bookshops".

Here are the front and back covers.

Taking Stock

This blog is now seven years old which seems a good time to look back and reflect on the course it has taken since it began at the end of February 2013.

I started the blog a few months after the publication of my Meeting the Masters book, intending to develop themes from that book. Meeting the Masters was autobiographical in the sense that it was an account of my experience as a young man with spiritual beings who instructed me on the path that leads the earthly soul to God, tailored to my particular needs and deficiencies. But, given that this path is more or less the same for everyone, the teachings contained in the book had much wider application. There was nothing new in these teachings but to be told something by someone who embodies the truth of what he is saying is very different to being told that same thing by someone who may know it but has not completely interiorised it which is the case with the vast majority of spiritual teachers in this world. It makes it come alive. So I would say that my understanding of spirituality revolves around three things. Intellectual knowledge, personal intuition and faith (included as one thing) and the experience of having met and spoken to beings who are what they know. Of the three, this last is the most significant from an immediate point of view though intuition is ultimately the most important as it is that inner knowledge which will eventually transform an individual.

This first book was framed from within the context of a general spirituality though there are intimations throughout of a Christian leaning or, at least, a spiritual world view that is based on the Christian understanding of the human soul and its purpose and destiny. This is to become a creative god, a God in miniature. When I began blogging I was still writing from within that more universalist context but as time went by the figure of Christ became more and more important to me.  Christ had always been the essence of what I understood by spirituality but I had not sufficiently appreciated the extent to which everything else stood in his shadow. I suppose I was still under the influence of the 20th century point of view that sees all spiritual paths as saying the same thing only in different language. But a little reflection shows that's just not true. There is, for example, a fundamental difference between the Christian goal of theosis and the Buddhist one of Nirvana even if they can look roughly similar from the outside. And the Christian God really is radically different to the Muslim one. It's the difference between love and law or God as Father and friend and God as supreme master to whom unquestioning obedience is owed.

My second book Remember the Creator was an attempt to come to terms with these ideas and demonstrate that Christ is the foundation of truth and that what he taught takes us more deeply into the mind and heart of God than anything else. His life shows us the path to follow if we would fulfil God's will for us. This is not to escape creation for an uncreated absolute of perfect stillness and peace but to transform creation and raise it up, through the medium of our own self, into the light of God. The key to this is an understanding that suffering is not a universal evil from which we need to escape but a means of spiritual redemption through transforming it by self-sacrifice in love. Other spiritual approaches talk of love because they must but it is only through the path laid out by Christ that true spiritual love can be known. Without Christ we might have a generalised sort of compassion but we would not have love.

When I began my spiritual journey I was mostly focussed on myself. I don't mean this in a bad way but my purpose was to realise truth within myself. The world was there but I didn't pay much attention to it. However, as time went by I saw that to separate oneself from the world leads to a kind of spiritual lop-sidedness. This is particularly the case now when the world has turned to evil. There has always been evil in the world but, in the Christian West at least and elsewhere too but perhaps not to the same extent, good and evil have been clearly identified. Not now. We live during a time of value inversion and at such a time any person claiming some sort of spiritual orientation must stand up for the real good, both for his own sake (if he doesn't, he will get sucked into evil as that becomes the mundane and everyday) and for the sake of anyone he might come into contact with who is looking for guidance and help - whether they know it or not.  This understanding led to the writings that make up my third book, The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man. For, make no mistake, it is a crisis we are in at the moment and there is no sign we are getting out of it. The worldly attempts to address the situation through such superficial and frankly self-indulgent things as politics or, the latest fad, action on climate change don't even begin to address the roots of the problem.

Things go round in circles or, at any rate, cycles. I am now 64 years old. I suspect that I shall eventually return to a more contemplative mode of life in preparation for leaving this world. Then I might see writing about spiritual matters as a distraction from the essential. At the moment, though, it's still a way of developing and sharing a degree of understanding.

The Masters and Jesus

I was asked in a comment on the previous post if my views on spiritual matters have evolved since I wrote Meeting the Masters which was in 2010 though it wasn't published until 2012. What I would say in response to this is in one sense no, in another yes, and in a third, my views are evolving all the time. I realise, however, that is a singularly unhelpful answer! 

What I mean is that my fundamental spiritual idea of the reality of God and of our purpose in this world as to conform our being more and more to his remains unchanged. It cannot change. It's the same with regard to my belief in the reality of the Masters as messengers from God. I have more or less the same approach to basic spiritual truths as I have done since the age of 22 when I first properly encountered them. However, within that basic form there is room for growth which is how I understand the word evolve.

When I wrote Meeting the Masters my aim was to present the Masters and describe my experience with them. This happened as is related in the book and I thought it a story worth telling, given its unusual nature and how it might be a support to sympathetically inclined people. To know that there exist spiritual beings who can carry something of the love and truth of God to earthly humanity, even if we are not aware of them, is surely a consolation in times of struggle and doubt. 

I wrote the book in the context of a fairly universal type of spirituality because that seemed the best way to do it at the time and it roughly matched my position then. Some might see that as New Age-ish though I would not go along with such an assessment since I have always rejected the New Age as a hotchpotch of beliefs, more concerned with the psychic than the spiritual and the creation than the Creator. But my approach was not specifically Christian which has concerned some people because of the warnings against false prophets and psychic wonders given by Christianity. I was always very aware of the dangers of the psychic world and the illusions to be found there. I mentioned this regularly throughout the book. Nevertheless, it is a mistake to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Angels have been known to come to men since Biblical times and they still do. Some angels are demons posing as celestial beings, of that there's no doubt. But not all are and it is up to us to develop discernment to tell the difference. It's not that hard if one has a true desire to know God and are not looking for personal advancement. 

I am not and have never been an orthodox Christian but I regard Christ as the Saviour and Son of God and always have. He is not just another enlightened spiritual teacher and to see him like that would be to cast him as some sort of crypto-Buddhist and basically ignore everything he says about himself. I don't see how this is a feasible view at all. If he was just a spiritual teacher then he was wrong in many of the things he said, and if that's the case what sort of spiritual teacher was he? No, you cannot see Christ merely as an Eastern-style guru. The Buddha, who I regard as the pre-eminent spiritual teacher in the ordinary sense, proclaimed he had found a way. But Christ said he was the Way. These are two totally different things. You can have spirituality without Christ but Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No spiritual teacher, enlightened or otherwise, could ever say this.

Some people have asked why the Masters did not talk of Christ. They actually did mention Jesus in a general sense and he was the only person they ever did mention, but it is true they did not say he was the Son of God. They did refer to him as the Great Master, though, and they also often spoke of the Most High which is a Christian and Jewish reference to God. But the reason they didn't mention Christ more specifically is because they never told me what to believe. That was my responsibility. They gave general spiritual instruction tailored to my needs, essentially revolving around humility and love which are the primary Christian virtues, but they wanted me to grow from within rather than imitate them. It was up to me to forge my own path and find things out for myself because this is how we grow. I firmly believe that they inspired me in certain directions from within but they did not do that through the words they spoke. Any philosophy, metaphysics, religion or theology I might have would have to come from me. I had to make my own mistakes in that regard and learn from them. If we are ever to become as they are, which is the goal for all of us, this is the only way.

I have learnt from other religions, mostly Hinduism and Buddhism, but these have always been peripheral to Christianity, supplements rather than replacements. You might ask why anyone would need supplements and, of course, you don't. Everything necessary for spiritual salvation is in the teachings and person of Christ. But we do live in an age when we have access to almost everything there has ever been and I think we can use that to our advantage though it can also be confusing, distracting and lead astray. Again, though, that is up to us, to our own discernment and spiritual integrity. Eastern religions can help to supply a sense of God's immanence which has been slightly lacking in Christianity (though it is there) and that is how I have used them. But they do not have Christ and that means there is a hole at their centre. For Westerners certainly, I'm not sure about Easterners. The hole would still be there but God may have provided compensation. Christ came for all men but perhaps he is sometimes present without being obviously so. I don't know, though I would add that, even if that is the case, it is not the same thing and only a kind of stop-gap because of the mercy of God.

I hope if you read my book you will see that Christ is the main influence even if that is not presented in an overtly Christian way. Passages such as "the Masters could often sound much more like wise abbots of a Christian monastery than teachers of enlightenment" point, or were intended to point, in that direction. As was the statement that there is a secret beyond non-duality which is duality. I should also say that their medium, Michael Lord, was and remained a Christian until his dying day. He was more orthodox than me and actually insisted that we went to church every Sunday when we lived in India as it wouldn't be right, in his eyes, not to do so when we were supposed to be leading a spiritual life. He meant that it was all very well to have an inner spiritual life but one should observe outer practice too. So we went to the Victorian Holy Trinity church in Yercaud and I read the lesson there regularly. I've just looked the church up and found some pictures of it. It was a simple but beautiful little church with a small but devout congregation. The priest had to come up every Sunday from the nearest big town which was Salem, about 25 miles away. I'm glad to see it still exists 

The commenter also asked how I understand my experiences with the Masters in the light of 1 John 4:1-3 which is the famous passage saying we should not believe every spirit because there are many false prophets and the way to tell true from false is to see if they acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. I clearly can't ask the Masters that now and I didn't think to at the time. To me it was obvious that they were who they said they were from many indications of their love and wisdom and essential absolute goodness. But I'm not convinced by this passage anyway. I wonder if it might be specific to the time it was written. After all, it would not be difficult for a deceiving spirit to say Jesus was the Son of God. Certainly, if it denies that then steer clear but there is no reason why a deceptive spirit could not go along with that and then work its mischief. It's not as though they can't be deceptive! To be honest, the only way to tell true from false is through spiritual discernment. There's no magic tool, and why should there be? We are not children and God does not want us to be. If we fall for a deceptive spirit that will be our own fault, because we are promised something or our ego is flattered or we hold false ideas in the first place.

There is one thing I can say on this subject though. An experience that has many parallels with mine is detailed in a couple of books written in the 1950s, The Boy and the Brothers and Towards the Mysteries. This is the story of a young man who was used by the Masters as a medium. The books are written by an Irishwoman called Swami Omananda, née Maud McCarthy. Her Indian name might put some people off but that would be a mistake, I think. She was a devout spiritual seeker and served the Masters faithfully. But, as in my case, they did not tell her what to believe outwardly so she chose her own path.

Near the end of the second book there is a passage in which Swami Omananda asks a Master about Christ, saying that as much as she loved him (the Master), this love did not replace her love for Christ which had only grown with time. Was this wrong, she asked? Presumably she felt she was being a bit disloyal to the teachers who had given her so much. The reply more than satisfied her. Not only was it not wrong, it was absolutely right! Christ was the Master of all the Masters. He was the Lord. You can read a post I wrote on this a few years ago here and also the relevant extract from the book.

This echoes my feelings. I love the Masters who spoke to me and I would be more than honoured to be counted as one of their pupils. But they do not replace Christ. Nothing can replace Christ who is the Son of God and Saviour of humanity.

The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man

This is the title of a new book I have just published. It's actually not so much a new book as a collection of slightly edited essays from this blog plus one or two original pieces, all arranged into 12 sections that relate to the title.

The promotional blurb reads as follows:

"The world today is in crisis. We all recognise this but see it as political or environmental or social or economic or something along those lines. In other words, something material using that word to include the intellectual realm of ideas and ideologies. It is none of those or, if it incorporates them, they are symptomatic of something deeper and more serious. The crisis is spiritual. It is the result of wrong decisions collectively taken over several hundred years, each one of which builds on and worsens the last. 

Consisting of over 100 essays arranged thematically, and ranging in subject from God to modern times, this book examines the crisis, looking at its cause, contemporary manifestations and means of resolution. 

Our future is poised in the balance and each individual has a part to play in determining what that future might be. The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man will help you make the right choices."

Well, I did say promotional blurb!

A link to the book on amazon UK is here.

to the Kindle version here

to the book on amazon.com here

and to the Kindle on amazon.com here

At the moment you can only look inside the Kindle versions which went up first but I hope that will be changed soon.

I've only just realised that the title echoes René Guénon's classic The Crisis of the Modern World. That was not intentional but it shows that the crisis has not gone away. In fact, I would say it's got worse.

Meeting the Masters Talk

I recently gave a talk at a conference based on the theme of the Vision of Albion (mentioned in this post). I thought I would put the text of the talk up here for anyone who might be interested. It will be familiar stuff for those who have read my book but those who haven't might be interested to learn about the initial inspiration for this blog.

Hello everybody

Thank you for inviting me here today. The subject of my talk this morning is not directly related to the theme of this conference but I was kindly invited to give a presentation due to my involvement with the Albion Awakening blog started by Bruce Charlton, which I believe was one of the inspirations for the conference, and that involvement was partly due to what I am going to talk about. So there is some kind of connection and I hope to bring out a link or two along the way.

My subject today is spiritual teachers and when I say spiritual I mean those who speak from the spiritual world and who can be thought of, by virtue of that, as messengers from God, bearing witness to his existence. I know this field is full of all sorts of weird and wonderful things, a lot more weird than wonderful if we're honest, but let me tell you something of my own experience which I'd like to share because I think that if we knew there were genuine spiritual beings who watched over us and guided us as far as they were able to within the confines of spiritual law and free will, well that would be a great encouragement to us in our labours in this world.

My story goes back 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 that didn't interest me and I was searching for something more than a mundane existence dedicated to material success which was pretty much all that was on offer then as far as I knew. 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, full of extravagant claims that were not borne out either by the followers or the leaders. 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 and purpose now. 

One day in my lunch hour I wandered into a metaphysical bookshop near where I worked in South Kensington and began to browse, looking for something that might provide answers to questions I hadn't even properly framed yet. As I searched through the shelves a man beside me spoke asking whether he might make a recommendation or two. 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. He was friendly and we got talking and I was sufficiently interested to accept his offer of lunch during which we discussed such subjects as meditation, vegetarianism, even reincarnation, none of which were quite as mainstream then as they are now. 

It turned out that this man, Michael Lord by name, had led quite an interesting life. He was then 58 years old and had packed a lot into his time. Born in 1919 he spent his childhood in England, France and Switzerland before being sent to India at the outbreak of the Second World War where, amongst other things, he was ADC to Lord Wavell who was the Viceroy before Mountbatten. When the war was over he went to America where he ran some kind of fashionable country club near New York. But after a few years he got fed up with high society life (and high society people) and returned to England. Going from one extreme to the other, which seemed to be a pattern of his life, he converted to Catholicism and became a Benedictine monk at Ealing Abbey. But this didn't work out because in that particular order he would have had to have become a priest which he didn't want to do so he left. The other problem was that he was interested in Eastern religion which didn't really sit well in that time and place. He had nothing but praise for his fellow monks but knew that life was not for him.

Going back into the world he became the secretary of a political club in London during the '60s, though a less political person I can't imagine, where he again mixed with the establishment elite of the day. He then went to India and was initiated by a swami in the Ramakrishna order. He stayed there for several months then returned to England. He lived in Cornwall for a bit as an antiques dealer, ran a shop selling crystals just before the fashion for them took off and then went back to India. He used to say that though he was born in England he had been conceived in India and that had left its mark on him. When I met him he had just come back from Bombay, as it was known then, where he had run a guest house for the Hare Krishnas (as a non-member) but left because he got fed up with the infighting and jockeying for position. The last straw apparently was a knife fight outside the temple. 

I've given you a brief resumé of Michael's background in view of what comes later on in this story. He was a typical what used to be called seeker after truth and had looked in many places but never found what he was looking for. Unlike most people who either give up or make do and stay where they are, he had always moved on. You might think that shows a certain restlessness or even superficiality on his part but some people have an inner drive that won't let them be satisfied with what doesn't feel right, and I think that was his case. 

So that's Michael. After our initial encounter in the bookshop I met up with him a few more times for further discussions and the eventual outcome of all that was that six months later the two of us were living in Bath, running an antiques shop by day and meditating in the evening. I had given up my job and decided to throw in my lot with him, the two of us leading a life dedicated to the spiritual quest though, it has to be said, without much outer structure. He was 59 and I was 23 so as you can imagine my family and friends were not enthusiastic. In fact, "Are you mad?" was one of the more restrained responses. Michael's family consisted of one cousin who was a retired army colonel and who reacted as you might think a retired army colonel might react but we became friends later on when we got to know each other. In spite of all this opposition sometimes you have to do what you feel is right and, for me, this was one of those times. Michael, I think, was also quite taken aback by how things had turned out but he had lived much of his life by instinct and followed the path as it appeared before him so he was more used to unconventional ways. 

For a few weeks we led this life uneventfully. I enjoyed living in Bath which I think is certainly one of the places where the sense of Albion can break through now and then, and the antiques world has rather more colourful characters in it than the Civil Service where I had worked before. I was reading spiritual books and learning about the various approaches to the search for God and I was practising meditation with the vague idea that one day I might break through into some kind of higher consciousness though I remember Michael tactfully warning me that things weren't quite that simple. But I had the enthusiasm and naivety of the neophyte. And then something rather unusual happened.

We were sitting in meditation as we did every evening at around 9 o'clock when Michael suddenly began to chant what sounded like the OM, the Hindu sacred sound that is supposed to symbolise ultimate truth. It's very similar to the ison or drone in Byzantine chant. He had never done this before and it resonated throughout the room in our small flat. The sound went on and on, becoming louder in the process. I remember feeling slightly concerned about the neighbours as well as being impressed that he could do such a thing. When the chant eventually ceased the room had a totally different atmosphere as though it had been ritually cleansed and purified. There was a presence to it and the silence that ensued seemed a real thing rather than a simple absence of noise. Then Michael began to speak. Except it wasn't 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 and remain 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 and my knowledge of his character, showed this to be impossible. It wasn't Michael. Then I thought that maybe the voice could be that of a real spirit but of the kind contacted in spiritualism, that's to say, not a very elevated being. I had once been to a seance at the Spiritualist Association in London so had encountered this sort of thing before. But that wasn't possible either. The whole tone of the communication, the power, the deep sense of wisdom and love, all showed this to be a spirit of real substance, an exemplar of deep truth. You'll have to take my word for this but I am not someone who is easily impressed. I was more than impressed by this. I was humbled.

I don't much remember much of what was said on that first occasion. Thereafter I kept notes scribbled down after the talk had ended while it was still fresh in my mind but I didn't think it would be very respectful to dash out of the room for pen and paper while it was still going on. However, I do recall that it was mostly an introductory talk. I was greeted not by my name but simply as 'my child'. Interestingly, in all the years they spoke to me they never used my name and nor did they ever use Michael's name when they referred to him, generally calling him 'our brother'. The essence of what he said was that he was pleased Michael and I had made the decision to live together. We had been sent to each other and we would be guided in our spiritual endeavours. I got the impression this was something that had been set up long ago. 

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. Actually on one occasion I was told a name of which more later. But I think the general no name policy was because names would bring the experience down to a more mundane level and so detract from the spiritual message. Look at some of the fancy names and grandiose titles supposedly higher beings do give themselves in the channelling literature. But names aside, from certain things they said, I understood they were souls who lived beyond this mortal world existing in higher spheres which they described in terms of light, beauty, colour and spiritual glory. They were what is known as Masters.

Now unfortunately this word Masters has a certain amount of baggage attached to it as, of course, do spiritualist or channelling type communications. Regarding the word, they used it of themselves and as I stood to them in the role of a pupil it's appropriate. But it calls to mind the Theosophists and groups deriving from that line of occult thought, and the beings who spoke to me don't seem to have much in common with those worthies. They didn't give me any elaborate esoteric teachings, as people are often disappointed to find, or talk about a New Age or higher consciousness or anything of that sort of thing. No big revelations or world-transforming philosophies. Nothing dramatic. Most of the time they restricted themselves to specific spiritual instruction, tailored to my needs. 

As for the connection with channelling and spiritualism, this is something I have always fought shy of. You might wonder why given there clearly is a connection in terms of the mechanism of the operation but it comes down to the quality of the communication. In my experience the great majority of channelled messages have very limited value and can even be serious distractions if not lures into spiritual blind alleys. Even when you might accept there is something genuine going on, not influenced by the medium's own mind, the communicating entities do not seem of a very high spiritual standard. They may exist in a world beyond this one but that does not mean they have a real proximity to God.

It is often stated by esotericists that high spiritual beings do not communicate through mediums, that being an atavistic practice restricted to spirits still functioning in the lower levels of non-physical reality.  And I agree with this statement. The goal of teachers of this sort is to educate their pupils spiritually not intellectually and so they teach through impressing ideas on the pupil's brain which it is then the pupil's responsibility to pick up on and interpret according to his capacity. Indeed, my instructors told me that this was their aim. But there are exceptions to the general rule and I am bound to say I believe this to be one of them. Of course, such an assertion can't 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 one should know that spiritual teachings have two levels. There are the words and the information conveyed. But there is an inner quality too which 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 similar. In fact, even if the words are simpler. I've learnt that just because something appears profound does not mean it's true. I know not everyone likes the words higher and lower in this context but they do describe something real.

I should mention something of the nature of Michael's mediumship. He was quite unconscious during the process. He told me he would be lifted out of his body and then feel surrounded by an atmosphere of love before returning which was always painful for him, a jarring re-entry to lower vibrations to use that terminology. Sometimes he would have fallen over if I hadn't been prepared to catch him as I was told by the Masters to be ready to do. He'd ask for a drink of water and it took him several minutes to come to. When he was gone his body would sit bolt upright like one of those ancient Egyptian statues. His eyes would be closed and he remained completely still except for the moving of his lips. The voice that spoke was not his at all, not the timbre, not the accent, nothing. Michael had a middle class English accent but the accent of the Masters speaking through him was not an English one. But then it was not an identifiably foreign one either. It was of someone who spoke perfect English in an idiomatic English style but who you could tell wasn't a native Englishman. They didn't all speak in the same way, I could generally tell the difference, but there was a similarity of tone.  In the book I wrote about them I said that their vocal delivery was strong, measured and assured, almost solemn on occasion but never in the slightest bit stiff or pompous. They never rushed and they never hesitated. 

I have heard recordings of mediumistic seances in which a spirit is supposedly talking. Often it seems to be in quite a mechanical tone of voice or ponderous and stilted, not really human sometimes. This was nothing like that. It was perfectly natural without any portentousness to it. It wasn't normal but it was natural.

Michael was not aware of what was spoken through him and if I asked did he want to know he expressed no interest. It was for me, he said. I asked him how long he had known of the existence of the Masters, and if and how they spoke to him. He said they had contacted him first around the time of our meeting but not fully made themselves known to him until we started living together. They spoke to him clairaudiently or sometimes he would just hear a voice 'inside his head'. On occasion he also saw beautiful faces. Michael was not an intellectual type of person by any means and he didn't analyse what he experienced but he had good spiritual instincts and, most of all, a great capacity for love. It was that, so the Masters told me, that enabled them to use him as their medium. 

I don't know if any of you are familiar with a couple of books written by Swami Omananda, actually an Irishwoman called Maud McCarthy. They describe how a protegé of hers, known simply as the Boy, was used as a medium by the Masters, though much more extensively and publicly than Michael was, during the 1930s and '40s. His character, its simplicity, straight-forwardness and integrity, coupled with a spiritual temperament quite uninterested in abstract speculation and theory, reminds me very much of how Michael was. The Boy was from a working class background whereas Michael was upper middle class and had led quite a sophisticated life, mixing on familiar terms with many of the well-known people of his day, but there always remained a kind of innocence about him which endeared him to some people but made others think he was a bit of a fool. I prefer to say he retained a child-like quality all his life and I think that's what made him useable by the Masters. Our analytical brain is a great gift if we want to get things done in the physical world but it can block out the pure simplicity of spiritual truth if it gets out of hand as it certainly has done in our day.

People ask me how do I know Michael wasn't just faking the whole thing. It's a fair question but it does presuppose a particularly devious personality and I know that just wasn't him. Besides, if he could have faked the depth of wisdom and spiritual authority that came through him he could have cleaned up on the guru trail. I'm not joking. I've seen a fair number of gurus and holy men in this world and none of them could hold a candle to the Masters. Moreover, this carried on from 1979 to 1999 though it was much reduced after the early years. There would have been no reason for him to keep doing it other than some kind of deep-rooted psychological problem which it was obvious he didn't have. I didn't live with Michael because supernatural voices told me to. They did say that was their desire for our mutual benefit but they left me free to do as I wished. They also pointed to flaws in his character that I might be able to help him with though the chief aim of that was to teach me how to talk to others without criticising them which they regarded as one of my faults.

If he wasn't faking could it have been some kind of multiple personality thing or dissociative identity disorder as it's now called? Well, it was multiple personality in that there were several beings who spoke through Michael but they were not split off aspects of his own self. I can say this with confidence because of the profound qualitative differences there were between them and him. These were not different personalities along a horizontal plane but along a vertical one. They were far beyond him by every measurement. Michael had no history of mental illness nor had there been any childhood trauma or abuse. He said he'd had a happy childhood and he gave no sign of being bipolar or depressive or schizophrenic or anything like that. He could be emotional at times but the Masters actually mentioned that this aspect of his character was linked to his mediumship.

I am firmly of the opinion that any unusual experience should be subjected to rigorous scrutiny but on this occasion it does seem as though the explanation offered by the voices themselves, the most straight-forward one really, is the true one.

I think at this point I should read out some of the things that were said to me by the Masters. As I said earlier, their intention was to instruct me spiritually. They didn't say much about themselves and they didn't give me any theoretical stuff, metaphysics about God or the universe or whatever. They left that for me to sort out for myself though it was assumed that God was real and that the spiritual world was the true ground of this one. But their purpose was practical spiritual training. I kept notes of most of their talks during the first year when they were at their most frequent. I did this less later on and I have lost the notebooks I used after the first one but the general themes were similar so that's not as unfortunate as it might be.

Here's my log of one of the early talks. I had moved in with Michael on January 1st 1979 and this talk is dated 15th February so the talks might have been going on for a week or two at this stage. I was still being broken in as one might put it.

The Master said he was pleased with my progress. He stressed the need to remain diligent and conscientious, and told me to keep on striving and forging ahead. My next trial would be in my relationship with Michael. Due to various experiences in his life, and the sort of life he has led, he has had to present a front to the world. This is necessary as, in his evolved state, lower vibrations could harm him. As I have not led a sophisticated life I might find this acting a role difficult to understand but it is with my assistance that Michael can find his true self. It is the will of the Masters that Michael and I help each other. I can help him find his true self through respect, understanding and love while he can train me in the outer spiritual path. The Master said it was not necessary to inform Michael of the contents of this talk as they communicated with him separately.

I wrote down the Masters' words after the talk so although I tried to keep their exact words as much as possible it's inevitable that some of this is expressed in my language. On the other hand, I did want to preserve the form of their delivery as best I could as well as the substance and I would say most of this is as they spoke albeit trimmed down to the essential.

What is being said here is twofold. There is encouragement and the attempt to stiffen my resolve for the life ahead which is not going to be as rosy as I might have imagined. Like many people I had thought that leading a spiritual life would be a matter of a speedy progression to the sunny uplands of joy and bliss etc. Ah, the naivety of the innocent! It's actually much more about a dredging up of all the darkness in one's soul and the confrontation with the reality of who you are. This is going to entail suffering and that's just how it is.

The second thing relates to me and Michael and our life together. We had joined forces but we were two very different people. Different generations but also different types. Sometimes his behaviour annoyed me. It could seem worldly and at odds with our spiritual intentions. The Masters explained why that might be but I was being told to develop tolerance. 

Here's another talk from around the same time.

The Master warned me that from now on I must guard against great joys as well as great depressions and should keep an even keel at all times. He said I should also guard against negative entities which will attack when I least expect it in ways that I least expect. He told me to listen to Michael and remain with him for the present. It is they, the Masters, who have arranged this life together and though I may not understand it all now, things will become clearer later on. Michael is as he is because the Masters have arranged it for the purposes of teaching me. All is proceeding well and is guided and arranged by God and His Masters who look forward to being reunited with me. He said it is not wrong for me to talk to Michael about aspects of his personality I think could be improved on but do it for his sake and the love of God not because I want to change him or am irritated by him.

Here again there is encouragement and warning. What these write ups don't include are the questions I asked the Masters though I incorporate their response. As I hinted I sometimes found it difficult to get on with Michael in our daily life because of our different characters and also because I was somewhat judgemental. I had probably asked for some advice on this score. But the Masters never pandered to my weaknesses. I was told that anything I said or did had to be for the right reason or else it just wouldn't work. 

There is also a mention of negative entities and that these might attack. The Masters fully accepted the reality of evil, including supernatural evil, in our universe. They mentioned this on several occasions and warned that the more progress one made on the spiritual path the more one would be attacked by evil. The form of attack might vary but was usually psychological as in fanning the flames of negative characteristics such as anger, irritation, depression, hatred, etc until you get to the point where you identify with the emotion and start to become it. I was told to be aware of this and watch out for it within my mind. Evil can only work with what's there. If you expunge evil from your own heart it is helpless but evil is very subtle and as, the Master said, will attack in ways you least expect at times when your defences might be down. I should add that once after a talk something really nasty got into Michael and physically attacked me. This apparently was a possibility due to his mediumistic tendency and the fact that after the Master left an evil spirit could, as it were, nip in before Michael got back. The Masters had helpers who functioned on lower planes than they themselves did and who were responsible for the smooth running of the operation but sometimes things could go wrong though I only remember this happening once or twice. On this occasion it was soon dealt with by the helpers and the spirit expelled. This might sound rather outlandish but it's just how things are. In our day few people are physically possessed by demons due to the lower levels of psychic polarisation. We are more mentally focused. On the other hand, I would say demons can influence us on both the intellectual and emotional levels and this is not uncommon. C.S. Lewis's book The Screwtape Letters might be fiction but it's not fantasy.

The Master says that he looks forward to being reunited with me. What this points to is the pre-existence of the soul. As far as I know this is not accepted by Christianity but it makes sense. Do we really think we began only in this life? Personally I never have thought that and always regarded myself as having come here from somewhere else. I am not talking about reincarnation necessarily but the truth is we are spiritual beings in earthly form and we need to start coming to terms with the implications and responsibilities of that.

Here's the next talk.

The Master said I must have more control over my moodiness which was due to the fact I was in a young body. Rather than being swayed by moods I should ignore them. He said that this would be the last talk for a while as Michael was getting too weak to be used as a medium for a while. The Masters would guide and protect us as long as we did their will which was to live together in love and harmony. He would watch over our progress and come back at a later date. He said at this stage I should regard the Masters not as individuals but as messengers from God. He sent his love and blessings and the love of the higher Masters. 

The Masters made clear that mediumship of this sort took a lot out of Michael and that I should never start taking it for granted. In this talk they also mention what they call the higher Masters confirming that there is hierarchy even in heaven which is the traditional understanding as well. In fact, these higher Masters did talk to me as well occasionally, not often but now and then, and here is a record of a talk given by one of them.

I was talked to by one of the higher Masters. The feeling of power and majesty was almost overwhelming but he spoke kindly and unusually even gave his name though it was not one I was familiar with. He told me that the body is a frame and its functions are not to be feared. He said it was designed for beings of a lesser evolution than myself and was more suited to their needs. He said that sometimes it is the will and not the action that counts, and stressed I should avoid lassitude as I have important work to do. He told me to have faith, courage and determination and said that I was always protected by his helpers.

I need to say first of all that the important work referred to just means the lessons I was learning at the time with Michael. Then I should say a word or two about the phrase 'lesser evolution'. It is a tenet of many spiritual philosophies that we come to Earth to develop our spiritual potential. So this is not like random Darwinian evolution but more the gradual unfolding of qualities already present in embryo. As the Masters told me at other times, Earth is a school and we are here to learn. There are souls at different stages of learning just as a school has different classes. Systems like the Indian caste system were originally based on that idea and though we have rejected these in favour of egalitarian democracy nowadays we need to understand that they were not just systems based on power and oppression but said something important about how human beings are.

When I wrote the book about my experience with the Masters I didn't mention the name I was given here but earlier this year I was reading Tolkien's translation of the old English poem Beowulf and there is a section in the poem where Beowulf is compared to an ancient hero who was also a dragon slayer. That hero's name was Sigemund and this was the name given by the higher Master. At the time I wasn't familiar with the name and it meant nothing to me in particular. I wrote it down phonetically as ' Siggermund'.

What I find intriguing in Tolkien's notes on the reference to Sigemund in his Beowulf translation is that he says this "is the oldest reference to the Sigemund story that is now extant, even in point of manuscript date." He makes this point because in later versions it is Sigemund's son Siegfried who kills the dragon, as also in Wagner. But Tolkien thinks these later accounts have embellished the story, as often happened with myths and legends which grew as they moved through time, and that Sigemund acquired a son who took over his exploits. So, for Tolkien, Sigemund not Siegfried is the original dragon slayer.

This is interesting to me because it gives the name extra significance. Sigemund is a kind of original hero of Northern European civilisation and the fact that this is the only name any of the Masters gave seems to have some relevance, to me at any rate. What is more, it was the name of one who was described as a higher Master and whose tone and manner were certainly that of a being of extraordinary power and authority. He didn't speak to me much but I can still remember that it was like being in the presence of a great king.

There is one other incident connected with Sigemund which I can't help mentioning in the context of this conference even though I could justifiably be accused of straying into the realms of fantasy. That is the similarity of something in his story with something in the story of Arthur. I don't know if this incident occurs anywhere else and is a staple of myth or if it is unique to these two. I am referring to the successful drawing of a sword from a solid foundation (a stone in one case, a tree in the other), a task that has defeated all those who have tried before. This is confirmation that the hero is the true son of a divine or royal father, and is both an initiation and acceptance of destiny. Sigemund and Arthur are, in this sense, related.

So, for what it is worth, Sigemund was the name of one of the Masters who spoke to me, the only one I was ever given. 

Here's an excerpt from another talk.

I was told that it was very important that I always remembered the Creator, keeping Him in my thoughts at all times. Throughout the day I should constantly visualise a white light surrounding and protecting me. This is a very crucial period for me and I was vulnerable to attacks from outward evil that would affect my thoughts if I let it. If antagonistic thoughts did arise I should dispel them by concentrating on the Masters. I had to do my work in the market but should remain unattached to it. What we needed would be provided. 

This speaks for itself for the most part. I would just draw attention to a couple of things. One is, remember the creator. This is the simplest instruction but actually covers almost everything you need if you really do it. By fixing your mind on God you start to draw close to him and that very thought acts as a kind of purifying agent.

The second point is the remark that what we needed would be provided. We worked in an antiques market and had to make a profit through buying and selling antiques. That was the only source of our income so we had to take it seriously. At the same time, it was only a means of making a living. The real work lay elsewhere. The fact is what we needed was provided and I take this to mean that if you do dedicate yourself to God he'll look after you though you should never just sit back and assume things will drop into your lap. Have confidence in God but don't ever take him for granted.

Next talk.

I was told that my life must continue in a routine, in fact, until I left my physical body. The Master said that they always knew what was in my mind but it was up to me to broach a subject if I wanted to discuss it. They impressed things on me but it was my responsibility to act on them. When I speak to Michael about things that I thought important I should at all times do so calmly so he would know that what I was saying came from deep intuition and not petty caprice. No-one can accept something that he is told angrily even if in his heart he knows that it is true.

As a point of interest, petty caprice is not a phrase Michael would ever have used. That's the case with a lot of words and phrases the Masters used.

I think I am running out of time so I won't comment any further on the talks but here are excerpts from a few more. I haven't selected these for any particular reason. They are fairly typical.

The Master’s message was that I should occupy myself during the day and not think so much. He said I dream and moon about too much and live too much in the mental. I must be more practical and learn to live on the earth plane. Again he said that I should work using my hands. Simple tasks were enough but I should use them regularly. This was the best way for me to conquer my lack of humility. The Masters would think for me and I should follow them and not bother myself with a lot of theory. He was pleased by what he called my great love for Michael as he said that we would be together for quite a while on Earth. My black moods are caused by the evil forces attacking me so I must keep myself busy allowing myself no time to brood.

Michael and I were together for 21 years which is quite a while. 

The Master said that at night we should attune ourselves to the higher planes by meditation or prayer so that when we left our bodies we could go there quickly and easily. He said that music was a wonderful medium but I should not listen to it to excess as it tended to make me listless and dreamy. Earth is a school and I have work to do here. The wish to experience the glories of the higher planes was understandable but should not be indulged or the reason for being on Earth would be neglected. Now I needed to be earthed and that was one thing that Michael was there to help me with. He told me to be more simple and childlike adding. “Do not be as those who seek to penetrate to every corner of the universe but do not know themselves. It is not necessary to chase after the many mysteries of existence. Live simply in the heart and all mysteries will in time become known to you.”  

Many spiritually inclined people seek to escape the hard fact of this world but we are here for a reason, to learn and to serve God wherever he may put us. Joy may come but we should not have it as a priority or reason to seek God.

I asked if constantly thinking of beauty was an unwise habit and he replied that this was natural in a spiritual person but that I should project beauty and not dwell on it. He told me that beauty is everywhere. It varies in degrees according to its closeness to God but there is God in everything and that means beauty. Do not love one thing and despise everything else because it does not match up to what you love. Accept everything on its merits, not judging it or comparing it with more evolved things or the higher planes. Be detached from your surroundings and feel the humility of accepting gratefully whatever God offers you.

Well, there we are. These are a few excerpts from some of the talks that took place during the first year of the process. 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 world in which we live is merely the lowest level 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 frank, difficult task. We may not be aware of this help in our conscious minds but if we seek to attune ourselves correctly through humility, meditation and prayer, then we can render ourselves susceptible to divine influence which will prompt us along the right path. But 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 the right choices.

The book I wrote about this 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 just before the end of the last millennium when Michael died. Since then I have had no outer contact with the Masters nor sought any but I try to put into practice what they taught me and that 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 else who might be interested.

Thank you for listening. 

That was my talk. The three other speakers were John Fitzgerald, Terry Boardman and Andy Thomas who all gave fascinating talks with lots to think about. John's talk is here. It's called Resistance and Renewal: The Restoration of Logres in a Time of Dissolution, and is very much worth reading. Bruce Charlton calls it a major piece of work and it is.