Michael Lord

Michael and me in Yercaud, India in 1982

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Michael and friend, India 1982

St Michael and the Dragon that is Satan

In the light of the recent nonsensical 'debate' about redesigning the insignia for the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (see here) I would like to repost a piece I did 4 years ago for Albion Awakening.  This is a time when the image of St Michael crushing Satan needs to be at the forefront of the mind for anyone who is remotely concerned with Christian truth. The abbey at Le Mont St Michel is, I believe, his most important sanctuary. I lived near there for 8 years between 1988 and 1996 and regularly visited. Despite the massive number of tourists, it is still recognisably one of the holy places of the world. I have left the piece as it was but added a bit at the end.

Le Mont Saint-Michel at high tide

On the face of it the subject of this post doesn't have a right to be here because, technically speaking, Albion is not in France and vice versa. Indeed, the Normans are very proud that perfidious Albion never captured le Mont Saint-Michel during the 100 Years War, though it did capture the small island of Tombelaine not far away. But because the Mount with its abbey dedicated to St Michael is such an important Christian pilgrimage site, and because of the link between England and Normandy, I feel it does earn its place on this blog. We must also remember the connection of this part of France with Arthurian legend via Lancelot, and the fact that the original Bretons (le Mont Saint-Michel is right on the border between Brittany and Normandy) were exiles from what is now England, driven out of their home country by Anglo-Saxon invaders.

Le Mont Saint-Michel with Tombelaine to the right at low tide

There are other connections too. Mont Saint-Michel has a twin site in Cornwall in St Michael's Mount, another monastery on an offshore island that's sometimes accessible by foot, with which (quoting from Wikipedia) "it shares the same tidal features and the same conical shape", though St Michael's Mount is much smaller and less imposing than its big brother in France. And Tolkien enthusiasts should note that Minas Tirith, in the Lord of the Rings films, was modelled on le Mont Saint-Michel.

Now for a bit of history.

In the year 708 A.D. the Archangel Michael appeared in a dream to the bishop of Avranches, a town in the south west of Normandy, and told him to build a church on a rocky island that lay in the large bay at the mouth of the river Couesnon a few miles away. The story goes that St Michael had to return three times before he was believed and, even then, could only convince the bishop of the truth of the vision by sticking his finger into the bishop's head! The poor man's skull, complete with hole, still exists for all to view in the Saint-Gervais Basilica in Avranches. So the church was built, and in the 11th century a Romanesque abbey was constructed with Gothic style refectory and cloisters added 200 years later. Further buildings were completed in the ensuing centuries until in 1895 a statue of St Michael himself, dragon underfoot, was put at the top of the spire giving it its current appearance. Inevitably at the time of the French Revolution the island and its buildings were converted into a prison but that was closed in 1863. Monks began to return in the 20th century and now there is a small community of monks and nuns living there continuing the tradition of prayer and worship.

Le Mont Saint-Michel in the middle distance viewed from the hilltop town of Avranches

Whether by accident or design le Mont Saint-Michel is a microcosm of the medieval world or ideal Christian society. At the top there stands, representing God, the Archangel Saint Michael protecting the monastery founded in his name. Then comes the Benedictine abbey and monastery where the monks lived their lives in prayer to the Creator. Below there are the halls for noble guests (the aristocracy) and then shops, houses and, outside the walls, dwellings for those that did the more menial work required to keep the whole place running. Even today when you visit the Mount, as around three million people do every year, you have the feeling of ascending through the world towards God. You enter by a large gate with a 15th century captured English cannon to your right. There is a bustling, noisy crowd with shops selling tourist knickknacks and lots of restaurants. As you climb the winding path that leads to the top the crowd seems to thin out slightly. The climb becomes a little more difficult, the steps steeper, and eventually you leave the commercial world behind and stand in front of the abbey doors. Up you go to a large platform outside the main church from where there is a magnificent view of the bay which on a clear day is a truly glorious sight. Then you enter and immediately you are in a different world in which the mundane is left behind and the sacred is all important. It is quiet, even with a still fairly substantial number of people walking about, and the vaulted columns of the choir lift one's spirits heavenwards.

And now a speculative suggestion.

The patron saint of England is St George who was a Roman soldier of Greek origin born in Palestine, a strange choice for a national hero you might think. However Edward III adopted him for his courage in combating adversity and as an example of the triumph of good over evil, demonstrated by his killing of the dragon. Now the only other saintly dragon killer I am aware of is St Michael who crushed Satan and threw him down to earth after the great rebellion in heaven. So I am led to wonder whether St George is actually a human representative of the archangel and whether England might not, in some way, be also under the patronage of St Michael. Of course, many other places would be too but Michael was apparently the most popular saint in medieval England after St Peter, and before the Reformation many churches were dedicated to him, often on hilltops such as the one on Glastonbury Tor. This is pure speculation, I admit, but the idea that certain places have angelic protectors is well known in esoteric teachings and if that is the case then why not nations too?

St Michael fighting the dragon above le Mont Saint-Michel

Here are some of the titles that St Michael is regarded as holding. The first is a translation of his actual name

  I. Who is like unto God.

  2. Recorder of the deeds of men in the Heavenly Books.

  3. The Celestial Medium through whom the Law was given.

  4. Captain of the Heavenly Hosts.

  5. Slayer of the dragon of evil intention.

  6. Guardian of the Holy Sanctuaries.

  7. Preparer of the Way before each Messenger from God.

  8. Leader of the Church Triumphant in Heaven and Militant on Earth.

From these titles we can see that St Michael is not someone to be trifled with. He is a warrior and it seems to me that we need his assistance in fighting evil now more than ever. It is a good time to remind ourselves of his continued presence as God's strong right arm.


That was the piece from 4 years ago. It mentions that the statue of St Michael crushing the dragon was put up relatively recently but the idea of this defeat of evil by good was always present at the abbey. Let us pray for St Michael's assistance in our current battle against the forces that would destroy goodness and truth in the world today. Christianity is not always thought of as a fighting religion but it certainly has that side to it and it is one which is needed now more than ever.

St Michael crushing that old serpent Satan

There are some images of the statue atop the abbey in these videos which are worth a few of minutes of anybody's time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVmjF6hJrcY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkwLrcguh-I

Who I Am

As some visitors to this blog will not be familiar with the book of which it is an extension, I thought I should say a few words about myself here. I hope that a little background will put what is said in these posts into some kind of context.

I was born in London in 1955. From as early as I can remember I knew that there was more to the world than I was led to believe by the culture in which I was raised but, because I couldn't find an adequate form to give expression to my sense of a greater reality behind appearance, I grew up with a feeling of acute pointlessness. Hence I made minimal efforts at school and got out of my education just exactly what I put into it. I felt that there was a definite truth behind religion but that it had long since been lost, and what was left was little more than a museum piece. I know that lays me open to a charge of spiritual arrogance but religions are not eternal and can only thrive when there is a constant input of new spiritual energy or, as we might otherwise say, new saints, prophets and realised souls. Since discovering for myself the truth of which religions speak I have come to appreciate them more, and I have learnt much from them, but, in the final analysis, they are outer things and I could never identify myself wholly with one as you must do if you are to extract its benefits.

In the early days of my association with the Masters I asked them about Catholicism because Michael Lord (the medium through whom they came), as an ex-monk, still liked to go to mass occasionally. This is what they said. The Catholic Church, like any outward form of religion, is good for souls on a certain level but it was time to lead Michael away from it into a new and higher understanding of life. This is not a condemnation of Catholicism but points to the fact that we must graduate from the outer forms of all religions if we would follow the mystical path. I don't dispute that you can follow the inner path from within religion but I do think that, certainly nowadays when all religions are definitely in a cycle of decay, there will come a time when adherence to an outer form will limit more than it liberates. At the same time, to cast something off before we have outgrown it is also wrong, and to replace any of the great religions with practically any one of their modern replacements is likely to leave you the worse off.

I would sum the matter up in this way. The religions were given by God to provide ways home for a humanity in exile. In the past they have succoured and guided countless millions, some even to the end of the road, but the current cycle is coming to an end and its forms and structures are crumbling so increasingly less able to serve as vessels for light. Hence the power of the religions of the past to liberate and save is much diminished. If you find a religion that answers all your questions then, by all means, follow it, but bear in mind the Master’s point above. You may one day have to go beyond.

I left school with no idea of what I wanted to do but was fortunate enough to find work in the Geological Museum of London (now part of the Natural History Museum). It was while working there that I met a man who turned out to be very influential in my life. It was 1978. Profound dissatisfaction with the direction my current path was taking had led me to a metaphysical bookshop where I was browsing one lunchtime when a man approached me and began talking. This was Michael Lord. He told me afterwards that he had been clairaudiently instructed to do this but mentioned nothing about that at the time. If he had, I don't doubt I would have made polite noises and fled. He talked about spiritual things from a mildly esoteric perspective, and I was intrigued enough to agree to meet up at a later date for more discussion. One thing led to another and six months later we were living together in a flat in Bath with the intention of leading a life wholly devoted to the spiritual quest. By day we worked in an antiques market. In the early morning and evening we meditated.

Bath 1979. Outside the antiques market.  I'm on the left. 

It was during one of these meditation sessions that the Masters first appeared to me. Michael had known about them for a few months, having been contacted by them around the time we met. They spoke to him clairaudiently and also telepathically. He had not mentioned any of that to me, though, and I was quite ignorant of their existence. 

One evening towards the end of our meditation Michael began to sound the OM. Very powerfully. I was familiar with sacred chanting but had never heard anything like this before. My innate scepticism was completely uprooted and tossed aside by its strength, volume and duration. Surely no mortal was capable of such a feat? Michael certainly wasn't. Eventually the OM came to an end but the silence that followed was even more impressive as now the room seemed filled with a mighty presence. This was the way the Masters got my attention but I think it may also have been necessary to bring vibrations to the correct pitch and enable them to enter Michael's body in order to speak to me.

I know that trance mediumship is not favourably regarded in some esoteric circles. I think I have spoken about this in previous posts, and I also speak about it in the book, so here I will just say that normally the Masters do not use this method of communicating. But in this case they did. There are others though only a few as far as I am aware. They don't use it because not many mediums would be able to support the intensity of their presence, and also because they would normally require us to come up to their level rather than them descend to ours. It has one enormous advantage though. What comes through is unaffected by the medium. This is not the case with any other form of mediumship or channeling. When the Masters spoke to me, it was exactly as if they were seated in the chair opposite. What they said came directly from them without any input from Michael who, to all intents and purposes, was not there other than corporeally, of course.

On that first occasion when the Master spoke to me he did not say very much to begin with. He did not even say who he was even though there could be no doubt of his status from the authority of his presence. He did say that he, or rather they, since from the start they spoke of themselves as a brotherhood, were guiding us and it was their desire that we live and work together. But he did not actually explain anything initially, and that may seem odd but this outer approach was setting the seal on an inner change that they had been working on for some time (the spiritual rule is always inner before outer) so I was subliminally prepared and intuitively understood more than I was told. Therefore, although I was astonished by what had happened, I was not altogether surprised.

But soon afterwards explanations were given, and over the ensuing weeks, months and, as it turned out, years the Masters came and spoke to me through Michael many times. They were and are spiritual instructors without peer for they see directly into the heart and, though they never spoke of past lifetimes in the particular, it was clear that they were fully cognizant of my entire spiritual history as well as the karmic limitations I had brought into this life. Many times they demonstrated that they knew me better than I knew myself. They spoke with an unparalleled depth of insight and a Himalayan authority. Their abiding characteristic, though, was love and this they never failed to convey even when (as they sometimes did)  they were admonishing me for my failures.

Michael and I lived in Bath for a year and a half before the Masters put it into our heads (as they afterwards confirmed) that we should go and live in India where the psychic atmosphere would be more conducive to our way of life. This period is roughly that covered by the book which comprises my notes of the Masters' regular talks at that time. I understand that they also wanted to remove me more completely from the world. Living in England we still had to work and mingle with people on an everyday basis so distractions were constantly present and, even if you resist them, they still are an assault on your inner life that you have to waste energy dealing with. At this early stage of my spiritual endeavours it was important to be completely undistracted. Later on when I had put down proper spiritual roots I was able to go back into the world more as I was better equipped to deal with it without losing focus. This, by the way, applies to us all. We all need a time of spiritual insulation if we are to develop proper inner attunement and a stable grounding in the higher world.

To be continued in a later post.

Repost 1: A Holiday in India

 I noticed the other day that there have been 1,000 posts on this blog since it started. This seems a good moment to repost one or two from the beginning, slightly re-edited to reflect my present thinking. My spiritual intuitions are largely unchanged but the form they take has developed through the writing of the blog which is one of the reasons for doing it.

There is a chapter in Meeting the Masters, the book about the early part of my spiritual journey, that recounts a trip to India Michael Lord and I made shortly before going to live there on a more permanent basis. This was in 1979 while we were living in Bath and I was just beginning to find my spiritual feet. It was the Masters' wish that we went to India though they did not tell us that until after we had decided to go. This is a basic rule of the spiritual life. You are not told directly what to do. You may be impressed by the higher powers but you must respond to impression and make your decisions for yourself.

In the book I mentioned that Michael had taken a few photographs during the trip, and I would have liked to have included some of them in the book but production costs made that impossible. However, a blog has no production costs so I can add them here.

Michael's camera in 1979 was a pretty basic one, even for the period, so the pictures are not of a high quality. Also, though he took around 20 photos over the month we were there, not many have made it though the intervening 45 years. It's not like today when people take hundreds of photos and, as far as I can tell, rarely look at any of them again.

We started our trip in Delhi where we visited the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid and other tourist sites but the first photograph I still have was taken at the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta, one of those  grand buildings the British put up in the Indo-Saracenic style which mixes Mughal and Gothic revival architectural features. It's now a museum.

As you can see, I was not a particularly willing subject. There is a definite 'get on with it' expression on my face.

While in Calcutta we stayed at the Ramakrishna guesthouse and visited the Swami who had initiated Michael into that order a few years previously. He was a venerable old gentleman but still fully fit and demonstrating the inner calm that the Masters were frequently telling me to acquire but which I lacked then and don't have as much as I should do now. Inner calm may be easier to maintain in a monastery or ashram than in the hurly-burly of the world but, as a mental attitude, it should be unaffected by outer circumstances, whatever these might be. This is because it is not a question of controlling emotion but of being centred in the real and therefore responding to the external world as just that, external. A criticism that could be levelled at the Asian mentality which may find it easier to attain inner calm is that it does this by disassociating itself from the reality of the external world so one has to be careful that detachment does not come at the price of the rejection of the subsidiary but genuine reality of outer things and conditions. Spirit is primary but matter is real in its way too.

After Calcutta we went to Darjeeling and then Varanasi but no photos remain from those visits. They were mostly just standard tourist photos of the Himalayas and the Ganges so no great loss though I do regret the absence of a group photo of the Buddhist monks who were staying in the same lodgings as us in Varanasi, with some of whom I enjoyed a game of football. There was no problem in getting them to smile for the camera, something I have always found difficult. Other lost photos are of the Ghoom monastery near Darjeeling which apparently is now called Yiga Choeling, and of the very ancient-looking monk with skin like cracked parchment we spoke to there. This monastery is known for its 15 feet statue of the Maitreya Buddha (that's the Buddha who is to come) of which Michael took a now lost photo. Here's a substitute which is probably of better quality anyway.

While flying to Delhi en route to Kashmir something unpleasant got into Michael. I had been warned of the possibility of this by the Masters, and told that my conduct was the key as to whether it happened or not. In this case, having the puritanism of the spiritual neophyte back then, I had argued with him over what I perceived as worldly behaviour. He had reacted with anger, and the resultant 'bad vibrations' had given the entrée to some kind of demon which had possessed him. I didn't realise what was going on at the time but was profoundly shocked by the transformation. He hissed at me and then shouted, oblivious to anyone who happened to be nearby. His eyes became a dull reddish colour and his skin turned sallow. He was totally uncompromising and hard, quite unlike his normal self. This lasted for the entire flight to Delhi and the thing was only ousted when Michael fell asleep while we were waiting for our ongoing flight to Srinagar. He remembered nothing when he awoke. The Masters told me afterwards what had happened and said that they permitted it as a means of showing me externally what my own lack of control looked like. An extreme policy but I have to admit it was effective. Demonic possession may not be accepted nowadays by the general populace but it remains a possibility, especially for those of a mediumistic tendency which Michael obviously was. Similar experiences were noted in the case of William Coote, the medium in The Boy and the Brothers book.

Michael was well protected by those he served and this sort of thing happened on only a very few occasions and when it did it was always initiated by a spiritual lapse on my part. That is why the Masters permitted it. They told me they could always banish the demon but it might take a while. I don't pretend to understand the mechanics of it but can simply pass on what I was told and what seemed to be confirmed by observation.

Kashmir was a good place for healing and rest. We stayed on a houseboat on the lake called Nagin Bagh and for a week did little more than read, walk, swim and laze in the sun. Here's a picture of the boat,

and here's a not very good picture of Michael in a shikara, the narrow rowing boat that ferries people around on the Kashmiri lakes.

The Masters came frequently while we were in Kashmir, and it was there that they explained what had occurred at Varanasi airport. They told me that there was no need for fear but I should remain vigilant which sums up how the spiritual aspirant should respond to the problem of evil. When I first wrote this piece I was conscious that the word evil might offend because there was this naive idea among some spiritual seekers that evil is just ignorance and in the higher worlds everything is goodness and love. Unfortunately, that is just not true. Evil exists in the spiritual world. In fact, that is where it comes from. I think that nowadays this has become much better understood, especially as it is becoming harder to deny the presence and activity of evil in the world. It always has been understood in serious religion but post-'60s New Age-type spirituality thought it knew better. It didn't.

From Kashmir we returned to Delhi and then on to Agra. North India is a confluence of Hindu and Muslim culture, and the latter reached its apogee in the Mughal Empire which by any criteria must be one of the most splendid ever to have existed. By the criterion of architectural excellence its only rival would be the cathedrals of medieval Europe, and this excellence comes to a peak at Agra. Naturally, Michael took a picture of the Taj Mahal which is undoubtedly a miracle of art and design but I preferred the Tomb of Akbar at Sikandra, and here is the photo I mention in the book as the only one in I which I smiled.

Sometimes you feel a connection with a place. When I visited the tomb of the emperor Akbar I felt like a little piece of a jigsaw puzzle that slotted into place. It fitted. That's the only way I can describe it and it is why I am smiling in the photo. Oddly enough, when I went back to the site 3 years later it was just an impressive building. The spirit seemed to have gone, but that first time was remarkable.

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.