Watkins Review Issue 24

summer 2010 | issue 24

WATKINS REVIEW established 1893

www.watkinsbooks.com | ÂŁ3.99

Achieving Wakefulness Tarot and the Soul Soulmates vs. Twinflames

Why Kindness is Good for You Psychedelic Culture and the Occult Ancient Hawaiian Secrets for Modern Living The Origins of Arthurian Legend 2012 and Beyond

refresh the mind | heal the body | awaken the spirit www.watkinsbooks.com

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Letter from the editor Numbers have always been infused with meaning. In Japan, the number four, shi, is considered unlucky as it phonetically sounds like death in Japanese, where one should avoid giving gifts in groups of fours (this also holds true for China). Curiously, economists recently discovered that western accountants are ‘quadrophobic’ and tend to avoid the number four as the final digit in their companies’ earnings figures—in an effort to inflate profit reports since a four is often rounded down later, whereas a five will be rounded up.

We all have preferences towards certain digits, yet every story has more than one point of view. Even if the number four symbolizes death in some cultures, there is still ample opportunity to look on the bright side and remember that without death, there can be no births and new beginnings: the end of one season is the beginning of another. I have become increasingly fond of the digit four, and twenty-four is one of my favorite numbers—coinciding with my birthday, September 24th.

Needless to say, I was extremely pleased when Kobe Bryant changed his jersey number to 24 in the hope that it would bring him better fortune. Similarly, I am particularly pleased to be publishing the 24th issue of the Watkins Review whose layout and design is seeing a rebirth thanks to Marianna Gorenshtein. I hope you enjoy Watkins’ new look and content (Day trip recommendations, John Watkins’ Book-Notes, etc...)

Upon reopening Watkins, I researched the year of Watkins’ beginning. 1897 kept popping up as the year in which Watkins began trading, and 1901 is the year in which Watkins moved to 21 Cecil Court (where it is still located today— even the phone number has remained unaltered since the 1930’s). However, the earliest year was assumed to be 1894 when John Watkins had begun publishing his book catalogue and reviews. Indeed, many of the signs in the store had either 1894 or 1897 adjacent to our Thothian logo. Finally, I discovered a collection of John Watkins’ first publications, which date back to March of 1893. In a sense, Watkins has aged two years over the last year, and we will henceforth be using 1893 as the establishment date. Another four has been replaced, but without any quadrophobia or prejudice towards this magical digit—which has swapped places: Issue 23, est. 1894 → Issue 24, est. 1893.

For your pleasure, I have included excerpts from John Wakins’ first Book-Notes—a tradition I intend to continue in future Watkins Reviews. Although I can't guarantee that each issue will also be 44 pages long...

Lastly, I’d like to add that it has been wonderful receiving so much positive feedback regarding reopening Watkins.

These may be difficult times for independent bookshops, but I believe that there will always be a place for Watkins, and I will do my best to ensure that it is a sustainable enterprise that survives well past the 21st century.

Etan J. Ilfeld Editor in Chief Starting with the next issue, we will feature reader's letters to the editor in the magazine. Please send your letters, comments and feedback to review.watkins@gmail.com.

Watkins Books is a unique bookshop specialising in mind body spirit, occult and magick. Established in 1893, it may well be the oldest esoteric institution in the UK. Watkins has been trading in the same premises since 1901. The closest tube is Leicester Square, and we're open six days a week: Tue, Wed and Fri: 10.30am to 6.30pm; Thu, Sat: 11am to 7.30pm; Sun: 11am to 6pm.

There's a lot happening at Watkins as we regularly hold book signing events and author evenings. You can find latest updates on facebook, twitter and youtube, or just stop by and ask our friendly staff.

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Watkins Review

Issue 24, Summer 2010

Located in the very heart of London, Cecil Court is a picturesque late Victorian thoroughfare linking Charing Cross Road and St Martin's Lane,

pedestrianised and seemingly immune from the bustle of the great city which surrounds it. The shopfronts have not been altered in more than a century and the traditional hanging signs announce specialists in rare and antiquarian books, maps and all manner of related printed material. Whether you are looking for weighty sixteenth-century folios, modern first editions, early maps of your area, theatre posters, children's books and more besides, someone in Cecil Court will be able to assist. www.facebook.com/watkinsbooks www.twitter.com/watkinsbooks www.youtube.com/watkinsbooks

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Watkins Review is published by Watkins Books, an independent esoteric bookshop: 19-21 Cecil Court Covent Garden London WC2N 4EZ All the titles listed here, and many more, can be purchased from Watkins Books at the above address, over the phone or online at http://www.watkinsbooks.com If you have any questions about placing your order please contact our friendly staff: Tel: +44 (0)20 7836 2182 Email: service@watkinsbooks.com Editor in chief: Etan Ilfeld Managing editor: Stephen Gawtry Design: Marianna Gorenshtein Watkins Books' staff are all specialists in their fields: Vijay / Healing, Bodywork, Transpersonal Psychology healing.watkins@ gmail.com

Contents

Issue 24 – Summer 2010 CONSCIOUSNESS

Waking from Sleep: Why Awakening Experiences Occur and How to Make them Permanent by Steve Taylor......7 TAROT

Tarot: A Mirror of the Soul by Alejandro Jodorowsky & Marianne Costa...................................................................8 PREDICTIONS

Worldshift: The Quest for a Quantum Leap in Human Affairs by Ervin Laszlo........................................................10 2012 and Beyond by Diana Cooper...............................................................................................................................12 PSYCHEDELIC CULTURE

Shadows Over Woodstock by Gary Lachman..............................................................................................................14 Birth of a Psychedelic Culture: Conversations about Leary, the Harvard Experiments, Millbrook and the Sixties

by Ralph Metzner...........................................................................................................................................................16 AUTHOR INTERVIEW

History is Wrong: Interview with Erich von Daniken by Lee Stephen Gawtry..........................................................18

Klaus / Eastern Teachings, Fourth Way, Antiquarian Books eastern.watkins@ gmail.com

Destination of the Species: The Riddle of Human Existence by Michael Meacher...................................................20

Mirani / Crystals, Tarot, Incense and Essences tarot.watkins@gmail.com

Soulmate or Twinflame? by Judy Hall.........................................................................................................................30

Karsten / Magick & Occult, Hermeticism, Statues & Sacred Artifacts, Classical Antiquities, Paganism, Wicca & Witchcraft magick.watkins@gmail.com

Understanding Karmic Complexes: Evolutionary Astrology and Regression Therapy by Patricia L. Walsh..........31

Hugh / Astrology, Ancient Mysteries, UFOs, Conspiracies, Shamanics, Paranormal orders.watkins@gmail.com Richard / Esoteric Teachings, dispatch dispatch.watkins@gmail.com Ricky / Modern Teachers, Nonduality, manager manager.watkins@gmail.com Jeremy / customer enquiries, help and support questions.watkins@gmail.com Marianna / marketing, advertising and web queries marketing.watkins@gmail.com We welcome your feedback, comments and suggestions at review.watkins@gmail.com If you'd like to hold an event at Watkins Books, please email events.watkins@ gmail.com If you are a writer and would like to contribute to the next issues of the Watkins Review, please email editor.watkins@ gmail.com For queries regarding listings and advertising in Watkins Review, please email marketing.watkins@gmail.com Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the respective authors and not of Watkins Books.

Copyright©Watkins Books, 2010

SCIENCE & RELIGION INTERCONNECTION PAST LIVES PAGANISM

Golden Calf, Tall Tales: What the Bible Won’t Tell You about Canaanite Religion by Tess Dawson......................32 SUFISM

The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam’s Mystical Tradition by Seyyed Hossein Nasr....33 SHAMANISM

Nature Spirits & Elemental Beings: Working with the Intelligence in Nature by Marko Pogačnik.........................34 Huna: Ancient Hawaiian Secrets for Modern Living by Serge Kahili King, PhD.....................................................35 PYTHAGOREANISM

Patterns of Eternity: Sacred Geometry and the Starcut Diagram by Malcolm Stewart..............................................36 HINDU PHILOSOPHY

Differences Between Neo- and Traditional Advaita by Dennis Waite.........................................................................37 HEALTH

Body Intelligence: Creating a New Environment by Ged Sumner..............................................................................38 Why Kindness is Good for You by David R. Hamilton, PhD.....................................................................................39 TRUE LEGENDS

The Secret Land: The Origins of Arthurian Legend and the Grail Quest by Paul Broadhurst...................................40 John Watkins' Book-Notes...........................................................................................................................................6 Day Trip.........................................................................................................................................................................41 Recommended items Book and CD sets...........................................................................................................................................................22 DVDs..............................................................................................................................................................................22 CDs.................................................................................................................................................................................23 Cards, Taro and Decks...................................................................................................................................................23 New titles........................................................................................................................................................................24 Pocket books...................................................................................................................................................................42

Cover image: An arhat (Luohan). China, Ming dynasty, Yongle period, 1403-1424. Excerpted from The Art of Buddhism

by Denise Patry Leidy, (c) 2008. Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston, www.shambhala.com

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The Art Of Buddhism: An Introduction To Its History And Meaning Denise Patry Leidy £21.99 Large-Format Illustrated Paperback (352 pages) “A sumptuous survey of Buddhist art from all

over Asia. Denise Leidy deploys her encyclopedic knowledge to bring the art vividly to life, and her choices of objects are utterly superb. This volume is a must for any lover of the classical Asian art of enlightenment.”—Robert Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Columbia University; founder of Tibet House, U.S.; and author of Infinite Life

Issue 24, Summer 2010

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CONSCIOUSNESS

WATKINS REVIEW 117 YEARS AGO

IN THE ORIGINAL ISSUE...

Waking From Sleep

As mentioned in the editor's letter, we recently re-discovered the beginning of John M. Watkins’ Book-Notes.

The very first issue is from March 1893, and numbered ‘1’ out of volume I. John Watkins published his book notes in annual volumes such that each contained twelve issues (e.g. Volume I No. 2 came April 1893, Volume I No. 12 February 1894, Volume II No. 1 March 1894, etc...) We’re uncertain as to what the middle initial ‘M’ stands for and welcome your suggestions.

by Steve Taylor

by Etan J. Ilfeld

Why Awakening Experiences Occur and How to Make them Permanent

“ “

One of the best books on spiritual awakening I have ever come across. An important contribution to the shift in consciousness that is happening on our planet at this time.” – Eckhart Tolle The most enlightening book about enlightenment I have ever read.” – Ervin Laszlo

Prior to decimalisation the pound was divided into 20 shillings, each worth 12 old-pence. An annual subscription of one shilling and sixpence was equivalent to 15/200th of a pound. A further century of inflation corresponds to prices rising by a multiple of approximately 70.

Therefore, the annual subscription to John M. Watkins’ Book-Notes in 1893 was equivalent to a contemporary purchase price of about 10 pounds. That’s a pretty good deal—each issue was priced less than a contemporary pound!

In addition to book reviews, magazines and occult news, the Book-Notes often included excerpts from recommended books. John Watkins was an excellent editor and was skilled at quoting some of the most interesting passages of a book. This quote on the fate of lost occult books seems as topical today as it did in the nineteenth century.

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Issue issue24, 24,Summer summer 2010

From time to time, we all have moments when we feel completely and blissfully alive; moments when the world around us becomes more real and beautiful, when an atmosphere of harmony seems to pervade everything, when we feel one with nature and a feeling of intense well-being fills us. These are sometimes called spiritual experiences, or higher states of consciousness – but I prefer to call them ‘awakening experiences.’

I believe that normal human consciousness is a kind of ‘sleep’ which we wake up from in these moments. Most human beings are asleep in the sense that we normally perceive the world in an automatic way, so that a lot of time we don’t pay attention to our surroundings, and aren’t able to sense the is-ness and alive-ness of the world. We are asleep in the sense that we see all things as separate to each other, and experience ourselves as separate entities, as egos enclosed in our mental space with the rest of the world ‘out there.’ In sleep, life appears meaningless, and the universe can seem an indifferent and even hostile place.

But in my book Waking From Sleep, I suggest that this state of sleep is a psychological aberration, and it is natural and normal for us to be ‘awake.’Many of the world’s indigenous peoples live in a state of wakefulness: they naturally possess(ed) a heightened perception, a sense of the aliveness of things and, an awareness of spirit-force pervading the world. Young children are naturally awake too. They see the world in a much more real and intense way than adults, experience a powerful natural well-being and often have intense spiritual experiences, where they become one with the world, or see it pervaded with an intense spiritual radiance.

As we grow into adults, we lose this natural wakefulness. This is due to the development of the ego. Out adult egos become too strong and powerful; they

give us a strong sense of individuality and separateness, and so create a powerful barrier between us and the world. As a structure, and through their constant activity, they use up a massive amount of energy, leaving little energy available for us to put into perception, resulting in the automatic perception I described earlier. The development of the ego creates a ‘fall’ away from the natural wakefulness of children and indigenous peoples.

However, human beings have always sensed that their normal consciousness is limited and sought temporary awakening experiences. In Waking From Sleep, I examine the methods which we have used throughout history to induce the experiences: e.g. fasting, sleep deprivation, psychedelic drugs, meditation, nature, sex, sports and music. I also examine the paradox of how the experiences can be triggered by intense mental and emotional turmoil, and how the simple presence of an enlightened person can generate them.

I suggest that awakening experiences have two basic sources: they can be caused by a dramatic change to our normal physiology or brain chemistry (e.g. through fasting, sleep deprivation or drugs) or through what I call an ‘intensification and stilling of lifeenergy,’ through meditation, yoga, general relaxation, listening to music, etc.

If we know what causes them, we should be able to generate awakening experiences whenever we desire. But ultimately, we need to make wakefulness our normal state again. We can attain a permanent state of wakefulness by creating a new state of being in which our life-energy is permanently intensified and stilled. This means changing the structure of our psyche, so that the ego is no longer as powerful, and no longer monopolises our energy.

In Waking From Sleep, I suggest five essential practices which will change the structure of our psyche and create a state of permanent wakefulness: meditation, mindfulness, moderation, detachment and service.

“I

examine fasting, sleep deprivation, psychedelic drugs, meditation, nature, sex, sports and music” We need to wake up for ourselves, to become free of the illusion of separation and of the psychological discord which fills our lives with suffering, and so that we can stop squandering our lives and our potential in discontent, anxiety and conflict. We need to wake up for the sake of the human race as a whole, in order to free ourselves from the social chaos and conflict which have blighted the last few thousand years of history. The only possibility the human race has of living in harmony – without warfare, inequality, and the oppression of women and different ethnic groups and social groups – is through transcending the over-developed ego which gives rise to conflict. We also need to wake up for the sake of the earth.

The only sure way to avoid ecological catastrophe and learn to live in harmony with nature is to transcend our sense of separation to it, and become able to sense its alive-ness and sacredness.

WAKING FROM SLEEP: Why Awakening Experiences Occur and How to Make them Permanent

by Steve Taylor, £8.99 Paperback (256 pages). Steve Taylor is also the author of The Fall and Making Time. www.watkinsbooks.com

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TAROT

Tarot: A Mirror of the Soul

by Alejandro Jodorowsky & Marianne Costa

Many things have been said about the Tarot, lots of which are pure invention and fantasy. There is no conclusive research to this day as to where it comes from and who invented it. No one knows what the word Tarot means or to what language it belongs. Nor does anyone know if Tarot was like it is from the beginning or if it is the end result of a slow evolution that began with the creation of an Arab card game called naibbe (cards) to which were added over the course of the years the Major Arcana and those whimsically called the Honours or Court Cards.

The idea of creating new versions of the Tarot of Marseille, anonymous like all sacred monuments, by imagining it is enough to change the drawings or the names of the cards to achieve a great work, is pure vanity.

The Tarot is crafted with such great precision, its internal relations and geometrical unity are so perfect, that it seems impossible to believe that this work was achieved by a solitary initiate. Merely the invention of the structure, the creation of the personages with their dress and their gestures, and the establishment of the abstract symbology of the Minor Arcana requires a great many years of intense labour.

The short span of a single human lifetime would not be enough. What was the intention of the creator of this nomadic cathedral? Was one lone human being capable of giving shape to such a great encyclopedia of symbols? Who was capable of amassing such knowledge in a single lifetime?

We can emit a theory about its origins that is both likely and useful: it was probably created sometime between the years 1000 and 1400 by wise men and women from the three main monotheistic religions who wanted to unite their symbolic and numeric wisdom and give it away to all those who could see. As the public of those days was massively illiterate, their common work of sacred art was designed as a series of pictures united by a series of internal coherent bonds - numbers, symbols and names which, placed in the appropriate order, end up forming a mandala, a complete image of the universe. The 78 arcanas of the Tarot can either be viewed all together or separately, united two

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by two, then three by three, and so on in segments of meaning that all relate to the “bigger picture”. In its totality, the Tarot as a mandala is a comprehensive portrait of human and cosmic experience, a mirror of our soul that is reflected in its mundane aspects as well as in its most sublime dimensions.

The Tarot can help us better understand our Subconscious, with its dark corners and family conflicts, our creative processes, our material life, our attachements and emotions, our ideas, as well as our Supra-conscious aspirations to becoming one with the unthinkable force that sustains the Universe.

Alejandro’s first encounter with the Tarot happened in the early fifties, in Santiago de Chile, through a sixty-year-old Frenchwoman, Marie Lefèvre, who shared her dinner and read the cards to a bunch of young wandering poets. That extraordinary woman, always accompanied by her eighteenyear-old boyfriend, always had a full pot of soup simmering in her kitchen, a chaotic magma that contained the leftover food the neighbouring restaurant gave her in return for her card readings for its customers. While her naked lover snored away, Marie, wrapped in a Chinese dressing gown, served full bowls of the delicious broth before she proceeded to the Tarot reading, using cards of her own making. For Alejandro, the Tarot has forever remained linked to generosity and boundless love.

André Breton then drew his attention to the fact that the only Tarot deck that was worth studying was the Tarot of Marseille, as it was the closest to the original. For a long time, the only version of the Marseille Tarot was the one that Paul Marteau had put together and published in 1930 - it was this one that Breton favoured. When the young Alejandro, expecting Breton’s approval, naively offered him a Rider Waite Deck, the Pope of Surrealism examined the cards with a smile that soon transformed into a grimace of disgust.

“This is a ridiculous deck of cards. Its symbols are lamentably obvious. There is nothing profound in it. The sole valid Tarot is that of Marseille. Its cards are intriguing and moving, but they never surrender their intrinsic secret. One of them inspired me to write Arcanum 17.”

Trusting the poet’s word, Alejandro set about studying all he could about the Tarot. He eventually came to the conclusion that it is a sacred work, thus, by essence, perfect. The disciple should adopt it as it is, without attempting to add or

Issue 24, Summer 2010

subtract anything whatsoever. To integrate it into one’s life, beyond memorizing it, you have to perform actions that rational minds would no doubt consider childish. For example, you can sleep every night with a different card under your pillow, or spend an entire day with one of them in your pocket, rub your body with the cards, speak their names, imagine the rhythm and tone of each of their voices, visualize each figure naked, or complete the drawings that seem to vanish in the frame.

It took forty years of assiduous and loving study for Alejandro to complete his work with the Tarot. It was only then that he met the two people who would become his main allies in the restoration of the Tarot and the writing of this book.

First came the encounter with Philippe Camoin in 1994. Philippe was the last heir of the card makers of Marseille, and they both decided that they would restore the Tarot as close as possible to its original form. The difficulty of this work resided in the fact that the Tarot of Marseille is made up of symbols that are closely intertwined and connected to one another - if a single line is altered, the entire work is adulterated. A large number of printers of the Tarot of Marseille existed during the seventeenth century. Eighteenth-century Tarot decks were copies of the earlier ones. Where as the original drawings were hand-painted, the number of colours the industrial machines used by eighteenth-century printers could produce was limited. Depending on the printer, the lines and colours were reproduced with more or less fidelity. Those who were not initiates simplified the symbols tremendously. Those copying them added errors to errors.

On the other hand, Alejandro and Philippe observed that some of the Tarots have identical and superimposable drawings, and yet each contains symbols that do not appear on the others. They deduced that they must have been copied from the same Tarot, an older version that was now missing. It was this original Tarot that they intended to restore. All the museums lent them the original cards, wooden moulds and presses. Little by little, they began to restore most of the original shapes and symbols. But an apparently insurmountable problem remained: no museum owned a Tarot of Marseille that was complete, ancient, and hand-painted.

Alejandro then remembered that on the Plaza Rio de Janerio in Mexico City, the antiquarian Raul Kampfer, a specialist in Aztec and Mayan relics, had once tried to sell him an old handpainted “French Tarot”. The price was unaffordable: ten thousand dollars in 1960. Almost miraculously, when they arrived in Mexico, they found the old deck still intact in the late Raul Kampfer’s shop, where his son, unaware of

the treasure he kept in a cardboard box, agreed to sell it a reasonable price. This Tarot served as the essential guide for restoring the former colours by computer.

Mean while, just a hundred yards away from Alejandro’s house in Paris, lived a young woman named Marianne Costa.

Her relationship with the cards had been pretty intense since the day she found a bunch of them left on her doormat. She had also kept a record of the cards, as they seemed to form a series of numbers which, her intuition told her, must have some secret meaning. Ironically, the first time she met Alejandro, at one of his weekly free card readings in a parisian café, was the same day that he began using the new deck. Marianne became his student and then his collaborator, and ultimately found out that the series of numbers the cards had suggested to her ten years previously was actually Alejandro’s telephone number!

Even if it is difficult for the rational mind to accept that nothing in nature is accidental, that everything that happens in the universe is caused by a pre-established law, that certain events are written in the future and that the effect precedes the cause, the beginninng of this collaboration seemed like a work of destiny established by an inconceivable being...

Alejandro and Marianne ended up studing and reading the Tarot together, and have now written this book together - therefore fulfilling what was indicated by the Arcana. The whole Tarot is organized around the collaboration of female and male archetypes: The Emperess-Emperor, The High Priestess-Pope, The Moon-Sun. The initiate needs his female complement, and vice versa, for both to attain an understanding guided by Cosmic Consciousness.

If the Spiritual Teacher lies in the cards, it is essentially of androgynous nature, both a She and a He: this is the ultimate message of the Tarot.

THE WAY OF TAROT: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards by Alejandro Jodorowsky & Marianne Costa, £23.00 Illustrated Paperback (552 pages with 8-page colour insert and 544 b&w illustrations).

Also available: TAROT DE MARSEILLE by Alejandro Jodorowsky & Philippe Camoin, £33.00 Deck (78 Card-Deck & Instructions).

The tarot cards used in this article are extracted from the Tarot de Marseille rebuilt by Alexandre Jodorowsky and Philippe Camoin.

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PREDICTIONS

Worldshift

nature can absorb, and extract more resources than nature can regenerate.

This is not sustainable. In regard to food, for example, we know how much is sustainable: it is the produce of 4.2 acres of land for each person. But the average “ecological foot print” (this is the area of land required to support one person over the year) is seven acres today (and would be far more if the poorest countries would not have an untenably small footprint). Food of course is but one of the basic resources we need to live and to develop, and we are overusing and depleting most of them.

What will happen when we reach the limits of the available resources? When in the laboratory bacteria outrun the substances on which they feed, they die off. When mice approach the limit of their food-supply they become infertile; lemmings commit mass suicide. But when a species with a high level of consciousness such as the human reaches the limits of its resources it doesn’t need to die off, commit suicide, or turn infertile. It can change its consciousness.

With a changed consciousness it would look at the world differently and have different values and priorities. It could learn to live sustainably.

The Quest for a Quantum Leap in Human Affairs

by Ervin Laszlo

“

WorldShift is about an outer world built on inner realization. The higher consciousness that has been evolving through human beings for centuries is seeding a garden of hope and promise. Ervin Laszlo maps this new world and its promise - no one I know is more acutely attuned to it.” - Deepak Chopra, from the foreword

What is the Question?

Had he lived today, Hamlet would say with more conviction than ever: to be or not to be, that is the question. But it is not the skull of an individual that Hamlet would ponder, but the living Earth. Can we continue to “be” on this planet, or will we become extinct like the dinosaurs?

We are approaching a major watershed; a global tipping point. Our very survival is in question.

We are destroying the planet. The production of essential biological and physical resources has already peaked.

Forests, species of fish, and coral reefs are damaged and disappearing, soils are impoverished by overcropping and by chemicals; diversity is reduced by genetic manipulation.

The reserves of fresh water are diminishing; more than half the world’s population faces water shortages. And climate change threatens to make much of the planet unsuited for food production and habitation.

We are destroying the fabric of society. There is growing insecurity in countries both rich and poor and greater propensity to resort to terrorism and war. Islamic fundamentalism is spreading throughout the Middle East, religious fanaticism is growing in America, neo-Nazi and other extremist movements are surfacing in Europe. The gap is widening between the wealthy and powerful and the poor and marginalized. Eighty percent of the world’s domestic product belongs to one billion people, and the remaining twenty percent is shared by fiveand-a-half billion. One in three urban dwellers live in slums, shantytowns and urban ghettoes; more than 900 million are classified as slum-dwellers.

“T

his book will help us to evaluate the current situation of our planet and to find the path we must take.” - Mikhail Gorbachev, from the foreword If we continue in this way, changing weather patterns will create drought and hurricanes, harvest failures, and rising sea 10

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Ervin Laszlo, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, is editor of the international periodical World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution and the founder and president of the international think tanks the Club of Budapest, the World Wisdom Council, and the General Evolution Research Group. He is the author of 85 books, translated into 22 languages, and he lives in Tuscany.

levels. Famine and frustration will fuel terrorism and trigger wars. The delicate balance of our global interdependence will be torn apart. In the ensuing global collapse no country, no population will be spared.

To be or not to be is the question. If we are to “be” on this planet, we must change. Will we change—and will we change in time?

WHY We Must Change If we are to change in time we must recognize the nature of our present condition; the roots of its unsustainability. The term “unsustainability” became current only in the last fifteen years, but the idea is not new. Already at the end of the 18th century Thomas Malthus published his famous treatise on food and population. He claimed first, that food is necessary to the existence of man, and second, that people will continue to reproduce as they always have. “The power of population” wrote Malthus, “is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.” Inevitably, the time will come when population-growth outruns food-production.

There will be more people than the planet can produce food for.

The “Malthusian catastrophe” is a simplified version of the tipping point we are now approaching. In question today is not only the production of food, but the whole basis of life on the planet. And the critical trend is not merely the growth of population—how many people walk the Earth—but first and foremost how much each person consumes, and what he and she does to the environment.

We have consumed more of the planet’s physical and biological resources in the six decades since World War II than in all of history before then. And we produce more waste than Issue 24, Summer 2010

connected in the deep. And if we are one with each other and with nature, our responsibilities do not end with ourselves, our family, our country and our company; they encompass the human community and the biosphere. Living up to them is not charity. If we are part of humanity, and humanity is part of life on the planet, what we do to others and to nature we do also to ourselves.

When we shed obsolete beliefs and adopt new thinking, we change our consciousness and change ourselves. In these critical and unstable times that change can be the “butterfly” that triggers a storm. It could spread far and wide, and in the end it could change the world.

WHEN We Should Change When you exclaim, “that’s the last straw!” you express a fundamental yet generally unknown principle. This is “nonlinearity.” If you load the back of a camel, you can add load after load and the camel will adjust and cope—until the load reaches the limit of the camel’s carrying capacity. Then, as the expression has it, just one more straw will break its back. A stepwise process that proceeded smoothly, “linearly” becomes suddenly abrupt, “nonlinear.”

This is what happens throughout nature. A living species can cope with changes in its environment— HOW We Could Change up to a point. When those changes Gandhi said, be the change you want omething is going to accumulate, the stress reaches a critical to see in the world. In today’s world happen in 2012, but what that point and the species dies out. Unless, this means change your consciousness of course, it mutates. In relatively so others would change theirs. How will be is up to us. That is why can you do that? First of all, get rid of WorldShift 2012 is so significant as simple systems critical points lead to the old consciousness, and the values a handbook for this great change- breakdown. In more complex systems these critical points are tipping points: and beliefs that support it.

-it is the kind of positive cocreative they can go one way or another. They Ask yourself: do you believe that script the world needs in order to do not lead inevitably to breakdown, — • Everyone is separate and rightfully conclude and regenerate the cycle they can also lead to breakthrough.

In the last ten thousand years pursues just his or her own interest. on a successful evolutionary note.” many societies, entire civilizations, • Life is a struggle for existence; only - José Argüelles, author of The reached critical tipping points. Once the fittest (meaning the wealthiest Mayan Factor flowering cultures vanished, the or most powerful) survives.

Babylonians, the Sumerians, the • In the ruthless competition for Mayans, the Easter Islanders are examples. But others fitness the ends justify the means.

• The more money you have, the better you are (and very met the challenge: they transformed and survived. History testifies that the transformations were often profound. likely also the happier).

The mechanistic-materialistic culture of the modern world • People owe allegiance only to one nation and one company— has reached its tipping point. It will either change, or break the rest are strangers and competitors. down. The quest for a quantum leap in human affairs is the • If we want peace, we must prepare for war.

• Technology and efficiency are the answer, no matter what quest to create a civilization that enables nearly seven billion people to live with dignity, in harmony with each other the question.

• For all intents and purposes the Earth is an inexhaustible and with nature. Such a Worldshift is possible. We have the insights, the technologies, and the necessary human, source of resources and an infinite sink of wastes.

• The environment can be engineered like a settlement or a material, and financial resources. What we now need is a positive change in consciousness. With a more up-to-date highway to fit our needs and demands.

If you hold such beliefs, you are part of the problem. But consciousness we could change our how can you become part of the solution? Here you must take values and priorities, and then we a further step: adopt new thinking. As Einstein said, you can’t could change ourselves. And when solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that produced we change ourselves, we can change the world. the problem.

“S

New thinking is not utopian or unprecedented; it is already emerging at the creative edge of society. In a number of “alternative cultures” people think and act in a more positive way. They believe that the age-old saying “we are all one” is not just fiction but has roots in reality. William James was right: we are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but

WORLDSHIFT 2012: Making Green Business, New Politics and Higher Consciousness Work Together, by Ervin Laszlo (Forewords by Deepak Chopra and Mikhail Gorbachev), £12.99 Paperback (142 pages). www.watkinsbooks.com

11

PREDICTIONS

2012 and Beyond

by Diana Cooper

2012

is on everyone’s lips. Many people As a consequence countries who never seek help from outside are scared because of the apocalyptic will be forced to do so. The traumas will open everyone’s predictions touted in the popular hearts and it will bring nations together, united in compassion press. However my new book 2012 and Beyond reminds and a desire to help. International boundaries will loosen.

In countries where women are currently subjugated to the will us that wonderful new energies are entering the planet, and these offer the greatest opportunity for spiritual growth that of men, the females will have to go out and help. This will restore there has ever been. 2012 marks the end of a 26,000 year their self worth and confidence, so they will be re-empowered. astrological period and also the end of the 260,000 year This will be assisted by the return of the divine feminine.

At the same time people everywhere will start to value, Atlantean experiment. All the ancient cultures talk of it as a honour and recognise the role of animals. time which marks the end of the old.

Oil is running out and the world will have to find new ecological 11.11 is a number which was set in the collective consciousness before Atlantis and Lemuria. It powerfully heralds the beginning ways to power its needs. Until it does so, travel will be difficult of the new at a higher level than before. This is why 11.11 on and more people will have to use public transport or bicycles.

11.11.2011 and 11.11 on 21.12.2012 are so important. These are It will become too expensive to drive individual cars or to find both cosmic moments, an instant when the universe becomes petrol for them. Fewer people will be able to travel by plane. It totally silent, the portals of heaven open, high frequency light will certainly no longer be viable to transport goods, especially food long distances. People will have to grow and eat locally. pours onto us and wondrous, miraculous things can happen.

London is the spiritual Earth Star chakra of the planet and Supermarkets and all dinosaur institutions will disappear.

The economy is like a rotten log and currently those it is anticipated that the focus on the Olympic Games in 2012 will activate the kundalini of the planet, which will open who have fallen off it are trying to scramble back on again.

However, banks, financial institutions the twelve spiritual chakras of Earth, and large companies must change, for including the Stellar Gateway in the Arctic, so that pure Source light can pour ondon is the spiritual chakra the way that they work is not aligned to the highest good and they must adapt to in. of the planet and it is anticipated accommodate the new paradigm.

At the same time 33 cosmic portals are that the focus on the Olympic National economies are collapsing starting to wake up. These are scattered because the frequency of the planet throughout the planet and each will bring Games in 2012 will activate the has moved up a gear spiritually and through the Christ energy of unconditional kundalini of the planet” the cogs of old and new are no longer love as well as the light of the twelve rays in synch. For them to synchronize, everyone has to act with and the silver ray. The impact on everyone will be immense.

In addition, six pyramids were built after the fall of Atlantis honour, openness and honesty until an economic structure by the High Priests of those tribes that carried the cosmic keys based on fairness and integrity is in place.

This is happening on a personal level too. If an individual’s and codes. These will bring in special light from the stars to work is not allowing him to express his truth, his soul will raise the frequency of all of us.

The light will wake people up. The highest possibility is move him out of the old. Redundancies and unemployment that those currently living in the third dimensional frequency are painful wake up calls, prompting those affected to seek a will open their hearts and move into the fourth, where they living which brings them soul satisfaction.

First there will be a move towards fair trade. By 2022 will seek to bring about peace. Those currently in the fourth will move to the fifth and feel an urge to end poverty and there will be massive international co-operation led by richer imbalance throughout the world. Those in the fifth will ascend countries to end terrible working conditions in poor countries.

Money will cease to have relevance after 2032. and be able to carry more light in their cells.

As weather conditions become more extreme and the world In many countries where people are spiritually closed, such as China, Russia, parts of the US and other places where dogma infra structure collapses, people will move into self sustaining, rules, the light will open up the masses psychically. As they ecological, fifth dimensional communities, where everyone start to see spirits, angels and higher energies they will ask co-operates for the highest good. There will be a new humility questions which will move them into spiritual understandings and sense of belonging as people care for each other. People will occupy themselves in a way which honours and respects and they will make their own connections with Source.

All dark places on the planet will be cleansed and this will their gifts and talents. For the first time since Golden Atlantis be carried out by natural forces, especially between 2017 and most people will enjoy soul satisfaction in their daily lives.

2022. Less cleansing will be necessary when enough people They will exchange goods within their communities.

In 2012 and Beyond I discuss the future of individual waken their twelve chakras. These are the transcendent spiritual centres, which open when you are on the ascension countries and the continents, and how the new energies will pathway. Then Source energy will pour through such change them. Here is a little about Africa.

Dark energy is contained deep within the land itself in the individuals into the Earth to heal it. However, it is currently anticipated that floods, fires, earthquakes, volcanoes and north west of Africa. This comes from ancient times when hurricanes will be used to clear the world karma of the past. witchcraft was practiced, so the evil of the power struggles

“L

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Watkins Review

Issue 24, Summer 2010

and the fear is held within the crystals here. It is this, which men and women will take responsibility for their way of living.

The general frequency will rise and they will move towards underlies the violence in Africa.

It is from within Africa that the healing and purification enlightenment and ascension, automatically drawing higher energies through themselves. This will can now take place. Healing crystals or bring healing and end the AIDS epidemic healing thoughts can also be focused on oney will cease to but not until about 2027. that continent from other places. When African people have huge generous Lemurian healing crystals are taken to have relevance after 2032” hearts and they will forgive the many Egypt a new grid of light can be set up, iniquities which have been perpetrated on them over the allowing Africa to take her true place in the world.

The powerful moons around December 2012 will cause the centuries. Africa will blossom into a land of peace and plenty.

Most importantly, the whole of South Africa is the spiritual Nile to flood in an unprecedented way, finally cleansing the Solar Plexus chakra of the planet and is currently holding fear held in the land here.

Egypt is very important for our planet as in 2012 light will much fear for the world. As the portals open and are activated surge out through the Pyramids and into the universe, helping again, starting in 2012, the anxiety will dissolve and the ancient to draw Earth into the correct alignment for the ascension of wisdom will return. As South Africa is connected to Mercury, the planet of communication, this country will be instrumental the planet.

In addition, the incredible portal of the Sphinx will open in spreading golden truth.

After 2032 spiritual technology will become available to us and have a monumental impact on the Middle East and Africa, providing a pure high frequency internet, undreamt of forms ultimately embracing the whole world.

As the consciousness rises, Africans will start to demonstrate of power, healing, communication and transport. New Golden maturity and wisdom. Corruption will be a thing of the past and Cities will emerge, each rising like a phoenix from the ashes. honest, high frequency people will step forward in the future to 2012 AND BEYOND: An Invitation to Meet the show the way. They will be a living example that true power Challenges & Opportunities Ahead by Diana comes from self-worth and the capacity to empower others.

Cooper, £9.99 Paperback (192 pages).

The great two-way interdimensional portal at Great Zimbabwe Also available: PREPARE FOR 2012 AND will wake up and become fully operational, bringing in huge BEYOND: Meditations, Exercises light. The portal of Table Mountain will also open completely and Invocations by Diana Cooper & Rosemary Stephenson, £16.99 Double and its influence will enable Africa to become totally self- CD Set. Includes forecasts for 2012 and sufficient. Hunger will be a horror of the past. the 20 years beyond, singing invocations As the masses find their own self-respect and worth, both and powerfull affirmations.

“M

www.watkinsbooks.com

13

PSYCHEDELIC CULTURE

Shadows Over Woodstock

by Gary Lachman

Although they ended more than forty years ago, in many people’s imaginations, the 1960s remain an almost mythical time of change, experiment, and adventure. But among the many revolutions that characterized the ‘swinging decade’ – social, political, musical, sexual – there was one revolution that arguably was behind them all: the magical revolution. To be sure, the many ideas and practices of an occult or spiritual bent that were rediscovered in the 60s had been around for some time, but in the ‘mystic decade’ they all came together, fuelled by a growing youth culture and disseminated by the massive machinery of popular media. In the 1950s, flying saucers, meditation, tarot, and chakras were the concern of a handful of eccentrics on society’s fringe. A decade later and the most famous people in the world, like the Beatles and Rolling Stones, were leading a generation of youthful seekers on a journey within, facilitated by the sacrament of a new mystery cult – LSD – and popularized through an avalanche of books, music, films, and comics that spread the magical message of a dawning Age of Aquarius and a return of lost Atlantis. In the new millennium that was on its way, peace, everyone knew, would guide the planets, and love would steer the stars, and the half-million believers that crowded together, muddied, wet, and grooving, on a farm in Woodstock, New York, seemed to embody the truth that the love generation had got it right.

“Turn off your mind,” John Lennon sang, borrowing the line from Timothy Leary, who had picked it up from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, arguing that the way to personal enlightenment and collective illumination lay through abandoning the critical intellect and giving way to the mysterious powers of the unconscious mind.

But then something went wrong.

The brutal slayings of Sharon Tate and others at the hands of a manipulative guru named Charles Manson, and the disastrous Rolling Stones concert at Altamont, where the Hells Angels, the Stones’ bodyguards, terrorized the crowd and killed one lost soul, made clear that cracks had appeared in the Aquarian 14

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“H

ell raising bad boys of a previous age, like the notorious Aleister Crowley, and flamboyant gurus of earlier times, like the redoubtable Madame Blavatsky, were suddenly as popular as the Doors or Pink Floyd” age. Yet these were only the most obvious signs that all was not right with the Woodstock generation. Even during as famously groovy a scene as 1967’s Summer of Love, dark shadows fell upon the wannabe hippies and fledgling mystics who flocked to Haight-Ashbury to throw off society’s constraints and do their own things. Behind the flowers, peace signs, good vibes, and free love, a peculiar weirdness bubbled, a strange brew that combined mysticism, the occult, spiritual authoritarianism, and a rip-roaring disregard for all restraint, into a highly seductive stew. Hell raising bad boys of a previous age, like the notorious Aleister Crowley, and flamboyant gurus of earlier times, like the redoubtable Madame Blavatsky, were suddenly as popular as the Doors or Pink Floyd. Their message, and that of other esoteric teachers, was spread across the air waves, adding to the alluring appeal of a philosophy that preached ‘do what thou wilt’ and being ‘beyond good and evil’, with results that were not always as peaceful as hoped.

How did the Morning of the Magicians become the Night of the Living Dead?

In my revisionist history of the 1960s counterculture, I explore the occult roots of the love generation, and show how they reached into practically every aspect of the mystic decade’s life. Alan Watts, Hermann Hesse, the Beach Boys, the Beats, Aldous Huxley, Led Zeppelin, Krishnamurti, H.P. Lovecraft, Jimi Hendrix, R.D. Laing, the Maharishi, the Church of Satan, Tolkien: these are only some of the 60s icons whose contribution to our occult counterculture is re-examined and re-assessed as I try to unravel how the dawning of the Age of Aquarius led to some dark knights of the soul.

This edition, revised and enlarged, includes more than a hundred pages of new material on subjects ranging from the Harmonic Convergence and 2012, to the suicide cult surrounding Carlos Castaneda, and the C.I.A.’s experiments with hallucinogens. In an Afterword I reply to critics of the book and explain why it was acclaimed by fundamentalist Christians and Satanists alike. And in a new chapter on “Murder in the Aquarian Age” I introduce readers to the notorious hippy serial murderer, Charles Sobhraj, a.k.a. the Serpent, and the enigmatic 60s activist, paranormal researcher, and convicted killer, Ira Einhorn, known as ‘the Unicorn’. You may have been around in the 60s and you may remember them, or maybe your grandparents do, but I suspect that either way Turn Off Your Mind will give you a whole new view on what was really going down. Namaste.

THE DEDALUS BOOK OF THE 1960s: Turn Off Your Mind by Gary Lachman, published

by Dedalus Books, £12.99 Illustrated Paperback (546 pages). Gary Lachman is author of Politics and the Occult £18.99), A Secret History of Consciousness (£20.00), In Search of P. D. Ouspensky: The Genius in the Shadow of Gurdjieff £17.99), Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to His Life and Work (£9.99) and other books. A founding member of the rock group Blondie, in 2006 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Issue 24, Summer 2010

www.watkinsbooks.com

15

PSYCHEDELIC CULTURE

Birth of a Psychedelic Culture

Conversations about Leary, the Harvard Experiments, Millbrook and the Sixties

by Ralph Metzner The book Birth of a Psychedelic Culture, a conversational memoir that covers a five year period (1960-65), was five years in the making. My friend Ram Dass and I had talked several times about writing something on the psychedelic projects we were involved in with Tim Leary at Harvard, and the spiritual/ creative community we lived in at Millbrook, N.Y., that followed our departure from Harvard. Leary himself had written about those years in his two autobiographies (High Priest and Flashbacks), but we had not – and where psychedelics and consciousness expansion is concerned, there are always multiple and diverse points of view that deserve to be considered. So, the sub-title of the book is Conversations about Leary, the Harvard Experiments, Millbrook and the Sixties.

However in practical terms, it was difficult to know how to proceed in writing a joint memoir. The idea came up of making an audio recording of our talks and then transcribing them, and friends volunteered a recording studio for that purpose. But this idea also had some difficulties: for one thing, Ram Dass, who had suffered a major stroke, speaks slowly and haltingly, whereas I tend to speak fast – and didn’t want to overpower the conversation. Another, unspoken issue that made me (at least) slightly anxious, was that there were some aspects of our story that had left unresolved tension in our relationship for many years – and I didn’t know how or whether we were going to address those.

So then we hit upon the idea of asking our mutual friend, the psychiatrist Gary Bravo, who is familiar with much of the history of psychedelic drug research, to act as an interlocutor, and steer us through potential conflicts and confusions.

This turned out to be the breakthrough that made the book possible. Gary created a chronology of major events, people and places, using previously published writings, and then asked us questions about our memories and perspectives on various parts of the story. We recorded three interviews of about three hours each over a period of several weeks, which were then transcribed by other dedicated friends. The material was extremely disorganized and scattered, since we tended to jump all over the place in our conversations. Through repeated editing, pruning, re-arranging and/or amplifying of our respective parts (which included a week-long trip to Maui for Gary to follow-up with Ram Dass, who had by then moved there) we finally had a more or less coherent narrative.

The book is arranged in five chapters or parts. Chapter 1 covers the years 1960 to 62, when the group carried out experiments with psilocybin, where Leary and Alpert were professors and Metzner a graduate student (one of a dozen who were collaborating on various aspects of the project). The two most important of these studies were (1) the Concord Prison study – an attempt to produce behavior change and reduce the recidivism rate in convicted prisoners; and (2) the Good Friday study – an attempt to induce mystical experiences in

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Watkins Review

theology students during a Good Friday church service.

Part II covers the period from 1962 to 1963. In the Summer of 1962, the Harvard group spent a month on a retreat in the sleepy Mexican fishing village of Zihuatanejo (which has since become a major resort), doing intensive self-exploration with LSD, and starting to work on an adaptation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead as a session manual – which was subsequently published as The Psychedelic Experience. Leary and Alpert were dismissed from the Harvard faculty (for different and complex reasons) in the Spring of 63, and by that time the group had organized a Psychedelic Training Seminar in Zihuatanejo, where members of the public could attend and receive LSD sessions with our guidance and in a setting of spectacular beauty. However, after a couple of weeks this program was closed down by the Mexican authorities – LSD and other psychedelics having become by this time sensationalized and demonized in the national and international media.

Part III covers the period from the Fall of 1963 to late 1964. All of our efforts to organize psychedelic research or to provide direct training to others in how to use them for spiritual growth had to be abandoned. We felt the need to take stock and develop our own understanding in an intentional community of fellow-seekers. The “Big House” on the Millbrook estate was a fairy-tale mansion of 60 + rooms, built at the turn of the century by a wealthy eccentric. A small core group of about 15 people started to live there – Leary and his two teen-age children, Alpert, my wife Susan and I, and after a while the jazz musician Maynard Ferguson and his wife and four young children. To support ourselves financially (now without Harvard jobs) at Millbrook, we formed the Castalia Foundation (after the spiritual community in Hermann Hesse’s novel The Glass Bead Game) and started to organize week-end seminars in consciousness-expansion, using non-drug methods of various disciplines like yoga and meditation. In July of 1964 the Millbrook community was visited by a motley crew of cross-country bus-travelers known as the Merry Pranksters (led by novelist Ken Kesey) who had developed their own style of psychedelic drugtaking in California, at rock concerts with a cast of thousands.

This encounter between two very different psychedelic subcultures was described by Tom Wolfe in his picaresque novel The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. In the Fall of 64, I travelled to India with a party led by the Indian guru Gayatri Devi and spent time studying with the Buddhist scholar Lama Govinda in the Himalayan Hills. Tim wrote me amazing letters (which are in the book) describing life at Millbrook including his wedding to the glamorous Swedish model Nena von S. They travelled to India on their honeymoon and I met with them.

We took LSD on a Full Moon night at the Taj Mahal.

Part IV covers the period from the Spring of 1965 to late 1966. I returned from India to Millbrook first, Tim and Nena

Issue 24, Summer 2010

some two months later, their brief marriage already essentially over. The Millbrook community had completely changed, and in the opinion of many of our friends, deteriorated into a chaotic scene, a place like the one Hermann Hesse, in his Journey to the East, describes as Morbio Inferiore. In the Fall of 65 Leary and I had an extremely uncomfortable meeting with Alpert, in which we asked him not to come back to Millbrook from his travels. This was the event I was most nervous about when we were considering writing the book – but I’m happy to say I believe we neutralized that bitter cup of poisoned memory.

Then, in December 1965, when Tim, his partner Rosemary and his two children were crossing the border to Mexico they were busted for a small amount of pot. They returned to the Millbrook house and he began a new phase of his career – from academic to adventurous explorer, to public advocate for social change in drug mores and laws. I was living in New York City by this time, and I would join Tim at Millbrook, with an ever-shifting, expanding cast of characters to develop educational programs and theatrical mixed-media celebrations, to raise funds for these causes and for his mounting legal expenses. One of these theatrical audio-visual celebrations was based on Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf Magic Theatre concept; another, that I developed, was based on the Life of the Buddha. A hybrid of the two was taken on the road, supporting Leary’s lectures with these theatrical celebrations, eventually ending up in Hollywood, where we made a film called (after Leary’s unfortunate motto at that time) Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out. This movie was withdrawn from theaters only a week after release – as LSD and other psychedelics had just been made illegal.

Part V in this book consists of our concluding reflections on the significance of the social and cultural upheavals of the Sixties and their relevance to our time. Reflecting on the aftermath of the Harvard and Millbrook projects, I’ve thought for a long time that our assignment, so to speak, was to find a way that these powerful mind-expanding substances could be integrated productively into the culture – whether through psychology, medicine, religion or the arts. Because all the drugs have been made illegal, for many years I’ve thought we failed in our assignment. But as we were concluding our conversations, Ram Dass and I agreed that we had not failed – that a psychedelic sub-culture did exist, although it looks different than what we had imagined. I now tend to agree with my friend the late Terence McKenna, who liked to point out that the use of consciousness-amplifying shamanic plants and fungi has always been secret and underground, because of the inherent property of such experiences to lead people to question the authority of ideologues, to think for themselves, to resist or avoid authoritarian power structures and to support the miraculous unfolding of life and culture in all its mysterious and gorgeous diversity.

BIRTH OF A PSYCHEDELIC CULTURE: Conversations about Leary, the Harvard Experiments, Millbrook and the Sixties by Ram Dass and Ralph Metzner, with Gary Bravo and other contributors (Foreword by John Perry Barlow), £26.00 Large-Format Illustrated Paperback (264 pages).

www.watkinsbooks.com

17

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

History is Wrong

Interview with Erich von Daniken

by Lee Stephen Gawtry

LSG: I can still remember reading Chariots of the Gods Book of Enoch? back in 1971 when I was 11. It blew me away back then and EvD: In the Voynich manuscript and in Enoch they speak still continues to sell well at Watkins today. How many copies about astronomy, the stars and the moon. In the Voynich of the book have you sold worldwide to date? manuscript one can only see this in pictures – in Enoch one EvD: Chariots of the Gods was published in 28 languages can read the text. Maybe there is a connection. with total worldwide sales of 16 million copies - most of them LSG: When The Gold of the Gods first came out in 1972, in paperback - including countries like India, Iceland and Russia. the description of the underground cave system in Ecuador LSG: In History Is Wrong you take a closer look at the caused a worldwide storm of indignation. What happened and fascinating Voynich manuscript. For those readers who how do you feel about it now? haven’t heard about the manuscript, could you tell us what it EvD: I was completely smashed down and called a liar. is and where it came from?

Worldwide! One journalist copied this nonsense from another EvD: The Manuscript was found 1912 in a school, led by and so it spread. Nobody asked for my opinion. However, Jesuits, in Frascati, near Rome. It is a mixture of crazy pictures nearly 40 years have passed since the publication of The Gold of the Gods. The situation and and letters, which nobody the zeitgeist (the spirit of the understands. The Manuscript time) have changed. Please - written on parchment - is read the incredible story definitely hundreds of years about this ‘metal library’ in old – and the undeciphered History is Wrong. message in it could well be thousands of years old.

LSG: The cave system is said to be home to an LSG: Since its discovery, extensive library of thousands the Voynich manuscript has of gold panels. Could you tell defied all attempts to decipher us about them? it. What do you think it contains?

EvD: This underground library of thousands of EvD: I suggest it has metallic panels – some of something to do with the them gold, others a mixture knowledge of Enoch. He of copper and gold, others was the 7th prophet in the Old Testament before the Voynich Manuscript: the world's most mysterious manuscript of an unknown material great flood. Enoch finally contains first of all the story of disappeared in a fiery chariot, and left all his books on earth. the church of the Mormons: the travelling of their ancestors, Today we only know of one book of Enoch, but he was the their contact with their ‘god’, etc. But it also contains the author of many books. Where are the others? whole real history of mankind since the beginning with Adam LSG: You also discuss the Book of Enoch. Could you tell and Eve - written by the same Enoch we talked about earlier.

The ancestors of the Mormons brought this material from the us about your interest in the book?

EvD: I was educated as a strict Catholic in a boarding Middle East (near Jerusalem) to South America.

LSG: How did the Crespi Collection come into being? school in Switzerland. There we had to translate parts of the bible from Greek to Latin and to German. I was a deep EvD: Father Crespi was admired by the Indians near Cuenca believer in God – I am one of those people who still pray. in Ecuador. He was a catholic missionary in the church of But my god had to be omnipresent, timeless; he would Maria Auxilliadore in Cuenca. The natives brought him never use a vehicle in which to move around with ‘noise presents that dated from the time of their ancestors, material and trembling’. In the library of my school I found a Greek thousands of years old. Among them are incredible chisellings version of the Book of Enoch. He describes “the guardians in stone and metal, as well as unknown writings. of the sky”, he learns their language, he knows their names LSG: What are the links between this amazing gold library and he learns a lot about astronomy and other sciences. It is and the Book of Enoch? impossible that these “guardians of the sky” could be angels EvD: The ancestors of the Mormons where descendants of - they where extraterrestrials. I am 74 years old and have Jared, and the same Jared was Enoch’s father! They all came become a specialist on Enoch. My book History is Wrong from the same family-tree and before they left the Middle East tells the whole, fascinating story! thousands of years ago, they collected the old writings from LSG: What led you from the Voynich manuscript to the Enoch and transported them to South America.

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LSG: Is it true that the Mormons have spent decades searching for this library?

EvD: Definitely YES. To my knowledge there were three expeditions to Ecuador. But unfortunately to the wrong place!

I give the exact geographical location of the subterranean library in my book History is Wrong. I think the next expedition will be successful.

LSG: What were they hoping to find?

EvD: The answers to all of their questions about the past.

Who was the ‘angel’ Moroni in the book of Mormon? Who was the ‘lord’, the ‘god’ of their ancestors?

LSG: How does all of this lead to the mysterious lines in the Nazca desert?

EvD: Nazca remains a mystery! I am probably the only one who has amassed 5000 pictures from Nazca. The latest scientific discovery about Nazca is in my new book. It will really be a shock for some archaeologists!

LSG: Archaeologists claim the Nazca lines are ancient procession routes. What do you think they are?

EvD: Ridiculous! It may well be that some of the lines were used as procession routes, but this would be in much later times, when the natives had forgotten what the lines were originally for. In the beginning of Nazca there was some sort of extraterrestrial ‘space shuttle’ which landed in the desert there (of course they do not need a landing strip for this). The ET’s were looking for raw-material of all kinds, and simply left traces behind. Much later the Indians saw some of these traces and believed that these where ‘signs of the gods’. Only now

Erich von Däniken was born in Zofingen, Switzerland, in 1935.

His lifelong Fascination with extraterrestrial visitors first found its expression in 1968 with the international best-seller Chariots of the Gods. His books have been translated into 28 different languages and have sold more than 63 million copies. In addition to his writing, he is an ever-present figure on the international lecture circuit, is regularly featured in documentaries and on TV, is the co-founder of A.A.S.R.A. (Archaeology, Astronautics & SETI Research Association) and a regular contributor to its magazine, Legendary Times, and somehow still finds time for his family in Switzerland.

they started to adore the gods with prayers, altars and - maybe - procession routes. In History is Wrong, I clearly demonstrate with scientific measurements: something is wrong in Nazca!

LSG: In conclusion, could you tell us why history is wrong?

EvD: We have writings from the deep past of mankind and nobody cares about them! We have scientific data from thousand of years in the past – and nobody knows about it. Science is not an internet game.

Science is hard work in the field. I wish all my readers some fascinating days!

HISTORY IS WRONG by Erich von Däniken, £15.99 Illustrated Paperback (231 pages). Also available: Chariots of the Gods: Was God an Astronaut? (£6.99).

www.watkinsbooks.com

19

SCIENCE & RELIGION

Destination of the Species The Riddle of Human Existence

by Michael Meacher

“

Michael Meacher is a man of great courage and imagination, and he sees a pattern in life and tries to bring it out in a way that is both interesting and challenging. I believe it will be read, studied and admired by those who have been puzzled by the complexity of our existence.”

- Tony Benn, Politician and former Labour Party MP I always remember the first time I looked at the famous painting ‘The Betrothal of Arnolfini’ by Jan van Eyck, painted in 1434. I dismissed it as a rather formalised picture with the two principal figures stiff and lifeless, and with no vitality or any special meaning in it. I was soon put right and was stunned. It is in fact an extraordinary painting (Van Eyck was the inventor of oil-painting) with exquisite detail when you look closely which imparts a whole new understanding of what he was conveying. The mirror on the wall behind the figures, which at the first glance I hardly even looked at, contains in the minutest detail a reflection of the whole scene, including the two witnesses to the event (one of them the artist himself), with all the precision of a modern digital photograph. But first time I missed it completely.

I have come to the conclusion that exactly the same applies to the way we look at the world around us and the amazing story that science has uncovered about our universe. When I began to examine this across the piste – the cosmology, physics, biochemistry, environmentalism, socio-biology and spirituality that has brought us here and made us what we are – I came to realise as I looked deeper that there were significant nodal points which were easy to pass over, but which once identified and understood shed light over the whole landscape.

So why was I doing this anyway in the first place? We live today in the West in a secular age where the old certainties underpinned by religious dogma and an unquestioning morality have largely faded, to be replaced by a pervasive 20

Watkins Review

consumer materialism in thrall to wealth and celebrity, but equally devoid of much sense of purpose. I asked myself (as I suspect many do) what do I really believe in? Are our lives simply a temporary rite of passage which quickly vanishes away with little or no meaning in the relentless treadmill of the universe over billions of years? Or is there some greater order of things which gives meaning to the human species? If so, where is the evidence that I can safely rely on which is consistent with all the enormous range of scientific data that has accumulated, particularly in the last 300 years?

Unlike some more fortunate persons who have had an overpowering experience which has given them an unshakeable inner certainty, I have never had any such experience. Brought up as a Christian (my mother wanted me to become a priest), I concluded after graduating in Philosophy and History from Oxford that this was not for me. I opted instead for social work, as a probation officer, but then became strongly focused on achieving social change instead through the political process which took me into Parliament for the next 40 years. Whilst that offered important opportunities in fighting for the values and principles I believed in (and still strongly believe in), it gave no respite from the puzzlement still gnawing at me about the deeper meaning of human life and what it is ultimately for – if indeed it was ‘for’ anything.

Despite my humanities background I have always had a life-long passion for science. Over the decades I have read the books and journals very extensively,

Michael Meacher was first elected to Parliament in 1970. He served as junior minister under the Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, and was one of the longest serving ministers in Tony Blair’s Labour government, from 1997 to 2003, and gained a reputation for being able to master a complex brief. Since then he has attacked the government on a number of issues, particularly on genetically modified food and the Iraq war. He stood for the leadership of the Labour party in 2007. A long term campaigner on the issue of climate change, he brings both passion and intelligence to the question of our destination as a species and the purpose of life.

particularly about cosmology, and given that reality has to be one single indivisible unity, I increasingly turned my mind to how it all fitted together. It has always seemed to me strange that some people assert that modern science has ‘disproved’ religion, since this is clearly a category error – science and religion reflect two entirely different paradigms of experience so that neither can invalidate the other. On the other hand they should be consistent, and science can certainly massively expand the wonderment of the religious message.

I decided to write the book deliberately from the standpoint of the spiritual agnostic – not from the point of view of a preconceived and settled prejudice that sought to persuade everyone from a position of Issue 24, Summer 2010

unchallengeable certainty, but rather from where I think most people in modern society are, namely uncertain, sceptical and unwilling to make any intellectual or emotional commitment without explicitly being shown the evidence and being convinced it is strong enough to believe in.

What relevant evidence then is available to us? The book systematically surveys each of the critical dimensions – the origin some 13 billion years ago and evolution of the universe, the formation of the galaxies and our solar system including the Earth, the possible origins of life some 4 billion years ago in the extremely inhospitable conditions of the early Earth, the fantastic subsequent proliferation of exotic life forms leading through a chain of the most unlikely improbabilities but perhaps inevitable convergence to the human species, and an assessment of the intellectual, cultural, moral and spiritual uniqueness of human beings.

The angle I bring to this at every turn is not of course to present any new scientific finding – that is not my locus at all – but rather to ply the question relentlessly: what does all this mean?

What is it telling us, if only we look at the interesting and sometimes hidden detail (like searching for the minutiae of the Van Eyck painting that illuminate the whole and bring it to life)? Focused on like that, some patterns emerge which draw together the threads in coherent but often unexpected ways.

Science has uncovered that the world has been constructed with mindboggling precision. In order to produce the stable universe we know, the balance between the original outward explosive force at Big Bang and the gravitational forces pulling back the galaxies is precise within an accuracy of 1 part in 1 followed by 60 noughts!

All the particle masses, force strengths and fundamental constants interact with unbelievable precision, without which there would be no universe conducive to life. The mathematician Roger Penrose has calculated the likelihood of such a universe being random at 1 chance in 1 followed by 123 noughts, a degree of unlikelihood verging on infinity.

Then there is the view regularly asserted by the neo-Darwinians such as Richard Dawkins that the evolution of life forms is determined by gene mutations driven by blind pitiless

chance. Yet the latest evidence suggests that early life on Earth was in fact driven for billions of years by symbiotic and co-operative networking, not randomly by purposeless mutations.

And most recently, evidence is accumulating of how matter and energy spontaneously transpose into new higher organisational states at certain thresholds of complexity, not only in biological systems, but also in cosmological systems involving galaxies, as though we are gradually becoming aware of some cosmic blueprint. We are indeed seeing the development of models of the universe which are subjective, holistic and purposeful, not analytic, reductionist or arbitrary as previously was thought.

We need to be careful, however, with what all this means. The evidence in favour of the universe being designed is very strong, but that does not automatically equate with a personal God. For that, a different set of criteria is necessary. Religious experience is validated, not by scientific verification, but from quite separate sources: the awesome sense of numinous power found almost universally in human societies, the revelations proclaimed by the founders and prophets of the world’s great religions, the ineffable witness of the mystics, and the authenticity of overpowering personal experience which transforms lives.

For all that, the narrative of the universe and the link with religious experience seems often contradictory – a mystery we can still only dimly penetrate. The paradox of design is that it is accompanied by an uninhibited free play of natural forces, including episodes of cataclysmic destruction such as supernova explosions and mass extinctions of life. Yet the universe cannot be dismissed as purposeless. Even the spiral galaxies display autocatalytic cycles of energy and matter that develop qualitatively different orders of organisation as complexity increases, just like those that underlie the ecology of the Earth’s biosphere.

Other mechanisms too indicate the purposeful dynamics at work in the natural world. A convergence can be seen in biological systems leading down multiple paths towards similar higher order outcomes and more advanced creatures. Gaia theory posits a global

“I

n this powerful and topical book Michael Meacher examines the post-Darwin arguments for God and the meaning of life, and challenges both believers and unbelievers to reconsider their assumptions.”

- The Most Rev and Rt Hon the Lord Carey of Clifton, former Archbishop of Canterbury feedback process, including between living creatures and the non-living environment, which keeps the Earth habitable in the face of external shocks.

And symbiotic network theory shows that cross-communicating and mutually cooperative global networks of bacteria performed the absolutely critical role of pushing evolving creatures into new and higher levels of complexity.

Our knowledge of the external world is still growing. At present science remains stuck at certain questions. What lay behind the original singularity when our universe began?

How does one explain fantastic degrees of fine-tuning? How do we adjust to the rediscovery of final causes (extraordinarily the rehabilitation of Aristotelian teleology) in terms of the self-organisation and holistic properties in astronomy, biology and computing?

It is tempting to posit God as the answer to all these and other puzzles, but that is to be resisted: God is not a convenient answer to unresolved scientific problems.

What then is our destination?

For three centuries science has progressively narrowed the significance of humans against the almost infinite backdrop of the universe, and maybe an almost endless series of universes.

Yet it is pointing now to an ultimate reality, certainly not of the human race as the summit of evolution, but of an overarching cosmic plan of which we may well be a key part.

DESTINATION OF THE SPECIES: The Riddle of Human Existence by Michael Meacher, £9.99 Paperback (251 pages).

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Rather than being heavily edited to direct the viewer according to a particular opinion, each of the interviews is a stand alone piece that allows us to fully experience the depth of the speaker. Includes: Stephen Wolinsky, Rupert Spira, Amit Goswami, Francis Lucille, Jeff Foster, Peter Russell, Kabir Helminski, Tim Freke and others.

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Watkins Review

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Issue 24, Summer 2010

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Cards, Decks & Oracles The Fifth Tarot: Restoring the Fifth Element: Fire, Water, Air, Earth... and Ether Teressena & Martien Bakens £33.00 Boxed set (92 Cards & 352-page book)

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Health And The Law Of Attraction Cards Esther & Jerry Hicks The Teachings of Abraham £11.99 Boxed Set This beautiful collection of cards provides affirma­tions, thoughts and meditations to help you connect with the health-giving potentials of the cosmos. Every part of your life is experienced through the perspective of your physical body and when you feel good, everything you see looks better. Not only does a good-feeling body promote positive thoughts, but, also, positive thoughts promote a goodfeeling body!

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Order at www.watkinsbooks.com or by calling +44 (0)20 7836 2182

Order at www.watkinsbooks.com or by calling +44 (0)20 7836 2182

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Watkins Review

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Issue 24, Summer 2010

£9.99 Paperback (270 pages)

In this illuminating book the world’s leading Dead Sea Scrolls scholar relates the controversial story of their discovery and publication around the world. He shares what he has learned about the scrolls and, evaluating passages from them, gives his views on their true significance and what they can teach us, as well as those areas where scholarly consensus has not yet been reached.

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The

£14.99 Illustrated Paperback (292 pages)

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Order at www.watkinsbooks.com or by calling +44 (0)20 7836 2182

NEW TITLES

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Order at www.watkinsbooks.com or by calling +44 (0)20 7836 2182

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Watkins Review

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Issue 24, Summer 2010

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Becoming Enlightened His Holiness the Dalai Lama - £7.99 Paperback (268 pages) His Holiness offers a series of practical tools to lead each and every one of us further along the path to enlightenment. He guides us through a process founded in ancient Buddhist wisdom that will help us make sense of our lives today. Becoming Enlightened shows us how to break free from the cycle of suffering that torments so many, and how to deal with any negative emotions we may encounter along the way.

Spiritual Partnership: The Journey to Authentic Power Gary Zukav - £12.99 Paperback (304 pages) In his first major book since The Seat of the Soul, Zukav reveals a revolutionary new path for spiritual growth. A powerful new dynamic is at play in human relationships. By focusing attention on the interior rather than the outer causes of suffering or joy, we can reach our full potential and generate authentic power, co-creating rewarding partnerships of substance and depth for the purposes of our mutual spiritual growth.

The Time Paradox: Using the new Psychology of Time to your advantage Philip Zimbardo & John Boyd - £8.99 Paperback (376 pages) Every significant choice, every important decision we make, is determined by our perception of time. This is the most influential force in our lives, yet we rarely reflect on it. Award-winning psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his research partner John Boyd use the latest discoveries in science and psychology to reveal the true nature of time, and how we each have an individual perspective on it that shapes the world.

Reinventing The Body, Resurrecting The Soul: The long-awaited sequel to the worldwide bestseller Ageless Body, Timeless Mind Deepak Chopra - £11.99 Paperback (360 pages) Dr Chopra explains how the body is a reflection of the mind, ‘a symbol in flesh and blood of everything you think and feel’. From early childhood each one of us has invented our bodies and our personalities through our beliefs, conditioning and responses to everyday stress. Chopra helps us to reconnect with our ideal sense of self, guiding us through a remarkable process of renewal and discovery.

New Titles from Shambala Publications

New Titles from North Atlantic Books

SMILE AT FEAR: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery Chogyam Trungpa - £18.99 Hardback (160 pages) “There is no one better than Chögyam Trungpa to show us how to be fearless. He overcame great difficulties while remaining true to his principles - bravery, compassion, and gentleness.

These are the qualities of a Shambhala warrior, which shine through brilliantly in this book.”-Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

WHERE PHARAOHS DWELL: One Mystic’s Journey through the Gates of Immortality. Patricia Cori - £14.99 Illustrated Paperback (264 pages) The book begins with the traumatic recall of a past Egyptian life, when Cori relives a horrifying death by suffocation from being buried alive. This propels her on a journey of exploration of human immortality, as she unravels the origins of the ancient Egyptians’ obsession with the resurrection of the soul.

LOVE HAIKU: Japanese Poems of Yearning, Passion, and Remembrance Patricia Donegan & Yoshie Ishibashi - £14.99 Hardback (232 pages).

In this elegant anthology, love is explored through beautiful images that evoke a range of feelings—from the longing of a lover to the passion of a romantic relationship. Written by contemporary Japanese poets and haiku masters such as Basho, Buson, and Issa, these poems share the poets’ visions and poignant moments.

DISCOVERING YOUR SPIRIT ANIMAL: The Wisdom of the Shamans Lucy Harmer - £10.99 Illustrated Paperback (120 pages) This book provides guidance for meeting and getting to know one’s spirit animal through easy exercises and shamanic techniques. Harmer explains how to discover the strengths, qualities, and skills with one’s personal spirit animal, enabling one to reinforce this connection and access innate wisdom, overcome fears, and increase natural thealing capacity.

THE MANDALA WORKBOOK: A Creative Guide for Self-Exploration, Balance, and Well-Being Suzanne F. Fincher- £17.99 Illustrated Paperback (320 pages). This is a complete guide to mandala work, based on the Great Round - the twelve archetypal stages that represent a complete cycle of personal growth: offering ways to connect with yourself and discover the transformative powers of the mandala. Explore activities for each stage, including colouring, drawing, collage, sculpture, and more.

CROP CIRCLES: The Bones of God. Michael Glickman - £11.99 Illustrated Paperback (160 pages) Crop Circles combines the author’s firsthand field encounters with some of the most famous crop-circle formations with intricate analyses of the structure and content of those formations. With 80 colour photographs and diagrams, this beautifully illustrated mix of personal narrative with detailed study informs a larger discussion of the role of crop circles in the modern world.

EVERYTHING IS GOD: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism Jay Michaelson - £17.50 Paperback (288 pages) This is a wide-ranging and compelling explanation of nondual Judaism: what it is, its traditional and contemporary sources, its historical roots and philosophical significance, how it compares to nondual Buddhism and Hinduism, and how it is practiced. He explains what this mystical nondual view means in our daily ego-centered lives, for our communities, and for the future of Judaism.

STONES OF THE NEW CONSCIOUSNESS: Healing, Awakening and Co-creating with Crystals, Minerals and Gems Robert Simmons £17.99 Illustrated Paperback (320 pages) This book begins with a new approach to meditation with stones, and to the possibility of conscious relationship with the spiritual beings who express themselves in our world as crystals and minerals. This beautifully designed book, illustrated with exceptional photographs, examines the stones that help accelerate and enhance human evolution.

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New Titles from Hay House

New Titles from O Books

For more information on all our titles visit: www.hayhouse.co.uk

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For more information on all our titles visit: www.o-books.net

DEFY GRAVITY: How to Heal Beyond the Boundaries of Ordinary Reason Caroline Myss - £12.99 Hardback Defy Gravity explains the seven graces and mystical laws that build the spiritual strength needed to heal. These eternal truths provide everyone with a substantial working guide not only for healing, but for living beyond illness on a daily basis. Healing is a mystical phenomenon that transcends the logic of cause and effect. We require more than physical treatment: we need the grace and faith to go beyond logic, and defy gravity.

MYSTERY OF THE WHITE LIONS: Children of the Sun God Linda Tucker - £12.99 Paperback African shamanism teaches that nature is magical, and magic is natural. After being rescued from Timbavati lions by a sangoma known as the ‘Lion Queen’, Tucker embarks on a journey into the mysteries of the most sacred animal on the African continent: the legendary White Lion. It is a mystical journey into the knowledge and ceremonies of Old Africa, in which humans and lions are able to cross the species barrier.

TAPPING FOR LIFE: How to Eliminate Negative Thoughts and Emotions for Good Janet Thomson - £12.99 Paperback Thought Field Therapy (TFT) is a unique form of meridian therapy - a natural, drug-free, non-invasive system that eliminates the cause of negative emotions. With no side effects and a success rate of up to 98%, most people experience significant, usually complete relief within minutes. This book gives you everything you need to understand this amazing therapy and use it to free yourself from anxiety and fear for good.

TRAVELLING AT THE SPEED OF LOVE: A Guide for Living a Fearlessly Peaceful Life Sonia Choquette - £9.99 Paperback As we travel through life, we are all in search of a destination. Most of us travel at the frequency of fear, living with a victim consciousness. Travelling at the Speed of Love allows you to take pleasure from your life journey and part from the issues that can stop us from fulfilling our potential. This practical, down-to-earth guide reveals how you can reprogram your brain and change your life for the better.

ILLUMINATION: The Shaman’s Way of Healing Alberto Villoldo - £9.99 Paperback Illumination guides the reader on a healing journey, forged by the timeless wisdom of indigenous cultures and the latest theories of neurobiology. Through various stages in this journey of initiation, we grow to understand the causes of our suffering and how to free ourselves from the pain of our unhealed emotions. True initiation is empowered by facing personal challenges and experiencing the spiritual rebirth - or illumination - that follows.

FOR LOVERS OF GOD EVERYWHERE: Poems of the Christian Mystics Roger Housden - £8.99 Paperback This compelling collection puts a spotlight on the great spiritual voices of Christianity. While uncovering universal themes of longing and ecstasy, silence and wisdom, searching and doubt, the poets all share one goal: earthly union with the divine. Housden’s insightful commentary on each poem inspires us to take in its words more deeply and shows how the mystical tradition transcends sectarian divides and speaks to the heart of humanity.

PSYCHIC SELF-PROTECTION: Using Crystals to Change you Life Judy Hall - £9.99 Paperback Psychic Self-Protection shows how you can use crystals and other spiritual tools to change your mindset from a fearful one to a more confident, positive approach to the world. These simple and effective ways to enhance energy levels and boost protection have been used for thousands of years and include tools, techniques and powerful energetic practices to help you take charge of your life and embrace change with power and gusto.

THE PROOF: A Course in Oneness James F. Twyman - £12.99 Hardback While one of Twyman’s volunteers hid a book in the U.S. and focused on the location, another boarded a flight and found the actual hiding spot in Seattle, proving that thoughts can be shared and that we are not isolated.

The Proof shows how anyone can accomplish this task, proving to themselves that separation really is an illusion. Through step-by-step instructions, you too can tap into your own hidden power and achieve miracles.

FEEDING YOUR DEMONS: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict Tsultrim Allione - £9.99 Paperback Struggling with depression, anxiety, illness, an eating disorder, a difficult relationship, fear, self-hatred, addiction or anger? Renowned Buddhist leader Tsultrim Allione explains that the harder we fight our demons, the stronger they become. If we want to liberate ourselves from the fight, we must reverse our approach and nurture our demons.

This powerful practice transforms negative emotions, relationships, fears, illness and self-defeating patterns.

THE GOOD RETREAT GUIDE 6th Edition: Over 500 places to find peace and spiritual renewal in Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, other European Countries, Asia and Africa Stafford Whiteaker - £12.99 Paperback The Good Retreat Guide is the definitive work on where to find a retreat that suits you. This authoritative guide is used by people everywhere who need to find a place where the world will not intrude – a place aside to nurture the spirit, heal the body and bring peace. Whatever your beliefs, it offers the greatest choices of retreats, from monasteries to holistic holidays.

THE SHIFT: Taking Your Life from Ambition to Meaning Wayne W. Dyer - £8.99 Paperback The Shift represents the major transition that takes place in every person’s life. It is a shift away from being dominated by ego, accumulations, achievements and approval to feeling purposeful and meaningful every day. Also available: Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling (£8.99). Dr Dyer explains how to connect to the knowledge and understanding that we had in the spirit realm before we chose to incarnate in physical form.

PSYCHIC HEALING: Using the Tools of a Medium to Cure Whatever Ails You Sylvia Browne - £9.99 Paperback Master psychic Sylvia Browne reveals her powerful insight into self-healing. She also discusses her innovative and proven methods of healing relating to cell memory and morphic resonance. Also available: Sylvia Browne: Accepting the Psychic Torch (£10.99). The remarkable story of Sylvia Browne’s psychic odyssey from humble beginnings to “America’s No. 1 Psychic”

Watkins Review

Issue 24, Summer 2010

SHAMANIC JOURNEYS THROUGH DAGHESTAN SHAMANIC JOURNEYS THROUGH THE CAUCASUS Michael Berman - £14.99 Paperback (149 pages) Michael Berman - £14.99 Paperback (238 pages) Shamanic practices are still prevalent in Daghestan, Writers of all ranks have found inspiration in the where one of the ten lost tribes of Israel can be found, Caucasus, including Lermentov, Pushkin, and Tolstoy. and in which the stories of the elders provide the During a visit in the late 1940s, John Steinbeck people with evidence of who their ancient ancestors described it as “a magical place” that “becomes dreamwere and where their roots lie. This book, one of only like the moment you have left it”. This book looks at a handful available in English, contains the texts of the traditional practices reflected in the folklore of some of these stories as well as commentaries on these mountain people, particularly those that relate to them. shamanism.

APPROACHING CHAOS: Could an ancient archetype save C21st civilization? Lucy Wyatt - £14.99 Paperback (352 pages) Twenty-first century civilization faces economic, ecological and spiritual meltdown. To survive this we need to refer back to a time when life was in harmony with nature. The ancients had a blueprint for civilization that first appeared over 5,000 years ago. This book reveals the original concepts going back to the end of the Ice Age, identifying the earliest principles and what happened to them.

THE O OF HOME Jennifer Kavanagh - £11.99 Paperback (208 pages) Home is not just four walls or the country we were born.

Home is where the heart is: a yearning for a precious past, a dream of something that has never been, or a present reality. In relationship with our families, in community, and with the whole of creation. The qualities of home are reflected in the circle (O), an ancient symbol for safety, equality, inclusiveness, and eternity.

DELUSION: Aliens, Cults, Propaganda and the Manipulation of the Mind Philip Gardiner - £11.99 Paperback (164 pages) Can we believe all that we hear and see? Delusion is a human phenomenon and it is the cause of almost every problem mankind has created. This book is an attempt to explain the processes of delusion and in sodoing find answers to some of the biggest mysteries: Alien abduction and UFO’s; Ghosts and the Paranormal; Marketing, Propaganda and Religious mind control of the masses.

THE HUMMINGBIRD’S JOURNEY TO GOD: Perspectives on San Pedro; the Cactus of Vision Ross Heaven - £11.99 Paperback (269 pages) San Pedro is one of Peru’s most important and powerful teacher plants. For thousands of years this visionary and hallucinogenic brew has been drunk by spiritual seekers and those who need healing. It is said to bring us closer to God. Heaven looks at the usage of San Pedro, with interviews and case studies from shamans and others who offer their stories of instant cures and spiritual insights.

WALKING THE FAERY PATHWAY: Includes “The Faery Caille, A QUESTION FOR JESUS Oracle of Wands” Harmonia Saille - £11.99 Paperback (213 pages) Tonika Rinar - £9.99 Paperback (115 pages) If you had the opportunity to ask Jesus one Walking the Faery Pathway describes faery culture question about his life, what would you ask? Over and shows how to connect and communicate with the a sixteen year period, Jesus’ Spirit communicated faeries. Portals to the faery realms are discussed, along through Tonika Rinar, a gifted psychic. During that with how to attract faeries to your home and garden. time many people, from all walks of life, had the Includes the Faery Caille, Oracle of Wands, a tree oracle opportunity to ask their question. In A Question for which acts as a communication channel between you Jesus, you can find Jesus’ answers and gain an and the faeries, with instructions on how to make and understanding of his life, his truths, and his passions. use your own set.

OLD GODS, NEW DRUIDS Robin Herne - £11.99 Paperback (255 pages) The universe is filled with countless gods, goddesses and nature spirits. Many made themselves known to the Druids of ancient Northern Europe. How can modern day Druids make contact with these age-old Beings?

Herne offers a series of informative lessons. Learn about the ancient Gods and other spirits, along with methods of honouring them through ritual, mysticism, poetry and storytelling.

HIGHER REALITY THERAPY: Nine Pathways to Inner Peace Anthony Falikowski - £14.99 Paperback (353 pages) “This book is built on two powerful systems of spiritual thought: the psycho-spiritual Enneagram and the metaphysical psychology of A Course in Miracles.

Students of both will benefit from the combined insights of these two foundational sources of wisdom into human nature and the roots of suffering.” – Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson, authors of The Wisdom of the Enneagram and Personality Types

THE GOSPELS’ VEILED AGENDA: Revolution, Priesthood and The Holy Grail Harry Freedman - £11.99 Paperback (190 pages) The gospel writers were masters of Midrash, a popular literary technique in the ancient Jewish world.

Approaching the New Testament from a midrashic perspective leads to a radically new picture of Jesus as a political leader. The failure of Jesus’s revolution came about, not with his crucifixion, but long before with the imprisonment and subsequent execution of John the Baptist.

A STUDY IN SURVIVAL: Conan Doyle Solves the Final Problem Roger Straughan - £11.99 Paperback (186 pages) This ‘study in survival’ describes in detail the intriguing twists and turns of an investigation worthy of the immortal Sherlock Holmes himself. The method of communication and content of the messages are shown to be characteristic of Conan Doyle. Evidence steadily mounts with his last surviving direct descendant revealing hitherto undisclosed information and playing a vital role in the unfolding story.

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INTERCONNECTION

PAST LIVES

Soulmate or Twinflame?

Understanding Karmic Complexes

by Judy Hall

A

re you one of those people who yearns to find a soulmate? Someone to make you feel complete? Many people are seeking their soulmate and expect to be blissfully happy when they find one. But, as others have found, most are doomed to disappointment. The ‘soulmate’ turns out to be human, and fallible, and the dream sours. Soulmates are both a powerful fact and one of the biggest illusions.

The thousands of people who’ve consulted me for a karmic relationship reading saying: ‘I’ve found my soulmate, why has it all gone wrong?’ or ‘Why doesn’t he/she want me?’ far outnumber the few who find a relationship is all they wished for. I’ve devoted much of the last thirty five years to looking for answers to these, and similar, questions.

So why are some soulmate relationships such a trial? Well, your soulmate is rarely someone new to you. Past life relationships carry over into the present life and give rise to an experience that scours, or evolves, the soul. Soul contracts, karmic conundrums and unfinished business lie behind apparent soulmates. But your soulmate is an invaluable tool in your karmic and soul learning and there is no such thing as a wrong relationship because there is always a gift in the experience. Our soul attracts situations that mirror our expectations around love that are carried from life to life. We create what is familiar and may attract pain in an effort to exorcise it and move on. Soulmate connections also occur between parents and children, friends and mentors.

But there is another option, a soulmate without the karma, someone I have dubbed a twinflame: a true companion of the heart. The trick is to distinguish between these two very different relationships.

Let’s look at soulmates first. Soulmates feel as though they are made for each other, to the extent of being ‘two halves making a whole.’ Two people may well be soulmates, although this

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Watkins Review

Evolutionary Astrology and Regression Therapy

by Patricia L. Walsh

does not necessarily mean they are destined for a sexual relationship. The scenario usually goes something like this: your eyes meet across a crowded room, your heart pounds with instant recognition and a giant magnet pulls you together as a wave of lust rolls over you.

You either succumb instantly - or want to run. It’s electric, exciting and oh so right. Then, after you’ve been together awhile, the cracks start to show, the arguments start or the relationship ends abruptly but you can’t stop thinking about this person, you feel you might die from lack of this beloved soul.

That’s usually when a karmic counsellor like me gets consulted. Using the birthcharts, I explore the past lives, the lessons, unfinished business and soul contracts and help to cut the karmic cords that bind opening the way for a different kind of relationship.

“T

winflames have all the joys of soulmates but not the pain”

Twinflames have all the joys of soulmates but not the pain – although they are not without occasional blips.

The couple come together for mutually supportive reasons with deep soul love but no dependence and no unfinished business or karma. Twinflame meetings might well start with eyes meeting across a crowded room. But it’s not always so.

These relationships creep up on you and flower when the time is right. You may meet a few times but not really notice.

Then, suddenly the relationship bursts into life and grows steadily.

Having interviewed many soulmates and several twinflames (they are more difficult to find) for a new book, and incorporated over thirty five years experience in this field, I have identified some of the points that differentiate the two.

In non-twinflame relationships there is what one soulmate described as ‘ephemeral and irrational passion’. One partner may be reluctant to fully commit to the relationship, which starts on a high but inexorably deteriorates or needs constant work. One or both people may

be so absorbed in the relationship that they cannot function in the world. There can be uncomfortable or disharmonious ‘edges’ between the couple or one partner tries to force change, bullies the other or attempts to retain control. There can be a sense of unfinished business, karma, duty, debt, something owed; a need for retribution or reparation, or ‘having to do’. One partner may feel vastly superior or inferior. One partner can be deeply dependent and the relationship parasitic and symbiotic - one person feeds off the other. There can be competition or resentment of the others successes. One partner often feels jealous, insecure or abandoned when the other is perusing his or her own interests.

By contrast, in a twinflame relationship there is unconditional love, deep soul and heart connection; mutual support, respect and recognition, interdependence and independence; acceptance of the other that allows each other to be who they are and evolve at their own pace.

The relationship is complementary and non-competitive with total honesty, intimacy and trust, reciprocal feelings and behaviours. Each is exalted and energized by the sense of loving and being loved. As one long term twinflame couple explained: ‘the magic and wonder never fades, it is renewed each moment’.

Twinflame couples I interviewed were at pains to point out that adjustments may be needed but this is done willingly as a couple, each lovingly supporting the other through the process. Intimacy and trust are there from the beginning.

In those that achieve this truly bliss-ful state, the joy shines out of them at each and every moment. They are deeply happy and powerfully connected, as we all have the potential to be.

THE SOULMATE MYTH: A Dream Come True or Your Worst Nightmare? By Judy Hall, £16.95 Paperback (252 pages).

Issue 24, Summer 2010

I

was shaking and crying and couldn’t speak. Even though I could think clearly, I was as baffled about what was going on as my fledgling guide, who sat next to me while I writhed on the floor.

My body was telling us a story that came from so deep within my subconscious, my conscious mind had not yet caught up with what was surfacing.

This was my ‘initiation’ into becoming a regression therapist and it was proving to be more challenging than either of us had bargained for. The emotions and body sensations were so strong all I could do was give them expression, even if they didn’t make sense yet. I sobbed and trembled and eventually, within my mind’s eye, images started to flood my awareness. The workshop room, my guide and my present day awareness receded into the background as I found myself struggling on a stone slab surrounded by several inquisitors.

It was now obvious what ‘story’ my body was remembering, and it became

“T

he past is not dead.

In fact, it’s not even past.”

- William Faulkner

clearer why I could not speak; I was missing my tongue. We worked through layers of terror and struggle, defeat and heart wrenching grief, and eventually the torture stopped as I left my body in that past life and entered the ‘after-life’.

This piece of ‘unfinished business’ that I was re-experiencing through regression turned out to be the cause of a life long fear of ‘speaking my truth’. As we worked further, we found that this past life self had been a middle aged male and that he had not been so shy in speaking out. In fact, I was a member of an esoteric society which had come under attack by the church and I had tried in vain to defend the order in an ecclesiastical court. Because I had offered a defense, the inquisitors took a special pleasure in cutting out my tongue, which

deeply imprinted in my soul’s memory the belief that speaking out means death.

If I had been a skeptic about past lives and their impact on one’s present day psychology, I would have become a convert after that experience. Not only was my conscious mind totally taken by surprise at this memory that surfaced through all the levels of my being (body, emotions and mind), but working with it in that one session changed my life from that moment onwards. When I sat up after that session, I looked around the room and my first thought was “What have I been afraid of all my life?” Up until that point, I had considered myself a ‘closet mystic’.

I kept the things most sacred to me very private and only shared them with close friends and like-minded others. All of a sudden it seemed absurd that I should fear sharing my inner self and my deepest beliefs. If I had not done that work several years ago, this book would not exist.

Our past life selves are not only characters in past dramas, but also live within us today as ‘sub-personalities’.

Their ‘unfinished business’ can make itself known through irrational fears, phobias or patterns that are not easily changed. We feel their emotions, manifest their talents, think their thoughts, are limited by their fears and perpetuate their quandaries, often without consciously knowing we are doing so. These are the karmic complexes that are carried forward and re-imprinted in each lifetime, essentially causing us to ‘pick up’ where we left off.

In this book, I delve straight into the heart of these karmic complexes and demonstrate first, how they affect individuals and then, how resolving these complexes can change one’s life. I was fortunate to have studied personally with two pioneers in their own fields: Roger Woolger PhD (author of Other Lives, Other Selves) and Jeffrey Wolf Green (author of Pluto: The Evolutionary Journey of the Soul), who both generously contributed forwards to this book. I went on to become the chief trainer for Dr. Woolger’s US professional training program and a certified Evolutionary Astrologer. Combining these two methods allowed me, as an astrologer, to map the soul’s past life journeys, and as a

regression therapist and trainer, to work directly with thousands of individuals, helping them to meet their past life selves.

After many years of documenting clients’ and students’ sessions, I realized I was in a unique position to contribute to both fields through the numerous case studies I had of ‘actual’ past life memories compared to clients’ astrological charts. My intention in writing this book wasn’t to prove either past life experiences or Evolutionary Astrology, yet this synthesis of astrology and regression work, presented through over 50 intimately detailed case studies, seems to do so anyway. In case after case, it becomes apparent to the reader that there are deeper dimensions to our psyche that modern day psychology doesn’t explain, and that by looking at an astrological chart from the karmic perspective, complexes and patterns are echoed there in black and white. The result is this book, which not only illustrates the astrological foundation of the karmic scripts we are born with, but also shows how healing unresolved issues from the past naturally unlocks the evolutionary potential of the soul.

UNDERSTANDING KARMIC COMPLEXES: Evolutionary Astrology and Regression Therapy

by Patricia L. Walsh, Forewords by Jeff Wolf Green and Roger Woolger PhD, £24.00 LargeFormat Paperback (350 pages).

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31

PAGANISM

SUFISM

Golden Calf, Tall Tales

The Garden of Truth

by Tess Dawson

by Seyyed Hossein Nasr

What the Bible Won’t Tell You about Canaanite Religion

W

hat do you think of when someone mentions the Canaanites? If you’re like I was, you see a fierce and frenzied orgy around a golden calf—like in DeMille’s classic movie The Ten Commandments. About eleven years ago, I venerated vague ideas of a Goddess and God, but I felt disconnected. I wanted a better personal relationship with the divine, so I prayed. I perceived a name I’d never encountered before, and I learned that the name belonged to a Canaanite goddess, Athiratu (Asherah in Hebrew). Although happy for my answered prayers, I found myself alternately irked and comforted that the head of the pantheon, Ilu (El in Hebrew), was likely the same God I had come to know, love, and trust in Sunday school classes. I found myself in the curious position of reconciling my current Paganism and my prior Christian upbringings.

I discovered that the image of the Canaanites as the villains of the Bible lays as skin-deep as the shimmering paint of a stage-prop golden calf. Instead of a people steeped in wickedness and vice, the Canaanites left a spiritual legacy to their descendants: both the monotheistic Israelites and the polytheistic Phoenicians. For many years, most available information about the Canaanites came from biblical writers. These writers disowned and presented their ancestors as the evil foil to their righteousness. Biblical authors misrepresented what they remembered poorly of Canaanite culture from hundreds of years before, and as a result many ‘Canaanite’ religious practices in the Bible may actually be Israelite.

Though the Israelite folk population continued to honour a goddess, these

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Watkins Review

writers wanted to further their own version of ‘proper’ Israelite religion.

With archaeologists’ discovery in the 1920’s of the city Ugarit in Syria, first-hand accounts of Canaanite religion finally came to light. Sordid, fantastical tales of child sacrifice and sexual depravity obscured the reality of an erudite, cosmopolitan culture which served as a political, geographical, and cultural crossroads for the Egyptians, Sumerians, and Babylonians, as well as ancestors of Greek and Roman civilizations. We see Canaanite influence today even in something as simple as the slang term ‘hair of the dog’, referring to a drunkenness remedy: Canaanite tablets note the use of dog hair and a not-yettranslated herb for the same malady.

When I began venerating the Canaanite deities, the lack of helpfully presented information discouraged me.

Within academic works, it seems that an individual scholar might hold and present multiple conflicting opinions, making fact or consensus difficult to find.

Added to this frustration, I could find no book about bringing ancient Canaanite religion into a modern context. I began researching and collecting information for myself, but as time passed I realized that if I wanted such a resource and if I wanted to help others, I should write it myself. Translations of the Ugaritic tablets provide the basis for much of my research. I was inspired by these texts with such passages as ‘For I have a tale that I would tell you...a tale of trees and a whisper of stones...’ (from J.C.L Gibson’s Canaanite Myths and Legends, p. 51). These clay tablets detailed aspects of Canaanite religion including literature, mythology, holidays, rituals, and magic. I interweave modern and ancient elements to make Whisper of Stone a guidebook accessible to devotees of Pagan deities, students of the esoteric arts, spiritual sojourners who want to add Near Eastern spice to their ways, and people curious about the religious and cultural roots of the Bible. Whisper is the culmination of seven years’ research; I have thoroughly annotated the text and I distinguish

Peace unto the Deities, Peace unto humanity, Peace unto community, Peace unto belovéd ones, Peace unto your family, Peace unto your mind and soul, Healing peace throughout our world.

L’Shalam, shalam, shalam.

Tess has been a Canaanite Pagan for eleven years. She founded and leads the largest online Canaanite Pagan group and is considered a pillar of the Canaanite Pagan community. Visit her at: http://canaanitepath.com

modern elements from ancient practices.

Whisper of Stone includes: History, Ethics, Offerings and Sacrifices, Concepts of Divinity, Death and Afterlife, Cosmology, Mythology, Magic, Healing, Rituals and Holidays with Reconstructed and Modern Elements.

It also explores topics like: Asherah poles; The Evil Eye; Golems, and how sorcerers made them; The Ancient Priesthood; The Festival Cycle; Prayer, Blessing, and Curse; Dream Interpretation; Omens, Casting Lots; Meanings of Symbols in Art and Literature; Plants, Animals, and Gemstones in Canaan and the Near East; Modern Methods of Creating Sacred Space for ritual, devotion, meditation, or protection; The Seven Components of Ba‘al’s Temple, a Modern System for Contemplation and Creating Sacred Space, based on the Epic of Ba‘al the Storm God. Hearken back to ancient times and sandswept paths, light a lamp in honour of the divine, celebrate the New Wine Festival, and learn about religion and mysticism that inspired the world’s most influential book, the Bible.

WHISPER OF STONE: Modern Canaanite Religion by Tess Dawson, £19.99 Paperback (424 pages).

Issue 24, Summer 2010

The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam’s Mystical Tradition

T

his work is not just a book about Sufism. It is a Sufi book written in the line of classical works, but in a contemporary language. It is based on over half a century of existential involvement with and scholarly study of Sufism, both its literature in Arabic and Persian and works written about it in these as well as in European languages. The work addresses the contemporary reader but draws completely from traditional sources. Like classical Sufi works, it is also punctuated by poems, many of which I have translated myself.

Sufi works begin either with the Divine or the human existential situation in relation to the Divine. This book commences with the latter and asks the fundamental questions: who are we and what are we doing here? It explains what it means, from the Sufi point of view, to be human and to stand at the base of the vertical axis of existence. It asserts the truth that by virtue of standing at a point on this vertical axis, men and women have been given the possibility to ascend to the Supreme Reality that is the source of all levels of cosmic reality. The chapter speaks of life itself as a spiritual journey and discusses the nature of the “Universal Man” who constitutes our inner reality, a reality that can become fully actualized within us only through the process of spiritual realization.

The second chapter turns to the question of the truth. It is here that Sufi metaphysical teachings are expounded including not only the doctrine of the Unity of Being but also the nature of cosmic existence and the universal hierarchy of being in relation to the Divine Principle. Sufism is essentially a path of knowledge whose realization frees man from the bondage of ignorance, a knowledge that transforms the soul and illuminates it. But the realization of principal knowledge is not separated

from love and beauty, nor correct action.

And so the next two chapters are devoted to them. Chapters two through four are in fact an explanation of the classical Sufi teachings about the three grand stages of the spiritual path, namely makhāfah or fear of God, mahabbah or love of God and ma’rifah or knowledge of God, except that they have been here treated in reverse order.

“L

ike classical Sufi works, it is also punctuated by poems, many of which I have translated myself” The Quran speaks of Paradise as Garden, or rather The Garden, which in its old Persian form of pardīs is also the origin of the English word paradise, and Sufis often speak of God Himself as The Gardener. The title of this book is itself based on this symbolism. And so the fifth chapter deals with how to reach the Garden of Truth and constitutes the description of the path to the Garden and ultimately The Gardener. The main elements of the Sufi way, including the power of initiation, the master/disciple relationship, the imitation of the Prophet, invocation and meditation and the spiritual concert in Sufi gatherings, the states and stations of the path, the significance of the attainment of the virtues and other elements essential to Sufism are also discussed.

All of these chapters lead to the reality of Sufism today, and to the doctrines and practices that it makes available to those qualified to understand and practice them, as well as the highly spiritual literature and music that it provides for the thirsty soul. Here one also finds a discussion of the reality of Sufism today, both in the Islamic world and in the West.

In contrast to most present day works in English on Sufism, this book does not begin with a historical treatment of the subject. Its treatment of the subject is ahistorical because it does not wish to reduce non-temporal realities to merely temporal ones. But of course,

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the world’s leading experts on Islamic thought and spirituality, is university professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University.

The preeminent Sufi scholar in the United States, Nasr is the author of more than fifty books, including The Heart of Islam. Born in Tehran, raised in the United States, and a graduate of MIT and Harvard, Nasr is a well-known and highly respected intellectual figure in both the West and the Islamic world.

He lives in Washington, D.C.

Sufism has also manifested itself in time, applying timeless principles to particular contingent historical conditions and therefore does have its own history which can, however, only be fully understood if one does not become imprisoned in the cage of historicism. We have therefore added two copious appendices to the book, one dealing with the history of Sufism and the Sufi orders and the other with the tradition of theoretical Sufism and gnosis, both written from the point of view of the Sufi understanding of its own history. The second appendix contains an essay that is the first in English to deal with this subject in its totality from the Sufi perspective.

With the Western reader in mind, we have added a glossary of technical Sufi terminology and a map of the Islamic world indicating the main sites associated with Sufism and mentioned in the text. There is a vast literature on Sufism in the English language but much of it is not from the point of view of the authentic Sufi tradition. A carefully selected bibliography has, therefore, been added to help direct those who wish to pursue this subject further from a serious point of view.

THE GARDEN OF TRUTH: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam’s Mystical Tradition by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, £8.99 Paperback (272 pages). www.watkinsbooks.com

33

SHAMANISM

SHAMANISM

Nature Spirits & Elemental Beings

Huna

by Marko Pogačnik

by Serge Kahili King, PhD

Working with the Intelligence in Nature

M

y primary interest in nature spirits arose from ecological awareness: how could we human beings restore our pristine relationship with the home planet, if we do not know its consciousness? I realised that the ancient traditions that talked about fairies, gnomes, nymphs or fire spirits, might in effect be using a mythic language to describe different aspects of nature’s consciousness.

It was only in the year 1993, after I had already developed my work with the art of lithopuncture (acupuncture of the earth) and other geomantic and earth healing methods, that I was able to experience the different aspects of nature’s consciousness, that is, to get personal experiences of the elemental world.

After the first contact was made, I found myself again and again involved in communication with different beings of the Earth’s consciousness. When I explored the geomantic features of a place, the spirit of the place would appear to help me decode the vital-energy organism of the area. When I had problems understanding the cause of a trauma tormenting a specific landscape, a bunch of gnomes would appear to reveal to me the secret preserved in the memory of the place, etc.

“A

ncient traditions that talked about fairies, gnomes, nymphs or fire spirits, might in effect be using a mythic language to describe different aspects of nature’s consciousness” After a while, I realised that there was a purpose behind all these experiences. It was like Gaia, the Earth soul, was guiding me step by step through the different halls of her consciousness permeating life at the planet’s surface, so that I, as a witness, could tell my fellow human beings about the real existence of 34

Watkins Review

the fairy world. When I realised this purpose, I started to write down my experiences and to draw images of the different beings of the elemental world that showed themselves to my consciousness. As a result, the original version of the book Nature Spirits and Elemental Beings was born. I wrote it originally in German, but it was soon translated into many other languages Findhorn Press published it in English.

Later, my contact with the fairy world was not as intense and I was drawn to explore other dimensions of what I call “Earth cosmos”. Yet again and again I was surprised to stumble over an aspect of Gaia’s consciousness that I had not come across before. Experiences heaped up and in 2007 I was ready to update my report on the invisible yet real world of the elemental beings. I read again my original text to see where its weak points were. But instead of improving them, I decided to let them be as they are and write a commentary on how I do perceive that specific aspect of Earth consciousness today, after having 15 years of experience in communicating with the fairy world.

As well as my commentaries, I also added reports on new dimensions and aspects of the elemental world that I was not able to perceive or understand first time round. To distinguish the 54 commentaries - the added chapters - from the original text, I use two types of letters.

My idea is to offer an insight into the process of gradually exploring a world unknown to modern human culture, yet of basic importance for the life of the planet.

I have also added to the book a completely new chapter dealing with the so-called “new elemental beings”. In my experience, they only came into being after 1998 when the process of Earth changes reached the etheric spaces of the planet. By “Earth changes”, I mean the self-healing process that the planet is undergoing to prevent the life tissue of the Earth being destroyed by the ignorance of the modern human mind.

To guide this complicated process that could be called a quantum leap for the

Ancient Hawaiian Secrets for Modern Living

F

Born in 1944 in Kranj, Slovenia, Marko Pogačnik studied sculpting at university and acquired an international reputation in conceptual land art. He has developed this further into earth lithopuncture, which aims at healing disturbed landscapes and power points. He leads seminars in earth healing in several countries and provides advice on landscape matters for communities and businesses. Marko Pogačnik is a lecturer at the Hagia Chora school for geomancy which was founded in 1995.

planet, Gaia developed a new race of environmental spirits that do not relate to any of the Four Elements. They represent a new type of Gaia consciousness that knows the Christ experience and has been taught how to communicate with human beings and, when the proper moment arrives, also to co-operate with us. I call them “beings of the fifth element” – which in effect is the element of love.

NATURE SPIRITS & ELEMENTAL BEINGS: Working with the Intelligence in Nature (Revised, Updated and Expanded Edition) by Marko Pogačnik, £10.99 Illustrated Paperback (320 pages).

Issue 24, Summer 2010

rom as early as I can remember I have been fascinated by the world around me; not just as something to observe, but as something to explore, experience, and understand. The very first memory I have is of sitting on a carpet in a room next to a coffee table and smelling something wonderful. I could not have been more than eighteen months old, because I do not remember any urge to walk at the time. Following my nose, I found the source of the smell, which was a shiny piece of paper lying underneath the table.

Of course, the next thing to do was to put it in my mouth, and that led to my very first scientific discovery: things that smell good do not necessarily taste good. Years later I learned that the true source of the smell was something called Dentyne chewing gum.

Growing up, I was never satisfied with explanations for experience simply because someone had an answer. I wanted to know what other answers were possible, and out of those, which ones could be demonstrated, and out of those, which ones would produce the most practical effect. And, out of those, which ones could be modified and simplified in ways that would still produce the desired result. Over time, at various stages in my life, I applied this concept to learning and teaching, reading and writing, games and sports, community development, health and healing, psychic development, and manifesting prosperity and success.

Parallel to this was a life-long fascination with all things Hawaiian.

At age seven, I was the only boy in Los Angeles taking hula lessons, although I was never able to perform at a recital because at that time “boys don’t do the hula”. At fourteen I picked the Hawaiian guitar and ukulele as my favorite instruments and formed a high school band around them. In college I played ukulele in coffee shops, and joined a music fraternity as the first member to ever specialize in playing ukulele instead of a conventional western orchestral instrument. In my thirties

I began leading tours to Hawaii, and finally, as soon as I was financially able in my forties, I moved my family to my favorite place on earth.

These two parallel fascinations started to coalesce in my teens, when my father commenced teaching me ideas and practices that he had learned from a Hawaiian man in his youth, and they merged closer and closer as this learning continued with my adoptive Hawaiian aunt and uncle. Since the word, huna, has always been associated with esoteric knowledge in Hawaii, I adopted the name Huna for what I would eventually teach.

However, the decision to teach it was a long time in coming, because I wasn’t about to accept any philosophy or practice without extensive testing, no matter who or where it came from. So I tested Huna as I learned it, and as others taught it, against every other system of practical and esoteric philosophy I could find, which included dozens from all around the world. I tested them as they were taught, and I stripped them down to their essentials and tested them again.

How did I test them? On myself and on my family, of course, in all four standard categories of health, wealth, happiness, and success. Although many things in those philosophies and practices worked well, time and time again I came back to Huna because of its elegant simplicity and proven effectiveness in a wide range of applications.

Huna: Ancient Hawaiian Secrets for Modern Living is a distillation of the results of all that testing. Everything in the book has been tested and demonstrated, not only by myself and my own family, but by thousands of people around the planet. In the first and second chapters I introduce the philosophy and its relevance to modern situations. In the third I show how to design—or redesign—your personality, and in the fourth I describe the incredibly simple concept behind all manifestation.

Chapter Five teaches you all about how to focus the power of your mind, Chapter Six gives you ways to increase that power in the present moment, and

Serge Kahili King, PhD, has a background in psychology, cross-cultural studies, and international business. In addition to speaking and teaching in many countries, he has formed Aloha International, a worldwide nonprofit network dedicated to making the world a better place. Though not a native Hawaiian, King was formally adopted into a native family and has spent the majority of his life in the islands exploring the teachings and values of his native elders as well as being trained in Hawaiian shamanism.

Chapter Seven presents the short, sweet, and effective means of loving and being loved.

The eighth chapter helps you to understand how to help others, the ninth takes away the mystery of money, and the tenth tells you how to ask the Universe for what you want—and how to get it. The last two chapters give you the knowledge of how to make decisions and a guaranteed formula for success.

Examples of how famous Hawaiians have used this knowledge are given throughout the book, and a glossary of the Hawaiian words used is included.

As the very first Hawaiian proverb states: Hu’ea pau ‘ia e ka wai — Everything is told, no secrets are kept.

HUNA: Ancient Hawaiian Secrets for Modern Living by Serge Kahili King, £8.99 Paperback (208 pages). www.watkinsbooks.com

35

PYTHAGOREANISM

HINDU PHILOSOPHY

Patterns of Eternity

Differences

by Malcolm Stewart

by Dennis Waite

Between Neo- and Traditional Advaita

Sacred Geometry and the Starcut Diagram The two men walked along a ridge following the sweep of the beach around the bay. Ahead of them the westering sun caught the headlands south of Cape Wrath. Their talk had moved on from the earthbound beauty of their surroundings to the lofty arts of number, harmony and form. The monk had explained how the ancients had believed such arts readied the soul for higher things, bringing it to the very shoreline of the eternal. He had described the strange and secret ways in which, he said, the old priests and philosophers had taught their pupils. ‘... So you’re telling me,’ said his burly southern friend, ‘that all that stuff about right angles and hypotenuses and the musical theory about lengths of strings and golden measures, sacred number ... all the stuff we think of as coming from Pythagoras — that the lot was taught to him through just one simple diagram, when he was in Egypt?’

‘It’s certainly possible,’ said the monk, ‘and much else besides ... surveying, architectural ground plans, cosmology, theology — even their very system of numbers itself. I think there was a geometric core to much that was taught in the “House of Life” in Heliopolis. And of course ancient Chaldea and India had it, too, and China no doubt.’

The southerner looked at the Benedictine’s wind-bitten face.

Was he joking? One simple diagram?

‘Next you’ll be telling me that it was used to build the Great Pyramid.’

‘Well, not “build” it exactly, but certainly for planning the ground-square and later, to get the height and the face angles

“I

remain in awe of this book. Patterns of Eternity is probably the single most important addition to the body of sacred geometry to re-emerge in a decade.” – John Martineau ‘How come you’ve written a book on this stuff – you were rubbish at maths at school?’ This was said recently by an old friend. He was right. However, I had some skill at drawing and I could play piano (badly) and learned guitar (reasonably well) and had an eye and an ear for pattern. Pattern always inspired me. Later in life my ‘soul’ background, originally Roman Catholic, was further educated in Sri Lanka where Buddhism, Shivaism and Sufism flourish – and in these, and subsequently through Oscar Ichazo’s philosophy, I found rich and common veins of inner lore and symbolic depth. I am over seventy now, and can see that these 36

Watkins Review

for cutting into the stone.’

‘I thought that was some obscure angle — just under fifty two degrees ....’ The layman was not about to be convinced.

‘Yes, that’s about it’ said the monk cheerfully. ‘It’s right there in the diagram; which also divides itself into sevens and elevens and thirteens and an infinity of other sections. If Pythagoras had had the good fortune to be a Scotsman he could have used it for designing tartans! And if Hermann Hesse had only known about it he might have had a real Glass Bead Game to play. But you’re wrong about it being complicated.

It’s so easy that any half-skilled journeyman could sketch it out as a template with no problem at all.’

The southerner’s silence proclaimed his scepticism.

‘Here,’ said the Abbot. ‘I’ll show you.’

He clambered down an incline from the grass ridge to the banked sea gravel below. Slipping his sandals off, he walked out on to the beach. The receding tide had left the surface smooth and damp. There he squatted with his cowl flapping in the breeze. He reached for a twig of driftwood and in just a few strokes, he drew out a rudimentary boxed star-shape in the sand. His friend stood waiting for more ... but the Abbot, it seemed, had finished.

‘So ... is that it?’

‘Yes, that’s it,’ said the monk.

‘Just that simple?’

‘Yes — just that simple.’

loves for pattern, spirituality and symbol have been the dominant interests of my life. And, through the fortunate privilege of having worked in broadcasting, I have had the opportunity of learning from other excellent teachers in these fields, notably the acknowledged master Keith Critchlow.

Patterns of Eternity came together bit by bit. Through investigating the construction of designs (I have freelanced as a stained glass designer), I learned – hands-on – about numbers, proportions, cycles and geometry. This work opened up a remarkable, largely unexplored field, where musical and spiritual studies integrate as harmonies that resonate throughout all the classical liberal arts and their related culture of the soul.

Others have come across the ‘Starcut’ lattice and passed on, but for me it has become like a magic carpet carrying me to unexpected places: martial arts, Renaissance painting, new mathematical conjectures and the knowledge base of

- Prologue from Patterns of Eternity the ancient world. A practice in the Kabbalah involves participants contemplating a symbol intently until one of them finds the symbol opening like a window through which information pours. That person’s role is then to inform the gathering. It seems that this has happened to me. Essentially it is nothing personal, the knowledge of sacred geometry is not the creation of an individual; but through the providence of life one may become instrumental in its rediscovery.

PATTERNS OF ETERNITY: Sacred Geometry and the Starcut Diagram

by Malcolm Stewart, published by Floris Books, £20.00 LargeFormat Illustrated Paperback (279 pages).

Issue 24, Summer 2010

“I

f the purpose of teaching is for ‘education’, i.e. the ‘leading out’ (Latin ‘educere’) from ignorance into knowledge, then traditional advaita counts as teaching, neo-advaita doesn’t. Neo-advaita is a belief-system without a system – i.e. no structure, no method, no practice; the ‘bottom line’ without any preceding text.” - Dennis Waite (from Enlightenment: the Path through the Jungle) The Book of One is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to Advaita or non-duality. Advaita has a gurudisciple tradition stretching back several thousand years and can guarantee the sincere seeker a progressive path to selfrealization. In this extensively revised and updated second edition, Waite presents a 21st Century treatment of this ancient non-dual philosophy, addressing the issues that are covered by both traditional teachers from the lineage of Shankara and by modern ‘satsang teaching’ and Direct Path methods stemming from Ramana Maharshi and Krishna Menon.

The difference between the two approaches is that the traditional one is self-consistent, whereas the neoadvaitin one is not. Neo-advaita is actually hypocritical in a sense, because it denies the existence of a ‘person’ yet still utilizes the medium of a dialog with one. Traditional Advaita positively acknowledges the person at the level at which the discussion takes place. Only the traditional view is valid because the person firmly believes that he or she does exist no matter what anyone says to the contrary. Education has to begin from this starting point.

It is true that we are already the Self; we are already free, unlimited and complete.

The problem is that we think we are not.

Ignorance of this fact leads us to yearn for ‘completing ourselves’ in some way and, inevitably, where we look is at the world around us. We see something that we think will make us happy and this breeds desire. Desire (kAma) leads to action (karma) and, because we fail to act ‘rightly’, this generates the ‘fruit of action’ (karmaphala), both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ (puNya and papa). And this inevitably leads to rebirth in order to process the accumulated saMskAra. And

then the same cycle begins all over again – this is saMsAra. “We are already the Self and do not really need to do anything to attain this”, say the neo-advaitins. Gaudapada made similar statements around 1500 years ago, but he was careful to point out that these were directed only to those seekers who were already advanced students of advaita, who had been following such a path for many years and attained the requisite degree of mental discipline and discriminative ability.

Swami Paramarthananda tells one of the Mullah Nasrudin stories to illustrate our ignorance. The Mullah, on his travels, reached a village late at night and, passing a well, looked down into it. And he saw the moon. Jumping to the conclusion that the moon must have fallen down the well, he rushed to find a rope and hook so that he could pull it out. After many unsuccessful attempts, the hook finally caught and he began to pull with all his strength. What had happened, of course, was that the hook had lodged under a heavy rock but he firmly believed that he was now rescuing the moon.

Unfortunately, the rock was too heavy for the rope and, after a final tremendous pull, the rope snapped and the Mullah fell back onto the ground from where, looking up, he saw the moon now resting back in its usual place!

This, says Swami Paramarthananda, is a metaphor for the process of enlightenment. We believe that we are limited and struggle through years of sAdhana (spiritual practice) until finally, when the rope finally breaks, we ‘attain’ mokSha (enlightenment). So was all the effort really necessary, when we always have been the non-dual Self? The neoAdvaitins insist that no effort is required.

However, Swami Paramarthananda

also tells another story which may help to remove any doubts. It is an extension of the oft-related one about the lady who is looking everywhere for her necklace but then realizes that it has been around her neck all the time. This version has the lady discovering her loss after returning from visiting a friend, to whom she had been showing the necklace. She realizes that she must have left it there and runs out into the street and all the way back to her friend’s house only to have the friend point out that the necklace was around her neck the whole time. The question he now asks is: was it necessary that the lady make the effort of going round to her friend in order to find the necklace?

Clearly she already had the necklace but, equally clearly, she did not know that she had it. And this is the key point of the metaphor. We already are free but we do not know it. The effort of sAdhana and j~nAna yoga is to acquire the knowledge that will remove the notion that we are bound.

Enlightenment is of the mind, the self-knowledge that destroys the selfignorance takes place in the mind. There is no frustration at all when advaita is taught correctly. On the contrary, it is a joyful process in which aspects that caused confusion are replaced by clarity. It is also the person that seeks enlightenment and the person that finds it, even though the ‘finding’ also includes the realization that there never was a ‘person’ in reality.

THE BOOK OF ONE: The Ancient Wisdom of Advaita

by Dennis Waite, £7.99 Paperback (440 pages). www.watkinsbooks.com

37

HEALTH

HEALTH

Body Intelligence

Why Kindness is Good for You

by David R. Hamilton, PhD

Creating a New Environment

by Ged Sumner The more sensitive you become to your body the more you start to hear its needs. Then you naturally want to feed it healthy food and offer it intelligent exercise, not abuse it or exhaust it.

You start to move into a harmonious relationship with your body and everything about you will change. Being in harmony with your body is the start of being in harmony with yourself and who you are and how you want to lead your life.

This book is an attempt to make the body, your body, more accessible.

There are millions of facts about the body from modern medical science that aren’t necessary to know, you don’t need them to grasp the basics of how your body works. Instead, certain facts are presented here that highlight key qualities and functions of the body, derived from a mixture of western medical science, eastern concepts of health and medicine and alternative body therapy approaches.

Most of the medical ‘lingo’ has been purposefully expelled, to make it more reader friendly, keeping only the more commonly used terms that may be useful to know, and this in itself, might help to break down the negative reactions towards medical terminology.

As well as learning about the mechanics of your body you will be guided through some practical exercises. As you move through the exercises, you may notice that it’s a struggle to feel certain body structures or functions whilst others you can relate to easily. This you will be encouraged to pay particular attention to, as it will indicate where you orientate to most in your body. You might not be as connected to certain tissues or parts of your body as others and this is quite a common experience. In this way you can start to construct a ‘body map’ that will show your body awareness in detail.

From this, new gateways of awareness will open as you start to recognise all of your body and listen to the detail of what’s going on. Much of this will be wonderful, but some of it might bring up difficult feelings as you start to make connections with your body memory: the body is a memory bank 38

Watkins Review

of all your experiences. Our bodies hold the landscape of the many events in our lives; some of the landscape will no doubt have turbulent weather, which may contain difficult feelings that are unresolved. Remember, the emphasis of the exercises is to open up to an underlying order that will bring about integration of body physiology with your thoughts and feelings.

When identifying the state of your body something wonderful happens, an automatic process of change begins.

Just becoming aware of something brings about change, in order to better accommodate ‘something new’. That ‘new something’ could be as simple as a new state of being and it can lead to a

“A

s your body awareness increases through the exercises, you will notice physical changes occurring: your body will, literally, re-posture itself, there will be reorganization of structures around each other, a re-alignment that brings about a new physiology; all of which will often be followed by mental or emotional shifts” whole lot more. As your body awareness increases through the exercises, you will notice physical changes occurring: your body will, literally, re-posture itself, there will be reorganization of structures around each other, a realignment that brings about a new physiology; all of which will often be followed by mental or emotional shifts.

You therefore, begin to feel different, move differently and think differently.

This process will affect all parts of your body, but by using the exercises for the particular areas of the body that you have difficulty relating to, you will bring about deep change to your whole body. This will happen over time with repetition of the exercises. All of which leads to a rare and precious state: ‘Integrated Body Awareness’ – a state of relating to the whole of your body in the present. This in itself, naturally,

Ged Sumner is a practicing Craniosacral Therapist, Craniosacral Therapy trainer and Chi Kung teacher. He has also studied shiatsu, healing and attachment based psychoanalytical psychotherapy. He is the director of Body Intelligence Training which offers Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy practitioner courses in North America and Australasia (www.bodyintelligence.com). Ged is also the author of You Are How You Move: Experiential Chi Kung (£12.99).

creates greater vitality and clarity of mind. Here’s an example of a body awareness exercise: Finding Your Spine - Exercise Imagine your attention/awareness is like fluid. Let it flow down from your head, along the length of your spine, right into the bottom of the spine in the pelvis. Sensations of your spine will come to you. Take your time with doing this. Let the feel of the spine emerge at its own pace. Try to feel the nobbly bits, the curves, bones, and the spine as a unit. That’s really the important thing, bringing your awareness to the whole spine. It’s composed of many separate parts, but the super-nature of it, is that it’s one unit of function. We can forget this and get lost in the bits and pieces of it. Find your whole spine again and you will find your relationship to the whole of you. This is the way to ‘holistic relationship’. A whole relationship with yourself, people, nature, and the universe at large. How important is this? Spend some time making this relationship with your spine and observe what happens in your life.

Finding your spine is transformative.

BODY INTELLIGENCE: Creating a New Environment (Second Edition)

by Ged Sumner, £12.99 Illustrated Paperback (222 pages).

Issue 24, Summer 2010

Did you know that when you are kind to someone it actually benefits your health?

Many recent studies have confirmed that kindness makes us happier and is an antidote to depression.

In testing the happiness inducing effects, scientists at the University of California recently asked a large number of volunteers to conduct five acts of kindness on one particular day of the week. Amazingly, after ten weeks of this they were much happier than those who hadn’t shown the kindnesses.

You’ve probably noticed that being kind makes you feel good. There’s even a scientific term for it – helper’s high.

It’s the good feeling we get through doing something good. Its basis is in the sn’t it amazing that when we production of morphine-like opiates in do something from the heart – an the frontal cortex of the brain. act of kindness – we actually benefit But the effects go far beyond the brain. the heart at the cellular level?”

Kindness, especially when it involves contact with the person you’re helping, this form of cardiovascular disease. produces chemicals in the brain that benefit What this means is that each time the body. One of these is a hormone known we show kindness in our lives, we as oxytocin. You might recognize the name. are actually protecting ourselves from It’s given to some women to induce labour diseases of the heart. and also causes lactation. But very recent Isn’t it amazing that when we do research has shown that it has many other something from the heart – an act of beneficial roles in the body. kindness – we actually benefit the heart For instance, it very quickly sticks to at the cellular level? little binding sites on the cells that line our Compassion also produces oxytocin. It arteries and veins, stimulating the release of protects our health in another way too. One nitric oxide, which then dilates our arteries. of the major factors that speeds up aging, The result is that blood can flow more easily and which is also a primary cause of many and blood pressure drops. So kindness is diseases, is inflammation. It is similar to good for the cardiovascular system. the inflammation that occurs when you It also protects against cardiovascular cut yourself, except that it is internal. If disease. In particular, hardening of there’s too much internal inflammation the arteries, a condition known as which, like free radical production can be atherosclerosis, occurs because of excess a product of mental and emotional stress free radicals in the bloodstream, which over a long period of time, and also eating are usually a product of mental and too much, smoking or drinking too much, emotional stress or poor lifestyle choices. then the resulting inflammation can lead to In studying how this happens, scientists faster aging and many diseases, including subjected some of the cells that line many forms of cancer, heart disease, and our blood vessels to stress and noticed even Alzheimer’s. that loads of free radicals were quickly The key to reducing inflammation is produced in the cells, setting off a chain the vagus nerve, which runs from the top reaction that would eventually result of the brainstem and wanders throughout in hardening. They then did the same all the organs in the body. Known as the again, but this time added a few drops of Inflammatory Reflex, the vagus nerve oxytocin. The result was that there were stops inflammation in its tracks. Or at 48% less free radicals. The research team least it does so to the extent that the nerve concluded that oxytocin protects against is fit and healthy.

“I

Very recent studies now show that we can stimulate the vagus nerve through compassion and increase its fitness, or tone as it is referred to.

When we share another’s pain and compassionately wish them free of their suffering, we stimulate the vagus nerve and this turns up the Inflammatory Reflex, effectively reducing inflammation throughout the body. It possibly explains the anecdotal evidence that many people who live way over a hundred years say that the key to their longevity is compassion.

The reason that kindness and compassion are so good for us is that we are actually genetically wired to be kind.

Through the process of evolution by natural selection, genes that promoted kindness and compassion united individuals into relationships and groups.

Over evolutionary timescales, groups fared much better than individuals and thus the genes of those in the groups were gradually passed through the genetic line to us today.

And as further proof that we are wired for kindness, recent genetics studies have now discovered specific genes that vary slightly from one person to the next and correspond exactly to differences in generosity between those individuals.

The fact that we are wired to be kind is why kindness is so good for our health.

It is also why, when we go against our nature and don’t show kindness, it actually stresses our nervous systems.

So not only must we think of diet and exercise when we talk of being healthy. We must now add kindness to the health and longevity equation. Of course, we are kind for the sake of being kind - we don’t help someone so that we become healthy. We’re kind because it’s the right thing to do. It just so happens that it’s good for us too.

WHY KINDNESS IS GOOD FOR YOU by David R. Hamilton, £9.99 Paperback (256 pages). Dr David Hamilton is also the author of It’s the Thought That Counts (£8.99) and How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body (£9.99). www.watkinsbooks.com

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TRUE LEGENDS

DAY TRIP

The Secret Land

The Origins of Arthurian Legend and the Grail Quest

by Paul Broadhurst

The discovery of the giant image of a Great Bear in the Cornish landscape, outlined by ancient roads and with some of Britain’s most spiritually potent sites located in relation to it, has profound implications for our understanding of the origins of Arthurian mythology. The mystery deepens when we realise that in the old British language, Arthur (Arth Fawr in Welsh) means Great Bear. This gigantic effigy, clearly visible on maps, aerial photographs and even Google Earth, has been hidden in the landscape since very ancient times, and is looking straight at Tintagel Island, the legendary birthplace of King Arthur.

The existence of such a remarkable image at this place, immortalised by Geoffrey of Monmouth who included much Celtic Wisdom Knowledge in his History of the Kings of Britain, re-awakens the idea of King Arthur slumbering in the land, and it is so striking that once seen, it can never be forgotten.

All this begins to make some sense when we understand that the constellation of the Great Bear was of enormous significance in ancient times.

It guarded the Gate of Heaven and the centre of the ‘Round Table’ of the stars, and was deeply linked to ideas of cosmic harmony and order, whose rhythms it reflected in its endless motion around the still point of the universe.

It still does, of course, even if we today rarely look at the stars. But in Druid star-lore which stemmed from even earlier traditions, the Great Bear ruled the shamanic Pole of the Heavens, from where souls were believed to come into incarnation, and to where they were destined to return.

By its motion it also represented the source of earthly time and the cycles of the seasons. Just like King Arthur, it presides over the stellar Round Table, and its familiar seven stars, amongst the brightest in the night sky, were known as Arthur’s Chariot, as their revolutions were believed to order both time and space.

Since the discovery of the Great Bear 40

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of Tintagel about ten years ago, other giant figures have revealed that the true origins of the Arthurian mythos are firmly rooted in stellar cosmology. A series of enormous totem animals, each one just as clearly visible and meaningful as the Great Bear, have revealed themselves in the landscape between the north and south Cornish coasts, and indicate the shamanic origins of the myths.

It is highly significant that in the Mabinogion, amongst the earliest writings concerning the old British Mysteries, Cornwall is frequently referred to as King Arthur’s Court of Celliwic. Other early references state that the Round Table was presented to King Arthur by the King of Cornwall at Arthur’s wedding to Guinevere. These old legends can now be shown to have a

“T

his gigantic effigy, clearly visible on maps, aerial photographs and even Google Earth, has been hidden in the landscape since very ancient times” basis in fact, for they are memories of an extraordinary ancient truth.

Each giant figure is, like the Great Bear of Tintagel, a reflection on Earth of a particular constellation, and certain ancient families who were the guardians of this knowledge often adopted these animal totems as their heraldic crests.

Here is proof that ancient people who created the first star-myths left messages in the land together with megalithic monuments which mirror the movements of the heavens.

The guardians of this Grail Wisdom also left encoded images in many ancient churches that can still be seen and marvelled at today, an enduring and tangible legacy of the truth behind the myths.

These remarkable correspondences between the landscape effigies and the constellations show that the old mythmakers were master astronomers, whose

vision was beyond anything we might imagine today. Robin Heath, one of the country’s leading researchers into the relationship between megaliths, sky

The Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall, houses the world’s largest collection of witchcraft related artifacts and regalia. The museum has been located in Boscastle for over forty years and is amongst Cornwall’s most popular museums.

“T

he Round Table was presented to King Arthur by the King of Cornwall at Arthur’s wedding to Guinevere”

and landscape, brings his own expertise to show the amazing depth of their understanding.

This quest has led us to uncover a previously unsuspected raison d’être behind the siting of many megalithic structures, and realise that there is a unified plan behind all this which can be demonstrated through landscape geometry and the way it reflects the movements of the heavens.

These findings are bound to create a renaissance of interest in understanding our true relationship with the Earth, and also a great respect for the astronomerpriests of old who were behind all this.

This knowledge is at the root of the true origins of the Grail Quest and the idea that King Arthur is sleeping in the landscape of Britain, ready to awaken when the country really needs him.

That time, I believe, is now.

THE SECRET LAND: The Origins of Arthurian Legend and the Grail Quest

by Paul Broadhurst with Robin Heath, published by Mythos Press, £17.50 LargeFormat Illustrated Paperback (368 pages).

Paul Broadhurst is co-author of the classic bestseller on earth mysteries, The Sun and the Serpent (£12.95), and its sequel, The Dance of the Dragon: An Odyssey into Earth Energies and Ancient Religion (£18.50). He is also the author of The Green Man and the Dragon: The Mystery behind the Myth of St George and the Dragon Power of Nature (£12.95).

Issue 24, Summer 2010

It is the policy of the Museum to display items relating to witchcraft and magic.

The bias is toward Cornish and English artifacts, but not exclusively. There are many artifacts in the collection that could offend, but the museum strives to remain impartial and show all aspects of the subject. The museum aims to demonstrate the beliefs and practices of witches past and present. They receive a steady flow of donated exhibits which enable the museum to regularly update its displays.

The Museum also maintains an impressive archive and library that is available Contact and Visitor Information The Museum of Witchcraft is located

by The Harbour in Boscastle, Cornwall.

Boscastle is on the North coast of Cornwall between Tintagel and Bude.

They are open April - end October • Monday to Saturday 10.30am till 6pm • Sunday 11.30am till 6pm The Museum of Witchcraft The Harbour Boscastle Cornwall PL35 0HD

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In the Next Issue Autumn 2010

- Discovering the secrets of the Voynich Manuscript - What is God? - an interview with Jacob Needleman - The Kabbalistic Tree of Life - by Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi - The Mysterious Book of Occult Philosophy - by Donald Tyson - Spiritual apps for the iPhone and iPad

Join our online community

facebook.com/watkinsbooks t w i t t e r. c o m / w a t k i n s b o o k s youtube.com/watkinsbooks

Pocket Wisdom 2012 In Your Pocket Geoff Stray Order at www.watkinsbooks.com or by calling +44 (0)20 7836 2182

£9.99 Paperback (64 pages)

Soul Angels Jenny Smedley

£7.99 Paperback

Everything you ever wanted to know about 2012 is packed into this handy guidebook. With illustrations, diagrams and concise text, Stray takes us on a journey from our past to our future with Mayan prophecies, hints from ancient Egypt, Shamanism, solar cycles, the Galactic alignment and more. Learn how our past is speaking to us about what lays ahead - and what the world will be like after December 21, 2012.

Do you ever wonder if you might have had a past life, and how it might affect you today?

Do you ever dream that your connections to angels might be even closer than you thought? This book brings these two concepts together in a dramatic revelation that will forever change the way you see yourself.

Smedley explores and explains your past lives and how they contribute to any problems you might have today.

The Crystal Children: A Guide to the Newest Generation of Psychic and Sensitive Children Doreen Virtue

The Law Of Attraction, Plain And Simple: Create the Extraordinary Life That You Deserve Sonia Ricotti

£5.99 Paperback (176 pages)

Crystal Children are the new generation that has come to the Earth plane after the Indigo Children. They are highly psychic, with bright, radiant and opalescent auras - they seem to glow from within! They talk about past lives and distant galaxies, with profound insights of peace and love. This book covers many issues that affect these Crystal Children and includes interviews with them, their parents and teachers.

£8.99 Paperback (144 pages)

Stop the negative energy flow and learn to project positive energy - all the time. Ricotti shows how to live the life of your dreams by applying simple steps for freedom, peace, and abundance. In plain English, with stories, tips, and exercises, she helps shift your thoughts, language, and emotions.

Concise, accessible, and practical, this book is all you need to put complaints behind and get what you want, need and deserve.

Cosmic Ordering For Beginners Barbel Mohr & Clemens Maria Mohr

£7.99 Paperback

If you’re still waiting for the right job, partner or house, or for that millionpound lottery win, then why not try to make your wish come true with this unique beginners guide to Cosmic Ordering? This practical book outlines the key ideas and principles to provide you with an excellent grounding in the rules that govern the cosmos and ways of changing your subconscious to positively shape your life.

Introduction To The Gurdjieff Work Jacob Needleman £5.99 Paperback (62 pages)

When Gurdjieff first appeared in Moscow he brought with him a teaching unknown and unheard of in the modern world. His aim was to help human beings awaken to the meaning of existence and the efforts needed to realize that meaning within our lives. We can now begin to understand that Gurdjieff’s life was a work of love; and at the same time that word, “love,” begins to take on new dimensions of meaning.

Ted Andrews, the renowned spiritual teacher and writer, passed away on October 24th 2009.

Born on July 16th 1952, Ted is probably best-known for his animal-themed books AnimalSpeak, Animal-Wise, and Nature-Speak. These are his last two books Animal-Speak Runes - £24.00 Boxed Set (40 Animal Runes & 128-page Book) Animal-Speak Pocket Guide - £5.99 Paperback (96 pages)

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Issue 24, Summer 2010

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