ROBERT'S NOTEBOOK

WRITING HISTORIC FICTION: A LEARNING CURVE

2012-01-28T10:49:00.000-08:00

A manwho recently read my historical novel “Pentadaktylos” commented that he wasamazed that an author could actually control a whole set of people who cametogether to form a solid book. He commented: “Isn’t that like playing God?”

I had never thought about it likethat, but after some pensive moments, I did acknowledge that the author shouldhave a degree of control over the characters in a novel. “It’s very easy forsome key characters to run away with the plot to the point that the author hasto re-think or worse still, dump a chunk of pages and start again.

It does help enormously if thewriter creates a synopsis or story-board prior to writing, and indeed write arough of the final chapter. In fact, it’s an excellent strategy to becompletely familiar with how your book is going to end. This is like having agoal – it’s a roadmap to where you’re going. You can always change the goal ordestination, but having it there early or at the beginning can save a lot offrustrations and writer’s block.

This actually happened with“Pentadaktylos” a story set on the island of Cyprus in the EasternMediterranean in late 1958. I wrote the novel about seven years after leavingthe island and the ending I chose seemed quite fitting then. But the MSS sat ina box for over forty years until I scanned it into the digital age. I decidedto edit and tighten it up and in doing so created a different ending which asit happens, for many readers is much more satisfying and actually adds life andtruism to the novel.

. One very useful strategy is tocreate a resume or character sheet for each of the major players in the noveland add to it as the character develops, or refers to a major point in his lifethat is likely to be mentioned again.

In writing “The Guardians of Stavka”I developed one or more pages on each of the characters. For Harry Travis theCanadian Secret Service operative, who is also the reluctant hero, I worked onhis background such as schooling, ethnicity, maternal relations (he lost hisfather in the Korean War) and a lot of his preferences and distastes before Ieven set action to paper. Knowing his total background brought Harry to life.

His boss, a crusty Englishman whohad worked for British Intelligence in London and was now heading a strangeservice in Canada, had a military background in WW II. I had him serve in Egyptand work with the historic Long Range Desert Group. Coincidence! He workedalongside one of the major British players in Pentadaktylos, my first Cyprusnovel which is not connected to “Stavka.”

I needed to have Harry Travis meet agirl, fall hopelessly head over heels in love with her and then sow the seedsof suspicion that she was not exactly the person she appeared to be. Harryspends his summer vacation from college in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It is July1968. He meets Anna and she’s mixed up with a group of activists – remember,social rebellion was in the wind with drugs, flower children and hippies. Theybreak away and spend a month wandering through the country – even making loveon a church altar.

They return to Prague and continueliving together. It is hot and humid. They sleep on an apartment balcony. It isAugust 21^st 1968. Harry wakesup to strange sounds. Tanks! Shooting! Screaming! He desperately searches forAnna, but she has gone. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia actually happenedand his frantic, perilous search for the young woman he loves is set againstthat event. He has to wait a year or so before he meets her again – in Toronto,Canada.

Historical fiction is just that –fiction! However, it does allow the reader to have some knowledge of whatreally happened. If they wish to know more, the fictional tale acts as a steptowards finding out what really transpired.

“Pentadaktylos – Love, Promises and Patriotismin the Last Days of Colonial Cyprus” is a love story set against a real lifebackground of violence involving British troops on the one side and GreekCypriot freedom fighters on the other. The main thread of the story occurs in1958 with flashbacks to Cyprus in 1940 and the British Expeditionary Force’sevacuation of Greece in 1941. I lived in Cyprus during the Struggle forIndependence and I knew people from both sides. I listened to their stories andthen created the fictional characters for the book.

A reader asked me how was itpossible that one of the EOKA people being hunted in the mountains by theBritish Army could have fought alongside the British at Normandy in WW II? Easy. He was a member of the Cyprus Regiment whichserved in many theaters of war including Dunkirk, North Africa and as theAllies swept through France in Normandy. The Cypriot in the book while inEngland transferred from the Cyprus Regiment to be with the Royal Army OrdnanceCorps to work with explosives. Several Greek Cypriots who served in EOKA alsoserved at Normandy. Ironical? Absolutely,but then history is full of irony and it’s reflected in historical fiction.

While reading historical fiction canbe quite intriguing for the reader because it takes one’s imagination back intoanother era, it’s also fascinating and challenging for the author. If one haslived in the past times, one knows the social and political climate of thosetimes, but if not, one has to start digging into the history of a lifestyleperhaps in another century.

I have always been fascinated withRussia and its history but I knew nothing of a town called Gori, Georgia wherethe Prologue occurs for my book “The Guardians of Stavka,” in the summer of1894. I had to research the lifestyles and habits of three teenagers, thedialogues of the residents, the smoldering resentment of being ruled by theTsar and the laws forcing Georgians to learn the Russian language. At first,research can be challenging and sometimes frustrating, but then an energy takesover. One feels enmeshed by the subject and it is at this point that the writercan start the novel. Incidentally, if you know your history, you’ll know thatone of the teenage boys in “Stavka” grew up to be Joseph Stalin. His motherwanted him to be a priest in Tiflis.

It becomes gratifying when a readerphones and says: “When I read your story I feel as if I am there. I become apart of it.” That is the ultimate compliment for the novelist writinghistorical fiction.

BOOK: ANOTHER THRILLER FROM ROBERT EGBY

2012-01-06T16:51:00.000-08:00

Robert Egby’s second novel, another thriller entitled “TheGuardians of Stavka: The Deadly Hunt for the Romanov Gold” has been publishedwith global distribution.

For sixtyyears rumours raged on Canada’s west coast that a large gold cache belonging tothe murdered Tsar Nikolas II was lost in a sunken ship. In 1979 when a weekend hunter discovers aningot in a remote mountain cave it triggers a flurry of international goldseekers. The Tsar’s cache of 110 tonnesis worth three billion dollars.

DimitriKomadze, deputy chairman of the dreaded Russian KGB seeks to correct hisfather’s fatal mistake in losing the gold; Alex Plastiras, a disgraced USMarine now working as a mercenary for exiled Romanov interests, launches anairborne unit to get the gold.

Then there’sHarry Travis a reluctant Canadian Secret Service operative who finds people arenot what they seem—in fact some are either ruthless lovers or deadly killers—orboth!

ColonelIlya Orlov, a guard’s officer with sworn loyalties to a long-dead Tsar, foundeda secret community called “Stavka” where the old Russian flag still flies. His beautiful granddaughter, part Russian,part Native Indian, has trained a bald eagle to hunt and kill anyone on demand.

As hebattles to pursue the treasure Travis discovers there is a dangerous secrethidden with the gold known simply to British and Canadian Intelligence as the“Nikolas Consignment.”

Thishistorical novel while set in the Canada of 1979 has a storyline weavingthrough actions in Chile, Sydney Australia, Prague, San Francisco, the KolaPeninsula in Northern Russia and Gori, Georgia, the birthplace of JosephStalin.

Author RobertEgby lived in Kamloops and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia for thirtyyears working as a journalist, editor, award-winning broadcaster and publicrelations executive. He wrote theoriginal manuscript in 1980 while in Vancouver, taking time out to explore theincredible beautiful and dangerous region of Canada’s west coast where much ofthe action takes place. He completed revisions this past year. He now lives inupstate New York.

TheGuardians of Stavka is his second novel. The first was “Pentadaktylos: Love,Promises and Patriotism in the Last Days of Colonial Cyprus.” Set in 1958 ittells the story of a British Army officer who discovers a past romance with aGreek Cypriot has produced a seventeen year old son who has joined EOKA tofight the British.

The booksare available at Amazon and at all leading bookstores.

Title: The Guardians of Stavka: The Deadly Hunt for the Romanov Gold.

Author: Robert Egby

ISBN: 978-0-9848664-0-3

Pages: 386

Publisher: Three Mile Point Publishing

Distributor: Ingram

Internet: www.threemilepointpublishing.com

The Spiritualist View of Getting to Grips With God.

2011-12-31T19:27:00.001-08:00

This is an excerpt from my award-winning book "The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist" which takes the reader on a quest to find the Journey Home through Meditation, Metaphysics, Sacred Energies, Spirits and the Universal Mind.

The Yogis talk of “Union withGod” which is the meaning of Yoga. So, at what point does an ascended teachermerge with the Universal Mind or Infinite Intelligence?

While my spirit guide Paul, theentity who got me to start this book at St. Just, knows many things, he hesitatesto discuss “Union with God.”

At one point while I wasconducting a class, he came through and suggested that at the “higher levels,beyond all understanding” there is a Universal Consortium, a collection of“spiritual academics” who observe and influence the Universes (plural) and thevarious spiritual developments occurring there.

“These spiritual academics,” Iasked. “What are they gods, goddesses, gurus, saints…?”

Paul laughed. “Yes, you mightcall them that. They are not inclined towards labels. Like God, they are. Godis.”

“Are some of these the sons ofGod mentioned in Genesis (Genesis 6:2),” I asked. “What about the 2,500 godssaid to be in Hinduism? What about the Greek and Roman gods?”

Paul’s energy shuddered underthe barrage of questions. “You still have your journalistic inclinations towardsasking questions. Let me share a story. It will help you understand.”

He paused. “You once compared aspirit to an atom living in the body of God, remember that?”

I nodded. It was a quote I hadpicked up years before in a book called “Mysticism” by Robert Chaney.

Paul continued. “Imagine anocean, a vast ocean. It is made up of many drops of water. All substances aremade up of millions and millions of tiny atoms. In water, for example, eachmolecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. So let us takeone drop of water.

“One day our drop of water isplucked up from the ocean into the clouds. It is carried a great distancebefore it is dropped in a rainstorm over some mountains. First, our drop ofwater helps irrigate the vegetation on the mountain. Then it slips away andjoins a stream. Some miles away, a womancollects water that includes our drop. She uses it to boil potatoes for herfamily. She uses the water then to make soup, and our drop finds its way intoher son’s body, and a day later is ejected.

“The water drop soon findsitself back in the stream. It joins a large river flowing along a valley. A plantation is on fire. Thevillagers dowse the blaze with river water. Our water drop is there.Eventually, it seeps back into the river and soon after reaches the ocean fromwhere it started. It is still a drop of water, a molecule made up of threeatoms, but it has returned to its mother, its father, the Source of its Being.”

Paul paused. “Do you understandthat?”

I nodded easily.

“Well, that’s how Jesus musthave felt when he was trying to explain God, Infinite Intelligence or theUniversal Mind to a crowd of lovable but ignorant fishermen,” he declared. “Thereare so many complex shades, so many veils, so many differences between yourphysical world and ours, that even spirit teachers frequently find it difficultto explain.”

“Why?”

“Because of the ego, the FalseSelf. It blocks or taints all true information between the Spirit World andEarth. As a Quester, you need to continue working on yourself, and help other Questerswalk the path. Give classes, talks, and write a book,” he said. “Tell peopleabout metaphysics, working with energy, dissolving the negative ego, living inthe present, spirit communications, loving unconditionally, and the SpiritWorld. And don’t forget the silence. You humans talk too much.”

“Thanks, Paul,” I said, thenadded: “I’m a spirit renting a human body.”

“There you go,” Paul laughed.“Come over and see us some time.”

“Permanently?”

“Noton your life. Not yet, anyway,” he said.

More Information on this award-winning book.

SEARCHING FOR PEACE AMID WAR

2011-12-19T13:57:00.000-08:00

Almost two centuries ago the Spanish painter and printmaker, Francisco Goya created 82 etchings entitled “The Disasters of War” or “Los Desastres de la Guerra.” Although not published until some 35 years after his death, they were his visual protest against man’s inhumanity to war. He served as court painter during the brutal Napoleonic Wars which lasted twelve years and ended in 1815. Goya crossed into Spirit in 1828.
Historians are still trying to get a grip on an accurate figure of total fatalities, both military and civilian. The Napoleonic Wars involved most of Europe and claimed between 2.5 million and 3.5 million military deaths and between 750,000 to 3 million civilian deaths. A reasonable estimate of both military and civilian fatalities rests between 3,250,000 and 6,500,000.
Did we learn from European events in the early 19th century? It’s doubtful!
Exactly 100 years later Europe was again the battlefield for something they called The Great War. While disease through lack of medical and cleanliness claimed many casualties in the Napoleonic Wars, World War I saw an increased array of deadlier weapons on the battlefields –- tanks, enormous cannons, intense field artillery and aerial bombing. A staggering ten million military personnel and seven million civilians lost their lives. As if to curse the entire war in 1918 Spanish Flu swept Europe and the world and an estimated 50 to 100 million people died.
WW1 was called “The war to end all wars.” Twenty-one years later Planet Earth realized World War 2 and in those six years of 1939 to 1945 an estimated 62 to 70 million lives were lost. Of these 22 to 25 million were military.
Did peace come with V-J Day? Not a bit. Did we learn anything from the deadliest war in human history? Doubtful!
In case we have forgotten there were other wars taking place on the planet. Mao Tse-Tung’s war regime in China, Stalin's regime, the Russian Civil War, Congo Civil Wars, Korean War, the French Indochina War, the American Indochina War including Laos & Cambodia, the Sudanese Civil Wars, the Russian-Afghanistan War, the Ethiopian Civil Wars, the Mexican Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, Nigeria: Biafran revolt, Mozambique Civil War, Rwandan Massacres, French-Algerian War, First Indochina War, Angolan Civil War, the Spanish Civil War and the Somalian Civil War.
In the modern history of the human race there has not been a day of peace.
Has humanity in the 21st century learned anything about the tragedy of war? The number of smaller wars currently taking place on Planet Earth is mind-boggling and terrifying. Go to The History Guy and look under "21st Century Wars" and you will feel as bleak about war as Francisco Goya did two hundred years ago.
Is it true that humanity is prone to or even addicted to war?
Let us take a look at “war” on all its levels. There are the major wars. Then there are the neighborhood wars that range from big time drug trading, to small time gang wars on city streets. There are smaller wars that go on between families, cultural sects, and groups. When a group of people gang up to haze a person and hurt or kill that is war. Wars big and small are happening all around us. An adult group that violently invades the peace of another group is as guilty of war crimes as a country invading another.
Most wars are motivated by one or more of the faces of the negative ego: possession, envy, posturing, jealousy, anger, arrogance, deceit, discontent, despair, deviousness, anguish, lying, bias, worry, fear, panic, criticism, bitterness, revenge, tension, boredom, resistance, foolishness, confusion, flattery, conceit, insecurity, ignorance, possession, obsession, boastfulness, terror and hatred.
As an exercise read up on a good history of any war perhaps one in ancient times to one of the two dozen wars taking place at present on Planet Earth. Work to understand why the war came about. Work to understand the official rationale then work to understand underlying motives, the roots of war. Observe the propaganda; observe the news media reports for accuracy and bias. Study independent observer reports. Review the statements of the chief motivator of war and observe what faces of the negative ego were or are being manifested by leading politicians and opinion-leaders on all sides.
As a follow-up exercise examine a family or local conflagration and work to understand why that happened. Again, observe if any of the faces of the negative ego are evident in statements or actions of the chief motivators. Work to see if there are similar comparisons.
With both examples make notes and view everything without personal attachment – that is without comment, opinion or judgment. This technique is called Impartial Self Observation and is described in detail in my book Cracking the Glass Darkly. This ancient technique allows one to see clearly the motives of national leaders and the events of war without personal attachment.
Well intended people say we should all “fight for peace.” But here is one of the crazy illusions that frequent the human psyche. No one has ever fought for and accomplished peace. Fighting for anything does not result in peace. If a country has to maintain superior weapons of mass destruction in case they are needed, that country and its people are not at peace with itself or others. Nuclear silos are not symbols of peace, neither are nuclear bomb shelters in the backyard. They are reminders of war.
Peace is a consciousness of mind and spirit.
Learn to be an impartial observer of war whether big or small and work to understand why the principals are acting the way they do. Make a list of the faces of the negative ego given earlier and see if the principals are resorting to any of those faces. Do not fall into the trap of becoming guilty, angry or fearful, because that is falling into the mire of their scenario –- the scenario of war.
The more humans of all countries work to impartially understand the reasons for war and the people who brought them about, the more all will yearn for and seek peace and elect leaders with similar minds. It is a Peace Consciousness that stands in its own light of truth. Perhaps this is the message Francisco Goya was thinking when he created those classic 82 etchings two centuries ago called “The Disasters of War.”

SPIRIT DELETES FOUR WORDS, PROPELS A FILM INTO PRODUCTION

2011-11-28T16:50:00.000-08:00

The Sneak Preview Poster on the ASPE Brochure.

On October 29th 2011, over one hundred students and practitioners of the Paranormal were treated to a sneak preview of Paul Davids’ new film “The Life After Death Project.” It happened at the annual symposium of ASPE, the Alliance Studying Paranormal Experiences held in Taos, New Mexico at the end of October.

The movie, which is still being edited and is described as “a work in progress,” is scheduled for release some time in 2012. For believers and practitioners in metaphysics and the paranormal it will be a welcome experience.

It demonstrates that science is advancing to the point where a phenomenon – such as a spirit communication -- can be scientifically repeated in a laboratory proving that life does exist after death. And a veteran Sci-Fi enthusiast is helping them do it… in Spirit!

The 100-minute production features a bevy of well-known people from the field: Richard Matheson, the American author of “What Dreams May Come” and “Bid Time Return”; Whitley Strieber, author of the 1986 best-seller “Communion” which is a personal encounter with “visitors”; Dannion Brinkley, best selling author and survivor of three near-death experiences; and Mark Macy who researches and teaches Spirit communication through Electronic Voice Phenomena and Instrumental Transcommunication. There’s also Professor Gary Schwartz, professor of psychology at the University of Arizona in Tucson and director of its Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health. He is the author of several books, including “The Sacred Promise,” “The Afterlife Experiments” and “The G.O.D.Experiments.”

The film was two years in shooting, and it probably never would have been made if not for some strange events that happened to the director. One incident had to do with four words in a document – words which were neatly and precisely blacked out by some sort of “obliterating ink” while the papers were lying on a bed at a time director Paul Davids was alone in a house. The words “Spoke to Joe Amodie” matched a style of pun attributable to the late science-fiction authority Forrest J. Ackerman – he liked to find words that had people’s names or nicknames isolated in the middle syllable. In this case the message seemed to be “Spoke to Joe Moe” – and Ackerman’s very close friend Joe Moe, who took care of him in his final years and arranged a grand tribute for him, did experience a sort of apparition or “super-conscious dream” in which Ackerman came and spoke to him. Though Joe Moe tried to retain his inborn skepticism, director Davids wondered if the ink incident was a way of Ackerman confirming that the communication with Moe was not just a dream.

Most ink is traceable, but not this “obliterating ink.” The Chairman of the Chemistry Department of Indiana University and a chemistry professor at New Jersey University were stumped by the fact that they could find no way to duplicate the ink smear because its properties had so many complications. They also experienced some anomalies that disturbed them while researching the mystery, which kept them (and some graduate students) busy for hundreds of lab hours.

Although he was not a believer in an afterlife, it soon became clear to Paul Davids that something akin to a haunting was occurring, as it appeared that Ackerman apparently was trying to make his presence known from the beyond. Davids hoped to finish the production, which includes filming of the university chemistry tests, in about a year, but more and more anomalies kept occurring, so until Dr. Gary Schwartz began attempting documented and measurable communication with the deceased Ackerman using delicate radiation and light sensors, the movie refused to offer up an “end game.”

Sci-Fi fans will surely remember the unforgettable Forrest J Ackerman who crossed into Spirit less than three years ago – at precisely 2 minutes to midnight, December 4, 2008, the exact time having been ironically predicted in a painting of Ackerman made four years earlier by artist L.J. Dopp that showed Ackerman with a raven and a clock. For over seventy years he was one of science fiction’s greatest promoters. Editor of the original Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, author, literary agent, actor, memorabilia collector and curator with a house everyone wanted to visit (and thousands did), he was famous for his word play and neologisms. For instance in 1953 he coined the genre nick-name “Sci-Fi” and possessed a fantastic sense of humor and incurable love of puns which comes through clearly in the film.

Two separate cameras were filming electronic voice expert Mark Macy’s interview. So what happens? Interference appears, first on one camera filming Macy and then on the other for absolutely no rhyme nor reason – except a touch of electronic energy from Spirit?

Of course, Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society and editor-in-chief of its magazine Skeptic is given the opportunity to introduce his opposing view to everything in the movie and one wonders why. As one watches “The Life After Death Project” the evidence comes through loud and clear, particularly towards the end. But director Davids insists he has great respect for Shermer’s intellect and feels it is important to try to rule out every possible “logical” explanation for weird happenings, which is Shermer’s calling as shown by his books such as “The Believing Brain.”

The cameras go into Professor Gary Schwarz’s laboratory and it is here in the world of electronic and digital mediumship that repetition in spirit communication takes place. That is all I am going to say about the movie’s plot.

As a person who has long observed Spiritualism and Spirit communications, I found the events and the climax of the sneak preview of Paul David’s “work in progress” an exciting breath of fresh air. This documentary will be released in 2012 and spiritual folk – along with skeptics – should receive it with open arms, if not an open mind.

Paul Davids’ credits include “Roswell,” “Timothy Leary’s Dead,” “Starry Night,” “The Artist and the Shaman,” “The SCI-FI Boys,” “Jesus in India,” and “Before We Say Goodbye” (a tribute to Hispanic-American culture and the mystery of the miracle of the Virgin of Guadalupe, appearing in Spanish December 2011 on Telemundo). Back in the 1980s he was Production Coordinator for television’s “The Transformers” on about eighty of the ninety-five episodes, some of which he also wrote. He also co-wrote (with his wife, Hollace) six STAR WARS sequel novels in the early 1990’s which reached millions of kids of ages eight to twelve. The books made their way into many school libraries.

For “The Life After Death Project” Davids is editor, writer, producer and director. He gives his word that absolutely nothing was invented or contrived for the movie – the weird stuff (unlike Hollywood fiction) happened to him and others exactly as it is shown. Executive producers are Hollace Davids and Anne Strieber, wife of the famous Whitley.

When the website for the new movie goes up next year it will be www.lifeafterdeathproject.com, but until then, you can hear Paul discussing the film on the Catherine Bradford Show at: The Catherine Bradford Show. And those wanting info on Paul Davids’ previous contributions to cinema, TV and books will find it all thoroughly covered at his website: Paul Davids.

INVADERS FROM OUTER SPACE: HOLLYWOOD STILL TERRORIZES

2011-10-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s seventy-three years ago on October 30th 1938 that Orson Welles with a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” terrified Americans with a broadcast that has gone down in history.
If one goes to Grover’s Mill, a hamlet outside Princeton, New Jersey. there is a commemorative stone, and it shows a scene associated with that broadcast. It’s said some people were so horror-stricken that they suffered nervous breakdowns and there were reports of suicide. Such was the power of the media. It learned to pump human adrenalin. And it still does.
I write this as I attend the annual symposium of the Alliance Studying Paranormal Experiences in Taos, New Mexico. At a forum attended by a flock of VIPs in the Paranormal field including Dr. Donald Burleson, Star Child of the DNA Recovery Project, Steven Jones of the British ET Contact Experience, Michelle Many specializing in Planetary Meditations, Rainbow Eagle, an Okla-Chocktaw American Indian Philosopher, Travis Walton, a UFO abductee, British crop circle researcher Lucy Pringle, and film producer-director Paul Davids who produced the old classic “Roswell” and is in Taos to introduce his new film “The Life After Death Project.”
Ever since Orson Welles sparked fear into the minds of Americans, Hollywood has regularly and routinely maintained films that fuel the public’s fear of so-called “Aliens,” those beings from another part of the Universe whose sole plan is, according to Hollywood scriptwriters, the torture and destruction of the human race.
Given the opportunity to speak, I attacked the Hollywood practice of showing all visitors from another planet as evil and threatening. There is no evidence that entities from an extra-terrestrial existence wish us any harm. Of course, the way Hollywood shows it the “invaders” must be annihilated with military might and yes, even nuclear force as the ultimate defense solution. This very action spurs continued fear among most people on Earth and it sends a terrible negative and war-minded message out into the Cosmos.
My charge to Hollywood was made while I looked at Paul Davids, and for this I apologize. The charge was to the Hollywood moguls who capitalize and profit from the idea that Earth might be invaded by beings from outer space. Paul is one of those producers who is actually helping extra-terrestrial consciousness by producing films that are scientifically based.
Attendees at the Taos Symposium saw a movie on the previous night “Fire in the Sky” and I walked in for the last fifteen minutes to see a disgusting scene of so-called aliens operating on a helpless human being in the worst way, with a terrifying needle coming down into the abductees right eye. That is terrorism – inducing and spreading fear among Americans and others. Luckily, the next movie was Paul Davids’ classic “Roswell.”
It’s good to know that Travis Walton, whose story was told in “Fire in the Sky” is working to have the Hollywood tainting of his story corrected. -- Robert Egby.

The Cave that inspired D.H. Lawrence

2011-10-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

There is an unusual mountain a short distance from Taos, New Mexico. It’s called Lucero Peak, a massive rock form towering 10,780 feet. According to Indians, it contains a sacred place.
The steep sides of the mountain are blanketed by cedars and firs and on the October day Betty Lou and I laboriously climbed the ragged trail, a light blanket of snow heralded the coming of an early winter.
Some fifteen hundred feet below the peak, there is a cave. It’s mostly hidden by trees and bushes. The trail to it is flanked by a profusion of young aspens, their trembling leaves a brilliant yellow. These days, above the cave on the mountainside there is a small gully and a stream of water pours over the rim and flutters easily down to a pool beside the cavern. The locals at the nearby village of Arroyo Seco say in the spring run-off, the stream becomes a formidable torrent.
Let us roll back the clock.
Almost ninety years before we struggled through the dense brush to the cave’s entrance, four horses made their way along the ill-kept trail, littered with fallen trees and cluttered with branches. They each carried people who would make their mark in history.
Mabel Dodge Luhan a celebrity hostess who entertained the cream of writers, artists, academics, composers and a flock of other notables. Her husband was a wise, philosophical Taos Pueblo Indian named Tony Luhan. The other two were D.H. Lawrence, the self-exiled British author who wrote the controversial “Sons and Lovers” and would go on to write “Lady Chatterly’s Lover. The fourth person was Lawrence’s wife, the seemingly long-suffering Frieda.
The foursome explored the cavern that stands like a gaping hole in the side of the mountain. They peered into the tunnels and smaller caves that lead off the main cavern. The gaping hole in the mountain is so big that several full sized buses could be parked easily side by side there. Afterwards, they had a picnic while sitting on the boulders.
The energy of the cave impressed Lawrence because soon after he wrote a short story “The Woman Who Rode Away” which features a cave which he described as “a dark socket, bored a cavity, an orifice, half way up the crag.” That’s exactly how the cave on Lucero Peak appears.
The story tells of a woman, tired of married life, who takes a horse and rides off into the wilds and joins the Indians who happen to have a sacred cave. If you know the history of Taos you will realize that in some ways that“The Woman Who Rode Away” from a life in high society and married an Indian was modeled on Mabel.
The cave on Lucero Peak, high above the village of Arroyo Seco is considered sacred by the Indians at nearby Taos Pueblo, but today no one seems to know if they make use of the mystical earth energies that exist in the cave. They have their own mountain and also a sacred lake which also possesses earth energies.
If one spends some time relaxing inside the cavern, you can feel the energy. It’s not only powerful it produces lucid dreams and there is a special spot, where, if one stands still you can feel the healing energies emanating from deep below the ground.
The special spot is known to dowsers as a geospiral. It is not unique because scattered throughout the region between Taos, Los Alamos, Chemayo, Santa Fe and Sandia close to Albuquerque there are clusters of geospirals all having an interesting magnetic, and often a healing affect on people. Geospirals, in addition to having healing qualities, also generate a magnetic affect on sensitive people, people with high levels of creativity. This would account for the extraordinary number of writers, composers, philosophers, artists, and scientists being attracted to the region.
This is the subject of a book I am currently researching and writing which details many of the geospirals. It’s provisionally called: ‘The Sacred Magic of Earth Healing” scheduled to be published in the spring 2012.
Meanwhile, here are some photographs of the sacred cave on Lucero Peak, some showing my partner Betty Lou to provide size comparisons, and one showing the trail to the cave.

The view from inside the immense sacred cave.

The view from outside the immense sacred cave.

The uphill trail that leads to the sacred cave.

PENTADAKTYLOS: An Intense historical thriller by Robert Egby

2011-09-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

An historical novel that delves into honors and torments of patriotism set in the turmoil of a British Colony has been published. It is by author Robert Egby. Entitled “Pentadaktylos: Love, Promises and Patriotism in the Last Days of Colonial Cyprus” and tells the tragic story of a man whose seed comes back to haunt him.

A British Army officer, Greg Sommerville returns to the Mediterranean island to find he has a son from a passionate love affair eighteen years before. It is now 1958 and although married, he starts to search for the Greek Cypriot woman to whom he promised to return. But she is elusive, having been disowned by her family.

Sommerville soon discovers his seventeen year-old son, Andreas has joined the ranks of EOKA and is now a Greek Cypriot patriot. The British brand him a terrorist because he is fighting to oust the colonial overlords.

To complicate the explosive situation, Sommerville discovers the presence on Cyprus of a Greek national who is wanted by Interpol for the assassination of prominent politicians and dignitaries in Europe and elsewhere. Colonial and British military leaders theorize that the assassin’s target is the British Governor, but an American newspaper correspondent, Joe Alva Hickey discovers the identity of “Morrie” the so-called Third Man just before the assassin attacks.

Sommerville’s son is helplessly drawn into the assassin’s killer group. Greg Sommerville endures gut-wrenching torment of making a choice. Does he patriotically support his own people in the hunt for the assassin’s group or try to reach and save his son before the crack British regiments find and eliminate the assassin’s group. The key to getting to his son rests with Eleni, the boy’s mother who is lost in Nicosia. And time is running out.

The entire story is set during the turbulent month of October 1958 when “The Struggle” as the Greek Cypriots called it, and the “Cyprus Emergency” as the British named it occurred in the last days of the Mediterranean Colony.

Author Robert Egby who lived on Cyprus for nine years as a journalist and award-winning news photographer during the main period of the novel says: “I have strived to set the fictional characters in the real Cyprus of that period naming hotels, nightclubs, street names, airlines, aircraft, cars, and weapons.” For instance, many of the original street names under the colonial administration were changed when Cyprus became an independent republic in August 1960. The book stays with the original names.

Many of the strategies and tactics used by the Greek Cypriot fighters, Turkish Cypriots and the British Security Forces are all on record and are reflected in the book.

“The year 1958 was a critical tme in deciding which way the future of Cyprus was to go. In the story, the fictional British Prime Minister promotes the ill-fated partition proposal actually issued by the Right Hon. Harold Macmillan in the summer of that year.

Egby wrote the original manuscript in 1968, six years after leaving Cyprus, but the manuscript stayed in a cardboard box for forty-three years until this past spring, when he started to re-type and re-edit the novel bringing it into the digital age.

The novel, published by Three Mile Point Publishing, in Chaumont, NY is available at many bookshops throughout the world as well as Amazon in various countries. It is also available as an E-book on Kindle and most Ebooks through Smashwords.

PENTADAKTYLOS: Love, Promises and Patriotism in the Last Days of Colonial Cyprus

By Robert Egby

ISBN: 978-0-9832404-4-0

FOR WRITERS, HISTORICAL FICTION AT YOUR FINGER TIPS

2011-08-08T10:49:00.000-07:00

By Robert Egby

For the writer, author and novelist the times have changed drastically. It used to be a lonely profession, but now there is Google leading a flotilla of informational resources. While some folk lambaste the monarch of the search engines, for the lonely writer it provides an instant loyal secretary at one’s side.

Back in the late 1960s I wrote three lengthy novels. It was not the writing that took the time, it was the research. Sure, I bought a complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica, a couple of dozen hefty volumes for $20 from the local Thrift Shop, and spent many an hour combing books and directories at the local library. Research was time consuming. This past spring, I took the first dusty manuscript out and retyped it into the digital age.

Entitled “Pentadaktylos,” the story is set on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, partly in 1940 and mainly in 1958. The novel is historical fiction set against a real life background. In the original script I had the hero, a young British Army lieutenant, Gregory Sommerville buying a two-seater Austin. Well, did such a thing exist in 1940? I Googled it. Sure enough there was an Austin 7 PD Tourer, a convertible, black and green, in production since 1934. They are now collectors’ items and there was even a photograph to help me along the way.

Another part of the novel involves a Jaguar. Back in the first writing in 1968 I did not have much of a description. I recalled being in a sleek white convertible owned and driven by journalist Alex Eftyvoulou during the Cyprus Emergency. The novel called for two things: a terrorist jumping on the running board, and a British officer shooting the driver of the Jaguar through the rear window.

Google showed me the way to photos of an impressive white Jaguar Mark V Saloon of that era. It not only had a running board, it also came with a rear window.

The killers needed a black car. I recalled the French Citroen being around Nicosia in 1958, so I wrote one in. Google found me the Citroen Traction Avant which was in production up to 1957. They even found a detailed picture of one – in Saigon!

Years ago when I was a war correspondent at the Suez War, an American reporter who had been covering big game hunting in Africa extolled the virtues of a .300 caliber Holland and Holland Magnum. “Long range, powerful and deadly,” he said, so that became the weapon of choice for an assassin in the book. Google took me to the prestigious Holland and Holland website and links took me to weapon performance including details on the distinctive cartridge and even the velocity of the bullet. A great and unique weapon for a long distance assassin.

Although I recall the little Auster aircraft circling overhead during Security Forces operations, I wanted more information for my novel. Google took me to the website of the Air Combat Information Group (ACIG.org) which confirmed that Austers were indeed flying overhead in October 1958.

Although originally written 43 years ago, I still felt I had to rework some parts of the chapters, and take time off to do more confirming research. Once I landed on a Greek website. My Greek is pretty rusty so I copied the text to Bing Translator and in seconds it was printed in English. I never had a secretary who could do that!

All the characters in the novel are purely fictitious except for real public figures on the scene in Cyprus at that time. Much of the background is recorded history, and as the book is classified as an historical novel, I feel that cyber technology has made research and writing that much easier and the story much more credible.

In creating backgrounds or resumes for characters in historical fiction, search engines make life easy. For instance, the young Sommerville tells his Greek Cypriot sweetheart: “Dad? Dad was a major in the British Army. In September of thirty-seven, they sent him out as a military observer to report on the fighting between the Chinese and Japanese in and around Shanghai. He was last seen standing near a battery of Chinese howitzers during a Japanese raid. Some days later, journalists found his body and took it back to the International Settlement. I was nineteen.” Everything really happened, except the reference to his father. That was fiction.

The full title of the book is “Pentadaktylos: Love, Promises and Patriotism in the Last Days of Colonial Cyprus.” The plot? A British Army officer (Sommerville) returns to Cyprus to discover that his legacy from an old Greek Cypriot love affair in 1940 is a seventeen year old son! That’s not all. The boy has joined an EOKA Killer Group bent on assassinating a high ranking British official. Sommerville is torn between loyalty to the British Army and finding the son he has never met. But in order to save his son, he has to find the mother, and he embarks on a frustrating and desperate search in dangerous streets flanking the notorious Murder Mile.

Pentadaktylos? It means five fingers. It’s a distinctive, pudgy mountain in the Kyrenia Range and is now beloved by mountain climbers from many countries. But it has an old legend.

Oh, yes, the little green and black Austin Tourer mentioned above. It only had two seats. If it had possessed three, the girl’s mother would have chaperoned the two young lovers and the story would not have existed. In writing historic fiction it’s always good to have a research secretary at your fingertips.

P.S. “Pentadaktylos” will be available on both sides of the Atlantic later in August 2011.

AN HISTORICAL NOVEL OF LOVE AND DEATH IN THE LAST DAYS OF COLONIAL CYPRUS

2011-06-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

Life is all about change. Way back in another age, 1968, I was living in Kamloops, a growing town in British Columbia. We had a small cottage overlooking the Thompson River and there was a basement, where someone had built a nice long bench. It was a great place to write a novel. I had been a journalist for a lot of years, and really wanted to write a book.

I had left the Island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean five years earlier.I remember vividly having seen the people there, the Greek and Turkish Cypriots struggling for independence from British Colonial rule. Struggles are never easy and the campaign was frequently violent and all three parties – British, Greek and Turkish Cypriots lost lives in the violence that reigned in Cyprus from 1955 through to independence in 1960.

It provided a great background for a novel and so I developed my story. Supposing a young British Army officer, Gregory Sommerville was on Cyprus in 1940 waiting for a posting to the British Expeditionary Force. He has a very warm and loving relationship with a Greek Cypriot girl, named Eleni. The night before he’s posted out they make love on a beautiful sandy beach.

He gets badly wounded in Greece. Unbeknown to him, Eleni has a baby boy and her father, a Nicosia doctor of some distinction, feeling angry and embarrassed, disinherits her and forces her to leave home and change the family name. The father destroys all incoming letters and the two lovers lose contact with one another. Totally lost, she is unable to tell Gregory he has a son, Andreas.

Now, eighteen years later it’s 1958. Now a Colonel specializing in Intelligence, he’s posted into Cyprus to fill the place of an officer killed by terrorists. Unhappy in a strange marriage, he embarks on a frustrating search for his old love.

Then, a Greek Cypriot while on his deathbed in a military ambulance tells him he has a seventeen year-old son. Worse, the boy has joined the underground movement, EOKA and is attached to a Nicosia killer group responsible for the deaths of two British businessmen. On the run the boy joins a mountain based killer group planning to assassinate the Governor of Cyprus and an unidentified person known as Morrie.

Throughout the book the name Pentadaktylos meaning five fingers appears in the background. It’s a prominent but strange mountain in the Kyrenia Range which today attracts climbers from many overseas countries. The novel, although fictional is set in the real historic Cyprus of 1958 during its last tortuous days as a British Colony when Britons called the Greek Cypriot fighters “Terrorists” and the Cypriots called them “Patriots” and “Heroes.”

The story tells how Sommerville finds Eleni and together they challenge the British Army and the mountain assassination group to rescue their son, and that occurs on the slopes of Pentadaktylos minutes before a mortar attack. I didn’t realize it when writing in those days that the book with its dialogue is also an examination of patriotism and what it really means. Patriotism, like life, is changing.

Although written in 1968 and rejected by mainline publishers, the manuscript sat in a cardboard box for forty-three years until last spring when I picked up the fading pages and started to re-type and re-edite the text and put the book onto computer.

“PENTADAKTYLOS: Love, Promises and Conflict in the Last Days of Colonial Cyprus” by Robert Egby will be available in August 2011 as a book and on Kindle . The author’s own years in Cyprus are vividly described in his autobiography published earlier this year “Kings, Killers and Kinks in the Cosmos: Treading Softly With Angels Among Minefields.” Available as a book and also on Kindle. Take a look at Robert's Author Page: http://tinyurl.com/lc3v5a

EACH DAY IS A DIFFERENT CREATION

2011-05-07T05:38:00.000-07:00

By Robert Egby

The following is an excerpt from his newly revised and updated book "Cracking the Glass Darkly." (April 2011)

As you begin each day, living in the Here and Now, enjoying the freedom and release from the old False Self, the negative ego, you will find yourself in tune with the Universe, God’s Cosmos, and you will feel the pulse of that super energy. You may feel alone, but never lonely. Fear is gone from your life. Your thoughts will pose questions that fly off like darts into space.

The Cosmic traveler does not plan his or her day. Yes, there will be commitments, mostly mundane things like work, shopping, making appointments with the dentist or the auto service station, and joining a friend or colleague for lunch. A Cosmic day brings a myriad of events that produces learning, understanding and wisdom. There is not a person you encounter who does not have a contribution to make to your learning. Your presence will also contribute to their learning and understanding. It may well not be on a physical level but a higher consciousness level, a metaphysical level.

You are awareness. The Cosmic Self, the True Self is awareness. There is no “I am aware.” You cannot practice the old method of “I am” and hope to be aware. The “I” that cannot make you aware is volitional, it’s a thought from the old Mechanical Mind, a memory, and it is quite helpless in creating a genuine awareness.

True awareness that comes after the powers of the False Self have dissipated is multi-dimensional. It has no sides, no form, no limitations, no shackles, no fears, no pain or suffering, no Glass Darkly. As Cicero, the Roman orator said at the beginning of this book: The Spirit is the True Self.

STRANGE OCCURENCES IN THE WRITING OF THE “KINGS” BOOK

2011-04-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

By Robert Egby

Early in my metaphysical life, medium Patrick Young told us: “There are no such things as coincidences and miracles; they are only energies we fail to understand.

Several incidents occurred during the writing of “Kings, Killers and Kinks in the Cosmos: Treading Softly with Angels Among Minefields.” During the telling of the Jordan section, I decided it would be great for my memory if I read British Ambassador Charles Johnston’s book “The Other Side of Jordan.” He had treated both Lucy and I very well. I found the book listed on Amazon’s “Used” Section. Copies were offered by various merchants. I sent for one, and discovered, much to my disappointment, it was a book about California. I tried another. Same thing. The California book kept coming up.

Then I discovered that Sir Charles’ book and the California book had been given the same ISBN number – the International Standard Book Number – by an international publisher in 1972. Each one of the merchants said they possessed the California.

Desperate, I emailed a bookseller in Ireland. He examined his copy and confirmed it was the one written by Charles Johnston. Imagine my surprise when it arrived and I opened it to find it was a first edition presentation copy and incredibly signed by Sir Charles himself.

Mabel Dodge Luhan was a larger than life celebrity hostess who patronized the arts and attracted artists, writers, philosophers, radical speakers and others to her spacious home in Taos, New Mexico, particularly in the twenties and thirties. She was an author and collected four husbands.

Among the authors she attracted was the controversial British author D.H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda, who was a relative of Manfred von Richthoven, otherwise known as the Red Baron. When Lawrence died in 1931, Mabel wrote a book containing all the letters that she and Lawrence had exchanged between each other. The Book was called “Lorenzo in Taos.” Lorenzo was Mabel’s name for Lawrence. It was published in January 1932. The entire book is written as a series of notes to her friend Robinson Jeffers.

I searched for a copy, but most of them were “collector’s” items and quite pricey. Finally, I found a used copy, said to be in “fair” condition. The book arrived and was a first edition. Inside was a page of scrawled writing; “Santa Fe, NM. You have met some of the puppets that strut across these pages. You saw Lawrence in the Bank and this gives you the real, latter-day Lawrence for your south-western shelf…and it’s Valentine’s own day.”

There is no signature, but it clearly resembles Mabel’s distinctive and predictable writing. The other point: the note in the book is dated 2/14/32. The day I was born in far off Maidenhead.

During the writing of my activities in Aden, I discovered tucked away some black and white negatives of British tanks operating in the desert east of Aden. The story behind these negatives is this. In 1962/63 I was working as a journalist and broadcaster in Aden and while on a three day reconnaissance in the East Aden Protectorate with a British Army patrol, encountered two British Army tanks and their crews. They were close to the shores of the Indian Ocean.

Over the years my notes on this meeting became lost, and I wanted to use the photographs in this book. I built a special webpage with the photographs displayed, and then I started checking round the internet. The people at the Historic Military Vehicle Forum identified the tanks – Centurions – and suggested the berets worn by the soldiers were of the Royal Scots Greys. The Greys were very helpful. They identified the tank commander as Sgt. George Mitchell. No one could identify his Loader. I discovered the tanks were based at Falaise Camp in Little Aden. In appreciation, I sent the Greys a set of the photographs and gave them rights to use them within the Regiment. So, I thought everything was finished.

A couple of weeks later in early December 2010, an email came out of the blue. Sergeant George Mitchell’s grandson had found the webpage showing his grandfather in his Centurion tank. George’s daughter Catherine and her husband Gordon said they would love to know the odds of this. “But exactly thirty-two years ago, the Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant George William Mitchell commanding the tank, walked his eldest daughter down the aisle of an Edinburgh church and straight into my arms,” wrote Gordon Forrest. “Sadly, George died on 6^th August 2007 and we still miss him and the stories about Aden and his other postings.” Apparently George had lost most of his photographs from that time, so we sent. George’s family copies of the photos taken in the Aden desert almost 50 years ago.

Another coincidence. For over ten years, I have had several of my top news photos from the Cyprus Emergency on my website, hoping that someone would know what happened to the negatives after Central Press Photos was sold. One of the photos shows a general view of an E.O.K.A. killing, a young man named Bonici. The picture shows a British Army officer on the scene. Apart from being on display for ten years, the photo is fifty-five years old.

In late November 2010, while I was rewriting the chapter on how that photo came about, I received an email from a lady named Liz. She informed me that she found the photo on the web. The British Army officer was her father, Major Dick Stuckey of the South Staffordshire Regiment. Liz says she was a little girl living in Cyprus when the picture was taken. Her Dad, who retired as a Colonel, celebrated his 90^th birthday a few days after she wrote to me. As I knew the names of most of the people in the photograph, I was wondering who the officer was. Somehow, the energy went out to the Cosmos and my question was answered. Thanks Liz for naming the face.

I sometimes wonder who or what is pulling the strings in the Cosmos, a point I make in the book.

Robert

AURAS: Welcome to Cosmic Insurance

2011-04-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

“Auras?” said the man from the back of the class. “That’s New Age hocus-pocus. I don’t believe it. If I can’t see it I don’t believe it.”

“Didn’t you ever see halos around the heads of saints in classical pictures?” I ventured.

“That’s arty stuff to make the saints look good.”

“If you felt an aura, would that help?”

The man shrugged. “It’s all hocus-pocus.” At my invitation, he came forward and stood in front of a seated lady, who possessed a beautiful, dreamy light yellow aura and was a developing clairvoyant, except I didn’t tell him.

“Rub your palms on your pants,” I suggested. “Feel the friction. Make your palms nice and warm. Now, hold your hands, palms down above the lady’s head--about two feet--and slowly bring them down towards her. Stop if you feel any change.”

At about fourteen inches he stopped. “There’s a cushion...a cushion, like a bubble of cool air. I can feel it. It’s really strange,” he muttered incredulously. “Is...is that her aura?”

I nodded, and he grinned happily. “Wait until I get home and show my brother. He says it’s all hocus-pocus.” Light laughter filtered through the class.

Auras are far from new. In fact, fifteen hundred years before the Christian Era, Moses, after meeting God on Mount Sinai, carried a powerful luminance. “And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses face shone...” (Exodus 34:35). Another example concerns the exceedingly bright light that shone about Paul’s vision at the time of his conversion. Then there was the transfiguration of Jesus, when his robes shone so brightly, nothing on earth could whiten it. Down through the ages, there have been numerous reports of bright, colored lights shining around holy people in most religious walks of life. Hence, classical artists depicted Jesus, Mary, his mother, the Apostles and many others with the halo or nimbus, which was supposed to represent the aura. There is a theory that stained glass in cathedrals ands churches developed because of auric displays about spiritual people.

Zoroaster, the ancient prophet of Persia, who lived 500 years BCE suggested that the human aura is the “most potent among all auras of existing creatures or things, as it carries with it the active living forces of human will -- in other words, or the soul-power of man.”

Paracelsus, Philippus Aureolus (1493-1541). the Swiss physician and alchemist whose work marks thebeginning of the emergence of the science of chemistry from alchemy, realized the aura when he wrote: “The vital fluid is not enclosed in man, but radiates round him like a luminous sphere, and it may be made to act a distance.”

More! He recognized “Our thoughts are simply magnetic emanations which escape from our brain, penetrating into kindred heads and carry therein with a reflection of our life, the message of our secrets.” He also indicated that the auric “vital fluid” displayed health or disease.

The general consensus is the aura exists, in fact every living thing has an aura. In January 1934, the Journal of the British College of Psychic Science reported on a study that showed that mammals such as dogs, insects and worms, vegetables and even minerals have auras. They were seen, and measured, by Dr. W.G. Richards who used “Kilnerscreen Goggles” made by Dr. Walter Kilner (1847-1920) who used dicyanin dye screens. Kilner was the first to demonstrate objectively the existence of the aura.

Under the Kilner process, the eyes become sensitized by looking through the screen, then, by gazing at a naked figure standing in a reduced or dim light against a black backcloth, one can view three distinct bands of auras or radiation. Problem is, not everyone wants to trot around naked while being scientifically observed, although controlled scientific experiments were conducted and confirmed at various institutions around the world.

Science has probably achieved more advancement in the exploration and study of the aura than any other aspect of metaphysics. The Kirlians in Russia showed that the aura could be photographed, and scientists at Yale, Duke and the University of Pennsylvania conducted “life-field” studies of the aura. The general consensus being that emotional states of subjects create different energy patterns.

But supposing you cannot lay your hands on Kilnerscreen Goggles or a Kirlian camera, what can the average person do to detect and confirm auras?

The old adage claimed that a picture is worth a thousand words, and the same applies to auras. Most clairvoyants and psychic sensitives see auras which are perfect indicators of the spiritual, mental and physical health of a person. Auras vary in colors and brilliance, and although all the primary and secondary colors can be said to have clear meanings, each clairvoyant will have his or her own way of translating the intricate shadings of pastels.

Regular human eyesight is limited in what it can see, and auric vision is not part of it. It has been shown that blind people can view auras of people. Developing auric vision can be accomplished as part of clairvoyant training. British metaphysical teacher, W.E. Butler advocated the technique of looking past a person, across their shoulders, and into the distance, at the same time throwing the eyes slightly out of focus. Then notice the aura around the person. Like everything else, this needs practice, and if you fail to tell the person your are having lunch with that you are using them as an auric target, they may well start regarding you strangely, and looking back over their own shoulder, ask: “What on earth are you staring at?” It can be a degree embarrassing.

Another useful development technique is found in meditation. Find yourself in a beautiful meadow, totally relaxing, sitting against a tree or a rock. . Then focus your gaze on a tree in the meadow, and imagine -- just imagine -- it has an aura. Hold it for a minute or so, regarding the aura. Allow whatever colors to develop, don’t consciously create them.

Then imagine you can see auras around various animals and objects, horses, unicorns, deer, and flowers. Do this for several minutes, then finally, imagine -- just imagine --you can float up out of your body that’s sitting there in the meadow, and that you can now look down on yourself. Imagine your own aura and allow whatever colors to develop. Make a mental note of what you see. It’s fascinating. Later, have a clairvoyant check out your colors, and chances are, the colors you imagined will be the ones given by the clairvoyant.

If you cannot develop your clairvoyant-auric vision, develop dowsing. Dowsing has been around since God told Moses: “Thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. (Exodus 17:6) Originally called “water witching,” dowsing these days can be applied to many fields, the finding of missing objects, mineral prospecting, and US troops in Viet Nam were trained in dowsing to detect enemy tunnels, mines, etc. Today, dowsing is a health tool for determining body sickness, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, calories in a meal, and it can also be used to measure the aura.

Dowsers “focus” on what they wish to find. If they wish to find the outer edges of your aura, they’ll used L-rods which will cross at the precise limit of your aura. They can also use pendulums -- a small weight attached to a fine chain or string -- to do the same things. Using a color chart, a person with a pendulum can determine what is your aura’s dominant colors. The dowser will determine where problem spots exist, and if your aura is correctly or symmetrically balanced.

While many a dowser or student-dowser will use a regular pendulum or L-rods, there is a super-sensitive device called an Aurameter. A Master Dowser by the name of Verne Cameron invented the prototype of Cameron Aurameter, which he called a "Water Compass" in 1930. It was finally perfected in 1952. Tens of thousands of Aurameters are in use throughout the world by Master Dowsers and practitioners. They share an unanimous opinion that the Original Cameron Aurameter is the most sensitive of all Dowsing instruments.

It’s distinctly odd. A handle, a rod, and a head, but the rod has a spring-wire configuration, which intensifies sensitivity. The American Society of Dowsers Bookshop sells them. The Aurameter works beautifully.

When you are able to read auras, it opens up a brand new world. You realize all too quickly that people are a mixed bag with both positive and negative traits. The auras tell you the mental, physical and spiritual well-being of a person. You receive both pleasant surprises and unpleasant surprises. Like a charming, elderly lady called Mae I met in Cyprus. “Bob, I’m not feeling that great, can you give me some of your hands-on healing?” I did, but I didn’t tell her I saw an ugly red and black auric spot where her pancreas was. “Feeling nauseous?” I asked. “Funny you should say that,” she said, nodding. “Promise you’ll see a doctor when you get back to England tomorrow.” She promised and hugged me. I never saw her again--at least, not in the physical. The auric inflammation was pancreatic cancer. If only her friends in England had been able to read auras a few weeks before, perhaps....

Auras are cosmic signposts for maintaining good health at all levels, and they’re given to us by the Chief Executive of the Universe. It is a practical means of living to one’s full physical and spiritual potential. It’s also a revelation of the true nature of those around us. Once you read auras, no one will ever deceive you again. That’s Cosmic Insurance! And it’s free!

NOTE: You can read about energies and auras in Robert’s book: INSIGHTS: The Healing Paths of the Radical Spiritualist. Available on Amazon.com in both book and e-book Kindle forms, and at most good bookstores around the world.

SPIRITUAL TEACHER ROBERT EGBY WRITES OF LONG TREK

2011-03-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

Higher Awareness spiritual teacher and author Robert Egby’s autobiography that stretches across almost eight decades has been published. Entitled “Kings, Killers and Kinks in the Cosmos” it is subtitled: “Treading Softly With Angels Among Minefields.”

The author started his early life in England as an avowed atheist yet while suffering a disease which a doctor termed fatal, a spirit appeared and told him he would not die. He was aged seven.

His great-grandmother, a Seer, predicted his life, but he refused to believe her—until it started happening. Doors opened as if by magic. Work as a teenager in a unique film studio in England, living in a desert tent in Egypt, an act in a local variety show got him into professional broadcasting, journalism and news photography. He became an international correspondent meeting kings and killers and was an accredited correspondent at the Suez War. One gunman saved his life—twice. He was arrested in Baghdad for photographing kings eating and in Cyprus he scooped a major British Press Photos award for a newspicture.

Strange Cosmic energies called kinks steered him away from being in a major British train crash and sailing on a troopship that sank. A spirit voice warned him of a vicious air attack and again saved him from walking through a Lebanese minefield. The voice warned him as bullets smashed through his hotel room.

In all this, he suffered from a negative ego but this was about to change. The Seer had predicted he would go west though he vowed he never would, but it happened anyway. Arriving in western Canada, his work in broadcasting brought four awards for documentaries. Then he found himself living a double life, one professional in public relations the other a spiritual mystic.

With the help of Spirit Guides and a Guardian Angel he embraced a life of metaphysics, healing, dowsing and higher learning, and in doing so dissolved the negative ego, the cause of all suffering. As predicted so many years before by the Seer, he set himself free and started to “work with the light” and help people understand Cosmic Forces. This book is the story of his personal quest. His life story is amply illustrated with over seventy photographs, most of which are his own.

Today, in the United States he teaches a release from suffering and how to attain Cosmic consciousness. The author believes kinks in the Cosmos happen in everyone’s life but many people fail to recognize these as opportunities and go with the flow. He became an international journalist and news photographer without any formal college or university training.

He is the author of three other books: Cracking the Glass Darkly; The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist and INSIGHTS: the Healing Paths of the Radical Spiritualist. The last two each scored Finalist citations in the USA Books News “Best Books” awards. His books are available through LSI/Ingram , Amazon and at bookshops around the world.

EXPERIENCING THE ETERNAL NOW

2010-12-27T10:01:00.000-08:00

Or: Cracking the Glass Darkly and Living Clearly

Right off the top, I would like you to read this paragraph, perform the exercise and then answer the question. Whatever you are doing right now, presumably reading this on your computer screen, close your eyes and mentally observe yourself breathing in. Count to ten while you do this. Now, be conscious of your body. Imagine your mind is a scanner, and you are scanning your body. Do it from the top of the head to your toe. Note how your body feels. Do any chronic discomforts disappear? Can you feel or sense your heart beating? Once you have completed the scan, take a deep breath and as you breathe out, say “Wide awake” and open your eyes. Whatever happens, resist judging.

Chances are, if you did it properly, you spent a brief space of time living in the “Here and Now,” the mode that is known as the Eternal Present.

Many people like to think or believe that the Eternal Present is a fixed point in time. Far from it. The Eternal Present is moving through space and time just like your life. However, you may have noticed that during the exercise you felt very relaxed and may not have had a care in the world. Once you have experienced that feeling of the “Here and Now” you can, with practice, develop this form of consciousness. It is freedom.

Benefits that accrue from this include letting go of “Mind Chatter” and being able to sleep better at night, having the ability to decide what you wish to think, consider, remember or plan in your life. It is mental and psychological freedom.

People involved in action sports live in the Eternal Present—while they are active. A good downhill skier, a mountain climber, a tennis player, a cross-country runner, all must live in the Here and Now to achieve. A skier I knew at Whistler Mountain had arthritis in his legs, but the moment he was on the downhill run, the discomfort disappeared, only to return when he reached the bottom. There is great richness for the person trained to live in the Here and Now. Why? Because the Eternal Present pulls the consciousness into the Now and it is alive.

The Eternal Present is like a river. It is water on the move. If it stops, it is no longer a living river, it becomes a stagnant pond, going nowhere. You watch beautiful, rich cloud formations sailing peacefully across a perfectly blue sky. That beauty is alive. You paint a picture of those clouds, and it becomes an image frozen in time. Beautiful, but without the life and energy of the Eternal Now. Remember, the Eternal Now moves from moment to moment.

Let’s take another look. For instance, you have a memorable, ecstatic time with your loved one. It lasts perhaps a few minutes, perhaps a few hours, or even longer. The whole experience is different. You forget the outside world. You live in a different dimension, the Here and Now.

However, if during the engagement, you set up a camera and took a photo of the two of you, it would be a moment frozen in time. It might resurrect some pleasant memories, but the life, the force of the experience would be lost.

Memories are illusions, illusions frozen in time. They do not exist except in our Subconscious Minds, and yet most people live with these illusions.

“Do you remember that wonderful time we had a Lake Placid?” she might say. “You don’t make love like that anymore.”

It is a proven fact that when one holds a past memory as a standard for life, it will haunt that person forever. This is one of the benefits of living in the Here and Now because Judging simply does not exist. The reason is simple. The act of any judging must be based on an existing memory or memories, otherwise you cannot judge. The Eternal Present has no place for memories. The next time you judge someone or something, check with your Inner Self to discover the basis of that judgment. You will find it based on a memory.

Another example: You stand on a train platform. An express train comes hurtling by and you feel and witness the power of the train and the railway cars hurtling by. But, if you take a picture, the photograph is simply a train frozen in time. It is devoid of the emotions, the energies you felt as it passed you.

Spend a few moments each day, observing yourself as you live. Start to do it when you are alone. Observe how you are sitting, walking, performing some action. In addition, mentally observe your feelings. How is your body moving? Run a scan on your body. But above all, resist the inclination to judge, and if you do find yourself judging, do not feel guilty, simply observe yourself judging and it will fall away.

When you feel confident, mentally observe yourself as you meet and talk with people you work or live with. Do it silently and deliberately. Do not share this action with others. This is called Impartial Self Observation. It cannot be done in the past; it can only be performed in the Here and Now.

Now when a negative memory surfaces and prompts a negative action, observe it without judging and watch what happens. Upon reflection you may be pleasantly surprised.

My book “Cracking the Glass Darkly” explains this process in much greater depth and as you pursue the Eternal Now and start to make it part of your life, you will find you are free from the chains and burdens of negative traits, habits and memories – which are, as I said, Illusions. You can see through them because you have cracked the glass darkly and can witness the reality of seeing clearly.

“Cracking the Glass Darkly” is available from various good booksellers and Amazon or by visiting the author’s website at www.threemilepointpublishing.com.

“INSIGHTS” Honored as “Finalist” In the National “Best Books 2010” Awards

2010-10-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

CHAUMONT, New York. Robert Egby’s latest book “INSIGHTS: The Healing Paths of the Radical Spiritualist” has been honored as “Finalist” in the “Self-Help: Motivational” category in the National “Best Books 2010” Awards.

The award was announced today by USA Book News, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses. It is the second time, one of Egby’s books has reaped a “Finalist” award. In 2009 “The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist” was honored both in the “National” and “International” Best Book Awards.

Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO of USABookNews.com, said this year’s contest yielded an unprecedented number of entries, which were then narrowed down to over 500 winners and finalists. He says of the awards, now in their eighth year, “The 2010 results represent a phenomenal mix of books from a wide array of publishers throughout the United States.

“Insights,” published in May this year challenges spiritual healers to broaden their scope and get more involved in the healing arts, both clinically and metaphysically. Author Robert Egby says “Many healers are stuck in one modality such as Reiki, hands-on healing, or something like hypnosis or sound healing,” says Egby. “We live in a world where people are becoming more complex every day and healers need to become more ambidextrous, more explorative, and more intuitive.”

Egby says he’s come across hypnosis practitioners who refuse to acknowledge past life imprints because they, the practitioners, have limitations. There are spirit healers who work like mechanical robots, never questioning Spirit or conducting research. These are lost opportunities, he says.

The author has worked for over twenty years as a hypnosis practitioner, sound healer, dowser, hands-on healer, EFT practitioner and Spiritualist medium in British Columbia and Washington State, New Jersey, and upstate New York.

The 244-page book relates various healing stories, such as the Vietnam hero who needed more time to stay alive, a sick young mother who discovered she was sleeping on a “cancer bed” that killed both her parents, and a Caucasian Canadian who spoke Chinese frequently in his sleep. In past life therapy the Canadian recalled being a soldier in the Sino-Japanese war of 1937, a revelation that changed his life.

The book covers many healing aspects, including hands-on, therapeutic touch, image healing, self-hypnosis, regression, dowsing for geopathic zones, color and sound healing, plus ways of spiritually helping the dying to cross over.

Spiritual healers could also get more involved by venturing out to perform rescue healing for unfortunate earthbound spirits, says Egby who has performed countless spirit rescues. He recounts a vacation he took in New Mexico last year and how reluctantly he visited an old abandoned mine that the guide books described as “not much to see.” There, to his surprise, he discovered eight earthbound spirits and helped them cross-over safely into the Spirit World. “My guides can be very persuasive,” he says, adding, “They also helped me write the book.”

Spirit Rescue is, I believe, the ultimate healing, but it does not appear to have high priority among Spiritualist healers.

Robert Egby who lives in Chaumont, NY is one of a growing number of Independent Publishers. His business Three Mile Point Publishing, is a member of the IBPA – Independent Book Publishers Association, and SPAN, the Small Publishers of North America. The full awards can be viewed at www.usabooknews.com/bestbooks2010.html.

Robert is a member of the Chambers of Commerce in Cape Vincent and Alexandria Bay, and is available for free talks and seminars on the healing modalities and events depicted in his books.

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TITLE: INSIGHTS: The Healing Paths of the Radical Spiritualist
AUTHOR: Robert Egby
ISBN: 978-0-615-35692-1

THE DAY THE EARTH MOVED

2010-08-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

A Spiritually Meditative Tale by Robert Egby

The Pastor's voice came over loud and clear like an angel carrying God's message: “Experience Mother Earth. Connect to Her. Feel Her Pulse. By doing so, you will experience yourself. You will reconnect to yourself. You will feel your own pulse.”

“Wow!” she’s talking my language, I told myself thankfully. I could just see myself in a flimsy vest and old hippy pants and bare feet lying flat on my stomach embracing Mother Earth. Ecstasy! Union with the Creator! My Consciousness merged with Eternal Wisdom of the Universe! What a deal.

With mad abandon I threw myself onto our lush green lawn, totally forgetting in my wild enthusiasm that it was the gardener’s day to mow the lawn. He din’t see me until the blades were ready to clip my hair. I almost fainted in terror.

So much for home meditation on the lawn. A voice from somewhere suggested the patch of grass at the side of the Church, so I zipped barefoot across the road and threw myself down on the sacred grass.

Two minutes later my reverie with Infinite Intelligence was shattered by a hand tapping my head. “Are you all right, sir?” I thought it was God but it turned out to be a young fireman thinking he might get a promotion for finding a dying man on the church lawn.

“I am meditating,” I growled in my stupor. “Don’t you meditate?”

“I’m a Union mediator. Is that close enough?”

The man flew away when the fire house sirens howled through the morning sunshine. I returned to my rendezvous with Mother Earth.

Three minutes later the back of my head started feeling funny. Distinctly wet in fact. A warm unpleasant wetness. I jerked back into the real world and spotted a big black dog trotting away.

“Sorry about that,” said the priest. “He pees on anything dead. I’ll have the sister clean you up. A nun carrying a bucket and a mop appeared and dowsed my head with suds. The towel was like old sandpaper, but at least I felt dry afterwards.

At this point I was convinced that I had to find a patch of grass far from civilization. The town park possessed a wide expanse of beautiful trees, bushes and grassland and hardly anyone was there on a weekday. I gazed at a patch that seemed right. It was about 100 feet from the park fence and an old dark house that appeared dead stood on the other side. This would do. It was quiet and no one would disturb my bliss. So I threw myself face down onto the ground.

The meditation was wonderful. Idyllic! Couldn’t have been better. I felt the earth energies swimming through my body. My head purred with delight. Then I felt the earth move! Slowly at first. I really considered this was the power of the meditation. I was as the Pastor said feeling the Earth’s pulse. My mind zipped back to Ernest Hemingway’s description of ecstasy – the earth moved! It was moving! “You are so right, Ernie.”

Somehow I felt I was slipping on the grass, going down head first. Hands grabbed my ankles and pulled me back. I struggled to sit up.

“What’s going on?” It was a uniformed cop silhouetted in the morning sunshine. For a moment I thought it was an angel..

“I was only meditating,” I stammered. “Anything wrong with that?”

“You’re in a sink hole area,” snapped the lawman. “There are notices everywhere.”

“I don’t read when I meditate,” I protested.

Several other people came running up. “Get back,” snarled the cop. “Can’t you people read either?”

“Just then the sink hole expanded and the widening orifice gobbled up the park fence and with it the old dark house started to crumble. The timbers creaked in protest and groaned. “My God,” cried the cop. “Everyone evacuate. Everyone back.”

We all moved away to safe ground and watched as the old dark house slid down the gaping hole into oblivion. A cloud of dust mushroomed over the hole like a mini-atomic bomb blast. Someone with a camera cried: “I’ve got it. I’ll put it on Youtube.”

An elderly lady who resembled the evil witch from the Wizard of Oz and flourishing a lethal-looking silver nobbed cane came hobbling up,. “What happened officer? What happened?”

The cop stared at the woman. “I haven’t a clue lady. This man said he was meditating on the grass….”

The woman flung her hands into the air and screamed. “That’s my house at the bottom of the hole. Who gave you permission to meditate?”

“It was only an Earth meditation,” I said weakly.

Upon reflection that was the wrong thing to say. I vaguely recall a silver nob flying through the air towards me before I blacked out. When I woke up in hospital it was like a community meeting. They were all there. The fireman who resuscitated me, the priest who wanted to give me the Last Rites, the nun who said I could come to tea, the cop who was at a loss to assign blame, and the witch who said she was going to sue me for the loss of her house.

Just then, the mayor came by and asked: “I’m getting complaints there’s a sink hole on the park caused by some earth-loving jerk.” He stared at me, and added: “Who is this?”

“The earth-loving jerk,” said the cop quickly.

“The Public Works Department has a vacancy. Want a job?”

When I finally reached home the woman was planting marigolds. “I’m getting the feeling of being close to Mother Earth.” Then she stared at the bruise on my head. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing much. I did a meditation and the earth moved.”

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WANT SOME ENLIGHTENMENT? TRY WRITING YOUR LIFE STORY

2010-08-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

By Robert Egby

I’m writing my life story, my autobiography for a number of reasons. It’s thought provoking, stimulating and challenges both the subconsicious mind and the higher self to work in different dimensions. Writing your life story puts you into a meditative state or an altered state of consciousness. It opens the door to the power of the human mind, and a vast array of interesting memories.
You might well say: “But my life has been boring. Nothing happened.” Not true. If you feel your life has been boring, start putting down your reasons on paper. That will immediately put you into another dimension.

RESUMES ARE LAUNDRY LISTS
If you have a resume, you can start by picking up items from that. Resumes on their own are little more than laundry lists. Think about it: Do they say anything about the real you? Writing your life story is a chance to realize the true self.
Me? I was born at Maidenhead in Berkshire, U.K. February 14th 1932. That’s probably on every resume I’ve ever written. Apart from saying I’m an Aquarian, born on a Sunday in a pretty grim news year, it says nothing.
But when I start looking around, asking questions of Mum and Dad, grand parents and others who were around, I find a treasure trove of information. I find that father did not want to marry my mother, but was cajoled and threatened by his mother, my grandmother. Apparently he met my mother at the local skating rink. Dad liked to hang out at such notoriously famous places as Skindles on the banks of the River Thames where authors, movie stars, royalty and other celebs spent their time. There was also the Showboat, a lido that attracted bathers—and Dad.
I first went to the Alwyn Road Elementary School in 1937. That was the year my favorite comic was born – The Dandy and it featured my hero Desperate Dan. This is true. How did I recall the Dandy, well you have the world at your fingertips on the Internet. I went to Google and put in “Events UK 1937” and what a fascinating news year it was. They were crowning new royalty and dumping others. The Internet is a global encyclopedia.
Then I remembered that two years later (1939) when I suffered a normally fatal disease, my mother found stacks of old Dandy comics and also the Beano, another great comic that started the year before. And they cheered me up no end and helped with my recovery. In these three paragraphs I have talked about myself and the environment—what was happening in my world so many years ago. Start, and the memories just flow.
Your environment is your home. The thing about writing your life story is to observe what was going on in your environment. Who were the people around you? What did they do? What were their hang-ups, their successes? How did their being in your environment impact you? Did you join the scouts? I did, for a little while. I found I had a mad crush on the scout-mistress. Her name was Isabel and I would have done anything for her. Now, as I write this, the scouts memory has just came up out of the blue and I realize I forgot to mention this when I was writing “My Early Life” in the book I’m working on. No matter, computers are great for adding and deleting, so I’m going back to include it. Remember the days of typewriters when one had to re-type a page. They are long gone.

WRITING TRIGGERS MEMORIES
See what I mean about memories popping up, and for me being in the Boy Scouts, that was 1947 – one long time ago. That’s just popped another scout memory: we used to go camping at Selsey Bill…. See what I mean, one memory leads to another, so allow yourself to go with the flow. Remember, your subconscious is a most powerful resource. It’s a biological computer or enormous powers, and you have one. You just have to start using it.
If you have memories that may trigger a traumatic period in your life, you would be advised to clear them before you write. Check in with a psychoanalyst or hypnoanalyst before you tackle your life story. They will help you de-energize those memories, so that you can observe and write about them as an impartial observer. Make sure you pick a good practitioner.
Incidentally, if your ego is or has been giving you trouble in your relationships with such faces as anger, resentment, jealousy, boasting, lying, guilt, obsession – write how you feel about these things and how they have affected your life. And remember, your ego-mind developed through learning from other people in your environment. If Dad or big brother taught you how to be angry, boastful and resentful, write how these faces of your negative ego have weighed heavily on your life. Work to write these things objectively in your life story. Do not be vindictive but rather observe yourself and your feelings as if you were an impartial reporter. Also, forgive those who unwittingly helped you create the negative ego, the false self within. You do not need to carry burdens from the past.

CRACKING THE GLASS DARKLY
If you continue to have a problem with the negative ego and it continues to impact your relationships, get a copy of my first book “Cracking the Glass Darkly.” In easy but effective terms it shows you how to effectively dissolve the ego, and learn to love yourself. It’s based on ancient teachings which are as powerful today as they were many centuries ago.
As you progress with your life story, think about all the achievements in your life. You haven’t got any? If you are alive and relatively healthy, that’s an achievement. You had four kids and they have flown the nest? That’s an achievement. Your soccer team won a cup! That’s an achievement. Write how you did it with them and how you felt.
As you write about your life, you will be surprised at all the memories that simply spring out of nowhere. And one memory will lead to another, and another. Write down your feelings about yourself and your relationships with the people in your environment.
While you are at it, get as much information on Mum, Dad, your four grandparents, and if you can, anything on your eight great-grandparents. You didn’t realize you had eight great-gradparents? Do some multiplication and go back about fourteen generations. Some one million people had to get together to produce you!
My great-grandfather was a poet, a composer and a laborer in Reading, Berkshire in the U.K. He died the year before I was born, but my great-grandmother was a mine of information. What she told me still affects my life today. She was a gypsy and a seer. Get as much on the family and your ancestors as you can. Their names, birthdates, places they lived. What was your interaction with any of them. Did they help you in any way emotionally, physically and materially? Did they help you spiritually?

YOUR LIFE’S PANORAMA
When you include grand-parents and perhaps one or two great-grandparents in your life story, you are stretching your life’s panorama. Both my great-grandparents were born about 1860, that’s 150 years ago. Now let’s project into the future. If my grand-children’s kids when they reach thirty or forty, in say 2050, and are suddenly gripped with curiosity enough to want to read of what happened in my early life, they will be able to look back almost 200 years.
Some day, some time, some where one of your descendents will probably ask: “Does anyone know anything of my great-great grandparents?”
And no doubt someone will respond “Funny you should ask that, here’s a life story they wrote in the early 21st century…it’s in a folder, no a book. They published it themselves.”
And that fresh young mind will start reading and for a while will come back into your personal world that you took the initiative to write about. And while they read and mull it over, they will feel part of you. Writing your life story, no matter how long, providing you write it truthfully and with love, will becomes a time-capsule for your future kids. What an investment!
As I write this, out in the other room on a laptop my life story is being written. This brings up one more point. Do not compare your life story to anyone else’s. In other words do not be influenced, intimidated, put off by autobiographies of national leaders, politicians, movie people, out of work generals, agitators or even me. Just write it your way, with your thoughts and your love. Yes, write what has been happening around you. That helps create a picture, a painting. See your life, not as a single person standing against a blank canvas, but a person in a picture with things happening around you. That’s life.
Finally, what you do with your life story is up to you. You can print it out, place it in a folder and an envelope, seal it and write a note: My Life Story. (Date to Date) Do not open until I have passed on. You might even request a future time way into the future.

A SELF PUBLISHING OPPORTUNITY
Or you might choose to have it self-published. There are a growing number of publishing houses. Just write “self-publishing” in your favorite search engine and a list will appear. Be careful. Shop around. It’s quite possible you can have one or two copies of your book nicely bound and printed…or a couple of hundred copies for a small outlay. If you wish to study the subject, join the 2,900 plus members of self-publishing@yahoogroups.com and you’ll learn a lot in a short time. This group has the benefit of some great professional gurus freely sharing priceless information with group members. Moreover, it is closely monitored to avoid nonsense emails.
Or you might find your work has universal appeal and you have a New York Times Best Seller of the Month on your hands. If it happens, it happens. But your month of glory is completely overshadowed by your personal long range benefits, that is leaving an information resource for the future.
Whatever you do, writing your autobiography, your life story, is a challenge. It’s not easy but it is gratifying and worthwhile, and the important thing is that you will learn a lot about yourself. Chances are you will become enlightened about yourself and see your whole being in a different light. Enjoy.

NOTE: Robert’s own life story, currently in the writing stage is entitled: “Kings, Killers and Kinks in the Cosmos.” Publication is planned for early 2011.

SHARING THE LIGHT BEYOND THE VEIL

2010-07-03T04:21:00.000-07:00

The following is Chapter 19 from my latest book "INSIGHTS: The Healing Paths of the Radical Spiritualist." Enjoy! Robert

Throughout our journey to discover the Healing Paths of the Radical Spiritualist, there is one Path we really have not explored or considered and that is maintaining optimum health. So many people only start being concerned with their health when the doctor says: “You have a problem.” Then it is panic stations.
There are all sorts of gurus and trainers out there who are offering services to the 60 million Baby Boomers and those who are “getting on a bit.” They do everything from helping with financial needs and resources, housing and lifestyle, travel, relationships, community involvement, nutrition and physical health.
They talk about everything except death. It’s the bogey word. So we come up with such expressions as crossing over, meeting his maker, gone to Boot Hill, she’s at the end of the road, the final curtain, kicking the bucket. No one likes to mention the D word, unless of course you are a Spiritualist, and the Spiritualist will retort: “There’s no such thing as death.”
Spiritualists see life and death quite differently.
“Life here and life hereafter is all one life whose continuity of consciousness is unbroken by that mere change in form whose process we call death,” said Lilian Whiting, American journalist and author who was one of the first women newspaper editors. Ms Whiting is quoted in the Spiritualist Manual of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches in the United States.
Poets and writers through the ages have frequently talked about death. John Milton, the 17th century English poet, wrote: “Death is the golden key that opens the palace of eternity.” Sir Rabindranath Tagore, India’s poet, philosopher, composer and Nobel Prize winner put it this way: “Death: where the changing mist of doubts will vanish at a breath, and the mountain peaks of eternal truth will appear.”
In spite of the colorful, dramatic prose of the poets, most people are unable to accept either the death of a loved one, or the fact that sooner or later, death will come upon them.

DEATH IS INEVITABLE
Death is a subject which is evaded, ignored, and denied by our youth-worshipping, material-oriented society because the fear of death is the prototype of human anxiety. As Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, author of the ground-breaking 1969 book On Death and Dying pointed out: “It is almost as if we have taken on death as just another disease to be conquered. But the fact is death is inevitable.”
In western society, death is the great bogey. It is the phobia that fuels many other phobias. Fundamental Christians traditionally talk of the dreaded Last Judgment, an event pointedly mentioned in both the Apostolic and Nicene Creeds, and chanted by many church-goers every Sunday. The image here is that sinners -- and everyone according to the doctrines -- are sinners, will be consigned to the horrors of Purgatory or the everlasting agonies of Hell.
If that concept is fading, a more popular fear is emerging that death takes us into everlasting nothingness--that you stay buried in the grave forever until Judgment Day. Reading the Old Testament compounds the fears. “For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.” (Genesis 3:19). To cap it all, the Roman Catholic Church puts the squeeze on its flock by saying it’s a mortal sin not to come to church on Sundays.
It is little wonder that so many people, particularly the older folk are terrified about dying. “Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.” These were words from Henry Jackson Van Dyke, the American Presbyterian clergyman and author, who lived in the 19th century at a time when Modern Spiritualism was starting to flourish and changing our concept of death.
The way the Spiritualists put it: The only death that does occur, is the death or the ceasing to function of the physical body. It’s like the spirit taking off an overcoat and leaving it behind to be buried in an expensive casket and mourned by a whole lot of loved ones who feel sorry because there’s a gap, a space where the body used to be. The spirit that occupied that body lives on and is welcomed joyously by loved ones and relatives in the Spirit World.

DEATH IS AN ILLUSION
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as death. It’s a lie, a phrase used by well-intended but ignorant people. As the great Indian Mystic, Yogi Ramacharaka, said: “Death is an illusion growing from ignorance. There is no death--there is nothing but Life. Life does not cease for even a single instant--life persists while Nature makes her changes.”
These words summarize death and the philosophy of Modern Spiritualism: “We affirm that the existence and personal identity of the individual continues after the change called death.”
Since the veil between the two worlds was split in 1848 at Hydesville, New York, thousands upon thousands of people the world over have received greetings and meaningful messages from departed love-ones and others, and this has been scientifically and personally confirmed. Fears of death are slowly being eroded and the light of eternal grace is being confirmed. But old habits, particularly religious habits die hard.

BELIEF IN LIFE AFTER DEATH
The American Association of Retired Persons -- AARP -- in its September 2007 edition, had Bill Newcott reporting on a survey of people over 50: He wrote: “… we found that people 50 and over tend to be downright conventional in their basic beliefs: nearly three quarters (73 percent) agree with the statement ‘I believe in life after death.’ Women are a lot more likely to believe in an afterlife (80 percent) than men (64 percent).” (www.aarpmagazine.org)
Sir Walter Scott, the great Scottish poet and novelist, put it this way: “Is death the final sleep? No it is the last and final awakening.”
Still, while people are still buzzing around enjoying life, the final dawning of an encounter with death does provoke uncertainty, a fear of loss of control and stress.

THE SON ‘TERRIFIED OF DYING”
Knowing that loved ones are waiting on the Other Side is a concept hard to believe. Some years ago, a mother called me: “My son is terminally ill in the Vancouver Cancer Control Clinic. He’s terrified of dying. He doesn’t believe in anything, and he’s very depressed.”
Ted was in his mid-thirties, married with two very young children. I had recently heard Elisabeth Kübler-Ross talking on the five stages of dying - denial, rage and anger, bargaining with God, depression, and acceptance. Ted’s bargaining with God was a disaster. “I don’t believe in God or the so-called hereafter,” he said, and he was now totally depressed.
No one ever dies alone, and this was true for Ted. His hospital room was bounding with spirits, except for the fact he could not see them. One very dominant woman in spirit stood on the other side of the bed. A rosy-red hefty face, her sleeves rolled up above the elbows, she said: “Tell Ted to get crackin’.”
I relayed the message, and described the woman in spirit as appearing like the traditional Irish Washerwoman. Ted’s eyes regarded me suspiciously. “Sounds like granny. She lived in Nova Scotia. I lived with her as a kid.”
“On your seventh birthday you caught your arm in my mangle,” said Granny. “And that was a to-do.”
“That’s Granny!” Suddenly, Ted was more than interested. I described some of the spirits manifesting in the room, and he quickly recognized departed relatives and an old school pal killed in an auto accident.
Ted was convinced, but suddenly developed a great thirst for knowledge. I spent two afternoons afternoon talking to Ted about the World of Spirit, the Other Side, and how this all coincided with the ancient teachings. “It makes so much sense,” he said, tears flowing down his pale face. “Why didn’t someone tell me all this before?” I didn’t answer.
The changing mist of doubts had vanished at a breath, and the mountain peaks of eternal truth had started to appear. He was now in the Kübler-Ross Acceptance stage at peace with himself and his family. Five days later he passed over. And Granny, the Irish Washerwoman, was waiting along with the others to assist with his transition.

THE CAUSE OF FEAR IS IGNORANCE
Considering that death exempts no one, it is important that we are able to face death wisely. The leading cause of fear is ignorance and fear of the unknown. Other major factors are: attachment, or the fear of losing people and possessions; lack of preparation by loved ones who may be dependent upon the dying person; and unexpressed emotions and feelings, and feeling guilty for unresolved situations. These are the basic points traditional counselors recognize. .
But Modern Spiritualists are able to go further. They point to scientific research carried out by Dr. Raymond Moody. He authored the classic book Life After Life, The Investigation of a Phenomenon-Survival of Bodily Death on common experiences of people who have undergone clinical death and lived again. In a survey on near-death experiences Dr. Moody found that all of the participants experienced God’s unconditional love. Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote the foreword in the book.
In near-death experience, people see themselves separate from the physical body, and view what is happening around them. Their descriptions of what they saw and heard are often quite easily validated, in spite of the fact they were clinically dead. In addition to this, mediums are able to convey accurate and meaningful messages from departed loved ones.
Spiritualism when rationally explained removes all fear of death. It opens the windows of the spirit world, and the light floods in. It teaches that death is not the cessation of life, but mere change of condition. It teaches that there is no dreaded judgment day, but that man, through what he sows, creates his own negative or positive living.

SPIRITUALISM TEACHES HOW TO LIVE
In essence, Modern Spiritualism teaches people not only how to die but how to live. This was aptly expressed by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, the 16th century French essayist, “He who should teach men to die, would, at the same time, teach them to live.”
This is a great healing opportunity for Spiritualists who can provide invaluable help for families with loved ones about to make their transition into the Spirit World. A few of them already do, but the ability to help is low key, generally unpublicized, and happens through personal referrals.

A DEATH IN ST. AUSTELL, ENGLAND
In 1979 in the days before her body quit under spinal cancer and she crossed into the Spirit World, my mother was in the Mount Edgcumbe Hospice in St. Austell, England. I flew from Canada to see her. I knew little about metaphysics, little about the Afterlife, and less about healing. I spent several days with her at her apartment in the Cornish town. It was grueling to see her trying to get up, but her spine had failed her and the doctor had given her a few days to live. I was immersed in a frustrated anger and very bitter. Frustrated, I knew that spirits existed because my father had come through on the day he died a couple of years before. But as she was approaching the end of her life I didn’t know enough about the Afterlife to put my mother’s mind at ease.
Mum told me she had long ago left the Anglican Church to join the Methodists. There, she had found good friends, but somehow had not clicked with God or “any of His angels,” she said as we sat quietly.

MESSAGE OF HOPE
Years later, she came through in spirit. I apologized for not being able to explain the process of crossing over into Spirit so as to ease her mind.
“Two things,” she said. “One, I was not alone on that day. Dad was back, so was my sister Eydie and others. They put my mind at ease. I still didn’t know where I was going and that bothered me.” She paused and gazed straight at me: “You know now about death and the transition to our world, and your spirit helpers are very good. You have the opportunity to help the ones who fear the final days on Earth. Put their minds at ease. Go Bobbie. Spread the word. Write the message of hope.”
Close family members, loved ones who are already in Spirit, will often appear in the hospital rooms and bedrooms of those close to departure. Much like Ted’s grandmother did. Much like my mother’s loved ones in Spirit did. People about to die are surrounded by loved ones in Spirit several days in advance of the transition. No one ever dies alone and hospital patients often see and recognize loved ones at various times prior to their transition.

SOMETHING NOT TO SAY
When a dying person tells visitors, “Dad was here this morning. He sat and held my hand.” The worst thing for the stolid linear-minded family member to say is: “You were just imagining it, mom. He’s been gone ten years.” That is a form of spiritual abuse. Chances are Dad was there, plus a lot of other loved ones and relatives.
If person who is expected to die in the near future and insists on clinging to life, a Spiritualist can provide loving assistance. It is a great opportunity for all concerned. The medium can relay messages from spirits in the room, trying wherever possible to validate their existence.
“They are all here, your loved ones and friends, waiting to help you cross over safely into their world.”
If the Spiritualist has knowledge of the Spirit World, he or she can talk to the patient, and describe the love and compassion that exists there, and the new life. The Spiritualist should always be warm and caring, but always maintain a firm voice demonstrating knowledge. If the Spiritualist is short on information about life in the Spirit World, he or she should get educated, read books dictated by spirits, or spend some time talking to his or her own spirit guides. That’s what they are there for: to educate.
A basic dialogue I use for anyone waiting to die is as follows: “Your loved ones in the Spirit World (or Heaven) are waiting for you, and they are surrounding you with all their love. There will come a time soon when you will feel a light, a beautiful golden white light above your head. When you see or feel that light you will know it is time to go. Simply close your eyes and allow God’s angels and your loved ones to lift you up. You will probably hear some beautiful music, that’s the sounds of the Holy Spirit, God’s voice calling you home, and that’s all right. It is your time. You have our blessings. Go with God.”
Please feel free to modify and improve the above and use it whenever you have the opportunity to help a soul cross over into the Summerland or Spirit World.

WORK TO THE SPIRITUAL LEVEL
Sometimes a son or daughter will ask you to help in the transition. Families collectively are hesitant to do anything that will accelerate an aged or sick person to die in comfort and peace. If the dying person is alone and appears to have no relatives, and still clings to life, ask the doctor in charge if it’s all right to give “counseling” or a “dying blessing.” They will normally agree.
Incidentally, always start and conclude with a prayer, and always work to the spiritual level of the person your helping with their transition.
If, as the reader of this book, you are still clinging to the “resurrection of the body” teachings in the Creed and various other dogmas, refer to Halley’s Bible Handbook, written for students of the Christian Bible. It states: “Death is merely an incident in passing from one phase of existence to another.” Trained Spirit communicators – mediums -- prove this daily and it is high time, they seized the opportunity of publicly offering to help people drawing their curtains on their earthly lives with the message of hope: “There is Light Beyond the Veil and we can share it with you.”

THE HEALING GIFT OF LOVE
This is an exercise in using your Mind and the healing power of love. It comes in two parts and anyone can do it, the second part will produce a love-loaded message for a loved one or friend in hospital or a hospice.
The First Part: Developing the Power. Find a tray and obtain half a dozen clean or better still, polished stones or marbles. Place them all in the tray. Now, select one that is different. Hold it in your hand and talk to it. Tell it that you love it and are surrounding it with all the love in your heart. Do this two or three times. Then place it back on the tray. Close your eyes and shuffle the stones. Then, holding the palm of your hand facing downward, about two inches above the stones, move it horizontally. When you come to the “loving” stone, your hand should feel warm. Pick up the stone. You may have to do this two or three times. Most people do it the first time.
Recognize that you have sent love energy to an object and it is radiating that love.
The Second Part: Sending the Gift of Healing. When you have a loved one or a friend who needs healing or is waiting to cross over into the Spirit World, obtain an item that is meaningful, perhaps a small doll, a teddy bear, a pillow, a small blanket or some fluffy object that they can hold.
Relax and spend a few minutes holding the object. Tell it how much you love it. Surround it with all the love in your heart. Do this several times over a day or two. Then place it in a bag and take it to your sick friend. They will feel and benefit from your loving energy. If the person is about to die, they will much appreciate your gift because they will not only feel your love in the item, but your presence too.

Read the Book!

THE OLD DOG

2010-05-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

by Robert Egby

A big, old dog, tawny and spotted with grey, wandered slowly, probably painfully across my path this morning as I walked through the early morning mists, carrying my old arbutus cane.

He came from among the white blossoming lilac bushes in his yard, and ambled across the road. He paused to gaze at my approaching figure. His mouth opened and his long tongue flopped out. His teeth had long gone and his dreams of gnawing on a good bone had long gone too.

I stopped and watched and I sensed he would have stayed to watch me, but something, perhaps long learned wisdom, urged him to move off the road. His old legs carried him into the newly mown meadow where he eased himself down on the dew-laiden grass, ever so slowly to allow his joints to adjust.

You could feel his body attuning to the peaceful, healing energy of Mother Earth. Whatever was hurting, probably the arthritis, had now abated. The magnificent head raised itself and his nose seemed to delight in the delicate but powerful scents of the nearby honeysuckle now in full bloom.

From across the meadow I spotted several dogs running across the damp grass. They paused suddenly to wait for a young woman accompanied by a little boy. They gathered happily around the old dog who was still savoring the honeysuckle.

My mind sent a message to the old dog. “Your spirit friends are here. They call you Bandit. They say it’s your birthday. You are twenty years old today.”

The old dog stared back at me. “We are not ready to go yet?”

“Who is ‘we’?”

“The old woman. The one I protect. We eat soup together. Her teeth are gone too. When she’s ready, we will walk the Rainbow Bridge together.”

There is an old story which tells of the meadow this side of the Rainbow Bridge where pets play in their spirit forms and wait for their “owners” to come, and they then walk together across the Rainbow Bridge into Heaven.

“You’ve heard of the Rainbow Bridge?”

“The woman reads it to me every night.”

I turned around. Across the road among the white and purple lilacs was an old wooden cottage, desperately in need of a coat of paint and some tender loving care. Beyond, the waters of Chaumont bay shimmered and danced to welcome the summer sun, rising above the mist for another day.

“That’s my home,” said the old dog slowly. “When she’s ready we’ll go looking for the Rainbow Bridge together.”

“Your friends in spirit are all around you.”

“I know. I know. They want me to go, but I ignore them,” said the old dog, his voice tired and dry. “Tell them Bandit says to buzz off.” Then he stared at me in one defiant gesture. “And you buzz off too. I’m resting.”

After a few steps along the road, I stopped and rested on my arbutus cane and looked back at the old dog, resting peacefully, enjoying the aromas of the Earth, but always on guard, totally devoted, totally loving, with a power that overcomes the pains that come with getting old.

I sent him Love, Light and Blessings, and added profound thanks for allowing me to be in his life. As I walked along the road flanked by lilacs and honeysuckle, I wondered why it had occurred.

Love, Light and Healing. Robert

INSIGHTS: The Healing Paths of the Radical Spiritualist

SEEKING THE SILENCE IN EARTH MEDITATION

2010-04-30T17:59:00.000-07:00

By Robert Egby

I imagine I am a bird seeking a morsel among the dancing daffodils of spring. I feel close to the earth, the grass. The gentle morning breeze, a little cool, caresses my face, but then I feel the warmth of the sun. Now, I turn over and flat on my back, I watch the small, puffy white cushiony clouds floating ever so easily across the pale blue sky. For some moments I wonder where those clouds started and where they might be going. So easy flowing. So relaxed.

I focus on my breathing. The life enhancing air, full of oxygen and prana from nearby trees, gently flows into my body and is immediately dispatched to countless cells in my body. I breathe easily and effortlessly, being conscious now only of my Self and the closeness of Earth, Mother Earth herself.

I feel her energy. Not a force or a wave, but a warm, all-embracing emergence that radiates ove. Nothing demanding, but an energy, a presence that simply comes like a rose bud that transforms into a miraculous, intricate and beautiful flower. One moment there’s nothing. A few moments later it is there.

It comes without the hoop-la of big announcements. It blossoms ever so gently, ever so magnificently. Mother Earth is here, now. Her presence, her energy envelopes my body, envelopes my soul. I have an image of a healing cocoon that heals, rebuilds, re-energizes, rejuvenates everything within. My words, my thoughts are totally inadequate. A soft, gentle voice murmurs: “Stop thinking. There is no reason to think. Enjoy.”

Silence. There is peace now. A peace beyond all understanding.

DIRECT COMMUNICATION

If one pauses to think about it, we live on a planet which is remarkably beautiful when compared to other members of the solar system. It is highly likely that most of the seven billion humans on the planet are oblivious of the fact that our “rock” is merrily hurtling along at 67,000 miles an hour. So steady, so quiet, one does not even consider hanging on.

Every now and again, a friend sends us a collection of spectacular pictures, a kaleidoscope of landscapes from around the planet – waterfalls, snow-capped mountain ranges, towering cedars in ancient forests, mighty rivers, images that almost take our breath away. But in the end, they are only pictures which stimulate our visual senses.

For the most part, we humans have little or no direct contact or communication with Mother Earth. Unless we have a vacation and sit on a sandy beach in some tropical venue and allow the sand to flow through our fingers, we have little or no contact with the earth. Our homes are “off-the-ground.” Foundations are based on concrete and plastic. When we go to work, take a trip, our vehicles have rubber tires that break our earthly connection. And even when we walk, we have leather or plastic soles on our feet.

BUT SOME PEOPLE CONNECT

Yes, there are still some people who maintain a link to Mother Earth. We could point to the aborigines and other Native peoples who still stay connected and in tune with Earth. Horticulturalists, farmers, gardeners and people who work with the soil stay in touch, in fact gardening, working with plants is a meditational-occupation. Most gardeners are in an altered state of consciousness as they work.

Would you like to do a meditation that puts you in direct contact with Mother Earth. It’s best to do this exercise first thing in the morning or in the evening of a fine day when the sun is shining gently, the lawn or the earth is comfortably moist, not dry not wet. In other words, not in the middle hours of the day.

Find a place that appeals to your higher self. If you have a pendulum and know how to use it, ask your higher self “Is meditating by lying on the ground here safe for me now?” It will usally give a positive response, if not look for another space.

It is a good idea to wear soft, easy fitting clothes when meditating. I normally wear a soft track suit. If you do not like the idea of directly lying on the grass because of visitors such as ants and insects, use a cotton or woolen blanket, but arrange it so your hands can touch the earth. Incidentally never use a plastic sheet. Plastic is an energy blocker.

Next find a comfortable position lying down on your back. Do not cross your legs. Keep them comfortably positioned side by side.

BE CONSCIOUS OF LIFE AROUND YOU

Now, turned your head and take a look at what is around you. Flowers? Trees? Bushes? Grass? What do you hear? Birds singing? Can you hear the leaves rustling as a passing breeze caresses them? Any other sounds? Do not be disturbed by any sounds, simply listen and enjoy. Be at one with your environment.

When you feel comfortable, mentally focus on your breathing. Mentally watch your body faithfully perfoming its job -- breathing in and breathing out. Do not try to change anything. Simply sense the oxygen and prana flowing into your lungs and know that that energy is being fed to every cell in your body. Feel and note any response in your body.

As you go deeper into a relaxed mode, feel the closeness of the earth beneath you. Place your palms on the earth and the grass beside you. Do not imagine what earth meditation is like. Thoughts like “this isn’t working,” or “I should be doing something else,” or “What if I get so filled with earth energy I burst?” are projections of the ego, your False Self relying on old memories or even the first two or three paragraphs of my own experiences at the beginning of this article.

MAINTAIN AN OPEN MIND

Work to keep an open mind. Allow yourself to be surprised. It is important in meditation or metaphysical exploration to face everything with an open mind, totally non-expectant. Keep your mind focused on your body and its closeness to earth. If your conscious mind floats away, do not feel guilty or annoyed, bring your focus back again. Be conscious of your body, lying on the ground. Feel the presence of the earth close to your palms and fingers. Note any sensations developing in any parts of your body. Know that you are becoming attuned to Mother Earth. There is no past, there is no future. Everything is Now. The Present. You are living in the Here and Now. Enjoy the Peace, the Silence, the Now.

Spend what you think might be ten or fifteen minutes for your first session. Observe any feelings in your body, any new energies, any changes. When you wish to terminate the session, take in a slow deep breath and as you breath out say out loud: “Wide awake. Wide awake.” Be wide awake and rest quietly observing the world from where you are.

Finally, sit up and with hands clasped in front of your chest, fingers pointing skywards, say in a firm voice: “Mother Earth, I thank you and I love you.” The hands clasped with fingers pointing skywards is an energy signal re-balancing your body with the Cosmos.

Now, if you have negative thoughts creeping into your earth meditation, you might consider dissolving the ego, the False Self. My book “Cracking the Glass Darkly” explains this in effective and easy terms.

If you hear “voices” and they are positive and helpful, they may be your spirit guides. Ask them to wait until you are finished. If the voices are negative, they might be the old False Self masquerading as spirit voices, or the voice might be a negative spirit. Remember these words and direct it to “Return from whence you came, and go with love and light.”

THE SACRED SOUNDS

Now, if you hear rushing sounds of wind, or strange but pleasant sounds that you cannot identify, allow the sounds to be part of your earth meditation and enjoy. You may well be hearing the sacred music of the Audible Sound Stream. This is explained at length in my other book “INSIGHTS: The Healing Paths of the Radical Spiritualist,” which is published in late May 2010.

If you do the earth meditation on a regular basis, perhaps once a week, maintain a journal and write down the date and time and your feelings at the physical, mental and spiritual levels.

Finally, if you do not feel like lying down on the grass and earth, even with a wool or cotton blanket but wish to make contact in an earth meditation, get yourself a seat on the grass, perhaps a bench or a solid chair. Once seated, place your bare feet on the grass. It may not have the same connection, but it will introduce you to the idea of earth meditation.

Whatever you do in earth meditation you will, if you are doing it correctly, find the Silence where there is peace – peace beyond all understanding.

Love and Light. Robert

PASSPORT TO FREEDOM: WHAT IS IT?

2010-02-07T06:07:00.000-08:00

Buddha, Jesus, Paul, Socrates and Plato all knew that the human ego, the False Self is the cause of all suffering the world. Robert Egby discusses the ancient and permanent solution.

PASSPORT TO FREEDOM? WHAT IS IT?
By Robert Egby
One of the people who reviewed my book “Cracking the Glass Darkly” described it as a “passport to freedom” which prompted a query: What is freedom?

Well, first of all it has absolutely nothing to do with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights which guarantees freedoms of religion, speech, writing, publishing, peaceful assembly, etc.

The problem is much closer to home. Most people have minds that are virtual prisons, full of locks, bars and limitations. Most people do not even recognize the prisons in which they exist. .

The baby, the youth, the growing adult absorb and remember everything that happens in their environment. A young child quickly learns to imitate opinion leaders in his or her life. The power of “No!” is learned and from that follows anger, resistance, rebellion, hurt, worry, anguish and fear. As the years pass, the growing child copies criticism, judging, jealousy, bitterness, tension, possession, prejudice, obsession and these become the power weapons of the human ego. Some mind researchers call them the faces of the negative ego – and some calculate the average human being has thousands of these negative faces. Collectively we have the ego, the False Self.

The ego gains its power from memories, memories embedded deep and consciously forgotten in the subconscious mind. “If you’re not a good child, we won’t love you,” or “Don’t let kids push you around. Strike back!” or “Unless you achieve good marks you’ll never get anywhere,” or “No one will ever love you.”

The ego imprisons us with memories from the past; it keeps us in ruts. Relationships, careers, education, creative endeavors and health suffer, and vainly, the False Self defends itself with “That’s Life!”. Anger and possession are the key destroyers of relationships. The False Self responds: “It’s in my genes.”

It’s known as personal and global suffering. Millions of people the world over are suffering from memories, conflicts, influences and do not even realize it. They live from one emotional disaster to another. In desperation they seek therapy and start to eradicate negative habits, prejudices and learn anger management, but if the source – the negative ego – still remains and is in charge, new faces will rise to take their place.

BEING “SAVED” FROM SUFFERING
Buddha’s Four Noble Truths are based on universal suffering. Jesus, the Galilean teacher promised that if you followed his teachings you would be “saved” from suffering in this world, and Paul of Tarsus described humankind’s suffering as “looking through a glass darkly.” Other mystical teachers throughout the ages, including Socrates and Plato pointed to the same problem afflicting humankind, but is anything done? Is anything done on a grand scale to eliminate the suffering and the prisons of human beings?

Strangely, the negative ego is an illusion but each person believes it is his or her true identity. “Anger is in my DNA” or “I can’t help being jealous, it’s in my blood,” or “Nobody ever loved me, why should I love you.”

The good news is there is a way out. There is a freedom from suffering. Like anything worth while it does take effort and it does require some patience. But each step normally produces results.

THE LIGHT OF AWARENESS
The False Self is like a criminal, it abhors the light, and here we are talking about the light of awareness. The technique is called Impartial Self Observation. It’s like a spotlight that shines on each face of the negative ego, and it is done without judging, comment or opinion. When the light of impartial observation shines on anger, bitterness, jealousy, revenge etc., these faces start to diminish, they start to recede, and eventually will never return.

Deep within you is the True Self, a self that is exactly the opposite of the False Self. It is that loving, sincere entity, the spirit within that has been trying to manifest in your life for years, but it’s been help captive behind the “glass darkly.” There is absolutely no reason – no reason at all – why a human being should not love himself or herself. The truth is that if you do not, it’s because someone, somewhere set up the parameters, the limitations that blocked your way to loving yourself.

You still don’t believe there is a True Self?

Next time you cannot sleep because of so-called mind chatter, try this simple exercise. Decide you are going to watch and observe these thoughts, and decide you are going to watch them impartially, without judgment, opinion or comment. In other words will not associate yourself with the passing thoughts.

As each thought comes up, imagine you can place a number on it like “number one, “number two” etc. You’ll notice that when you get to six and seven, the thoughts will start to slow down, and by the time you get to eleven and twelve, you will be waiting for the next thought to come through…and somewhere in the waiting you’ll slip off into a deep, healthy sleep.

Next morning, ponder on what you have learned. You will discover an important truth: “If I can watch myself thinking and reacting, who or what is the Watcher, the Observer?” That power is the True Self and it is showing you the path to freedom from suffering. Go forth.

There are many descriptions on the work of Impartial Self Observation and breaking free from suffering and the False Self. Gurdjieff and Ouspensky taught it almost a century ago, and more recently Jean Klein and Vernon Howard. There is a complete and easy to follow program in my book “Cracking the Glass Darkly,” and that will get you started on your road to freedom. I do not believe attaining freedom from suffering should be difficult or academically stuffy and laborious. Therefore I work to keep my writing and teachings informative, personal, sometimes dramatic, sometimes humorous, but always ready to help anyone on their quest for the true self.

Many people Look Through a Glass Darkly and continue to suffer. This is your opportunity to Crack the Glass Darkly and break to Freedom. Thanks for sharing your time. Blessings. Robert

THE D.H. LAWRENCE RANCH, A PLACE WHERE TIME STANDS STILL

2010-01-16T09:12:00.000-08:00

I first encountered the work of the controversial English author D.H. Lawrence while serving in the British Royal Air Force in the Egyptian desert, a dusty ten minute hike from the Suez Canal. It was 1952. Someone thrust into my hands a book entitled “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,”an intriguing and thrilling read for a young soul. It was little wonder, in those days, that the book was banned and subjected to law suits. Today, almost 60 years later, the subject of the lady and the gardener is like a well-worn cliche, but the eloquence of the writing, the passion, the vivid colors live on. I always wondered about Lawrence, where he lived, loved, created and passionately observed the world from a lofty perch, nestled among the tall, aging cedars of Lobo Mountain in New Mexico.

You can find the D.H. Lawrence Ranch about 26 miles northwest of Taos near San Cristobal. Twenty miles along route NM522. A faded, pockmarked sign, the victim of passing graffitists points to a six-mile drive up a dusty, rutted, gravelly road that winds tortuously and never-endingly upwards. At the 8,600 foot mark, where the air is fresh but oxygen seems in rare supply, one finds the ranch, three log buildings, now owned by the University of New Mexico.

It’s as rustic as it comes, and Lawrence and his wife Frieda, would probably find it much the same as it was when they lived here for two years in the mid-1920s. A kindly voice from under a pick-up truck cried: “You’ll find the Memorial up the hill.”
A narrow, modern concrete path, broken by some steps, winds through the cedars. It ends at a small, stuccoed hut with a slanting roof. Posts and chains mark the grave site of Lawrence’s wife of 16 years. It features a large wooden cross and a stone marker just to the left of the Memorial building. On the stone marker, an elegant, smiling, aging woman peers from a photograph in an oval frame.

The 12 by 15 foot white Memorial building is almost clinical inside. Made to appear as a small chapel, the walls and rails are various shades of gold, with clean grey tiles on the floor. The focal point is a concrete altar, inset with the initials DHL surrounded by sunflowers. More sunflowers sit in two vases flanking the Memorial Stone.

While living in Vence, south east France, Lawrence became very sick. He planned to return to his beloved New Mexico where the air was kind to his tuberculosis, but death intervened. He died on March 2nd 1930 and was buried in that French community. Five years later, in 1935, at his widow’s request, Lawrence’s body was exhumed and cremated. His ashes were brought to the ranch by Frieda’s Italian lover, and later her husband, Angelo Ravagli with the intention they would be buried at the ranch. Apparently, Lawrence’s ardent admirers and followers, mainly women, objected to the ashes being buried at a remote ranch. In the face of strong opposition, while the concrete was being mixed for the marker stone, Frieda poured the remains of the author into the mix, where they remain solidly embalmed to this day. Visitors to the Memorial building can see, framed on the wall, copies of the official cremation certificate and a certificate by the British Consul in Nice that the urn contained the author’s ashes.

A guest register inside the Memorial Shrine records visitors from many parts of the world. After Lawrence’s death, Frieda married her lover Angelo. When she died in Taos in 1956, she bequeathed the ranch to the University of New Mexico.

How Lawrence and his wife Frieda came to live at the ranch in May 1924 is fascinating. They had been a homeless, wandering couple traveling the world since World War One. Lawrence, born David Herbert Lawrence in 1885, son of a coal mining family in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, met and fell in love with Frieda, the wife of his university professor. They married in 1914. Because of his visionary and modernistic writings which shattered Victorian-Edwardian society, and her connections with Germany, the couple fled England and adopted a life of writing and wandering.

Mabel Dodge Sterne (later Mabel Dodge Luhan), a wealthy arts patron in Taos had read and was deeply impressed by some of Lawrence’s writings. She invited the couple to stay. Eventually, she proposed to give the nine acre ranch, then called the Kiowa Ranch, to Lawrence, but he refused. However, Frieda of noble German stock (a relative of Baron von Richthoven) accepted and the deed was made in her name. It was the only property the couple ever owned.

Some sources say that the Lawrences acquired the ranch in exchange for the manuscript of his now famous novel, Sons and Lovers. It was said that Mabel gave them the ranch to keep them “local” but to get out of the way because of the tempestuous interactions that kept cropping up between Mabel and her jealous Native Indian lover, Tony Luhan, Frieda, Lawrence and a woman called Lady Brett.

During a visit to England, Lawrence had an affair with British artist, Lady Dorothy Brett while she did a portrait of him. She accompanied Lawrence and Frieda to Taos and lived in a one room cabin next door. When the Lawrences left, Lady Brett stayed in the United States and became a citizen in 1938.

While at the ranch, Lawrence would sit out on the wooden porch surrounded by a garden and stately trees. He wrote his novel St Mawr and commenced writing The Plumed Serpent there. Various writers and artists, including Aldous Huxley visited the Lawrences. Life was not always quiet at the ranch. Frieda, in a book published after Lawrence’s death mentioned frequent quarrels between Mabel, her new husband Luhan, and Freida and Lady Brett and Lawrence himself. This tense atmosphere seemed to provoke Lawrence to write or perhaps, escape.

After the Lawrences left for Europe in 1925, one of the visitors invited to the ranch by Mabel Dodge Luhan was painter Georgia O’Keeffe. She stayed several weeks there and spent time relaxing on a bench, gazing up through the branches of what was to be known as “The Lawrence Tree.” One day she created a painting of the tree which still stands there, as strong and as stately as when Lawrence sat in its shade and wrote his novels and O’Keefe painted there. Nearby is a stand with a copy of Georgia’s painting.

Visitors can roam round the buildings and through the garden, touch the Lawrence Tree, and take in the meadows and the rolling distant blue hills and breathe the fresh, invigorating air, and as we did, watch the first dark storm clouds of Autumn rolling their way majestically across a perfectly bluer than blue sky.

When Lawrence crossed into Spirit, E.M. Foster in an obituary, described him as “The greatest imaginative novelist of our generation.” Besides being an author, Lawrence was also an artist. Nine of the Lawrence oils have been on display in the La Fonda Hotel in Taos since shortly after his death.

If one sits quietly by Lawence’s log cabin, and allows the mountain air, delicately perfumed by the cedars to tantalize the nostrils, you may hear the wind softly whistling through the pines and creating a meditative background, broken only by high spirit voices still interacting in another dimension. The Lawrence Ranch, eighty years since the author and Frieda lived there, is a place standing still, basking in the dusts of time.

Thank you for sharing this space. Blessings. Robert

The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist

A Radical Spiritualist Finds a Mystery Among the Ruins of the Old Kelly Mine

2009-11-18T18:24:00.000-08:00

The remains of the old Kelly Mine near Magdalena, New Mexico.

Pull up a pew and lend an ear while I mull over some peculiar happenings that occurred in New Mexico, the state beloved by film-makers, artists, spies, atom bomb makers and throngs of curious tourists who seek the Indian pueblos. The wide expanse of desert, dotted with red cedar, the perfectly blue sky that attracts many artists, including Georgia O’Keefe, appealed to my sense of finding a place to meditate and ponder life, death, the Universe and everything.

When I first started mulling over the maps and booklets on Albuquerque and New Mexico, for some strange reason I was drawn to a place called Socorro. It’s been around for some 400 years and it sits in the Rio Grande Valley, about 75 miles south of Albuquerque. A small City at 4,600 feet, it’s surrounded by a number of extinct volcanoes.

When it comes to big bangs however, Socorro has had its share. A short 35 miles away to the south-east at a place to be called Trinity, humankind on July 16th 1945 detonated the first atomic bomb test. It ushered in a new era for the planet. It was transported to the site in what is now the White Sands Missile Range in a 200 ton steel container with walls 14 inches thick. A chunk of it survived and can be found in the Socorro plaza. If you place your hands on the chunk and perform psychometry you will receive powerful vibrations. My partner Betty Lou felt the vibrations through her body. I sensed two blasts, one initial small one, followed moments later by a tremendous blast. The chunk is still alive with memories.

Was this why I was drawn here? I didn’t think so. One place I had hoped to see was the ruins of the old Kelly Mine, but I was really reluctant to drive another 30 miles on some questionable roads to see ruins that guide books said there was not much to see.

After wandering around Socorro and taking a coffee, I said to my partner Betty Lou: “Not much here, let’s get back to Albuquerque.” Well, it didn’t happen. A lively lady in the City Tourism Bureau told us about an intriguing place called Magdalena tucked away in the Magdalena mountains, some 27 miles to the west. Early Spanish settlers claimed to see the image of Mary Magdalene in the rockface of one of the mountains—when the sun is right. Curious, we drove to Magdalena but the sun wasn’t right, so we drove around the small town, somewhat disappointed. In late October most places are closed. We observed an absence of street signs. “Let’s get back to Socorro and have lunch in the micro-brewery,” I said. Magdalena was almost deserted, as if Gary Cooper was coming at High Noon. Instead of getting out of town immediately, Our curiosity took us cruising through the residential area. Suddenly, my GPS told me where we were – on Kelly Road!

“It must be a sign,” I told Betty Lou. “But heck, It’s another five miles,”
In spite of my growing reluctance we drove on, even when the road turned to gravel. If it had not been for my GPS identifying the road, we would have called it a day and returned to Socorro and Albuquerque. The road uninviting, rapidly deteriorated and it kept on getting worse by the minute. I was worried about the car – it was a new rental from Enterprise.

Reaching the brow of a hill, we found a very old church with a sign “St. John the Baptist, Kelly N.M.” It stood alone on a plateau like a sentinel, surrounded by steel fence. We parked the car and wandered around. The church is a gallant relic of the old community of Kelly, long since gone to dust. Still, services are held here once a year we discovered. There was no sight of the illusive old mine.

Disappointed I stared at the heavily rutted track going up the mountain. It was probably too rough for any all-terrain vehicle, let alone our rental car. “I’m not going any further,” I told Betty Lou and she agreed we had had enough. We spotted a man on a horse in the distance. He looked like Clint Eastwood in one of those Italian westerns. He was too far away to hear us. Returning to the car I was about to start the engine when a young man on a bicycle appeared--almost out of nowhere.
He parked his bike against the church fence and unstrapped his helmet. “The Kelly Mine? You’re almost there. A quarter of a mile up the track.” He said he lived “nearby” and had come from West Virginia some three years before.

“Could we hike up,” I asked cautiously.

“Sure. It’s just up the track. No problem.” He seemed enthusiastic for us to go on.
Well, that quarter mile was the longest we had ever climbed.We noted the problems. That quarter mile is at an elevation well over 8,000 feet, so the oxygen is not as plentiful as at sea level. The track ran a steady incline over rough rocks. The sun beamed mercilessly out of a perfectly blue sky that would have made George O’Keefe tremble in ecstasy. The sun was burning at 80-degrees. Add to this the fact we had no water, and we are both in our mid-seventies, and you have weird situation.

I kept telling myself, “Egby your nuts! Why are you torturing your body like this?” Twice, our lungs felt seriously short of oxygen and we had to stagger over and rest under the shade of a red cedar. Finally, we reached the sign that proclaimed “Kelly Mine.”

I told Betty Lou, “I’ll just get some photos of the sign and we’ll head back down. This is plain stupid. We should not have come.” A battered sign declared that visitors must acquire a pass in Magdalena if they wished to visit the mine. Ha! Now they tell us! I took some photos of the sign and the distant buildings by telephoto lens and was ready to turn back, totally unimpressed when something happened.

Voices! Not physical voices. Spirit voices. They came in softly at first, then their enthusiasm grew. “…hear us…he can hear us,” one man’s voice said several times. “He thinks we’re ghosts…that’s what the others said…I think we should take cover…”

“Spirits!” I told Betty Lou. “There are spirits here.” Suddenly, my body discovered the energy to walk through the gate into the mine works area. The old mine buildings and machinery stood brave but desolate in the New Mexican sunshine. It seemed strange to think that in another age – spanning fifty years, that a whole community had lived here, mining lead, zinc, silver, copper, gold and later smithsonite. Production totaled over $30 million. There were hotels, saloons, stores, brothels, stables and offices.

I asked the clamoring entities to be quiet while I found a concrete wall on which to sit while I recovered from the climb. Earth-bounds are spirits that have left their physical bodies upon so-called death and become blocked, you might call it snagged in transition of a full passing into the spirit world. For a variety of reasons some spirits, vacating dying physical bodies are reluctant to cross over into the sanctity of the Spirit World. Reasons include an acute desire to stay in the known physical world, wanting to stay with loved ones still living in the physical, a strong disbelief in the afterlife, or a powerful skepticism about the existence of Heaven and even God.

“Who is in charge?”

An entity who had once been a shift manager, came forward. He called himself “Tom” and when I responded with “Thomas” he corrected me and insisted he was named “Tom.” He had a vague Welsh accent.

How many of you are there?

“Eight,” he responded promptly. Betty Lou working with a pendulum had already dowsed the number.

I wanted to know how long they had been here.

“Ah, we’ve been here ever since the mine closed a few years back. We worked the mine and lived locally after she closed. Then most of us got sick and that’s when funny things happened. Some of us said we were dead, others claimed we were dreaming. I don’t know really. Are we dead? I don’t feel dead, just sort of funny. I get terribly depressed at times and I like to find a quiet place down in the mine.”

The group had obviously lost track of time. Tom’s observation that the “mine closed a few years back” was in reality almost eighty years before. Earth-bounds are notorious for losing track of time, and can spend decades and even centuries wandering around repeating similar questions to visitors, particular rock hunters. Their favorite was: “We are waiting for the mine to reopen. Any idea when this will be?” No one ever answered because no one ever heard them.

Tom stared at me. “Truth is we are dead. Is this all there is?”

I told them about the Spirit World, Summerland, Heaven as some call it, and said they should all be there, not wandering around the ruins of the Kelly Mine looking for work. “There are loved ones, sweethearts, friends, who have gone on and are still waiting for you. They are ready to help.”

Most of my communication was telepathic, which is the communication medium of spirits, but when I started talking about loved ones and sweethearts, the scene changed, as if someone had flicked a switch. Warm, vibrant energy, more powerful than the sun came surging in. “We’ve just been joined by whole lot of angels…” I said, noting the arrival of spirit helpers who said they brought miners’ loved ones with them.

To Betty Lou I said: “The miners can’t see spirits from the spirit world because they are depressed and looking down.”

“There’s a woman in spirit here.” And so there were, it was a gathering of spirits, all ready to help with the miners.

The problem with earth-bounds is they become victims of depression, and the challenge is getting them to look up, raise their vibration. After years of isolation, many mechanically look down, tuning into the earth. If only they would look up, workers from the spirit world would be able to assist them in crossing over without having to rely on spirit rescuers, like me in the physical.

“Are you all ready to join your loved ones?” I asked Tom, but he hesitated. “They’re all discussing what’s happening. Wait while I talk to them.” Suddenly there was a quiet in the ranks. “It’s time” he said slowly. “It’s time to leave.”

I noted my spirit guides Paul and Chiang were close by. In a prayer of protection to Holy Spirit, I asked for guidance, strength and protection and to open the way, the light for these miners to make their last journey home.

Then addressing the eight, I described the Summerland, the Spirit World and how it is a place where they can be free again, be with loved ones and friends, and advance in their spiritual lives. “It’s time to let go of the Earth, lift your heads and gaze up into the beautiful white light shining above you.” I mentally repeated these words several times and finally felt an upward movement – a vibration change -- within the group. “The light is the gateway to your home,” I told them. “Go with the angels and loved ones. They will guide you all home.”
The heaviness that had existed around the miners started to clear. A few moments later, we knew that all eight had crossed over successfully.

My spirit guide Paul called out “All clear. Good job. Glad you came?”

Then I realized I had been used again. Ever since I picked up the New Mexico printed matter months before while sitting in upstate New York, and started reading about Socorro, Magdalena and the Kelly Mine, it was all predestined. I had been reluctant to come at all stages. Even our friends in Albuquerque had queried us going. I kept wanting to turn back, but it never happened. Even when we reached the Church of St. John the Baptist on the old Kelly Road, I had wanted to turn back.

I recalled a time years before when I was trekking to a holy place called St. Just in Roseland in Cornwall, England, I had experienced the same reluctance to go on, until a boy on a bicycle appeared out of nowhere and urged me to go on, pointing to a rainbow in the sky. I wrote about it in “The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist.” Coincidence?

“That young man at the church…on the Kelly Road…did you have anything to do with that?” I growled at Paul.

A peal of laughter seemed to roll around the Kelly Mine site. “Robert, I’ll never tell,” cried Paul. “Cosmic secrets.” Mystics have a saying: There are no such things as coincidences, only occurrences of energy we fail to understand.”

As we walked down the rough track to the old St. John the Baptist Church, we stopped to look at the ruins, shells of buildings with 16-inch rock walls that had once been part of the mining community of Kelly, New Mexico. The place still holds energies of bygone days. The akashic records are still strong. If you are quiet you may well hear the horses panting and coughing as they drag the ore-carts down the dusty track to Magdalena and the rail head. You can still hear the mine whistles, men walking home after shifts underground, women chatting, and children laughing.

In the eternal akashic records the old Kelly Mine is still alive, still working, still vibrating in time. We helped eight earth-bounds that hot October 17th, 2009, but I do have a strong feeling, there are more spirits still earth-bound lurking amid the ruins at 8,000 feet, still waiting for assistance to get home to the Other Side.

Thank you for sharing this space. Just a note in parting: Spirit rescue is a subject I mentioned in my second book "The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist." Now (May 2010) I have just published a sequel devoted to healing,"Insights: The Healing Paths of the Radical Spiritualist" and the above article appears in the book, because as we know, spirit rescue is also spirit healing. It includes instructions on how to conduct a Spirit Rescue. Love, Light and Blessings. Robert

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"RADICAL SPIRITUALIST" DRAWS NATIONAL "BEST BOOKS" AWARD

2009-11-05T18:45:00.000-08:00

NEWS RELEASE: NOVEMBER 5th 2009

“Quest of the Radical Spiritualist” Honored as Finalist
In the National “Best Books 2009” Awards

CHAUMONT, New York. A book aimed at helping individual students walk a path through metaphysics, to understand and read sacred energies, learn from spirits, including loved ones in the Afterlife and practice astral projection, has been honored as “Finalist” in the “Spirituality: General” category in the National “Best Books 2009” Awards.

The award was announced by USA Book News, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses.

Published June 1st and written by upstate New York author, Robert Egby, “The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist – The Journey Home,” sets new challenges for the individual Spiritualist, creating new thoughts and offering new philosophies for the future. Egby weaves a kaleidoscopic path through the world of psychic energies and deep spiritualism designed to entertain and nourish beginners and advanced questers alike.

Jeff Keen, President and CEO of USABookNews.com says this year’s contest yielded an unprecedented number of entries, which were then narrowed down to over 500 winners and finalists. There are 140 categories. This is the 6th Annual National “Best Books” Awards.

Author Robert Egby says he was researching his next book in the deserts of New Mexico when he heard the news of the award. “Back last summer my spirit friends suggested we enter the book. Never thought it would get anywhere, even when we started to receive good reviews on Amazon. So, the USA Book News award blew me away.”

A complete list of the winners and finalists of the National “Best Books” 2009 Awards is available online at www.USABookNews.com . Information on the book and the author can be found at http://www.threemilepointpublishing.com/

The book is available at all mainstream and independent bookstores throughout the United States, and is available in the United Kingdom and various countries of Europe.

About the Author

Robert Egby has studied and taught Mysticism and Metaphysics for over thirty years. A former journalist and award-winning broadcaster in the Middle East and Canada, he trod the corridors of government public relations in British Columbia before settling in the United States twelve years ago. He is a Spiritualist-trained minister and now lives in Chaumont, northern New York State. He is also the author of “Cracking the Glass Darkly” which formed a background for his second book “The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist.” His next book is provisionally entitled “The Healing Paths of the Radical Spiritualist.”

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TELEPATHY WITH A PSI!

2009-10-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

By Robert Egby

It was a chilly March evening in 1977 and I was feeling crushed and tired standing on a commuter bus in Vancouver. People read books, snoozed, or conversed in muffled voices above the sounds of the bus’s diesel. I clung to the passenger rails. Suddenly a voice came out of nowhere: “Bobby...Bobby...” It was as clear as a bell. I twisted round. It sounded like my father. But he was in England, half way round the earth. Naturally it wasn’t him. I felt foolish.

The voice came again, urgent and insistent. “Bobby...I just wanted you to know I love you, son.”

Confused and shaken by these vivid thoughts, I reached home. A few minutes later, my sister Diane called from Bournemouth, 7,000 miles away in England. “Dad died about half an hour ago,” she said. “He asked for you.”

Telepathy or thought transference, or as the Russians call it, biological communication, is the inter-communication between mind and mind, or as one used to consider in the early days, between brain and brain. When one considers all the various aspects and classifications of psychic phenomena there is none that succeeds in attracting attention more than telepathy, or thought-transference. No, it’s not mind-reading as some of the uninformed might readily suggest.

Early researchers realized there is practically no department of psychic phenomena on which it has not some bearing. Having said that, it is also recognized by clinicians and scientists that telepathy can stand alone as a field of psychology, where researchers can work unhampered by an “unknown” spirit world, which would automatically draw sharp criticism from orthodox quarters.

Thought-transference was practiced by the ancients, but it was only with the advent of modern Spiritualism and the study of psychic phenomena that serious attention was given to telepathy, as F.W.H. Myers termed it.

Professors Crookes and Barrett did some early work, and both submitted reports to distinguished organizations -- Crookes to the Royal Society, and Barrett to the British Association -- and both received blunt rejection, because they did not denounce Spiritualism.

The Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1882, and much of its early research work was devoted to an experimental investigation of thought-transference because they believed it demonstrated survival. Over the years, various researchers, some of them distinguished people, conducted research into telepathy and extra-sensory perception (ESP).

The three principle aspects of telepathy that have lent themselves towards study are Waking, Dream and Hypnotic States. These three are suitable for laboratory testing which involves “control situations.” These were subjected to research by Dr. Joseph Rhine at Duke University through the 1960s and into the 1970s.

There is another state that scientists find difficult to study and that is Spontaneous Telepathy. It is akin to Crisis Telepathy, which incidentally provides the most accurate and most often recorded. Such was the case involving my father.

The best telepathy demands emotion and researchers find that difficult. This point has been raised over the years, but none so pointedly as that given by Mrs. Hewat McKenzie at the British College of Psychic Science in October 1929. “We notice that the emotions are often concerned in successful transmission, but there is nothing so difficult to repeat as an emotional experience,” she said. And that brings up the question of repeatability.

Is telepathy possible through spirit communication? Considerable study has been done since the days of Crookes, Myers, Lodge, Barret and Hyslop, and continues to this day. The problem exists in what is known as the “repeatability factor.” Telepathy, as it is recognized, requires mind-to-mind transmittal. However, there are those who feel that spirit communication to mediums and others on the earth plane, is also a form of telepathy.

Emanuel Swedenborg wrote of spirits communicating with each other by thought processes, and the psychic researcher and author Hereward Carrington wrote “...if disembodied spirits converse with one another by this means, it is only natural to suppose that this is frequently the method of communication resorted to between embodied and disembodied spirits, and all trance-mediums know this.”

Although all credit for publicizing telepathy and ESP must go to the Rhines and their prolonged studies at Duke University in the 1960s, telepathy was not a stranger to the average man and woman prior to that.

The highly esteemed American socialist and author Upton Sinclair, much against his publisher’s wishes, wrote a book called “Mental Radio,” -- another name for telepathy. Sinclair’s wife, Mary Craig Sinclair, had been studying telepathy and psychic phenomena, and one day, she was sitting quietly doodling while her husband was in the next room reading. Mary made a drawing of a well defined clover blossom, noting it was red. Her husband entered, noticed the drawing, and exclaimed: “I have just read a passage which said: The red clover had blushed, and he would return home with a handful of clover blossoms.”

From that point on, the Sinclairs conducted many experiments and research in telepathy and clairvoyance, and Upton Sinclair had the book published under the title “Mental Radio.” The year was 1930. The book was translated into European languages, and in the introduction to the German edition was written: “The results of the telepathy experiments which are carefully and plainly described in this book, stand surely far beyond what an investigator of nature considers possible.” The writer? Albert Einstein wrote a very compelling introduction.

What causes telepathy? How does it work? During Mesmer’s investigation into animal magnetism, it was generally believed that a universal fluid joined all living things. Mesmer found that telepathy occurred while clients were in a trance state, hence it was assumed telepathy and mesmerism were inseparable. Professor Charles Richet, a French physiologist demonstrated that telepathy could occur apart from the state of mesmerism or hypnosis, as it was later termed. You can have waking telepathy, said Richet. Well, he’s both right and wrong.

There is a fine line between a waking state and hypnosis. If you measure brain activity with an electroencephalograph (EEG) there are four primary brain wave patterns - Beta, (14-33 cycles per second) which is the normal waking consciousness, Alpha (8-13 cps) which is light to medium hypnosis and meditation, also the Sunday morning half-awake, don’t-have-to-go-to-the-office feeling. Theta (4-7 cps) is the first and intermediate levels of sleep, deep meditation, deep trance, dream state, and Delta (1.5-3 cps) is deep, profound sleep.

Our average Beta level is 21. It’s higher if stressed and you are driven by a demanding occupation. However, when we day-dream, even when driving a car, the Beta level drops close to an Alpha state. It also happens when we watch a good movie, are absorbed by a musical concert or play, or are watching a good television show. When a person is relaxed, they are conducive to concentration and new learning. That person is open to suggestions. Major marketing firms know that, hence repetitive advertisements on the screen. You may well think you are wide awake, but you’re also in light Alpha, one of the best stages for receiving psychic messages, even telepathy. So was Professor Richet, right or wrong when he said you can have waking telepathy?

People who are highly stressed in the waking state are unlikely to receive telepathic messages. Mediums, although to all intents and purposes are awake while delivering messages in Spiritualist churches, and working in an altered state of consciousness, the Alpha State, or close to it.

Research into telepathy continues to this day. Laboratory conditions have changed since the Rhines worked at Duke University. They use computers for analysis and even provide an opportunity for visitors to work in ESP.

The Koestler Parapsychology Unit at the University of Edinburgh is researching ESP on the internet, and can be found at http://www.koestler-parapsychology.psy.ed.ac.uk/Psi.html. A fascinating point: The years may have changed since the early researchers presented their findings, but the attitude hasn’t. Witness the opening paragraph of a major study (four years ago) at the Koestler website: http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/~

“Most academic psychologists do not yet accept the existence of PSI,
anomalous processes of information or energy transfer (such as
telepathy or other forms of extrasensory perception) that are currently
unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms.”

Crookes, Myers, Lodge, Richet, Rhine, Moss, Garrett, and a host of others, must be shaking their astral heads in wonderment. Perhaps regarding our ESP development with a sigh! After all, telepathy is their standard routine for communications.

-- Ends --

DISCOVERING THE POWER OF THE COSMIC SELF

2009-08-21T18:31:00.000-07:00

Thoughts by Robert Egby

If you can look into a mirror and gaze straight into your eyes, and say without flinching or feeling guilty: “I love you and accept you completely,” you really do not need to read this article, or attend my workshops.

When you love yourself unconditionally, good things happen. You become a center of love. Your energy vibrations increase, and the benefits are felt at all levels of your being, physically, mentally and spiritually. You are somewhere on the road to Cosmic Awareness, a consciousness that embraces all things.

What makes it interesting is that you do not have to tell people you love yourself. They will know it. They will sense it. They may not know how they are sensing it, but they will wish to gravitate towards you. They will want to share your space, share your secret.

Some who cannot gravitate towards you will tell you: “It’s not right to love yourself. You’re an egotist.” So let me share something about egotists. An egotist is someone who needs your love, needs your attention, and he or she will always demand it. An egotist is like a black hole -- it absorbs everything but returns nothing.

When you love yourself, you not only have love for youself, but you have love for others. You radiate love. And the world needs love. Some people may think this is weakminded. It’s just the reverse. The Cosmic Self does not bow to the whims and fancies of others, but choses their actions from a position of strength.

Human beings have a peculiar habit of conditioning the minds of their offspring. From the day a person is born, that person is usually presented with a barrage of negative thoughts -- “You’re not lovable,” “You’ll never get anywhere in this world,” “You’re bad and we don’t love you.” Many parents, perhaps well intended, re-affirm these abusive statements, undermining the child’s self-esteem, self-confidence and love of self. Because children learn from imitating role models, they also learn and copy such negative behavior as anger, worry, fear, panic, criticism, bitterness, conceit, jealousy, etc. Love of self sits on a distant back burner, if at all. Some people may call these aspects “human nature.” That’s a pathetic excuse.

The interesting thing is that people who are enmeshed in negative behavior suffer lower vibrations, which seemingly get out of control in crises. A negatively conditioned person becomes contracted, hardened, and is unable to be in the same space as others.

When we love ourselves we experience an expanded vibration manifesting itself as awareness, comprehension, and understanding. Keep on expanding your love vibration and you attain your own form of Cosmic consciousness. Thaddeus Golas in his gem of a little book “The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment” said: “Love is the strongest magic of all.”

Golas also wrote: “When you learn to love hell, you will be in heaven.” If you think that strange, ask yourself why you think that way. When you learn to love something, it means you have no fear of that. For instance, when you love a fear, you are no longer at its mercy, you cannot be subjected to its power. You can apply cosmic thinking to just about anything.

Ever since the dawn of peoplekind, the great teachers have told us: “Love yourself.” Paul the Apostle wrote a wonderful essay on that in 1 Corinthians, chapters 12 and 13, but who took notice? Certainly not the mainline churches.

You cannot suppress for any length of time the various faces of the negative ego -- anger, jealousy, bitterness, worry, fear, revenge, boredom, ignorance -- but there are powerful techniques that will help you to dissipate those negative faces, and embrace the true self, which is also the loving self.... and you do it without judgment! It’s like magic, really. The Sufi mystics of Islam teach it, so did Gurdjieff, as did Vernon Howard and Jean Klein.

In my workshops “Discovering the Cosmic Self” I share the teachings of the Masters, and in Meditation take participants to the point where they can meet and love themselves -- unconditionally. Most people “live” in the past or the future. We teach the value of living in the here and now, the present. Vernon Howard put it this way: “If you look forward to being happy you will never be happy. Life is now, right now, and that is where you must be to enjoy life and to have life." If you wish to know more of these teachings check my books “Cracking the Glass Darkly” and “The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist,” both available through many bookstores and at Amazon. You might also want to check “The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power,” by Vernon Howard, or “I Am” by Jean Klein. You will be glad you did.

Thanks for sharing this space.

Robert

THE RADICAL SPIRITUALIST FINDS STILLNESS IN THE DESERT

2009-08-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

(This is a sequel to my earlier blog: The Radical Spiritualist Seeks Enlightenment in the Desert)

A Blog posting edged onto my computer the other day. The heading boldly declared “There’s No Such Thing As Silence,” and it went on to explain there are too many interfering sounds around us. Upon reflection, I paused to “listen” to the sounds in my environment.

Even as I write this my awareness is connecting with the hum of the computer, my fingers tapping on the keyboard, the sound of my body breathing, the clock ticking on the wall, movements in the home, the next door neighbor mowing his lawn, the sounds of distant cars, distant voices, a dog barking down the street. There are many sounds going on around us that we accept as “life” without being fully aware.

Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, even reading this, take time out to listen to your environment. Notice the sounds around you. They may be the gentle patter of raindrops against the window, perhaps a breeze rustling through the leaves of the trees outside. The more you “listen” objectively the more you hear. It’s an interesting fact that the more you go into trance or meditation, the more you hear, like a dog barking two blocks away, a sound that will escape a listener without objective hearing.

Listening is a form of meditation, an action which takes one into trance, a relaxed mode. Some philosophers suggest it is the Soul’s desire to be with the Creator, the Source of its Being, Universal Mind, God. If you believe the Universe was created, it had to be created out of Silence, therefore silence assumes a quality of mystery.

There’s no such thing as silence says the blog writer, and in our modern helter-skelter world with the human desire to stay productive and busy, it’s difficult to imagine silence. But it’s a fact, all sound has to start within the silence. Music for example would be a cacophony if the notes had to compete with other sounds. If there were no silent spaces between notes, there would be no melody.

As I explained in an earlier article, deserts are great places for seeking the silence and higher awareness. If you have access to a desert, or are planning to visit an area where there are deserts, you might wish to perform these meditations. If it’s impossible, you can sit quietly at home and imagine a desert.

EXERCISE: A PLACE IN THE DESERT
If you can do it safely, find a location in a desert, away from highways, homes, commercial malls, highways, a place where there is only desert. Early morning or as the sun begins to sink in the west, are good times. Find a rock where you can sit, back straight, legs together, hands unclasped on your lap.

Survey the landscape as if you have never seen it before. Quietly gaze at the horizon. Study it. Allow your gaze to survey any plant life, animals, birds, all the time allowing your ears to gather any sounds of the desert. Get the feel of the desert. Make a note of how your body is feeling. If your false self – the ego – suggests this is all a waste of time, impartially observe the thought and let it float away. When you are in tune with your environment, gently close your eyes.

You may achieve a very good level of being conscious of the silence. It is unlikely to be very quiet, but whatever the sounds or lack of sounds are, mentally observe them. Be conscious of the place and its vibrations.

At some stage in the process, if you feel nervous, say a prayer of protection to whoever you pray to, or surround yourself in a cocoon of white light. I always assume the Quester lives on a good, positive vibration.

If you perform this listening-to-the-desert exercise for twenty minutes or half an hour, or return for fifteen to twenty minutes on a regular basis, you will start to hear things above and beyond the “silence” of the desert. You may start to hear a soft purring deep in the Earth – that’s probably the Earth – Gaia – breathing.

You may also start to hear voices. Ask, “Do you come with love and light?” and they should respond positively. If they hesitate, consider the response a negative, and say to them, “Return from whence you came and go with love and light.”

Once you are in the Silence of the Desert you may simply “Be” for twenty minutes or half an hour. When you are ready to leave, thank the desert for its hospitality and thank any spirits that may have popped by.

If you like the idea of meditating in the desert, but do not like being alone, take a companion who wishes to do the same thing, and meditate together, but resist the inclination to talk to one another.

If you persist in this exercise, there will come a time when you may well feel an infinite warmth, an infinite presence that is beyond all description. Do not imagine what it will be like, that’s the False Self talking and resorting to old memories. Allow yourself to be surprised.

THE DESERT OF THE INNER SELF
If you do not have a physical desert within easy reach, find a quiet place, a room, a gazebo in the garden, and relax there. I always recommend that meditators have a special room in the home, a place where the vibrations are soft and there is a sense of spirit. Make yourself comfortable, either sitting up or lying down. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Simply observe your body breathing in and breathing out. Do this for a couple of minutes, and you will find a very relaxed state of consciousness occurring.

Now, imagine you are in a desert. Create a desert in your mind and perform all the things I mentioned above. Sense you are there. Imagine you can bend down and touch the soft sand. Create a rock in your mind, sit on it and let your hands, your fingers feel the rock. Image a soft, warm desert breeze stirring around you. Sense the morning sunrise or the setting sun.

It may not be quite the same, but once you close your eyes in silence and become aware of the “desert” around you, it will bring about a peace that is beyond all understanding. Practice this meditation for several days and each time the desert will become more real. Keep a record of your experiences. One helpful hint: If you cannot get to a real desert, find some good photographs and study them prior to your meditation.

You may not find the complete silence in any of these meditation exercises, but you will find a stillness. Above all, maintain a good vibration. Work to love yourself unconditionally. It is the most valuable wisdom you can achieve. (If you need help, my book “Cracking the Glass Darkly” explains how you can clear the mind of limitations and learn to love yourself unconditionally.)

Whatever you do, you will come to know that there is in your life, a special place where you can shut out the helter-skelter of the world, and be together with your higher self, the True Self, and ascended beings, and always, always experience the warmth and love of the Universal Mind.

Remember, many of the world’s great teachers – and their students – have discovered peace, knowledge and truth in the desert. Blessings.

(For the reader: The above essay is made up of notes I am preparing for my third book. Provisional title: “The Healing Path of the Radical Spiritualist.” ©

THE RADICAL SPIRITUALIST SEEKS ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE DESERT

2009-07-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

By Robert Egby
When I browse my memory of experiences in the deserts of the world, it seems as if I was living in a time warp. In the early 1950s, I celebrated my 21st birthday sitting with friends in a tent, eating ham and drinking Stella beer, a really potent brew that is still produced in Egypt.

The place was El Firdan, midway between Port Said and Suez. A short distance to the east was the Suez Canal, that maritime artery connecting the occident with the orient. To the west, a wretched, dank, polluted waterway dug by Ferdinand de Lesseps, strangely called the Sweetwater canal. It may have been sweet, and provided drinkable water when the workers were digging the canal in the 1860s but it soon became unpotable.

When the British and French Armed Forces invaded Suez in 1956, the Brits were warned “Your life depends on it: Stay out of the Sweetwater Canal.” The French Foreign Legionnaires, well, they swam and bathed in it.

The desert has always appealed to me. I was learning to be a photographer and my friend and colleague in the air force, Peter Dance was enthusiastically studying shells and wished to explore the Egyptian Desert. At first glance the landscape appeared barren, neglected and torn by relentless winds. Small bushes, dotted the landscape as if seeking an angel of mercy or at least a rain shower.

But Peter already knew the habits of shells. On hands and knees he explored the bushes and found snails galore, and as he did so, I photographed his findings. Somewhere, sometime in our explorations he announced he was looking for a “sinistral,” a shell that is formed anti-clockwise. From this I gathered that the majority of shells appear clockwise. And so, for all my life, even today, whenever I see a snail or any other gastropod, my thoughts return to the desert and I check to see if it’s a sinistral.

Deserts intrigue me. There is a peculiar property that they possess. It’s called silence. If you are geared to an urban, helter-skelter life clinging to the never-ending roller coaster, the sudden experience of the desert’s silence can be devastating, frightening. It is good advice to learn to relax and meditate before seeking the silence of the desert.

A whole lot of interesting spiritual people have sought the stillness of the desert and the spiritual benefits it does bestow. Gautama Buddha chose to sit under a Bodhi tree in the scorched, desolate landscape at Pataliputra in north-east India. Mohammed frequently went to a cave in the Arabian Desert a few miles out of Mecca, where he would spend months in prayer and meditation.

Jesus, the Galilean teacher and healer is reported to have spent forty days in the desert before starting his ministry. Saul of Tarsus, after being temporarily blinded by cosmic consciousness on the road to Damascus, changed his name to Paul and spent three years in the desert before starting his evangelical work.

In more recent times T.E Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia spent years in and around the Jordanian Desert. At a place called Wadi Rum where Lawrence had his headquarters, there is a distinctive rock formation with seven columns. That gave him the title of his classic book “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” in 1922.

In the early chaotic days of the Christian religion, spiritual men and women feeling threatened, fled to the quiet of the Sinai and Egyptian deserts, built refuge monasteries and ultimately, for safety reasons, buried prized, religious texts in earthenware jars below the desert sands. In 1945 some Egyptian farmers found such a jar containing thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices that have formed the Gnostic Bible, which gives deeper insights into the teachings of Jesus.

After my Royal Air Force days, I stayed in the Middle East and worked as a journalist and news photographer. I walked the deserts in Iraq (when they had a king), Syria, Jordan, and Libya. The silence of the deserts was always appealing, and this is before I became involved in metaphysics and mysticism.

But deserts are not necessarily peaceful and occasionally the silence is brutally shaken.
In 1961 I was sent to Libya to cover the 20th anniversary reunion of the “Rats of Tobruk”. They were British and Australian survivors of the famous 1941 battle at the Mediterranean port-town of Tobruk. One quiet afternoon I started to wander off into desert.

“Where the hell are you going?” cried Don Scott-Reid the Air Ministry PR who set up the event. “Don’t you know it’s hell out there?” Returning to the vehicle, Donald pointed to hundreds of little “mole hills” dotting the sands. “Land mines! The place is swarming with them. Planted by the Italians, Germans, British and Australians, whoever was fighting here.” Two decades of desert winds had blown the sand away revealing most, but not all of the lethal explosives.

Next day we were driving back to Tobruk from El Adem we glimpsed a solitary arab walking across the desert. Even as we watched, a mine shattered the quiet, and as the smoke cleared we could make out the heaped remains of a man. Years later, when Princess Diana talked of land mines my mind always went back to that day near Tobruk. Many years later when I spent several hours meditating in the desert north of Pheonix on the way to Sedona, I pondered how lucky Americans are to be relatively free of desert wars and land mines.

But deserts can be places of beauty and for those mentally prepared for the silence that most offer, they can prompt enlightening experiences. The spiritual philosopher Paul Bunyan, who incidentally spent the last twenty years of his life in relative obscurity wrote: “The Stillness has so much to give mankind, yet mankind ignores or neglects it.”

Many deserts are places where men and women can experience the stillness of mind. Total relief from the chaotic, materialistic-driven existences of the urban lifestyle. For questers of higher awareness, higher consciousness, there is a quality that takes one back to the silence and security of the womb, a blissful peace, when all that crippling mind chatter and driving thought-patterns become silenced.

The silence of the desert may not come to the quester at first. One has to work at it. So, it is best to be prepared, learn the basics of meditation where the body and the mind are relaxed. If you have an ego that abhors the idea of finding the desert silence, you may need to work on that. How to do that is in my book “Cracking the Glass Darkly.” Easy, effective exercises will prepare you for a spiritual meditation in any desert. If you are already spiritually inclined but still have limitations or blocks, you will find guidance in “The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist.”

Incidentally, while you may find the Silence, the deep stillness in a desert, chances are, if your mind is quiet and receptive, you may also receive enlightenment, you may well discover your True Self. You may also encounter the Universal Mind, that loving voice that so many master teachers have sought in the deserts of the world, the God Force.

NOTE: Peter Dance, the shell-collector of my early years went on to become a world-expert in Conchology, and now lives in the north of England. In photography I went on to receive an Honorary Mention in the British Press Photos of the Year (1956) and won a list of awards in documentaries for radio in Canada.

If you do experience the Silence and Stillness in the desert of your choice, drop me a line. I would much like to hear of your experiences. The books I mentioned above are available in many bookstores and at amazon.com. ©

ANIMISIM: DOES SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS EXIST IN ALL THINGS?

2009-07-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

There is an ancient legend that says that when God created Adam and Eve, He recognized the fact He needed to watch over them, so He created cats and dogs and instructed them to be constant companions to human beings, and added: “I will watch them through your eyes.”

Far fetched? If you were an animist, you wouldn’t think so. Modern animists, like their distant ancestors, believe that everything, particularly animals, contains a spirit or a soul. Animism is the belief in innumerable spiritual beings concerned with human affairs and can help or harm man’s interests. In animism a soul or spirit being is attributed to and is indwelling in all animate and inanimate entities.

British anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917) in his work, Primitive Culture, indicates that possibly all religions came from this type of belief. In full blown animism nothing is really inanimate, everything is alive with spirit, active or not. Tylor observed, they regard every individual as endowed not only with a life-spirit but also with a phantom, such as appears to others in dreams or visions. Animism, wrote Tylor, is universal. It dates back to the earliest humans and continues to exist today, making it the oldest form of religious belief on earth.

According to EMT, the Educational Media and Technology Consortium based in San Bernadino, California, “Animism is thought to be one of the earliest types of spiritualism practiced by humans.”

In the sixth century BC, Pythagoras and Plato hypothesized that many peoples without written traditions believe that spirits or souls animate the whole universe and this was the vital principle of life -- a theory, incidentally, featured in the Star Wars movies, where Luke Skywalker must come to understand “The Force” and its mystical powers if he is to succeed in his quest.

Pythagoras, Herodotus and Plato studied animism, the afterlife, and general theology in Egypt. The eastern Mediterranean country, which had long been known as the cradle of civilization, science and religion. It is one reason -- if not the main reason -- why modern thought forms owe so much to their writings.

The Egyptians were the first to say that the soul of man is immortal. Consequently life was very important to the Egyptian. Earth life was but a first step of a short period of time in an immense career. The Doctrine of a future life and a future judgment is apparent in their ceremonies, the pictures on the tombs and the papyrus Book of the Dead.

Egyptian worship provided transmigration through all bodily forms -- completely incarnating God -- and making every type of animals’ existence divine. So this became the worship of animals -- a fact that caused astonishment to many outsiders.

The worship of Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis, the representative of Osiris, the God of death and rebirth, the underworld and the earth. was extremely important. The jackal, renowned for raiding graves, was made the jackal-god, Anubis. Anubis was the main god for weighing the heart and deciding who could get into the afterlife. Then there was the falcon-god Horus, the god of light.

The Egyptians believed in many gods, each of whom had special powers and responsibilities. There was never just one god; each aspect of their lives merited its own deity. The worship of individual gods fluctuated over time, usually as new Pharaohs took over and demanded loyalty to their personal favorites.

The critical and profound force within the Egyptian religion was in their belief of continuity of life. There was and is no such thing as death. In the beliefs of the ancient world, the soul is that part of you that you can never lose nor abandon. The Egyptian priests taught that your soul is not just who you are. Your soul does not just belong to you - your soul is you. You will never lose your soul. The Devil cannot take it away from you, no matter what you sign. Your soul can forget all the names and experiences of your many-layered human life, but your soul will always be you, the sense within your flesh that feels like you. It is in the stories of Osiris that the soul's substance is explored.

The Hebrews, the enslaved people of Israel were openly exposed to the Egyptian religion between Joseph and the Exodus, a span of 400 years. To counteract Egyptian teachings, Moses had to be tough and lay down the law -- God’s Law. He did this while the Jews roamed Sinai. In Mosaism there is no trace of the doctrine of future life. Moses gave no account of the judgment of souls after death; the long journey and multiform experiences of the next life; nothing of a future resurrection and return to the body. He taught nothing of the myths, transmigration of souls, animal worship, embalming of bodies or ornamental tombs. He appears to have turned his back on much of the Egyptian theological thought and practice.

The Sinai trek took forty years, or two generations. As the crow flies, the distance between the River Nile and the Promised Land is about 250 miles. Halley’s Bible Handbook estimates there were three million people involved in the exodus. To complete the trek in forty years one would have to travel six miles a year or about 220 yards a week. Which means that either Moses was a very poor navigator, or the four decades was needed as a cleansing period, a theological boot camp for Judaism. Perhaps only Moses and Universal Mind know the answer.

Still, the Egyptian religion had a powerful influence on Judaism and Christianity. The Jews, similar to the Egyptians established their Most Holy Place or Holy of Holies. The Jews were commanded on the Day of Atonement to provide a goat, on which people dumped their sins, and the animal was chased out of the village or encampment--hence the word scapegoat. The Egyptians had a similar practice.

Christians established practices similar to the Egyptians. Wedding rings and endowments: “With all my worldly goods, I thee endow.” The Catholic priests shaved their heads as the Egyptian priests had done before them. Then there are the candles and candlesticks, the incense, the veils, the altars, the lavers--the bowls of water for priests to wash their hands. The oldest known examples of stained glass were discovered in the ancient tombs at Memphis, Egypt.

One more gift of Egypt to Christianity. It is a phrase that originated in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, was adopted into mystic Judaism, the Kabala and repeated by a teacher in Galilee two thousand years ago. The words are found at the end of the Lord’s Prayer. “For thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, for Ever and Ever. Amen.”

The word “Amen” meaning “Certainly! It is so!” comes from both Greek and Hebrew. It also came from Egypt. Amen’s name, also given as Amon, Amun, Amoun means “The Hidden One.” Up to the Middle Kingdom Amen was merely a local god in Thebes; but when the Thebans had established their sovereignty in Egypt, Amen became a prominent deity, and by Dynasty XVIII was termed the King of the Gods. In prayers and supplications, the practice was to end them with “Amen.”

The Egyptians had it. Moses ignored it. The Jews forgot it. Jesus reminded us. The orthodox church didn’t understand it and figured that what it didn’t understand was the work of the Devil. We are discussing Animism. Animism--the belief that spiritual consciousness exists in all things. It’s the closest one can come to eliminating the plague of duality and recognizing that Universal Mind, God, is everywhere. Not as Bette Middler sings: “God is watching from a distance,” but around and within us.

If you feel nervous about the idea, do what millions of orthodox Christians do, put God away until Sunday. But if that sounds mechanical and you’d like to think Universal Mind is close. Just look at your cat...or dog...and regard the eyes. What do you see? And you always wondered why, when you hold your pet, you relax, or when you meditate, your pet wants to be close to you.

SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT? "GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY!"

2009-07-18T12:37:00.000-07:00

“If you want to develop as a Spiritualist medium, a spirit communicator, or simply a quester on the road to cosmic consciousness, the first thing you need to do is relax, the second thing is get out of your own way, and the third is listen.”

Patrick Young, a British medium resident in Vancouver, British Columbia, used to drill that message into our ears. Some people in the development circle quit, but others persevered.

The first step was easy. Meditation, self-hypnosis, bio-feedback, conscious relaxation, all provide that required state of altered consciousness. But “get out of your own way”? That was something else. Puzzled, I delved into the ancient teachings of the Sufis, the mystical wool-gathers of Islam, Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Yogi philosophy, Jean Klein, Vernon Howard, and discovered awareness.

Awareness is a state that comes through meditation. You commence to look at things differently. You change your window on the world, but more importantly, you change the window on yourself. It’s all part of that gem from the Temple at Delphi, Greece, and Socrates: “Know Thyself.” Jesus the Teacher put it another way: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Awareness? If this seems difficult, have someone quietly video tape you the next time you’re doing something negative--arguing with a relative at a family picnic or attempting to discipline an unruly child. Something emotional. Then, when all is quiet, and you are alone, take a look at the video. The feelings, the reaction you experience will be quite different from your usual self. As you watch you may experience feelings of embarrassment, anger, guilt, hurt, and yes, resentment towards the person who took the video. Carefully observe yourself and the feelings that pass.

You’ll see many of the different faces of your conditioned mind. Your life environment has trained you to respond in those ways. They are not the real you, the true spiritual you. They are the false self, the adopted self which has learned to put on many faces, including fear, anger, indignation, bitterness, jealousy, guilt, revenge and many more. Think for a moment: Do you really need any of these faces?

When you become aware of the false self, the negative self, it is tantamount to shining the light on the things holding you back. All the great teachers and religions have taught this. Hinduism: Discover your true self; George Gurdjieff: Wake up!; the Christian New Testament: Be born again; Zen: Let the mind be silent; Buddhism: Abandon egotism; Mysticism: See things as they really are.

This process changes your level of consciousness, raises your vibration. Becoming aware is only part of the task of allowing the real self to surface. Work to be aware without judging, without expressing an opinion, without criticism, without comment--nothing. Just be aware. Cast the light of awareness on a negative, and mentally watch what happens.

As you practice your meditation in preparation for unfoldment, and work on your awareness, you will find yourself “getting out of your own way,” and when you start to receive messages or information from Spirit teachers and others, you will enjoy an expanded consciousness and the beautiful qualities that are part of it: a growing self confidence, right thinking and a growing unconditional love of self. Awareness helps you to stop identifying yourself with the negative self.

As my old medium teacher said so long ago, “listen.” It is imperative that students listen with an open mind. The critical thing about modern Spiritualism is that the messages need to be accurate. If one’s mind is cluttered with countless mind-chatters, if one’s mind carries negative bias, negative opinions, hurts and fears, chances are the faces of the false self will reflect on the accuracy of those messages.

As the M.H. and E.W. Wallis wrote in great book A Guide to Mediumship, “When we hold aloft the lamp of knowledge we fearlessly tread the path.” More, as Hudson Tuttle states in Mediumship and Its Laws,” The medium who is unbiased in his own mind cannot be lead away from right-doing by the influence of mortals or spirits.”

Some people may scoff at the idea that their subconscious mind or the ego-self will interfere in the spirit accuracy of message process. Really? Little voices from our past continue to prompt our actions every minute of every hour of every day. Unchecked, unrecognized they can and will influence spirit communications. For instance, I once knew a student medium who would not pass on any message that was not “Christian,” and anything that was not “positive.” A well intended person, her bias undermined her efforts. Problem was we had two Buddhists and a Sikh in the small development group.

Imagine the old Western Union telegraph system where the well-intended operator changed the message between the sender and the receiver. It would create chaos, disbelief, and accusations of fraud, among other things.

And remember, whenever a medium is working, he or she is always under investigation.

Daniel Day Walton, who was on the executive of the American Society for Psychical Research in the 1930s said: “The practice of mediumship is a rough path to tread, and a dangerous one....”the medium must not only struggle with the unknown personal strains and stresses that accompany production of phenomena, but when submitting to investigation by scientists and others of inquiring mind, he must run the danger of misrepresentation, misinterpretation and dishonesty in conducting or reporting the experiments.”

Then, on top of that, one has “the unlovely aspects of human nature--bias, prejudice, selfish aims and ulterior motives quite unrelated to the supposed ends of scientific investigation.”

That’s why it is important to get out of your own way, get the so-called coloring out of your messages, and allow accuracy to prevail.

The way to unfoldment and mediumistic training is through a Home Circle, normally of seven to nine people. Described as “The Soul and Salvation of Spiritualism,” and under the tutorage of a good medium-teacher on the Earth Plane, and a Control or Spirit-Teacher from the Other Side, the dedicated student will find the correct path to developing the latent powers of mediumship. The advantage in the Home Circle is students have the benefit of getting personal attention by the medium.

The student who is not 100% positive about mediumship and may lack self-motivation and perhaps, self-confidence, may find development in an Organized Group or Circle, normally held in a Church, a club room, or a large private home. Here the group or class may be up to thirty strong, and the teachings and training will be close to that of the Home Circle, but the individual attention can be missing.

There is another way--independent study, and the student here must set up his or her own study program. While it allows great freedom of choice, it does lack the inter-action by (1) a good and experienced medium-teacher, and (2) group expressions.

It’s wise to be familiar and understand the Natural Laws that govern mediumship. These are the Laws of Attraction, Control, Vibration, Cause and Effect, Order, Harmony, Compensation and the Law of Mediumship. Millions of folk the world over have mediumistic abilities, and are unaware because they know nothing about the Laws governing Mediumship. This is like a man or a woman going about their lives unable to speak because they didn’t know they could, or couldn’t see because they didn’t know how to open their eyes.

And yes, wherever you develop, and whatever path you take, Spirit helpers, Spirit Teachers are there standing by to assist. You will attract the right spirits into your life, depending on how you work those Natural Laws of Attraction and Vibration.

It might sound crude, but one thing not many Spiritualists promote to upcoming students, is this: “Shop around for a good medium-teacher. Take a look at students, now mediums, assisted by the medium- teacher. ” When you find a medium-teacher that feels right for you, and your intuition (plus spirits) will help you, lock on to him or her. They’re worth their weight in gold--spiritual gold that is. There are some great mediums who are poor teachers, and there are some brilliant teachers who are poor mediums. And there are some who are very good at mediumship and teaching. Be guided by your higher awareness, your own spirit, your true self.

If you spot a medium-teacher, and those little voices pipe up: “We don’t like his face,” or “She’s cute,” or “He’s a disciplinarian. I’m not going to like him,” or “She doesn’t look like a medium,” recognize it for what it is, that old, conditioned ego-self. Recognize that you are still standing in your own light.

Make a commitment to get out of your own way. You’ll be glad you did.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This was an article written in 1999 that was the basis of my first book “Cracking the Glass Darkly,” which again was the predecessor of my second book “The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist,” both of which are available at most bookstores and Amazon.com under “Robert Egby”.
The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist

TELEPATHY WITH A PSI!

2009-07-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

It was a chilly March evening in 1977 and I was feeling crushed and tired standing on a commuter bus in Vancouver. People read books, snoozed, or conversed in muffled voices above the sounds of the bus’s diesel. I clung to the passenger rails. Suddenly a voice came out of nowhere: “Bobby...Bobby...” It was as clear as a bell. I twisted round. It sounded like my father. But he was in England, half way round the earth. Naturally it wasn’t him. I felt foolish.

The voice came again, urgent and insistent. “Bobby...I just wanted you to know I love you, son.”

Confused and shaken by these vivid thoughts, I reached home. A few minutes later, my sister Diane called from Bournemouth, 7,000 miles away in England. “Dad died about half an hour ago,” she said. “He asked for you.”

Telepathy or thought transference, or as the Russians call it, biological communication, is the inter-communication between mind and mind, or as one used to consider in the early days, between brain and brain. When one considers all the various aspects and classifications of psychic phenomena there is none that succeeds in attracting attention more than telepathy, or thought-transference. No, it’s not mind-reading as some of the uninformed might readily suggest.

Early researchers realized there is practically no department of psychic phenomena on which it has not some bearing. Having said that, it is also recognized by clinicians and scientists that telepathy can stand alone as a field of psychology, where researchers can work unhampered by an “unknown” spirit world, which would automatically draw sharp criticism from orthodox quarters.

Thought-transference was practiced by the ancients, but it was only with the advent of modern Spiritualism and the study of psychic phenomena that serious attention was given to telepathy, as F.W.H. Myers termed it.

Professors Crookes and Barrett did some early work, and both submitted reports to distinguished organizations -- Crookes to the Royal Society, and Barrett to the British Association -- and both received blunt rejection, because they did not denounce Spiritualism.

The Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1882, and much of its early research work was devoted to an experimental investigation of thought-transference because they believed it demonstrated survival. Over the years, various researchers, some of them distinguished people, conducted research into telepathy and extra-sensory perception (ESP).

The three principle aspects of telepathy that have lent themselves towards study are Waking, Dream and Hypnotic States. These three are suitable for laboratory testing which involves “control situations.” These were subjected to research by Dr. Joseph Rhine at Duke University through the 1960s and into the 1970s.

There is another state that scientists find difficult to study and that is Spontaneous Telepathy. It is akin to Crisis Telepathy, which incidentally provides the most accurate and most often recorded. Such was the case involving my father.

The best telepathy demands emotion and researchers find that difficult. This point has been raised over the years, but none so pointedly as that given by Mrs. Hewat McKenzie at the British College of Psychic Science in October 1929. “We notice that the emotions are often concerned in successful transmission, but there is nothing so difficult to repeat as an emotional experience,” she said. And that brings up the question of repeatability.

Is telepathy possible through spirit communication? Considerable study has been done since the days of Crookes, Myers, Lodge, Barret and Hyslop, and continues to this day. The problem exists in what is known as the “repeatability factor.” Telepathy, as it is recognized, requires mind-to-mind transmittal. However, there are those who feel that spirit communication to mediums and others on the earth plane, is also a form of telepathy.

Emanuel Swedenborg wrote of spirits communicating with each other by thought processes, and the psychic researcher and author Hereward Carrington wrote “...if disembodied spirits converse with one another by this means, it is only natural to suppose that this is frequently the method of communication resorted to between embodied and disembodied spirits, and all trance-mediums know this.”

Although all credit for publicizing telepathy and ESP must go to the Rhines and their prolonged studies at Duke University in the 1960s, telepathy was not a stranger to the average man and woman prior to that.

The highly esteemed American socialist and author Upton Sinclair, much against his publisher’s wishes, wrote a book called “Mental Radio,” -- another name for telepathy. Sinclair’s wife, Mary Craig Sinclair, had been studying telepathy and psychic phenomena, and one day, she was sitting quietly doodling while her husband was in the next room reading. Mary made a drawing of a well defined clover blossom, noting it was red. Her husband entered, noticed the drawing, and exclaimed: “I have just read a passage which said: The red clover had blushed, and he would return home with a handful of clover blossoms.”

From that point on, the Sinclairs conducted many experiments and research in telepathy and clairvoyance, and Upton Sinclair had the book published under the title “Mental Radio.” The year was 1930. The book was translated into European languages, and in the introduction to the German edition was written: “The results of the telepathy experiments which are carefully and plainly described in this book, stand surely far beyond what an investigator of nature considers possible.” The writer? Albert Einstein wrote a very compelling introduction.

What causes telepathy? How does it work? During Mesmer’s investigation into animal magnetism, it was generally believed that a universal fluid joined all living things. Mesmer found that telepathy occurred while clients were in a trance state, hence it was assumed telepathy and mesmerism were inseparable. Professor Charles Richet, a French physiologist demonstrated that telepathy could occur apart from the state of mesmerism or hypnosis, as it was later termed. You can have waking telepathy, said Richet. Well, he’s both right and wrong.

There is a fine line between a waking state and hypnosis. If you measure brain activity with an electroencephalograph (EEG) there are four primary brain wave patterns - Beta, (14-33 cycles per second) which is the normal waking consciousness, Alpha (8-13 cps) which is light to medium hypnosis and meditation, also the Sunday morning half-awake, don’t-have-to-go-to-the-office feeling. Theta (4-7 cps) is the first and intermediate levels of sleep, deep meditation, deep trance, dream state, and Delta (1.5-3 cps) is deep, profound sleep.

Our average Beta level is 21. It’s higher if stressed and you are driven by a demanding occupation. However, when we day-dream, even when driving a car, the Beta level drops close to an Alpha state. It also happens when we watch a good movie, are absorbed by a musical concert or play, or are watching a good television show. When a person is relaxed, they are conducive to concentration and new learning. That person is open to suggestions. Major marketing firms know that, hence repetitive advertisements on the screen. You may well think you are wide awake, but you’re also in light Alpha, one of the best stages for receiving psychic messages, even telepathy. So was Professor Richet, right or wrong when he said you can have waking telepathy?

People who are highly stressed in the waking state are unlikely to receive telepathic messages. Mediums, although to all intents and purposes are awake while delivering messages in Spiritualist churches, and working in an altered state of consciousness, the Alpha State, or close to it.

Research into telepathy continues to this day. Laboratory conditions have changed since the Rhines worked at Duke University. They use computers for analysis and even provide an opportunity for visitors to work in ESP.

The Koestler Parapsychology Unit at the University of Edinburgh is researching ESP on the internet, and can be found at http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/. In fact, earlier this year they were awarded a grant from the Bial Foundation to investigate recurrent paranormal experiences including alleged poltergeist experiences. The study will start Autumn 2009.

A fascinating point: The years may have changed since the early researchers presented their findings, but the attitude hasn’t. Only a handful of years ago a major study at the Koestler website:

“Most academic psychologists do not yet accept the existence of PSI,
anomalous processes of information or energy transfer (such as
telepathy or other forms of extrasensory perception) that are currently
unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms.”

Crookes, Myers, Lodge, Richet, Rhine, Moss, Garrett, and a host of others, must be shaking their astral heads in wonderment. Perhaps regarding our ESP development with a sigh!

2009-07-11T17:57:00.001-07:00

THOUGHTS ON THE UNIVERSAL MIND

As I work on my third book, I am drawn to recall a section of my second book "The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist." I will quote a section of Chapter 22:

THE JOURNEY into the mystery of God, the Creator, the Universal Mind is a journey into the unknowing. It is a state of nonbeing for the ego. The False Self, if it is any way still existent, will feel cold, isolated and lost as the Quester enters the Cosmic silence, the void. We asked the question a short while ago: Was the creation of the solar system organized by the Universal Mind for humanity or did it occur by accident?

If the answer is in the affirmative that the Universal Mind created the solar system for humanity, ask yourself this question: Is my False Self, my ego still in charge, still manifesting my old images of religion and God?

If the answer was in the negative that the solar system was not created by the Universal Mind for humanity, the False Self is still manifesting. How? On the assumption that the Universe and the Solar System came about through the theory of the so-called Big Bang.

Both answers call for a beginning of the Universe, and are part of the idea that if there is a beginning, there has to be an end. This is a popular, if not fatalistic approach to the Universe.

The Quester would do well to dissolve such theories from the Mind and seek the truth. Why should there be a beginning and an end to anything? The Universal Mind, Infinite Intelligence is just that, infinite, a status that cannot be terminated.

If you see Infinite Intelligence or God as a creator, you reduce the infinite to finite because the force has assumed a personality. Once again the False Self is arrogant in promoting anthropomorphic ideas that God is human or human-like. The False Self cannot imagine a Universal Mind that is infinite and indestructible.

Some will argue that because in each life that occurs on Earth there is both a beginning and an end. Therefore the Earth and the Universe must be similarly inclined. Remember the special ingredient of Prana that we discussed before - the Life-Force? It is the essence every living being. Every cell of every living thing is constantly being revitalized by that special life-force, and when the body, the coat, is no longer required, the Spirit moves into the Spirit World otherwise known as the Astral States or Heaven.

Spirit is immortal. Spirit is still powered by the vital life-force, the God-Force. That is infinite. No beginning and no end. Think on these things.(End of Clip)

The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist

FINDING THE BEST IN OTHERS AND OURSELF

2009-06-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

On my general website www.robert-egby.com there is a link to a whole bunch of self-talk affirmations which I have developed and acquired over the years. One of them reads: “I enjoy showing others the best of themselves. I always accept them at their best.”
So I received an email (from C.M.) asking: ”I have been applying your wonderful examples of Self-Talk but do not understand what it means to accept people at their best. Could you please explain or rephrase this?” So I did, and pointed out it would be a good subject to include in my blog.
To accept people at their best means that you always see the best in people and this always means yourself as well.
If you habitually see the worst in people, you will have difficulty recognizing the best, the most positive traits in people you encounter. In fact, you may never recognize anything of value in other people. And because what you see in the world is a mirror of yourself, you may never recognize the best that exists within you.
Science tells us that humans think negatively about 90 per cent of the time. That leaves 10 per cent thinking positively. We need to enlarge that ten per cent.
Human beings, and this includes you, are living miracles on two legs. Where else will you find a being that is so beautifully crafted, so incredibly intricate, so complicated, so creative, so intelligent, and with a mind-boggling power to love unconditionally. There is another phenomenon that comes with the human being, including you, and that is the power of judging.
It’s an encouraged life-form. From early childhood we are taught to judge, express opinions and comment on people, places and events, and frequently, it’s on something we know little or nothing about. I once heard a radio commentator asking “Should nuclear fission be allowed?” A male voice replied: “It’s the work of the devil. God would not allow it.” I guess no one ever told him we live in a Universe jostling with suns and stars where nuclear fission is the norm.
We live in an age of social media where opinions fly like swarms of locusts. If you do not have an opinion on things, you let the side down. People feel safe knowing others have similar opinions as themselves. Judging is rampant, but it does come with a backlash. How we judge others, sets the standards for judging ourselves.
A woman walking through a city park observed a couple of young lovers having mad, passionate sex on a bench. Horrified, she complained to police, city authorities, the newspapers, and she told all her friends about the “ugly” sexual escapade in the park.
As the months passed, the woman’s anger seemed to subside and two years later she called, asking if hypnotherapy would help rebuild her marriage. Her husband was threatening to leave. Subsequent discussion revealed: “I can’t stop feeling that all sex is ugly. The idea turns me off,” she said. In hypnoanalysis, the story of the couple in the park surfaced. It was a good example of “Judge not less you be judged.” When one judges, one establishes the rules and standards for one’s self.
Work to see the best in people in your life. Everyone you meet in the course of your day has a lesson for you. Whenever you meet someone, quietly ask yourself, what am I learning from this person? What is there to understand in this person?
If you do this on a personal level, you will influence those in your environment. The best way to accept people at their best is to refrain from judging. It brings an incredible peace. Perhaps you might like to try this exercise: For half an hour watch CNN or an all-news television channel and decide that you will not judge, cast an opinion or make a comment.
It is not easy, in fact it’s quite a challenge. Various thoughts may spring into your conscious mind, simply observe them. Cast the light of awareness on the thoughts that cross your mind while watching the news. If you feel angry, annoyed, stressed, upset, frustrated, observe those feelings, and do it without judging or making an opinion.
This technique is called Impartial Self-Observation. Simply learn to use it in your daily life. You will find negative attitudes and habits fading out of your life, and a growing sense of mental freedom and stability coming in. With the negative elements disappearing, you will start to recognize positive aspects in people around you, and your energy will reflect this.
This is the prime topic in my book “Cracking the Glass Darkly” which describes the power of impartial self-observation in detail, along with living in the here and now, and loving oneself unconditionally. It is also mentioned in “The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist” which is designed to help students of metaphysics and spirituality.
A final point: Whatever you do, love yourself for doing it and you will always do the right thing. Have a great day!

LETTING GO FROM "FEELING BAD"

2009-06-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

Letting go is one of the most heart-breaking demands made on the human consciousness. It tears many people apart. For many it’s like a prison, a cage, but there is a way out.

In my younger years, my aunt Eydie whom I liked a lot, died of tuberculosis. It struck my mother terribly, and I suffered too, but not as much as mom. Then in my eleventh year on the planet, I fell in love with a sweet young thing, it seemed my future was preset. Heaven had ordained the love of my life.

Well, the end came when the love of my life went to the County Girls High School and I went to the local high school. It was heart-wrenching. Somehow I learned to let go. World War Two was on and the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force planes were dogfighting over the outreaches of London, and watching those warriors of the sky did a lot to help me let go.

Graduating school and jumping into the wild, wild world is a process of letting go of kids who had been my friends for a number of years. I often wonder where my quest in life actually started. I carried the cross at the head of the choir three times every Sunday for a couple of years at St. James Church at Stubbings outside Maidenhead.

Queen Wilhelmina, sheltering from the war in an old house nearby, allowed members of her household to come to church, which was always fascinating. Lord Palmer of Huntley and Palmers Biscuits came as well. When my voice broke, I quit going to church, and upon reflection, found I had enjoyed my time there. I let go many years ago, but there is still a sense of nostalgia. This does not mean my church activities still pull my thoughts,my energies, they are simply good memories of a time long gone. It’s all right to have good memories. It is when memories limit your life or create dysfunctions in your life.

If your thoughts of an emotional period in your life, and there was a wonderful relationship gone sour, and it still bothers you, even disrupts your present relationships, resort to this technique.

Find yourself in a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Make yourself comfortable. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing for a couple of minutes. Feel your body and mind processes starting to slow down. If you fail to sense this, adopt a counting process. Slowly establish a count for breathing in, and use the same count for breathing out. Do this for a couple of minutes.

Bring into your conscious mind, the negative part of the bygone memory, the part that makes you “feel bad.” It might be guilt, bitterness, anger, revenge, jealousy or similar faces of your ego. I call them the faces of the False Self. The False Self is the negative ego, it dwells on past mistakes, past errors, past hurts.

Now, observe the memory that makes you “feel bad.” And here’s the magic. Do it as an observer, without judgment, without opinion, without comment. You are in a mode of total observation. If you seek a name for this magic, it’s called Impartial Self Observation, and it’s a technique with roots buried in history.

If one of the “faces” of the False Self butt in, observe that too. Whatever happens maintain the non-judgmental observer role, and an interesting phenomena happens. The memory that makes you “feel bad” starts to lose its impact, its energy. Do not become enthused over this and throw a party. Maintain a pleasant calm of mind.
To complete the exercise, take in a slow, deep breath and as you breathe out, say out loud: “Wide awake! Wide awake!” and be wide awake.

After a day or so, check to see how you feel about the memory that makes you “feel bad.” Observe if it still bothers you. Perhaps it has reduced its intensity. If so, repeat the exercise above once more and perform Impartial Self Observation. Then afterwards, check how you feel. If performed properly, the old memory that used to make you “feel bad” has slipped away into the mists of time. You still retain the memory, but it does not bother you at all.

This technique was taught by George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspenksy almost a hundred years ago: See “The Fourth Way” by P.D. Ouspensky. Other similar sources are “The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power” by Vernon Howard, and “I am” by Jean Klein. In my own book, “Cracking the Glass Darkly,” I explain the process simply and provide effective exercises for successful achievement.

The letting go of loved ones, a mom and dad depending on one’s attachment, can shatter one’s self-confidence. If mom and dad lived to a ripe old age, but suffered prolonged pain in their last time, a sense of relief overtakes one as their spirits pass on into the Spirit World, the Afterlife.

But then the aura, the pain of letting go sets in. Logical arguments that it was right for them to pass on is replaced by an emptiness, a space of where mom and dad had been. It seems cold and strangely insistent on staying, but as the days and weeks pass, the cold emptiness starts to fade and eventually comes to an end. The body’s natural healing process has worked.

However, if after some months have passed and you still “feel bad” about the passing of loved ones, “I wasn’t there when mom died” or “I should have done more for dad before he died,” perform the Impartial Self Observation technique and watch the memories impartially without judgment, comment or opinion.

Beware. You may feel you are letting loved ones down by performing this letting go technique. If so, observe it without judgment, etc. In fact, if there is any memory in your life that makes you “feel bad” perform Impartial Self Observation. You’ll be glad you did.

One last word. If you have the power to watch your ego, the False Self thinking, who or what is doing the impartial self-observation? It’s called the True Self. Know you have just broken away – let go -- from something called mechanical thinking. It’s an affliction of human kind. Cicero, the Roman philosopher said: “The Spirit is the True Self..”

How does this work for you? I'm always interested in how Impartial Self Observation works...Drop me a line.

MEETING A LOVED ONE IN SPIRIT ON SPECIAL DAYS

2009-05-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

It’s Mother’s Day and my Mom dropped by to say “Hello Bobbie. I see you’ve written another book. You’re doing well. You need to get that chiropractor to work on your shoulders.”

“You still think about me,” I nodded with a grin.

“Of course. We never forget you. Love you.”

“I love you too. Lots.”

Mom, her name was Emily, her friends called her “Emmy,” died in the hospice at St. Austell, Cornwall in England. That was 1979 – thirty years ago. She had a thing about spirits. When someone close by died, she would always “feel” them around long after they had gone, but she said little about the phenomena, not until she knew she would cross over herself.

Arthritis plagued different parts of her body, particularly her back, and her regular doctor gave her pain killers which seemed to help, for a while. One day, she called the clinic to renew her prescription. “Your doctor is away, Mrs. Egby. There’s a temporary doctor in and he would like to see you.” Mom went, and discovered some devastating news. The arthritis in her back was covering up cancer. They gave her thirty days to live.

When I flew to the U.K. to see her, she could no longer stand, and she crossed over within the month. Before she died, I told her about my studies in metaphysics and spiritualism, and how I was starting to see spirits. “Do you believe this stuff, Mom?”

She tried to acknowledge. Her blue eyes glittered only for a few moments. “Oh, yes. I’ve had loved ones in spirit drop by. Your Aunty Eydie, my sister, she always came on my birthday. I know there is a good place, a place with God. I believe in an afterlife.”

“You never told me.”

“I didn’t think you cared. You were always rushing around as a journalist, chasing riots, bombs, politicians…”

Every now and again, Mom – and Dad – drop by, normally when I’m quietly reading or during a meditation. In fact, Spirits come by our place so much it sometimes feels like Grand Central Station. This is not why I wrote the column. It is because of an Associated Press Mother’s Day article in the local newspaper.

A young woman lost her mother three years before, soon after her 25th birthday, and still grieves but manages to keep it under control – until Mother’s Day. She told the reporter: It’s so in your face. The advertisements, the people talking about Mothers Day.

Another woman who lost her Mom two decades ago said she still gets “bummed out, angry, sad, lonely, you name it, when Mother’s Day comes around.”

DO IT YOUSELF SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS

There is a solution: Teach spirit communications. Help people to recognize the presence of loved ones when they visit. Help people to listen to spirits when they pop by your house. It would pay dividends in the physical, mental and spiritual health and well-being of people trying to fill the space vacated by loved ones and friends.

You do not need a psychic or a medium. You can do it yourself. Here's how.

Find yourself a quiet place where you will not be disturbed by people, pets, phones. Turn down the lights. Find a comfortable place, sitting or lying down. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Mentally watch yourself breathing in and out. Do this for a couple of minutes, and you will find yourself in a meditative state.

Imagine now, that you are in a beautiful garden. Create it in your mind. It is quiet, totally peaceful, and it belongs to you, nobody else. It is your special place, a Sanctuary of the Mind.

The following instructions are taken from my new book “The Quest of the Radical Spiritualist” being released in June 2009. Read the notes and then practice them in your meditation.

SPIRIT RENDEZVOUS: This exercise is designed to help you re-connect spiritually with a loved one or friend who has crossed over into the world of Spirit. It should not be used if there was conflict or outstanding issues between you and the person you wish to contact. If such problems exist contact a professional with experience in spirit communications to help you work out the issue.

This program is designed to help you re-connect spiritually with a loved one or friend who has crossed over into the world of Spirit, and even guardian angels or spirit guides. Incidentally, whoever manifests in your Sanctuary, always have a plenty of questions and topics to talk about.
One point – when loved ones and friends reach the Spirit World they normally adopt an image of a physical body they enjoyed at some time in their lives. This can be misleading, especially if someone in your life was aged 80 or 90 when they crossed over, and they now come to you looking very much younger and in full possession of their minds. We will discus this phenomena in a later chapter.

Before you begin any exercise in spirit communication always address your target, out loud or in your mind. It is important that you send this sort of message: “Dad, (use their name) if you are available I would love to meet you in my Sanctuary.” It is important to use the phrase “If you are available..”

If at any time you wish to stop this rendezvous with Spirit, take in a slow deep breath and as you breathe out say out loud: “Wide awake. I am wide awake.” This will bring you back to normal waking consciousness and terminate the meditation.

Know that your Sanctuary is totally private. For a few minutes see yourself resting here, and allow yourself to go deeper and deeper into meditation. If any thoughts surface from the False Self observe them impartially, without judgment or opinion and watch them fade away.

Now, think of someone who has crossed over into the Spirit World – either a loved one or a good friend – or it may even be a Spirit Guide…it’s likely you will have felt the energy around you already.

Think of yourself getting up from your special place and find an open area in your garden where you would like to meet a loved one or a friend…feel the love in your heart for loved ones in spirit…and wait…let your eyes rest easily on your surroundings…the lawn, the trees and the flowers…you may notice that your garden appears to be lighter and the colors more enhanced…this is the incoming vibration of the Spirit World.

As you imagine yourself standing there, state your target’s name, and then add: “If you are available I would love to meet you here in my Sanctuary.” Now, repeat that: “If you are available I would love to meet you here in my sanctuary.”

If you have followed the directions, you may see or feel the presence of an entity as they walk across the lawn, and know that they come with love in their heart, so allow yourself to greet them and be with them. Always remember this: your Sanctuary is your place and you are in charge. Allow the loving vibrations to enhance your meeting. So meditate and enjoy, meditate and learn.

While participating in your Spirit Rendezvous always come with questions. Take the opportunity of asking questions: “How are you?” “Is everything OK.” “Do you have friends, relatives, loved ones in your world?” Also be prepared to tell loved ones in spirit of things happening in your life.

Do not be surprised if they know already. Allow yourself to express your thoughts and feelings, always on a loving vibration. Having questions eliminates any uneasy silences. So come prepared.

When you and your spirit visitors are ready to leave, thank each other for this rendezvous, and express the desire to meet again at some future date. Then bring yourself back to full waking consciousness, and relax quietly, reflecting on what you have learned or experienced. One word of caution: do not perform this exercise more than once or twice a month. It should never become a habit with one particular loved one. Allow it to be a fresh, invigorating encounter for your spiritual development.

Occasionally spirit connections do not happen the way we would like. If the spirit contact did not happen, or it failed to sustain, appreciate the effort made to make the connection, and know that it will happen in the future. As my old friend and colleague Tom Passey used to advise: Practice! Practice! Practice!

AN ENJOYABLE, ENLIGHTENING EXPERIENCE

That’s the clip from my book. If you practice you will find spirit communications, visits from loved ones and friends to be an enjoyable, enlightening experience. You will no longer feel lonely or angry when a loved one crosses over. You will understand, and get on with your life, knowing there is an Afterlife and it is just another step in the evolution of your soul.

CONCLUSION: The book I mentioned above is designed for the individual person who wishes to follow their life quest through meditation, metaphysics, sacred energies, spirits and the Universal Mind. It is published through Three Mile Point Publishing, and will be available through bookstores, Amazon.com and at the website. http://tinyurl.com/c2yegz

Seed for a book: Paul's "Through a Glass Darkly"

2009-03-02T16:11:00.000-08:00

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY

Paul the Apostle, teacher and writer put it this way: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly;” It’s found in 1 Corinthians 13, and it’s considered to be Paul’s most powerful piece of writing. It talks of unconditional love and is a powerful call to self-examination.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly.” Eight words! What an incredible message!

We come into the world--the physical--as babes born with clear superminds--superminds that are like sponges: they absorb everything around them, particularly the emotional stuff. Children observe their role models--mom, dad, brothers, sisters, friends, school teachers, and they remember things said and things done.

As philosopher Alan Watts wrote in The Book Against Knowing Who You Are, “Other people teach us who we are. Their attitudes to us are the mirror in which we learn to see ourselves, but the mirror is distorted.”

“Why don’t you grow up,” say the voices, and obediently we become little men and little women. We learn how to jump on the roller coaster of adult life, a roller coaster of emotional ups and downs that gets faster and faster. Our companions are ambition, possession, social escalation, short-lived relationships, fears of sickness, stress, anxiety and a whole bunch of others. Often we proclaim: “I’m seeking happiness,” but happiness on the roller coaster is often a short lived affair.

When someone wants to get off the roller coaster, his wisdom and sanity are questioned by other riders, who cannot imagine any other life. Driven in their lives, they have forgotten who they really are. They have become their own worst problems.

How do we remember? How do we remember our true selves? How do we start to clean up Paul’s “glass, darkly”?

Long before Paul trod the dusty road up Mt. Parnassus to speak at the Temple of Delphi, overlooking the beautiful Gulf of Corinth, someone had written a message for all humanity -- “Know Thyself.”

Meditation is a doorway to answering that statement: “Know Thyself,” which Naomi Humphrey in her book Meditation - the Inner Way, calls “the universal call to awakening...a process of gradual refinement, of distillation and transformation”

Meditation brings about a condition called higher awareness and self-realization. Meditation is a process that develops through an altered state of conscious. If this sounds threatening, and a creation of New Age, it shouldn’t. It’s been around since Abraham’s time. “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide:” (Genesis 24:63). Most of the Psalms were written for meditation.

The initial key to meditation is relaxation. It’s a fact that when you are relaxed you can focus or concentrate without all the barrage of thoughts, called mind-chatter, that bombards our consciousness on a daily basis. Meditation practiced on a daily basis creates some distinct benefits in life. Your world of outside pressures may not change, but the way you see them will change. You may also see people around you differently. But more importantly, you start to see yourself in a new light, with a growing self-confidence, a blossoming self-esteem.

Meditation generates a multiplicity of benefits at ground level. For instance, at a physical level you’ll notice your breathing becoming easier and more rhythmic, the pulse rate starts to slow down, blood pressure can (but not always) show a decrease, and lactic acid buildup, one of the fatigue acids that results from stress, diminishes. At the mental level, regular meditation reduces mind chatter, one is able to focus or concentrate more easily, and studying and memorizing become easier as mental stress diminishes. Sleeping habits also improve.

In addition, an interesting phenomena develops: time appears to slow down. You feel as if there are more hours in the day. Memories take on a different perspective, as do views of the future. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th century essayist and poet said: “You find men talking everywhere from their memories, instead of from their understanding.” Meditation brings understanding.

When body-mind stress levels are reduced, the immune system is strengthened by the lowering of stress-hormone levels. In Health for Life, a special edition of Newsweek (Spring-Summer 1999), a section on Meditation said: “A 1995 National Institutes of Health panel found ‘strong evidence’ that meditation and other relaxation techniques are effective in treating a variety of chronic-pain conditions such as lower-back pain, arthritis and headaches.”

There are various methods of meditation, Intellectual, Emotional, Physical, Action and Meditation, Structured Meditation, and Unstructured Meditation, and the student needs to practice whatever method is most suitable.

Many teachers claim meditation is not easy. It’s the discipline that is difficult to sustain. The need to take ten, twenty, even thirty minutes a day out of one’s “busy” schedule to do something, that to many, appears unproductive and futile. Create the practice of meditation as a positive habit, a dynamic on-going process, and know the benefits will start to accrue.

There is another aspect of meditation, that becomes extremely profound, and not easily described. Meditation gives one a sense of expanded universal consciousness, a sense of timelessness, a sense that you and the Infinite Intelligence are one. As you clear the conditioned mind of all the clutter it picked up, you’ll start to realize something dynamic: “It’s all right to love myself. I am lovable.” And with it you’ll recognize that thread of God-consciousness that flows through us all.

When this happens you’ll want to rush out and tell everybody. Don’t! When somebody, who notices your complexion and perhaps your aura looking great, stops you and says: “What’s happened to you? Somebody special in your life?” You simply say: “Meditation.” If they ask for details tell them. The reason? Jesus the teacher said it in the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 7:6 “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” (Matthew 7:6) Many people have been hounded, persecuted and martyred for breaking this expert advice, including the teacher who gave it on the Mount.

One other important aspect in meditation. As you become aware of your memories, habits, practices, thoughts, do not judge them as good or bad, negative or positive. Simply work to understand them. Be aware of them without judging, opinion, or comment. In an age when television and other media promote opinions, this may be difficult. If it is, study your desire to be opinionated--without judging, without feeling guilty. Judge not, was also a piece of cosmic wisdom given in the Sermon on the Mount.

The main goal of meditation is self knowledge, and as you realize a growing awareness of self-knowledge, you’ll find yourself changing. The “glass, darkly” that the teacher Paul mentioned so long ago to the Corinthians will start to clear, and you will see yourself and your life as they really are. You’ll enjoy being your true self. You’ll enjoy being part of the Universe. You’ll be on the home stretch.

In a burst of joyous enthusiasm you may start to meditate several times a day in the hope of early achievement. Perhaps they didn’t tell you about the second phrase written in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Three words: “Nothing in excess.”

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article was the seed which prompted me to write my book “Cracking the Glass Darkly.” You can read all about it and find quotes from the book at http://tinyurl.com/adtyng or go to our page on Amazon Enjoy.

RELAX AND LET GO

2009-02-22T10:05:00.000-08:00

LEARN TO RELAX AND LET GO!

LEARN TO CONSCIOUSLY RELAX

CREATE A MENTAL SANCTUARY

USE IMAGERY FOR ACHIEVING GOALS AND HEALING

What is relaxation? Well, contrary to what many people think, relaxation does not mean feeling sleepy. It isn’t about being stationary as opposed to moving. Relaxation is not about doing nothing, and it doesn’t mean goofing off, doing things more slowly, or putting less effort into whatever you’re doing. You can be wide awake and perfectly relaxed. You can be moving quickly and expending energy and still be relaxed.

Think about this. The best tennis players, skiers, mountain climbers, martial arts fighters are all relaxed. If you are stressed and tense, you will not perform well, and may even have an accident. A stressed motorist is a danger to him/her self and other drivers. The best business people, stock brokers, financiers, are those who are systematically relaxed. A stressed person uses energy simply by being stressed. If you are relaxed, you conserve your energy for doing the things you really want to do.

The following notes will help you to systematically relax--conserve energy, and become an achiever. An achiever is not a billionaire. An achiever is a person who is living their life and achieving goals they set out to accomplish. An achiever is in charge of himself or herself.

EXERCISE ONE: BREATHING

Find yourself a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed for a few minutes, either sitting up or lying down. If you are sitting up, keep your legs side by side, feet flat on the floor, hands, palms up, lying loosely on your lap or thighs. If you’re lying down, make sure your legs are side by side, arms lying easily at your side. Remove or loosen any tight belts.

Now, close your eyes and become conscious of your breathing. Don’t try to change anything. Just mentally be aware of your breathing process. Mentally "watch" yourself breathing in, and breathing out. Imagine or sense that you can "see" the air moving from your nose, down the air passages to your lungs. Then sense yourself breathing out.

Do this, for a couple of minutes, and then notice any changes in your body and your mind.

EXERCISE TWO: CONSCIOUS RELAXATION

1. Do the above exercise for a minute or so.
2. Now, concentrate on different parts of your body, starting with your feet and working right up to the top of your head. Mentally address your feet, and tell them quietly: "My feet are relaxed and feeling good." Pause, and then mentally say it again. Do not rush this process. Next address your ankles: "My ankles are relaxed and feeling good." Work your way slowly up through your body: calves and shins, knees, thighs, pelvis, hips, waist and stomach, chest and lungs, back, hands, forearms, upper arms, shoulders, neck, head, and face.

Even if you have discomforts somewhere in your body, imagine you can allow that part of you with the discomfort to feel good.

You will find when you have reached the top of your head, you will have reached a level of relaxation. Finish it off by mentally telling yourself: "My mind and body are totally relaxed and I feel good." Do it slowly and say it twice.

If you find your conscious mind drifting away, gently bring it back to the goal at hand. Do not feel guilty or imagine the process is not working. Remember, your relaxation is for you. Learn not to compare it to other people’s.

EXERCISE: CREATING A SANCTUARY

It helps in Conscious Relaxation, if you have a special place to go to in your mind. Some people call it a Sanctuary. I refer to it as a "Special Place," and I usually recommend you make it a garden--a beautiful garden, with lush green lawns, flowers that don’t bother you, perhaps some tall trees, perhaps a leisurely creek or stream. You can put whatever you wish in your special place. Create it in any way you wish. If you have trouble imagining, simply think about it. It works just as well. Put as much color as you can into your special place -- color is energy.

If you have a reason not to like gardens, find a spot you can feel comfortable in. Perhaps in a beautiful forest, on a secluded beach at the seaside, on a mountain plateau. Whatever is right for you.

When you have your Special Place in mind, find yourself a spot where you can think of yourself relaxing, sitting or lying down. I once had a client who had a heavy leather recliner near an oasis in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

It is here in your Special Place that you can image or think of your goals in your life, or you can chant affirmations or self-talk. Some people image themselves, slim, trim and healthy, or see and feel of themselves as non-smokers.

You can also use the Mind and Universal Energy to heal any discomforts in your body. (This should not be used in place of qualified medical attention.)

EXERCISE: THE GOLDEN SUN TECHNIQUE

Imagine or sense you are in your Special Place, your Sanctuary, and up above you there is a beautiful ball of golden-white energy. You may think of it as a powerful sun, a healing sun. When you have that sun in your mind’s eye, sense or imagine you can feel the sun’s energy beaming down onto your body. Imagine the healing energy is penetrating your skin, your muscles, your bones, glands, organs. Do it slowly until you can "feel" or imagine every cell in your body vibrating to the healing energy of the golden-white sun. Do not rush this. Take your time.

If you have a special discomfort or a specific place in your body that needs healing, imagine or think of the healing sun, beaming a spotlight onto that part of you that needs healing. Take your time. Know that the healing sun is working. Gently push aside any doubts that it doesn’t work. I have experienced it first hand, and many of my clients have experienced it too. Remember: whatever the mind can conceive, the mind can achieve.

EXERCISE: RETURNING TO WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS

When you have finished relaxing and are ready to resume your normal life, take in a slow deep breath, and as you breathe out count from one to five, then say: "Wide awake. I am wide awake." Open your eyes and smile!

Note: In order to fully benefit from Relaxation, do these exercises once a day, five days a week. After a week or so you'll start to notice differences in your body and mind. It's an investment in yourself.

Thanks for sharing your time. Comments? Suggestions?

Robert Egby,
Center for Hypnosis and Sound Healing,
PO Box 354, Chaumont, NY 13622
Phone: 315-654-2060
www.robert-egby.com

THOUGHTS ON FEARS OF DEATH

2009-02-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

By Robert Egby

Poets and writers through the ages have talked about death. John Milton, the 17th century English poet, wrote: “Death is the golden key that opens the palace of eternity.” Sir Rabindranath Tagore, India’s poet, philosopher, composer and Nobel Prize winner put it this way: “Death: where the changing mist of doubts will vanish at a breath, and the mountain peaks of eternal truth will appear.”

In spite of the colorful, dramatic prose of the poets, most people are unable to accept either the death of a loved one, or the fact that sooner or later, death will come upon oneself.

Death is a subject which is evaded, ignored, and denied by our youth-worshipping, progress-oriented society because the fear of death is the prototype of human anxiety. As Elisabeth Kübler-Ross points out: “It is almost as if we have taken on death as just another disease to be conquered. But the fact is death is inevitable.”

In western Christian society, death is the great bogey. Christians traditionally talk of the dreaded Last Judgment, an event pointedly mentioned in both the Apostolic and Nicene Creeds, and chanted by church-goers every Sunday. The image here is that sinners -- and everyone according to the doctrines -- are sinners, will be consigned to the horrors of Purgatory or the everlasting agonies of Hell.

If that concept is fading, a more popular fear is emerging that death takes us into everlasting nothingness--that you stay buried in the grave for ever. Reading the Old Testament compounds the fears. “For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.” (Genesis 3:19)

“Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.” These were words from Henry Jackson Van Dyke, the American Presbyterian clergyman and author, who lived in the 19th century at a time when Modern Spiritualism was starting to flourish and changing our concept of death.

Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as death. It’s a lie, a phrase used by well-intended but ignorant people. As the great Indian Mystic, Yogi Ramacharaka, said: “Death is an illusion growing from ignorance. There is no death--there is nothing but Life. Life does not cease for even a single instant--life persists while Nature makes her changes.”

These words summarize death and philosophy of Spiritualism: “We affirm that the existence and personal identity of the individual continue after the change called death.”

Since the veil between the two worlds was split in 1848 at Hydesville, thousands upon thousands of people the world over have received greetings and meaningful messages from departed love-ones and others, and this has been scientifically and personally confirmed. Fears of death are slowly being eroded and the light of eternal grace is being confirmed.

Sir Walter Scott, the great Scottish poet and novelist, put it this way: “Is death the final sleep? No it is the last and final awakening.”

The authors of the creeds - Apostolic and Nicene - did nothing for Christians when the wrote about “resurrection of the body” from the grave. They failed to separate the material from the spiritual. Somehow the teachings of Jesus - the promise of everlasting life, were misinterpreted to a connection with the physical body.

Looking back almost two millennia, resurrection of Jesus from the dead, was the one unvarying refrain of the Apostles. The message then, as now with Modern Spiritualism is clear: We have begun an existence that shall never end. Halley’s Bible Handbook, written for students of the Christian Bible, says it: “Death is merely an incident in passing from one phase of existence to another.” Modern Spiritualism proves this daily.

Knowing that loved ones are waiting on the Other Side is a concept hard to believe. Some years ago, a mother called me: “My son is terminally ill in the Vancouver Cancer Control Clinic. He’s terrified of dying. He doesn’t believe in anything, and he’s very depressed.”

Ted was in his mid-thirties, married with two very young children. I had recently heard Elisabeth Kübler-Ross talking on the five stages of dying - denial, rage and anger, bargaining with God, depression, and acceptance. Ted’s bargaining with God was a disaster. “I don’t believe in God or the so-called hereafter,” he said, and he was now totally depressed.

No one ever dies alone, and this was true for Ted. His hospital room was bounding with spirits. One very dominant woman in spirit stood on the other side of the bed. A rosy-red hefty face, her sleeves rolled up above the elbows, she said: “Tell Ted to get crackin’.”

I relayed the message, and described the woman in spirit--she looks like the traditional Irish Washerwoman. Ted’s eyes regarded me suspiciously. “Sounds like granny. She lived in Nova Scotia. I lived with her as a kid.”

“On your seventh birthday you caught your arm in my mangle,” said Granny. “And that was a to-do.”

“That’s Granny!” Suddenly, Ted was more than interested. I described some of the spirits manifesting in the room, and he quickly recognized departed relatives and an old school pal killed in an auto accident.

Ted was convinced, but suddenly developed a great thirst for knowledge. I spent two afternoons afternoon talking to Ted about the world of Spirit, the Other Side, and how this all coincided with the ancient teachings. “It makes so much sense,” he said, tears flowing down his pale face. “Why didn’t someone tell me all this before?” I didn’t answer. The changing mist of doubts had vanished at a breath, and the mountain peaks of eternal truth had started to appear. He was now in the Acceptance stage. He was at peace with himself, and his family. Five days later he passed over. And Granny, the Irish Washerwoman, was waiting along with the others.

Considering that death exempts no one, it is important that we are able to face death wisely. The leading cause of fear is ignorance and fear of the unknown. Other major factors are: attachment, or the fear of losing people and possessions; lack of preparation by loved ones who may be dependent upon the dying person; and unexpressed emotions and feelings, and feeling guilty for unresolved situations. These are the basic points traditional counselors recognize. .

But Modern Spiritualism is able to go further. Scientific research, particularly that carried out by Dr. Raymond Moody and Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, on common experiences of people who have undergone clinical death and lived again. In near-death experience, people see themselves separate from the physical body, and view what is happening around them. Their descriptions of what they saw and heard are often quite easily validated, in spite of the fact they were clinically dead. In addition to this, mediums are able to convey accurate and meaningful messages from departed loved ones.

Spiritualism removes all fear of death. It opens the windows of the spirit world, and the light floods in. It teaches that death is not the cessation of life, but mere change of condition. It teaches that there is no dreaded judgment day, but that man, through what he sows, creates his own negative or positive living.

In essence, Modern Spiritualism teaches people not only how to die but how to live. This was aptly expressed by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, the 16th century French essayist, “He who should teach men to die, would, at the same time, teach them to live.”