The Teenage Years of Mankind

The Teenage Years of Mankind

By Tony McGuire

Index Forward The Universal Law of Change The Easy Way or the Hard Way? The Rules of Opposites and Societies Failure to Observe them. Three Types of Intelligence? Money: and is it Truly the Root to all evil? Men, Women and Equality Bringing Up Children, What defines the sex of a child? The Constitution of a

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8)

child, Mixed up families, mixed up emotions, The evolutions of a child, Advice to Fathers, Advice to Mothers, Advice to Children 9) 10) 11)

Death and Our Fear of Death Lifes’ Illusion Why I Think Mankind is Heading for a Fall!

Religion i) Is There a Basis for Religion in Reality? ii) Different Churches, Same Ideas, Same God! iii)Science-v-Religion iv) How About This for a Theory v) Reincarnation vi) Fundamentalism in Religion and the Damaged Caused vii)Why Does God Let Suffering Happen in the World? viii)The Culmination of the Evidence ix) The Importance of Humbleness and Prayer

12)

13)How to Get Closer to God i) Fasting – What’s the Point? ii) The Riding Horse Stance 14) The Power of Forgiveness 15) The Importance of Being Selfless 16) A Way Forward

17) Appendix i) About the Author and Justification for Writing This Book ii) My Personal Reasons for Believing in a Life After Death iii) Your Way (A tribute to my dad)

Forward In 21st century Britain, I could hardly be described as a contemporarythinker. Ever since I can remember, my mind has almost constantly dwelled on philosophical issues. At school I would

prefer to read books on philosophy or theology rather than studying the subjects I was actually taking exams in. This natural love of these subjects has, in retrospect, caused me a great deal of anguish over the years, though it has given me the excuse of producing only mediocre results in my school exams. Academically I could be described as, ‘Average’, or at best, ‘Slightly better than average’. Though, I would always like to think that I could have done better in my exams if my mind was actually within the walls of the school building at the time. Thinking, ‘Outside the box’, as far back as I can remember, I have never accepting anything philosophical or theological as accurate until considering it with a level-headed detachment from all the different perspectives I could think of. I was also never happy with accepting anything as being factual unless I felt it to be true in the root of my being. I have always trusted my intuition, and my intuition has dictated that I should never accept anything based merely on general consensus. My understanding of the human situation does not conform to what could be described as; ‘contemporary 21st Century opinion’, and consequently you may disagree with some of the things that I have written even though I have been careful to follow sensible lines of reasoning. The purpose of this book however is not to tell you what to believe or not to believe, but merely to open your mind to other points of view that you may not have considered in the past and to argue points that may force you to re-evaluate your opinions about yourself and the world in which you live. The first eight chapters are focused on the world as it exists today, though I urge you not to skip these chapters as you will very soon discover; I view the world in a slightly different perspective to most. I only emphasise this because you may have difficulty following my line of reasoning in the subsequent chapters without reading these first. These subsequent chapters focus on suggestions for mankind to improve his situation and to move toward a more Utopian way of life that works in harmony with the world in which he lives and with the laws of nature. I have always asked myself philosophical questions and then spent days or even weeks trying to solve each question. All the while, to the outside world, I was walking around in a daze and soon had the reputation in primary school as being a bit of a daydreamer and later to be considered to have my head in the clouds. My mind has always worked hard, though rarely on the subjects in hand; Peoples opinion of me from their perspective was therefore, probably well justified. This book, -being the culmination of those thoughts-; has taken me most of my life to write. It is not, however meant to be autobiographical in any way. I do however understand that some may consider my opinions to be based on the sum of my experiences. With this in mind, I have includeda brief overview of my life in the appendix. Whist in no way complete, -as I have lived a very full and interesting life-, it may help you understand why I think the way I do, or you may be simply inquisitive, whatever your reason, if you wish to read it;then it is there. The chapter also includes my justification for writing this book. I do not wish you to think that I have written this book on some kind of a self fulfillingwhim. It has troubled me for many years that writing such an opinionated book would be egotistical to say the least. After much contemplation however, I have concluded that the messages that I have to reveal to you are so unusual and have

such devastating implications; that to fail to write it would be by far the greater sin. Finally, I am fully aware that this book is seriously heavy reading and may give you several headaches. With this in mind I have endeavoured to keep the language simple and the text as light hearted as I can, even to the point of adding some of the jokes I have picked up over the years. So, all you have to do now is, take a couple of aspirin, sit down, and read on......

The Universal Law of Change ‘This universe we live in is a universe of relentless motion and flux‘. Although this may or may not be an obvious statement of fact to you, it is one that we often turn a blind eye to. The very idea that we live a groundless existence can instinctively send a chill of terror right through us. We dislike the idea of change; we feel that dwelling on the subject of impermanence can make us morbid and depressed. Though to ignore the fact that everything around us is changing is to, ‘bury ones head in the sand’, and far from making us, ‘morbid and depressed’, the understanding of why and how things change can in fact offer a release from the fear and anxiety that we attach

to it. Therefore, paradoxically our confrontation and study of change can lead to an understanding that can enrich our lives, rather than undermine it. This chapter is written to try and open your eyes to the extensiveness of the change that is going on around you and to express the idea that change in itself is not as negative as it may first appear. It was Heraclitus that said that, ‘everything changes’, though Cratylus took it further so that there was no point discussing anything because the speaker, listener, meaning and language had already changed. Parmenides - looked for something permanent and came up with, ‘Being is, non-being is not’. Aristotle - introduced the idea of ‘matter and form’, - e.g. the form of an acorn is the, ‘actuality’ at that moment in time. The process of growing, altering or moving is one form to another. I would like to start by looking at the, ’Big Picture’. The universe is still expanding as a result of, ‘The Big Bang’; and, as it expands, stars such as our own sun burn out and new suns are born. Whole planets are destroyed and new ones are being constantly created as a result of smaller objects being drawn to larger objects and the collisions of these objects in the vastness of space. As a result of gravitational pull, dust is attracted by passing meteors, these meteors are drawn to planets and planets are drawn to suns etc. and start revolving around them, thankfully! Although all these events happen in accordance with physical laws, the vastness of the universe however makes the whole universe chaotic in its very nature. The universe came into being and will inevitably end just as sure as that once we are born it is inevitable that we will die. The only difference being that of time. There is a constant process of change occurring in the universe, and Earth is not the exception to the rule. In our atmosphere, atoms and molecules are constantly colliding around you. Cosmic and solar rays entering the earth’satmosphere constantly bombard themselves and other molecules around them. Although all following physical laws, the vast amount of interactions in the atmosphere and on the surface of the earth, which have a, ‘knock on effect’, on the atoms and molecules around them, are countless. All this culminating in theories such as the, ‘Chaos theory’, and ‘The Butterfly effect’. We do not choose to be here, but most of us accept the fact that we are and once the acceptance of life occurs we become content with the fact that we are alive and don’t like the idea of dying as it means going into the unknown. We fear the unknown just as we fear the dark because we do not know what is hidden in the shadows, which makes us afraid, (See chapter on death). We are acutely aware, -though we banish such thoughts into the back of our minds-, that once we are born, it is inevitable that, even if we do not suffer the tragedy of an accident caused by the chaotic nature of our existence, or suffer a terminal illness resulting in our premature death, will at some point, die. We are all mortal and the question is not so much whether or not we will die but rather, when. As each second ticks by we are all dying in that we are all one second closer to the time of our death. Inevitably our bodies will rot and decay and we will succumb to the grim reaper and perish no matter what we do. The proof of our existence only surviving in the fading

memories of those that once knew us. Depressing I know, but nevertheless a fact, and a fact that we should accept, no matter how painful the thought. Death of course only affects living creatures, although the law of change is by no means restricted to the animate. We know that our car will rust and that wood will rot because such changes are clearly visible within a fairly short period of timethat is well within our personal time perception. We know that even the mountains are being constantly eroded and new mountains are being formed as the continental plates move across the magma deep underground; we do not see this happening because it happens so slowly, -often over millennia-, andwe do not therefore register such events as change. It is therefore not that there is no change to our environment, but rather that the rate of change is so slow, that it makes the change invisible to the naked eye. Change not only goes on the cosmic and macrocosmic, but also in our microcosmic world. The cells in our body are continually being created and destroyed. The chaos being similar to that reflected inthe cosmos and macrocosm. Our cells age, our bodies adapt to changes in the environment and adjust to foreign bodies and diseases that attack our bodies. These changes, such as our hairs standing on end to protect us from the cold or the opening of pores and release of water to cool us down are of course not considered negative as they are perceived to occur in our best interests. The culmination of these adaption’s to our environment leading to mankind’s evolution over the generations. But change is neither limited to our planet or the life formsthat inhabit it. Change also affectsevents. There are many things that will occur in our lives that we will not want to happen. Our best friend will run off with someone we love. Our car will skid around in bad weather. People we love will die. We will losemoney, our children and our homes. Earthquakes, floods, tornados and the like can destroy in the blink of an eyethat we took years to create. Many other instances will occur in our lifetime which we will dislike and the bitterness we feel of not getting our own way will only increase our abhorrence of the concept of change. At this point I wish to bring in the Buddhist point of view because it is one that focuses on the phenomenon of the suffering caused by change, its origins, its cessation and the path that leads to its cessation. Legend has it that the religions namesake, Siddhartha Gautama who was later to become, ‘Buddha’ grew up in the protected environment of palaces where his attention was constantly diverted from the transience and unreliability of his existence and the world around him. One day he asked his father to see the world outside the palace walls, hisfather, wishing to continue protecting his son from the realities of the world outside refused. Upon the young princes insistence the king finally succumbed to his wishes but arranged that the people arranged themselves as not to spoil the young man’senjoyment of life. Despite the kings efforts Siddhartha chanced upon a person crippled with age, another ridden with disease and a corpse. For the first time in his life he was struck by the impermanence of his life and the tragic nature of human existence. The upbringing of Siddhartha can be likened to the privileged upbringing of Westerners in the 21stCentury. Our dead are hidden in hospital morgues and homes. The death masks are hidden with the art of the undertaker and age is concealed by the cosmetic surgeon. We live in a society

whereour every desire is catered for and our every pain relieved. We are ever more indulged in making our lives more and more comfortable and finding new and ingenious ways of making ourselves happy, forever looking towards the positive side of life and shielding ourselves from the negative. Unlike us however, Siddhartha was not content with his protected princely life once he had seen the realities of life outside the palace walls and began to question the meaning of human existence and suffering. The prince became obsessed with finding the answer to the question to such a degree that nothing else seemed to matter to him. One night he slipped away from his courtesans, slipped off his royal robes and became an ascetic. After six years of meditation and contemplation he still had not come up with the answer to his question and in a final act of desperation he vowed to sit under a tree and not stand up until he had resolved his question. A week later he experienced an awakening or, ‘enlightenment’, whichprovided an adequate response to his question on birth, sickness, ageing and death. This, ‘enlightenment’, led to Siddhartha being known from that point on as the, ‘Buddha’, or, ‘Awakened One’. His vision was ultimately known as, ‘The Four Noble Truths’, by Buddhists around the world. “It was not until I grasped these four truths, that I could consider myself to be fully awake”, declared Siddhartha. These truths revealed not only the nature of the human dilemma but also offered a possibility of its resolution. The path leading to the resolution of suffering he declared as by beginning to looking at the essence of suffering itself. That is to say that rather than ignoring and turning a blind eye to the instability of our ever changing lives, that we should focus on this aspect of our existence and reflect and meditate on it. This has the effect of shifting our attention away from ourselves and our selfish desires and allows us to conceive the bigger picture of movement and flux where the concepts of me and mine continually emerge and then vanish into oblivion. Buddha compares sickness, ageing and death to divine messengers that open our eyes to the truths that can liberate us from our suffering caused by anguish. He maintains that our suffering is born from our refusal to heed their message and remain stubbornly resolute to the illusion that we are permanent and necessary. By accepting our mortality and impermanence we will be exuberated by the sheer astonishment that we are alive at this moment. Therefore the understanding and acceptance of the human condition is the first step towards the attachment we have to being a fixed, unchanging ego. This understanding is not of course a cure for the human condition but is rather a therapeutic solution that helps lead the individual toward their own salvation by bringing them closer to the reality that is shrouded from us. The golden rule is that, ‘The only thing that doesn’t change is change itself’. That is to say that everything changes and the fact that everything changes is therefore the only real constant. It is therefore in the fact that change is the only real constant in our universe that we can ever truly find some form of stability in our existence. It is the only thing that we can rely on and pin our trust, born from the interplay of opposite forces, change can be a friend once you understand its nature. It is therefore crucial that we confront the existence of change in order that we are freed from the anguish that change inflicts on us both mentally and spiritually. There will have been moments in your life when you will have confronted change, this could be the fear of your own death, or maybe the death of someone close to you, the near miss in a road accident or even the fear of losing your money or mental faculties. These times bring out the spontaneous realisation of change in your mind which normally lays dormant behind a curtain of

denial. Though it is never usually very long before they are sent back to whence they came because such thoughts are uncomfortable for us. Whatever our experience of change, we seem to dislike the prospect of change instead of embracing it and appreciating change for what it is. Even if the majority of change that occurs in our lives is mainly positive in our perception, we naturally focus on the negative incidents and relate to change as being wholly negative. It is the process of change that allows people, and also the rest of the world to progress and evolve. Examples of which are limitless, but for simplicities sake examples would be our bodies’ production of a new antibody to fight off a completely new infection or its natural increase in temperature to kill off the infection when you have a fever. Change is unquestionably necessary for the continued survival of mankind as well as when it occurs in the rest of nature. Because change is both inevitable and also necessary, we have to learn how to accept change more readily as a society and as a species if we are toevolve to our full potential. This is because our resistance to change can affect the progress of our natural evolution, both as a species and as individuals. In order to accept change we must first transform our perception of change being a totally negative phenomenon. Instead we must make an effort to realise and try tounderstand how the changes that we experience have had a positive impact on our lives. How change can make our lives richer and that change rarely has a totally negative effect. Although at the time a change occurs the experience may seem entirely negative, often with retrospect we will see that the change may seem to have almost been arranged for our advantage, even when those advantages may not have been very plain to see at the time. In order for you to understand that change is not always as straight forward as we perceive I offer as example these thoughts:I would agree that the thought of nothingness after death, is a far more scary idea than that of an afterlife and of heaven. It has always occurred to me that the world was designed so that we cannot prove the existence of an afterlife and that the only way we can know of its existence is to use faith to cross the bridge between knowing and having reason to suspect. I gasp at peoples inability to grasp that, when they have proof that, in Chemistry, ‘Matter is neither created nor destroyed but exists in a different form. That is Physics, “Energy is neither created nor destroyed but exists in a different form’. That in Biology the circle of life and the constant dying of life forms so that other, often newer life forms are sustained. We know that everything in the universe follows this pattern yet maintain that our life force is the only exception to this rule just because we can’t see our life force let alone know what happens to it after we die. If for example you take a glass of water and drop it on the kitchen floor then of course the glass of water has changed and you no longer have the glass of water from which to drink, the illusion however lies in the idea that the water is lost. It may be lost to us, but some of the water will end up in the drain after we mopped it up, will continue into the rivers and join with larger bodies of water such as oceans. The rest of the water will evaporate off the floor and cloth into the atmosphere. This water will eventually form into clouds and subsequently fall back to the earth in the form of rain and rejoin the earth’s water system.

So, no water is really lost, it may, like anything else appear to be lost forever to us in our limited perception whilst in effect it merely exists in a different form. Another example is that, when I observe the different life forms that inhabit this planet, that their longevity is different to ours and therefore their rate of change is quicker. As previously discussed, although change is consistent throughout the universe, the rate of change varies according to that in which change reacts against. It is my understanding that although another species may live for a longer period of time from our point of view, all species have roughly the same amount of heartbeats within the average lifespan of that species. For example, the heartbeat of a short lived species sounds more like a hum to us because their heart is beating so fast. If you observe these short lived species you will also observe that they move at a very fast pace and being smaller, and although their brains are smaller, it stands to reason that the electrical impulses that occur in their brain have a smaller distance to travel and therefore think and experience life at a heightened form of perception. It is therefore not inconceivable that, although by our perception the common mouse lives for a shorter period of time, he may live, ‘faster’, than us. In the mouse’s perception;he may indeed be living for a similar length of time to us. If you have ever tried to swat a fly you will have noticed how quickly they react. Maybe the reason why he can react as quickly as he does is that to the fly, we are moving in slow motion. This last point is just a perception of mine and is by no means written in stone as fact. Although the basis to this theory is fine, it really needs a thesis written on the subject too substantiate the degree of truth it holds. The whole point of me suggesting this idea is simply to emphasize that change is not always as negative as it may first appear. The chapter on life’s illusion will back up this idea that so much of what we see and hear is illusory and although this chapter is focused on the concept of change it has to be understood in the concept of the aforementioned chapter. The concept of continual movement and change is by no means solely mentioned in Buddhist teaching, the Hindu god Shiva relates to the universal cosmic dance of the universe, and many examples of this concept can be found in religious texts throughout the world, I merely used the Buddhist teachings as an example as they focus on change in such an in-depth way. Neither do I see the understanding of change to be the only route to spiritual enlightenment. However the acceptance and embracement of change is a very useful tool in anyone’s journey to spiritual enlightenment and is therefore of great significance to the wellbeing of anyone who is interested in reaching this level of development. In conclusion to this chapter I hope that you can see the logic of coming to terms with change, accepting it and embracing it as a constant in your life. Only in this way, by realising that change is almost never negative but happens for a reason; even though that reason may be hidden from our perceptions, is the only way of being released from the anxiety of its grip. Allowing you to be more content as an individual. Happier as an individual and one step closer toward the fulfilment which comes from true knowledge and wisdom.

The Easy Way or the Hard Way? All through your life, you have and will have to face many dilemmas. On a daily basis you are presented with a choice of paths in front of you, and you must choose which of those paths you will take. This choice is known as our, “God given free will”. These dilemmas can be minor choices such as; will I eat that last chocolate éclair? Or Shall I pretend to be ill so I don’t have to go to school/work? Shall I slash my boyfriends/girlfriend tyres because he/she dumped me? Or they could be more major decisions such as; should I take in the child who has been orphaned? Or should I offer my voluntary service to the local home for the elderly that are short staffed at the moment as I have some free time on my hands? More often than not we are torn, -which I’m sure you will agree-, between that which the little voice, (or soul) inside us is telling us, that we should be doing, and what is in our best self interest to do. In the past I am sure that most of you have probably put the fact down to, ‘Sod’s law’, that the right path, - or the path that we know to be the most morally correct-, is almost always the most difficult. This chapter contains a principle that the majority of you will find difficult to accept as I am maintaining that choices that bring us hardship and suffering are not negative, and that choices that bring us comfort and joy are not positive. After all it is the most comfortable path and one that will bring him the most happiness that we will all choose if left to our own selfish devices. Yet there is always that little voice inside us that tells us otherwise. How much we listen to that voice is up to us. We can all understand why anyone would choose not to listen to the voice as it is always asking us to be selfless, to take the more difficult and/or the less pleasurable path. But I am endeavouring in this chapter to offer good reason why you should listen to that voice, and how you can make taking the correct decisions a little easier. There are those, Hedonistic people that believe we should always do that which makes us most happy. However, this idea seems to be the opposite of my experience, and I wish to relay how I have translated and understood my own life experience. If` I look back on my life, the times that seem the most inspirational of my life, the happiest, the most profound and most character building are those times that were the hardest times . When I first experienced hard labour on building sites with my father I of course found it difficult, my body complained at the labour that I forced it to do and I was susceptible to the cold, my fingers would turn white and numb and I would shiver continuously. Though once I began to accept that, ‘it was something I had to do’, and began to take pride in my achievements, after a while, it all became a lot easier to bear. Whether, when in my youth it was, so cold that we were burning all manner of things on the fire, the warmth of that fire, -which we so dearly needed-, gradually warmed our bones. The companionship, as we huddled closely around the dancing flames, talked, laughed and joked with one another. Or when I used to spend all day shovelling rubble into skips, and then return home to a warm fire and food. That food, no matter what it was, tasted more succulent than normal, that warmth was more satisfying, and I could feel the relief that my body felt when I had finally allowed it to rest after a hard day’s work more intensely then if I had not worked. When I had to, ’top and tail’, with my brother and sister in bed, when we had to eat by the light of the refrigerator as we had no lighting installed and neither for that matter had we floorboards

and had to traverse the floor joists to get to the dining table, were all memories that I now hold dear and are very, ’intense memories. There is a very old saying that, you get out of life what you put into it’, which I believe to be true. It has occurred to me that what you get out of life is not so much what you get out of the good things in life, but how you embrace the worst things in life. It is the harder things in life that build our character, strengthen our resolve and contribute to our long lasting memory. It is the harder things that give us meaning to our lives and not the fun, happy moments. The birth of a child is a very painful experience for a women, yet at the end of the day, all being well, they will have a healthy child that they will love and be loved by for the rest of their days. On the other side of the coin, if we choose to take the easier, more pleasant options, such as being greedy and always eating that last éclair, then we will get fat. This does not just apply to food of course, gluttony of any kind, including money; power etc. has its price to pay. If we choose the path of lethargy (sloth), then we will become unfit and get less out of life. If we choose the path of lust, then we will base our relationships on something that decays dies and probably end up with some sort of venereal disease. If we choose vengeance (Wrath), then we will end up regretting the decisions we make or end up being consumed by them. If we choose to be vain (Pride), then others will never see and care for us for what we really are, we will not allow ourselves to truly love others. If we choose the path of Envy then we will never be truly happy with what we have in life because we can never have everything that everyone else has or we think they have. Yes, you got it, the seven deadly sins, (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride), deadly to our soul that is, and you will notice that every choice that we make in our own self interest has its price to pay. The other thing that you must watch for is that our experience of pain and hardship can make us embittered and afraid to take the right decision. Most people will have experienced the bitter sweet pain when separated from someone they love, but this pain would never be there if they hadn’t had the experience of loving that person, animal or whatever, before they lost them. The saying, ‘It is better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all’, springs to mind. In other words we should not shy away from relationships and love because we have experienced the pain of losing someone close; to do so would be to deny ourselves the experience of loving another. It also means that those that have an inability to love or just haven’t met the right person, are missing out on something that is well worth suffering for. I believe that hardship carries its own rewards, and whilst those rewards may not at the time be apparent; when the hardship is finally over you can look back and see that there was benefit to the experience in the vast majority of instances. Most of the harder times in my life, when I look back on them, seem to have happened for a reason and have benefited either myself or others around me in the long term. Even the deaths of my parents seem to have happened when it could be considered to be opportune moments in time. Times that if things had unravelled differently, other desirable effects would not have occurred. Knowing this has helped me face hardship more easily, because the mountains that I have had to climb are far less steep when you know you are climbing for a good reason, even if I don’t actually know what that reason is at the time. These challenges seem to have been purposely put in my way in order for my character and therefore my soul to mature, and I trust that those above know what they are doing and don’t let myself worry about it.

As I said, this idea that hardship is not entirely negative and that comfort and joy is not entirely positive may be a very difficult principle to live by. However I have found it to be a truism and recommend that you consider holding this idea in your heart as you face your own hardships that life throws at you. I will end this chapter with a thought. We were all given a free will to choose which paths we go down in life. It is obviously not my place to judge the individual. But I offer this stark warning. ‘There are those around you that are and will judge you, both those that you can see, - and more importantly-, those which you cannot.’ Epicurus, an ancient philosopher preached that you should live life moderately but pleasurably and that if you follow pleasure too arduously, then pain would follow and therefore not to pursue pleasure as to avoid the pain that follows. Hedonists believe that the correct way of living is the pursuit of personal pleasure. It is true that, ‘No man can be happy on the rack’. But I do not believe that a life led solely aimed at self fulfilment is in fact fulfilling. We need the opposition of experiences to appreciate any experience whether good or bad. I’ll conclude this chapter with a passage of Mother Teresa which I find very inspirational when contemplating how the hard way is inevitably the right way:People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centred: Forgive them anyway. If you are kind people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives: Be kind anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you may spend years building, someone may destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people may forget tomorrow; Be good anyway. You see in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.

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If you’re in a cold environment and shivering, it is better to make yourself relax by pushing down your shoulders and letting the tension drain out of you. In this way you will be far more comfortable. Another tip is to rub your ears between your thumb and forefinger. _____________________________________________________________________

If you find work etc. difficult, then try and focus your mind on something else in more laborious tasks. Much of the pain can be controlled by simply conditioning the mind. Think of the money, think of whom you are working for, think of the achievement when your task ends etc. But don’t think of the time as, ‘A watched kettle never boils’. _____________________________________________________________________

The Rules of Opposites and Societies Failure to Observe Them The first rule of opposites is obvious to most. That is to say that, in nature, everything has its opposing equivalent. If you’re not quite sure what I mean by this then some examples to clarify this rule would be:-

Night Up Cold Mountains Sun Male Happy Alive Good Work

Day Down Hot Valleys Moon Female Sad Dead Evil Rest

Etc... The list is endless... It is important to realise that this rule extends to separate organisms in that you can draw an invisible line down any organismand on that line there is one part and on each side of the line there are two parts. For example, if you draw a line straight down through your body you have one nose, mouth, liver, heart, belly button etc. Whilst on either side of that line you have two parts, such as two arms, two legs, two ears etc. Although this first rule may be very obvious to you, what may not be quite so obvious is what I call the second rule of opposites which is the fact that each opposite gives meaning to the other. For example, if there was no night, then day would be meaningless; indeed there would not even be a word for day if there was no night. There would be no males without females, and no females without males, each giving meaning and rise to the other. Mountains would be meaningless without valleys, without the one; there would not be the other. There would not be such a thing as, ‘good’, if there was not, ‘evil’, the word, ‘good would rapidly become meaningless and soon obsolete. Without your daily work, then holidays would become meaningless and rapidly boring as you would have nothing to rest from, and so on... So, this principle of opposite extends to the one requiring the other to give it meaning. The third rule of opposites is that, it is the interaction of the opposites that provides the beauty in the world and produces progression. For example, it is the fact that there are mountains and valleys that produces the stunning mountainous view. It is generally the interaction of the male and female that produces the beauty of, namely, relationships, love and sex.

Sunrise and sunset are often considered the most beautiful part of the day because of the contrasts in the sky and the effect the changing light has on our environment. The contrasts of bitter and sweet, sitting by the fire when you are cold, the rest after a hard days word etc. These rules are not difficult to understand, and because the beauty is caused by the interaction of the two, then you may disagree with me in part as these rules could be considered a generalisation; these rules are generally sound in principle. It is the interaction of opposites that give, ‘spice to life’, and without them, life would be pretty dull as it, ‘just is’, and nothing happens. You will notice to that these principles stretch right across the natural spectrum and do not stop at natural things but also stretch to feelings etc... It is this very simple principle that gives rise to my disagreement with the direction of today society in the western world is heading. Many of the young will disagree with the rest of this chapter, mostly because the society formation in which they live is the only one they have ever known. Conversely, the older of us have had the benefit of experiencing, ‘another way of life’, and a society that was freer and more alive. We know that there is another way and are able to accurately compare societies by our own personal experience. For some reason, societies answer to improving the human condition is to eradicate all that society in general considers to be negative and only leave that which society considers to be positive without a second thought of what this policy can do to us as human beings. Like everything else in nature, no two human beings, like no two rocks or no two trees are the same. It is this diversity that makes nature beautiful in its chaos. If this were not so, then once you saw one rock, then you would have seen them all. If you met one person, then you would have met them all. It is our diversity that makes us human, makes us interesting to others and is the root to our humanity. It is the diversity in nature that makes all natural things in our environment beautiful and for want of a better word, ‘alive’. To try and eradicate this diversity is to try and eradicate our humanity from the individual and from society. Now you may say that we are all individuals and that we have the freedom to express our humanity. Unfortunately, this is becoming less and less the case in Britain today. Our health and safety policies dictate how we should climb ladders, open doors and pick things up to name but a few. Our company policies make us fearful of saying what we mean to others in case we cause offence even if the comment is constructive. We are fast turning into a, ‘nanny state’. It is no longer acceptable to smoke in a public building, even in a smoking room. We are the nation with the most cameras watching us in the world. Our DNA is analyzedand filed, just in case we commit a crime. Detailed records are kept on each and every one of us. If two men fight, then they are liable to spend many years in prison for doing something that is quite natural to many men but unacceptable in society. I am more politically democratic, (People decide what is right or wrong) then autocratic, (government decides what is right or wrong).

Hegel inferred that the state was a separate distinct entity and was more important than any individual citizen. Astate in itself is fictitious as it only unites citizens with a common denominator. (The democratic view is that the individual is more important than the state). Plato’s political philosophy is that he defends absolute rule to a special group for the purpose of ruling society, i.e. ruling is a skill, and because people differ in abilities, that whoever exhibit’s the necessary skills should be trained to rule. He leaves the question whether the leaders should be answerable to the people as power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Thomas Hobbes believed that society was an agreement among the people to abide by a certain set of rules or conventions in order to survive as it would be difficult if there were no laws. John Locke was the architect of democracy which is government by laws which are arrived at by long deliberation by properly chosen representatives of the people, and which are promulgated so that all men may be acquainted with them. Each citizen has the right to speak freely; worship as they wish etc. also has the right to own private property as the fruit of their labour. (It has been proved that no government can be a democracy without protecting the rights of the minority). John Stuart Mill, The problem with a democracy is that the will of the majority can affect an individual’s rights Such as witch hunts. - Public opinion is notoriously susceptible to error, therefore the legitimate extent must be found to which the majority can interfere with the affairs of minority groups. After the entire minority can be correct, in the western world, majority tyranny is protected against with - in any legal issue between an individual and the state. The burden of proof to show the individuals behaviour as undesirable rests with the state. What about classless society - socialism. Class structures lead to conflict which result in the overthrow of that class structure. Like any teenager, we must learn to put away our toys and take up the responsibility of adulthood if we are to evolve and grow spiritually as a race of human beings. This country currently contains 40% of the total close circuit T.V. cameras. Every time you go on the road or into any city, you are caught on camera several hundred times. Speed cameras ensure that you keep to the speed limit and road tax camera ensure you have paid your road tax, insurance and M.O.T. When you park your car and pay for your ticket you have to put in your car registration number into the machine to stop you passing on any remaining time onto someone else. Every time you use your credit card, the time and place you buy it, your details and the product details are logged so that they can ascertain exactly who buys what in any given part of the country right down to the postcode that covers just a few houses. Our every personal detail is logged onto computer since the day that we are borne, even to the point where the government are trying to identify specific, ‘criminal genes’, within our individual makeup to that they can identify potential criminals even in the womb, presumably with the notion of completely eradicating all forms of crime in the future by eradicating all forms of criminal even before they can be born. Smoking is banned from all public places and unhealthy food is banned from our schools There are those that say that the world which could quite justifiably be classed as a, ‘Nanny State’ holds no threat for those who are, ‘Descent law abiding citizens’. I would probably quite whole heartedly agree with these people providing they are prepared to change the word, ‘citizens’, for, ‘robots’. What about our humanity? What about our individuality, what about our

God given free will? Just how much, ‘Life’ must society loose in the name of capturing one hundred more criminal, for saving a few more lives on the roads? For making sure that one extra accident doesn’t occur at work? Will we ever again be able to pass onto our parking ticket that we have paid for onto someone else as a gesture of good will? Or will the greed of the car park owners forever cut this idea from society in the name of making an extra 5% on the day’s takings. There has to be law and that law must be enforced within any society in the interests of the citizens of that society’s safety. This is obvious, and the law in this country is just about as fair and just as in any other country in the world. But please, ’lighten up’, ’get a life’, there has to be a negative element in any society in order for that society to have any sort of character whatsoever. Yes there are criminals in this world, but if we abolish the importance of money in society, then thieves will be less prevalent. Yes, there is sexual molestation, there is inequality, there is greed, and there is laziness. But all these crimes have their own paybacks without us having to interfere with God’s, ’pre-installed justice system too much. Forgive, forget, guide…. but grow up. There will always be victims, you risk your life every time you cross the road; but does that mean that you do not cross the road, ’just in case’. Life is for living and carries with it inherent risks. But we will all die, and our current obsession with living that much longer in a risk free society is in fact destroying our humanity, bit by bit, from behind. Activities such as smoking or drinking should not be banned as society must loosen up and allow, within reason, our children to learn about life, through experience, through living it. Life is for living and we must not be so over enthusiastic to judge others by our standards but rather to learn to forgive those that are weaker than us and pray that their path to understanding comes swiftly. (See Chapter on Forgiveness) However, this does not mean protect our citizens from every eventuality as this would lead to us leading very sheltered and therefore boring lifestyles. Individuality displaying humanity can be encouraged, but individuality that is based on selfishness must be discouraged in society. Evil exists in this world, and there are those that wish to eradicate all evil from the face of the planet. These people are idiots and extremely naive. Firstly, no-one could ever eradicate all evil off this planet, and secondly you should never want to. Evil should be controlled rather that destroyed as evil has its uses. You need evil so that you can understand what is good. You need evil to give meaning to life as it is the interaction of the forces of good and evil, that adds spice to our lives. Of course nobody wants evil or wants it in their lives, but it is essential that it exists in the world or else we would not have a life in which to live; we all might as well die now as there would be no purpose to life. Capital punishment cannot be reintroduced as we have no right to take another person’s life because he does not conform to our way of thought and we have not right to play God in this respect. We must trust that the individual will be judged after his death though incarceration and working for firstly, the individuals good, and secondly societies good is not out of the question. Now you may be much happier than I that these rules are in place, but that is neither here nor there. My point is that when two many rules and regulations are placed on humans, and thenthe result is the loss of their humanity. Their diversity is curbed, resulting in a nation of conforming robots. This of course may be your idea of a perfect society, yours and many others idea of a future utopian society. You may believe that a society where all conform to the majorities’ wishes is a

more balanced society where all can feel safe and secure at home. My argument in this chapter however is that this type of society will suppress our humanity, prevent us from maturing as a species as diversity is required in order to evolve and progress. Of course, you cannot let cold blooded murders run the streets or let paedophiles molest our children without imprisoning them and taking them off our streets. But a balance needs to be struck, we have reached a point when we have enough laws in this country, any more is superfluous to our needs and definitely not in the best interests of our humanity. Unfortunately our politicians still have to justify their jobs. They have to come up with new ideas on how we should raise our children, get everyone working to make our society more affluentand generally work towards this idealistic society that most of us think we need. Our policies aim to make us live longer, behave better and pin us down to conform to the majorities’ideals. Our children are pampered and spoilt, (See Bringing up Children), and we are becoming comfortable and over complacent. Egotistical in that we believe that our democratic way of life is the correct way to live and everyone else is wrong. To consider that everyone must live to these ideals seems to me, ridiculous. Once again, the purpose of this chapter is not to tell you what to think. I am trying to point out that there is reason to believe that the direction in which our society is heading is far from perfect and that we need the anarchist to offer us different alternatives, to offer us ways forward. Our teenagers need to rebel in order to grow and learn from theirmistakes. Most of all, we need to maintain our humanity, even if it costs a few livesbecause we live in a world with a degree of risk. It is only in a world with risk that we become stronger as individuals, learn from our mistakes, experience the contrasting sides of life and learn to adapt and grow as individuals. It is alright that we have an upper limit to the risks we take, but to set the bar too low will cost us our humanity.

Three Types of Intelligence? Being products of nature, no two people, like no two trees or no two rocks are exactly the same. This, ‘natural diversity’, is a fact of life and not one I would readily change as it makes our lives more interesting to both us and to others around us. Natural diversity does not stop at the things around us, however, but is inherent in our very personalities and intellects. It is the intellects and personalities in people that this chapter is concerned with and the observation that I have always noticed three separate and distinct types of intelligence in the people I have encountered in my life. The first is intellectual ability, the second commonsense and the third is what I like to call, ‘intuitive thought’. It has also been my observation that most people have unequal amounts of these three types of intellect. A science professor for example, may be extremely good at academic work and be able to memorize vast amounts of information but lack the ability to use common sense when putting that information into practice. They may have a tendency to be less worldly and may have difficulty applying their knowledge in a practical and balance manner. They can also lack morality in their judgement as they may not be constrained by the principles that someone who is

more intuitively aware is compelled to conform to. Intellectual ability is obviously the type of intelligence recognised by societiesin the West. Our children have their intellectual ability fed, measured and tested by our schools from an early age. In the U.K. our children start school at the age of around four, though in Europe they start at five or six. There is no evidence that our children fare any better in their grades by starting earlier than their European counterparts which indicates that they are losing valuable, childhood years in their early years. We have an insistence in our society to try and drill as much information as we can into our children and so start them learning at an earlier and earlier age. Western societies have a tendency to believe that the level of academic ability that a child achieves has a direct effect on the success of a child when they progress to adulthood. There is of course an element of truth in this belief in a materialistic world such as ours. The level of academic success that an individual achieves leads to a better career as qualifications are the single biggest factor that a person is judged by an employer. In essence, peoples’ academic achievements are a measure of their worth withinWestern societies. Academic ability however, is not the only type of intelligence that someone can possess; many people have equally important abilities but are pigeonholed as underachievers and less valuable members of society from an early age because their abilities are not recognized by the society in which they live. People who have a high degree of commonsense could be described as the more world wise among us. Likely to have a high I.Q. level, and to others may be described as extremely, ‘sharp’, yet paradoxically may also be totally devoid of academic qualifications. These people may become very successful businessmen or women even though they have achieved little academically. These world wise people are able to spot opportunities and be very successful in our materialistic societies despitetheir lack of academic ability. This is because they are worldly, practical and often high achievers that are driven by materialisticvalues. Often egotistical yet clever enough to hide their intellect from others as doing so may, ‘not be the best policy to achieve their aims’. Certainly ones that will lie cheat or steal to achieve worldly aspirations. Someone who is, intuitive may lack common sense and academic ability yet may have boundless ability to love, and be empathic towards others and the world around them. People who are intuitive often have little or no need for money. They are often content with their lot in life and find happiness in whatever surroundings they are in. They are not dependant on money for their happiness and are not trapped in the endless circle of grabbing, which is the burden of the other intellects. For those that money is important, there is never enough money, whether it is to purchase material possessions or whether it is to gain the so called, ‘power’ that money brings. There is never enough, so that happiness is never truly obtainable. The lack of contentment with what they have means that they are often unable to obtain true happiness within themselves. Whilst I have brought up my children, and watched them grow, I have always tried to strive and make the best of what they are and never tried to make them something that they are not. It is not for me to judge which is the most important of the three intelligences, but to build my children the best foundation that I can with whatever that Childs individual abilities are. My hopes for my children primarily lies in the hope that they find happiness, whether that is in material success or success in family life. I am not trying to put down academic ability altogether but merely trying to point out that academic ability is a small part of our psyche and that other forms of intelligence are at least as important. I am sure that you wish your children to be successful in life, but their success may

dependent on your definition of the word, ‘success’. I truly believe that a person’ssuccess cannot be judged by career, social or monetary success. A happy family man that is content with his lot in life is just as an important member of society as any other. The priest may bring much happiness in many other peoples’ lives along with his own, as can the waitress that has a pleasant smile and is willing to listen to others problems and offer helpful and loving advice to them. I am concerned with a society such as ours that only gives accolade to those with academic ability while those with other abilities may remain totally unacknowledged. Two thirds of our children may not be having their individual gifts recognised, encouraged and built upon. We may be failing our children by not allowing them to fulfil their full potential due to our blinkered outlook of life. Americas’ N.A.S.A., on discovering the difficulty of using a pen in zero gravity, spent ten years and millions of dollars developing a pen that could be used in space... The Russians used a pencil. - Compliments of Kamal.

Money: And Is It Truly The Root To All Evil? Money is very important to the people in the richer west countries and to most, money has replaced religion, they have faith in it, believing that it will bring them happiness and power. They believe it will prolong their life and bring them the love and respect of others. We in the west are often judged as individuals as to how rich we are and the quality and quantity of possessions we have around us. Many beautiful young women marry older men in our society simply because they have money and as a direct result, can offer them a better lifestyle. Many have killed or have been killed because of money. The basis of our craving for money is of course greed, constantly craving for more and as a result of this; many peoples’ lives are centred onthe acquisition of money. The majority of people in the west already have what they require to live happy and fulfilled lives, but still they crave more as they believe that those that have larger amounts of money are more happy and contented as they possess something that they crave. Though I have always considered that happiness lies in being content with what you have, no matter what that may be. Whilst money has the ability of making us more comfortable, it rarely brings happiness to those that have it in abundance. This can be confirmed by the study of those that have won the lottery for example, thoughthe results of such findings are not acknowledged by the common majority as they believe those that have turned out to be less happy as a result of their win to be foolish. Those who have acquired large amounts of money are usually never satisfied by the amount that they have. They often spend very little as they fear that, if they do it as it will diminish their resources and, as a result do not do or get anything much from the money they have acquired. My own father was a man that loved money. He loved it for the promise of happiness and power that he was convinced it would bring him. Although he was a loving man, his love of money would usually take precedence over his family unless we were in extreme need. Only then would money become of lesser importance to him. This however, was his saving grace in comparison to many in the west that love money likewise, but, even when it came down to the crunch, would not put their family before their money. My father’s ability of putting a limit to the importance of money allowed his humanity to shine through even though that limit was a little high in my personal opinion. I would feel so sorry that he had become so tempted by the material things of this world. The temptations of which would often blind him to that which was really important. To me, he was a slave to his greed of money, and he would do many things that were dishonest in order to forward his goal of acquiring even more money. The personal advancement that money promises to provide, appeals to other human weaknesses, which are thoseof ego and pride. The idea of acquiring that which others desire is something that appeals to many and so encourages the materialistic outlook to life. Money has also caused me great sorrow after my father died. Unfortunately, because he died leaving a little money, -not even a great deal of money-, the idea of acquiring this money blinded

both my brother and sister. They were prepared to not have a stone put on our parent’s grave, remove their half brother, -who was a minor-, from his private school and even to evict him and his mother from their home weeks after my fathers’ death in order to sell the house. This of course I objected to and had to take the matter to court in order to acquire the majority share of the monies to ensure that I, my son, and little half-brother had their fair share. So we fell out with each other over money. This fact has disappointed me ever since as I love them both dearly. They lied to me and changed ownership of a building into their name behind my back and tried to manipulate me into handing another over to them. (My father had the forethought in life to put all the buildings in my name as he knew of my disinterest in money and knew I could be trusted to, ’Do the right thing’. I would have willing handed over title to the buildings until I found out what they had done behind my back, as I loved and trusted them so much, even though, the love that I felt for them was clearly not been returned by past experience. If it was just me I would have told them to keep the money, but I had to consider my son, who my father and mother wished to have a share as they brought him up, and my half brother who was a minor and needed his interests protecting. As a result, I had little choice but to take a materialistic point of view to the matter. It is a constant source of pain for me, for someone who was once so proud of how close a family he had come from, to have to admit that he has lost his brother and sister over money. In contrast to this country, there are many countries in the world that are known to the West as, ‘Third World Countries’, whose people suffer even today in abject poverty. My family and I visited India which is one of these, ‘Third World’, countries and saw firsthand the reality of the situation there. We were of course aware that we would see a great deal of poverty whilst we were there and arrived in the country with at least three quarters of our luggage capacity containing soft toys, footballs, crayons, colouring books etc. that we would give to the poor children of India, knowing that they had little in the way of toys. Thetoys were merely toys that our children had grown out of and were just stored in the attic. Toys that we would never realistically use and we could never give out in our country because, quite simply, all the children here have everything they want and expect new. Anyway, whilst in India we were treated like kings simply because we had white skin and the people assumed we were rich, which indeed we were in comparison to them. No matter how we were dressed, we were given instant access to the most exclusive shops in Bombay (Mumbai). Though this difference, once or twice became uncomfortable as you could not pass a stall or shop without being hassled to come and see their wares. Beggars followed us down the street asking for money, and although we would have liked to help them all, we could not help everyone, and the number of desperate people seemed never ending. Once or twice we went into shops just to get away from people hassling us for money. Even the hotel staffs werebeing paid by the week an amount that most in the West would refuse to work an hour for. The difference in wealth between our country and these countries I find inexcusable. Though, the rich in this country are rich often because they are constantly, ‘Watching the pennies’, and are constantly grabbing. The majority of the wealthy would not consider giving to those less fortunate than themselves. There are charities of course set up to help these people, and there are many that give generously. Though the people that give generously are often those that can least afford to give much at all. Let me get back to our visit of India though. We set of with the toys and other gifts loaded into the rear of the car and headed for the poor areas that the tourists rarely reached in an effort to

reach those that were most in need. We didn’t have to go that far and initially stopped at a small village and started giving out to the children. This turned out to be a small error in judgement due mainly to our ignorance as the car quickly got swamped and countless hands started reaching into the car and the whole situation was quickly getting out of hand. So we moved on and started giving out to those children that were walking on the road... This strategy proved highly effective and we spent several hours just driving and giving to confused but grateful little faces. Indeed one of the fondest images I have of India was on the return journey after giving out the toys. I saw a young boy of around ten walking in bare feet towards us on the road. On his head he carried a heavy bowl and in his mouth he held the tail of a pink dinosaur. (The rest of the dinosaur was there too…we didn’t just give him the tail). On the way down to Goa our driver had stopped at his home to pick up some clothes for the trip. We had yet to realise that the driver would spend the entire time living and sleeping in the car whilst waiting to drive us wherever and whenever we wanted. Anyway, we couldn’t help but notice that he lived in a very poor area in a very shabby looking block of flats. On our return journey to Mumbai we asked him if we could arrange to meet some families that were in dire financial difficulty. Our plan was to take their details back to the U.K. in order that we might get some families to sponsor some families in India. This he did and we could not help but be taken aback by the poverty that we saw. Each family seemed to be poorer than the next. Out of the eighteen million people living in Bombay, only half the homes have toilet facilities. Our driver, who was considered to be on a good wage, had running water for only half an hour a day and his family lived in the one room. There was no glass in the windows in the entire block. We interview some families in the block, the majority of who were single mothers whose husbands had either died or left them. The driver then took us to what he called the, ‘Slum areas’. We thought we were in the slum areas, but we were wrong. One family we saw had five children living in a single room with nothing in it save a shelf with some clothes on. And to get to the room you had to hop from one side to the other over an open sewer where people could be seen using in the open. Then you had to climb a broken steel staircase with several rungs missing to reach the loft type room entrance. Part of my purpose for visiting India was to see how my family reacted when confronted with these conditions. In the main, I am glad to say that they reacted with extreme generosity and compassion. One thing I did notice about the poor that many in this country would find surprising, was the happiness of the children considering the conditions they were living in and the love that they showed between family members. It may be that this love was born in the roots of necessity. But it was impossible not to notice that the things that these children were prepared to do for their parents and the things the parents were prepared to go through for their children put the love families show to each other in this country to shame. It occurred to me that our wealth was having a negative effect on our children and the love we showed to one another and humanity as a whole. I myself was not free of blame in this respect prior to my visit to India. I was sceptical of giving to charity giving the reasons of:1) Many of the charities fleece money off that which I donate towards administration costs. 2) That many of these countries are ruled by militia who take the donations for themselves and those that really need it never get it. 3) I should look after my own family first because, “Charity begins at home”. 4) That we give when there are specific tragedies that are highlighted by the media, but six months down the line they are back to the original abject poverty they started with.

5) and many more. However, I have since realised that these were just excuses that I used to cover up my selfishness and greed, and the scepticism was just the reasons I used not to give to others less fortunate than myself. The truth of the matter is that we have the means at our disposal to totally eradicate world poverty, but our selfishness and greed prevents us from doing so. One of my relatives is a millionaire and owns several properties in Wimbledon, which is an affluent and therefore expensive area of London. I clearly remember a time when I was staying at my Grandmothers;his accountant had come to talk to him about business. I remember that the account enquired of him what he planned to do with the money as he clearly had enough to retire on. But of course, to him this was a ridiculous statement as he could never have enough. Both he and my grandmother had designed their wills to give the majority share to the children that they thought showed the greatest allegiance to them in life. This of course is a tragedy waiting to happen which became apparent after my grandmother died as it caused splits within the family over money, yet still he did not change his will thinking that he was doing the right thing. Of course his family will split after he dies as they will all consider that they deserve the majority share. Also he is unable to know whether they visit him now in order to secure a, ‘Larger share in his estate’, or whether they visit him to see him. Most will know the old saying that, “If you have a daughter you have one for life, if you have a son you have him ‘til he takes a wife”, or words to that effect. This does not mean that sons do not love their parents as much as daughters, but they tend to focus on their new family more and visit the wife’s parents to try and maintain a peaceful life. Hence when he dies, as what had happened after my grandmother died. This inequality of division in money leads to further division and animosity in the family. Unfortunately, this happens at a time when relationships are already strained following the passing of a family member. As often is the case in this day and age, as soon as anyone dies, the surviving family members all grab what they can from that which is left behind. It is sad that we are such that we as a society seem more interested in what is left than the person that we have lost. Like vultures we pick at the material carcass and our greed overtakes any sense of compassion for other members of the family. It is written that people who are spiritual by nature are often surrounded by those that are materialistic in order to test their resolve. In my case this has sadly turned out to be very true. I have lost so many family members due to their love of money that I grieve almost constantly when I dare to consider just how much I have lost to money. To me the adageof, “Money is the root to all evil”, is a definite truism. As far as I am concerned, once you have enough money to make you comfortable, then you have more than enough, anymore and you and those around you will inevitably begin to suffer the consequences of your greed. Those in this country that are rich get fixated on the acquisition of money and forget about the original goal of using it for pleasure, though it could be said that they are getting pleasure from just collecting it. I suppose what gets me annoyed more than anything, is that in the towns around the country, perfectly good shopping areas are knocked down and other more modern shopping areas are put in their place. The money spent on this and many other things in this country that we don’t really need would solve the poverty in third world countries overnight if only you could get the money to them.

A couple of years ago there was an earthquake in the mountains of Pakistan. This destroyed much of the housing and made many homeless. This was brought to the world’sattention and many hundreds of millions were raised to relieve their suffering. Then, a year laterI heard on the radio, a documentary where a relative of one of these people who had suffered in this tragedy returned to the region. No reconstruction had occurred and the people were still living in abject poverty. The money raised was easily enough, -when taking into account wages and materials in this region-, to rebuild the entire towns and villages and to bring all the villagers out of poverty. Where had the money gone? Well it’s quite simple really, ‘into the hands of the rich. I know from my experience in India, that there is a large chasm between the rich and the poor. The rich using the religious idea that God has chosen to put them where they are and the poor where they are for a reason, and it is not up to them to question, ‘Gods will’ or, ’karma‘. Strangely the poor also accept this philosophy and therefore their position in the hierarchy of Indian society. This means that the poor are relatively accepting and therefore happy with their position in life. However, I cannot help thinking that this philosophy is a philosophy of convenience for the rich. That they must open up their eyes to the suffering of the people around them, to have compassion for them and improve their own karma by doing what they can for them. We in the west also have noexcuse for knowingly allowing the suffering to carry on to our fellow humans. It is the greed of money that stops us and not our inability to do anything about it. I am not entirely cynical in that I do not believe in the philosophy that all fruits of civilization are worthless - to reject society and return to a simple life - a life of ascetic living (Diogenes). I do not believe that the world is fundamentally evil and therefore you should withdraw - this withdrawal leads to a lack of feeling for others - ‘an anti-social doctrine’. I prefer to take a more balanced approach and believe that money should be put lower in the list of our priorities. That we should condition ourselves to allow our humanity to overcome our greed and help our fellow human being and the environment around us by simply becoming less wasteful and not being envious of those that have more than us. In Britain today we pay to park our cars by putting money into machines to allow us to park for a period of time in relation to the amount we pay. We usually pay for a time to cover us for the maximum amount of time we think we will be away to the nearest hour. Naturally we are usually back well before this time. As we have already payed for the time, we will normally ask if someone who has not yet paid would like our ticket. The car park owners realised this and so paid out large amounts of money for machines that required you to put your car registration number in to make the tickets non-transferrable. They saw that they could increase the car parks takings by preventing people passing on their tickets that they had payed for to someone else so that they had to pay and they are, in effect, being payed twice for the rental of the same space. I can understand why they do this, but it is unfortunate, that in this day and age, where humanity is rare in society as it is, this little release of humanity is suppressed. We are prevented from giving to others so that the car park owners can get a couple of extra pounds that they are not really entitled to. The question still remains. Is money the root to all evil? Certainly the, ‘Seven deadly sins’, of

greed, gluttony, lust, wrath, envy, sloth and pride can all be unquestionably linked to money and the acquisition of money. Though it must be said that it is not the money itself but rather the weakness of mankind that makes it evil, just as it is not the gun that kills but the person behind it. It is however, necessary, unless we go back to a system of barter to have a system that makes the exchange of goods easy and viable. Money and capitalism can set man against man;therefore it should be installed in society that money is not in itself important, but he humanity we express in its use. That we are honest in its exchange, that we do not horde that which we do not need when others are in need and we do not see money for more than it is, which is just a tool for exchange and nothing more. Our children must be taught not to judge people by their wealth and society must not look up to the wealthy but rather feel sorry for, and have compassion for those that are trapped in the acquisition of money for it is they that truly suffer in their weakness.

Men Women and Equality When we reach maturity, the relationships we have with the opposite sex can be both complex and emotional. Though of course the basic reasons why these relationships occur in the first place are no different to that of any other organism on earth, ‘namely the natural desire to procreate and reproduce‘, we have, -over the centuries-, created countless ways of camouflaging the simplicity of pairing up with someone else in order to make our relationships more meaningful. In reality, the reasons why we choose a partner are usually far more biology driven then we care to admit. We have a deep rooted desire to make sure that our offspring have the best chance of survival and mating potential possible so that our genes will continue for many generations to come. Our attraction to an individual will primarily be someone who looks healthy and as close to the perfect ideal human that we think we ourselves can attract, so that our offspring have a good chance of being attractive themselves. Secondly, if for example we consider ourselves to be too short, tall, fat, thin, unintelligent or any other physical reason why we do not reach the human ideal, we will be more attracted to someone that compensates for our shortcomings so that our offspring are less likely to carry them into their genes. (Opposites attract) Thirdly we may be attracted to an individual due to their social standing. They may be richer or have a greater social standing than ourselves. An attractive person may pair off with someone with greater social standing in a virtual exchange of mating potential advantages so that the offspring might have both the looks and social standing. We do however have a great ability to love which makes things much more complicated; and coupled with our recent acquisition of over inflated ego’s; Our global mating rituals cover almost every conceivable method of meeting and courting as well as delving in ever deeper depths during sexual activity, divorce and separation. If I covered every type of mating ritual of every race and civilization, then this would not book would soon become as large as a set of encyclopaedias. Luckily I don’t really think this is necessary, as the root of what we do, in whichever society we are born into, is exactly the same. The reasons why men and women think and act the way they do are the same and the reasons why they join and separate are the same. I will therefore centre my explanations on my own experiences as they suffice to explain my points and ideals. My life in the singles scene has been both extensive, (some seventeen years), and interesting as they were years that spanned a transition period in the relationships between women and men. I refer of course to the independence and emancipation of women and the change in roles that resulted as a backlash from those changes. In my youth, when the opposite sex first came to occupy my every waking and sleeping thought, I would often try to comprehend the workings of the female mind with the goal of being more successful with forming relationships with women and in essence, ‘to get more to go to bed with me’. I’m sorry if this sounds a little perverse, but the fact is, that whoever estimated that men think of women 90% of the time, lied, in my experience it was more like 97% of the time. I was a red blooded male and though of little else then the act of copulation for many years. Initially I failed abysmally as I tried to apply male logic to the female way of thinking. It did not occur to me that you cannot work out what makes women happy if they don’t know themselves. Their logic would elude me when they would give you the eye and once you showed any interest in them, they would run the other way. That once sex had occurred, their attitude suddenly

changesto one of commitment. The lists is endless, though sufficeto say that I quickly learnt never to show a women that I was interested in them, to show a lot of self confidence even if my insides were tumbling around, and eventually adapted myself to fit in with their system of thinking. When I was a teenager, the roles of men and women were well defined. My father would go out to work and sometimes go out to the pub in the evening, as he put it, (to stay in touch with the outside world and to drum up business), and my mother would stay at home and look after the children. Although my dads’ excuses to go out to the pub were clearly self serving the roles in the family unit that they both played out were roles that they both accepted and didn’t have any major problems as that was just the way things were in that era. Men were men, women were women, and children were, in the main, reasonably happy. In the past, as the women ran the risk of becoming pregnant, they always had the prerogative of saying yes or no to the advances of male attention. Even though the contraceptive pill had been available since the sixties, by the seventies this prerogative was still afforded women in principle and this right was respected. Women wanted a happy relationship and wanted to settle down and get married to a suitable man and so focused on showing off their femininity. Men on the other hand, all they ever really craved for was sex, though they could not easily get any unless they settled down and got married. A man who had many relationships was admired by others as a, “Stud or womanizer”, whilst if a woman had several relationships she would be looked down upon and called words such as, ‘Tart or Slapper’. Once married, there was a traditional obligation to stick to their word and stay married. When I was young, it was an honour to go out with a women and in general, men considered themselves lucky to have the opportunity to date a women that was similar to themselves in looks and social stature, if they were lucky enough to date a women that would normally be considered to be beyond their reach then they were very proud and honoured for the opportunity. They would boast to their friends as it would give them a better standing with their friends. It was considered normal for a man to pay for the drinks and restaurant bill. I did this willingly for many years as that was, ‘the way you dated‘. Then, as time went on and the roles of men and women changed, women started wanting to pay their half of the bill. On a few occasions, being old fashioned, I insisted on paying. But then I would losethe girl as she considered I was trying to buy sex off her and wasn’t respecting her individuality. This was not the case, but I wasn’t about to lose the sex as well as the money, so I adapted and let them pay if they wanted to. In my era there is a constant battle on the part of women so that they can achieve what they consider to be equality,-as if they were ever not-, I agree that for hundreds of years men have suffered from the illusion that their sex was superior. They were always wrong however and although they were usually in the driving seat in the past, it was often the women who were the back seat drivers, the men often gave in for a peaceful life and the women would then pamper their pride and make them think that they had won. However, the battle of the sexes has only succeeding in, ‘the shoe being on the other foot’, and the women suffering from the same delusion. Women have always been and shall always be as important as men in the, ‘big scheme of things’, but they are not the same and should not be considered the same. Each of the sexes has their strong and weak points, and these points should be embraced and not confronted. Each of the sexes must endeavour to understand the other in a humble way and try to alter their ways so that, - by taking an empathic approach-, they may become a more complete person and more capable of sustaining an ongoing relationship with the opposite sex. Any sensible man or women will tell you that the differences between the sexes stretch way beyond the anatomical differences. Try this, look at your hand from above and open and close

your hand, now without inverting your hand look at the same hand from below and do the same opening and clasping action. Even though you see the same hand, because you are looking at it from different perspectives, you see a completely different picture as to what is happening to your hand. This is not to say that either point of view is correct as both points of view are correct, but that both points of view are incomplete. The only way we can get closer to the real truth is to communicate better with the other viewer to get a more complete picture as to what is really happening to your hand. I read a famous book called, ‘Men are from Mars and women are from Venus’, which helped to enlighten me as to the workings of the female mind, and there have been several publications since. But the major point to all this is that men should not assume that they are correct and believe that women should think like them and visa-versa. It is not in the best interest of society for women to be battling men or men battling women in some vain, selfish attempt to be, ‘top dog’. Our children are suffering with broken homes and relationships that should be loving are turning into a battle of one up man ship. Feminism has resulted in women being far more independent than before and they expect far more from men than they used to. Things that, men, - being slower to adapt to change -, have difficulty in dealing with. Women are far less tolerant of men’s differences and just won’t put up with it. Now women have become more promiscuous, demanding their right to have as many relationships as they like as they now had access to contraceptives that meant they wouldn’t become pregnant. But I can’t help feeling that feminism is going to turn around and bite them in the backside. This is because, men, being men, still look to spread their, ‘Wild Oats”, with as many women as they can; and today they can. Women on the other hand, although they may start out having several boyfriends on the go at the same time the situation soon changes. After a great many boyfriends they begin to realise that these boys are not staying with them. At the end of the day, women still want to have a stable relationship, and they cannot use sex to lure men into a stable relationship as men can get that anywhere. It is not unusual now to find a pretty girl without a boyfriend and a plainer girl to have had no boyfriend at all. Men are not pressured into settling down as they can get the sex, so they often don’t bother and marry much latter. When a man and women first meet, the women will readily sleep with him to satisfy his every need. This soon dies down once she has got her hooks into him as she feels she no longer has to. Men are getting wise to this fact and just changing girlfriends every six months. This way, their mum does all their cooking and ironing and they get more sex than they could ever hope for if they were married. The big mistake that most women make is that they sleep with men when they feel emotionally attached to them, and assume that the men feel likewise. Though men do not think this way, they do not attach emotion to sex at all and do not necessarily feel obligated to the women. In other words, they do not have to care about them to sleep with them. Men are also attracted to a female visually as their system to look for a mate is based initially on looks whilst women will look for emotional and social similarities in their partner. It is only a matter of time until the tables are turned in the nightclubs and the women are asking the men to dance and making the first moves and paying the restaurant bill themselves. It is them that will be honoured to be going out with the men. The problem I really have with all this is that feminism is based on selfishness and although it is fine that, if adults make a mistake then they should suffer for their actions, it is our children that are suffering more. No matter how perfect the society, it is inevitable that mismatched couples will get together that are doomed to split up eventually. This is a fact because our hearts rarely follow any kind of

logic when it comes to choosing a partner. I often feel that people tend to separate too quickly without really giving their relationship a sporting chance to succeed. As soon as the going gets a little tough and uncomfortable, many couples will separate or get divorced. I do not believe this to be the correct form of behaviour however. If a couple have been together but have no children, then they should do the best that they can before they go down the road of separation. Of course if the relationship is superficial, does not go beyond kissing and is not sealed by wedlock then the level of commitment is low and the responsibility for the individual to continue with the commitment is also low. However, if the couple have children, then it becomes a different ball game altogether. They have a responsibility to the well being of the child or children the moment they conceive them. They must therefore hold onto the relationship as long as they can for the sake of the child until their fingertips bleed and their bones break, then and only then, when the continuation of the relationship is clearly impossible to maintain can forgiveness for a separation occur. Obviously there are extenuating circumstances, violence either physical by the man or mental by a women should not be acceptable, or indeed a visa versa. However, the principle still stands and should be abided to with the couple’s best ability. I therefore believe that, if either a man or women believe that their sex is superior to the other, then this is clearly illusory. Both sexes are different and should be accepted as such as well as being equal. Both sexes are as important as one another when it comes to raising children as both points of view will allow the child to have a more balanced upbringing. This constant bickering is not changing the facts of the matter nor ever will. Men and women think the way that they do because it is in their nature and neither is, ‘wrong’, or ‘right’. It is only in our trying to understand the opposite sex that we get in touch with the real truth, as we get in touch with our opposite male or female side. Finally I would like to add that there is no such thing as equality. The balance in both society and in individual relationships is bound to tip from one side to the other. We must allow our love for one another to allow a, ‘buffer zone’ that tolerates this tipping in the interest of long standing relationships and in the interests of our children.

Bringing up Children Instilled into most human beings and embedded in their psyche, just as with almost every other animal upon the face of the earth, is the instinct to both bare children and to raise them in the best way they can; the ability to love them and even the willingness to die for them if necessary. In essence to reproduce and protect their young which isa species global instinct that exists for the sole purpose of sustaining the population of the species in which it inhabits. To our young, this may not necessarily seem to be the case as they are probably more interested in copulating with one another and generally just having a, ‘good time’. It should be understood by them however, that the reason why they want to copulate with one another is to satisfy their natural desire to procreate. The reason why sex seems to be their primary goal is that naturally, it is. Without this desire, the human species would have died out the moment it began along with every other animal species on the planet. Which is why this instinct is more powerful than any other instinct that we have in our makeup? To understand the great power this instinct has over us, we only have to consider the blindingly obvious facts around us in our everyday lives. The success of the sex industry, of every advertisement on television, magazine or any other medium that depicts a physically attractive male, female or child, the leisure industry and so on is rooted in the pull of this powerful desire. The fashion and cosmetic industries, the nightclubs and the cosmetic surgeon, the prostitute and the Social Worker…. There is hardly any industry that is not affected or needs to take into account the pull this instinct has on the human being. As a family man, I not only see the prospect of raising children as important, but next to understanding the universe around us, probably the only thing we can do with our lives that actually means anything in the, ‘big scheme of things‘. Which is probably why I have six children; a number that in this day and age is regarded as an, ‘awful lot’, of children for someone living in the richer west to conceive. I understand that many that read this book will not feel this way, but they should understand that the majority of humans fall into my category and choose to sacrifice themselves for the sake of baring and raising their young. I am therefore speaking to the majority rather than the minority. The majority will at some times naturally wish to settle down and have a family. Unfortunately, due to idealism and selfishness, many relationships do not survive and they get divorced. I believe however, that once children are born into a relationship that they are the responsibility of the couple and they should try and sustain the relationship for as long as they can in the interests of the child or children. Any arguments in the mean time should occur away from earshot of the child or children. Only once every stone has been turned and every avenue of reconciliation has been perused can forgiveness for the failure of the relationship be considered. Anything less than almost complete self sacrifice for your children will be considered as failure on your part. If you believe nothing else in this book, believe that a child needs their father as well as their mother. A father brings a balance into the family that a woman cannot provide due to her nature. Children are growing up without a proper balanced point of view and it tears me apart that this is all happening because of feminism and selfishness on the part of the parents. Of course some of the blame for this failure of our society to see that its children are raised correctly falls squarely

on the shoulders of men. Butthe majority of the blame is on feminism and society. The law is trapped in the past when the women of my mothers’ era were the ones that were the main carers of the children. Now many are more interested in their own enjoyment and the fathers are left homeless, penniless and without the children they love. The swimming pools and parks are packed with single fathers grabbing their right to see their children on weekends. Their ex partner is meanwhile seeing another man. A person that the child may have difficulty accepting as a futureparent. The mother starts poisoning the children’s minds against their father and puts the new boyfriend before the children. The fathers too can become selfish. Sooner or later they take on another partner and the new women in his life will often pressure him to drop the interests of his former family for the interests of her and his new family. All too often the man will accept this and turn his back on his children for the hope of a better relationship. It’s all a very sad affair, and we deserve everything we get when our children grow up with little respect for us or them. This leads to the cycle continuingand their children fail to be able to maintain steady relationships. If we do not stop this cycle, then I do not hold too many hopes for our future. In third world countries it is not unusual to have large families as the mortality rate is so high and people need large families to care for them in their old age. Nature therefore drives them to, ’cover their odds’, and have more of them. This desire to have children at times of human difficulty is not unusual. During wars and at any time when species numbers run low or when living becomes more difficult or dangerous;the birth rate is known to soar. The focus on the individual is lessened as life becomes, ’cheaper’, and instinct kicks in. Women become more ready to bear children and men can always be relied on to play their part.

What defines the sex of a child? There is the question as to what determines the sex of the unborn child. There is of course the scientific fact that the dominant of the two genes responsible for sex determination determines the sex of the child. However, there has also been studies that alter the standard 105 female births to 100 male births ratio has mysteriously altered shortly after wars to a higher percentage, -around 10 percent-, of male births. It has also been shown in a study of parentage in the hierarchy of the evangelical church that people higher in the church hierarchy are more likely to have male children than female. It has also been demonstrated that dominant larger females are more likely to have male children than less dominant smaller females. In certain species of birds such as the blue tit, where we now know that birds can see bands of ultraviolet light and that certain male birds are far more, glowing, and therefore more attractive to the female bird. That these glowing birds are far more likely to father male children than, ‘less attractive’, non glowing bird. This presumably is so that the male birds are more likely to succeed in fathering grandchildren then offspring of less attractive male birds. Though these theories fail to explain just how the mother determines the sex of the child in accordance with the mate and the environment the mother is in. It has been suggested that the testosterone levels in the mother, which rises in times of stress, -whilst it falls in times of stress in the male-, such as in times of war, the male genes are more prone to success in the raised testosterone levels in the mothers womb at war time. This can also account to the dominant females’ higher testosterone levels.

Another factor to take into consideration is that males tend to produce children of the same sex. Two of my uncles for example have produced all female children and one has produce all male. There are exceptions to this of course but I would like to highlight this as a tendency. The last theory I would like to produce on the spiritual line is a theory suggested by the Tibetans. They maintain that when a couple copulate and the insemination is about to take place. The soul that is about to enter the egg and to become the foetuses life force, surveys the souls of the two individuals, chooses which of the two parents it prefers and hence adopts their sex. I have tested this theory on which of the partners in my family I consider to be the, ‘better person’, and I find that the theory holds up very well. Perhaps this would be a theory that someone should take up just to see if a survey can confirm or deny this as factual. The Constitution of a Child My father always maintained that children were solely the product of the parents’ genes as he was inherently materialistic and took the scientific point of view as an all encompassing fact. I have always disagreed with his point of view; obviously I am not denouncing the factual evidence behind genetic science. Quite clearly the advancement of modern science in this area has been quite spectacular in recent years. The production of cloned sheep, in-vitro fertilisation and the mapping of the human genome are some of the advancements that immediately spring to mind, bringing with them an equally spectacular explosion of moral dilemmas in their wake. My argument with my fathers and the scientific communities’opinion is that it appeared to be incomplete. The genetic theory alone does not explain many facts that occur in the natural world as well as in our own species. Genes do not explain the amazingly complex instinct that many animals as well as weexpress. They do not account for behaviour patterns that miraculously appear as if from nowhere and the fact that a Childs personality may differ markedly from either of the natural parents. Genetics alone fails to give us the, ’whole picture’, it is an incomplete explanation and therefore cannot be viewed as the entire truth as a direct result. I maintain that each human being is made up from point of birth of three distinctly separate parts. I am talking of course of a child consisting of the elements of mind, body and soul. Elements that are fused together like the three leaf clover, the three leaves being both an inseparable and essential part of the expression of the whole. Only by accepting that children are made up of these separate units can explain the dilemmas that are failed to be explained by scientific theory. How two children in the same family, and who are brought up virtually identically, can be so different in character? How instinct and behaviour patterns can be transferred from generation to generation. How twins, even when separated at birth, can lead such extraordinarily similar life patterns when they are compared years later etc. It is the simple fact that, the evidence available to us can only ever be truly explained by the existence of a phenomenon beyond our current perception, and for arguments sake the acceptance of a soul’sexistence, that confirms its existence as fact. Evidence emerging in front of us such as this means that it should take a smaller, 'leap of faith-, in order for us to accept the possibility of a soul’s existence. Once we accept the existence of a separate soul that is place within our child at the moment of

conception, we begin to realise that this process is completed without our consent and beyond our control. It is then that we realise that the potential of a child and the onus of responsibility for the child’s potential outcomeis lessened. We can only work with the raw materials that we are given. We begin to realise that, upon the maturity of a child, only half of the child’s potential is realised by its nurture, the other half being reliant on its nature. This however, whilst in theory lessens our responsibility for our child’s outcome, we can never be totally blameless for not making the most of the raw material we are given to raise. I would like to mention a little about healthy eating at this point. It is a common understanding at this time, because scientists have analysed foods into how much fat, carbohydrates, sugar, salt, roughage, energy value and calories etc. that they have decided which food are good for you and which ones are not. It is a common conception that, ‘you are what you eat’, and hence have come up with recommended daily allowances we should take in each day. This has led to schools banning foods which are considered to be unhealthy and many foods considered to be irresponsible to take into your system. My problem with this line of thinking is that the theory does not take into sufficient account that we are all different. That each person’smetabolism is different, our activity levels are all different and therefore our food requirements are all different. Two people can have exactly the same diet and yet there level of fitness can be entirely different. Our bodies do not just tell us if we are hungry or thirsty. They also tell us if we require salt, sugar or any other particular food, a good example is that when a women is pregnant, she may have cravings for very unusual food groups. These cravings are there to let the women know that this food is required to keep both her and the baby healthy and they are ignored at the peril of both. I would certainly say that my own experience is that I have always allowed my children eat what they want, and, ‘touch wood’, I do not think that my children could be described as unhealthy in any way. They are all incredibly strong and one is due to compete in the Paralympics, even though she eats a great deal of chocolate, chips and virtually every other food group that is considered unhealthy for her; in fact I do not really know of anything that she eats that could be described as healthy by today’s understanding. Don’t get me wrong, if my child was severely overweight then I would firstly look at the amount of exercise they are doing, (As many spend much of their time in front of the television or computer etc.), then I would be looking at their diet. I also would say that although, when I was young, I could eat whatever I wanted and not put on an ounce, not that I am older and my metabolism has slowed, this is no longer true. I have to watch my weight like most others of my age. Scientists have recently discovered what they are calling, ‘The Fat Gene’, which backs up my argument that we all need different levels of sustenance. My big problem with the current point of view is that, given that my children are healthy eating what is considered to be unhealthy food as they have been allowed to eat whatever their body has asked them to eat. Under different circumstances, if I listened to scientific advice as the majority of people do and fed my children in accordance with recommended levels. Would I have inadvertently had malnourished my child and are millions of our children been malnourished when they listen to the current, ever changing, lines of advice given to them by the authorities. Mixed up Families, Mixed up Emotions

When I met my partner, she had already two children by her previous marriage and my father could not see how I could see them as my own as clearly, -as far as genes were concerned-, they were not. But I never saw it that way, I just saw it as an opportunity to love and maybe, - if I was lucky –‘be loved back. Today family life is far more complex than it used to be. In the past, a couple were married at a fairly young age;they considered the family interests to be beyond their own personal interests and as a result had a greater tendency to stay with their partner for the duration of the marriage. Divorce was frowned upon by society and so was less likely to occur. Nowadays most families seem to end up splitting up and my situation is not unusual having two step children to care for and raise. In fact I have a half brother that is thirty years younger than I and my son used to change his uncles nappies. I put the situation down to my coming from a family of perverts, though in truth this situation is probably not that unusual. However, I have never regretted the situation and do my best to make the most of it. As a step father, you have to be pretty perfect when bringing up your stepchildren, as there is always that danger of them saying, “You’re not my dad anyway”, or, “You don’t treat me the same as you do your natural children”. I have also always maintained that it is the parents responsibility to give their children the best foundation in life that they can, moulding the best out of their child with whatever raw materials that child is given. One of their children may be academically inclined and another not. One child can be loving and not the others. One sociable and the others shy. We should not judge one with the other as each will have different gifts and shortcomings. One child should not therefore be judged as less fortunate than the other, and even if this is quite clearly the case, it is still not for us to judge, but just to support and guide each child in accordance with their individual needs as best we know how. If you solely judge your child’s success or failure in terms of academic success, then you deservedly are likely to be disappointed. A person’s success is not solely defined by their academic success; they may also be successful in family life or their spiritual lives. They may experience personal happiness, or achieve sporting or artistic success to name but a few. It is the parents’ responsibility and not the state to judge how best they wish to bring up their child as the onus is on them, the state rarely has as much love for the child as they and does not know the child as well as them. Whilst I can appreciate that in the minority of cases this is not true, the parents must still be given the benefit of the doubt and precautions against a state becoming a, ‘Nanny State’, should be avoided. The Evolution of a Child A child is naive about the world when it is born and a parent must guide the child away from dangers and prepare them for life in the real world, (That is to say beyond the protected environment of the family home), by giving the chid an element of self discipline. Just to put to bed the point that some make that, ‘Children are individuals and you do not have the right to in force your opinion on them or verbally or physically abuse them by, for instance, smacking them’. This suggestion I find incredibly naive. A line must be drawn as to the rules that a child should abide by as they mature within the family unit, and if the child breaks those rules then the child must be disciplined for their own good. Family rules that have been agreed upon by the parents must be devised so that lines of appropriate behaviour for the children can be

drawn, disciplinarymeasures to bring the child back over the line when they have crossed it must be measured and appropriate to that child. I am not against smacking a child provided that reasonable and measured force is used and that the child responds well to that type of punishment. Please do not misunderstand me and think that I approve of, ’beating up your child’, but let’sface it, the vast majority of parents that use smacking as a punishment do not use it with the sole purpose of inflicting injury on their children, most, like myself use it as a deterrent in a controlled and systematic way. I would for example, say to my child, “Stop walking in the road or you’ll get run over”, if after this the child refused to obey then I would say, “Stop walking in the road or I’ll give you a smack”, ifthen after this second warning the child refused to comply, then I would smack them. This is preferable to the child being run over and I would argue is a reasonable punishment under circumstances such as these. Some children do not respond to smacking in which case I would use another form of punishment that they do respond to. This could be the withdrawal of privileges, grounding, showing them up in front of their friends or any form of punishment that works with that particular child. Children will naturally, ‘Tow the line’, and ‘Test the water’, as they are growing up, but it is a parents responsibility to maintain control of their children and to ensure that, ‘Love and Justice’, are maintained in the family unit. For the reason I have just stated, you have a responsibility to teach your child right from wrong, and you should use whatever, ‘reasonable’, means you need to achieve this goal. Any reasonable form of punishment is morally acceptable providing it is carried out in a measured and responsible manner. Indeed if you fail to do whatever you need to do in order to maintain and element of discipline in your children, then you have failed as a parent and should seek help from outside in order to correct this failure. You will then absolve yourself of the failure by admitting your inability to maintain control of your child. Any other attitude should be classed as the neglect. Believe me, if the child does not grow up to respect you, then you will lose their love as love and respect go hand in hand and it is difficult to truly love someone you do not respect. This fact is never astrue as with children. So whatever you do and whatever others say, make sure you keep your children behind that line for their and your good. Advice for Fathers Fathers, although it is your duty to make sure that love and justice prevails within the family unit, watch you do not take things too far. Your children that have a natural indifference to how tidy their room is or whether their bedroom light is turned off or not, so you should bear in mind that this is not the end of the world. You may have to pay the extra unnecessary price on the electricity and gas bill for now. But, you can also take solace in the fact that, one day it will be their turn to bare the frustration of their children’s’ indifference. You may have to put up with your parents being cantankerous and awkward, but one day, God willing, it will be your turn to be cantankerous and awkward and you can drive your children round the bend with your difficult ways. ‘What goes around, comes around’, is the old saying that you may smile about after your cross is lifted. I was lucky to be brought up in a close loving family, many a night I could overhear my parents talking about us in bed at night and it was abundantly clear that we were the main focus of their attention. My mother raised us from birth and was always there for us, I scarcely recall a time

when she was not there at any time throughout my childhood. She ran a nursery in my younger years and was a childminder for the rest of my youth for at least four other children, giving her an income that allowed her to always be there for us. This made me realise I was very much loved and made me feel secure, The stability of a loving home is the one thing that every child requires if they are to reach their maximum potential when they reach adulthood. All other factors pale into insignificance beyond these essentials. I was personally fascinated while visiting India, When it soon became clear to me that the poverty stricken family members where often,’closer knit’, to one another than their counterparts in the west. This may be partly due to the fact that they need to be close in order to survive more efficiently. This Tendency is not unique to India but affects most other third world countries. In this country, in the past, when times were harder; families and even whole communities could be described as being, ‘closer’, simply because when times were more difficult, your very survival was reliant on those around you. It has to be said that, for all our money in the west; we have obviously lost a great deal when our children no longer respect and love us. The complacency and independency that parents and the society around them haveinstalled in our children has clearly had a detrimental effect on the love that existed between our family members. Society is promoting individuality in our children, and instilling in them that they are not reliant in those around them. This has the unfortunate effect of installing into them selfishness by pampering their egos'. Not to put too fine a point on it, children in the west are spoilt. They are over protected in schools to a point when the children do not experience any hardship. Right from the beginning they are not aloud to play in water that is too cold, and are sheltered from any extreme in weather. The teachers are told to always teach in a, ‘positive’, way to the extent were they are not aloud to put crosses on their work to indicate that an answer is wrong, but to ring the fault and put the correct answer alongside. They also must not put anything negative in their school report. This of course means that the parents are often left in the dark as to how their child is really progressing. On top of this overprotective attitude to the children, virtual all forms of punitive action has been banned in schools. First the cane went, then lines, then bringing them up in front of the school in assembly. Now they cannot even keep the child back for detention after school unless they have written permission off the parents. There is also a manic fear that any kind of physical contact by teachers or even parents can be construed as physical or sexual abuse, this being especially true for men as the stigma of even the suggestion can be enough to destroy your life even if you are proved to be innocent. Of course, children being children have been quick to grasp that teachers are unable to do anything about their bad behaviour, and use this fact to do as they wish. I am probably not the only parent that has been told by my young child, “You can’t smack me dad or I can report you to Childline”. Unable to allow them the upper hand I have to reply, “Do so then and you’ll end up in care and see if you like it better there, it would give me a lot less work to do!” I would hate for my child to go into care but neither could I allow them to take the upper hand, so I was in a ‘Catch 22’ situation. It is not unusual for the state to take children into care if they do not consider that you as parents are not bringing up your child how they think you should. These children then believe that it is O.K. for their children to end up in care as it was, ‘good enough for them and they did alright’, and so a massive 90% of their offspring end up in care. In fact many teenage children who, quite

naturally, start arguing with their parents see care as an, ‘easy option’. I say naturally as, teenagers have to crave independence or they would all be living at home until they were sixty. Children in the west pretty much have whatever possessions they want and more. I have seen my own children looking through catalogues of toys and saying, “I’ll have one of them, and one of them, and one of them.” They clearly do not, “really”, want them but were merely, ‘choosing their Christmas presents’. When I was young therewas far less money around, and if we asked, ‘Father Christmas’, for a present, then it was by no means taken as read that we would receive that gift. Hence the anticipation was in us in the build up to Christmas and so the magic and spirit of Christmas was strong at that time. Though our children seem to assume that they will get the gifts that they requested to add to the myriad of toys that they already possessed, and therefore there is no anticipation and the magic of Christmas is dulled. Another reason resulting in the loss of Christmas spirit is that the decorations go up earlier and earlier in the retail outlets to encourage purchases, sometimes as early as August in fact. This constant bombardment of, ‘Christmas Joy’; leads to the inevitable numbing of the senses when the big day finally arises. This is not being a, ‘killjoy’, but it is however just plain common sense. For a parent, it can be a very challenging time when your child reaches puberty. They are in a transition period between childhood and adulthood. As a parent you must know when to let go of the reigns and when to pull in. It can be very difficult, and you will be relieved to know that they do grow out of it. But, it does pay to bite your tongue sometimes in the interest of maintaining future relations for your child. Oh, and by the way, if you are about to have a child, please do not take whatever the doctor says as, ‘read’. Each child is different to another and each pregnancy is different to another. There are no given rules, and all the doctors can suggest is an opinion as to his experiences as to what has gone before. They will bring up many, opinions as to what is considered to be best at that time. However, those opinions are likely to change as, ‘new evidence comes to light’, and so please take everything in perspective including his opinion, or else you may regret it. So, my message to fathers is that your role in the family unit is not an envious one, but it is a most fulfilling one if you can complete your work successfully. Teach your children to love one another, teach them to kiss you and one another goodnight as a symbolic sign of affection. Settle all arguments fairly and consistently and your conscience can rest easily. Advice for Mothers Multi tasking mothers usually end up doing the most work within the family unit. They have the ability to do twice the work of a man with half the effort. Coupled with an instinct to have the house the way that they like it, they normally end up doing the majority of the housework. I am not trying to be offensive or sexist when I say this, but merely stating a fact. The purpose of this book is to express my opinion and I have no intention of watching my P’s and Q’s in an attempt to be politically correct. Too much time is wasted in today’s society on such things already so I have no intention of making things worse. You may feel, and you may well be right that I have not had enough experience at being a mother to be qualified to give advice to you. But there again, I am giving advice from a different perspective and therefore may mention something that you have not yet considered. I have notice that many women that I have seen raising children alone tend to be inconsistent when it comes to punishment. They threaten punishments they do not intend or do not have the

inclination to carry out and consistently say things that they do not mean. Generally they tend to be the louder of the parents, and if the man is not strong enough in his convictions, he can easily end up being over ruled by the woman of the household, especially when they submit in order to have a, ‘Peaceful Life’. Mothers should remember that dominating the father is not conducive to a balanced family life. Men see things differently to women, and whilst I am in no way belittling the opinion of women, their opinion is one sided and incomplete. In order for there to be a balance within the family unit, the fathers’opinion must be sought and listened to. Failure to do so will result in an imbalance in the family unit and all will suffer the consequences. If you instinctively know that your man is basically a good one, you can rest assured that the arguments that you have are based on misunderstandings in the main, (See men women and equality). Finally I would like to say a word about how best to bring up an infant. The fifties point of view was to put the child in a room and leave it cry, not to give it too much attention in case it got spoilt and to leave it outside a couple of hours a day, rain wind or shine. Their seemed to be a more balanced approach in the seventies with more cuddles coming into it and letting the mother decide what was the best for her child by abiding with her instinct. Now there is far more of a, do what the child wants kind of attitude with some parents constantly carrying around the child etc. Given the choice between these, I would probably ere towards the seventies approach. Though I think that, experience has shown me, that sometimes children can be spoilt for affection and that it is sometimes necessary to just, ‘let them cry’, once they have been fed, watered and changed and otherwise seem O.K. That does not mean ignore them, but rather that you have to do this sometimes for their own good. Advice for Children In this section, I am talking to the teenagers out there. Mostly because I would think that only a person who has reached their teenage years would even contemplate reading a book such as this, and also that teenager, when passing through that all important transition from childhood into adulthood, need the advice. The primary part of my advice is that you must respect your mother and father. When you reach your teenage years you will no doubt feel that you know best. Almost without exception, this is a misconception on the part of the teenager. There used to be a sign in my place of employment that said, “Hire a teenager whilst they still know everything”. This highlights two facts. The first being that all teenagers have a tendency to think they are correct. This is natural and a well known phenomenon. The second point is that the slogan highlights the fact that, when you mature further, you will realise that you did not know quite as much as you thought you did. Of course you only have my word for this, but if you ask any adult, they will all confirm this to be true out of their own personal experience, and we can’t all be liars with the sole purpose of suppressing your ego. You may well, at this time in your life, have a strong desire to leave home and become an individual. This desire is natural and designed so that you may reach full adulthood. A goal that is difficult to achieve when you live in the protected environment of your own home. What is important is that firstly you recognise this desire as being natural and something that almost everyone experiences, and secondly that this time is also difficult on your parents who are going through their difficult time of coming to terms with the fact that they must let you go. I am not suggesting that you are stupid, but merely that you have not yet had time to gather the wisdom of experience. The wisdom of experience is important in your transition between childhood into adulthood. If you cannottalk to your parents, then try and find another adult that

you feel comfortable talking to. You are not alone in your pain, and with time the pain will subside. It is important that, when it does subside, you still have a home to go to when it is all over.

Death and Our Fear of Death My dad would often say, -in line with that which most materialistic people would consider to be correct-, that the reason why I was interested in the spiritual side of life was that I was afraid of dying and didn’t want to believe that there was nothing after you die, but merely blackness and an end to life. That the root to my faith was born out of my fear of dying and this has led meto an illogical fantasy that gave me a false sense of hope. He believed this to be the case of all who bore a sense of religious conviction. I had always disputed this as I have always felt that the reason that I became interested in religion was that I have always been aware of something beyond that which I could see in front of me. I never remember a time, -especially when I was young, and first began to get interested in all things spiritual-, of ever being afraid of death or even for that matter contemplating my own death. It seemed to be a scenario that was far too distant to be requiring thought at that time. It appears to me that most people spend half their lives fearing death and avoiding getting older. This can be in the form of plastic surgery or extreme health regimes to societies adopting over stringent health and safety policies such as this country currently maintains. Though to those of those who say you are religious and that you believe, I say thatif you truly believe, then why you fear so much. We have a natural instinct that stops us taking risks that we clearly consider to be dangerous to our well being. So, why not leave it like that. Your fear of dying can so easily prevent you from living if you allow it to take hold of your lives. Death is inevitable;it is not so much a question of if but when. You must not worry so much about the quantity of live but the quality of life. If you fear death then you do not believe as you should. Your faith is shallow and you should ask yourself if your faith is sincere or that your own fear is the grounds to your belief. It is very clear in every major religious text, that there is an afterlife and that this afterlife is preferable to the life we currently have. So what is there to fear, why do you think that dying is such a negative fact of life? Now I am not saying that it is good to commit suicide, because it is clear that for whatever reason our souls have been put into our bodies, even if we are not consciously aware of that reason, it is not for us to question but to submit to and live to the best of our ability. If we take our lives prematurely, then although we may consider it our lives to take if we wish, we will not have fulfilled our purpose in life and will have failed. This is why it is considered by those that are spiritually aware, that suicide is a sin. The only possible result of such an act is that we will be reincarnated and have to do it all again until we get it right. By the way, Christians also believed in reincarnation until around the fifteenth century until some idiot in the Catholic Church decided to take it upon himto alter it because his faith was misguided. But whether or not you believe in reincarnation is beside the point, you have been given the task of living this life by those that know what is best for your soul. You will be tested throughout your life with tasks that are designed to take you to the limit of your capability. They are designed to improve your soul and to strengthen the character of your soul. The tasks must be accepted and overcome, your number will up when your number is up and there is nothing that you can do about it or should do about it. It is predestined and to take your, ‘Life into your own hands’, is foolish, it will not help but only hinder your progress. You are not to take your own life or question the tasks that life puts in front of you. You must accept them as what is demanded of you and that you must do you utmost to comply. Beware, you are constantly being watched and monitored and you cannot fool your own soul or cheat your way to the top. It takes hard work to progress just as in life;there is no gain without pain. (See chapter on hardship).

After all to fear death is futile, it comes to us all. Death is often painful, but so is birth and so is life. Do not shy away from pain or hardship but embrace it. Now for those who are not religious I offer the following evidence that you are mistaken, that you may be mistaken about the concept of death. That you should not fear and that it is no quite to terminal as you have been led to believe. This chapter is about death, and the point I’d like to make is that our fear of death stems from the fear of the unknown and the fear of change. Humans hate change and fear it. It is also the thought of losingthe self or ego that scares us, the loosing of our identities that we hold dear is terrifying to us. We are given names to identify us by our parents and following our instinct to make our lives easier and more comfortable by gathering our possessions around us. Even simple things like our passport, driving license and credit cards all contribute to that which we call our identity. And to lose these things that we have gathered all our lives scare us. Though if you are able to bridge the gap of the unknown and realise that death is merely a gate onto the next stage of our existence, then death is not only something not to be feared, but it is actually something to look forward to. It is interesting to note that in past times the most expensive building in a city used to be the cathedral, but now it is the university hospital. This shows the trend in society to try and control our inevitable death by switching our allegiance from our faith in a God to our faith in science. Billions of pounds are spent on our fear of the unknown. Our faith in science has managed to prolong our lives as we are repaired by science and live scientifically healthier lifestyles. However it is debatable whether by allowing us to live longer even though our bodies still go through the same rate of decay, that the quantity of life necessarily improves our quality of life. Fear is an instinct that has been installed in us to keep us alive. It is necessary and natural that we have fear, if we did not, we would take risks that would make our lifecycles smaller to the point that our species, - or any other species for that matter-, may be whipped of the face of the planet simply by being lethargic about danger. Being natural, fear cannot be seen as altogether bad, but, like so many other things in life, when taken to the extreme, it can be also negative to our personal welfare so must be harnessed and controlled. As far as those that are left behind when someone dies. The tears that we cry are ultimately selfish at their root. We cry because we are going to miss the person that we have lost and will nolonger be able to communicate with them. And those that believe in another world know that death is not the end, so surely the tears are not for the one that has passed away. Another reason why people may fear death is that very often that death is associated with pain, even with the myriad of pain killers that the modern medical profession has at their disposal, it is almost inevitable that a degree of pain is going to be experienced at the time of death. But as with the pain of birth, the pain of death is something that often has a, ‘light at the end of the tunnel’, and although the pain may be severe, the pain will carry its own reward. Do not fear death any more than you fear to cross the road if you are partially sighted in case you get run over. If you cross the road enough times then it follows that eventually you will get run over and although fear may make you listen more carefully for traffic, eventually a quiet car will get you. But to not cross the road out of fear is to stop living and life becomes pointless. It is quite natural to fear death, though try to remember that it does not matter so much how long you live your life; but how you live your life that matters in the end...

Life’s Illusion The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the limitations of human perception and the fact that, as science progresses, the illusory nature of what we consider to be reality in the world and universe around us is becoming more and more apparent. Most people are aware that what we see in front of us is not exactly what it seems, though they fail to accept the full implications of this fact and to the extent to which it applies. White light for example is a combination of all the colours of the visible spectrum, the colour we perceive an object to be is reliant on which wavebands of light the object reflects and/or absorbs, (black is obviously the absence of light altogether). This means in effect that anything that you may perceive as, ‘red’, for example is in fact only, ‘red’, because only the red light out of entire white light spectrum is being reflected back to your eye. Beyond the violet of the visible spectrum are the shorter wave forms such as ultra violet light and an example of how we know it is there even though we cannot see it is in the fact that sunlight causes sunburn due to ultraviolet rays. Below the red are the longer waveforms such as infra red and is apparent in the heat from your fire or the music you pick up with your radio. The light that we see is known as, ‘visible light’ and is a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Radio waves, visible light, infra-red rays, heat and X-Rays are all part of this Electromagnetic spectrum and are fundamentally the same thing, (Electromagnetic Radiation), this radiation being a form of energy that spreads out as it goes. The human eye is only capable of detecting electromagnetic waves between 400 - 700nm and the colours of this spectrum run from red to violet. Our perception of what is around us is therefore extremely limited by the inadequacy of our eyes. As far as matter is concerned, we are also aware that everything around us is made up of the elements of the periodic table, and that these elements combine to form molecules; for example, water that contains two particles of hydrogen and one of oxygen. Absolutely everything around us is made up of atoms which consist of a nucleus surrounded by a cloud of electrons. It was Rutherford that bombarded atoms with sub-atomic particles and proved, much to the surprise of mankind, that atoms consist of vast areas of space and that electrons spin around the nucleus and are bound by electrical forces. If we look at these atoms a thousand times closer we would see that the protons and neutrons that make up the nucleus of the atom are in turn made up of even smaller particles of matter whizzing around that are known as, ’quarks’. There are two types of quarks in ordinary matter; these are, ’up’ and ’down’ quarks. These two types of quarks have a different charge to one another. The ’up’ quarks are plus two thirds the electron charge and, ’down’, quark has minus one third of the electron charge. The combined charge of two up quarks and one down quark make up a proton, and two down quarks and one up quark make up a neutron. All this is happening on a microscopic level that is very difficult to comprehend. To give you some idea of the dimensions I am talking about, a million atoms strung along together would only stretchthe breadth of a

human hair. Another example would be that if a nucleus was a football in Trafalgar Square then one electron could be in Surrey somewhere and another could be in France. So, the majority of the space an atom takes up is just that, ‘space‘. The apparent solidity of matter is therefore illusory. Everything, that is to say, ‘all matter‘, consists of vibrating molecules and atoms that, if they could be seen follow an almost rhythmic pattern. These particles combine and divide, creating and destroying one another in a constant flux of change. Earth’s atmosphere is continually bombarded by cosmic rays from outer space, which when considered with everything else going on at a microscopic level, shows just how animate the matter around us really is. This constant flux of change around us is symbolised in religion by such deities as, ‘Shiva the destroyer’. In recent years, our knowledge of the sub-atomic world has expanded considerably. The famous British physicist Paul Dirac declared that the laws of nature could be expressed in reasonably simple and beautiful equations. In 1928 he formulated the equation known as the, ‘Dirac Equation’, that describes the behaviour of electrons. Though this is a beautiful equation, it is strange in that for every question, it gives two answers, one positive and one negative. Though he set out to make a single equation to describe the electron, he found that this could not be done. Using E=MC squared to describe the energy used by an electron; he found that the equation insisted on splitting itself into four equations. Two of these equations could be understood, but the other two suggested that the electron could exist with negative energy. This suggested the existence of a positively charged electron. (Four years later, this theory was confirmed to be true with the discovery of the positron.) Dirac concluded from this that for every electron, there must be an equal and opposite twin. He called this, ‘twin’ the anti-electron and so the concept of the existence of antimatter was born. Science has since produced antimatter in the laboratory and this antimatter is being used today in our hospitals, (e.g. PET scanners). Though anti-matter remains fundamentally mysterious in that there should be far more of it around than we can detect. Anti-matter is not as extraordinary as science fiction programs have led us to believe. For every matter particle there is an anti-matter partner. A partner that is in most respects, identical to its counterpart. It has the same mass, same size and has the same amount of electrical charge. We know that anti-matter is being formed constantly, for example when high energy cosmic rays travel through the atmosphere. We can also make anti-matter particles in particle accelerators. Though the mystery remains why there is more matter in the universe than there is anti-matter. Is that the anti-matter particle has a positive electrical charge, (positron), and the electrons spin in a left-handed corkscrew in normal matter and in a right hand corkscrew in anti-matter. Whatever matter does, anti-matter does the opposite as a sort of, ‘mirror image’. As they both have a positive mass, if they ever meet, they annihilate each other in a burst of energy, (radiation). In a nuclear bomb, only a gram of matter is reacted, (using E=MC squared we know that this process can be reversed). ‘C’ is the speed of light which is 86,000 miles per second, this number being so huge that when you multiply this by even a very small mass, (don’t forget that C is squared), you get that huge mushroom type cloud in the explosion. You don’t have to worry about an antimatter bomb out there because antimatter doesn’t exist and we can only produce anti-matter one atom at a time! So, where has all the anti-matter gone? It is a common belief in scientific circles that before the big bang, there was just energy. The explosion itself produced both matter and anti-matter

particles that immediately began to annihilate one another and became energy again. Though this flies in the laws of nature as it has to be asked why they didn’t annihilate one another before they got started. The truth is that scientists just don’t know. They know that matter must have won the battle, but they don’t know why. The only other explanation is that anti-matter has gone to a place that until now we are unaware of. If there were areas where anti-matter ruled, then at the boundary where anti-matter and matter met, the atoms would be annihilating one another and producing radiation. If this were true, then astronomers would have discovered the evidence, but as yet, no such discovery has been made to support such a hypothesis. It is possible that kayons existed at the beginning of the universe which is a mixture of matter and anti-matter particles. These would contain what is known as, ‘anti-strange quarks’, which are not of this world. Just as there would be a keyon, there would be an anti-kayon that would dance together in the quantum world. This all boils down to the fact that there is a big hole in the understanding of quantum physics in the scientific community and the more scientists delve into out sub-atomic world, the more we can begin to understand what the religious mystics of the past were trying to tell us. We begin to see that there is a unity in everything and in the interaction of all things. That the universe around us came from nothing and will return to nothing, and that we are an integral part of this system. I’m not going to go into too much factual detail in this book, I’ll just sketch over the relevant criteria that proves my point, if you want to know the specific details, then there is countless books, internet etc. that are written by experts on the subject and explain the facts better than I ever could. Suffice to say that, scientist have established as, ‘fact’ that colour is an illusion of our perception as is the notion that matter is, ‘solid’. What you may not know is that, recently it has been discovered that, when we look closely at the protons and neutrons, - that is to say what we believe to be the essence of matter-, these protons and neutrons are themselves made up of spinning particles that make them appear solid (Quarks). The interesting thing is that these sub-atomic particles of matter have duel aspects, that is to say that, depending on how we look at them they can be either particles or waves but have no mass In this sense, mass has a similarity to light which has electromagnetic waves that can appear to be similar to particles. These particle waves were named as Quanta by Einstein and have been accepted as genuine particles even though they travel at the speed of light and have no mass. Therefore it is proved that, at a subatomic level, matter does not exist but has a, ‘Tendency to exist’, and sub-atomic occurrences do not necessarily occur but have a, ‘Tendency to occur’. Electrons that are bound to an atom whirl around the atom at around 600 miles per second, which at the scale that they are, you must realise is breathtakingly fast. Because they are whizzing around so fast they appear as a rigid sphere, though this is obviously an illusion, like the spinning rotors of a helicopter appears to the naked eye as a solid disk. This illusion is again due to the limitations of the human eye. The crux of all this is that matter itself does not contain anything solid but is rather just patterns of energy. It does not seem logical that a particle of matter can also be a wave; nevertheless it is

now known to be a scientific fact. It is a fact that matter itself does not contain, ‘mass’, and could therefore be considered as totally illusory. You may justifiably ask where I am going with all this;well two things really! The first is for you to realise just how much of an illusion the world around us really is, that is to say, ‘everything around you’. The second thing is that for thousands of years, men of a spiritual nature have been saying things such as, ‘The universe is born of nothing and shall return to nothing’, which suggests that they could possibly have had an insight into the true nature of matter. The ideas the mystics wrote have always in the past seemed an illogical paradox that have caused much confusion to many a mystical student. However, now it seems that modern science is proving that ancient mystic may have had substance in many of the paradoxical dilemmas they gave to their students to question their perception of reality. Couple this with the fact that they possibly knew this even before the wheel was invented, then you have to ask how they knew. How they understood the facts about matter that modern science is only now beginning to discover. Not only has science discovered that matter is an illusion, but quantum physics has theorised that there must be ten dimensions that occupy the same space as our dimension. Coincidently, ancient mystic have maintained in such concepts such as, ‘The Tree of Life’, which dates back to the start of the written word or before, that the same amount of dimensions exist in the universe. The Tree of Life suggests that life consists of ten dimensions, only three of which we are aware of, the rest being in the spiritual world. Again science is proving that there may be substance in their theories. That it may indeed possible that there are dimensions that we cannot see. That these dimensions, if the mystics are correct; could be occupied by our souls and the souls of those that no longer occupy bodies. I am only mentioning this as I will be pulling on this information in late chapters when I tackle the question of religion.

It occurs to me that, if an electron explosion occurred at the time of the big bang, then the energy generated by the explosion could have caused the phenomena of electrons spinning from the energy and therefore causing the illusion of matter itself. If this is true then it would mean that matter itself is an illusion, and everything we assume to be true is in fact, false; and that matter did indeed, come from nothing. This has to reasonably suggest the possibility that the spiritual people of the past may have had a far more accurate grip of reality than we gave them credit for. The point of this chapter though is to express that, what is actuallyaround us is far from what we perceive. The colours that we see, that matter that we perceive in the physical world is not what it seems, though we take the physical world around us as real, this is in fact an illusion as it can be perceived that matter itself is in fact a form of energy. If it is not enough that our eyes and other physical senses totally deceive us, but time itself is open to perception as can be seen by the example of a, ‘mouse’s perception of time in the previous chapter.

Descartes searched for something that was, ‘definitely true’, but failed as he found his senses were all subject to delusion. When someone says, ‘I know’, they are only expressing their personal conviction. We only know that we are sentient. Descartes test was to try and find something that could not be disputed. Descartes realised, ‘I think, therefore I am’. This means that whatever is clearly and distinctively conceived is true. A thought is clear if it is so forceful that we cannot help be aware of it. Unfortunately, Descartes could well have been wrong about even this. Unfortunately our illusion of the world around us does not stop there. Our illusion of stability.(See Chapter on Change). The concept thatwe own possessions is not true because our ownership is finite due to our mortality. We believe that we have our relatives, our partners or our children. These relationships are also finite as children grow up and leave home, partners fall out of love with usor are parted from us by death as are other relatives. Once true friends drift on and others lives drift further or closer to ours. Therefore our relationships are also in a state of flux and the most we can say about any relationship or possession is that we, ‘borrow them’, for a finite period of time and never actually own anything or anyone. True Story After a particular viscous forest fire in Australia, the firemen were sifting through the ashes. On top of a mountain, in the middle of no-where, far from any rivers or lakes, they found a frogman; complete with wet suit and aqualung and burnt to a crisp. After investigation they discovered that the man was diving in a lake several miles away when he had been picked up by a helicopter with a large amount of water and dumped on the fire....

Why I think mankind is heading for a fall!

Those of us in the West, have a very comfortable life to say the least. We live in central heated homes with hot and cold running water, electricity and gas. Our larders are full of all the food we could possibly eat, so much food in fact that we often throw food away without a second thought just because it’s a couple of days out of date or we just don‘t like it. We have no end of material possessions in our homes, -most of which we don’t really need-, that we seem to collect around us simply for the pleasure of the purchase. Our lofts and storage areas are full of items that we hardly ever use that we keep, ‘just in case we might need them one day’, or we just can’t be bothered to sell on. If you are anything like me, I forget that I even have half the things I put in the attic. Most people take one or even several holidays a year, which often takesthem abroad to lands requiring air travel. Our armies are strong and have in their arsenal terrible weapons that can obliterate our enemies at a single stroke leaving little need of fear from other countries. We have a myriad of media around us for our personal entertainment including television and radio, V.C.R.’s, D.V.D.’s, cable channels, newspapers, magazines, computers, the internet, mobile telephones and game consoles to name just a few. We travel to work in fuel guzzling, fume emitting motor vehicles which are heated when we are cold and air conditioned when we are hot. We have in them, in car entertainment, electric windows, central locking, satellite navigation, anti-slip devices and heated seats to name but a few that are often fitted as standard, with every control ergonomically placed so that we don‘t have to strain ourselves and reach too far to get at them. Our work places have unions, and we are well paid. We have endless rules and regulations that are placed to protect our well being and ensure the maximum amount of comfort that can be afforded in our place of employment. We are insured against acts of God or even bad luck, and, even if the worst should happen, we have the best free healthcare money can buy, on call, twenty four hours a day. Our streets are littered with all manner of shops with anything we could possibly need and more besides, in an effort to provide for our every whim. They are littered with items we would rarely use or use only once in order to tempt us to purchase even more goods that we don’t really need at all. There are numerous places of entertainment including restaurants, nightclubs, casinos, fairgrounds, exhibition centres, cinemas, leisure centres and bars to name but a few. In short we have moulded our environment to please ourselves and filled it with every conceivable thing we could possibly want. Our children are showered with gifts on birthdays, Christmas and often at times in between. We want for nothing, but still we buy as if through an inherited instinct from our ancestors that had to struggle just to stay alive. This type of lifestyle means that we can only be described as a spoilt and pampered society. Though life in the West has not always been like this; it is only in the last hundred years or so that our standard of living has risen so dramatically. To the young, a hundred years seems an eternity, but to us older folk, a hundred years is not so very long at all. It is only the older folk that will be very aware of the true rate of change in recent years. When I was young, I would ask Father Christmas for a bike for example and not be sure whether or not I would get it. Father Christmas was much poorer then, and present stacks were far more meagre.

Now I watch my own children flick through the shopping catalogue saying, “I’ll have one of them, one of them, one of them…“, then writing the items down on their lists. I remember searching in Bristol, London and Cardiff for one, hard to get gift; wefailed to get the gift, but when Christmas arrived and she opened her presents, she didn’t even realise it was not there. There certainly is not the anticipation as they, ’know’, they are going to get what they want, and there certainly is not the magic in Christmas there once was as a result. Our children like us are spoilt, they know of no hardship because they are overprotected from birth. They are brought up in a highly protected environment and they are ill prepared to adapt to harder times. They are pampered and spend most of their time on computers or games consoles or just, -‘hanging out’ with their piers-; they have little self discipline and barely are required to do anything at all except go to school were they are pampered even more. They are not used to any kind of emotional pressure and I am very concerned whether or not they could cope in more difficult circumstances should they arise. This worries me because everything changes, (See Chapter on Change), itis not, ‘Whether’, or not our lives will change for the worse but rather, ‘When’. It is the rate of change that is in question here as change is a constant in the universe. You could question whether or not the changes that will occur in the near future could be positive rather than negative changes to our personal wellbeing, though looking around me I am not sure how that can happen for much longer. It is hardly surprising that we have become complacent about our lives, we have everything we desire, and weare safe from our enemies and spend billions on our health and welfare. Our disabled and unemployed are adequately cared for and we are all insured. Our homes are worth large amounts of money and our judicial system is, civilised, our police force keeps us protected and we lock away those that may cause us harm. So, what can happen, we are virtually omnipotent and we have no need for God or anyone else for that matter? No one goes hungry and few are homeless in our society. Our church going numbers are dropping daily, and the only church organisations that do reasonably well in terms of numbers are the, ‘new churches’, that put their emphasis on joy and making the church a place that is conducive to the individuals’ happiness and social welfare. The majority of those in the west however are not church goers at all, they are content to have money as their God and are happy for the scientists and experts to make their world an even more comfortable and entertaining place to live. Yet with all this around me, I am concerned for our futures, -a feeling that the majority do not share with me-, as I believe mankind is heading for much harder times. My views on hardship I discussed in a previous chapter; butit is more than that. The lack of hardship in our lives is merely leading to complacency and people with less self discipline and depth of character. My main concerns are based on the knowledge that everything must come to an end, it is a general order of the universe that we are not immune from. Our complacency merely makes us more vulnerable to those changes. There are several reasons why I think more difficult times lay ahead in the near future which are as follows :Firstly that we have already used roughly half of the earth’s supply of oil, -875 billion barrels to date-, and we have around 900 billion barrels left. Currently we use around 27 billion barrels a year which gives us a supply for around 30 or 40 years. With the recent industrialisation of countries such as India and China, the demand is likely to rise still further. 40% of our energy

and 90% of our transport is fuelled by oil. Not only that, but many of the products around us are oil based. These products include our carpets and soft furnishings, all plastics such as you find in your television, VCR, DVD, white electrical goods and car. As the supply of the earth’s oil depletes, so it gets harder to extractout of the ground, (after we reach the peak at around 2010, then production will reduce by about 8% a year). There are of course the heavier oils like Bitumen and oil sands, but these are much harder to extract and so are more labour intensive. With so much of our modern lives dependent on oil, our lifestyle is due to change quite drastically. As oil becomes more and more scarce, it stands to reason that oil will become more expensive. It can be assumed that to a certain extent, we will adapt, and already most large oil companies have vigorous hydrogen programs. Though, if technology does not keep up and meet the world energy demands as our oil supply reduces, it is not inconceivable that possession over remaining mineral rights will be fought over both politically and physically. Already, we have seen large increases in our energy bills;this is as a direct result of oil depletion and is only likely to get worse from now on. More than this though, when you look around your home, all the plastics and even the clothes on your back are oil based and therefore will be affected by the depletion of the earth’sresources. It should be noted that these changes seem inevitable and are likely to occur in your children’s lifetime. My second concern is that there is now a major problem with global warming. A situation that has been entirely caused by man abusing his environment to his own ends without considering that his survival is wholly dependenton the earth’s wellbeing. Global warming is no longer a contention, so I feel confident in saying that this abuse has lead to changes inweather patterns, the melting of ice caps and the threat of rising sea levels. Hurricanes and extremes of weather are now prevalent around the world causing no end of, ‘natural catastrophes. Throughout history, people have complained about; ‘The very hot summers or very cold winters’, making people wonder if the changes in the weather are merely glitches in the weather patterns that naturally occur over time. There seems little doubt however that change is occurring when scientific communities around the world are in agreement on a subject that is not in their best interests to admit. Although I am unusually in agreement with the scientific community that change is occurring, I question their estimates on rate of change in which these changes are likely to occur. From my observations on how things change and how long thing take to change in nature, I notice that when these changes occur, they tend to change at a logarithmic rate. This would mean that the changes in weather would occur at a far faster rate than current scientific estimations are currently predicting. I strongly believe that we have long past the, ‘tipping point’, when we could have repaired any damage that we have done. Although we recycle now and are attempting to get a higher percentage of our energy needs from renewable sources in an attempt to be greener and reduce the rate of change; we will not be able to reduce our, ‘carbon footprint‘, sufficiently. This is mainly due to the fact that we are not alone on this planet. Other up an coming countries want what we have and so are more concerned with progression than the environment, just as we have been in the past. When you take into account the reduction of the worlds energy needs in total; it is far off the point that is required in order to stop the changes occurring. Unfortunately there is virtually no chance the world is likely to be able or willing to make the changes necessary. We therefore have to accept that Global Warming is going to occur and accept that we as a world are responsible. We also have to accept that the Western nations have paid no small part in these events and that the main burden of responsibility lay squarely on our shoulders.

Thirdly, I am concerned that there is current unrest in Middle Eastern countries. People living in this era will not be surprised by this as there always seems to have been unrest in Middle Easterncountries. The people in these countries are far more religious than in the West. Religious ethics are virtually opposite to the materialistic ethics of the West which has the result of making us, ‘infidels’, in their eyes. I do not personally believe that their considerations are totally unfounded from their point of view when reading their Koran. However there are the extremists within their ranks that have taken small parts of their holy texts and translated them in their own minds to meanings that suit their own ends. Instead of reading the Koran in the spirit that it is intended, they have translated the teachings from one of love and peace to hatred and vengeance. Whether or not they are correct in their beliefs however is hardly the main concern here though. These people hate the west and what they stand for and are willing to die for their cause is however important. It is perfectly feasible that these people could someday obtain some of the terrible weapons that man currently possesses and are willing to use them as they are, ‘doing it in God’sname‘, is of great concern. For example, nuclear weapons could be smuggled into major western cities and exploded. An action such of this could also result in western countries carrying out nuclear strikes in retaliation without any real thought as to what would happen to the environment should such a strike be carried out. My fourth concern is that there has been a recent discovery of a type of code hidden in the text of the Christian bible. Part of this code seems to have predicted such events as the Jewish holocaust in the past and it also predicts that our world will come to an end in 2012. This in itself would not normally give me a great deal of concern. However, when I also know that there has also been a similar prediction from the spiritually aware Mayan people that believed the world goes through, ‘ages’, of roughly 4000 years; and that their calendar counts backwards to the end of the current, ‘age’, which more than coincidently ends on December 21st2012 it makes me extremely anxious. Partly I suppose that I do not believe that spirituality is groundless. I have reason to believe that as we have become more materialistic as a people, we have drifted further and further away from spiritualism. As a result people in the past as a whole were a great deal more spiritually adept then they are at present and therefore far more capable of making accurate predictions of their future. This coupled with two predictions of catastrophe two thousand years in the future that coincide exactly defies the odds. Not that the future will change whether or not we accept this coincidence to have basis, but that it coincides with indications in our current environment that suggest catastrophic change. My fifth concern is that although man has been on this earth for several millions of years, it is only in the last hundred years or so that man has really shone, in terms of social and technological progression. I have observed a pattern in life that dictates that just before something comes to an end; it shines very brightly before itsdemise. For example a light bulb will suddenly glow brighter… then the next time you switch it on, it will blow. Another example is that it has been observed that, when someone is very ill, they often seem to get very much better, often convincing the staff and relatives that they are going to recover, then the very next day they pass away. It is very possible that the current, shining of mankind’s history could be a prelude to his demise or at least anindication of a major change in circumstances, a turning point if you like. Man has made massive leaps in science, social structure, standard of living etc. In my own lifetime, there have been massive leapsin progression. There has been the advancement of black and white television into colour. There has also been major advancement of technology within the computer industry. Computers of once, one kilobyte capacity computers have now advanced into several terabyte capacity computers. Mobile phones, game consoles, the internet

and household gadgets to name but a few. All of sudden, man has shinedfor no real apparent reason. Our civilisation may be reaching an end point. That is to say that it is difficult for me to conceive where we go from here in terms of social and technological advancement. Our scientists have satisfied our every whim, and with the exception of us all living in virtual reality pods that take us above and beyond levels of excitement that the world we live in is unable to provide; what else could be next? Our doctors have extended our life expectancies to a point at the brink of that which our bodies can reach before they naturally reach total decay. They have even started messing around with our genes which is effectively treading on natures feet. Whenever something reaches a pinnacle such as this in nature, then it is usually heading for a change if the natural patterns of life are to be obeyed. My sixth concern is a discovery recently made by geologists…. When they study the history of the earth by studying rock strata, they know that any major event throughout history has left a form of, ‘blip’, in the rock sediments which are usually laid in a uniform manner. The ice age for example that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs that ruled the earth for millions of years left such a, blip in the rock sediments. The concern that I have is that the sediments that have recently been left in the rocks, many of which are as a direct result of mans actions, have caused such a blip. So clear is this defining, ‘blip’, those geologists have declared that we have entered a,‘New Age’. The name of this age has not as yet, been decided; but this does not really matter. My point is that geologists have pinpointed this time as a significant point in earth’shistory that indicated major change. Nobody actually knows exactly how long the ice age lasted; but only that it led to major changes in the earth’shistory. Therefore, we cannot really say how long this period of change is going to last or what the results of change will be, but only that major change is occurring. We also have to consider the fact that the amount of oil we have burnt already has cause irreparable damage to our atmosphere. The burning of the same amount of oil again is going to make the problem of climate change even more severe unless it is burnt so slowly that nature has a chance to recover, which is not very likely if we are to be realistic. We could use organic fuels and hydrogen more intensively and harness the power of the sun and wind as well as continuing to use nuclear power. However, I wouldn’t worry about this too much as my personal view as I have said;we have already passed the, ‘point of no return’. There is little doubt in my mind that the world as we know it is going to change dramatically and that this change is likely to occur in the very near future. Now I do not wish to appear like one of these people that jump on a soapbox and declare that, ‘The End of the World is nigh’. I think that the future is something that is extremely difficult to predict. The reasons that I have for believing that trouble lay ahead for the human race is based on a culmination of facts that can be seen as pointers to a turning point in mans history. The current turning point in earth’s history does not necessarily indicate the total eradication of mankind, but almost inevitably indicated extremely testing times for us all. You may ask what the point of me pondering over the future of the earth and mankind if we cannot do anything about it; that it is all academic if it is going to happen no matter what we do. Well, yes it will but as I believe the old saying goes, ‘to be forewarned is to be forearmed’, and so as we have strong evidence to suggest drastic change to our lifestyle in the near future, then we can prepare.

How much you prepare is completely up to you and if you believe my reasoning is sensible and convincing. You need not feel that you should make major changes to your lifestyle on a hunch, especially as we don’t know for sure what changes are likely to occur. But, you could perhaps make sure your home is insulated against extreme weather conditions, you could make sure you have plenty of tin cans stored in case of food shortages. Maybe you would like to open up that old fire place so you can use solid fuel or even get a generator. Whatever you decide to do or not do is up to you; I am only pointing out the way I see things going and leave you make your own decisions.

A True Story The main railway network in Britain is called, ‘British Rail’, and as part of the countries health and safety requirements they had to test the integrity of the train windscreens. In order to test them they borrowed a special gun to fire a chicken at the windscreens. To their surprise the first chicken went straight through the windscreen, straight through the drivers’ seat and buried itself in the wall behind the drivers’ cabin. They sent back the gun with a letter explaining what happened and that it should not have occurred as the windscreen of the train was of the correct specification, so could they re-calibrate the gun. After several days, British Standards returned the gun with a note saying, “Could you try the test again... but this time, defrost the chicken first!”

Religion Is There a Basis For Religion in Reality? There is scarcely a subject that can be discussed that is more contentious than that of religion. The very mention of the word is banned from polite conversation at dinner tables due to its controversy along with politics. Rest assured, myintention whilst writing this chapter is not to, ‘Bible Bash’, you or to try and convince you to believe in any specific religion. I know better than that, because in my youth I tried many times to reason with my father as to the existence of a God. I would follow a logical line of reasoning with him to a point where he would agree with my reasoning all the way through on several occasions, right to the point when I would say, “When you put all this together, it culminates in the fact that there must be a God!” He would reply in phrases such as, “No, there can’t be or your mother would never have been taken away from me”, or, “Your only saying that because, like many others you are afraid of dying”, or “Where is your scientific evidence?” He could not, no matter how he tried and no matter how convincing my arguments, take that final leapof faith. The purpose of this chapter is to try and open your mind to the possibility of the existence of a God;I can take you to that point as I did with my father on many occasions. However, unless you are ready, I am well aware that you will not be able to take that final leap of faith. I am content with this, I would not presume to judge you or blame you in any way for your personal decision to believe or not to believe, any more than I blamed my father for his. I just want to take you to the precipice of belief and leave you there to think on it... The previous chapters in this book are designed to open your mind to other possibilities that call into question, what could be described as, ‘conventional truth’, and to emphasise the myriad of paradoxes that occur in life. To point out that life is not as stable and solid as it seems and, that life is full of, ‘Greys’, rather than, ‘Black and Whites’. That even our most basic assumptions in our physical and emotional lives are fairly groundless when it comes to certainties. This chapter, which is divided into parts due to the large subject matter, attempts to explain why things are not quite what they seem, why these paradoxes occur and why rules such as, ‘the right path is usually the most difficult etc.’ Are true, by way of showing that they have significance if a spiritual world existed. This chapter pulls together this entire book expands on my alternative explanation to the accepted universal reality, by bringing everything together into a global message. The following chapters describe, firstly that all the major religions have common ground, a common wisdom and believe in the same God though worship him in different ways. I will then go onto why science and religion disagree, my theory of how the spiritual world works in relation to the physical world, why people have to suffer etc. Finally I will be highlighting the

principles of prayer in preparation of the next chapter where I will be describing the practicalities of spiritualism in the real world, how you can experience God yourself and how you can use this power in the physical world. This is to show that spirituality is not just theory, but also has practical purposes that can be applied and experienced in the, ‘real world’. In the appendix I have also described the events in my life that have reinforced my intuitive ideas about the existence of a spiritual universe and God. It is important to note at this point that, not only is it impossible to prove the existence of God, but there again it is also impossible to prove the non-existence of God. I shall be trying to show the existence of God on the grounds, ‘that it is impossible to assume otherwise’. To show that it is possible for a God to exist, where and how he could logically exist, and that there is reason to believe that our consciousness will carry on existing after our physical bodies dies. There will, inevitably, at some point, be a shortage of scientific data to prove my case as I am trying to prove the existence of a subject that is not physical in essence,but spiritual. A point will be reached when you need to use your intuitive mind or, ‘souls’ voice’, to allow you to make that final leap of faith. I personally do not have a problem with using my intuitive mind as it is the same mind that tells me that nature is beautiful, it is wrong to kill and that I love my family, and I don’t need scientific evidence to confirm these truths... The Jewish believe that God enters the human situation in the way of a call or voice which can also be described as your soul or conscience. This voice, heard by Abraham led to the rise of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and therefore the spiritual descent from Abraham represents the faith of more than half the people on earth. I have always thought that most people hear this voice, though listen to it to a greater or lesser extent. Most people, unless they are psychotic, know that it is wrong to kill, and most of us know it is wrong tosteal from others; not just because it is against the law, but that their conscience tells them that they should not. It is this voice that I am discussing. A voice that most people have heard, but most ignore when it speaks against their personal interest. Three quarters of the worlds’ population believe in a God though they have numerous different ways they prefer to worship him. Around half of these, -namely Christian, Muslim and Jews-, trace their roots to Abraham. The remaining quarter, -who mainly reside in the West-, do not believe in a God and they are known to resist for two main reasons:Firstly, they may believe that there is insufficient proof that God exists and/or secondly, they do not believe that a merciful God would allow suffering in the world. Hopefully, by the end of this chapter, both these reasons for resistance will be satisfied. Natural religion attempts to prove the existence of God from what we know of the universe. That regarding the world as a whole, holds such a large amount of complexities which are organised with others and to a goal that it is impossible not to be designed as such things cannot happen by chance. This is known under the name of, ‘The Theory of Intelligent Design’, it shows that the chance that a planet could exist that is capable of sustaining life inany form is astronomical. Also that, the odds of molecules joining in the way that they did in order for life to begin is also astronomical. I will not delve into this subject though as there is plenty of information for you to find and read at your leisure, I am merely pointing this subject out as something that may be of interest to you. It is a convincing argument that, if you are in two

minds on the subject, could take you closer to a conclusive decision. Another question that you might ask on this subject is, “Why believe in God”, and,’ do we need such a being in our lives’. History shows that when people don’t believe in God, they believe in other things (e.g. fascism, communism, idolatry, folk or the economic or political system). Therefore if you choose to worship anything less than God and the totality of all, then this idolatry, though it may begin innocently enough will lead to bloodshed on an enormous scale. You of course could point out the countless wars that have occurred over the centuries because of religion, and you would be correct to a point. Though I would point out that none of the five major religions approve of violence in any way in any of their holy texts. It is the social human that believes his tribe to be better than the other and his religion to be better than the other that is at fault and leads to wars and bloodshed. And although you could argue that if religion did not exist, there would be far less bloodshed, I doubt this to be true because if this were true, we would only find something else to kill each other over. At least religion holds a global message of morality and gives us the fear of Gods retribution as a reason to abide with it. Fear that if we do not lead good and peaceful lives, that God will not give us eternal life, which gives us a reason to be moral when morality so often requires us to act against our self interest. The question should also be asked, how many more people could havedied if religion did not exist!

Different Churches, Different Ideas, Same God! The following table shows a very brief breakdown of the five major religions in the world:Buddhist

Christian

Jewish

Islamic

Hindu

How many Gods

Will not contemplate

Name of God

One

One

One

One

God (divided 3 elements)

Same as Christian

Mohammed

Brahman

Deities

Theravada, Mahayana +

Jesus son of Mary

No deity

Jesus, Moses, Abraham

Ram, Shiva, Lakshmi, Hanuman

When started

2,500 yrs

2,100 yrs (roots in Judaism)

3,500 yrs (bronze age, founded by Moses)

1,400 yrs though belief always existed

3,000 yrs+ Indus valley Pakistan

No. world followers

376 million

2 billion

12 million

1 billion

900 million

Principle beliefs

No Personal God, nothing fixed, 4 noble truths

Jesus died on cross to save mankind, and God

God, Jewish chosen people of God

5 pillars

Karma, reincarnation

Place of worship

Home or temple

Church

Synagogue

Mosque

Temple

Path to enlightenme nt

Practice,& development of morality meditation, wisdom Bible

Torah & Old Testament

Qur’an & the Sunnah

Vedas

Holy Texts

I have brought all my children up to be Catholics, which is not to say that I believe the Catholic Church to be better than any other religious denomination, or that I believe that other religions are less significant or contain less truth in them. I brought them up to be Catholic because I was brought up as a Catholic so I knew the Catholic religion better than any other. I also consider the Catholic Church to be an adequate religion to follow that would give my children a sound foundation in which to begin their spiritual journey or path. Christians assume the existence of a divine being identified with Christ and speaks through him, there are Ten Commandments that lay down, ‘the right way to live’. My eldest daughter has shown a keen interest in all things religious which pleases me greatly. Though she chose to change her religion, - as I agreed she could-, on her sixteenth birthday to Evangelical. I believe she did this as the Evangelical church is far more directed towards the youth and therefore delivers its message in a far more enigmatic way than the staid Catholic Church which is bound by tradition. Many of the more successful churches at this time deliver their message in such a way and are therefore automatically more popular with the young in heart and mind than those churches that stand with traditional methods of preaching. By failing to adapt to modern ways of thinking, the Catholic Church has suffered the price of loosing parishioners over recent years. This is a pity

though because the Catholic Church tends to stick to whatever it believes is right despite the changing conviction of Western societies, and because the world has become more materialistic, social attitude has changed to a more liberal attitude which rarely coincides with what is spiritually correct. I feel that the Catholic Church is correct in sticking to its principles, though by doing so has to accept its resulting loss in parishioners. Although society may change, God does not, and to change the truth to appease the masses is clearly wrong. The road to spiritual enlightenment is often a difficult one, and to dress it up with uplifting music and to over emphasise the love and joy part of the path is both misleading and false. Focusing on holytexts rather than the, ‘spirit of the message’, merely plays to the whims and weaknesses of people rather than guiding them correctly. The Evangelical does study the bible well and I would be the first to admit that my daughter knows far more about the theory of the bible than I. She can reel off large quotes from the bible by heart and can name all the books etc. I really do not have the memory capacity to hold such vast amounts of information. Though to my way of thinking and in accordance to my own personal experience, having the knowledge of the bible does not necessarily mean that you have grasped the wisdom of the bible. There is a certain amount of practical experience that you must have before proceeding very far down a spiritual path. My studies into different religions revealed to me that the five major religions have many things in common. As the table shows, all religions believe in the same God though they have different ways of worshipping God. These relatively minor differences have been the roots to many wars between men over the generations, even though none of the religions believe in violence. This Chapter attempts to emphasise the fact that Christians, Jews and Muslims have the same roots, namely that of Abraham. It is therefore not unreasonable to assume that they are worshiping the same God. The differences between the religions are based on how the individual religions decide is the best way of worshiping him and differences of opinion to the meaning of holy texts. The spirit of the texts as translated by the individual religious leaders however are very similar, and the morality, the same. The main reason for disagreement and segregation between these three religions therefore is solely based on human opinion. It appears that all five of the world’s major religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Taoist havecertain things in common. They all believe in one God though these religions do not believe that they are worthy to pray directly to God. Part of religious thought is that you should be humble and therefore you should not feel that you areworthy to talk to God directly. Therefore devotees to these religionstend to pray through deities such as Jesus, Mohammed, and Buddha etc. They all believe that God is divided into several parts and that in order to understand God better then you should understand yourself better. All believed in a, ‘Good’, way of life or consequences would be suffered. That being said, wars have been fought many times in the past over which of the religions hold the truth, even though the likelihood is that all religions worship the same God albeit in different ways and therefore all bare the truth. None of these major religions condones violence; it is the individual practitioner of a faith that believes that his religion contains the truth and is not prepared to accept that another’s religion can as a result. It is true to say that, anyone who believes this way has not understood the message of his or her faith. The situation is ridiculous, it is mans ego that causes these wars and is not the fault any religion

or faith. The Christian, Jewish and Muslim religions have the same roots and havevery similar beliefs. Though Christianity believes that Jesus was the Son of God and the Muslims believe he was just a prophet. Both religions believe he was a great prophet, but because Jesus called God, “My father”, Christians take this statement literally when it could just as well imply that he respected the life form that he was addressing, calling him father as a mark of respect. Muslims believe that Jesus refers to him as, “My Father”, because his soul came from and is part of God and he, like every other man was a child of God. I have never seen anything in the Bible that categorically goes against this idea though it is true that the words suggest that either could be true. The disappearance of the body of Jesus can be explained by the well documented phenomena of, ‘Rainbow Body’, and the description of Jesus dying on the cross could also mean that he had died in the process of carrying out the, ’Kabbalistic Cross’, which was a common meditation technique at this time. I am not saying that this was necessarily the case, only that we are human and fallible, we must, -as we are fallible-, keep an open mind as it is arrogant of any religion to state categorically that it is the sole source of truth, and that their version of the truth is un-reprehensible. Judaism too has its roots in the bible, specifically the first four books that it centres on. It does not suggest at any point that it disbelieves in the other books. What makes the world religious situation even more complex is that each religion has differences in denominations;these denominations are further sub divided into factions. Christianity for example has Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Evangelical, Baptist and born again Christians etc. etc. The list is endless and all imply that other denominations are inferior and that their translation of the bible or holy text is the truth. One of my favourite jokes that highlight this fact is:A man is walking over a bridge and sees a man standing on the bridge railing clearly preparing to jump. Being a good Christian he felt that it was his duty to try and talk him out of it. After the preliminary small talk it transpires that the jumper is a Christian as well. The man says, “What a wonderful coincidence, so am I. Which denomination are you?” The man replies that he is a Baptist. “That’s marvellous so am I. To which the man replies, “Heretic Scum”, and pushes him off. This highlights the ridiculous prejudices that many denominations have against one another. I too have experienced these prejudices that are born out of ignorance. Someone said to me that they did not believe in the Catholic religion as they, pray to Mary. This, as any Catholic is aware is not strictly true as we do not pray, “Too Mary”, but, “Through Mary”, in other words using Mary as a deity to ask her son Jesus to ask God to answer our prayer. This is done this way as that we believe that it is better not to ask God directly as he is so great. It is considered beneficial in all spiritual ways of thinking that one should remain humblewhilst in prayer. The asking of a deity to ask a deity, to ask God is a slightly more humble way of praying than normal. In retrospect it seems advisable to me, to prevent further millions of deaths over religion, religious leaders from around the world should search for common groundrather than focus on their differences. It should be installed into our children whilst they study religion that all

religions worship the same God but in different ways. Perhaps a, ‘Book of God’, could be published and distributed around schools that contain all the major religions holiest scriptures under the same cover. This would allow them to decide for themselves, having been armed with all the different outlooks of different religions, how they wish, and if they wish to worship God. The reduction of conflict would result in a worldwide increase of religion, as religion would not have such diverse side effects that today give it such a bad name. Platonic metaphysics depicts man as mind, body and soul - the soul being a chariot rider being drawn by two horses, (Mind and Body). Mind wants to soar high into the heavenly realm of ideas and contemplate them whilst the body wants to immerse itself in the physical world. Soul is trapped in prison (Body). Whatever harmony the soul manages to accomplish during life, remains after death. Bishop Berkley held that there was no physical word, only ideas. That the natural world is presented to us as a kind of sign language for interpreting God’s mind. That our mind can only influence a small amount of ideas, the rest is influenced by God.

Science- v -Religion Science and Religion have always been at odds with one another. It is true that science, as yet has not come up with any evidence of the existence of either a spiritual world or of a God. I say, “As yet”, for two reasons. The first is that science is continually progressing, and still to find answers for all its questions, it cannot therefore be said that science will never come up with proof for the existence of either. The second reason is that science does not want to find the answers and is not actually looking. Parapsychologists are not deemed to be, ‘real scientists’, by the scientific community and whenever someone comes up with any evidence that contravenes their analyticalthoughts they come down on them like a ton of bricks to prove them wrong. There is plenty of evidence to back up this statement, but the one that springs to mind is that the Guinness Book of Records (1970), records that, Pavel Stepenek was the greatest clairvoyant that when completing an ESP test that involvedguessing random cards under laboratory conditions

reached such a high score, that the likelihood of him guessing by chance would be 1: 112589906824464. This in itself would be quite unusual to say the least, though to me, the truly remarkable thing about this is that the scientists who tested him drew up the conclusion that, “There must be something wrong with the laws of probability”. It was impossible for them to admit that there could be something in ESP, even though the odds were staggering in favour of it. They clearly had expected to disprove the theory and were unable to accept any other explanation. This is because of the simple fact that science focuses on the physical world whilst religion focuses on the spiritual. Religion does not go with science as its materialistic point of view is blinkered from aspiritual viewpoint, and science dislikes religion as it flies in the face of its view of analysis and proof. Although both seek answers for the good of mankind, they both fail abysmally to find common ground. Both viewpoints have theirtruisms, but mans’ tendency to favour one over the other denies him the advantages of the one he ignores. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate, firstly the limitations of science so that you begin to put it into perspective in the grand scheme of things, and secondly to show how science is beginning, unconsciously to prove that there is grounds in the belief of ancient mystics. I would like to point out that we as a society have formed a very strong trust in science. We have a tendency to believe that the only truth is scientific truth and that all else must be false. We seem to miss the point however that science is only around a hundred or so years old, that it is fallible as we are fallible, and that scientific opinion is consistently being updated as we discover more and more, ‘truths’, which will remain true only until science discovers the next, ‘truth’. That current scientific advancement cannot mimic the functions of a common housefly let alone put it in such an imaginative and arguably beautiful package. No machine can reproduce, fly with amazing acrobatic skill, fight, smell, taste, find its own fuel and nourish itself, walk avoid danger and so on let alone stick it all in such a small package. No scientific mind has been able breathe life into something that has died, or made anything, (With the possible exception of the Aston Martin Vantage), as beautiful as a common rabbit. When it comes to technology, then nature has the head start for millions of years, and science, as it is now beginning to admit, is missing a very big piece in the jigsaw puzzle of life. You only have to look out of a plane window to see just how insignificant man and his achievements are. I discussed in my chapter on death that science has proved that nothing in the material world is neither created nor destroyed but rather exist in a different form. It is therefore a fact, according to scientists that the only thing that does not follow this rule, -according to them-, is that when we die our life forced is extinguished. Though the only reason they believe this is that they do not have proof to say otherwise. The lack of proof however, when everything else is not destroyed but exists in a different form, suggests to me that, the chances are, our consciousness is not destroyed, and the reason why we don’t know this is simply because we are not clever enough yet to prove it with our limited technology. Though of course scientists would disagree as their current conceptions of, ’the world order’, are beyond reproach, or at least until they next prove themselves wrong and come up with the next, ‘fact’, that is beyond reproach. I would like to remind the sceptical scientist reader that the idea that you can conclude a theory without direct evidence is not unfamiliar in the world of science. For example, the idea of chemical valances was accepted before the invention of the electron microscope. Once scientists

understood how elements reacted and joined together, conclusions were drawn as to how they must have, ‘hooked up to one another’, as there was sufficient evidence to theorise how elements combined before we could actually see them combine with our own eyes. It is therefore scientifically acceptable to conclude that a theory is correct by way of deductive reasoning and assumption drawn up from conclusions that can be viewed as true because it would be unreasonable to believe otherwise; even if we do not have the facilities to see what is happening with our own eyes. We live in an era where science is king and mysticism has always been associated with things vague, strange and about as far from scientific fact as you can get, and therefore viewed by most in the West as, ‘nonsense’. Rational knowledge is favoured over intuitive wisdom and self worth and segregation over integration, expansion rather than conservation and competition over cooperation etc. Science backs materialism in that recent discoveries suggest that all things may soon be explained. As a result, Biologists have split into vitalists and mechanists. Vitalists maintain that it is necessary to consider things like life-force in order to progress and ultimately explain the behaviour of living things. - Similar in psychology. Physics is moving towards a more empirical conception of science as a hypothetical model of what the world may be like that suffices for predicting the future course of experience, therefore a less pragmatic form of naturalistic theory then the classical forms of materialism. Religious texts are not considered to be, by most in the west to be logical, they are considered to be stories that are foolish and baseless. Often people only think this as they do not fully understand the texts. For example the Bible story that confuses most people isthe story of Adam and Eve. As soon as Darwin brought out his theory of natural selection and science proved that man descended from apes, the story was immediately labelled as, ‘hogwash’, by the modern thinking public. The story of Adam and Eve is written, - as are most Bible stories-, on several different levels. The first level being that of Adam and Eve being the first people on earth, that they lived in the, ‘Garden of Eden’, and were evicted from this paradise when they ate the fruit from the, ‘Tree of Life’. On the second level however, is a completely different story. The Garden of Eden is symbolic of the contentment of pre-historic man when he was, ‘One with nature’. At this time he did not see himself as separate with the rest of nature and had little or no ego, but spent most of his life living a very simple existence. The eating of the apple is symbolic of the beginning of dualism. That is to say that it is symbolic of the point in time when man separated day from night, good from evil, up from down, left from right, mountains from valleys etc. It is at this time when man saw himself as an entity separate from the universe around him, i.e. the birth of the ego. Mysticism dictates that the universe is basically unified and that dualism is an illusion invented by mans ego. This ego or ‘pride’ is what is known as, ‘the original sin’. It is the sin described in the Bible in the story of Adam and Eve. This story is not literally about the first people on earth, but rather depicts that before the birth of ego and the concept of duality, we considered ourselves to be one with nature and were therefore in harmony with nature and therefore content. This is symbolised by the concept of, ’The Garden of Eden’, which is described as ‘Paradise‘. It was at the birth of our egos’ that is symbolised by the eating from the tree of life that our separation of nature occurs and the concept of duality is born. This is symbolised in the bible that we saw ourselves

as, ‘naked’ and covered ourselves with fig leaves. Ego has a tendency to make us see ourselves as infallible and faultless. Being human, this is clearly an illusion, an illusion that leads us to falsely judge people by our own, ‘infallible standards. Often we will not see what we are doing. For example a well meaning person may wish to take a job to, ‘help’, societies prisoners or those considered by society to be socially ineptby explaining to them what they have done wrong against society and how such behaviour is unacceptable. What they may not see is that by the simple statement of, ‘help’, they are prejudging the inmate or individual. Whilst they may mean well, they are not accepting that the individual has had a different upbringing and soul to themselves. The reason why they have been incarcerated or been shunned by society may merely have been a point of law or social concept, and the reason why they carried out the offense, and indeedif they carried out the offence may have been justifiable to them and the, ‘helper’, if they were privy to the full story. Just because society has laid down laws does not mean they are faultless and should not be assumed as infallible or without flaw. This is not to say that the, ‘helper’, is bad or necessarily wrong, but that they have failed to see that their ego has made them judgemental towards others, perhaps wrongly. In essence of the Adam and Evestory symbolises the birth of the human ego, selfishness and everything that is negative about our humanity that harms our souls. In Christianity it is described as the, ‘Original Sin’, that is the sin that we are still paying for even today. Part of this egotism in mankind’s nature is materialised in its love of science. The thought that mankind is somehow above natural law and the world around them. It is mankind’s war with nature in his goal for ultimate control of his surroundings. What is extremely interesting to me though is the fact that, as science progresses, it seems to be coming to the same conclusions regarding the world and universe around them as the ancient mystic reached thousands of years before the birth of science. Although these mystics approached the subject from a completely different angle to the scientists, they were able to accurately describe the universe around them with no scientific instruments whatsoever at their disposal. For example, recently the famous physicist Stephen Hawkins concluded in his book that the laws of the universe could be applied to the laws of Quantum Physics. That is to say that the laws of the very big could be applied to the very small. When I first heard this, it occurred to me that this was common knowledge in the religious communities. That in order to know God, you must first know yourself. The macrocosm and microcosm are similar. The way that the tree of life which is symbolic of the universe is superimposed onto a diagram of a man etc. Are common ideas in religious texts around the world. Further, modern string theory has concluded that there must be ten dimensions in the universe in order to answer many of the unknowns in the universe. The exact number of dimensions depicted in the tree of life drawn up thousands of years ago. The same number of dimensions indicated in the symbolic candles in Exodus and in various other religions and holy texts. It is interesting to note that the scientific community is ready to accept the theory of Quantum physicists, even though their theories describe dimensions that we may never be able to detect directly, though are unable to accept the theories of the mystics when they describe the same

dimensions which are also invisible to us. Quantum physics is arriving at the conclusion that matter is made of energy that is essentially mass less and mostly made up of just space. This idea is reflected in the paradoxes of the holy men of the past who were insistent that the world came from nothing and will return to nothing. The paradoxes of the holy men that baffled their students in the past, ironically is being proven to be true by the very scientists that are their biggest critics. Although science and religion have completely different points of view, a new paradox is emerging that religion may well end up being authenticated by the very ideals that set out to destroy it. There was a young man, who said, ‘God’, I find it exceedingly odd That this tree should continue to be When there’s no one about in the Quad Reply:Dear Sir, Your astonishments odd: I am always about in the Quad And that’s why the tree Will continue to be Since observed by Yours Faithfully God (Ronald Knox)

How About This for a Theory! In the beginning there was nothing, well nothing save electrons, which to all intents and purposes could be classed as nothing as they are not ‘matter‘ but ‘energy wave particles‘. Then two electrons collided with one another in a, ’freak’ occurrence causing an, “Electron explosion”, which like an atomic explosion, produced a domino effect with other neighbouring electrons, except that it was hundreds of thousands of times more powerful, the magnitude of which was directly proportional to the difference in size between atoms and electrons. This explosion generated matter in all its forms, and something else even more important. The explosion or, “Big Bang”, as it is sometimes called, also caused a splitting of the universe into ten dimensions. Across these dimensions a consciousness was born; very simple at first, but over time, this consciousness became more and more self aware and, ‘intelligent’ over a period of millennia. This being needed to reproduce and began looking for a suitable site to rear its young. As none were entirely suitable and it had now acquired the power to manipulate matter by willpower alone, this being began to form what we now call, ‘Earth’ through the manipulation of matter with its will alone. This being then began to place droplets of its own essence onto earth which we can now be accurately described as a, ‘Nursery’ for the being we now know as God. At first these droplets inhabited simple life forms such as single cell creatures like amoebas spirogyra etc. Upon the death each life form that the spirit inhabited, the spirit was then

transferred into a more and more complex life forms in accordance to the spirits state of maturity. (The maturity of a soul being in accordance with its speed of vibration or oscillation) This is the essence of the spiritual theory known as re-incarnation and can happen many hundreds of times before the essence will have developed sufficiently to be able to stay permanently with the parent being or God. That is to say that, only when a spirit has reach a sufficient point in its maturity, does a spirit graduate from nursery and is allowed to stay home permanently with the parent being or God in heaven i.e. the spirit world. By the time an essence has reached the stage where it has been placed in a human shell several times, (which is the most complex organism that a spirit can be placed).it becomes aware of its true nature and that of its true parentage, and will be aware of the oneness of the universe. Only when a spirit becomes truly, ‘aware’, of its situation can it be described as mature in the view of the parent being or God. (The soul could be described as a droplet of water from the ocean of God. The physical egos making the soul believe it is a separate entity when it is in fact only a part of the one). This is where religion begins, and the soulsthat had reached a high state of awareness were known as holy men or women in the past. That is to say that the more mature a soul is, the more likely it is to be aware of the existence of a spiritual world. These, ‘holy’, men and women are aware that there is something else, and do not require scientific proof to back their convictions as they already know the truth and have total faith in their conviction. Most people on this planet have not reached this high state of maturity as when they have reached this point they do not return provided they do not specifically ask to do so in order to help other less mature souls. Most souls that live in the present blame their disbelief on the lack of, ‘scientific proof’, as they prefer to believe in what is in front of their eyes. What is in front of their eyes is totally illusory and designed to constantly test the spirits that inhabit the life forms of this planet. The illusion is theresimply to provide a suitable environment in which souls may mature. It is designed to allow the soul to suffer, build character and develop. It is an environment that is constantly watched by the spirits that inhabit the other dimensions that are invisible to us and yet occupy the same space as us. These spirits watch the progression of souls or spiritsand place obstacles in the path of the earthbound individuals in order to assist in the maturity of the person’s spirit. These obstacles are placed in accordance with the spirits maturity and, ‘test’, the individual to the limit of its ability. This is why committing suicide is considered a sin in religious texts as the individual has not fulfilled the tasks they need to achieve in order to reach a more advanced stage in their maturity. Occasionally the spirits will consider allowing a child to be born with a disability or for children to die young. This is always done with the individual souls’ best interest at heart and to test the resolve of the parents and others around them. The suffering allows the soul to mature and the compassion that the parents feel is there to test their resolve etc. If a child or adult dies young, then they die for a reason, sometimes that reason is not immediately apparent, but it is there as God is merciful. Death is merely a gate into the spiritual world as birth is a gate into the material world. This gate is often a painful gate to pass, but unfortunately, all must pass through this gate many times in order to reach full maturity. Individuals must not allow this fact to distract them from the fact that although the suffering may be Gods’ will, they have a duty to answer their humanitarian intuition and to endeavour tirelessly to ease the suffering of these people, to pity and empathise with them, and not to use this knowledge as an excuse for apathy.

Eventually the universe must go full circle and at least in the material sense return to nothing. This is because, although the spinning energy waves that form matter are not slowed down with gravity, as time goes by they naturally collide and are affected by the energy fields of neighbouring atoms. All matter will therefore eventually slow and disintegrate, though thankfully not for many billions of years. It is not clear to me whether this will affect the spiritual world; of this I cannot be sure. But I do know that the spiritual world will not be affected as much as it does not consist of matter and exists over all ten dimensions. It may well be that the spiritual world could exist beyond the destruction of the spiritual universe, though I cannot be sure of this so you can only take this as supposition. It is a consideration that often confounds me in that, although I would not like the idea that the spiritual world could never end. In a universe that ceases to exist it is difficult to comprehend where the spiritual world could exist. Ultimately I have to admit to be unable to answer this question definitively, so I leave you with a question to answer yourselves... _____________________________________________________________________________ _ All that we perceive is an idea;ideas can only belong to minds and cannot have an existence independent of minds. Since the ideas I am aware of do not depend on my wishes, these ideas must have a kind of existence apart from my mind. But ideas can only belong to some mind. If I am not responsible for the ideas I perceive, and cannot invent and control my ideas at will, then there must be some other mind that possesses, controls and maintains the ideas. So, there must be a universal mind or God in whose thoughts these ideas are located. So, things exist in the mind of God and do not leap in and out of existence when I experience them. - Bishop George Berkeley We define our ideas as, “real” - though they are only ideas we have of them. The information we perceive is an accurate interpretation of Gods’ mind. It is every person’s responsibility to advance into a higher state, each persons’ advancement lies on a different path, though there are certain rules that are common to all routes.

Reincarnation I would like to at least touch on this subject as it matches very neatly with my theory on how and why we are here. Although Christians no longer believe in reincarnation, this was not always the case. Until the Church Reformation, Christians believed in reincarnation and the idea is by no means of unheard of in any of the five major religions. There is still evidence to be found in the bible of the belief in reincarnation that they seemed to have left in after the reformation. Possible evidence of this phenomenon can be seen in the two thousand five hundred incidents in the past forty years of children that have claimed to have had a previous life. Most of these children express memories from a very young age, though these memories tend to fade when they are about six or seven years old. What is interesting about them is that when their claims are looked into, they are quite often proved to contain a significant amount of fact. Their memories are usually consistent, as is their related experience of dying and falling down a hole or portal into their new mother’s womb. There are many stories of these children and I encourage those that are interested to look some of them up. In Tibetan religion, the soul of a holy man is, ‘followed’, after death to the body to which the soul is reincarnated.

Fundamentalism in Religion and the Damage Caused

Fundamentalistsin any religion can be very dangerous. This is because the extremists have a tendency to be inflexible in their ideals. They tend to take small parts of holy texts and translate them in a way that complies with their ideals rather than letting the texts guide their ideals. As any human has inherent weaknesses due to his imperfection, the manipulation of holy text to fulfill his ideals is clearly wrong, and they are not putting the quotes into the global message of Islam, Christianity or whatever religious denomination to which they say they are part. You must not listen to the vocal and visible minority, but the silent majority who say that tolerance is not enough. In Islam, the deep teaching of this religion is respect, and the big difference between tolerance and respect is that you can tolerate me without knowing me, but you can’t respect me without knowing me, so it is knowledge and respect of others and their religious beliefs that is important. Every religion believes their holy texts to be literally the word of God, but this does not mean that we have to read it literally, it’snot the same. It is the word of God sent to a human being, a prophet, in a specific historical context. From the very beginning of any holy text,there are verses that you cannot understand unless you put them into context of the time it was written. There are some things that will never change such as the oneness of God, the pillars of the Islamic faith and the practices of prayer. But every holy text has manyverses dealing with the specific historic situation at the time of writing. You cannot take these and read them in an absolute way. I ask every religious person, no matter which religious denomination he belongs to, not to read verses in a dogmatic way but try and understand them in terms of the global message. Mohammed was a messenger, and no Muslim would say anything else, neither would any Buddhist say anything else of Buddha. Unfortunately, Christianity puts Jesus on a higher footing which might not necessarily be true and may be the direct cause of many deaths. The relationship between me as a believer and Jesusis one of love. When we know what he did, know what he said, we love who he was. This is why I pray to him and through him. We have a relationship with someone we love, and this is why we have to be very respectful towards who he was and what he came with which is a message for mankind. Muslims surrender their life to Islam, Christians to Christianity, Jews to Judaism etc.and their life becomes Gods life. The religion directs the way a parishioner lives in every respect. When someone passes shouldsay that they belonged to him and are returning to him. We should seek to be at peace with ourselves and with God. To be at peace with ourselves we have to do everything the right way. If you are constant with your values and ethics, it means that your values and ethics are everywhere in your life. The problem with extremist is that they depict themselves as holier men then their neighbor when in fact; by taking texts too literally they are betraying the very object of the texts. We need to meet and have an open debate on how we can integrate the texts into our lives in sensible ways.

Why Does God Let Suffering Happen in the World? This is a difficult question to answer unless you hold some form of belief in your heart. Though I will try and explain the best way I can. Consider that,when your children are growing up you will have reason or have had reason to chastise them. Sometimes this reason is straightforward such as when you say to them something like, “get out of the road or you’ll get run over”. But sometimes the reason is not so easy to explain and sometimes the reason will only be known to the child on the onset of its maturity. This is because;sometimes it is only through the experience in life that can show us why we had gone wrong and why our parents chastised us all those years ago. As far as the parent is concerned, though the child lacks experience, we still must punish them, in their own best interests even though they may not be fully aware of why they are being punished. For example, you may deny them the extra toy as you do not wish them to get spoilt etc. The point is that we as people, even though we are adults in the physical world are not adults in the spiritual world. That sometimes, in the course of our souls maturing on this earth, it is necessary and essential, - for our own good to experience hardship and suffering occasionally-, this suffering is there for our own good even though we may not see it at the time. In the chapter on hardship I described how hardship can improve our character. Our character is our personality or soul, and it is this soul that is benefiting from the hardship and suffering. This does not mean that someone who is being tortured is more likely to get to heaven as the suffering is caused by men in the physical world and is not under the control of the spiritual world. Neither does it mean that self inflicted pain will benefit the individual soul. But it does mean that controlled hardship such as when and individual fasts or does something against their own personal comfort such as segregating themselves from society or taking a vow of silence can be helpful as all dissociate the individual from the physical world and promotes the individuals mind on the spiritual world. At some point in your life,the chances are that you have lost someone that you have loved. The reason that you will not see this as positive is, more often than not, that you see death as the ultimate end and no existence beyond. Consider however, that you werewrong, that there was a life after death. In this case, then death is not asbad as it is merely a gate into another dimension. The soul of the one that you have lost is only lost to you and is not final. You can then see the possibility that this soul may have died for a reason and is on a journey, perhaps through many lifetimes, in order to become a more mature and complete soul. Striving to reach a point in its maturity; when it no longer needs to return to this physical world, and will stay with the great soul of the universe, for all eternity. That the tears that we cry for a lost loved oneare for us and our personal loss and not for the one we have lost who has moved on to the next stage of their advancement. That in between lives they will remember us and their love for us will never die anymore then our love for them will ever die. Hitler ultimately believed in race rather than in God. Idolatry happens when instead of allowing God to make you in his image that you make him in your image. When Abraham was asked to sacrifice his own child, we know that archaeologists have proved, that at this time, this abominable sacrifice was the kind of thing that Gods were expected to ask of you; the crucial point of the story is that, at the critical moment God said, “Stop! I’m not that kind of God. Therefore showing that unlike the Gods that went before, he was a merciful God that did not

demand sacrifices, that we must cherish life and our children. Because God is merciful we can rest assured that the suffering that we go through is not pointless. Just as when our parents chastise us and punish us for deeds that we do not necessarily understand the wrong in, when God allows us to suffer, the suffering is there for a reason, even if we don’t know what it is yet. Faith lies in the question, if you didn’t’t have faith, then you wouldn’t’t ask the question... It is faith of a law abiding god that allows you to question the morality of the world. God said, “If you knew why this suffering happens you would live with it, you would accept it as the will of God, I want you to go out there and heal the sick, feed the hungry, tend to those that are injured, and I want you to be my partners in the work of creation”. So your religionis in the question and not in the answer. God is challenging us by saying that he will not answer the question of why there is suffering, that we have to live with it. He says that if a baby is ill, then we may give it medicine even though we know that it may cry all the more in the short term for the good of the baby in the long term. Its suffering in the short term is justifiable by knowing that the suffering is for the good in the long term. When asked where was God in Auschwitz, he says that he was in the words, “Thou shalt not kill’, ‘you shall not oppress the stranger’, ‘your brothers blood cries to me from the ground’, he said these words to the German people only they would not listen. I cannot let human beings off the hook by blaming God. I pray because my prayer is my conversation with the voice within that is also the voice beyond. Jews pray directly to God instead of through a deity. When asked why God doesn’t’t intervene when people are suffering he said, “When I found myself in a difficult situation and my father did not intervene, I did not think that my father did not exist. Many years later I realizedthat he was teaching me that there are certain things I just had to learn for myself. He says that science is really good at describing things but is not at all good at describing people. When people who do not believe meet people who believe it is like someone who is tone deaf who meets people that are dancing and can’t quite figure out why. If your child has no interest in classical music, you might introduce him or her to 1812 overture, then when they liked that he developed from there once they find an interest in the subject. God gives us life and the circumstances that we can grow toward him. On the blame culture when God told them not to eat the fruit and they did, Adam said it was Eve and Eve said it was the serpent. Blame is what makes you lose paradise. There are limits between what we understand and what God wants, and then we are asked to deal with our reality as much as possible to the limit of what is possible. We were born innocent and then we became responsible and we have to deal with our own responsibility. According to the Islamic tradition, all children that die young are going to paradise because they are innocent. Suffering is difficult to accept intellectually, but this is life, we are going to suffer because at the end of the day life is suffering. I don’t know you; I don’t know why God even wanted me to be here. I don’t know why he sometimes makes me happy or sad, but this is life. The only thing I know is that I have a responsibility to try and do my best with what I have to face. There is a verse in the Quran’and, ‘He creates death and life in order to put you in a test,’ it’s to test you, this is a test. You are a test for me because you are not me, you are different from me. So our encounter is full of potential happiness, and a possible threat, a possible sadness and possible difficulties, because diversity is a gift and a problem at the same time. Suffering is a gift and a problem. Sometimes out of our suffering we become better, we become wiser, we become more knowledgeable about life. You have to deal with suffering in the best way you know. A doctor or social worker will do

their best to make them suffer less. Do not interpret what I am saying as passivity or fatalism, every human being is a reformer, you reform yourself and your family and the society in which you live. Do whatever you can though remain humble because you cannot change everything and you have to accept the reality of life. If God performed big flashy miracles then we wouldn’t need faith. God tests those he loves the most. So if you seem to be tested more than most, then see this as a blessing and not an injustice. Because suffering is part of life and is necessary, it is best that instead of us shying away from all suffering, we should embrace it, accept it, because it only through the process of hardship that we shall advance. None of us know exactly why we are here, but what we can know is that we are here for a reason, that the people around us are here for a reason, and we never know which of the many people we encounter is meeting us for a reason. If we shun anyone, we could be missing out on the lesson. I am sorry if this explanation seems inadequate to you, but you should understand that some things cannot be known in the physical world as knowing would jeopardise our advancement.

The Culmination of the Evidence Recently a body was discovered of an ancient ancestor of ours, frozen in ice high up on a mountain. The body was proved to be over one and a half million years old though very well preserved. On studying the body they found dots that were tattooed onto his skin, (I believe on

his ankle though I’m not sure), anyway, it turns out that these dots were precisely placed at points that are used today in the ancient art of acupuncture to ease the suffering of arthritis. On further investigation it was discovered, by bone evidence that this man did indeed suffer from arthritis and it was presumed likely that these marks were tattooed onto him by an ancient healer so that the man could administer his own pain relief by himself on his travels. The body demonstrates that acupuncture dates back at least one and a half million years and illustrates that man at that time, free from the distractions we have today, was very much in tune with nature and his body in order to know and map the energy lines of, ‘chi’, that are used in Chinese medicine today. The intuitive mind of men in the past was as important as the academic mind of men of the present day and was revered by the common man in a similar way. The question is, did he know something that we have forgotten. Was there a basis in reality to his beliefs or was he just a primitive confidence trickster that told people what they wanted to hear in order to control them with his lies. I believe Ihave at least demonstrated that the world around you is not quite how it seems. Now all I have to do is provide the proof of the existence of God and a spiritual world. It is simpler than it seems, my proof lies not in what we know, but what we don’t know. Those gaps in scientific knowledge are satisfied by the acceptance of a spiritual world. The unexplained in our knowledge of twins that though separated still maintain a connection, the instincts that animals demonstratewhen they have not seen their parents and cannot be explained by genes alone. The difference between something that is alive and something that is dead is explained by the existence of a soul. The reason why ten siblings can have different characters, even twins can be totally opposite in personality. Ghosts, psychics, near death experiences, telekinesis, precognition, the intuitive mind, out of body experience, rainbow body, chi, spiritual healing and everything, yes everything that science cannot find the missing pieces to can be explained by the acceptance of a spiritual world. In scientific circles, the fact that this missing piece of the jig-saw fits so exactlywould be described as proof. In the legal system it would be described as, ‘Overwhelming circumstantial evidence’. Whatever way you look at it, the culmination of the facts that I have shown proves that there is evidence of a spiritual world. Evidence that I believe proves that we should not dismiss the thoughts of the ancient mystic. Evidence that shows we may have strayed drastically from the right path. These facts do not have to harm science and scientific thought. Science could benefit greatly from the acceptance of a spiritual world as it could givescience a new direction. A completely different direction which can give science new goals and new insights. It can instill in science, morality; to move ahead with different values. The acceptance can lead to science making truly great discoveries. It can give science the missing answers it seeks and satisfy its inquisitive nature for many years to come.

The Importance of Humbleness and Prayer There are basic rules of prayer that many people, even those who have been practicing religion for many years fail to understand. The first is that you should never pray for anything for yourself, this is because as soon as you ask for something for yourself, then you are being selfish; the prayer is therefore tainted and therefore goes unheard.

The second is that whenever you pray, you must always pray from a humbled position. The reason behind this is as follows;Most religions require that you pray to God through a deity. In the Catholic religion, this would be Mary or Jesus, (If you confess your sins in the confessional then the go between is the priest). In other Christian religions it is Jesus. In Islam it is Mohammed. In Buddhism it is Buddha and in the Hindu religion there are too numerous to mention. (The odd one out being Judaism who believe they are the chosen people and so presumably think they have a right to talk directly to him). Apart from Judaism, religions require you to pray through a deity for a reason and that reason is that you should never talk to God as an equal, (directly), but take a humbling position by talking through someone who you believe to be more holy than you. By this way you are asking the deity to speak to God on your behalf, and therefore God is more likely to listen. There is further evidence of this in the mass of the Catholic religion when the words you recite before communion are, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed”. I personally repeat these words to myself several times, and really mean them before I start to pray, and find them extremely useful in getting me in a humble state of mind in preparation. What you are all asking at this point no doubt is, does prayer really work and how does it work. Well, I’ve noticed that on Bank Holidays it is often sunny in relation to other weekend surrounding these days. I often wonder whether, with so many people hoping it be sunny on those days, then it becomes so. So many people’s souls wishing for the same thing has an effect on the spiritual ether and makes the wished event more likely to occur. There is more on this subject in the following chapter. I have put, ‘the practical side of religion’, in a separate chapter as I think it important that you do not think of religion as something that you cannot experience or something that has no purpose. Religion is a subject that can, once accepted, lead to personal fulfillment and happiness. The importance of humbleness being a correct way of living is beautifully expressed in the bible with this story amongst others:A man goes to his best friend’s wedding, where, at the head table, as tradition dictates, the bride groom, parents and those essential to the wedding sit and the lesser guests sit further down the tables in order of importance. If the man sits himself at the head table, it is likely that he will asked to move down to allow for someone more important to take his seat, and as the other guests are seated, he is likely to end up right at the bottom table. But, if the man sits himself at the bottom table, it is likely that his friend will complain that he is sitting so far down the table and ask him to sit by him at the top right in front of the other guests. There is this re-occurring principle in religious texts that those that humble themselves will come first, and those who put themselves first will come last. If someone does not believe then there is rapture between them and God, and whether they go to paradise or not….well God knows best. I don’t know whether or not you will go to paradise as I cannot assess your sincerity. God is close to sincere people. I do not know if my efforts are enough to get me to paradise. So in the humility of the lack in my knowledge I must not judge you as I don’t know you. At the end of the day the final judgment is not in my hands.

How to get closer to God This chapter is aimed at those who know that there is something out there other than what they can see or has yet has been proven to exist. It is for those who are spiritually mature enough to hear and listen to that, ‘little voice’, inside them and wish to reach enlightenment and join with God and become one with him. It is extremely difficult to describe this concept as it is non material, yet if I use the metaphor of, ‘In search of love’, -as God is often described as love-; I hope that it makes the concept a little clearer. Every human being is made up of three elements which are mind, body and spirit in the same way that in the Christian religion maintains that God is made up of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. Three elements in one, like the three leaves of the clover. At the moment of your conception, your soul links with your material body and stays with it, under normal circumstances-, until the day you die. Your soul occupies the same place as your body but exists in, -what you can take as at this stage-, in a fourth dimension. The soul links with the mind, which is seated in your brain and controls the brain and this soul, can be considered to be a person’s identity and personality. The body is the vessel in which the other two elements of your being are seated, it serves them and together with the mind, keeps the soul harnessed with and in communication with the material world for as long as you live. The body has the five senses which signal to the mind what is going on around it and the mind processes the information in a form that the soul can understand. As the soul exists in the spiritual world and is in contact with the material world, it can communicate with and sense happening in the spiritual world though for most of the time it is so tightly connected with the material world that it is only aware of this world. Through most of our waking lives we are unaware of our soul’s existence, indeed the only way we can become aware of its existence is to disconnect ourselves from the material world, to blank out any material thoughts and become with nature. The purpose of getting to know yourself better is to bring the three elements of your being together. This is necessary as, because all three elements are linked so closely, if the mind or body is sick, it can have a detrimental effect on your soul and hinder your attempts to link with the spiritual world, it is therefore important to exercise your body, and strengthen your mind and spirit. The more you exercise the three elements of your body and learn to work the elements together, the closer you come to perfection and are more easily able to link with the rest of the universe. I would also like to add, in case you are wondering how you can exercise the soul, which is obviously immaterial. This is done by moving and disciplining the mind. As there is such a strong link between mind and soul, the movement of one induces the movement in the other, this is why visualisation is important in meditation, as it exercises the mind and soul when the body is not moved. The ‘Upanishads’ speak of our two modes of thinking which are the rational and the intuitive. They describe the rational as the, ‘Lower’, and the intuitive or religious awareness as the, ‘higher’, way of thinking. This is also known as the, ‘Transcendental truth’. There is a saying that states that, “Each person’s path to God is different”, and I would agree with this principle entirely. Each person starts life at different stages in their journey toward

spiritual maturity, each person will progress or digress at different speeds. It is because of this fact that I can only advise you as to how to progress in your spiritual wisdom with reference to my own experience in the hope that my advice can give the beginner a general direction on which to follow. To use love as a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment; everyone is in search of love as it brings happiness, but every persons path to love is different. Some people are incapable of understanding love or feeling love. Each individual has a different capacity to love and each person has a different capacity to be loved. There is however rules that can be learned to assist the individual in finding love and just as importantly keeping that love in their hearts. It is these rules that I hope will aid you in your search for enlightenment; but by no stretch of the imagination are they the only rules or are they certain to lead any individual to enlightenment. They are rules such as, “love is always patient, love is always kind, love does not judge etc”. Are examples of how to find love, and they are rules that are similar to the rules used to find God. Some of my favourite parts of the bible regarding love are:If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but so not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes in all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends. 1 Corinthians Ch13 v 1-8 God is love, and those that abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 1 John Ch4 v 16 And serve Allah. Ascribe no thing as partner unto Him. (Show) kindness unto parents, and unto near kindred, and orphans, and the needy, and unto the neighbour who is of kin (unto you) and the neighbour who is not of kin, and the fellow-traveller and the wayfarer and (the slaves) whom your right hands possess. Lo! Allah loveth not such as are proud and boastful, Women 004.036

Most of my experience of, “joining with God,” I have achieved through meditation. Though meditation is not a sufficient vehicle in itself to join with God, it is a useful tool as it involves self contemplation and therefore leads to a deeper understanding of the soul. You must understand that although your consciousness is focused on the material world as it is currently attached to your body and mind, you are in fact, -or your soul is at least-, currently existing in the spiritual world at thesame time. All you have to do in essence is to realise that you exist across all ten dimensions and, ’Tune your consciousness to the spiritual world wavelength simply by the power of your mind, visualisation and meditation being the most

commonly used tool to achieve this. I took up Tai Chi which I found useful in exercising my body in the correct way to promote the development of my own personal spirituality. The reason why I found Tai Chi beneficial to my spiritual progression is that it does not focus on the building up of muscle but rather emphasizes discipline of the mind whilst exercising and plenty of bending and stretching in order to balance out the body. The forms are focused on the development of Chi which can be defined for the purpose of this book as, “The internal or, ‘microcosmic’, energy that can be developed and controlled within the body to energise and complement the material body”’ Exercises such as, ‘The riding horse stance’, are designed to stress the physical muscles by maintaining a stress position in order for the natural energy or ,‘Chi’, to build up due to the body calling the Chi into existence and it not having anywhere to go. The excess Chi can then be commanded by will or, ‘thought to go to any part of the body the person wishes’. The development and command of Chi can take several years to master, but once the command of Chi is achieved, the limits of its versatility and power is only limited by the individuals mind and his attachment to the material world and his or her belief. This power is spiritual in essence and so can neither be seen or controlled by physical means as it exists in a parallel dimension to ours and occupies the same space as the physical world. Chi has its root in the soul and could be described as the spiritual bodies muscle power, this muscle being limitlessly strong and only being able to be commanded by thought. Chi will therefore follow the direction of flow from the punch that is purposely thrown and will not stop flowing just because the physical arm has reached its limits. There are many accounts how monks who where skilled in the art of Chi control could throw a punch at a wall and snuff a candle out on the other side of the wall. This happens because Chi which is spiritual in essence is not hindered by material objects that are in its path. Just as a Ghost or spirit can pass through wall and doors without hindrance, the wall or door does not exist in the spiritual world and therefore is not an obstacle to the spirit or to the path of its energy. Chi can therefore be commanded to extend into the weapon or any other object that the participant desires and can re-enforce its molecular structure and make it stronger and one with the participant. You may consider how a power that is immaterial can have an effect on material things such a person or a candle. The answer is that when chi works in conjunction with the muscle then extends after the full reach of the blow in a wave form. This wave form can be controlled to have its effect after a certain distance and so for example smash the third tile down in a stack of tiles without affecting the top two, snuff out a candle or harm a person’s internal organs without harming the skin. This Chi is present in a child when it is young before the child develops muscles, e.g. an infant can hang from a bar and support its own weight. And it is a power that we sometimes use in an emergency without realising it, for example a mother who backed a car over her child once, in her desperation lifted the car off her offspring with one hand and later could not lift the same car with both. The stories of this sort of happening are endless though I shall let you look them up for yourself. Chi however, is the explanation why occurrences such as this are possible. One of the major principles of tai chi and which is symbolised by the familiar, ‘Tai Chi’, symbol is the interaction between opposites. This principle of Ying and Yang emphasises the importance of balance in the human body as well as the rest of the universe. I advise that everyone at least try Tai Chi as a useful tool in following their spiritual path. It may not be for you, but the principles of mental and spiritual discipline and balance are principles that will benefit all that seek to attain spiritual enlightenment. A way of increasing your spiritual awareness and maturity is through meditation, and I would

highly recommend Yoga as an instrument in becoming skilled at this art. Although there are many forms of meditation, I describe the method that I use as a matter of interest. This is a process where at least ten minutes is taken in consciously relaxing every muscle in the body in turn. To do this sit upright in a comfortable position with the top half of your legs being horizontal. Some people choose to stand when meditating, a method of which I often prefer. Though to start off you are probably better off sitting down until you are familiar with the art of meditation. It is not preferable to lie down whilst meditating as this can lead to accidental astral projection, which whilst having its own advantages, is not the purpose of this chapter. When you go through the relaxing of the body stage; it is better if you start with your fingers or toes, then to work your way back from the extremities, towards the centre of your body. Try and remember that spiritual insights materialise with little or no effort and emerge from the depth of consciousness and that mysticism is an experience that cannot be learnt from a book but must be experienced. You must therefore be actively involved with seeking the truth in order to experience a deep understanding of mysticism. ‘Cogito ergo sum”, was Descartes famous sentence that meant, “I think therefore I exist”. This is compatible with most westerners’ way of thinking that they equate their identity with their mind rather than their soul, or even their body in its entirety. Though according to all forms of spiritual thought, this idea is an illusion of mans that must be overcome if they are to achieve true understanding. This idea is summarized in Ashvaghosha, “The awakening of faith”, translated by D.T. Suzuki (Open court, Chicago, 1900) p.78 with:‘When the mind is disturbed, the multiplicity of things is produced, but when the mind is quieted, the multiplicity of things disappears’. The aim of meditation and the purpose of getting closer to God are in order to realise the unity of the universe and the interrelation of all things. You must also rise above the conditioning of your ego and realise that you are not an individual, but are in fact part of the ultimate reality. Once you have reached this level of realisation, this is then called, ‘Enlightenment’. With each inhalation of breath you should try and visualize energy from the spiritual universe entering your body, and with each exhalation of air you then imagine that your tension is draining from your body. At this time you must endeavour to expunge all thought of the outside world and focus on your breathing only. The next step is visualisation, which is the process of practicing moving your consciousness, and therefore your soul around the room. It is also beneficial to visualise a cloud of light above your head, and, when you feel sure of the clouds reality, to use your thumb to direct its light down through your body. Then it is customary to drag the light from left to right so you form a cross of light joining through your heart. (This is where the Christian, ‘Sign of the Cross’, originates). The next step is to expand and contract your consciousness on this cross. (This could also suggest why Jesus is said to have, “Died on the cross”, as this could be symbolic as well as a physical death on the cross). I find it useful to allow the visualised stream of light to travel down through my body just behind my eyes. Once you have familiarised yourself with this process you can proceed to the next step which is the process which I call, “Tuning into God and the Void”. This is a total abandonment of all thoughts and things material and tuning yourself into the nothingness that is around you. This can be extremely difficult until you get the hang of it, though a good tip is to listen out for the buzzing in your ears which is the sound of the emptiness that is the void. Once in the void, you can merge with it and extract energy from it. You will then begin to appreciate how everything is in fact, ‘one with everything else, which is a form of enlightenment. As you progress through these basic stages, the rest is up to you as you must follow your own

soul’s instructions. But I will say that you will know when you are, “On the right road”. When you carry your connection with God around with you once you have finished your meditation practice, (Wearing the armour of God), you will find that total strangers in the street will open up to you, telling you their every problem. This may be because most people are not content with their lives and look to someone who they sense is happy and content to unload and look for answers to their self inflicted problems. They will know your connection and want to talk to you without really knowing why. I can tell you now that this can be a real pain in the neck. However, going around in your daily life in total contentment has its own rewards and is well worth the inconvenience. In many ways, since man has been on earth he has got further and further from God. As science and technology has progressed, the speed of our dissociation has increased. Thankfully ancient knowledge’s such as Tai Chi and other forms of ancient meditation have been carried down through the ages. We must not forget the Holy texts of all major religions that also give us pointers. The meditation in most religious denominations is described as prayer though in principle the success of a prayer being answered is dependent on your degree of connection with God at the time of asking and the purity of your prayer. The way that prayer works is that your mind asks the question in union with your soul when you drop your ego and are one with the rest of the universe. This question when purely asked effects the spiritual world which can have an effect on the material world when those in the spiritual world think them justified and in the interest of your spiritual advancement or the spiritual advancement of those being prayed for. When praying it is most important that the prayer is not selfish in any way or else that prayer is not pure as the reason for the prayer is impure. The principles of which are to:Always be humble, saying in prayer such things as, “Lord, I’m not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed” Getting to know yourself and your body better; by practicing such things as movement in meditation, (Tai Chi). Practice still meditation and prayer. Always remember that you cannot pray for yourself as this is a selfish act and will be ignored. Thankfully there is a way out of this by getting others to pray for you. Fasting – What’s The Point? The principle behind fasting is based and described in the chapter about hardship. This principle being that with hardship there is usually a beneficial reaction. Fasting is a form of self denial that is self inflicted hardship. This concept is one that you may understandably find very hard to understand and accept. Indeed, in the western world today, the very idea of self denial, self sacrifice or self mutilation are ideas that, if uttered in public would probably get you locked away in a mental institution. In many ways this is understandable as the concept flies into the face of what our natural instinct tells us. We naturally have a drive to survive, and our own personal comfort is an extension to this idea. However, as described previously, life has many illusions and tests that you must overcome if you are ever likely to proceed on your spiritual path, and eradicating the idea of self gratification is one of them. The principle of fasting has been practiced in most religions around the world and was a principle in the Christian churches until recently. This has not totally disappeared as monasteries

around the world still exercise the principle of self denial in order to forward themselves spiritually. He who, dwelling in all things, Yet is other than all things, Whom all things do not know, Whose body all things are, Who controls all things from within – He is your Soul, the inner controller, The immortal. Brihad – aranyaka Upanishad, 3.7.15 The reason why fasting is spiritually beneficial is that, when the body is suffering, it becomes less attached to the spiritual world and the spiritual side of your being becomes more in the forefront of your being. In basic terms I suppose you could say that as you become closer to death, then your spirit begins to emerge from your body, and you become more conscious of it. This obviously does not mean that you must half kill yourself in order to reach any king of enlightenment, I am merely explaining why fasting is beneficial to your spiritual maturity. Fasting is not the only type of suffering that can be beneficial on the path of spiritual enlightenment. Another example is that of going on a pilgrimage to a holy place. Again the principle of suffering is the source of the benefit achieved on a pilgrimage. It is the suffering in the pain in your feet, the fact you are no longer around and miss those that you love. The fact that you become much more aware of your environment as its smallest change threatens your wellbeing. Your appreciation of the beauty of the world around you becomes more amplified, and you become more thankful for your normal home comforts. You become less complacent, more humble and you become more aware of your oneness with nature when you become aware of your dependence, and everyone else’s’ dependence on nature and the world which supports them. In some countries, the people even go as far as self mutilating themselves in order to achieve spiritual enlightenment. This method, however, I cannot recommend. I am not saying that it does not work or is not beneficial to you spiritual progression. It just seems a little extreme to me to go as far as damaging your body when there are numerous, less extreme ways of achieving the same goal. In the past there have been many examples of people who segregate themselves from society in order to spiritually progress. People such as hermits and monks will live alone or in small communes. Will not speak to anyone for long periods and generally live as simply as possible. This could basically be described as creating an environment of day-to-day almost continual suffering. Well I would say this way of life is definitely beneficial to spiritual maturity, but again there are other ways, but if you are prepared to go all out to achieve your goal, then, -‘Go For It‘-.

The Riding Horse Stance This method is used extensively in China and is known as using the, ‘Riding Horse Stance’. From a Western point of view, the person stands in a stress position for as long as he can. The muscles that are stressed maintain the potential energy that is demanded but never used. This method should be used prior to competition or extensive exercise in order to prepare the body for action. 1) Stand with your feet shoulder width apart with your eyes closed throughout the exercise. 2) Carry out, ‘The Kabalistic Cross’, and extend your consciousness outside your body. 3) Adopt the riding horse stance and maintain it as long as you can. The vibrating or buzzing you will feel is the, ‘Chi’, which is building up in your body and is controlled by visualization to manipulate it around the body. 4) When you feel that you can no longer hold the position, stand up straight and adopt the original starting position. 5) Rub your hands together vigorously until they become hot and gently place them on your eyes to warm them. After doing this a few times then open your eyes and just stand for a while; feeling the Chi flow around your body. 6) Walk around for a while, controlling mentally your every movement. After this is mastered, then there is a more advanced technique if you need it.

The Power of Forgiveness I cannot state in strong enough terms the power that forgiveness holds. It has the power to release you from countless burdens and can hold the key to countless benefits. I shall explain my reasons why I consider this to be true later in the chapter, but before that I would like to summarize why I consider that we find it difficult to forgive and how we can learn to forgive more readily. Even the best of us are prone to take dislike to people. This dislike is borne out of our tendency to be judgemental. In turn, this tendency to be judgemental is borne from our egos. We tend to form opinions of the outside world in accordance with the experience gained throughout our lives and the perceptions we have formed in that time. These perceptions and opinion are also shaped by the people that we care about around us and by the society in which we live. As we find it difficult to admit we are wrong, then we assume others are wrong because their ideals conflict with our own. This self certification, in terms of logic, can only be true for part of the

time, but our egos increase the possibilities in our own minds by refusing to accept fallibility unless forced to. No two individuals have had exactly the same experiences in their lives. No two people have had exactly the same upbringing from their parents. Some experience love within their family more than others. Some have harder lives than others. Some have better opportunities than others. This is not necessarily a bad thing though as the diversity of experience between individuals is one of the things that makes life more interesting. Each individual has had experiences different to our own and has something to teach us and something of interest to us to talk about providing we are willing to listen to them. We all form slightly different opinions as we grow due to our environment and so we can talk and discuss things. If we did not, life would be phenomenally boring as there would be nothing to discuss as we would all have formed the same opinions about life and morality. As we all have slightly different perspectives then any conclusions drawn through discussion are likely to be more accurate in regard to actual truth, as the conclusions are drawn from more than one lifetimes worth of experience and are less likely to be biased towards one particular point of view. We are even known to pre judge people that have similar features to someone we have disliked in the past. Though judging people by their looks is only the beginning. If we are an athlete we will expect others to live a healthy lifestyle like ours. If someone is fat we will assume it is because they eat too much and exercise too little. If we are unfit we may see the athlete as dull and too health obsessed. If we are an academic then we would consider others that are non academic as stupid. If we are non-academic we will consider the academic as a swat. If we are rich we will look down on the poor as inferior or lazy, and if we are poor we may look at the rich as spoilt and snobby. In short, whenever other people’s opinions or actions differ from our own, we have a tendency to pre judge them harshly, that is to say, we have a tendency to judge everyone we meet. This is our ego at work, of course none of us are perfect and some of our opinions, by law of average will be wrong as well as some right. I offer as an example the fact that my fathers’ partner that he met several years after my mother’s death came from a family very different to ours. The partner herself had seven children and apart from the child she bore with my father, every single one of them were placed in the state care system To describe the details of why social services had this opinion of my fathers’ partner would be a betrayal, but suffice to say, that even though I am far from a fan of the care system, I can understand their line of reasoning. Her entire family seemed to be of a similar stamp in that the majority of her siblings had their children taken into care. I remember talking to a social worker when my father was dealing with the social services department; she had told me that out of the children that pass through the care system in this country, 90% of their children also end up in care. At the time I considered that her estimates may have been exaggerated until my father told me in dismay of a time her teenage daughter was talking with her mother at the kitchen table. The daughter had had an argument with her boyfriend and told her mother that she was too stressed to take care of her children. Her mother and sheended up ringing social services and asked them to take her children temporarily into care. The point being that both considered it acceptable for their children to be in the care system. Presumably the mother felt this way as most of her children were in care, even though it was initially against her consent. The daughter on the other hand had grown up in care and took the attitude of, “I was in care and I turned out alright”. Similarly, as the majority of the mothers’ children were in care, then she would be in the mindset that her children were in a place that was, ‘acceptable’, as they were put into care

and there was nothing she could do about it, therefore continually worrying about where the children were would be futile and therefore better to be just accepted. To my father and I, the idea of having our children taken into care system was deplorable. We considered it natural to want to bring up your own children and would consider it, ‘less than human’, to consider otherwise. We would consider such a situation to be a failure on our part as parents. We discussed her and decided that she must be lacking in morality to think this way, but we were wrong to do so as we were failing to accept her perception of the situation. I will not elaborate too much on this subject as I do not wish to cause painful feelings within my family; the only reason for bringing her into this chapter is to demonstrate the diversity that is possible between different social groups and the difficulties that can arise on the route to acceptance of this fact. In my father’s final days, -whilst he was still mentally sound-, his main concern was that of the well being of his youngest son, particularly in relation to the substantial natural obstacles that he would have to face in later life with his mother, whose outlook on life he disagreed with. To my eternal discomfort I could not lie to him and say that his son would be fine and that I would see to it that my half brother would reach his full potential. He had recently been brought up in an environment that was laden with turmoil caused by both parents, (My father had brain tumours in his final years and was behaving very erratically in relation to his normal personality), and this problem was of course compounded by having the upset of his father dyingin his young years. These circumstances were beyond the control of my half brother, my father or myself and was just, ‘to be’, and had to be dealt with in that context. It was almost inevitable that he would receive an upbringing that both my father and I would consider to be mostly negative and would have a resulting negative impact on the man he was to become. All that I could promise in the end was that I would do the best that I could for him under the circumstances, though I could not undo the damage that had been done to him in the past and would be done to him in the future. It is this different outlook of different social groups of people which brings about the concept of different classes and to my brother and sister my father’s partner was not suitable to be accepted as, ‘part of the family’, as they perceived her to be of a different social class and so rejected her completely, -which was unfortunate as she was the mother of my half brother-. To my half brother…she was his mother, and being a reasonably dutiful son, she was the person that he relied on and was faithful to. This I cannot blame him for, we pick our friends and not our families, and it was right that he should remain faithful to her. I once knew a grown man that was beaten by his parents virtually every time he went to see them. He accepted both them as well as the beatings and still went back to them religiously, time after time, regardless of the consequences; so we should never underestimate the bond between parent and child. We are each given our crosses to bear and my half brothers parents were his, though I re-iterate that my father was mentally unstable at this time. The point of including this story is, that at the end of the day, I felt it my duty to accept my fathers’ partner, no matter what she did or the type of person she wasfor my half brothers sake. I did not need to accept her for my fathers’ sake as he didn’t respect her or even like her himself, but stayed with her primarily in the interest of their shared son. My children called her, ‘nanny’, and we invited her to family get-togethers. It was only when she turned against me around a year and a half after my father’s death that I ceased to see her on a regular basis, the cessation of relations resulting from her wishes rather than my own. I encourage my partner to carry on seeing her regularly for the sake of my half brother, until she moved away and didn’t tell us where she was going. I had considered it an obligation to maintain any sort of contact with her, -even if it be indirect contact- that I could, so I could

maintain as close an eye on my half brothers well being as possible. Why would I do this, well quite simply because I felt that it was not up to me to judge her, I have not lived her life, and although her personality may in my perception be a selfish one, it is not for me to judge her but rather to pity her, -what I perceived to be-,ignorance. She is the one that will suffer or reap the rewards of her actions in the end, so, there certainly was no reason for me to make her life harder than it already was. Although others may temporarily suffer as a result of her actions, such suffering will either be devised for a certain purpose or will be temporary. This suffering that she may have to endure may be in this life in terms of losing her children into care and maybe through my half brother if he decides to follow her example. It may be through lack of friends due to her taking and not giving back by constantly pleading poverty as most people will only give so much before they realise that the giving is one sided. Or it may be simply that her selfishness does not allow her to truly love another and be loved in return. The suffering may also occur in another life if she is not lucky enough to, ‘suffer her dues’, in this life. But one thing is for sure, we must consider that her soul may not be ready to be combined with the life force of the universe and so it is bound to return to this earth until it has suffered enough to learn. At some point her soul may become worthy, I would like to think that all souls will eventually become worthy, but it is clear that if it is ordained that her soul will suffer, that she should be pitied and not hated as she might have much suffering to come until she reaches the point of enlightenment we all are required to reach. Apart from each of us having different experience, we also each have slightly different abilities and disabilities when taken in reference to your average person. Some of us are more academically inclined than others. Some have more common sense than others. Some are more spiritually advanced than others. Some suffer from lethargy, greed, sloth, lust, (Seven deadly sins). Some have mental or physical disabilities. When we fail to forgive it is often because we blame people for their weaknesses. The problem is that we all too often do not realise that most of these weaknesses are beyond the power of the individual to rectify. If we understand that individuals all too often cannot help the way that they are, then we can begin to transfer our anger into compassion. Once compassion is brought into the equation, we can begin to feel sorry for those that would have previously offended us. Even if we cannot have compassion for those that we naturally dislike, we should try and understand that the negative actions that they do will have consequences, and that these consequences are inescapable. When we consider the penalty that life alone is likely to inflict upon them, especially those penalties that we tend not to normally take into account such as the loss of love and the inability to experience love and compassion. It is only when we understand the retribution that they are sure to face that we realise that we do not have to judge them at all. That judgement will occur naturally and is out of either our or their control. When we understand that there in natural retribution for our negative actions or feelings we can learn to forgive as there is no need for us to retaliate against anyone at all for any actions that they take against us or our opinions. There is justice in the universe, even if we often do not perceive it immediately. Now I would like to point out the consequences of not forgiving others for who they are as this subject clearly does not merelycover class segregation. This subject also covers hatred for different races, sexual orientation and prejudice of every type. The Romans were able to watch the gladiators in their arenas kill one another without compassion for them was that theyconsidered the gladiators to be inferior to them. The Germans

were able to carry out the Jewish holocaust as they considered them to be an inferior race. So it is in every conflict where atrocities are carried out; only in this way can humans ignore their natural instincts. Only by segregating themselves from their fellow human beings, by seeing them as, ’less than human’, can one human watch another suffer. This subject can even cover our dislike for the opposite sex simply because we cannot understand the way that they think. This tendency to segregate ourselves from others that we do not consider to be part of our social group gives us the ability to attack and even to torture others. It is the action of torturing others that is the one human action that I consider to be both unnatural and utterly indefensible of actions that any human can carry out, by the way. We have to consider whether this ability is there for a purpose before we decide whether we should try and abolish it totally from our society. After all, it is the competitiveness that gives us a reason for us to shout for our favourite football team and gives us pride in our heritage. To abolish it altogether may take away part of our humanity, which may rightly be classed as a negative. I shall discuss this further in, ‘Creating a New Jerusalem’, in an effort to balance this argument. But for now, for the purpose of this chapter, I hope you will agree that it is advantageous for us to try and obtain the ability to forgive. So the key to forgiveness is through understanding and compassion. Only then will we begin to become less judgemental towards others. When we begin to look to ourselves and understand that it is illogical to consider that we can possibly be as close to perfection that our egos will have us believe, we will start to see the good in others. Sometimes it is difficult to see the good in others, but I promise you, that in 99% of all cases, it is there somewhere, and once we learn to search and find the good in others, we will learn the true art of forgiveness. I the beginning of this chapter I mentioned how the power of forgiveness can relieve us of many burdens and have great advantages to ourselves. The burdens that I am referring to are ones of ego and hatred. This hatred of others that can show itself in different degrees can make us bitter as the years go by. All the aspects of hatred caused by the inability to forgive are negative to ourselves, all outlets to hatred such as bitterness and violence are negative to everyone, and if we allow the perpetrators of crimes against us to allow us to form hatred, then the damage they have done to us is magnified tenfold and, more important nothing is improved by our hatred of the individual or individuals. The old adage that if you go down the path of revenge then you should dig two graves therefore rings true. Which is symbolic of the fact that if you go down the path of retribution, then you will be destroying yourself as well and are not likely to be improving the evil thoughts of those that did you wrong. Moreover, you are far more likely to magnify the evil thoughts of the person you have taken revenge on and they are more likely to commit a similar crime, if not in this life, then in the next. In short, you cannot fight fire with fire, and you cannot defeat evil with evil. This is not to say that if you forgive someone that has done you wrong, that it will have a positive effect on his or her karma. It is more likely than not that a person that is remorseless after doing such actions or is able to commit such actions in the first place is likely to have an immature soul. However, you are more likely to have a positive effect on his karma than a negative one, even taking into account the fact that he may feel that now that he has been forgiven for the wrong that he has done, that he can commit the next wrong with a clean slate. Though the positive action of forgiveness is not guaranteed to have a positive effect on the wrongdoer, it is guaranteed to have a positive effect on the one that forgives the wrongdoer.

An example of this might be that a couple who once were deeply in love can grow distant and eventually separate. The hurt that we feel at the time of separation can manifest itself in hatred of the ex partner. This hatred can eat away at us and we may find it hard to trust someone else in another relationship. It can also make us turn any offspring against us, as they still love both parents, when we talk of the other parent in a derogatory fashion. So the manifested hatred has not only a negative effect on ourselves but also to others around us. But, when we learn to forgive, all the negative emotions are lost and we are able to continue our lives in a positive way. We are able to love again and be loved. Those who are Christian will know, “The Lord’s Prayer”, though few seem to realise that the most significant line of this prayer is, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. This in essence is requesting of God that we only ask forgiveness of our sins only if we are prepared to forgive others. This implies the dire warning that; if we are not prepared to forgive, then we have no right to ask to be forgiven. When you really consider this line, it is just that if we have not learnt to forgive, then we do not have the right to ask anyone else, even God in his ultimate mercy, to forgive us. The route to forgiveness can be expanded from compassion and understanding, to include the fear of knowledge that we will not be forgiven ourselves if we do not learn to forgive. The fear installed into society does not have to be extreme but should be sufficient to begin to turn individuals towards the direction of forgiveness. To push individuals too much would be to force them onto a path that they may not be ready as individuals to traverse. The idea would therefore be to teach our children to be more sympathetic and empathic towards others around them and to accept other individuals for who they are. To develop knowledge and understanding that there are penalties to faceif they do not learn how to forgive. To achieve this, the installation of a certain amount of fear is justified, firstly because there is something genuine to fear and secondly that the means will justify the end if it improves the child’s future karma. Our children must understand that everyone has different backgrounds and that they should not be too ready to judge or else they are likely to be judged similarly. They should understand that empathy, sympathy and understanding are one of humanities greatest abilities, and that forgiveness happens as a result of exercising these abilities. They must understand that forgiveness releases us from the burden of hatred caused by being too judgemental towards others. That we are asked by those above to forgive and that we are only asked to forgive that which we are capable of forgiving as a test to prove the extent of our humanity and that we will be judged on our actions. So in conclusion, if we can find it in our hearts to forgive, we will begin to look at others in a different light. I would like to highlight that it is not necessary to make friends with the killers of those that you love, this is an extreme action that is not required by God, he only requires you to forgive them in your hearts and let go of the hatred. If within the process of forgiving those that have done you wrong, you feel that you need to visit the perpetrators of the crime, then it is fine, but not essential in the eyes of God. Not only will we increase our chances of being able to love and be loved by those around us, but we will release our hatred towards others and begin to consciously start to look for the good in others. This way of thinking develops an ability within us to empathise with others. Most of all though, when we find the good in others then others will find us more likable and we stand the chance of being forgiven ourselves.

We must heed the words that we cannot be forgiven our sins unless we are prepared to forgive others that do us wrong in our eyes. It is not just for the good of others that we must forgive, but for our own good. This subject crosses with justice systems as the way in that we judge others is a direct reflection on our humanity. (Judicial systems will be discussed more fully later). Fairness for the individual should be the aim rather than whether or not the person has been treated equally. It must be realised that forgiveness, selflessness, love and compassion are not enough by themselves; these things must be driven by knowledge and wisdom. Without the direction of common sense, then the well meaning individuals’ actions will become worthless.

The Importance of Being Selfless Being selfless is the opposite of being selfish and as such is quite obviously not something that comes naturally to us by any stretch of the imagination. In today’s society, selfishness is admired to a point where it is revered as a positive character trait in an individual. Those that focus on the acquisition of personal wealth often obtain it by using or harming others. They are the strong and powerful which areable to raise themselves above the rest and become financially successful. Still many aspire to be like these people even though their achievements are more often than not, achieved on the hard work of others. Needless to say that I do not see selfishness to be a positive character trait but a character flaw that is inherent in all of us and stems from our natural instinct of self preservation. The concept of putting ourselves last and puts others first, even those that we are not personally acquainted with flies in the face of our instinct and can therefore be seen as unnatural, even to the point when you could be seen as dysfunctional in society today if you decide to put yourself out too much for the sake of another. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate that there is a great deal to be gained if we can embrace this alien concept into our lives. That even though it may fly into the face of what is logical, that this can lead to the abolishment of human suffering in the world and will result in our own ultimate salvation as well as the salvation of others. A very simple example from my life would be that a long time ago, when I was young, I stopped to refuel my car. I was standing in the queue to pay when I overheard a women request that someone help her change her flat tyre with her spare. The women at the counter said that she could not help, and even when the women asked if the young man that was stacking the shelves could help her, she declared that it was not part of his job and therefore he was not permitted to aid her. I obviously offered to aid her and promptly changed the tyre which she was physically unable to do. On completion of the task she asked how much I owed her. I replied that I would rather she replayed the favour by helping someone else and asking them to do the same. She replied that she would help anyone she could and would carry out my request anyway. She insisted that I took enough money to buy a packet of cigarettes and I reluctantly accepted as it was simpler than getting into a full scale argument. The concept however of projecting one good turn and multiplying it indefinitely, I still am convinced, is a good one. If people could be convinced of this type of concept then a great deal of good could be done in the world. However, life is never that simple and to convince people in general to take this attitude into the way they live their lives, namely actions that are not in their best interest, is not an easy one and can only be achieved if they are convinced through societies belief that such actions can ultimately be beneficial for them in the long run. Though, ‘the long run’, may still not be convincing enough for many to take such actions, at least the idea is enough to push people, when coupled with their natural conscience to, ‘do the right thing’, may be enough. My children, like most others, especially during the teenage years, go through a stage where they begin to exercise their free will. This free will which usually emerges in phrases such as, “It’s my life, I’ll do what I want”, which is very common in teenagers andis a common illusion that most of us go through at one time or another. The illusion, which we usually only realise in our later years, is that we are not the only one with a free will. That in order to get what we want in

life, we must comply withwhat others want. If we want wages then we have to do what the boss wants us to do. If we want to be loved then we have to consider others feelings. If we want our children to be happy, then we have to think what they would like to do on holiday rather than what we want to do, and so on... In short, we can all do what we want, but it doesn’t get us anywhere in life; it is what others want or need from us that is important. It is a fact that, ‘No man is an island’, that is to say that everything we do affects those around us. Even if we do nothing, or do something like move abroad, it makes no difference, you can bet your bottom dollar that everything you do or do not do will affect others somehow to either a greater or lesser extent. If we contemplate this fact, then we are less likely to commit selfish acts as we can then understand that there are always repercussions to every selfless act. Everyone has afree will and we all wish to exercise it. As we all have a free will, this very obvious fact renders all free will unimportant. That is to say, in essence, all actions that we take in our own best interest are meaningless, and the only important actions that we take, -the actions that we take which make us special,- are actions that are not in our best interest and therefore selfless. This of course contradicts our natural instincts of self preservation, though this is one of the many paradoxes in life. If we wish to do what is best, then we must take the hardest route, one that we don’t want to take but should if we are to reach enlightenment. To emphasise how often we are selfish, if you think in terms of; whenever we say the words, “Me”, or “I”, we are in fact being selfish. I’m sure you will realise that we all say these words countless times in a day, but this idea does illustrate how selfish we all tend to be. If you try and eradicate these words from your diction, it will aid you in becoming more selfless in everyday life. For those who already are convinced that they are pretty selfless, then I offer this prayer that I first found in my local church magazine:-

‘Let me talk to you after Communion………..’ I tried to catch your attention this morning. Remember when you came back to your seat and closed your eyes and put your head reverently down and talked and talked and talked to me? I wanted to tell you to open your eyes and look at my broken body all around you I tried to catch your attention that time your toddler stood on the seat and spoke to you, but you gave me a dirty look and humiliated me and didn’t hear me. I was the unmarried mother at the end of your seat, The old man in front of you, The family of seven children across the aisle from you and I almost had the impression you disapproved of me.

I was the woman in the green coat whose husband left her this week and whose heart was being eaten out right through Mass, and a friendly word would have been a little support to me. I am your wife who cooked and prepared and coped with the children and all the burdens of the house while you read the Sunday newspaper and then went out. I am your husband and children and you stumped and huffed and gave us your cold silent treatment for three-and-a-half long hours after Mass, which blackened and deadened the whole atmosphere of our home. I am your father and mother and you have ignored and mocked and criticized and tortured as only a teenager knows how. I am your teenage son in whom you have lost belief and your nagging is driving me crazy. I am your next-door neighbor whom you spend so much time gossiping about and criticizing. I am your fellow parishioner whom you meet every day in the street and ignore me, busy about your own concerns. And it sickens me, all that coldness, all that squabbling and division and those endless running battles that scourge me and crown me with thorns. And then you pierce my side at Holy Communion with your empty words of love. If you love me, feed my sheep, my starving sheep! And start in your own home. Please don’t keep me at bay any longer. Don’t talk to me. LISTEN. I don’t want you to go on loving my spirit and ignoring my body. I don’t want you to open your mouth to receive my body and close your eyes and ears to shut it out. When will you understand that you cannot have Communion with me if you don’t have Communion with your brothers and sisters in your own family and in your parish? Stop thinking of me as some kind of spiritual being in the skies. I am one with these people and you cannot have me without them. & On the last day, I won’t ask you how many times you attended Mass; that is not your holiness. I will ask you how your family and neighbors fared, how your spouse and children grew in love and faith. How will you live in their Mass? How did your family spread its love across your neighborhood? Please. Open your eyes and ears and make the time to be my Church, to be my body here on earth.

How to interest your child in Mass, M. Quinn Veritas Family Resources, 1982

A Way Forward Our ancestors used to have to fight as individuals just to survive, life was hard, work was long and arduous, there were very few comforts and they would consider themselves as lucky if they had enough food on the table to feed their families. Now that we no longer have to fight to survive we look for more and more ways to make ourselves more comfortable than before, forgetting that it was the striving and hardship that gave us character and brought out the best in our humanity. Our society in general looks for the easy way out of anything arduous, and has, I must admit, become extremely good at it, finding every conceivable way of making their lives, ‘better’. It is very difficult to predict the future accurately, but I don’t think it unreasonable that this is an age and a time that could wellgo down in history as, “The Dark Times”, where mans excess had lead him into causing great damage to mankind and the environment. A time of selfish, self serving societies that are frowned upon as times of ignorance and taught to children of the futureas an example of how, ‘not, to lead their lives. For someone reading this statement, I could well imagine they would immediately put me down as a, ‘scaremonger’, or ‘Pessimist’. Though consider for a moment that there are ample resources in this world for no-one to go hungry, no reason why we cannot live in harmony with this planet and our fellow man, you may thensee where I’m coming from. Our offspring are likely to have to suffer for many generations to come for our excesses,and the planet for even longer; our legacy to them far worse than our great grandparents left to our grandparents. Though, I do appreciate that this idea is completely alien to our current way of thinking. When I was young, in my community,just as in all others, there were plenty of older men and women that would almost continually complain about the present and compare it with the past. Known in this day and age as, ‘Grumpy old Men or Women’, the past was always better, the children, ‘Don’t know they are born’, etc. Now that I am older I can see what they were grumbling about and I will admit that I thoroughly enjoy a good chin wag and to’ ‘Set the world to rights’, with some of my friends. (Yes even an old oddball like me can have friends, - just not that many). When you are young, those first years seem to go at a snail’s pace, it seems that your school years will never end and you can’t wait to reach adulthood so that you can, ‘do what you want’. Ironically, when you grow up all you think about is how great it was to be young, healthy and carefree with little or no responsibility as that was the job of your parents and long to be back in school. I now realise that my immediate ancestors had it much tougher than I and that, -because as you get older the years seem to pass faster and faster-, you realise that the time in which those events occurred was not actually very long ago at all. In fact when you realise the vast difference in lifestyles between yours and your children, and that children do not get much out of life compared to that which you got out of life, you get frustrated and anxious for them. Almost desperate to put an old head on young shoulders, to shout at them and warn them of the serious

errors that they are making, to shake them continually until they come to their senses. Sadly though, it is currently illegal to batter young children until they see things your way so I and many others like me have to live in their frustration. You wonder that, given the sharp downturn in lifestyle and principles, just how much worse it is going to be for their children and just what our children will be complaining about when they come to moan. If societies carry on degrading at the pace that they are, then my children will be saying to their offspring, that, “In my day we used to have to open doors ourselves”, and their children will be replying, “You areso wrapped up in the past, get yourself a life you silly old bugger”. You think I’m kidding? Well let me kid even further, just how long do you think it will be before computers and virtual reality have progressed to a point that, ‘living in a make believe world’, is better than living in reality. How long before people begin to live in these, ‘virtual pods’, in preference to living in, ‘real life’, as, ‘real life’, is too boring? Within my lifetime, respect for the elderly has diminished markedly. In my youth, very few youngsters would dream of, ‘back answering’, their elders. They knew that if that adult reported your antics to your parents, you would be in for a sound wallop, probably be grounded for a week and still have to apologise to the adult offended. Respect for adults was instilled in youngsters and a sense of self-discipline was considered to be an essential character trait that should be instilled in the young. Compulsory, ‘national service’, no doubt helped, and in some countries it is still obligatory to serve your time before you are allowed to get married. Sadly though, are children are no longer required to do anything that they don’t want to as it would be considered a form of child abuse. Now teachers are back answered and even physically abused by schoolchildren;old women are insulted and bullied outside corner shops. The youth will steal, mug, take drugs, drink alcohol and fornicate with one another to their hearts content and no one seems to be able to put a stop to it due largely to our social structure. It is frankly extremely clear to me that our children are overprotected by laws that are frankly absurd. (See bringing up your children). But even though I may sit for hours and moan, the truth is that being negative about that which you cannot change is entirely fruitless. More than that, this book would be totally pointless if I just moaned about what wasn’t right without trying to balance it out with what was right and suggest a way forward to improve the situation. In other words, if I criticize then that criticism has to be constructive. Can we ever live in harmony with our planet? Can we ever bridge the gaps between our religions? Can we find a middle ground between science and religion? Can we make up for our past mistakes against nature? Will God ever forgive us for the damage we have done to ourselves and our planet? These and other questions have to be tackled and solved if we are to progress to the next level of mankind’s maturity. I say the next level because I do not consider mankind to be mature as a species yet in terms of our evolution we are therefore similar to teenagers, thinking that we know everything and constantly looking for the easy way out. We are spoilt, want our own way all the time and throw a tantrum if we don’t get it. Money is our God, and our endless fight with nature to live longer and longer is still ongoing. We are systematically destroying the planet on which we live, believing that we are immune to any repercussions the planet can reap in return. We destroy the animals that inhabit the planet with us, one by one, each one being a link in a perfectly balanced food chain. This domino effect leads to still further animals becoming extinct along the line. The only animals that our truly safe from us are those that we breed for food or keep as pets.

The only plants that have a secure future are the ones that we harvest for our food or use to decorate our homes. We plunder forests for our furniture, move whole mountains to extract rare minerals. Power our homes using nuclear fusion and by burning fossil fuels that pollute our atmosphere and alter our climate as well as causing further imbalance in natural flora and fauna. Need I go on? You know all this yourselves it is only a matter of time before we will be forced to open our eyes to the reality of that which we are doing. Mankind must learn to live once more in harmony with the planet that supports him and must make every effort to preserve energy by building better energy efficient homes and forms of transport. This type of advancement that scientists can make can be acknowledged as, ‘good’. But advancement that include things such as gene therapy, stem cell research, genetically modified foods etc. must be considered to be against nature and therefore wrong. This is what is meant by that any scientific advancement must be good for nature rather than for mankind’s own ends as such advancements should be considered as selfish and therefore wrong. Once we have learnt from our mistakes, then it is time for us to progress to the next level in our maturity. I cannot of course criticize mankind unless I am prepared to suggest ways in which our maturity can be progressed. As far as living in harmony with our planet is concerned, this requires more than a few changes. Though, these changes do not necessarily have to make our lives uncomfortable in any way. Our manufacturers have to be restricted to using only a few types of materials that are completely recyclable and we have to learn to recycle as a matter of daily life. Our house energy consumption needs to be capped to use only what we can comfortablygenerate using natural resources. We need to manufacture things that are built to last and adapt our buildings rather than demolish and rebuild them. In other words, stop living to excess and change our attitude toward consumption. This does not mean that our lives need to be uncomfortable, far from it; we can live very comfortably using that which the world can comfortably give to us. But, we need to consider how we use those resources and how we are going to replenish them far more vigorously. This does not require changes in law to subdue people, but merely requires a little effort and a change in attitude towards our priorities. As stated in the chapter of religion, it is most important that we accept other religions and learn from all religions. The God of all religions is the same God;we merely have different ways of worshiping. Our religious leaders will be forced to find common groundin the future. We must learn how toemphasize that which every religion has in common and to, ‘downgrade the points that they do not have in common’. One suggestion for example is to print all the religious holy texts under one cover and to name it, “The Book of God”. This book could then be taught throughout aChilds’ schooling so that they begin to see all religions as equal. The Christians have to dampen their stance on Jesus being literally the son of God rather than being a part of God. The Muslims must slacken theirstance of taking every word in the Koran so literally and to start taking the words more in context with the, ‘spirit of the book‘. The Buddhist must consider the possibility that God is conscious and the Hindu must also adjust his religion accordingly. Every religion will be forced to find common ground in the interest of mankind’s future. Although we may losesome sense or our collective community, it is only in this way that peace between religions can occur. If any religion fails to comply with this idea, then that religion will fail and die in the future. People will realise that cohesion is essential for the future of mankind

and insist that an answer be found. We willneed to remove the greed from society by instilling in its people that money is not important though the spiritual progression of the individual is. This can be done by the humbleness in which an individual lives is revered by society and that those that are spiritually advance are respected and their opinion sought after. I am not, by the way, suggesting that communism is the answer to societies problems as communism has its downside as well as I do not believe in suppressing peoples self expression of their humanity, but I am suggesting that what societies view on what it considers to be successful must be altered. I also suggest that our attitude to science is altered to a more realistic one, and whilst not totally annihilated, the importance of science shouldbe put in its rightful place as a job and not the be all and end all of life. Science is a tool for mans advancement in the physical world and the meaning of, ’advancement’, must be altered to mean mans harmony with the spiritual and material universe. If we wish to visit other planets or advance ourselves in other ways through science, this is fine, but the idea of just what advancement means has to be agreed to be in the interests of the planet and of mankind, in the view of the spiritual community as well as the scientific community. In this era, man is far too competitive. Whilst being competitive may definitely have advantages in sport and our natural social progression. We must also realise that life is not so much a competition as it is a test, a test which we are required to progress as individuals rather than in relation to other individuals. Although forgiveness by the individual is necessary, it may be pertinent for society to judge and punish those who break the rules of that society. Sometimes forgiveness is not enough in itself for some individuals that may present a danger to society in general and retribution by society is required in some form or another. This, ‘lesson teaching’, should be placed in the hands of society rather than the victims as they are emotionally involved and may not be incapable of making a subjective, measured and therefore just decision as to the punishment that should be inflicted. Also the retribution will not have a negativeeffect on the karma of the victim, as the retribution has not been given or administered by the victim but by society as a whole. This is why, within any society, a court system must exist. I must admit, that even taking into account the natural affiliation I would have for a justice system that is part of the society in which I live, I do prefer the British legal system to many others from around the world. Though I do wish that the laws that we had did not infringe so much on our natural human expression, and that laws focused on, fairness and consideration of the reform of a person’s soul rather than equality and retribution. The perfect society is not one of uniformity where everyone follows the same mindset, as it does not allow for change which is essential for mans spiritual growth and evolution. Society and a societies’ judicial system must be designed to allow the individual to express their humanity. Although I like the British Judicial system, this is not to say that the system is flawless. My gripe with the British Judicial system is that it is too restrictive. It is the difference between me telling my children that they must tidy their room once a week and me telling them exactly whereeverything must go and that it must be constantly tidy, and if it was not, then their

punishment would be severe. Such action would suffocate their humanity and individuality. It would prevent the healthy expression that makes them human. The negative aspects in people are a challenge to society and also make society more interesting to live in. If we eradicate all wrongdoing altogether, then life would become very boring. The wrongdoer and others that express their individuality in less unsociable manners are those that give spice to all of our lives the total eradication of them are therefore targets that should never be aimed for. Only a skeleton law should exist, and these little laws that strive to make society into some kind of utopia are a mistake. Perfection is therefore not in the best interests of humanity in general. In the next age, with the reduction of emphasis on material ideals, crime should be on the decrease, though there will always be sexual deviation such as paedophilia and homosexuality. There should be therefore releases for these people. This could be in the form of artificial reality where they can exercise their behaviour in a way that does not harm others and give them and outlet, or voluntary chemical sterilization in place of long prison terms should they harm a member of society. Someone who is violent could have boxing lessons or spend time in artificial reality pods. These ideas are acceptable as long as they are coupled with measures to rehabilitate the person towards what society deems to be acceptable. I do not believe that something like paedophilia should ever be deemed as an acceptable way for someone to express their individuality, moreover, as such things are against the natural order of nature, and such things should only ever be regarded as wrong. A wrongdoer could be defined in two ways, that is to say that they are doing something that is against the general morality of a populace, or doing something against God’s will or of course both. God’s law is not necessarily illegal, for example you may not offer an old lady your seat on a bus when you are well capable of standing. Whilst not against the law, you may realise that this is not morally acceptable and feel guilty; this is what affectsyou karma. You could also get a speeding fine that may not have any ramifications on your karma but could have social ramifications, (not that I am condoning speed cameras and too many speed restrictions). Whatever we use as punitive measures, we must be accepting of them and do what is necessary to help them. There is no perfect judicial system simply because the system is run by human beings. Though there must always be a judicial system simply because there will always be negative aspects in society. Judicial systems must start to take into account the spiritual ramifications of the case and must take into account what is in the best interests of the assailant as well as what is in the best interests of the victim. Incarceration is a suitable punishment for those that have done wrong especially for those who have done severe wrong to many such as mass murderersas it has the double positive of removing the wrongdoer from doing any more harm to society whilst at the same time, teaching them a lesson. But not for extended periods of time becausewe must also incorporate the idea of forgiveness into our judicial system. Though incarceration in itself is not always going to solve the problem, there are many possibilities of punishments, and just like with children, some forms of punishment will work with one individual and not with another. As a parent that is issuing punishment in order to try and correct an individual, whatever punishment works with that individual, I would use as the preferred form of punishment. You could for example reduce the amount of young drivers being killed on the roads by not allowing them to drive a too powerful a car or give them vehicles that are governed for speed. A, ‘One size fits all’, attitude to our judicial system will not work any better than taking a, ‘One size fits all’, attitude towards how we punish our children in the home. I believe that incarceration should be one of the last options used by the judicial system. After all you would not send your children away to live somewhere else unless you had no further options. You would try and punish them in the home, take away

their privileges, look for the root cause, try to get them to meld better with the family etc. first, to send them away would be to give up and admit defeat and reduce the chance of re-integrating them back into the family. There will be those in society that are unable to teach as their soul is not far enough advanced for them to have a sufficient conscience to be convinced that they have done wrong, and are therefore more likely to wrong again with the increased knowledge they have attained from their time and other prisoners on how to do wrong better. These individuals have a soul closer to that of an animal rather than the soul of an advanced human being, there is no reasoning with such individuals on the subject of morality, though this is not an excuse not to try and help the wrongdoer even though those that try to help them are likely to find their efforts may be fruitless as they arefalling on deaf ears. Rehabilitation my therefore be close to impossible. It is therefore necessary to look at the assailant with a spiritual point of view as to what to do with the individual. A parole board of spiritually minded people must therefore be consulted on at least an annual base. The panel must also be rotated to reduce the possibilities of any miscarriage of justice. The judicial system must take into account that some souls are more advanced than others, and that some souls may take many hundreds of lifetimes before they become highly evolved. The emphasis of judgement should therefore be played down and the emphasis on how best to help the wrongdoer advance must be considered. This does not mean that wrongdoers should be let off lightly, only that the perception of what is considered to be justice must be widened. The wrongdoer will someday be as advanced as us, and just as we sometimes have to punish our children in their best interests to prepare and help them with their future, as we must do for our wrongdoers. We must help souls advance and become better humans, and this must be our primary goal. There are children that are beyond our help, but this does not give us the excuse to give up trying. The judicial system must be more guiding then judgemental and must make decisions in the best interest of the victim, society and the wrongdoer, and never to give up trying in the interests of humanity. I do not believe in the death sentence as there are bound to be miscarriages of justice simply because those that are doing the judging are human and susceptible to mistakes. We must realise that, as we are fallible, then so our judgements are also fallible. Therefore the extreme practice of taking someone out of our society by killing them is bound to include human error. It would be egotistical of us to assume that we judge without fault and we must have faith that we are not the only ones judging that individual, but God also judges the individual, and his retribution is both more just and more severe. If the wrongdoer does not pay for their sins in this lifetime, then you can be sure that they will be paying for them in the next. This means that the onus is not borne solely by us to see that, ‘justice is done’. God also judges and he cannot be lied to as the individuals karma is directly affected by the actions of the individual and he cannot lie to himself. It must be realised that individuals always suffer the consequences of their actions;there is not escape by lying to themselves or to others. There is a life after death, and killing someone is not necessarily the ultimate punishment even though the consequences may be more severe on them then if they had suffered the consequences on earth. Someone committing suicide for example may think they are taking the easy way out, but there is noescaping themselves or their karma as both go with them. Suicide in itself is a sin and carries its own penalties. Children must be reprimanded when then do wrong and encouraged when they do right. They must, within reason be allowed to face hardship in order that their character development is not hindered by pampering. Every effort must be made to forgive and reform the individual, whilst taking into account that

some individuals are not at the stage of spiritual maturity when they can be saved. Some people believe that if their child was killed then they would like to be locked in a cell with them in order to take retribution. They believe that with current DNA technology, mistakes cannot be made and the guilty person can be justifiably be executed for the crime. Firstly, as I believe in life after death, then death does not seem as harsh a punishment as a long period of time in prison. Secondly, imagine a scenario where the police would arm and allow a grieved parent to let out their frustration on a convicted criminal. Is it possible that no mistake can be made? What if after the grieving relative lets out his anger on someone and afterwards the police realise they let them into the wrong cell and in this cell is someone who was brought in on a drunk and disorderly charge. Do the police now lock up the grieving relative and then arm the drunk and disorderly detainees’relatives to take out their vengeance on them? Where does it end? Do we honestly ever believe we will be incapable of making mistakes? What about Paedophiles? Is their sexual deviance in finding the innocent sexually attractive sufficient to warrant having them executed? The age of consent varies from country to country. So this means that someone may be executed for sexually abusing a thirteen year old girl in the United Kingdom, yet in say India he would be legally entitled to marry her. What of the sixteen year old boy who goes out with a girl that tells him she is sixteen because she fancies him? He may not realise his mistake until the police drag him away for being a paedophile and have him executed. Does he deserve to die? Of course, I could never approve of the extreme circumstance of a say three year old girl or boy being molested, but that is not my point. My point is that every case is relative and must be judged under itsown merit. Though as we are fallible we must accept that no matter how sure we are that something is fact, we can be and always will be subject to error. Therefore the segregation of an individual from society is justifiable as it is an action that is taken for the greater good of, ‘the interests of society’. However, we do not have the right to take another’s life as we are not infallible. It is therefore necessary for us to let nature take its course and do the best we can for the individual, find it in our hearts to forgive them for what they are and at the same time protect society if faced with the extremes. There are many minor offences that are committed against society where the state has become too overenthusiastic and with the consequence of preventing people from expressing their individuality. We must loosen up a little and not worry quite so much about what we are saying is politically correct. There is room on this earth for a certain amount of evil; it is what allows us to recognise that which is good. It cannot and should not be totally eradicated, but rather be accepted and adjusted to by society, within reason of course . We, as a society must learn to be more accepting and forgiving. We must encourage the dropping of the individuals’ ego by deadening the impact of what we currently perceive to be success or failure. Because success or failure in a man does not rely on what we currently determine to be success or failing. But rather an individuals' personal advancement, as they journey towards oneness with the universe, as well as with God. We must learn to be humble and to live frugally. We must become selfless and hardworking. We must be prepared to admit our shortcomings but accept those same shortcomings in others to allow them to see the light of their foolishness themselves. All in all we must change the way we live radically if we are ever going to advance as a species.

Many problems we have today stem from the fact that people constantly strive for happiness. The truth is that the secret to personal happiness is that you must be content with whatever you have, whatever that may be. This could be translated that the secret to happiness is self discipline and acceptance. We do not need even a fraction of the things that people in the west strive for. When I look in our city centres, buildings are constantly being demolished and rebuilt, all for the sake of modernisation. Modernisation that costs millions of pounds that would not need to be spent if we built buildings that are built to last and are multifunctional. Millions of pounds that can easily solve the world’spoverty problems. So, if we manage to condition ourselves to be content with less, if we change our attitudes towards money being a mark of a person’ssuccess, then there will be plenty to go around for everyone. This planet can easily sustain us if we learn to live in harmony with it. There is hope for the future if we manage to discipline ourselves in the right way. We as individuals must mature, we have to drop our egos, be selfless and charitable as this is the only way that suffering will be eased across the globe. We must get the massive chip off our shoulder of trying to be best and compete with every individual that we see. I only hope that we do not do too much irreparable damage before we see the error of our ways, or we could be making recompense for hundreds of years to come. I am not going to end this book with a negative note. I know, as God knows that as a species, we are capable of many great and good things. When we show our humanity towards others, then weare truly reflecting the purity within us that is God. We are capable of overcoming all adversities and being a species that other species would love to meet. We have the potential of shining so brightly. Our light has not gone out; it is merely shaded at the moment by the egosthat we hold so dear. This will change, we will mature; it will be painful, but we will mature……..

The body of a baby girl was found in a carrier bag on the banks of a river in Great Arne in Warwickshire. She had died of multiple injuries including a fractured skull. No one knew her name or the identity or whereabouts of her family, so she was simply known as, “Baby Lilly”. Since the discovery of the body, the village took this abandoned child to their hearts. They raised money for a proper funeral and memorial; a local scout leader dug her grave in the local churchyard. Local businesses paid for the headstone and the village turned out in force for her funeral. At the service the vicar said that, “Whatever may happen or be discovered in the future, she will forever be one of us”. At the end of the service the congregation were invited to stretch out their hands towards the tiny coffin descend light love and peace towards, “Baby Lilly”. As she was buried a dove was released as a symbol of peace. (Similar thing happened in Newbridge in Wales, not far from me)

APPENDIX i)About The Author and Justification for Writing This Book Nowadays writing a book is a relatively easy process when you are aided by modern computer technology. As a result the internet is full of what they now call, ‘Vanity Publishing’. So the question that arose in my mind was not so much as, whether I could write a book, but rather, should I be writing a book. What gave me the right to publish a book based on philosophy, a subject in which I have only completed my first year’s degree course? That certainly didn’t make me qualified. Was I just being proud and egotistical even contemplating such a project? And anyway, a lot of what I had to say seems to me to be, ‘stating the bleeding obvious’, even though the, ‘bleeding obvious’, seemed to escape the attention of the majority of the people I have encountered. The reason that I could justify writing this book is that I believe I have something, ‘New’, to say that has not already been said and that the conclusions that I have drawn lead to a warning to mankind as to the way it is heading. In fact the stark warnings that my findings suggest turned my doubts into whether or not to write this book into question but rather as an obligation. Of course the conclusions that I draw you may not agree with, and definitely would not like to agree with. However, my duty lies in bringing my thoughts to your attention and not making you believe that they have sufficient substance or justification. If the words remain unsaid, and I fail to warn those that will listen of what I feel in my heart to be true,then I have failed myself and those around me as well as God himself. If he gave me the knowledge, -whether or not that knowledge is considered by popular theology to be false-, is beside the point. Not to relay that message could only be classed as negligent and ungrateful. The point of this book is to give you a different point of view so that you are not trapped by the definitive answers that society seems determined that you believe. Life is a paradox and there are no definitive answers in life. Life was designed this way to give you the scope to find the truth out for yourself. On top of this, the reason that I feel this is a good time to write this book is, mankind has reached a point in history when he is becoming aware of his own foolishness and so may consider my opinions less foolhardy then they would have thought in the past, and as I was told to write my messages down by a prominent church goer in the church that I attend. As mentioned in the forward of this book, I was considered to have my head in the clouds as I was growing up, a fact that my parents were naturally concerned about. My father even tried to, ‘Smack it out of me’, in one pre-planned mathematics tuition session, but it would not work and he soon gave up. I suppose it often made my parents anxious when they knew I was capable of more, a situation I can certainly empathise with now that I am a parent myself. Certainly I do not blame them for trying their best to pull me down from the clouds, in their situation I hope that I would be a caring enough parent to do just the same. But they were not in my mindset, they were unable to understand my thoughts, and I can only hope that they took solace in the fact that I loved them and my siblings so dearly that it is difficult for me to imagine that the love I felt for them could ever be surpassed, a fact, I am sure, that they were only too aware of at the time. Parents being parents, they probably just wished that I lived

on the same planet as them; a feeling that was probably shared by many that I have held dear in the past. Considering life and the situation I held in it was not the only direction in which my mind took me. Often like many other people, I would invent things in my head, and even the odd one or two; I would at least attempt to materialize. But by far the most difficult project I’ve ever set myself for consideration was the analysis of human consciousness with a view of digitizing and computerising the result to develop conscious computers. When analysing consciousness, the basic skeleton; such as survival being the driving force and the tools of that survival such as fear, the need for food and to procreate etc. These are basic instincts that are easy to computerise as they are logical. Though what makes the human consciousness difficult to fully analyse is that it is also driven by illogical concepts such as love, compassion, faith and art which are often contrary to the interests of the individual. This ability for human beings to extend beyond the logical, to commit acts that are clearly not in their own best self interest and, what is more, do them for such abstract concepts such as, ‘love’. I found truly fascinating. Self analysis is very difficult as it involves looking beyond the material world, the ego etc. and discovering the root of ones being which some would call the soul, aura, personality etc. Scientists have still to identify where the personality is seated in the human body though it is usually assumed that it is in the human mind or brain. This difficulty in self analysing oneself is probably why I have difficulty explaining why I think as radically as I do. I have to firstly admit that, especially in my teenage years, even though I had foreseen problems looming over mankind’s head in the near future, I would never have contemplated writing this book. At that time I felt like a droplet of water clinging to a stick embedded in the mud of a torrential river of foolishness. Like many radical thinkers before me, this feeling of isolation is not unique in history. The people around me, -being materialistic by nature-, considered my opinions to be foolish and of no value. This rejection of my opinions led to a feeling of isolation and has, on several occasions forced me to doubt whether my opinions had merit or whether indeed they were foolhardy. After many years of frustration and contemplation I decided to let go and, “Go with the flow”, with the attitude in mind of, “They’re making their own bed and they have to lie in it”, and “I’m just one person and I’m not responsible”…This and many others, was the type of thought that consoled me at this time and dissociated me from the problems that I had foreseen, even though, having, “Gone with the flow”, I too was clearly part of the problem. I convinced myself that someone of little significance, such as myself; had no influence and any effort or gesture would be clearly futile. However, now that my prophecies from that time now seem to be becoming true, I have now been left with the responsibility to air my views to any and all that will listen. When I was young and I used to study many holy texts of various religious denominations. I found that many of those texts were full of paradoxes that seemed illogical at the time. Since then I have discovered not only that these paradoxes were filled with truth, and the reason why these texts were paradoxical is that life was a paradox. That which I knew to be true and what the rest of the world, in particular the scientific community was telling me were almost completely opposite. Not only this, but if I should die before I have a chance to pass on my

messages to the younger of my children, then all my thoughts over so many years will have gone to waste. You know what kids can be like, once they reach those teenage years, then all of a sudden they know everything, it is not until later in life they realise that you may have had a point, and sometimes it is just too late by then for them to ask you to re-iterate your points. I take solace in the fact that I believe that, although the majority of the world’s population will neither want to know or understand what I have to say. I remain convinced that what I have to say has relevance to the human situation both now and in the future. Have you ever heard a newborn baby’s first cry? I have and most people seem to think that that cry is from the slap of the doctor or the pain of that first breath… That’s not how I hear it… I hear it as one of disappointment. Obviously I can’t remember if I cried like that when I was born. I know that I was always a good baby to a point when my mother thought that there was something wrong with me and considered taking me to the doctor. I also know that I felt abundant love for my family and would do anything for them or make any sacrifice for them. Nothing was too much trouble and neither my parents nor my siblings ever had to ask me twice to do anything. I never lied, never cheated and never stole, even once whilst I was growing up. I did accidentally walk out of a shop with a pen in my hand and forgot to pay for it. I couldn’t get back to the shop that day and didn’t get round to returning to the shop just to pay for a, ‘Bic Biro’, but I don’t think that really counts as a felony as there certainly wasn’t any ill intention there, though I do regret not returning it even to this day. “Sounds like a pretty dull bloke!” I hear you say. I never felt dull or bored though and I was always doing something. I would love to earn money just so that I could buy my mum or dad that special present and never really wanted anything for myself. When I was completing a teaching qualification, they put me through a personality test as part of the procedure. They came back with the result that I had what the psychiatrist had pigeon holed as a, ‘Harmonious personality’, and apparently it’s quite a rare form of personality and meant that I saw things in a different light to most. They didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know though because I have always been well aware that I thought differently to the majority. Since I was around ten years old, most of my waking thoughts were focused on philosophical issues. My priorities changed in my teenage years as I was a normal, ‘Red Blooded Male’, onto the obvious issues. Though I still thought intensely on issues such as, ‘is there a God’, ‘Why are we here’, etc. etc. By the time I was a teenager, like most teenagers, I thought I had it all figured out and knew all there was to know. This, ‘surprisingly enough’, didn’t turn out to be the case. But as I carried on thinking and reading in later years, I found myself reaching conclusions to life that were becoming more and more controversial and certainly unusual when compared with today’s’ viewpoint on how things are. Now I wonder if, maybe my thoughts, being radical could open up new lines of enquiry and be the basis of new lines of discussion. This couldn’t be a bad reason to write a book, surely? People don’t have to believe what I believe, but offering a different perspective to previously discussed issues can only improve the outcome of such discussions as including a different line of discussion can only improve the accuracy of the conclusions that are drawn.

With the exception of my mother -who died when I was 23-, my family are all very materialistic, so my lines of thought have always been in conflict of my families lines of thought. This conflict of ideals has given rise to many arguments and misunderstandings over the years. If I look back on my life, then I would consider that my father’s input into my life has been the greatest influence on my life, which is why I have included the eulogy I wrote for him in the appendix, this I included as I thought it might give you a better understanding of the relationship I had with him. The reason that he was such a great influence is that I loved him dearly and did not want any harm to come to him just because he couldn’t see what I saw. In short, I feared for his soul because he led his life blinkered by the trappings of money and the materialistic world. He lived on the support of his ego and because he lived this way, he was acting in direct contravention with what I knew to be in his real self interest. As a consequence of this I found that I had to develop what I knew into straightforward terms, in order to prove to him beyond all reasonable doubt that I wasn’t some kind of lunatic. Though, even after all those years of trying to make him understand, he still did not believe in anything other than what he saw in front of his own eyes. Not because he couldn’t, as his life was littered with experiences that I could draw upon to back up my line of reasoning, but rather that he didn’t want to as he was not ready. The aim of this book is to bridge the gap between science and religion and explain what I believe is happening in the world today in what is commonly described as, ‘the human situation. I am well aware that you may gasp in horror and disbelief at some of the ideas I will bring up, but, please don’t give up as you may come across another thought further down the page that opens up new lines of possibilities for you. I have written a type of conclusion to this book at the end so that the direction of my thoughts can be brought to their inevitable conclusion. But you may never believe that there is anything in what the conclusion draws up unless you follow the lines of proof that I submit in the rest of the book. _____________________________________________________________________ Some scientists began to study a rabbit; they studied its behaviour, mating habits, measure its intelligence and then dissected every molecule in its body to find out how it worked. Somewhere along the line they forgot that it was a rabbit, failed to realise the true magnificence of the rabbit was the fact that it was a miracle in itself. Didn’t even realise they had destroyed the beauty by their inquisitiveness and ignorance. _____________________________________________________________________ If you haven’t guessed already, I am quite spiritual in my outlook in life, but I will try not to make the book too boring or obscure and I promise not to intentionally, ‘Bible or Koran bash you’, into believing something that you don’t want to believe. I tried that long enough with my father, it just doesn’t work. People will believe what they are ready and willing to believe. You will either be listening to that, ‘Little Voice’, inside you or you will not. To try and explain something to someone who is not ready is like trying to explain, Quantum Physics to a six year old. Pointless, futile and further may put the six year old off the idea of studying Physics or maybe any other subject altogether. If you cannot hear that, ‘Little Voice’, then you will not hear me entirely and will not understand all that I have to say. But, you may still many chapters in this book that you may find interesting and worthy of your attention. For those of you that don’t believe in God or anything spiritual, the ‘Little voice’, which I will

talk about, is the voice of your soul. Don’t fret though, if you are not a believer in a soul just exchange the word with, ‘conscience’, it works just as well. And those who don’t believe in God just replace the word with nature or,’ life force of the universe’, and you won’t go far wrong when you’re trying to figure out my line of reasoning. Finally, I wish to say that many of the things that I have to say in this bookare very negative about the current human situation and can at times be very depressing. However, it must be understood that everything changes as will this current human situation change into another. The aim of the book however is not to depress you but to bring you to a greater understanding of the world both in and around you by bouncing off new ideas on you and making you think about life a little more then you probably do at present. I wish this book to be of relevance to everyone regardless of their race, creed, colour or sexual orientation. Although some of the things that I have to say may offend the minority, unfortunately this is unavoidable if I am to be true to my feelings. I would like to point out that this book covers general topic areas and is not designed to be a definitive answer on any subject. Mostly because if I went into detail when I am writing on such a wide range of subjects, this book would be in twenty volumes and would take me ages to write asI’m a slow typist. This book in many ways is not just written for you the reader, but in a large part it is written in the hope that I can sort out my own head by writing down some of the knowledge and thoughts that I have accumulated over the years. I love mankind, and I have faith in mans ability to make the best of a bad situation and come out shining at the end of the day. All people have the ability to love, laugh and be merry and I am the last one to ‘throw a spanner in the works’, of such a wonderful gift. I have a message to say and I will say it. All I ask is that you take the time to consider my words and no more.

ii)My Personal Reasons for Believing In a Life after Death There have been many occurrences in my life that have fortified my belief in an afterlife. Probably the first supernatural incident I can remember was when I was in boarding school and had a dream in which I saw my dog in the vets, shaking violently. I didn’t think much of it at the time but a couple of days later I received a letter in the post telling me that my dog, a golden retriever called ‘Lassie’, had been bumped by a car and had to go to the vets.

I also rememberwhen my father told me of an incident in one of the buildings he owned at the time. He was painting the stairs that led to the top floor, when a little girl in a party dress came down the stairs towards him. Not thinking he moved aside for her to get passed and she carried on her way down the stairs. It was several seconds after she had descended the stairs that it occurred to my father that there was no-one else in the house apart from him. He immediately ran out of the house realising that he had just seen a ghost! My mother, who believed quite strongly in the supernatural, investigated further into this incident and discovered that a young girl that lived in the house years before had died on the way to a party. This was not the only incident that occurred in this house though. A year or two later, the same house had several resident in the house that were squatting in the top floor flat much to my father’s annoyance at the time. They did not squat for long though as they reported that, “They were not staying there any longer because a young girl in a party dress kept appearing from nowhere and started throwing things around the room. My father also relayed to me a time, when his brother was in hospital in London dying from a hole in his heart. It had been arranged by my father that there would be a shift system in place so that at no time would his brother be left to die alone. My father was on the way to the hospital to go on his shift by train. Then to his dismay, through the crowds he saw his brother looking at him. He fought his way through the crowds only to find no sign of him. He said he knew at that moment that his brother was dead. He finally arrived at the hospital and had his intuition confirmed, though his thoughts on the matter were quickly overtaken by his disappointment of the fact that his mother, -whose shift it was at the time of his brothers’ death-, had left him to pray at the chapel! Another incident occurred in my mothers’ family, at the time of my grandfathers’ death. He always used to wind the clocks in the house, the interesting thing being that every clock in the house had stopped exactly at the time of his funeral. My mother always was always a little superstitious though and had a whole repertoire of things that you must not do because they were unlucky. At this time they were called, “Old wives tails”, and many people believed in them as if they were fact. I clearly remember a specific, ‘old wives tail’, that she was very concerned about just before she died. That was that an owl appeared a few months prior to her death in the tree to the rear of our house and hooted through the night…every night. My mother had been to check that the owl was in fact in our garden and then declared that this was a bad omen and that someone in the house would soon die. Now when she considered who was likely to die, she immediately thought it was to be my father as he smoke and drank heavily and had already suffered from two heart attacks by that time. She was not to know that she was to be the one that would die a few weeks later. The night that she died, I had remembered her premonition and went around the back to chuck a stone at the bird and get rid of it. The bird however was nowhere to be seen or heard and did not re-appear after that night, I know this for a fact because I checked myself every night for months. The one deciding incident in my life though that had the most impact in fortifying my belief in the afterlife, and indeed turned the possibility into a fact for me, happened to me, - and me alone which is so often the case-, and occurred on New Year’s Eve in the same year that my mother passed away. We had a dog at this time called Bella; she was a Gordon setter and suffered from a lung

condition that gave her a condition known as, ‘water on the lungs’. The vet was unable to do anything for her though said that she was not in major discomfort. He had also said that as the condition progressed, she would become weaker then one day she would start coughing up blood and would die soon afterwards. As the months passed she indeed grew weaker and towards the end found it very difficult to walk and impossible to step down a stair due to this weakness. Now on this particular New Years Eve I was on taxi duty. That is to say that I was responsible for collecting the rest of the family in the car from the pub after they had too much to drinkand were unable to drive. Anyway, that evening I had felt a strange chill for several hours previous to this incident, the type of cold where your hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Bella was in the front hallway of the house when I heard her coughing. It should be noted the layout of the house at this time. Between Bella and the back garden stood four locked doors and several stairs, and the root to the garden ran parallel to the sitting room. Now, where was I, oh yes,the dog was coughing and I went to her to discover that she was coughing up blood. I sat with her for a few minutes to stroke her and to wish her good bye as I knew she did not have long to go. Then the phone rang and I answered it to find my sister on the other end of the line requesting to be picked up. I said that I was, ‘on my way’, and began to put on my shoes and tie up the laces. That is the moment when it happened…..Four quick loud bangs in succession less than a second apart from one another. Fearing the house had intruders in it, and being a young, strong and brave man in those days, I ran round the house, fists clenched, shouting, ‘Come on then, I’ll have you’. But there was no-one in the house and the four doors that led to the back garden had been opened so violently that they had all been jammed open. It was then I noticed that the dog had gone. After searching the house again and failing to find either an intruder or dog, I decided that I must go and get my sister who would be wondering where I had got to. It was on the way through the back garden to reach the car that was parked at the back of the house when I heard and then saw Bella straining her last couple of breaths below a bush in the rear garden. I knew she was dying and she’d died before I could reach her, I then left her and carried on my way. I suppose it was not until I was in the car that I pieced the mystery together. Only then did it make sense that my mother, who was a greatanimal lover, had taken Bella outside to die. No human being could have run through to the garden as quickly as the doors had indicated that someone had. No human being could have kicked themin so violently, let alone carrying a dog whilst they did it. And most of all, ‘Why’, would anyone do such a thing! Another incident that I will tell you about was at the time when my father died. You need to understand that my father and I had a very close relationship, to fully appreciate this happening, such a tight bond that we often demonstrated an almost psychic bond between us. One of our party tricks was that I would concentrate on a card picked randomly from a deck of cards and he would guess which one it was. The amount of times he guessed correctly put the laws of probability to shame. We could often tell when the other was distressed about something or was in trouble even if we were miles apart. This was a bond of love that I had established with him when I was very young, and the bond itself had become part of both of us. I was at work when I knew that I felt that I had to go home because my father was going to die soon. It was on myway home when the powers that be decided to sever the link between my father and me. I can tell you that this severing was one of the worst pains I had ever felt. This was not a physical pain but a pain that hurt my very soul and I knew instantly that our connection

had been severed. When I arrived home, even though his body was still alive, I knew that he had already gone in effect and that his consciousness was no longer in his body. I planned to be there at his death to help spiritually in whatever way that I could. But the powers that be made sure that I would not interfere. He was taken from me during the five minutes that I had left his side to get his prescription from the local chemist. The night that he died, as I walked the dog, I felt his soul near me and felt it to be confused and uncertain. This did not surprise me as he did not believe in the afterlife and understandably it would take him a while to adjust to his new situation. So I just consoled his soul as best I could then return home when his presence began abating. He did not follow me. I did speak to him several months later and he had come to terms with his death and was happy which cheered me up greatly I can assure you as I was worried for him until then. It was of course due to and as a result of these incidents that happened either to me or those that I trust that any scepticism I had about the afterlife was eradicated. I consider myself very fortunateto be devoid of scepticism. If I had heard these stories from someone else rather than having experienced them myself, I would probably have questioned their validity. There are stories abound of incidents such as these that have happened to you or those around you, though you do need that leap of faith to fully understand why they occurred. Another experience and the only one I would class as a negative experience of the supernatural occurred at my place of work. It happened when I was working in the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, Gwent. It was as I was working away on a distribution board on my ladder when I saw from the corner of my eye a man heading towards me. As he approached I felt a very strong feeling of disgust for this man which was unprecedented for me as I was so accepting of anyone I came across. He stopped and looked up to me, his eyes met mine and I knew that he was pure evil. He studied me for four or five seconds, and during that time we both knew what the others soul was like and had sensed each others’ intuition. Then he just turned on his heels and headed back up the corridor. Neither of us had uttered a word to each other but both knew what had happened. One of my work colleagues who was a strong football supported had recognised him as a rich millionaire that was well known as the organiser of fights in football matches. This fact only strengthened the fact which I had already known. I had come across someone who I could only describe as pure evil and had no wish to come across him everagain. My only message to you from this experience is that evil is out there in its purest form so you should always be on your guard against such people. It was also in The Royal Gwent Hospital that I sensed strongly the spirit of my recently dead dog following down the corridors of the hospital. I knew it was him because I could sense the way he wagged his tail, the same way I could sense it when he was alive and behind me when he wagged it. He followed me for several hours and then moved on, I have never felt him again since. This next personal experience I am putting separate as it can easily be accepted as illusory. That is that, on my nineteenth birthday I was living in Amsterdam. I had gone to a place called the ‘Milky Way’, or ‘Melek Weg’, in Dutch to wait for my friends. This place sold drugs over the counter, substances of which I was morally against even trying at thetime. But, being a bit of a pig at this time which young men often are, I began to get hungry, and the only food they had for sale was something called, ‘Space Cake’. Unaware that these contained hash, and not seeing why I should remain hungry on my birthday just because they were experienced, I treated myself

and purchased five and proceeded to consumed them one after the other in quick succession. About an hour later my friends arrived and one of them enquired, ‘what I had been on because my pupils were dilated. It took a long time for us to realise what had happened. This experience, in retrospect I do not regret, as it gave me the insight as to what tripping actually was, and trip I did for a full twenty four hours. All I can say is that my soul was a full ten feet above my head and whatever I saw that night and the following day, I saw from that perspective. I had full control of my body and speech functions but I was not in my body. Indeed that night, as I lay in the van in which I was sleeping, my soul was on top of the van and I could see the traffic passing and even identify the cars and read the number plates on them. The next day my soul descended over several hours until it was finally one again with my body. I am convinced in myself that this was no illusion, but I can understand that anyone that has no belief could not see how this was logically possible and therefore must be illusory.

(A Tribute to my dad)

Your Way

You were the most awe inspiring person I ever met, when I went drinking with you there were more than a few jaws that dropped at you 6’2” broad stature, you strong Red Indian type features, long black hair and large beer belly. All of which you collectively described as your, ‘good looks’. Even in the most crowded pubs in Cardiff, where people were squashed against the windows, noone stood less than three feet away from, ‘The Chief’, as your reputation preceded you. Everyone it seemed knew who you were, liked and respected you, yet you knew next to none of their names, as you were a free spirit and there was no need. You would stagger out drunk at the end of the night to the nearest chip shop, merely raise your hand and grunt; this would be enough to get instantly served ahead of the rest of the customers and no-one complained because you were, ‘The Chief’. You’d gobble your kebab in the most primitive of fashion as you staggered to, and into the main road, raise your hand once again and a cab would instantly stop and pick you up, even before the girls. You didn’t have to tell any taxi driver where you lived because they all knew you; they accepted your broken drunken banter in Hindustani and never expected a tip, you never needed to give one as you were, ‘The Chief’. I never saw you with their eyes; from the first time I opened them and saw you and mum I knew love, you were my protector, my idol, my inspiration and my heart. I remember how you leaped into an outside pool and rescued me when I was drowning; the strong hands that snapped me from the waters grasp, and the look of compassion in your eyes as you checked if you were alright. The way that you were always there when I needed you, even though you were a free spirit and disliked being tied to anything. I knew you loved me and we had a spiritual bond so tight that we could read each others mind. Until I was much older I failed to understand how your free spirit drove you to grasp after money for the power that you thought it would bring; Why you insisted that we learnt the words to Frank Sinatra’s, ‘My Way’, in the car on the way to school. Why you would frequently sleepwalk half way to town stark naked before the police picked you up and brought you home. Why you would get agitated when I was young as the time of night came when you would tell my mum you weregoing out for a pint. I used to wonder what could be out there that was better than staying in and being with your family, not understanding that you had no choice. You were business man that made Del Trotter look like Barney Bear. But, you were my dad and I stood by you solidly through the first thirty-six years of my life. From the age of ten I worked with you sometimes twelve hours a day, seven days a week for a pittance as you strove to do your business; people thought I was a fool, though I wasn’t as I did it for love. I bit my tongue when you messed up and told the customer that it was, “The boy’s fault”, and people said I was a fool, but I wasn’t as I did it for love. I fought by your side, held your hand as I faced the world, then made another cup of tea, and did it for love.

Because even though you were a, ‘Business Man’, you never fooled me for an instant, I know that you spent most of your money on the best education for your children, and spent the last years of your life trying to secure a financial future for your grandchildren. I know that when we were in need, when we had broken down, when we needed a lift or when we just needed a chat and a cuppa, you were there. I saw the way you grieved when mum died and when one of your familiesleft the fold a little too long. I saw the way you forgave them unreservedly on their return and greeted them with open arms. I saw the way you looked at your grandchildren with boundless love…selfless love and compassion shone through. It was this light that I loved you for, no matter how much we fought with our opposing opinions on materialism and spiritualism I knew that you held the light of love and therefore God in you. Dad, you died on April fool’s day and on April fool’s day the spiritual bond we had weresevered; you have been released from grasping at the temptations of this world that your free spirit was so cruelly tied to. Now your spirit shall know true freedom. You can look back on your life and know that you were loved, and, ‘Through it all you took the blows and did it your way’. Father to me Tina, Terry and Daniel. Husband to my mother Sandra and partner to Linda. Grandfather to Stephen, Adam, Owen, Sean, Dean and Damian. Great Grandfather to Sophie. You will be sorely missed, but through our grief and knowing that the world has lost one of its few great characters; we will miss you, ‘God Speed’, know that we will always love you, may your spirit find the freedom it desires and may you rest in peace in the arms of the Lord Our God. Amen.