THE START OF THE JOURNEY   

Where does one start... Well, I have heard it said that the beginning is always a good place to begin...

I was born in England, at the end of the second World War, into a world of slums, bomb sites, anger, frustration, little money and a lot of hardships.

Probably the best thing at that time was my parents love of music and their introducing me to the violin. I started serious studies of violin at age seven. In retrospect this had so much great value. It introduced discipline and a focus in my life, plus the concept and value of persisting until one reaches a desired level of accomplishment. It gave me the means of a passionate and artistic communication skill. Probably of greatest value, it enabled me to start on a road to skill and mastery in one area of life, which has acted as a model to shape other areas of life for me.

From an early age I questioned "Who am I?", "What is existence?". These are thorny and painful questions for any of us, especially in our childhood years. During adolescence I studied great political and philosophical writers. They all had very little to say about the spiritual nature of man. Then I moved onto Darwin, with his theory of evolution, substantiating the idea that we are just higher animals - born out of the mud and dying back into the same mud some 70 or so years later. There was still no mention of spirituality. Then I moved onto the existentialists (Jean-Paul Sartre, Kierkergard, etc.) They left me with a suicidal condition and the perceived reality that we have no cause in life other than to accept conditions as they are: mostly bad and undesirable. Ugh!!

In the early 60's I caught the first glimmer of light with my introduction to Zen-Macrobiotics. Brown rice and a few veggies, and information that gave me glimpses of our basic nature as Spiritual Beings.

After a most elevating, but also most disastrous young marriage, I was left devastated. My brother Ivan introduced me to what was to become the most important and life changing information and set of tools that I have ever known. They still hold their inestimable value to this day, three and a half decades later.

I should also note that up to this point in my life, I was a complete introvert. I could not say Boo to a Goose. This may well be unbelievable, especially to those of you who have seen me so comfortably performing or talking, whether it be to one person or 10,000. This information and set of tools has given me great skills as a performing artist, as well as in all other areas of life.

What I have to tell you next was the beginning of this miraculous and life changing journey, which is still in progress.

Most of us have heard the expression "Be here now." Ram Dass wrote a book in the late 60's that popularized this idea all over the world. However, like so many things, nobody seemed to know how you do it. Even worse, nobody appeared to be able to teach us how.

My brother, Ivan, seeing me in great distress, took me aside one day and said "Sit in that chair opposite me, just look at and be aware of me. Don't do anything else, no moving around, no thinking about stuff. Just be PRESENT in the moment, being aware of me." At first my mind was racing and I was crying hysterically over my upsets. But, after a few minutes I quieted down and the pain of past losses and failures magically dropped away. I discovered the incredible joy of being in the PRESENT, BEING HERE NOW. I was also aware of how huge I felt.

This was most curious! I felt huge, large, big. Right there was something worthy of much more in-depth examination.

If you desire to reach this same kind of peace and awareness, I suggest you do the following short exercise on yourself right now.

                           1a. Recall a time you felt upset, something had gone wrong .

                           1b. While looking at that experience, ask yourself, how big do you feel? This is an
                           odd question I know, but as you work through this, you will find that you do have
                           an awareness of size of self.

                           NOW DO THE FOLLOWING:

                           2a. Recall a time and experience where things were going very well, you felt happy
                           and successful.

                           2b. How big do you feel right now?

On question 1b people usually say they feel squashed, small, pinhead size. And on question 2b I have had people say, large, big, expansive, even infinite. Curiouser and curiouser, I saw no change in body size. Did you?

Also, remember my question was "How big do YOU feel?" As you can see YOU can experience an immense change in sense of size, from minuscule to huge or infinite.

Yes, the YOU is spirit. We are Spiritual Beings. Spiritual Beings who are not soley of just our minds or our bodies.

                           Definition:  Alan C. Walter
                           Spirit: n. 1. You, the life force, the power, the strength, the awareness, the                            knower, the perceiver, the intelligence.

                           2. The vital principle or animating force within living beings. A causative, activating,
                           or essential principle.

Following this breakthrough, I became a metaphysical student and teacher. A student and teacher on an exciting search for spiritual information and growth. For over four decades I have been consciously traveling this road. I am finally happy and now actively seek to share my discoveries and the knowledge I have gained through this ongoing discovery and learning process.
There is a large body of spiritual technology available now to those who seek the path of true happiness and self awareness and positive realization.

I wish to thank my current mentor, Alan Walter, and I strongly encourage you to visit his site at www.knowledgism.com. Here you will find a wealth of fascinating and workable information and techniques that will change and improve your life forever.

In addition, I hope you also come back here to visit my website often. I shall be changing it frequently, putting new information and lectures online. Let your friends know about it too. My goal is to help bring about more optimum conditions for us all.

                                                    Lecture: Life is a Process

            TECHNICAL PRESENTATION DETAILS ON HOW TO DO PRESENCE

Presence is the most important skill needed to successfully live life.

Our ability "to be here now" determines our levels of skill, truth, love, happiness and prosperity. How many times do we cut the grass, do the office work, etc, whilst mentally and spiritually we are off on that fanciful Hawaiian holiday or someplace else. Often of course, that place where our attention is stuck is not even desirable, perhaps a crashed love affair, an argument at work, a failure to achieve our dreams and desires, maybe just a sense of emptiness and despair.

We drive along in rush hour traffic not even seeing the cars around and in front of us as we hash and rehash that upset, that failure. Surprise, surprise when we have an accident, or we fail to say the right thing to that girl or guy we've been wanting to date for so long . We have allowed our attention be on losses and failures in the past, or stuck in fears of what may occur in the future. We are not being present.

You will find that miracles occur as we become more present in life. We start to do what we are doing while we are doing it. We start to see what is as it is (also a definition for truth). The word PRESENCE describes US NOW.

                           Definition:  Websters Dictionary
                           Presence: n. 1: The fact or condition of being present (in or at this place)
.
                          2. The part of space within one's immediate vicinity.

                          3a: The bearing, carriage, or air of a person.

                          3b: A quality of poise and effectiveness that enables a performer to achieve a close
                          relationship with his audience.

The purpose of this exercise: To be able to be more present and here in the moment IN DAY TO DAY LIFE.

Instructions: It requires two people to do this exercise. So get together with a friend or spouse. You will find it a very rewarding exercise that will also bring you closer together in friendship. One will be the coach, and will be responsible for seeing that the exercise goes well. The other the student.

Coach and student sit comfortably in chairs facing each other with knees almost touching, hands in your lap. Body position to be face to face. You want to be relaxedly and directly facing each other and looking squarely into each others eyes.

The coach should set an amount of time, such as 5 minutes (to start with). The coach gets the student to define "Presence" and "Being here". The coach starts the exercise by telling the student "Be here", and both sit there facing each other, just being there and nothing else.

You may find that at first any number of things may occur, such as a fit of the giggles, thinking about stuff, twitching, sight going foggy, etc., etc. When anything other than just being there occurs, the coach should, on observing it, ask the student, "What happened?" - The student answers "I got the giggles", "felt uncomfortable", or whatever it was. The coach acknowledges what the student said (lets the student know they have been heard and understood) by saying "thank you", "OK", "I understand" or "all right" or so forth. The coach then returns the student back to doing Presence by saying "continue being here."

DO NOT GET INTO A BIG DISCUSSION, you can do that later. You may experience different or altered states of being while doing this exercise, especially when done for longer periods of time, 30 to 60 minutes or more. A sense of peace and calm is quite a normal experience n doing Presence, which will often stay with you for a while during the day, perhaps all day. You will find that some truly powerful and magical things can and will occur in your life by doing this exercise.

But, in order to achieve this, that also means DOING the exercise.

This exercise should not be confused with meditation. This is NOT a meditation. It is an exercise to help us Be Here Now.

End the excercise after the agreed amount of time and change roles, with the coach now becoming the student and vice versa. Repeat the exercise for another agreed upon amount of time.

As you do more of this you will find it gets easier to be here in the moment for longer periods of time. Once you are comfortable with the shorter periods, practice doing this for 30 minutes or even longer.

Do 20 minutes, or longer if you have time, at the beginning of each day. Especially before a special meeting, interview or presentation. It will get you PRESENT and everything will go smoothly and more easily than you ever imagined it could.

It is also of great value to do this exercise with someone with whom you are upset, or with whom you have a disagreement, as it brings you both into the present with each other. Have your kids do it when they get into fights with each other; sit two kids down facing each other to do presence just for a few minutes. In order to work, both for the younger ones, as well as those of us further down the road of life, this must not be approached as a punative action. For the kids, I recomend that you coach the exercise. They will be back in harmony in moments.

NOTE: This is an exercise in a controlled and hopefully safe environment. The whole idea is to now go out into life and use your new and or increased skill TO BE HERE NOW IN LIFE.

BE HERE NOW with friends, bosses, spouses, staff, children, associates, everybody. Do it all the time in every situation. You will be amazed.

Much love,

P.S. There will be more to come soon. So please do visit again. Your comments via email are most appreciated.