CONTACT 54

The Study Society Newsletter

Spring 2011 £3.00 Contact The Study Society Newsletter

Wring Out My Clothes Such love does the sky now pour, that whenever I stand in a field,

I have to wring out the light when I get home. St Francis of Assisi From, for lovers of god everywhere Hay House, 2009

Cover Illustration James Turrell .© ‘Sky-space’ installation in the Roden Crater, Arizona. The Roden Crater is an extinct volcanic cinder cone, situated at an elevation of approximately 5,400 feet in the San Francisco Volcanic Field near Arizona's Painted Desert and the Grand Canyon. The 600 foot tall red and black cinder cone is being turned into a monumental work of art and naked eye observatory by the artist James Turrell, who says: . . . in this stage set of geologic time, I wanted to make spaces that engaged celestial events in light so that the spaces performed like a music of the spheres — in light. The sequence of spaces, leading up to the final large space at the top of the crater, magnifies events. The work I do intensifies the experience of light by isolating it and occluding light from events not looked at. (See more at www.rodencrater.com)

CONTENTS 3. The Universe as a Hologram Michael Talbot 9. Nothing Obscures Consciousness Rupert Spira 12. Three Graces James Witchalls 15. Holman Hunt and the Light of Consciousness Fiona Stuart 17. Writing a poem, living a life Tony Brignull 19. Sometimes a Light surprises Heather Gibbs 20. ‘Dawning of the clear light’ Peter & Elizabeth Fenwick 22. The Meaning of Light? Dorothy Smith 23. Northern Lights Martin Redfern 25. Go gentle into that good night Geoffrey Lee 26. Book Reviews Redfern, Connell, Miodownik, Garten 30. Obituaries. Peggy MacLaren, Keith Mott, Costi Melidis 32. The Three Hermits Leo Tolstoy 36. Information pages 40. Diary Dates

2 Painted Storks at sunrise in the Bharatpur wildlife sanctuary, Rajasthan. Richard Beal. © The Universe as a Hologram Does Objective Reality Exis t?

Science appears increasingly determined to understand the real nature of consciousness and just exactly how ‘the world’, both inner and outer, contrives to arise in the minds of human beings. Here is one strand of enquiry, set in motion by the physicist David Bohm with whom, before he died, the Study Society had a strong connection. This is work still in progress, not the end of any story, but it demonstrates the way that modern science and the perennial vision of the mystics are inevitably coming together to suggest a new paradigm — a paradigm which, like this issue of Contact, seems to be built upon the fundamental and miraculous nature of ‘Light’.

IN 1982 A REMARKABLE EVENT TOOK PLACE at the University the speed of light. Travelling faster than the speed of light is of Paris. A research team led by physicist Alain Aspect tantamount to breaking the time barrier — time would performed what may turn out to be one of the most simply stop — and so this daunting prospect has caused important experiments of the 20th century. Unless you are some physicists to try to come up with elaborate ways to in the habit of reading scientific journals you probably have explain away Aspect’s findings. But it has inspired others never heard Aspect’s name, though there are now many to offer even more radical insights. who believe his discovery may be changing the face of The physicist David Bohm believed Aspect’s findings science. imply that objective reality simply does not exist —that Aspect and his team discovered that under certain despite its apparent solidity, the universe is in essence an circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are illusion, rendered by an infinite and miraculously able instantaneously to communicate with each other detailed hologram. regardless of the distance separating them. It doesn’t To understand why Bohm makes this startling matter whether they are 10 feet or 10 billion miles apart. assertion, one must first understand a little about Somehow, each particle always seems to ‘know’ what the holograms. A hologram is a three-dimensional photo- other is doing. The problem with this feat is that it violates graph made with the aid of a laser. The object to be Einstein’s long-held tenet that nothing can travel faster than photographed is first bathed in the light of a laser beam.

3 Then a second laser beam is bounced off the reflected light of the first and the resulting interference pattern (the area where the two laser beams commingle) is captured on film. When the film is developed, it looks like a meaningless swirl of light and dark lines. But as soon as the developed film is illuminated by another laser beam, a three-dimensional image of the original object reappears. The three-dimensionality of such images is not the only remarkable characteristic of holograms. If a hologram of a rose is cut in half and then illuminated by a laser, each half will still be found to contain the entire image of the rose. Indeed, even if the halves are divided again, each snippet of film will always be found to contain a smaller but intact version of the original image. Unlike normal photographs, every part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by the whole. The ‘whole-in-every-part’ nature of a hologram provides us with an entirely new way of understanding organization and order. For most of its history, Western science has considered that the best way to understand any physical phenomenon, whether a frog or an atom, is turns, the other also makes a slightly different but to take it to pieces and study its respective parts. This is corresponding turn; when one faces the front, the other ‘reductionism’ — reducing a thing to its component always faces toward the side. If you remain ignorant of elements and examining them separately. But a hologram the real situation you might even conclude that the fish teaches us that some things in the universe may not be must be somehow communicating with one another, but susceptible to this approach. If we try to take apart the truth, of course, is that there is only one fish. something constructed holographically, we will not get David Bohm suggests that this is precisely what is the pieces from which it is made, we only get smaller and going on between the subatomic particles in Aspect’s smaller wholes . experiment. The apparently faster-than-light connection This insight suggested to Bohm another way of between subatomic particles is really telling us that there understanding Aspect’s discovery. Bohm believes the is a deeper level of reality we are not usually privy to, a reason subatomic particles are able to remain in contact higher dimension beyond (and including) our own that is with one another regardless of the distance separating analogous to the aquarium. And, he adds, we view them is not because they are sending some sort of objects such as subatomic particles as separate from one mysterious signal back and forth, but because their another because we are seeing only a portion of their separateness is an illusion . He argues that at some deeper reality. Such particles are not separate entities, but only level of reality such particles are not individual entities, fleeting facets of a deeper and more underlying unity that but are actually reflections of the same fundamental is ultimately as holographic and indivisible as the rose ‘something’. already mentioned. And since everything we perceive in To enable people to better visualize what he means, this physical world is comprised of these fleeting facets of Bohm offers the following illustration. Imagine an ‘reality’, the universe itself can be seen as a projection — a aquarium containing a single fish. Imagine also that you hologram. are unable to see the aquarium directly and your In addition to its apparently illusory nature, such a knowledge about it and what it contains is provided by universe would possess other startling features. If the two television cameras, one directed at the aquarium’s perceived separateness of subatomic particles is illusory, it front and the other directed at its side. As you stare at two means that at a deeper level of reality all things in the television monitors in another room, you might assume universe are infinitely inter-connected.The electrons in that the fish on each of the screens are separate entities. every carbon atom in the human brain are connected to As the cameras are set at different angles, each of the the subatomic particles that comprise every salmon that images will be slightly different. But as you continue to swims, every heart that beats, and every star that watch the two fish, you will eventually become aware that shimmers in the firmament. Everything inter-penetrates there is a certain relationship between them. When one everything else, and though human nature may seek to

4 measure and categorize, to pigeonhole and subdivide the of neurons, but in patterns of nerve impulses that criss- various phenomena of the universe, all these divisions are cross the entire brain in the same way that patterns of of necessity artificial and all of nature is ultimately a laser light interference criss-cross the entire area of a piece seamless web of unity. of film containing a holographic image. In other words, In a holographic universe, even time and space can no Pribram believes the brain is itself a hologram. longer be viewed as fundamentals. Concepts such as Pribram’s theory also explains how the brain can store ‘where’ and ‘when’ simply break down in a universe in so many memories in so little space. It has been estimated which nothing is truly separate from anything else. Time that the human brain has the capacity to memorize and three-dimensional space, like the images of the fish on something on the order of 10 billion bits of information the TV monitors, must also be viewed as projections (or during the average human lifetime (or roughly the same reflections) of this deeper order. At a deeper level, reality is amount of information contained in five sets of the a sort of super-hologram in which the past, present, and Encyclopaedia Britannica). future all exist simultaneously. This suggests that given the Similarly, it has been discovered that in addition to proper understanding it may even become possible, their other capabilities, holograms possess an astounding someday, to reach into the super-holographic level of reality capacity for information storage — simply by changing and witness past and future ‘events’ in the present moment. the angle at which the two lasers strike a piece of What else the super-hologram contains is an open- photographic film, it is possible to record many different ended question. Allowing, for the sake of argument, that the images on the same surface. It has been demonstrated super-hologram is the matrix that gives birth to everything that one cubic centimeter of film can hold as many as 10 in our universe, at the very least it contains every subatomic billion bits of information. particle that has ever been or will be — every configuration Our uncanny ability to quickly retrieve whatever of matter and energy that is possible, from snowflakes to information we need from the enormous store of our quasars, from blue whales to gamma rays —what memories becomes more understandable if the brain philosophy calls ‘the Absolute’, a sort of cosmic storehouse functions according to holographic principles. If a friend of ‘All That Is’. asks you to tell him what comes to mind when he says the Although Bohm concedes that we have no way of word ‘zebra’, you do not have to clumsily sort through knowing what remains hidden in the super-hologram, he some gigantic cerebral alphabetic file to arrive at an does venture to say that we have no reason to assume it answer. Instead, associations like ‘striped’, ‘horselike’, does not contain more. Or as he puts it, perhaps the and ‘animal native to Africa’ all come instantly to mind. super-holographic level of reality is a ‘mere stage’ beyond Indeed, one of the most amazing things about the human which lies ‘an infinity of further development’. thinking process is that every piece of information seems Bohm is not the only researcher who has found instantly cross-correlated with every other piece of evidence that the universe is holographic. Working information — another feature intrinsic to holograms. independently in the field of brain research, Stanford The storage of memory is not the only neuro- neuro-physiologist Karl Pribram has also become physiological puzzle that becomes more tractable in the persuaded of the holographic nature of reality. Pribram light of Pribram’s holographic model of the brain. was drawn to the holographic model by the puzzle of Another is how the brain is able to translate the avalanche how and where memories are stored in the brain. For of frequencies it receives via the senses (light frequencies, decades numerous studies have shown that rather than sound frequencies, and so on) into the concrete world of being confined to a specific location, memories are our perceptions. dispersed throughout the brain. Encoding and decoding frequencies is precisely what a In a series of landmark experiments in the 1920s, brain hologram does best. Just as a hologram functions as a kind scientist Karl Lashley found that no matter what portion of lens, a translating device able to convert an apparently of a rat’s brain he removed he was unable to eradicate its meaningless blur of frequencies into a coherent image, memory of how to perform complex tasks previously Pribram believes the brain also comprises a lens and uses learnt. No one at that time was able to come up with a holographic principles to mathematically convert the mechanism to explain this curious ‘whole-in-every-part’ frequencies it receives through the senses into the inner nature of memory storage. world of our perceptions. Then in the 1960s Pribram encountered the concept of An impressive body of evidence suggests that the holography and realized he had found the explanation brain uses holographic principles to perform its brain scientists had been looking for. Pribram believes operations. Pribram’s theory, in fact, has gained increasing memories are encoded not in neurons, or small groupings support among neuro-physiologists.

5 Pribram’s belief that our brains mathematically many of the baffling phenomena experienced by construct ‘hard’ reality by relying on input from a individuals during altered states of consciousness. While frequency domain has also received a good deal of conducting research into the nature of LSD as a psycho- experimental support. It has been found that each of our therapeutic tool, Grof found one female patient who senses is sensitive to a much broader range of frequencies became convinced she had assumed the identity of a than was previously suspected. In fact, our visual systems female of a species of prehistoric reptile. During the course are sensitive to sound frequencies, our sense of smell is in of her hallucination, she not only gave a richly detailed part dependent on what are now called ‘osmic description of what it felt like actually to be in such a form, frequencies’, and even the cells in our bodies are sensitive but noted that a most significant portion of the male of the to a broad range of frequencies. Such findings suggest that species’s anatomy was a patch of coloured scales on the side it is only in the holographic domain of consciousness that of its head. What startled Grof was that although the such frequencies are sorted out and arranged into woman had no prior knowledge about such things, a conventional perceptions. conversation with a zoologist later confirmed that in But the most remarkable aspect of Pribram’s certain species of reptiles, uniquely coloured areas on the holographic model of the brain is what happens when it is head do indeed play an important role as triggers of sexual put together with Bohm’s theory. For if the concreteness of arousal. The woman’s experience was not unique. During the world is only a secondary reality and what is ‘there’ is the course of his research, Grof encountered examples of actually a holographic blur of frequencies, and if the brain patients regressing and identifying with virtually every is also a hologram and only selects some of the frequencies species on the evolutionary tree. Moreover, he found that out of this blur and mathematically such experiences frequently contained transforms them into sensory ‘. . . it can no longer be true obscure zoological details which turned perceptions — what then becomes of out to be accurate. objective reality? Put quite simply, it to say the brain produces Regressions into the animal ceases to exist. As the wisdom of the East consciousness. Rather, it is kingdom were not the only puzzling has long upheld, the material world is psychological phenomena that Grof consciousness that creates the Maya, ultimately an illusion, and encountered. He also had patients who although we remain convinced we are appearance of the brain . . . ’ appeared to tap into a collective or racial physical beings moving through a unconscious. Individuals with little or physical world, this too is an illusion, being only one no education were able to give detailed and accurate glittering facet of an infinitely greater reality. descriptions of Zoroastrian funerary practices and scenes We are really ‘receivers’ floating in a kaleidoscopic sea from Hindu pre-history. of frequencies, and what we extract from this ocean of In later research, Grof found the same range of possibility and transform into physical reality is but one phenomena manifested in therapy sessions which did not single channel of the myriad shimmering in the super- involve the use of drugs. Because the common element in hologram. such experiences appeared to be the transcending of an This striking new picture of reality, the synthesis of individual’s consciousness beyond the usual boundaries of Bohm and Pribram’s views, has come to be called the ego and the limitations of space and time, Grof called such holographic paradigm, and although many scientists have manifestations ‘transpersonal experiences’, and in the late greeted it with scepticism, others have been galvanized. A ‘60s he and others founded a branch of psychology growing group of researchers believes it may be the most devoted entirely to their study. accurate model of reality science has conceived thus far. Although Grof’s ‘Association of Transpersonal More than that, some believe it should solve mysteries Psychology’ became an increasingly wide-spread and never before explainable by science and even establish the respected branch of psychology, it remained unable to offer paranormal as a part of nature. Numerous researchers, any ‘scientific’ mechanism to explain the bizarre including Bohm and Pribram, have noted that many para- psychological phenomena being regularly witnessed. With psychological phenomena become much more the advent of the holographic paradigm, this has changed. understandable in terms of a holographic paradigm. As Grof recently noted, if the mind is actually part of a In a universe in which individual brains are actually continuum, a labyrinth connecting not only every other indivisible portions of the greater reality and everything is mind that exists or has ever existed, but every atom, infinitely inter-connected, telepathy may naturally arise organism, and region in the vastness beyond space and from the accessing of the holographic principle. time itself, the fact that it may occasionally seem to make The eminent psychologist Stanislav Grof suggests the forays into the labyrinth and find ‘transpersonal’ holographic paradigm offers a model for understanding experiences may no longer seem so strange.

6 The holographic paradigm also has implications for so- called hard sciences like biology. If even the essential concreteness of reality is a holographic image, it can no longer be true to say the brain produces consciousness. Rather, it is consciousness that creates the manifestation of the brain — as well as the body and everything else in the world we perceive as physical. Such a turnaround in the way we view biological structures suggests that medicine and the general understanding of the healing process may also be transformed by the holographic paradigm. If the apparent physical structure of the body is a holographic projection of consciousness, it becomes clear that each of us may be more responsible for our health than current medical wisdom allows. What we now regard as miraculous remissions of disease may actually be due to changes in consciousness which in turn effect changes in the hologram of the body. Two, or three? Similarly, controversial healing techniques such as visualization and homeopathy may in fact prove effective make sense, and everything in ‘reality’ becomes a metaphor — because, in the holographic domain, images are ultimately even the most haphazard events expressing an as real as ‘reality’. imperceptible symmetry. Even visions and experiences involving ‘non-ordinary’ Whether Bohm and Pribram’s holographic paradigm reality become explainable under the holographic paradigm. becomes generally accepted by science remains to be seen, In his book Gifts of Unknown Things, the biologist Lyall but it is safe to say that it has already had a profound Watson describes his encounter with an Indonesian shaman influence on the thinking of many scientists. Whatever the woman who, by performing a ritual dance, was able to make outcome, Aspect’s findings indicate that we must be an entire grove of trees instantly vanish into thin air. Watson prepared to consider radically new views of reality. relates that as he and another astonished onlooker watched Michael Talbot the woman, she caused the trees to reappear, then ‘click’ off  again, and on again, several times in succession. Although science is currently unable to explain such The above is edited from an article originally appearing in events, experiences like this become more tenable if ‘hard’ the Village Voice . Michael Talbot died of leukaemia in 1992, reality is indeed some form of holographic projection. The aged 38. fact that we agree on what is ‘there’ or ‘not there’ may be Further reading: The Holographic Universe by Michael because a ‘consensus reality’ is formulated and ratified at the Talbot, published by Harper Perennial/Harper Collins level of the human unconscious, the ‘morphic resonance’ at ISBN 0-06-092258-3 which all minds are infinitely inter-connected. If this is true, it is another most profound implication of the holographic More News, from Science Daily February 4, 2009 paradigm, for it means that experiences such as Watson’s are Cardiff University researchers, who are part of a British- not commonplace only because our minds have not been German team searching the depths of space to study ‘programmed’ with the beliefs that would make them so. In a gravitational waves, may have stumbled on one of the holographic universe there may be fewer limits than we most important discoveries in physics. expect in the extent to which we can alter the fabric of reality. American physicist Craig Hogan, working at the What we perceive as reality is the canvas, or the screen, Fermilab Centre for Particle Astrophysics in Illinois, is waiting for us to project upon it any picture we want. convinced that he has found further proof of a Anything is possible, for ‘magic’ is humanity’s forgotten holographic universe in the data of the gravitational wave birthright, no more or less miraculous than our ability to detector GEO600 in Germany. ‘imagine’ the reality we desire when dreaming. The British-German team at the GEO600 will now carry In a holographic universe even the most fundamental out new experiments to yield more evidence. If proved notions must be reviewed. Even random events result from correct, it could help not only to establish the holographic holographic principles and are therefore determined. nature of the universe but also to bring together quantum Synchronicities or meaningful coincidences suddenly mechanics and Einstein’s theory of gravity.

7 James Turrell. © Another ‘Sky-space’ installation in the Roden Crater. ‘Often things that are close to the sublime have a different time scale and a different unfolding.’

8 Nothing Obscures Consciousness

Rupert Spira is to be the guest of the Colet House Open Sunday and whatever else is being experienced in this moment? on June 19th. His meeting, ‘Contemplations on the Nature of The cluster of sensations that we call ‘the body’ is no Experience’, will explore the non-dual understanding that lies closer to our self, to Consciousness, than any other object, at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions, as such as a sound, sensation or visual perception and no well as the western philosophical traditions of Parmenides, perception is further from our self than our most intimate Plotinus and others. All that is required is an interest in the thoughts or feelings. essential nature of experience and in the longing for love, peace and happiness around which most of our lives revolve.  The following essay, Nothing Obscures Consciousness , is taken from his forthcoming book, Presence. If we look at an image of a landscape on a screen, the illusion of space is present. It seems that some objects are Whatever it is that is seeing these words is what we further away than others but of course we know that the refer to as Consciousness, Presence or ‘I’. various objects depicted in the image are all at the same Consciousness, Presence or ‘I’ is like the screen on distance from the screen, which is no distance at all. The which experience appears. Or, rather, it would be more tree in the distance is in exactly the same place as the car accurate to say that Consciousness, Presence or ‘I’ is like a in the foreground. three dimensional screen in which experience appears. The same illusion of time, space, objectivity and However, that is not quite right because it suggests otherness is true of our experience. that the mind, body and world come from outside and Consciousness is like the screen on which all appear within Consciousness, like a piece of furniture experience appears, only it is a screen without brought into a room from outside. That is not our actual dimensions. experience. Nothing is ever experienced further away from Our experience is that the mind, body and world arise Consciousness, from our self, than anything else and from within Consciousness. In fact, even that is not quite nothing is closer to Consciousness than anything else. true but it is a step in the right direction and will suffice Nothing is more ‘me’ or less ‘me’ than anything else. for the time being. In fact, no experience comes with a ‘me’ or a ‘not me’ No concepts about experience are completely true, but label attached to it. It is thought alone that apparently as we proceed in this way, suggesting new models of divides the seamlessness of experience into ‘me’ and ‘not experience that are closer to our actual experience than me’, although this division of experience never actually our previous ones, we are dismantling or dissolving the happens. old ideas in which experience has been imprisoned, Even the most divisive thought is unable to divide paving the way for a new possibility. experience just as a black and white image reflected in a We have never experienced a world outside mirror does not divide the mirror into black and white. Consciousness and there is no evidence that there is one. The most intimate bodily sensation, for instance the In fact, it would be impossible to have such an experience sensation of our breath, is no closer to us than a sound because as soon as that potential world was experienced it apparently in the distance. Like the image on the screen would by definition be within Consciousness. they both appear at no distance from Consciousness. We normally think that ‘I’, Consciousness, am located They both appear in the same place and that place is somewhere inside the body and look out through the always ‘Here’; not ‘here’ a place, but ‘Here’ this placeless senses at the world. We think that ‘I’, the subject inside the place of Presence. body, experience the object, other or world, outside. Try to find something in your experience that is However, no such experience ever takes place. further away from you, from Consciousness, than The body in this moment is a cluster of sensations and anything else. a visual perception. Is it our experience that whatever it is Imagine looking at the moon. Our only knowledge of that is seeing these words is located inside this cluster of the moon is a visual perception. Is that visual perception sensations or perceptions? further away than the visual perception of these words? Or is it our experience that this cluster of sensations No! All perception is made only of perceiving and all and perceptions is experienced within Consciousness in perceiving takes place in the same placeless place of the same place as these words, our thoughts and feelings Consciousness.

9 And what about the sensation of your heartbeat? Does present but rather that Consciousness is Knowingness that sensation take place closer to you, Consciousness, and Presence itself. than the perception of the moon or these words? In fact, Consciousness is the knowing of itself. It is the No! All experience takes place ‘Here’, in placeless knowing of Being and the being of Knowing. Presence. Consciousness cannot not know or be itself. It knows Have we ever had an experience or would it ever be and is itself alone. possible to have an experience that didn’t take place All that we have ever deeply wanted in life is inherent ‘Here’ and ‘Now’? ‘Here’, this dimensionless Presence, in the experience of Consciousness knowing/being itself and ‘Now’, this timeless Presence? which means that all we have ever wanted in life – love, Now what about this Presence itself? Has it ever peace and happiness – is present right here and now moved or changed? Has it ever been obscured? pervading this very experience. It is not just in the What kind of an experience could obscure the background of all experience but pervading the Consciousness that is apparently seeing these words? foreground as well. What kind of image could obscure a mirror? In fact, there is no background or foreground in Consciousness is the prerequisite for all experience so experience. Experience is seamless, utterly pervaded by by definition it is present in every experience. the intimacy, freshness, brightness and innocence that is Would it be possible to have the experience of not Consciousness itself. experiencing Consciousness?  If such was our experience, Consciousness would have to be present to witness that experience. More of Rupert Spira’s writings, correspondence and See clearly that it is our experience that Consciousness information on publications, meetings and retreats can be found never ceases to know and be itself. on his website: www.rupertspira.com However, it is not that Consciousness knows and is

The image may appear to be moving. Where is the movement taking place?

10 Best That I Can Be

Nature is loved by what is best in us. It is loved as the city of God, although, or rather because there is no citizen. The sunset is unlike anything that is underneath it. It wants man. Emerson

There is no meaning in this display of fire – no point in the sun splashing its glory goodbye over me – there is no point in this, its going down, except for that, today, I noticed it: saw pink upon this hill, gave meaning to the sky’s best

performance of the day. And at its best the clouds delight; they gather to display themselves in bands and stripes, high-kick pink and chorus-line into position. Back-lit by the sun, liquid gold streams in fringes down their stippled edges. The clouds keep me

watching their nimbus dance – dazzle me as shifting trails reveal the best kaleidoscope of veins, up and down and side-to-side in the wide sky. But this display is opportune, their moves dependent on the sun. Clouds need light to do their chiaroscuro, and pink

to do the flambeau and to flush. And without pink (or rose or rouge) the sunset wouldn’t want me here beneath it, at this summit, marvelling upon the sun which ricochets in mulberry wine and pours the best of dragon’s blood and crimson into its display. The sun needs me to freely witness it go down –

to hear, in the glimmer of sky as the sun slips down, the flare of a voice blazing in its pink city; God speaking in holy colours through this display. I like it when he talks saffron. And cerulean soothes me with its honesty. But I love this voice best: shot silk apricot, heliotrope waves cascading into sun.

And this is my vespers, as the sun sets upon me standing here. Over moor and down the steepled sky echoes in song; the best sparkles of stained glass – larkspur, pink and tangerine – glitter above me as I kneel under the corona’s display.

On this Sunday hill – bathed, refracted in pink light – I am stripped down to the heart. The sun wants me and I am the best that I can be, here, beneath the sun’s display.

Elizabeth Barrett From The Bat Detector . Wrecking Ball Press, 2005

11 HREE RACES provide the opportunity for us to meet the ‘guru’ of others T G present – an aspect of good company. No doubt that is why an oral tradition has such special value. Min d! Dwell within thyself. Roam not far! The scriptures are passive sources of grace. They Search, only search within explain the process of release and when put into practice by the aspirant the bonds of ignorance and For there shines thy star . attachments can be broken. (H.H. Good Company II , p. 90) Francis C. Roles The advice not to believe a word of what we hear, but SITTING HERE before a large window in the guests’ equally not to reject it has been a guiding principle all common room of Alton Abbey, Fiona Stuart’s question along. This strikes a chord in my nature because since comes to mind. ‘Would you write something for the spring childhood I have had a natural aversion to any ‘beliefs’, edition of Contact on the subject of light?’ What better especially those imposed on me as a child. They can be a prompt than the scene before me? From a clear blue sky the two-edged sword. I feel much more inclined to keep an sun’s rays stream in, while bathing the heavily frosted lawn open mind and to question everything. outside to reveal a carpet of sparkling diamonds. Blue tits And what a feast of ‘good information’ we have been play cheerfully in the shrubbery. freely given - a feast provided for us mainly by Mr All is calm, balanced and full of light. Where to begin? Ouspensky, Dr Roles and his Holiness Shantanand Open in front of me is a copy of Good Company II , page 89: Saraswati. The ‘material’ we continue to share and enjoy is a veritable grace for which I am profoundly grateful - over Q. How can one escape the wheel of life and death? the years I have pored over it in great detail and found it to H.H. Creation is governed by the laws of nature be of immense practical help. Living in an age of which are the expression of love. Nature assists those information overload it is a comfort to have the grace of who seek transformation and punishes those who are these ‘scriptures’ always to hand. In particular it has shed attached to rigidity and do not want to change. There much light on numerous enigmatic references in Christian are three sources of help. They are a Realised man, literature, providing ‘eyes to see and ears to hear’. In fact I the scriptures, and the Self. find the core teaching of Christ to be pure Advaita. Fifty years ago, before attending medical school, I But however much we may study the ideas available to us, sought advice from Dr. Roles. Helen Wright showed me it will remain ‘good information’ unless we put it into practice into his room at Colet House, a room filled with the incense so that it becomes our own – becomes Self-knowledge: of St. Bruno tobacco smoke. Again the sun was shining . . . The third and most hidden source is the Self, or and so was Dr. Roles, pipe in hand. All those carefully Atman, which is always present but remains crafted questions I brought with me vanished. His unknown. If one can contemplate, meditate and presence radiated kindness, reassurance and light. Being in reflect the inner and deeper levels of oneself, true his presence was literally like being in another world. What promptings will help one to break that vicious circle we discussed I cannot remember, apart from his parting through enlightenment. (H.H. Good Company II , p. 90) comment. Leaning forward he said quietly: ‘Don’t take yourself too seriously, Witchalls.’ That can remain the most elusive as it is intangible, And so began a journey of discovery that continues to invisible and apparently insubstantial. The word Self is not this day, although it is no longer a journey because ‘there is an easy word to get a handle on! Even though it appears nothing to do and nowhere to go’. I feel immensely time and again in our readings and talks, its real grateful that destiny brought me into contact with our significance can remain elusive. Although paying lip Fourth Way in which I feel totally at home. That first service to the word and concept over the years its true meeting with Dr Roles was like coming home to a presence meaning has remained obscure, floating in intellect only. that felt familiar - surely a grace. But the notion of guru or That was suddenly, powerfully, and irrevocably Realised man extends far beyond any one person. There changed one day. The full force of that grace – the grace of have been and are countless others who radiate a light of the Self – literally knocked me off my feet while carol † love which can be felt when in their company. Not least singing in a London church three years ago . The onset of would be our recently departed Peggy McLaren whose sudden severe chest pain almost resulted in physical death. presence was always uplifting. My son Bruno, a Catholic priest, even carried out the Group meetings give us a chance to discuss a whole anointing of those near to death while I lay in a ward in St range of ideas with like-minded people. But they also Thomas’s Hospital. But gradually as the pain subsided I

12 entered into a vastly more ‘real’ experience of sublime bliss The oil signifies all the work on ourselves, especially Self- which at the time was well beyond the reach of words to remembering and regular meditation – the key to describe. It was death of a kind, death of all those circling everything. Everything is in the preparation. Hence we are at thoughts and preoccupations; death of a personal ego. It times referred to as a Preparatory School of the Fourth Way. embodied all that we have come to be familiar with in our To all who are searching for understanding – enlight- exposure to the teaching and yet the wholeness of the enment - may I encourage you in your efforts. Be strong, be experience, in utter silence, went beyond all the ideas and patient, be humble and ever grateful for all the blessings we yet also embraced them all – they were literally ‘realised’. are heir to. Keep your lamps trimmed and oil to hand in All that we have been studying and trying to put into readiness for the bridegroom – Self – who can enfold you in practice was amply confirmed in a fullness of con- full splendour at any moment. As Dr Roles forcefully sciousness which had no limit. It could be described as a reminded us, there is only one consciousness. All levels to total lightness of being. it are levels of impediment. Such an experience, which lasted for several hours, has I can amply testify to the truth of his vision. had a powerful transforming effect on perception and Blue tits continue playing in the shrubbery, singing: attitudes. It has been an experience of the grace of ‘Self’. No ‘I am That.’ James Witchalls longer can one doubt or question its meaning - it is very † See Contact 51 Real. And it is with us all the time, everywhere, even though it appears ‘hidden’ for much of the time. It cannot be summoned at will, claimed or manipulated. All we can The Light ‘do’ is constantly turn our pots upwards in preparation to Shimmering like a sunbeam in a cloudless sky, receive that Grace which may come at any time. The passage in St Matthew’s Gospel (Ch. 25) concerning the ten Immobile and wonderful, projecting reflections, virgins becomes immediately clear: in a mirror of time and space, with no original face. There is naught to say or do, Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto for a nothingness, as volatile as a mind ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth bogged down in a dark cavern of unknowing, to meet the bridegroom. a lost horizon, had caused an oblivion, And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. a disorientation that begot the void. They that were foolish took their lamps but took no oil with them. What now? But who asks, there is no me But the wise took oil in their vessels with their to answer? Only a waiting and a witnessing lamps. as each frame appears and immobility While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered happens as a manifestation of this paradox of Light. and slept. There is nothing to do and nowhere to go. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold the For the Light projects all the images bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. and the reflections move; not in unison, Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. for each has its own uniqueness, through an organism And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your born out of conceptual genes and conditioning. oil; for our lamps are gone out. Act out each moment, serve each need But the wise answered saying, Not so; lest there be as it arises, for all is the Light and a disappearing not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them ego is total in this mirrored guise. that sell, and buy for yourselves. There are no questions anymore. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; Only a deep understanding beyond and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Language, form, art, and thought, Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, that behoves no imitation, no searching, Lord, open to us. no seeker, only a sense of unity But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I arising as gratitude, and an understanding that know you not. the Light is the Oneness reflecting God. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the Merlyn Swan hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

13 ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me.’

14 Holman Hunt and the Light of Consciousness

‘BEHOLD I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK . If any man was for the spectator to look and gradually perceive a hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and deeper meaning by what was almost a meditative sup with him and he with me.’ These words, from response, he in no way desired this to prevent people Revelation 3, are printed underneath The Light of the from ‘looking at the picture for its delectability – as indeed World, Holman Hunt’s masterpiece. The original a picture should always first be regarded’. (Hunt, 1905) hangs behind the altar in the small side-chapel of When the painting was initially shown at the Royal Keble College, Oxford. Academy Summer Exhibition in 1854, its impact was Hunt’s aim, in using natural symbolism in the not immediate, responses varying from spectator to painting, was to give clarity to truth rather than spectator. The writer, Mary Howitt, describes how a mystify it. The symbols, derived from personal rich silk manufacturer from Macclesfield (‘a fat jolly reflectiveness, were ‘of natural figures such as language Conservative’) told her he stood there for half an had originally employed to express transcendental ideas’. hour, searching in his soul for what to make of it. He (Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, by couldn’t decide whether it was good or bad. He had, W. Holman Hunt, 1905) he confessed, never been so puzzled by any picture The door is the human soul, its rusty hinges, nails before. and covering of ivy and weeds suggesting it has not been opened for a very long time. A bat, representing ignorance, hovers over it. And there is no handle. As Hunt explains: ‘It is the door of the human heart, and that can only be opened from the inside.’ Of his idea for the painting’s central figure, he said in a letter to a friend, William Bell Scott:

The figure of Christ standing at the door haunted me, gradually coming in more clearly defined meaning, with logical enrichments, waiting in the night – ever night – near the dawn, with a light sheltered from the chance of extinction, in a lantern necessarily therefore, with a crown on His head baring that also of thorns; with robed body like a priest, not of Christian time only, and in a world with signs of neglect and blindness. (Holman Hunt and the Light of the World , by Jeremy Maas, 1984) Portrait of Holman Hunt by Millais

In regard to the use of light, Hunt wanted to create So perhaps this kind of searching was part of the a mix that appeared quite natural. The figure was to artist’s intention. When, Millais, in the very early stages be illuminated both by the pale dawn star behind it of its planning, offered to produce a companion design, and by the moonlight in front, while the strongest showing the door open and a repentant sinner falling at light, ‘to guide us in dark places’, came from the lantern. Christ’s feet, Hunt replied: ‘Sit down, my dear fellow, and So crucial was the accuracy of this, that he engaged a consider. One strong interest in my design depends on the metal worker to make a lantern to his own design and uncertainty as to whether the being will respond; your then employed his friend, Millais, to carry it out into picture would destroy all this.’ Did he want those the moonlight so he could see perfectly where the observing the painting to hear that knocking in their light fell. minds or feel it in their hearts? As in his work, The Hunt’s accomplished use of visual symbolism Awakened Conscience , his desire was ‘to show how the still created ‘a language that could be understood by those who small voice speaks to a human soul in the turmoil of life’. Did were not content to merely contemplate the mere paint he also have in mind the reluctant householder in surface or even only the surface meaning of his paintings’. Tomorrow , the poem by Lope de Vega that was said, like (Maas) Yet, while it is true that the artist’s intention Revelation 3, to have influenced him?

15 Hunt’s use of natural symbolism, together with the everything. This is the Light of true central, enlightened figure, appears to suggest the Knowledge, the Consciousness. Where there is coming together of the physical and spiritual realms, Light there can’t be darkness. No one can trace and this visual merging, according to the Russian darkness when possessed of light. One whose writer, Leonid Ouspensky, is a familiar one in clouds are dispersed with the wind of iconography: ‘In depicting the Saviour, we do not depict discipline so that the connection with the Light either His Divine or His human nature, but His Person in is established, he sees All – within and without. which both these natures are incomprehensibly combined.’ Everyone feels his own existence, but an (The Meaning of Icons , 1982). So perhaps the reason we ordinary man can only feel the body and some stand rooted to the spot when observing The Light of of its reactions, whereas a highly Conscious the World is that it is inviting us to meditate on the man comprehends a lot more than meets the Presence. eye. That is because of the Light of Consciousness. The Light of the Atman is Eternal and embraces (H.H. Shantanand Saraswati, The Record , 1964 p.152) everything. Once this connection with the all- pervading Light is established, one knows Fiona Stuart

Three Spring Notations on Bipeds 1 The down drop of the blackbird, The wing catch of arrested flight, The stop midway and then off: off for triangles, circles, loops of new hieroglyphs – This is April’s way: a woman: ‘O yes, I’m here again and your heart knows I was coming.’

2 White pigeons rush at the sun, A marathon of wing feats is on: ‘Who most loves danger? Who most loves wings? Who somersaults for God’s sake in the name of wing power in the sun and blue on an April Thursday.’ So ten winged heads, ten winged feet, race their white forms over Elmhurst. They go fast: once the ten together were a feather of foam bubble, a chrysanthemum whirl speaking to silver and azure.

3 The child is on my shoulders. In the prairie moonlight the child’s legs hang over my shoulders. She sits on my neck and I hear her calling me a good horse. She slides down – and into the moon silver of a prairie stream She throws a stone and laughs at the clug-clug.

Carl Sandburg (1920)

16 Writing a poem, living a life.

AN OLD ZEN DICTUM says three things are necessary on our A poet also needs great doubt. The originating way: great faith, great doubt, great persistence. I have come experience not only challenges its expression in the poem to see it as applicable to the writing of a poem as to the liv - (is it clear, original, vivid?) but the poem interrogates the ing of a life so that one is a metaphor for the other. integrity of the originating experience (is it valid, sincere, The great faith a poet needs is in the possibility of true?). Neither are comfortable, especially if someone else communication . He must trust absolutely that something does the questioning, but they are essential. made of rhythmic language may take both writer and reader A poem must do one of two things: tell a familiar beyond words to a place of wonder - perhaps astonishment, experience in a new way or a new experience in a familiar where for a while and perhaps forever, we are transformed. way. What it must never do is tell a familiar experience in The material world insists on separation, an old way. This is difficult enough to avoid in any poem individualism and difference. A poet needs great faith in but it is doubly difficult in a poem of a religious nature. the converse: unity, similitude, empathy. If he finds these The problem is language again. qualities in himself and says them truly, he trusts as an Integral to every great religion is a new use of language, article of faith that they will find resonance in the reader. saying ‘familiar things in a new way’. Arguably it is the (So long as the reader is prepared to attend, consider, and new expression of ancient truths that makes for its impact even memorise.) and longevity. But there comes a time when even this new He also needs great faith that a poem may find affinity language grows old; the precious stones and metal are on many levels. When, for example, Shakespeare tells of mined-out, only shale remains. The ‘shock of the new’ no two men approaching Macbeth’s castle, where later the longer shocks us into new perception. most appalling crimes will be committed, he first disarms Take the words common to much religious poetry: soul, the reader: love, God, angel, holy, adoration, awe, prayer, peace, beyond, within, miracle. They are, after all, just words someone King Duncan : This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air coined once, not the actual thing as Krishnamurti never Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself tired of reminding us. I suggest their currency is devalued. Unto our gentle senses. Using them in poetry nowadays may gets nods of approval Banquo: This guest of summer, from institutions but they are at odds with the poet’s duty The temple haunting martlet, does approve to refresh the language. If we add to this list archaisms By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath such as thou, shalt, seekest and ‘O’ then lovers of ‘spiritual’ Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze, poetry might ask what is left? Buttress, nor coign of vantage but this bird This is the question which poets at the early part of last Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle; century had to answer. Many chose not to use language to Where they most breed and haunt I have observed convey literal meaning but, as it were, to dislocate The air is delicate. conventional thought, to widen the gaps between the What could be more lovely? Their friendship is illustrated bricks in linguistic walls, so that new interpretations might by the sharing of a single line: (Duncan) ‘unto our gentle find room to live and breathe. Unsurprisingly, the con- senses.’ (Banquo) ‘This guest of summer’, as if the two men ventional mind finds their poetry difficult; it is suddenly were arm in arm. The flight of house martins above castle out of its depth, both attracted to and repelled by new walls refines the perfumed air to a point of delicacy; if we frames of reference: had never seen martins we would know them by this The man bent over his guitar, description. A shearsman of sorts. The day was green. But is there not also a hint of menace? What about the words ‘temple haunting’ echoed five lines later as ‘haunt’, They said, ‘You have a blue guitar, suggesting not only hunting but something frightening? You do not play things as they are.’ And note how ‘procreant cradle’ ironically presages Lady The man replied, ‘Things as they are Macbeth’s lack of maternal spirit which, critics suggest, Are changed upon the blue guitar.’ may contribute to her villainy. Shakespeare here speaks to And they said then, ‘But play, you must our intuitive sense of danger as well as to our heads and A tune beyond us, yet ourselves, hearts. He addresses the whole man, expressing his faith that the spectrum of human sensibility might be shared A tune upon the blue guitar and understood. Of things exactly as they are.’

17 In his poem The Man with the Blue Guitar Wallace Stevens of this kind of length ought to lie coiled with its tail round probes this very difference between word and thing, its head.’ This raises other questions still, of shape, challenging the mind to free itself from predictive texting. rhyme and rhythm but there is no time here to Ostensibly, the conversation Stevens narrates is between discuss them. ‘the people’ and the poet. Might it, however, be between The writing of a poem and the living of a life are language and meaning? His words are asking for ‘a tune similar. The challenge in both is to be new, to eschew beyond us’ so that things might be seen ‘exactly as they are’ the mechanical, to communicate as vividly and honestly i.e. not filtered through intellect, not dulled by exhausted as possible. If this is done in poem or life, and language. preferably both, writer and reader come very close to ‘Burne off my rusts’ writes John Donne in his poem Advaita. Good Friday 1613. Riding Westward (that is, away from the Tony Brignull east and Jerusalem). Rust grows on us slowly without our noticing, expressing itself in our habitual ways including our use of language. A poet must doubt every word. Is the experience he wishes to share genuine? If it is, has he used rusty words or those of beaten metal fresh from the furnace to convey it? Only the latter will do. With these he will write a true poem whatever the subject as, for instance, the Japanese master, Basho, does when describing a night spent in a stable:

Bitten by fleas and lice, I slept in a bed, A horse urinating all the time Close to my pillow.

Even in translation we feel the nip of the fleas, smell the straw bedding and wrinkle our noses at the acrid stench of horse piss. This short poem is not, of course, a religious one, but might it be, in the widest sense of the word, spiritual? Personally, I think all great poems are spiritual but we must each come to our own conclusion. There remains the need for great persistence. No one at Colet House will need reminding of this in our daily lives. As for literature, we may imagine the need for persisting with a long novel, writing, say, a thousand words a day until it is finished. In something as brief as a poem, how- ever, the persistence is not in the length of the writing but in the questioning, and this may take a very long while indeed. Coleridge kept working at one of his conversation poems Frost at Midnight for decades! Yet it reads like a breath. The first version written in the freezing February of 1798 ends with these tender lines describing his baby’s delight on seeing icicles:

Like those, my babe, which ere tomorrow’s warmth Have capped their sharp teeth with pendulous drops, Will catch thine eye, and with thy novelty Suspend thy little soul; then make thee shout And stretch and flutter from thy mother’s arms, As thou would’st fly for very eagerness.

In the 1834 version he omits them. He explains, ‘they Detail of raked sand in a Kyoto garden © destroy the rondo, and return upon itself of the poem. Poems Photo. Yves Rubin.

18 Sometimes a Light surprises (Recollections of an African journey — 1949)

IT WAS EARLY WHEN I WOKE , the morning mist already bathed our hands and faces in the cool water and watched dispersing. I could feel the heat, even at such an hour, rising the far bank. The ferryman and his two young helpers, each to fuel yet another tropical day. The house was all hustle with a long-handled oar, began slowly to ease the ferry into and bustle, laughter drifting up from the kitchen in the mid-stream, weaving a zig-zagging course in order to avoid compound as water bottles, camping stove and food were the pull of the strong currents. Oola and I sought shade prepared for the journey. The lorry in which I was to travel under the spreading branches of a huge tree, taking it in to Riama, a modest settlement some fifty miles from our turns to wet the baby’s lips with tiny drops of water. house, had already arrived and, as usual, a small crowd of The ferry at last beached on our bank and we all local people had gathered round, hoping to share my gathered once more on the lorry for the last leg of our journey. journey, across the river and quickly up the hill to the clinic Travelling through the bush was at times extremely at the top. We stopped outside, Oola and I tumbled out, the difficult. The tracks were narrow and the surfaces rough lorry drove off and we pushed our way through the small and pitted. The nearest things to organised transport were cluster of patients gathered at the entrance. We found the the few, privately owned, very ramshackle lorries. They doctor, a tall, thin man, his face showing how too much travelled around in seemingly haphazard fashion, keeping work and little rest was taking its toll on him. He could not to no timetable or planned route, stopping at villages – just speak Oola’s language and very little English. a few mud huts – where, as if by magic, a small crowd Oola simply placed her baby in his arms. He held it would gather in the hope that there would be room for one gently and indicating to us to wait, he disappeared into or two more to squeeze in. another room and closed the door. We spread a blanket on After much good-natured pushing and shoving, our the floor and fitfully dozed through the hot and noisy lorry was ready. The driver climbed into his cab and I was tropical night. It was a long time before the doctor came heaved up to join the motley crew of about a dozen young again. We turned our tired faces towards him. men, a bundle of chickens tied together by their legs, gourds Quietly, he simply took Oola’s hand. full of water, sacks of rice, boxes of fruit and vegetables and The long night was almost over as we walked out of the a few bottles of the local palm wine. There was just one clinic; we stood together, heads bowed, holding each other woman, very young and frail, dressed in a pale blue, tie- close, tears – hers and mine – soaking the front of my shirt. died lapa cloth and headscarf, who, almost unnoticed, had It was as dawn was breaking that we looked down to where quietly joined the noisy throng. She was nursing a tiny baby. the first glimmer of day was brushing the topmost branches I squashed in beside her and haltingly managed a greeting of the trees. Suddenly, through that vast canopy of in her tribal language. She gave me a small, shy smile. interwoven branches and leaves where little light So our rough journey began. The chatter and noise penetrates, a child’s voice rose, soaring to meet the new subsided. Deep, thick and impenetrable, the bush rose on morning. I did not understand the words of the song, and either side of the track. Monkeys chattered in the trees. yet a memory flooded my heart – it was a hymn from my Thousands of driver ants, clinging together, formed what childhood. A hymn that offered hope of healing – of a looked like thick ropes as they travelled to find new homes. season of clear shining. How did it begin? The sun, already well up in the sky, beat down and the red Sometimes a light surprises . . . laverite dust kicked up by the lorry formed a huge cloud at the Heather Gibbs back. It settled gradually in a thin layer on us all, mingling with our sweat and making muddy smears on our faces. Just as white light consists of coloured rays, so The young men told me about my companion. Her name reverence for life contains all the components for was Oola, her husband was dead, her baby was desperately ethics: love, kindliness, sympathy, empathy, ill and she was hoping that she would find someone to give peacefulness, power to forgive. We must all bid her hope in the small clinic in Riama. I could not help feeling ourselves to be natural and to express our doubtful as I cradled the tiny body in my arms. unexpressed gratitude. That will mean more sunlight After what seemed like a very long time, a wide river came into view and our lorry swung round to reach the in the world, and more strength for the good. Albert Schweitzer bank. A rickety ferry, just rough logs bound together to From The Teaching of Reverence for Life. make a crude raft, was moored on the far side. We sat down Peter Owen Ltd., 1966 by the river and prepared ourselves for a long wait. We

19 ‘Dawning of the clear light’

THE SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE OF DEATH

Is there an ‘art’ to dying? In the West we have few special rituals to prepare for death or to mark it. Peter & Elizabeth Fenwick have made a deep study of the subject and collected an extraordinary range of ‘ordinary’ experiences to substantiate that human beings are more than mere brain function. The following extracts are taken from their book The Art of Dying.

‘ALI’ gave us this wonderfully observed and detailed What is clear from Ali’s account is how few people account of the death of her dearly loved great-aunt. The know and understand the features of the dying experience, detail in this account must raise the question of whether, if and how different it would be if these phenomena were we were taught about these phenomena, many more of us more widely recognized.  would be aware of their existence and thus more likely to observe them. It is a fundamental psychological principle One interesting interpretation of these images is that the that we tend only to see things we expect to see, and on people who see them are somehow seeing what the dying which our attention is focused. themselves are experiencing. In the West, dying is regarded There was what I can only describe as a white as a purely physical event; no attempts have been made to light or form around the top of her head and face investigate the subjective mental state of the dying. In area. Her face looked so radiant in all that very contrast, the Tibetans—whose culture allows subjective bright light. I felt unable to move any further to be exploration of mental states, and subjective exploration of closer to her . . . I knew that I was probably the mental states of others—have a complex description of witnessing the ‘moment’, her spirit or soul, her inner the slow process of the disintegration of consciousness in being, leaving her body! the dying process. I had never been present at somebody’s death Supposing we compare these end-of-life experiences before and was not sure or prepared for what to wit h the descriptions of the stages of dying as given by the expect, but somehow when it happened, everything Dalai Lama? Dying is, after all, a universal human just fell into place . . . I don’t know how long this experience, and so it makes sense not to limit the frame in vision lasted; in reality it was probably just seconds, which we view it to a purely Western or Christian one. but it was just so mind-blowing I felt as though I had The Dalai Lama describes the several stages of dying, or held my breath for the entire moment, not wanting dissolution, as follows. In the first level of dissolution the to disrupt it in any way! Her hair seemed to be dying person becomes weak and powerless, has difficulty in standing on end, as if the force or the pressure was opening the eyes, and there appears in one’s mental state a lifting or blowing it all upwards, towards the top of bluish appearance, like a mirage. ‘It is like an appearance of her head. This light or form gradually disappeared water when the light of the sun strikes the desert in the summer.’ from around her head and face and what remained With the second dissolution the dying person is no was what I can only describe as a ‘total stillness’ in longer conscious of pleasure or pain or the feelings that the room. I calmly walked over to her side, kissed accompany mental consciousness. The mental state of this her and wished her a safe journey. I knew she was no stage ‘is the dawning of an appearance called “like smoke" which longer there, the room felt so empty. is like blue puffs of smoke. It is similar to smoke billowing from a chimney in the midst of a mass of smoke.’ Ali also echoed what many people have told us about With the third dissolution one no longer remembers the the reactions of people to whom she tried to talk about names of one’s parents, one’s capacity to take food goes and what happened, and how painful and frustrating it is to the breath is no longer even but is piled breath on breath. have people deny the experience and doubt the evidence The mental state of this dissolution is ‘like fireflies. It is like of your eyes, your ears and your intuition. burning red sparks seen within puffs of smoke rising from a I have not been able to talk about what chimney or like red sparks in the soot on the bottom of a pan used happened, or rather what I witnessed, on the night for parching grain.’ my great-aunt Odette passed away . . . I wanted to With the fourth dissolution movement is no longer talk and talk about it, but not many people in my possible, one is no longer able to use one’s mind to world are prepared or willing to listen . . . One understand the meaning of worldly activities, and this is particular response I received from a family the stage when the breath ceases to move in and out. The member was, ‘That’s not right, that doesn’t happen’. body is no longer able to experience sensation. The mental

20 James Turrell. © Another view of the ‘Sky-space’ on page 8.

Tibetan understanding as it is from this state that there is an opportunity to progress to full spiritual evolution, even to the point of ending the cycle of death and rebirth. The Dalai Lama recommends that we learn these stages before our time comes to die so that they become internal and recognizable markers for us during the dying process. In his system the dawning of the clear light is an opportunity for progression of the soul; thus it is important for ‘us’ (the soul) to know when this state has arisen. Certainly we can find some parallels with the Dalai Lama’s formulation. The light, the mirage-like haze, the mist and the smoke all fit into this framework very well. Several people also described something similar to the fireflies or red sparks of the Tibetan imagery.

I could see tiny lights like little slits which kept coming and going, then, starting at the back of my head and slowly working to the front, I felt happiness and there was a bright light, getting brighter and brighter until it got so bright I could not see . . . Margaret passed away in those moments.

So are all the people who have told us of their experiences describing elements of a process — dying — common to everyone, though never studied or even state of this level is ‘like a burning butter-lamp. It is like the acknowledged in the West? People can’t ‘prove’ that they spluttering point of a butter-lamp’s flame when it is about to have these experiences, any more than you can prove that go out.’ There is a marked degeneration in the capacity to a beautiful sunset or a particular piece of music has the maintain consciousness. power to move you deeply. We don’t know why some With the fifth dissolution there is a further people have them and others do not. We certainly have no disintegration of consciousness; the mental state is the better explanation than the Dalai Lama’s to offer for them. dawning of extreme clarity and vacuity as well as of light However, we are in a strong position as we can study with a white aspect. ‘Like a night sky pervaded by moonlight these experiences. We can use our science to collect them, in the autumn when the sky is free of defilement.’ classify them, and find whether they fit a pattern. We can With the sixth dissolution there is further degeneration then see what meaning they have for us. It’s the way of the energy flows within the body and the mental state science progresses. It’s the way our understanding dawns with a red or orange appearance, empty, but much progresses. And in the West it’s the way our culture clearer than before, it ‘shines like an autumn sky, free of progresses. Near-death experiences contain many of these defilement and pervaded by sunlight’. same features, suggesting that possibly all these With the seventh or penultimate dissolution, the phenomena point in the same direction. What we can do process approaches completion. In the mental state is an is to acknowledge that for the people who experience ‘empty black appearance, like an autumn sky free of defilement them, they have a wider and deeper meaning over and and pervaded by the thick darkness at the beginning of night’. beyond the phenomena themselves. To dismiss them as Sometimes this is described as being intensely alive. This simply fantasy or imagination is to remain in the Dark state is sometimes called ‘the great empty’ because it is Ages and to ignore a whole area of human experience devoid of mind. It is also thought to be associated (the first which may, if we pay it enough attention, eventually tell time in the death process) with a loss of consciousness. us something very fundamental about life and death that After a short period of unconsciousness we awake with we might otherwise never be able to learn. the eighth dissolution, into the clear light of death, and the ‘all empty’. This is actual death, and the ‘basic truth body’ is from The Art of Dying by formed. We are told that most ordinary humans remain in Peter & Elizabeth Fenwick the clear light for three days. This is a very special time in Continuum Books. 2008. ISBN 978-0-8264-9923-3

21 The Meaning of Ligh t?

WHEN I WAS A CHILD I was asked to read the lesson I began to look more closely, not at things, but at a from the King James’ version of St John’s Gospel at a special world closer to myself, looking from an inner place church service – it was a quotation that almost everyone to one further within, instead of clinging to the knows – ‘In the beginning was the Word…..’. Something movement of sight towards the world outside. about the poetry and the deep meaning of these first Immediately the substance of the universe drew thirteen verses resonated within a part of me that I realized together, redefined and peopled itself anew. I was was real but was a complete mystery. Not only the use of aware of a radiance emanating from a place I knew the ‘Word’ with its later powerful connection to mantra nothing about, a place which might as well have meditation but the wonderful emphasis on ‘light’. been outside me as within. But radiance was there, or, to put it more precisely, light. It was a fact, for In him was life; and the life was the light of men. light was there. And the light shineth in darkness; and the I felt indescribable relief and happiness so great darkness comprehended it not….. That was the it almost made me laugh. Confidence and gratitude true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh came as if a prayer had been answered. I found light into the world. and joy at the same moment, and I can say without It was a passage that, even at the age of twelve, could hesitation that from that time on light and joy have be seen to have levels of meaning and it became part of never been separated in my experience. me as I explored inwardly some of the riches of those verses. And later in the same book – ‘Then spake Jesus Later he writes: ‘…I was only a passage-way, a again unto them, saying, “I am the light of the world: he vestibule for this brightness. The seeing eye was in me.’ that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall What the loss of his eyes had not done, fear, anger, have the light of life”.’ The ‘I AM’ seemed significant and impatience, jealousy or unfriendliness cut him off from what, the child asked, is the meaning of the ‘light of life’? this inner light and truly made him blind, but this The answers had to come from within. blindness, that we can all have, gave him the necessary I have just been reading a book about a blind hero of nudge or clue that he was momentarily off track. the French Resistance. His name was Jacques Lusseyran. This was not just a one-off experience for Jacques He had an accident at the age of eight which precipitated Lusseyran, but once recognized it proved an ongoing the blindness. Fortunately he had inspirational parents experience of the outer world as much as the inner, and he never felt that he was handicapped in any way. enabling him to function as well, if not better than a Indeed what follows, in his words as an adult looking sighted person. And one of the most striking things about back at the child, shows that something opened up for his life is the one-pointed attention he brought to it: him at that tender age that I think we can all recognize. It ‘Light is in us even if we have no eyes.’ guided him through his time at the age of 17 as a leader of Dorothy Smith a Resistance group, and when betrayed to the Gestapo Quotations taken from And There Was Light by Jacques and his time in Buchenwald, and I dare say was Lusseyran. Published by Parabola Books. instrumental in his ultimate escape:

In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest, where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art. Rumi From The Essential Rumi Trans. Coleman Barks, Penguin, 1995

22 Photo. Martin Redfern. © Northern Lights

THE FORECAST DID NOT LOOK PROMISING . We’d had We’ve come to the Norwegian outpost of EISCAT, heavy snow in Kent, trains were disrupted and the European incoherent scatter consortium. Gatwick airport was closed. By contrast, in Arctic Incoherent scatter in this context is not a filing Norway it had been raining. The cloud had been system but a radar technique for bouncing faint unbroken for a week and the temperature had been reflections of charged particles in the upper warmer than in England. Plus, with low solar atmosphere. Huge radar dishes point almost ver- activity, there had not been any decent Aurora for tically, looking along the magnetic field lines of the months. Earth as they dive in towards the north magnetic But the show must go on and, as I was recording pole. The title of the programme I am making is The for a radio show, it could go on in any conditions. So I Protecting Veil and, apart from an excuse to play the dug the car out and drove to Heathrow. In Oslo, a music of Sir John Tavener, it is a good description of light covering of snow presented no problems and the the role of the upper atmosphere in saving us from onward plane paused at the de-icing station as if it the nuclear radiation of space. Energetic particles were routine (which it probably is). North of the from the Sun flow around the Earth’s magnetic Arctic Circle and 30 miles outside Tromso it was clear bubble and stream in where the field lines dip down that the rain had been falling on deeply frozen to earth. Fifty to eighty kilometres up they start ground, creating a crisp crust on the snow and, where colliding with molecules in the rarefied air, it had been cleared, a glassy surface that Torvill and producing the shimmering light of the Aurora Dean would have enjoyed. Fortunately, rental cars Borealis and that’s what we’re hoping to see. Hoping come fitted with studded tyres as standard. and hoping.

23 At this time of year, the Sun never clears the shining a series of green searchlights into the frosty mountains and the magical blue twilight of midday sky from just behind the mountains to the north. The has faded back to darkness by 2 p.m. The rain clouds light show builds with great arcs and curtains of have passed and the silence is tangible, as if all green, shimmering and slowly moving; the merry sound has itself been frozen. But as yet, no sign of an dancers of Northern mythology. I try to capture the Aurora and no evidence on the instruments of the excitement of those around me with my microphone. sort of solar activity that might produce one. We are I fumble in the dark with gloved hands trying to set tired after our journey and call it a night. a long enough exposure to preserve the experience in The next day is filled with exploration and my camera. But then I just stand back and watch. interviews as we meet the scientists, hear about their It is now about 15 degrees below Zero and I can work and clamber to the top of one of the radar feel the moisture freezing in my sinuses. And yet dishes. As we dine on reindeer Stroganoff we keep there is this most fantastic light show, bright enough an eye on the Internet in the hope of solar activity. At to warm your heart by. Vast clouds of luminous midnight we put on coats and boots one more time green now cover two thirds of the sky. New patterns and go outside to stare at the starry sky wondering, like the diaphanous drapery of a green goddess are is that a faint wisp of cloud? Could it have a slight still dancing towards the north and yet there is not a green tinge of ionised oxygen? Or is it imagination? cloud in the sky. Stars are visible through the Tomorrow we return South, so this is probably the greenery; bright stars, the Plough, the Pole Star best we’ll get. almost directly overhead, the northern end of the Just after 1 a.m. the phone rings. ‘Get your boots Milky Way. And all this in total silence. Somehow on and come out quick.’ From deep sleep to frantic one imagines firework crackles. Not so. It is so silent activity in seconds, we step out into the snow. Even that one holds one’s breath. Time and technology before eyes have grown accustomed to the darkness, melt away and I become one with the sheltering sky. the wisps of green are obvious. It is as if someone is Martin Redfern

THE SKYLIGHT You were the one for skylights. I opposed Cutting into the seasoned tongue-and-groove Of pitch pine. I liked it low and closed, Its claustrophobic, nest-up-in-the-roof Effect. I liked the snuff-dry feeling, The perfect, trunk-lid fit of the old ceiling. Under there, it was all hutch and hatch. The blue slates kept the heat like midnight thatch.

But when the slates came off, extravagant Sky entered and held surprise wide open. For days I felt like an inhabitant Of that house where the man sick of the palsy Was lowered through the roof, had his sins forgiven, Was healed, took up his bed and walked away.

Seamus Heaney from Collected Poems

24 Sunset over Coopers Hill, Gloucestershire, on Christmas day. Richard Beal. © Go gentle into that good night

HEN I WAS IN MY EARLY TWENTIES I went to I believe that the creator wanted to share his creation a fortune teller. I had never been to a fortune so that we could all enjoy its wonders. The Garden of teller before nor have I been to one since. Eden where there was no evil was perhaps the ideal that HWowever, she told me lots of things about myself which once existed in dimensions that we cannot comprehend. she could not have had any prior knowledge of. So I was The creator had to give us free will otherwise we would impressed. be puppets acting out his desires and our lives would be One of my questions to her as she read my palm was: meaningless. So there had to be the tree of knowledge of how long will I live? She said that I would live to be good and evil and clearly we have bitten deeply into its eighty. What I didn’t ask was about my state of health at fruit and pay for the consequences. eighty. This is not a question that a twenty year old would We have to try to return to Eden and live a life that think of asking. Anyway, I was eighty last year and fulfils the creator’s desires. We can do this to the best of although my health is poor I still enjoy life within the our abilities – the scale does not matter and, of course, we limitations nature has imposed upon me. will forget these ideals and live selfishly and foolishly Of course the father in Dylan Thomas’s poem did not go from time to time. Then I have doubts about these ideas. gentle into that good night nor did he enjoy the end game: Perhaps it is just fantasy and life will end in oblivion and there has been no meaning at all. Old age should burn and rave at close of day. However, I have had transcendental experiences in Rage, rage against the dying of the light. which I have seen a world quite unlike our everyday I do not rage against the dying of the light, but wonder world. Briefly, as St. Paul forecast, this glass, darkly, has about the meaning of my life, or of anyone else’s life. I did dissolved and we become face to face in another not ask to be born and I arrived with no explanations, no dimension. guidance, no aim, no target. Yes, there are plenty of Soon, I suppose, I will know the answer or not know prophets, messiahs, teachers and gurus, all with different it. As T.S. Eliot put it. In my beginning is my end. But answers. And I had sensible guidance from parents. From what was my beginning? all this I built up a hypothetical meaning to existence. Geoffrey Lee

25 eight minutes ago, the nearest stars are light years away. OOK EVIEWS The most distant galaxy yet observed we are seeing B R newborn, as it was when the light left it 13 billion years ago. But it does not feel like that to the light! Just as you can walk at normal speed along the corridor of a Catching the Light: The Entwined History of moving train, so to passengers on a high-speed rocket, Light and Mind it seems as if they can shine the torch forward at the Arthur Zajonc Bantam, 1993 speed of light. Einstein found that the only way to accommodate that without breaking the cosmic speed THE THEME OF THIS EDITION OF CONTACT brought to mind limit as seen by an external observer, was if clocks run the best book I know on the metaphysics of light, by at different rates depending on your speed. As you Amherst College Massachusetts physicist, Arthur Zajonc. approach the speed of light your clock slows down A copy is in the library and I commend it to you and share when compared with one you left behind. Only some- a couple of his ideas as a taster. thing with no mass — like a photon — can actually Light is enigmatic. A physicist will tell you that it is a achieve light speed, but at that speed its clock ticks certain waveband of electromagnetic radiation but the infinitely slowly. So what seems to us like a 13 billion definition in my dictionary is ‘the agency by which year journey across the universe, from the photons objects are rendered visible’- a phenomenon that depends point of view takes no time at all. Photons truly unite on the eye of the beholder as well as on some physical the universe into one present moment! emanation. But light is far more than a curiosity of physics. It is the Light is strange stuff. According to quantum theory agent of vision. Photons may flash past us unseen but they it comes in tiny particle-like packets called photons, also reflect off surfaces and reach our retinas, conveying to yet classical physics sees it as a wave, a ripple on the us information, form and beauty. Religions have grown up pond of space-time. Unlike normal particles of matter, to the rising and setting of the sun and the changing light of many photons can occupy the same space at the same the seasons. Our language is infused with light motifs and time, thus you can shine two spotlights across each we all search ultimately for enlightenment. Real or other’s path and the beams emerge on the other side imagined, we talk of auras, we paint Saints with glowing unscathed. Photons don’t bump into one another. For halos of light behind their heads and are told of a tunnel of the same reason you can only see photons that actually light at the end of physical life. enter your eye and strike your retina. Shine a bright In fact light breaks down all duality. What would light beam of light through an empty black box with no be without vision to observe it? What would sight be reflections and, from the side, it is invisible. Space- without light? Modern surgery has, on rare occasions, walking astronauts noticed that, even in brilliant been able to repair physical defects in people blind from sunlight, when they looked away from the sun itself birth. But, even when light is entering their eyes and the sky was inky velvet black. stimulating their nerves, they cannot see. The brain has to The schizophrenic nature of light, as particle and learn to interpret the nerve signals and present them not wave, is well known and is often referred to as a duality - in some theatre of the mind but as understanding. Arthur sometimes it behaves as a wave, sometimes as a stream of Zajonc puts it far more poetically: particles. But there is no duality. At its deepest level, light is both particle and wave. It even confused Einstein: Two lights brighten our world. One is provided by the sun, but another answers to it — the light of the All the 50 years of conscious brooding have eye. Only through their entwining do we see; brought me no closer to the answer to the question, lacking either, we are blind. (Arthur Zajonc 1993) ‘What are light quanta?’ Of course today every rascal thinks he knows the answer, but he is Ultimately, radiant light, envisioned light and deluding himself. (Albert Einstein 1951) metaphorical light unifies us all:

Einstein did bring some understanding to another If the light rises in the sky of the heart and, in the feature of light, its speed. That is of course the speed of utterly pure man obtains the brightness of the sun, light - in vacuum, nearly 300,000 kilometres a second. That then his heart is nothing but light, his subtle body may seem fast but such is the scale of the universe that it is light, his material covering is light, his hearing, takes considerable time for starlight to reach us. So a his sight, his hand, his exterior, his interior, are telescope is like a time machine. We see the sun as it was nothing but light. (Najm-al-Din Razi 1256) Martin Redfern

26 A Story Waiting to Pierce You: Mongolia, Remembering is simply a matter of recollecting the Tibet and the Destiny of the Western World essence of ourselves – of gathering our own finest Peter Kingsley Golden Sufi Centre, 2000 pollen into the present for the sake of the future. . . . And this time the surprises arrive from the West THIS SLIM VOLUME BY PETER KINGSLEY seems to have one instead of the East – although not from the West as or two possible effects on the reader. The first response is Europe. They come from the West as America, to say ‘yes’ to what it contains, and pass on. The second where west of west turns out to be east of east. response is to read the book, and then to read it again, so This is perhaps where the next awakening is to be that you become well and truly pierced. The story pierced found? All in all, prepare to be affected by this story by me and then became lodged under my skin. Peter Kingsley. Like me, you have probably puzzled as to why ancient David Connell Greek civilisation burst forth at the time of Pythagoras in 570 BCE, and why this flowering of ancient Greek culture Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry gave rise to western civilisation. This book follows on Owen Barfield from Kingsley’s two previous books— In the Dark Places of Wesleyan University Press, 2nd Ed., 1988 Wisdom and Reality —in offering a systematic answer to these questions. It, too, reads like a story. But Kingsley has THE TITLE IS PUZZLING and the sub-title not much better, provided an extensive collection of notes which indicate which is probably the reason why this book was his scholarship and careful research into the source of originally placed in the section on Comparative Religion what he writes. These notes take up half the book, which and a candidate for being remaindered from the library. is well crafted with delightful drawings at the beginning However, once the author’s vocabulary has been of each section. penetrated, it turns out to be quite topical. This new volume describes a messenger, Abaris from ‘Saving Appearances’ is the label given to mediaeval beyond the Altai Mountains in Central Asia, who brings a and earlier attempts to explain the movements of the sacred arrow to Pythagoras and teaches Pythagoras with planets by methods which were not expected to be the aid of Apollo—himself a god of Central Asian absolutely true, but merely empirical means of describing origin—the esoteric wisdom from the ancient ones in what we observe through the senses. In this context the Mongolia. In the past this arrow was meant to pierce and Roman Church did not object to Galileo proposing a new transform, and in the present the arrow may pierce the method of describing the movement of heavenly bodies, reader. Once pierced, the reader finds himself or herself but objected strongly when he implied it was an absolute compelled to read this book several times, so that this truth, thus trespassing on religious territory. story becomes firmly embedded. I found the story was Casual but profound asides are to be found on every like a fable, such as R. L. Stevenson’s fable The Song of the other page, whose importance only emerges when the Morrow , which lodged in the memory and continues to reader is prepared to re-read the passage many times. For have an effect upon the reader. instance, here are some comments on Space and Idolatry For those interested in the teachings of Gurdjieff and and the Senses: Ouspensky, this book is important. There was once much speculation amongst these groups as to the origin of Space as a mindless, wisdomless, lifeless void, was Ouspensky’s and Gurdjieff’s teachings. This book may not a common notion at any time before the contribute towards revealing the source of their esoteric scientific revolution. It is only when space has knowledge. become an idol; when it has become simply the In this book there are references to the Green Man and absence of phenomena, that perspective replaces Naqshbandi Sufis. We have a Green Man over the participation. entrance to our house. I once met a Naqshbandi young The besetting sin today is the sin of literalness, or man in a pub in Oxford. After talking and sharing the idolatry; I believe that there is a connection at Mevlevi turning ‘dance’, he gave me an eastern empty some deep level between what I have called photograph album. Subsequently, as I filled this book literalness and a certain hardness of heart. with photographs, I remembered this young Sufi who was a light in the Oxford darkness. What Peter Kingsley I do not hear undulating molecules of air; the describes in this book is a unique kind of magic, which name of what I hear is sound. I do not touch a makes it possible for each of us to enjoy a certain kind of moving system of waves and electrons, with remembering. He writes: relatively vast empty spaces between them; the

27 name of what I touch is matter. I do not perceive Everywhere Being is Dancing: Twenty pieces any thing with my sense organs alone, but with a of Thinking great part of my whole human being. Thus I may Robert Bringhurst. say loosely that ‘I hear the thrush singing’. But in Counterpoint, Berkeley, 2008 strict truth all that I ever merely hear, by virtue of having ears, is sound. When I hear a thrush THIS ERUDITE BOOK by the poet Robert Bringhurst consists singing I am hearing not with my ears alone, but of twenty essays on a surprising variety of topics, linked with all sorts of other things like mental habits, by his belief that everything is linked to everything else. memory, imagination, feeling and (to the extent He laments the four centuries of war against the original at least that the act of attention involves it) will. inhabitants of North America, but says: ‘Could it be said Of a man who merely heard in the first sense it that war is inseparable from peace, or death from life, or could meaningfully be said that ‘having ears (i.e. fire from the forest?’ not being deaf) he heard not’. The upshot is that the author translates many stories from little-known languages and gives a touching The book ranges far and wide, covering both account of a blind man (Ghandle), who dictates to him a religious and scientific topics, but returns time and story of two tragic lovers transformed into birds. His again to the way that new information is converted into style is engagingly modest, despite the fact that his range dogmatic beliefs which interfere with the general of topics is enormous and his skill as a linguist and evolution of consciousness. The author makes the point translator breath-taking. I felt keenly the disadvantage of that if a proper relationship cannot be developed being ignorant of Chinese, Russian, Tlingit, Navajo and a between old and new points of view, the protagonists number of other North American languages; although to will ignore the gulf between them. This then allows be fair, Bringhurst always supplies translations. physicists to continue undisturbed in their In his opening essay he says that poetry may be investigations of increasingly invisible atomic ‘knowing in the purest form, we know’. In The Meaning of structures while the general public can continue to live Mythology he explores the role of myth in literature and with the familiar images that have been created by states: ‘Myth is an alternative kind of Science.’ An communal consent. Certainly an unusual author with a accomplished translator himself, he states that the profound vision. obligation of translators is to keep links with the past, to Peter Miodownik keep us informed with our neighbour’s achievements and to reveal something we did not know or had River of Compassion: misunderstood. In exploring the work of Empedocles and A Christian Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita Parmenides, the author concludes that writing changes Bede Griffiths. Templegate Publishers, 1987 language and demonstrates his own gift in combining poetry and prose in the following quotation: AS BEDE GRIFFITHS STATES in his introduction: ‘ The Bhagavad Gita , or Song of God , is part of the spiritual Morality, like language and love, is not by choice inheritance of Mankind.’ The cross-references to the New abstract; Testament, although always relevant and illuminating, It lives and flows in the world’s flesh, blood and are in fact far fewer than the many connections bone. established with other Hindu writings, in particular the Anne Garten Upanishads. What the author does is examine the text of the Gita, Selected Poems verse by verse, expounding the meaning in relation to Robert Bringhurst. Hindu philosophy, and to Jain, Buddhist and Taoist Jonathan Cape, 2010 beliefs where relevant. He uses Mascaro’s translation throughout, but THESE POEMS ARE QUITE REMARKABLE for the simplicity frequently turns to other translations in order to clarify and purity of their language, which can only be the meaning. The whole book is a work of immense revealed by savouring the originals. Take for example scholarship, so lucidly expressed that it is a joy to read. the poem about crystals, whose rhythm makes it very This is an invaluable companion to the Gita for anyone clear that the space between the lines is an integral part who loves that incomparable book. of the whole: Anne Garten

28 Look at it, stare every means at his disposal, but has come to the into the crystal because conclusion that computational processes cannot achieve it will tell you, not the desired aim; hence the title given to the book. the future, no, but The Times described it as one of the most important the quality of crystal, works of the second half of the twentieth century and in clarity’s nature, some ways it could eventually have an impact teach you the stricture comparable to Einstein. As with his illustrious of uncut, utterly predecessor, the majority of this book will be uncluttered light. impenetrable to non-mathematicians, but the conclusions are so important that it deserves a place The poet discards the obvious associations to here. One could do worse than start with the second explore the true nature of crystal, the assonance in the part of the book, entitled ‘The quest for a non- closing lines simultaneously describing and computational physics of the mind’. embodying the essence of clarity. Sometimes a Peter Miodownik beautifully lucid description leads to a sudden insight as in The Physics of Light: NOTE FROM THE LIBRARIAN The colours charge each other up Light dances in between them INDEX TO VOLUMES 1-15 OF THE BRIDGE That is where the truth begins and hides. Published by the Study Society (1976 – 2006) An index to the titles of all the articles published over this The closing lines in the beautifully observed and thirty year period is now available as hard copy in the deeply sympathetic poem Finch could well serve as a Library at Colet and is also available to registered description of the author’s poetic technique: members on the Study Society website. By nothing more than being there and being what they are, they sing. They sing. LOOKING FOR MY GLASSES And that is that. Groping around a strange room Anne Garten my hands encounter shapes which in myopic twilight assume Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness false identities: this collapse Roger Penrose Vintage Books, 2005 of definition calls myself in doubt, I feel an alarming lapse IN THIS UNUSUAL BOOK , Roger Penrose does not indulge in the popular and unwarranted extension of of security, my cop-out mysterious quantum world behaviour to the sphere of certainty lost in the purlieus human activity. Instead, he discusses the interface of a fogged city where, if I shout between quantum physics and biology to pin down a possible location for consciousness. Although the actual for help, who will be curious nature of consciousness still eludes him, he does to answer? My purblind provide powerful arguments to support the conclusion fingers feel the curse that there is something in the conscious activity of the of beaded glass, a kind brain that transcends computation. of guessing at the form of things Shelves in libraries such as ours are full of tomes that which promise only to rescind start off with the premise that materialism is insufficient to explain the nature of the world, but such authors are meaning: illumination or generally not mathematicians or physicists, and cannot obscurity? The question brings counter the argument that the advance of these subjects me closer to your metaphor. will eventually manage to explain the current gaps in Tony Brignull our knowledge. Here is an eminent mathematician and physicist who has tried his utmost to achieve this with

29 Obituaries

PEGGY MAC LAREN Only our love hath no decay; This, no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday, 5 September 1925 — 4 January 2011 Running, it never runs from us away, But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day. On the web site of St Johnston and Carrigans, an area of County Donegal in Eire, only yards from the border with That was Peggy. Her love had no decay! Northern Ireland, one is greeted with an Irish saying: Kenneth Dunjohn  May you always have these blessings: A soft breeze when Summer comes, Peggy was one of the original Turners, when, in 1963, the A warm fireside in Winter, group received instruction from Sheik Resuhi Baykara. And always the warm, soft smile of a friend. Her involvement as a Turner continued for many years, Is it any wonder, since she grew up near there as a kept up until only recently when back trouble restricted child, that Peggy MacLaren was so special to so many, her. She did, however, still come to watch the Mukabele. always there to aid, comfort and encourage? Ever the soft, Her involvement during those years also included the warm smile of a friend. It was Peggy’s distinctive feature, role of ‘wardrobe mistress’ when, as part of the sewing and there are countless good folk at the Study Society and party, she helped fit up new Turners with appropriate at the School of Economic Science who can testify to the clothes. Like others in the group, she made frequent trips benefit of her comforting presence when problems arose. to Turkey, to visit our friend Resuhi Baykara, and then to Peggy was a friend to so many! Not least to this writer, as keep links with our other friends after his death. far back as 1951, and to my dear late wife, Grita. Peggy is remembered as a very loving being. It was as a young woman that Peggy came to London Vilhelm Koren from that sleepy Donegal village close to the banks of  River Foyle. She worked as a sub-editor on scientific journals in the fields of health and tropical medicine. In It is an honour to be asked to say a few words in time she found her way to study economics at the school remembrance of Peggy MacLaren with whom I trained to in Suffolk Street and was soon recruited as a class be a Turner in Colet House in the early 60’s, since when secretary. Enthusiastic about the then teachings of the we have kept in close touch. American economist, Henry George, Peggy became an Remembrance of her, however, is coming not in words assistant to the founder of that school, Leon MacLaren, but as an experience of the silence that has taken hold of and eventually became his wife. It was in that role that me since her absence, as if everything in me has come to a Peggy first met and came into the orbit of Dr. Francis standstill, caught up in wonder and gratitude for her Roles at the Study Society. Her marriage ended and she inclusion of my soul in the sensing of her expansion of became a firm and always loyal and helpful member of being in her Homeward Journey. Jocelyn Rose the Society. They were traumatic times, but Peggy was resolute in her wish to pursue the systems of Ouspensky  and later of Advaita. The meditation became her regular and natural respite. And then, most especially, Peggy KEITH MOTT embraced the Dervish Turning as created by Rumi, whose 15 July 1925 — 26 November 2010 poetry she adored. Always it was with dedication to the teachings and principles of her Roman Catholic faith. Keith was a draughtsman by profession, ending up as a The hallmark of her life, however, was Peggy’s ever design office manager at British Aerospace in Weybridge. present aim to help where help was needed. Countless He came to the Work in 1954 through meeting Walter chums from as far as Australia and New Zealand testify White when they were both working in the chassis design to her kindness, friendliness and comforting office at Aston Martin. The influence of Dr Roles and the encouragement when times were difficult. One member teachings of the Study Society, at first from P D wrote of her ‘total love in human form’. And this Ouspensky and then HH Shantanand Saraswati, became Christmas, Peggy added a John Donne poem to some of guiding forces in his life. He was an enthusiastic her cards: meditator and Turner.

30 Another Colet acquaintance was Roy Jacobs. Roy went to great pains to ensure we all kept up our and Keith had been called up into the army towards membership fees, covenants and dues, and then drew the end of the war and they met at a training college; up the necessary forms for the Society’s tax rebate . This it was at a college dance that they found their future was no mean feat. He took great care to alert the wives, Heather and Norma, who were friends. Years Secretary to possible ‘hardship’ cases, and would later, after much pestering by Heather who sensed ensure group takers were aware of anyone he came that Keith had found something important, she and across whom he found unwell or in difficulties. In his Roy were also introduced to the Work. quiet and unassuming way he was a great help to many A first impression of Keith would be that he was of us. reserved, self-deprecatory, and had a dry sense of In later years, much to the surprise of weekend room humour. He gave the impression that he knew his hirers, Costi would appear at the studio door limitations and his place, and was content with the unannounced to ensure all was well at the house. foothills while sometimes wistfully yearning for the Sometimes he would be invited to join in whatever heights. The fact that he made seminal contributions workshop was taking place. at meetings made one suspect that there was Costi could be an island unto himself, sometimes something much deeper, and a longer acquaintance blunt, and at times even seem prickly; but his revealed his dedication to the Work, the consistency expectations of others were no higher than the strict of his beliefs and the depth of his spiritual experience. standards he expected of himself - and he was tireless There was to be a sea change in his manner in his in his own efforts. He earned respect and admiration last four years. First, Norma became seriously ill and (which he would have eschewed) for always wanting to for two years he nursed her until she died. They had live his life in accordance with his deep religious faith been married for 61 years and were very close. Then and the teachings he followed, but he would complain he himself developed a terminal illness. He accepted if he fell short. He told a story against himself of how his fate with great dignity and humour, and over the he had wanted to lighten the burden of anger and course of these last years he seemed to jettison all the worry his Manager so clearly carried, at the bank where excess baggage. Reserve was replaced by warmth, they worked. In the midst of a maelstrom of problems, shrewdness became wisdom, occasional illumination Costi attempted to improve things by remaining quiet, turned into a steady glow, the dry humour calm and positive in thought and manner. But on broadened. Meetings of his beloved C Group, by now seeing his demeanour the Manager cracked with tiny in number though great in spirit, became a true frustration, storming at Costi: ‘And You! Just look at Satsang. you sitting there with that smug smile across your face!’ Bob Simmons Costi was fiercely independent and protective of  friends, clients and his own privacy. He worked his own hours, and whilst at Westminster Bank for many COSTI MELIDIS years, he also acted as guardian for a family friend’s Mayfair home. It was often difficult to know where to Born in Antwerp of loving Greek parents, the family find him. came to England at the outbreak of war. Costi first met I will always be grateful to Costi. I was invited to Teresa working at the Westminster Bank. They re-met interview for a dream career move. The experience was and married in 1977. surreal – all the more so as at the back of this large Costi had a fine ear and sensitivity for beauty in all studio, set apart from the proceedings, sat the company its forms, and could be found at meetings and lectures accountant, silent and still as a barn owl. It was Costi, around London, listening for the Teaching he loved so. and throughout my grilling he would catch my eye, He attended meetings regularly at both the Study only articulating his eyebrows. I got the job and we Society and the School of Meditation. Committed to the worked together for four years. Meditation, he was also a Turner, and in his later years Costi has asked that his ashes be placed by a still loved to slow turn. One of Costi’s many chestnut tree he grew himself. Family and friends contributions to Colet House was to prepare and gathered on a chill December morning at the Russian maintain the floor for Mukabeles. Orthodox Church to bid farewell to Costi. A loyal and For more than ten years he diligently looked after gentle man. the Society’s cash books, maintaining the membership Jonathan Leiserach ledgers, all recorded in his copperplate longhand. Costi 

31 The Three Hermits Dying A Legend from the Volga District If I can contrive ‘And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: With my last breath for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto them: for your Father To stay alive knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.’ In the moment of Death Mathew. vi. 7, 8.

To guard my mind A BISHOP was sailing from Archangel to the From the agony Solovétsk Monastery; and on the same vessel were a That all minds feel number of pilgrims on their way to visit the shrines at As bodies die that place. The voyage was a smooth one. The wind favourable, and the weather fair. The pilgrims lay on deck, eating, or sat in groups talking to one another. Burning and fretting The Bishop, too, came on deck, and as he was pacing Lost in the slaughter up and down, he noticed a group of men standing Like a fish in the netting near the prow and listening to a fisherman who was Writhing for water. pointing to the sea and telling them something. The Bishop stopped, and looked in the direction in which Behind – all the dead the man was pointing. He could see nothing however, And mis-spent days; but the sea glistening in the sunshine. He drew nearer to listen, but when the man saw him, he took off his No future ahead cap and was silent. The rest of the people also took off In the gloom and the haze their caps, and bowed. ‘Do not let me disturb you, friends,’ said the If then I could feel Bishop. ‘I came to hear what this good man was The power of the Sun, saying.’ Let my heart reveal ‘The fisherman was telling us about the hermits,’ The unchanging One. replied one, a tradesman, rather bolder than the rest. ‘What hermits?’ asked the Bishop, going to the side of the vessel and seating himself on a box. ‘Tell me Who rules our space about them. I should like to hear. What were you Where the planets turn, pointing at?’ The meteors race, ‘Why, that little island you can just see over there,’ And comets burn; answered the man, pointing to a spot ahead and a little to the right. ‘That is the island where the hermits live Whose breath has created for the salvation of their souls.’ This teeming earth, ‘Where is the island?’ asked the Bishop. ‘I see And generated nothing.’ ‘There, in the distance, if you will please look along From dying, birth! my hand. Do you see that little cloud? Below it and a bit to the left, there is just a faint streak. That is the island.’ Ah! Then I’d discern The Bishop looked carefully, but his unaccustomed Through the Many, the One eyes could make out nothing but the water And my soul would burn shimmering in the sun. In the blaze of the Sun. ‘I cannot see it,’ he said. ‘But who are the hermits that live there?’ Francis C. Roles ‘They are holy men,’ answered the fisherman. ‘I had long heard tell of them, but never chanced to see them myself till the year before last.’

32 And the fisherman related how once, when he was You had better speak to the captain.’ out fishing, he had been stranded at night upon that The captain was sent for and came. island, not knowing where he was. In the morning, as ‘I should like to see these hermits,’ said the Bishop. he wandered about the island, he came across an earth ‘Could I not be rowed ashore?’ hut, and met an old man standing near it. Presently The captain tried to dissuade him. two others came out, and after having fed him, and ‘Of course it could be done,’ said he, ‘but we should dried his things, they helped him mend his boat. lose much time. And if I might venture to say so to ‘And what are they like?’ asked the Bishop. your Grace, the old men are not worth your pains. I ‘One is a small man and his back is bent. He wears have heard say that they are foolish old fellows, who a priest’s cassock and is very old; he must be more understand nothing, and never speak a word, any than a hundred, I should say. He is so old that the more than the fish in the sea.’ white of his beard is taking a greenish tinge, but he is always smiling, and his face is as bright as an angel’s from heaven. The second is taller, but he also is very old. He wears a tattered, peasant coat. His beard is broad, and of a yellowish grey colour. He is a strong man. Before I had time to help him, he turned my boat over as if it were only a pail. He too, is kindly and cheerful. The third is tall, and has a beard as white as snow and reaching to his knees. He is stern, with over- hanging eyebrows; and he wears nothing but a mat tied round his waist.’ ‘And did they speak to you?’ asked the Bishop. ‘For the most part they did everything in silence and spoke but little even to one another. One of them would just give a glance, and the others would understand him. I asked the tallest whether they had lived there long. He frowned, and muttered something ‘I wish to see them,’ said the Bishop, ‘and I will pay as if he were angry; but the oldest one took his hand you for your trouble and loss of time. Please let me and smiled, and then the tall one was quiet. The oldest have a boat.’ one only said: “Have mercy upon us”, and smiled.’ There was no help for it; so the order was given. While the fisherman was talking, the ship had The sailors trimmed the sails, the steersman put up drawn nearer to the island. the helm, and the ship’s course was set for the island. ‘There, now you can see it plainly, if your Grace A chair was placed at the prow for the Bishop, and he will please to look,’ said the tradesman, pointing with sat there, looking ahead. The passengers all collected his hand. at the prow, and gazed at the island. Those who had The Bishop looked, and now he really saw a dark the sharpest eyes could presently make out the rocks streak -- which was the island. Having looked at it a on it, and then a mud hut was seen. At last one man while, he left the prow of the vessel, and going to the saw the hermits themselves. The captain brought a stern, asked the helmsman: telescope and, after looking through it, handed it to ‘What island is that?’ the Bishop. ‘That one,’ replied the man, ‘has no name. There are ‘It’s right enough. There are three men standing on many such in this sea.’ the shore. There, a little to the right of that big rock.’ ‘Is it true that there are hermits who live there for The Bishop took the telescope, got it into position, the salvation of their souls?’ and he saw the three men: a tall one, a shorter one, ‘So it is said, your Grace, but I don’t know if it’s and one very small and bent, standing on the shore true. Fishermen say they have seen them; but of course and holding each other by the hand. they may only be spinning yarns.’ The captain turned to the Bishop. ‘I should like to land on the island and see these ‘The vessel can get no nearer in than this, your men,’ said the Bishop. ‘How could I manage it?’ Grace. If you wish to go ashore, we must ask you to ‘The ship cannot get close to the island,’ replied the go in the boat, while we anchor here.’ helmsman, ‘but you might be rowed there in a boat. The cable was quickly let out, the anchor cast, and

33 the sails furled. There was a jerk, and the vessel Listen and repeat after me: “Our Father”.‘ shook. Then a boat having been lowered, the oarsmen And the first old man repeated after him, ‘Our jumped in, and the Bishop descended the ladder and Father’, and the second said, ‘Our Father’, and the took his seat. The men pulled at their oars, and the third said, ‘Our Father’. boat moved rapidly towards the island. When they ‘Which art in heaven,’ continued the Bishop. came within a stone’s throw they saw three old men: a The first hermit repeated, ‘Which art in heaven’, tall one with only a mat tied round his waist: a shorter but the second blundered over the words, and the tall one in a tattered peasant coat, and a very old one bent hermit could not say them properly. His hair had with age and wearing an old cassock -- all three grown over his mouth so that he could not speak standing hand in hand. plainly. The very old hermit, having no teeth, also The oarsmen pulled in to the shore, and held on mumbled indistinctly. with the boathook while the Bishop got out. The Bishop repeated the words again, and the old The old men bowed to him, and he gave them his men repeated them after him. The Bishop sat down on benediction, at which they bowed still lower. Then the a stone, and the old men stood before him, watching Bishop began to speak to them. his mouth, and repeating the words as he uttered ‘I have heard,’ he said, ‘that you, godly men, live them. And all day long the Bishop laboured, saying a here saving your own souls, and praying to our Lord word twenty, thirty, a hundred times over, and the old Christ for your fellow men. I, an unworthy servant of men repeated it after him. They blundered, and he Christ, am called, by God’s mercy, to keep and teach corrected them, and made them begin again. His flock. I wished to see you, servants of God, and to The Bishop did not leave off till he had taught do what I can to teach you, also.’ them the whole of the Lord’s prayer so that they could The old men looked at each other smiling, but not only repeat it after him, but could say it by remained silent. themselves. The middle one was the first to know it, ‘Tell me,’ said the Bishop, ‘what you are doing to and to repeat the whole of it alone. The Bishop made save your souls, and how you serve God on this him say it again and again, and at last the others island.’ could say it too. The second hermit sighed, and looked at the It was getting dark, and the moon was appearing oldest, the very ancient one. The latter smiled, and over the water, before the Bishop rose to return to the said: vessel. When he took leave of the old men, they all ‘We do not know how to serve God. We only serve bowed down to the ground before him. He raised and support ourselves, servant of God.’ them, and kissed each of them, telling them to pray as ‘But how do you pray to God?’ asked the Bishop. he had taught them. Then he got into the boat and ‘We pray in this way,’ replied the hermit. ‘Three are returned to the ship. ye, three are we, have mercy upon us.’ And as he sat in the boat and was rowed to the And when the old man said this, all three raised ship he could hear the three voices of the hermits their eyes to heaven, and repeated: loudly repeating the Lord’s prayer. As the boat drew ‘Three are ye, three are we, have mercy upon us!’ near the vessel their voices could no longer be heard, The Bishop smiled. but they could still be seen in the moonlight, standing ‘You have evidently heard something about the as he had left them on the shore, the shortest in the Holy Trinity,’ said he. ‘But you do not pray aright. You middle, the tallest on the right, the middle one on the have won my affection, godly men. I see you wish to left. As soon as the Bishop had reached the vessel and please the Lord, but you do not know how to serve got on board, the anchor was weighed and the sails Him. That is not the way to pray; but listen to me, and unfurled. The wind filled them, and the ship sailed I will teach you. I will teach you, not a way of my away, and the Bishop took a seat in the stern and own, but the way in which God in the Holy Scriptures watched the island they had left. For a time he could has commanded all men to pray to Him.’ still see the hermits, but presently they disappeared And the Bishop began explaining to the hermits from sight, though the island was still visible. At last how God had revealed Himself to men; telling them it too vanished, and only the sea was to be seen, of God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy rippling in the moonlight. Ghost. The pilgrims lay down to sleep, and all was quiet ‘God the Son came down on earth,’ said he, ‘to on deck. The Bishop did not wish to sleep, but sat save men, and this is how He taught us all to pray. alone at the stern, gazing at the sea where the island

34 was no longer visible, and thinking of the good old The passengers hearing him, jumped up, and men. He thought how pleased they had been to learn crowded to the stern. They saw the hermits coming the Lord’s prayer; and he thanked God for having sent along hand in hand, and the two outer ones him to teach and help such godly men. beckoning the ship to stop. All three were gliding So the Bishop sat, thinking, and gazing at the sea along upon the water without moving their feet. where the island had disappeared. And the moonlight Before the ship could be stopped, the hermits had flickered before his eyes, sparkling, now here, now reached it, and raising their heads, all three as with there, upon the waves. Suddenly he saw something one voice, began to say: white and shining, on the bright path which the moon ‘We have forgotten your teaching, servant of God. cast across the sea. Was it a seagull, or the little As long as we kept repeating it we remembered, but gleaming sail of some small boat? The Bishop fixed when we stopped saying it for a time, a word dropped his eyes on it, wondering. out, and now it has all gone to pieces. We can ‘It must be a boat sailing after us,’ thought he, ‘but remember nothing of it. Teach us again.’ it is overtaking us very rapidly. It was far, far away a The Bishop crossed himself, and leaning over the minute ago, but now it is much nearer. It cannot be a ship’s side, said: boat, for I can see no sail; but whatever it may be, it is ‘Your own prayer will reach the Lord, men of God. following us, and catching us up.’ It is not for me to teach you. Pray for us sinners.’ And he could not make out what it was. Not a And the Bishop bowed low before the old men; boat, nor a bird, nor a fish! It was too large for a man, and they turned and went back across the sea. And a and besides a man could not be out there in the midst light shone until daybreak on the spot where they of the sea. The Bishop rose, and said to the helmsman: were lost to sight. ‘Look there, what is that, my friend? What is it?’ Leo Tolstoy the Bishop repeated, though he could now see plainly  what it was — the three hermits running upon the water, all gleaming white, their grey beards shining, I would like to say something real, and approaching the ship as quickly as though it were not moving. But I can only stand here, smiling, The steersman looked and let go the helm in terror. Looking a little foolish. ‘Oh Lord! The hermits are running after us on the water as though it were dry land!’ Anon.

35 A journey of self discovery

For anybody truly interested in embarking on, or further developing a voyage of self discovery, we make available a range of practical methods and approaches that can help transform theoretical knowledge into real experience and bring a deeper meaning to everyday life. All these activities are based around a unique East/West understanding of the philosophy of non-dualism which declares the essential oneness of the individual with the universe. Our Society was formed by P D Ouspensky and continued by his student Francis Roles under the guidance of the Shankaracharya, HH Shantanand Saraswati, one of the heads of the AdvaitaVedanta (non-dual) tradition.

Meditation As our central practice we offer mantra meditation from the Advaita tradition.The practice of meditation leads you to a deep inner connection and puts everyday life into perspective.A remarkable record of questions and answers carried on with the Shankaracharya for over 30 years supports our practice and understanding. Contact us for further details.

Introductory Group The Fourth Way Journey Informal and friendly weekly meetings are available The Fourth Way System developed at Colet House to introduce you to the philosophy of non-dualism presents a profoundly practical psychology and and the Society’s activities. Non-dualism is seen as cosmology—all expressed in accessible Western the perennial philosophy at the heart of all the terms and language.Together with its basic training world’s mystical and religious traditions. It is very in attention and self-awareness, this Fourth Way simple, requiring no adjustment of faith or lifestyle System can lead you to a clear understanding of and yet can have a profound and positive effect on non-dualism. Contact us if you are interested in how we view the world and ourselves. Contact us joining a course. for details of groups in and outside London. The Gurdjieff Movements Whirling Dervishes These Movements are a repertoire of ancient and ‘Turning’ is a potent method for experiencing inner sacred dances and esoteric movements from stillness. Developed by followers of Rumi in the closed communities, temples and monasteries in 13th Century, it was in 1963 that a Mevlevi Sheikh the Near and Middle East and Asia.They are a started a group here with the permission of the means of acquiring knowledge beyond language. head of his Order.Training to be Turner starts in The Movements have been taught at Colet House January 2011. You can also attend monthly guest since the 1930s in an uninterrupted line of ceremonies preceded by a meeting of the Rumi transmission safeguarding the tradition and carrying poetry and music group. Contact us for details of it forward. Contact us for details of classes. these and other events.

We warmly invite you to contact us for further details. The Study Society, Colet House, 151 Talgarth Road, LondonW14 9DA

[email protected] • www.studysociety.org • 020 8741 6568