"In The Beginning...."

       Whatever doubts I might still have had about the Spiritual World, were well and truly dispelled in December, 1987.   Now, I must confess that I have never remained a constant churchgoer in my adult years.   True, I had to attend the Church of England as a choirboy, in my early school-years.   Equally true, I studied Scripture for my School Leaving Certificate.   After that any religious interest dwindled down to attending an occasional Christmas Service, and of course, I guess that I have seen most of the Hollywood epics.

       Being very much of a bookworm I have for many years had copies of the St.James Bible, as well as the Good News Bible.   Rather than reading them through, I used only to turn to them for reference purposes.   They were certainly far from my mind when my family world was shattered on that December afternoon.   It was only a month or so short of my thirty-first wedding anniversary.   The call came late in the day.   I was all on my own, as the other consultant had the afternoon off, and I had just finished interviewing a solitary client.   J....’s voice betrayed tones of alarm, as I listened to her telling me that she had just arrived home, and found a note from her husband saying that he had left home to go and live with my wife.   At first, it was unbelievable.   As the dreadful news began to sink in, I went sick in the stomach.   Closing the Office, I ‘phoned my son, knowing that I couldn’t drive home myself.

       For five nights, I neither slept, nor ate.   I kept going, on tea and coffee, pacing from room to room during the night.   Once the weekend was over, I was glad to be back at work, where I had no option but to listen and talk to clients.   At night the horror of the whole deceit closed in again.   Apparently it had been going on for years, neither myself nor J.... having had the slightest inkling.   I really don’t know what made me pick up a Bible one night, and flick it open.   It was simply an idle reaction, with little thought to what I was doing.   The next moment, though, my eyes were glued to the pages, astounded at the verses which almost sprang from the page before me.   It was if someone or something else had opened the book for me, and wanted me to read those lines.   They were so right to the point, and so accurately describing my own situation.   It wouldn’t be fair to all those involved, to direct the reader to the chapter and verses concerned, in this instance.   But, this was how I discovered that messages could be conveyed through the Bible.   Several times after that, I referred to the good book when something important came up.   With perhaps one exception, I always got a direct reply.   Those cases, when we come to them, will be enough to illustrate the way it worked.

Who Was It?

       So, who was it at the other end? The Church would say, “be careful, it might be the Devil.”.   I don’t think so.   I can only say that I detect the manner, style, and humour of someone very close to me, but deceased.   In fact, only a few months were to pass before at least one or two of the unseen participants were to leave me in no doubt at all about their continued interest in my well being.

       Life has to go on.   I had to come to terms with my new situation.   Fortunately, it wasn’t long before I met Edith.   A year later, we married, and we have both lived happily ever after.   Yet, was it just chance?   In view of what was to be, and what had been, I can see clearly now, that it was either already written or already planned.

       I had no memory, nor do I now, of ever having met Edith and her late husband Dick' before.   But we had to have met, twenty years earlier.   In February 1967, I escorted an Iron and Steel Institute group around Australia.   The tour included a visit to Whyalla, where we were entertained one evening to a lavish dinner, hosted by BHP.   Dick held a senior appointment with the Company in Whyalla, where both he and Edith attended all such functions.   We may even have all sat at the same table.   The following morning one of the group was a little ill, and I went with him to the Hospital.   What I can remember, is that I recognised a nurse from the previous evening, and I think she was at our table.   Edith was employed as a nurse at the Whyalla hospital.  

       All coincidental?   Hardly!   My daughter was told in a 'Reading' a couple of months beforehand, that I would meet somebody called Edith, and recommended that I should make an appointment to see the same Medium.   When I did so, her insight and accuracy with predictions, were almost beyond belief.   See Readings and Meetings for a detailed analysis.   Whoever else may have 'come through', Dick was certainly one of them.

Fortune Tellers?

       Early in June, 1990, I couldn’t help but remark on the run of clientele who had contacted me in one way or the other, all of them being surnamed ‘A........’ and all within a couple of days of each other.   In fact there were four of them, but none of them related, and not one aware of the others.   I got some fanciful notion that I was being directed to see T.... once more.   Discussing it with Edith, I found that she was not keen on the idea, and even now I’m not sure why.   I think perhaps it was a case of not wanting to know what might lie ahead.   Then I remembered the accuracy of the Bible pages two and a half years earlier, and said, “Let’s see what the book has to say”.   I really had no idea what I expected to find, or that there would be anything near the mark.   It was just one of those things that you sometimes do, ‘out of the blue’, so to speak.

       A few moments later, having returned to the Lounge with the ‘Good News Bible’, I opened it once more at random.   Unfortunately I didn’t make a note of the chapter and verses that startled me for a second time, with their direct instruction concerning the question that I was asking.   The very fact that it took me a long time to find these verses again, reassures me that it was no accident.   I had found myself reading out, to Edith these words in Isaiah 8, verses 19 and 20, “But people will tell you to ask for messages from fortune-tellers and mediums, who chirp and mutter.   They will say, ‘After all, people should ask for messages from the spirits and consult the dead on behalf of the living.’   ‘You are to answer them, ‘Listen to what the Lord is teaching you!   Don’t listen to mediums-what they tell you will do you no good.”

       The first ‘Bible Incident’, might have been an odd coincidence, but two times in a row?   How could I ignore what it was telling me.   Rightly or wrongly, I decided to give the Medium a miss on this occasion.

The Gulf War - 1991

       I didn’t have so long to wait until it happened again.   The Gulf War erupted early in 1991.   Everybody was so apprehensive, and a general feeling pervaded the atmosphere of those days that total conflict might be imminent.   We had made all our plans to fly to Europe on holiday, in February that year.   Unlike so many, we didn’t cancel but went ahead with it.   Just the same, it was serious enough to occasion another look at the ‘Good Book’.   As before, I was of little faith, and never expected to be given further confirmation of any unearthly awareness of what was happening on our tiny planet.   Maybe the pages were loosening up to the middle section of the Bible.   It certainly wasn’t far away from the last message.   Yet the words I now read, brought on some breathlessness as they unfolded from Isaiah 13, verses 1 to 4, “This is a message about Babylon, ......The Lord has called out his proud and confident soldiers to fight a holy war and punish those he is angry with........The Lord of Armies is preparing his troops for battle. They are coming from far-off countries at the ends of the earth.” (USA, Britain, France?)   Further on in the next chapter, the Bible states that the King of Babylon (Saddam?) conquered nations in the past, and asks “Is this the man who never freed his prisoners”. (Iranian prisoners?)  

Do not sell your land!

       I would emphasize that I hardly ever referred to the Bible, in those days, other than the junctures so far mentioned.   I had some instinct that I was not to abuse it, and treat it lightly.   So, many more months were to pass by, before I felt that the time had come for another ‘outside’ opinion on a matter which was causing some concern and deliberation.   The problem facing us in 1995 was whether or not we should continue to hang on to some land that we had bought in Queensland, at Tin Can Bay.   There was a time when we had dreams of retiring there at some future point in our retirement.   Although, it was a form of insurance against any abnormal surge upwards in real estate values.   Edith was all for selling, and using the money to build our home at Hastings.   I was inclined to hang on for a bit, for we had been losing on the deal, what with paying out rates, and the static state of the market then.

       Then I thought of it.   Let us consult the Book, again.   I seem to remember a slight amusement in Edith’s eyes.   It didn’t last.   My left hand thumb had plucked the cover and first few pages open to Leviticus.   I was looking straight at a paragraph, chapter 25 verse 23, which I read out before examining it first.   I think I faltered a little, as I spoke the words, “Your land must not be sold on a permanent basis, because you do not own it; it belongs to God, and you are like foreigners who are allowed to make use of it.”

       Four times in a row.   Admittedly over a period of seven years.   Now there was a temptation to consult the Book every time we had a question.   I haven’t done so in any earnestness.   The feeling that this would not be right still overcomes the allurement.   I do own up to trying it in a light manner, knowing that I would get no result.   Somehow this doesn’t count.

       The whole point is, who is directing my hands on these occasions.   I don’t for one second believe it is any kind of divine intervention.   More likely, it is someone just trying to advise, and furthermore someone without all the answers.   First of all we did sell our land in Tin Can Bay, and it was for the best, at the time.   (We have learned lately, that it has soared up in value.)   Secondly, the concern and alarm coming through from this ‘other being’, at a later date, disclosed a lack of knowledge of subsequent events.

Princess Diana

       When the news of Princess Diana’s catastrophic accident flashed on to our television screens, it was a very emotional time for all.   I doubt whether there was a soul alive in the news enlightened world, who didn’t ponder for some time, and grieve at the very least a little, upon her tragedy.   The senseless loss of life in road disasters strikes nigh on daily, yet rarely disturbs anyone for long, other than immediate family, friends and loved ones.   This was one of those rare milestones that touched every heart that cared.

       While many were stunned, and many a teardrop welled in moistened tear ducts, I felt drawn to the golden covered volume, that had stood idle for months beforehand.   I have no idea what I expected to find.   I doubt that I even thought about what I was doing.   Until, it opened up to Job 14, and I found myself reading, “We are all born weak and helpless.   All lead the same short troubled life.   We grow and wither as quickly as flowers; we disappear like shadows........The length of his life is decided beforehand- the number of days he will live.   You have settled it, and it can’t be changed.”

       Can it be that the Dream of Life is a set plan?   Who decides how long it is to last?

Looking Back

       Early in February,1998, my thoughts had been straying, fairly constantly to the far past days of my youth. I cannot recall now what triggered it.   Suffice to say, that I relived in mind, the happy times in Pinner, the constant family gatherings, and the various escapades which coloured those dreary days during the War.   I had spent a lifetime’s career arranging travel to every corner of the World for others.   If only I could have discovered some way to reach back into the early 1940’s.   I had to be satisfied with all I could remember, and any piece of memorabilia that would help trigger these reflective ventures into the past.   The old songs certainly helped, as did meditating over memories of my mother and my father.

       One night, just into the second week of February, I just had to get up, to ease the ocular irritation.   It was still only half past four.   So, having put the kettle on to boil, I wandered into a back bedroom to find something light to read.   Why on earth, I pulled out that old red book, I’ll never know.   There were so many books of humour, magazines, and an assortment of anthologies.   This old King James version of the Bible had been given to me, at my naturalization ceremony, and hardly glanced at since then.   It had been water damaged in a minor flood when stored away in a box in a garage.   The pages were crinkled together, and whilst none were stuck together, it took concentration to pull some apart.

Be Wise and Explain the Mysteries

       Having made my selection, and with eyes still smarting, I returned to the kitchen, opening the pages on my way.   My first glance was at the beginning of Psalm 78.   It made no impression on me at all, as I laid the open book down upon the bench.   Only when I came to write these words, did I taken any notice of those first lines, “I am going to use wise sayings, and explain the mysteries from the past”.

Eyes, Meditation, and Seeking

       Once I was seated comfortably, with a hot cup of tea at close hand, I turned back to the pages that I had half heartedly picked on some moments earlier.   Only, this time I found that I was focusing on the previous Psalm.   Close to the top of the page were the words - “Thou dost hold my eyelids from closing; ......I consider the days of old, I remember the years long ago.   I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit.”   Here it was again.   A comment on something that was bothering me at that moment, and a reference to my thoughts of the previous few days.   But there was a difference.   I hadn’t set out to look for any guidance this time.   It was utterly casual, and even more unexpected.

       The next morning, I checked the “Good News Bible” to see how these lines had been interpreted into Modern English. They were even more to the point, “He keeps me awake all night. Psalm 77:4    I think of days gone by and remember years of long ago.   I spend the night in deep thought; I meditate.” Psalm 77:5

Universal Fountain of Knowledge?

       Those last lines were also close to the truth.   Not quite though.   I usually get a good four hours sleep before I am awakened either by my eyes or by thought.   How often I have come out of a deep dream, with an idea or question.   If lucky, I may fall off again, but so frequently that first kernel of suggestion mushrooms into a full blown dissemination of new ideas that churn over until a whole new concept is born.   Where do those thoughts all come from?   I would like to think they are something I have worked out.   I know better than to be so conceited.   I must surely be drawing from some unknown universal source, or a ‘fountain of knowledge’.

       Is there any other way to explain why it is that new inventions spring up simultaneously, with neither scientist aware that another is working on the same theory.   It well might be that a need arises, and several set out to find the answer.   I am not convinced that this is always the explanation.

Six Years On

A little more than six years have gone by since these lines were written.      Much has happened and more revealed.      Instances of information being passed to me from some outside source are now well beyond any doubt... well, on my part at least.      Too much has happened to detail in these pages, but these incidents will give some idea of ideas mysteriously springing into mind.

During the last week of 2004 I began to write my novel, "The Tutankhamen Code", which I finished in March, 2006.      As is ever the case, when composing an involved work of literature there were times when I experienced 'writer's block', or wasn't quite sure what was coming next.      After some weeks, this never bothered me, since I knew that it would come to me after sleeping on it.      I found that I could bank on the next sequence of events and scenes unfolding in a flash of inspiration.      In some kind of confirmation that I was being helped, two notable pieces were thrown back at me after I had written them, via more conventional ways and means.

The first of these was in fact nothing less than astonishing.     One of my characters was like his legendary namesake a comical fool, known to Turks as 'The Hodja'.      In a scene at an Egyptian golf course, I decided to show him looking completely ridiculous wearing very loud and colourful clothing.      I cannot recall now whether the inspiration came through a night's disturbed half sleep, or whether I had first of all spotted this verse by Coleridge:

"His jacket was red and his breeches were blue,
And there was a hole where the tail came through."

Either way having found this piece, I just knew that this was how I wanted to display him.      I also knew without even thinking about it as I was writing, that he had to have a ridiculous head piece, and so The Hodja was given an oversized green Scottish bonnet.      Then to finish off his apparel, his baggy blue golf breeches were given white pinstripes, and his loose fitting red jacket acquired a thin white check.      At some point while writing the golf course scene I took a break, and having relaxed back on the sofa in the lounge, I picked up the unopened 'Review' section of that day's 'Weekend Australian'.      Eventually I turned to the book and magazine review pages, and was utterly stunned to see a small reproduction of the cover page of a 'Spectator' magazine.      There he was, my Hodja dressed just as I had so recently described him.      If there was any discrepancy between the two, then it was only in the huge size of the green bonnet on the magazine cover.      I had envisioned something smaller.

Some two or three chapters later, I was to be taken by surprise again.      This time the main hero was trudging along beside a camel train which was wending its way up a barren rocky trail, beside a deep valley hedged in by high mountains, somewhere to the south of Luxor.      This time the confirmation took a little longer to come through.      It was as I remember, during the following evening, when we were watching a drama series set in Ethiopia.      The only difference was that the scene was a little more open and wider spaced than the trail I had described.      Nevertheless everything else was just as I had seen it in the mind's eye.

Not long afterwards I noticed something else, which was well beyond the possibilities of a random coincidence.      I had just become addicted to Sudoku puzzles, and if the television happened to be switched on, with a not too engrossing programme, I would turn to the latest puzzle.      Then suddenly when checking out a particular number, it boomed out from the television speakers.      For a while I really did think it was coincidental, but when it continued to happen, as soon as I had a new number in mind, I really began to take notice.      I couldn't be anticipating a number, as I was following a system in solving each line of numbers in the puzzle.      Few of the programmes were actually 'live', so some other kind of synchronism was at work here.      Furthermore, in time it wasn't just number that I was looking at, but a pair or series of three, and these would then be announced from the speakers in the correct order.

So I now have several cases where some pre-planning is taking place, or more remarkably time and events are reversing from a final '33'.      For example see '33 in place and time', and especially 'The Tanks'.      In this sequence of filmed news reports, where every tank or military vehicle carries the number '33', the effect lasts for practically 60 years.      UNLESS these news reports were for my eyes only?      Could it be that another person would see a completely different number on the tanks in each piece of news film?      This would seem to be impossible as others watching with me have all seen the number '33' on the tanks.      UNLESS AGAIN, the effect is limited to a specific area?

Gulf War 1998

       The very next night, (following on from the Psalm 77 episode above), was just as bad.   My eyes were irritable again, and knowing that I wouldn’t get any more sleep, I got up and put the kettle on.   Desperately hoping that this was not to become a habit, I settled down in an armchair.   The two bibles were at hand.   Rather than go searching for something else, I flicked open the ‘Good News’ version, intending to have another look at the paragraphs that had so impressed me the day before.   The pages opened at Amos chapters 6 and 7.   I was about to look further for the Psalms when I noticed that here was another warning about the ‘Destruction of Israel’.   The Second Gulf War had just flared up, and here it was again.   Still intent on checking the piece about keeping me awake, I flipped the book over, so that I could refer back to it later on.   By this time the kettle was on the boil.   Returning with a nice hot mug of tea, I resettled myself in the chair, and picked up the ‘King James’ Bible.   I opened it, meaning to flick through until I found the Psalms.   I could hardly believe it.   I was looking at the very same chapters of Amos.   The fate of Israel seemed unavoidable.   Without any doubt, the verses spelling out wide spread doom and woe for that tiny country, were being emphasized.   But by whom.   I forgot all about the Psalms and read on.

       Later on, in the light of day, I decided to have another look, at the chapters.   It felt as if somebody was determined that I should really take notice of them.   They hadn’t finished delivering their entire message.   Instead of finding Amos straight away, the ‘Good News’ Bible opened up at Jeremiah 49 and 50.   The warning had been extended to include the destruction of Baghdad, or so it seemed.   Events were to prove otherwise.   So, was it a warning of what may easily have happened, or could it be that my source of information, really didn’t know the final outcome.   Judging by what happened six days later, (See Duck and Cover )they hadn’t given up trying to press home a warning.