Throughout this series, mountains have been an important image for me. And now we arrive at the end of my mini-series, we find ourselves on a mountain again. And this mountain is on the opposite side of the world to the mountain where I had my first childhood experience – in Australia. I’ve told thisContinue reading ““Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 7 – Arriving Where You Started and Knowing The Place For the First Time”
Category Archives: life
Promises of Freedom and a World That Refuses To Be Healed
I’m off on holiday for a week. While I’m taking a break from my laptop my blog will be quiet. However there’s a post or two in the pipeline for when I get back – but you can expect a delayed response to any comments etc. Meanwhile, though, consider this thought from an excellent bookContinue reading “Promises of Freedom and a World That Refuses To Be Healed”
“Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 6 – An Inspiring Project in Brisbane, Australia: The Relaxation Centre of Queensland
In Australia I found a unique Centre – located in Brisbane, and run by an Englishman. 35 years ago, LIONEL FIFIELD, formerly an accountant, set up an organisation called The Relaxation Centre of Queensland, using premises in Brisbane. I spent nearly five years living in Brisbane, and during that time I must have tasted everyContinue reading ““Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 6 – An Inspiring Project in Brisbane, Australia: The Relaxation Centre of Queensland”
Success or Failure Revisited: Top Tips To Becoming a Successful Person
I used to believe that in order to be successful I had to avoid being ordinary. And interestingly, I learned this at an Enneagram Workshop. Since then I have gradually confirmed that many of those we most admire for their success in this world, started out as very ordinary people – consider, for instance, theContinue reading “Success or Failure Revisited: Top Tips To Becoming a Successful Person”
“Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 5 – Secret India: The Land of the Gods and Neel Kanth, Mountain of Light
Does an experience of joy and spiritual upliftment only count as a mystical experience if it changes your life? I believe these experiences gather significance cumulatively, over the course of a lifetime, through the repetition of events grouped around a similar theme – just as in a recurring dream. And for me the recurring themeContinue reading ““Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 5 – Secret India: The Land of the Gods and Neel Kanth, Mountain of Light”
“Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 4 – Cottingley Fairy Photographs and Esoteric Teachings
I want to be a very serene loving being in tune with the universe. So said a fellow-member of my study group at The Theosophical Society, at 50 Gloucester Place, London W1. She spoke those words in answer to a question from my next inspirational figure. He had asked, “Why are you here? What doContinue reading ““Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 4 – Cottingley Fairy Photographs and Esoteric Teachings”
“Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 3 – Sir Laurens Van Der Post, Explorer of the Spirit
We shall not cease from exploration wrote TS Eliot in his poem “Little Gidding”. And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. These words seem very appropriate for author and explorer Sir Laurens Van Der Post (1906-1996), whom I first cameContinue reading ““Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 3 – Sir Laurens Van Der Post, Explorer of the Spirit”
“Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 1: Stirred By A Scientist to Share a Childhood Religious Experience
What’s the difference between nature or music appreciation… and a mystical experience? When does “being moved by something beautiful” become a religious experience? Surely the criterion for a mystical experience is that it changes your life? In my case, it did. My early childhood mystical experiences ultimately led me on a spiritual journey of manyContinue reading ““Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 1: Stirred By A Scientist to Share a Childhood Religious Experience”
“Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 2 – The Curious Case of the Kindly Professor and the Cunning Cult Leader
This sounds like a case for Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson, doesn’t it? The kindly professor in question is: Dr Raynor Johnson, Physicist, and Master of Queen’s University Melbourne – scientist turned spiritual seeker. And the cunning cult leader is: Anne Hamilton-Byrne,a “self-appointed mystic” who led a cult proclaiming herself to be a reincarnationContinue reading ““Mystical Experiences and Glimpses of Eternity” Mini Series Part 2 – The Curious Case of the Kindly Professor and the Cunning Cult Leader”
Musings From a Saxon Sanctuary – A Lesson of History: Success or Failure Turns on Quirks of Fate
Hidden in the heart of rural Warwickshire is a Saxon Sanctuary I only recently discovered. It’s in St Peter’s Church at Wootton Wawen, situated between Henley-in-Arden and Stratford-upon-Avon. In the Lady Chapel, an exhibition tells the story of Wagen’s woodland village in the Forest of Arden. Wagen was a Saxon lord who owned the landContinue reading “Musings From a Saxon Sanctuary – A Lesson of History: Success or Failure Turns on Quirks of Fate”