DOUBLES PART 3

There seem to be a number of different causes or features for this phenomenon of doubles. There is the one above in part 2 which is a psychic projection in the same time frame and drains the physical body. Then the phenomena experienced by Jaqueline of both ‘halves’ of the double being aware of each other. There is the example of the opposite personality or ‘shadow’ personality outlined in Birch’s friend’s railway experience. (There are other examples of this.) There is the projection of a future self as Von Goethe experienced. There is also the ‘harbinger of doom’ experience of Abraham Lincoln which may very well be a preparation from the higher self for a time when the personality would be leaving incarnation.

The knock on my door was firm and insistent. The door swung open to reveal Stan (name changed) one of my old training partners from Marathon running days.

Good gracious, said I, a blast from the past. The visitor was invited in and reminiscences flowed thick and fast for the next couple of hours. The flow of convivial conversation was assisted by copious amounts of varying types of Mexican firewater. After some time Stan, who was well in his cups by this time, told the following story.

 I have read your book, the one with the blue cover. It was most fascinating. I have a story of my own as I believe in these things that you have highlighted. Many years ago I had a relationship with a young woman who was ten years younger than me. She became pregnant. To my utter shame later I abandoned her to a lonely abortion. I was just too immature. Throughout the years I have recalled this story in my mind and attempted, with varying degrees of success, to forgive myself. The years rolled by and I married a woman much younger than myself. We have had our ups and downs but, over the years come to an accommodation which is comfortable for both of us.

 I have something of an obsession with dates. A little while ago I went over the dates of that old relationship really to find out what was the age of the person that was aborted if it had been born. I satisfied myself that I had calculated correctly and let the event rest. I saw this exploration as part of my self forgiveness. It was with some shock that I realized later that the age of the child, had it been born, was almost exactly the same as my current wife. Since then my mind has been in turmoil about these events. Around the same time I read your book and decided to look you up as I felt that you may be able to help me in what is going on.

I concentrated on the story through the mists of the alcohol as the tale unfolded. This was my reply. You know it is possible that the unborn child was due to form a relationship with you. If it couldn’t be achieved in a father daughter way then perhaps that soul returned and you are completing this relationship as husband and wife.

 It isn’t necessary to remain upset about the decisions in the past. Forgive yourself, move on and don’t repeat what you believe to be a great error of judgement; relax, enjoy the relationship that you have. As a friend once told me, ‘everything is in divine order’. I don’t get any great insight into your story. It is enough to be aware of the synchronicities and accept.

As Stan disappeared out of the door and I was alone again in my flat I wasn’t sure that I had helped him that much but found the story fascinating and somehow deeply moving. It certainly gave another slant to relationships and our planning in making them.

This is from About.com: Paranormal Phenomena

Sister Mary of Jesus

Bilocation seems to be the flip side of the doppelganger coin. One of the most astonishing cases took place in the 1620s. In 1622, Father Alonzo de Benavides was assigned to the Isolita Mission in what is now New Mexico. He was puzzled to encounter Jamano Indians who, although they seemed never before to have met French or Spanish peoples, carried crosses, knew Roman Catholic rituals, had altars and knew Catholic liturgy - all in their native tongue.

Father Benavides wrote to both Pope Urban VII and King Philip of Spain to find out who had been there before him, obviously working to convert the Indians. The response was that no one had been sent previously. The Indians told him that they had been instructed in Christianity by a beautiful young "lady in blue" who came among them for many years and taught them this new religion in their own language. She also told them that white-skinned people would soon arrive in their land. "She came down from the heights to us," the Indians said, "she taught us the new religion, she stayed among us for a time, she told us you would come and to make you welcome, and then she went away. That’s all we know."

Who was this mysterious lady in blue? Father Benavides knew that the nuns of the Poor Clare order wore blue habits and thought there might be a clue there. He found a painting of a Poor Clare nun and showed it to the Jamanos. "Is this the woman?" he asked. The dress was right, the Indians told him, but this was not the woman. The woman in the painting was rather portly, but the lady in blue was young and beautiful.

When he returned to Spain, Father Benavides was determined to solve the mystery. How could the Indians have encountered a Poor Clare nun when they were a cloistered order: from the day they took their vows until their deaths, the nuns never left their convents, much less traveled to distant lands on missions.

 His investigation led him to Sister Mary of Jesus in Agreda, Spain, who claimed to have converted North American Indians - without leaving her convent. Now 29 and Mother Superior of the convent, Sister Mary said she had visited the Indians "not in body, but in spirit."

Sister Mary said she regularly fell into a cataleptic trance, after which she recalled "dreams" in which she was carried to a strange and wild land, where she taught the gospel. As proof of her claim, she was able to provide highly detailed descriptions of the Jamano Indians, including their appearance, clothing and customs, none of which she could have learned through research since they were fairly recently discovered by the Europeans. How did she learn their language? "I didn’t," she replied. "I simply spoke to them - and God let us understand one another."

Sister Mary is also said to have appeared to Mexican Indians, who said they had been visited by "a very beautiful woman, who used to come down from the heights, dressed in blue garments.”

My experience of such a situation occurred years ago when sharing my life with an Irish girl. Her mother was dying in Ireland. I asked if Brigid, my Irish girlfriend at the time, would allow me to conduct a healing on her mother’s behalf. I closed my eyes and entered a meditation.

 I immediately found myself next to a bed with an old lady in it. She was quiet and still; around the bed stood other beings. The being standing next to me turned towards me. The energy of this being was so powerful that I was immediately thrust back in my body here in the third dimension. Was only my consciousness projected to the bedside? Would the sick person have seen me there? I will never know. Were the beings standing around the bed helping the old lady into the next part of her existence? It was clear to me that my presence and healing energies were not required.

Friend Sean has two doubles that he knows of. One is his brother with whom he has a close relationship. They communicate well and easily when they get together. The other double is a woman in Toronto.

One night before a business meeting in the Canadian City Sean dreamed of a woman pacing back and forth accross his bedroom. The next day as Sean entered the meting room he saw the very same woman sitting in on the meeting. He knew the connection was that of a double. They spoke to each other finding the communication most pleasant, convivial and comfortable.

At our meeting the subject of ‘doubles’ cropped up in the conversation and so Sean related a story of how a few years ago he had been doing some work with a psychic and had previously told a friend of his where he would be going, as his friend had visited the same psychic only a few days earlier. During the meeting, the psychic looked up and mouthed “go away”. He then explained to Sean that a figure had popped up. He told Sean who the figure was and said “they were being nosey”. The figure had been Sean’s friend. Obviously the friend had been thinking about Sean and where he was at that time and the psychic had clearly seen a projection of his friend’s energy in the room with them. This type of projection could offer a possible explanation for the phenomenon of ‘doubles’ but Sean didn’t think so.

DOUBLES PART 2

This is what Wikipedia has to say on the subject of doubles.

In the vernacular, "Doppelgänger" has come to refer (as in German) to any double or look-alike of a person—most commonly an "evil twin". The literal translation of the German word is "doublewalker", meaning someone who is acting (e.g. walking) the same way as another person

.

 The word is also used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection. They are generally regarded as harbingers of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person's friends or relatives portends illness or danger, while seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death. (I sees this view as a fear of the unknown.)

In Norse mythology, a vardøger is a ghostly double who precedes a living person and is seen performing their actions in advance. This sounds similar to John’s experience in part 1 who saw and sensed Laverne double following her.

This is the alleged Doppelganger story involving Abraham Lincoln.

Carl Sandburg's biography contains the following:

A queer dream or illusion had haunted Lincoln at times through the winter. On the evening of his election he had thrown himself on one of the haircloth sofas at home, just after the first telegrams of November 6 had told him he was elected President, and looking into a bureau mirror across the room he saw himself full length, but with two faces.

It bothered him; he got up; the illusion vanished; but when he lay down again there in the glass again were two faces, one paler than the other. He got up again, mixed in the election excitement, forgot about it; but it came back, and haunted him. He told his wife about it; she worried too.

A few days later he tried it once more and the illusion of the two faces again registered to his eyes. But that was the last; the ghost since then wouldn't come back, he told his wife, who said it was a sign he would be elected to a second term, and the death pallor of one face meant he wouldn't live through his second term.

This is adapted from Washington in Lincoln's Time (1895) by Noah Brooks, who claimed  he had heard it from Lincoln himself on 9 November 1864, at the time of his re-election, and that he had printed an account "directly after." He also claimed that the story was confirmed by Mary Todd Lincoln, and partially confirmed by Private Secretary John Hay (who thought it dated from Lincoln's nomination, not his election). Brooks's version is as follows (in Lincoln's own words):

It was just after my election in 1860, when the news had been coming in thick and fast all day and there had been a great "hurrah, boys," so that I was well tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my chamber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it (and here he got up and placed furniture to illustrate the position), and looking in that glass I saw myself reflected nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about three inches from the tip of the other.

 I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying down again, I saw it a second time, plainer, if possible, than before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler — say five shades — than the other. I got up, and the thing melted away, and I went off, and in the excitement of the hour forgot all about it — nearly, but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up, and give me a little pang as if something uncomfortable had happened.

 When I went home again that night I told my wife about it, and a few days afterward I made the experiment again, when (with a laugh), sure enough! the thing came back again; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was somewhat worried about it.

Lincoln was known to be superstitious, and old mirrors will occasionally produce double images; whether this Janus illusion can be counted as a doppelgänger is perhaps debatable, though suggests that Lincoln suffered vertical strabismus in his left eye, a disorder which could induce visions of a vertically-displaced image probably no more than other such claims of doppelgängers.

In a case that suggests that doppelgangers might have something to do with time or dimensional shifts, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the 18th century German poet, confronted his doppelganger while riding on the road to Drusenheim. Riding toward him was his exact double, but wearing a gray suit trimmed in gold. Eight years later, von Goethe was again traveling on the same road, but in the opposite direction. He then realized he was wearing the very gray suit trimmed in gold that he had seen on his double eight years earlier! Had von Goethe seen his future self?

Relating this story to Jaqueline’s above, did she see a version of her future self entering the store as a customer in later times?

One of the most fascinating reports of a doppelganger comes from American writer Robert Dale Owen who was told the story by Julie von Güldenstubbe, the second daughter of the Baron von Güldenstubbe. In 1845, when von Güldenstubbe was 13, she attended Pensionat von Neuwelcke, an exclusive girl's school near Wolmar in what is now Latvia. One of her teachers was a 32-year-old French woman named Emilie Sagée. And although the school's administration was quite pleased with Sagée's performance, she soon became the object of rumor and odd speculation. Sagée, it seemed, had a double that would appear and disappear in full view of the students.

In the middle of class one day, while Sagée was writing on the blackboard, her exact double appeared beside her. The doppelganger precisely copied the teacher's every move as she wrote, except that it did not hold any chalk. The event was witnessed by 13 students in the classroom. A similar incident was reported at dinner one evening when Sagée's doppelganger was seen standing behind her, mimicking the movements of her eating, although it held no utensils.

The doppelganger did not always echo her movements, however. On several occasions, Sagée would be seen in one part of the school when it was known that she was in another at that time. The most astonishing instance of this took place in full view of the entire student body of 42 students on a summer day in 1846. The girls were all assembled in the school hall for their sewing and embroidery lessons.

As they sat at the long tables working, they could clearly see Sagée in the school's garden gathering flowers. Another teacher was supervising the children. When this teacher left the room to talk to the headmistress, Sagée's doppelganger appeared in her chair - while the real Sagée could still be seen in the garden. The students noted that Sagée's movements in the garden looked tired while the doppelganger sat motionless. Two brave girls approached the phantom and tried to touch it, but felt an odd resistance in the air surrounding it. One girl actually stepped between the teacher's chair and the table, passing right through the apparition, which remained motionless. It then slowly vanished.

Sagée claimed never to have seen the doppelganger herself, but said that whenever it was said to appear, she felt drained and fatigued. Her physical color even seemed to pale at those times.

Does this draining and fatiguing above have the same cause as that for Mary above?

DOPPELGANGERS OR DOUBLES

PART 1

Humans are more than external perception

I arrived at the house of friends John and Laverne. Standing in the hallway we three caught up on the news in each others lives after kisses and handshakes were exchanged. Upstairs I could hear someone moving around as the floorboards creaked under the pressure of moving feet.

Ah, your son Martin must be visiting, said I assuming that the creaking floorboards were the result of his shifting weight. John gave me a piercing look but said nothing. I thought this looked a little odd however the conversation quickly moved on. Later that night in the quiet of his study John recounted the following tale.

There are times when I am sitting at the foot of the stairs talking on the phone there. On occasions Laverne will come down the stairs and turn left past me in order to go into the kitchen. There is nothing unusual in that except, at certain times, she is followed by a spectre that I cannot see but I hear its footsteps on the stairs following Laverne. As she turns and passes me I sense her energy. Immediately afterwards I sense another energy. This energy is exactly the same as that of Laverne that preceded it. It is as though she is being followed by a psychic doppelganger.

How fascinating, I said. Are there any other strange happenings?

Yes indeed, replied my host. I have seen the spirit of my son Martin walking around the house. When I later asked Martin about this phenomenon the latter claimed to be thinking about his old home (Martin now lives elsewhere) when he is working. So it seems to be a case of psychic projection. Perhaps due to close connection he feels with this place and the psychic links that the two of us have between each other.

That story seems to confirm my hearing of footsteps when I came in, I rejoined.

Got it in one, triumphed John. I didn’t say anything when you heard the footsteps upstairs as it would probably have spooked Laverne.

So, I thought finally. This is an example of the Doppelganger translated as double walker from the German language.

Here is another example of, what could best be described, as a ‘deliberate’ double. My healer friend Doug Ashcroft heard how a previous client had developed a serious cancerous condition. Right, he said I will ask her to come to England for healing from her New Mexican home. The contact who had told Doug of the friend’s cancer said,

There is no way that she will come.

I will contact her now and she will come, said Doug who is not under-imbued with self confidence. He went into meditation, projected his consciousness into the friend’s house and left a message for her to come for healing. Within a day Doug received a telephone call from the suffering friend who commented ironically on the image of Doug appearing in her house and urging her to come to England. The friend told Doug that she had already arrived in London, England, in response to his psychic appearance, and would be travelling to Stroud immediately for life giving healing; and so it proved.

I later recalled the instance of one of my friends describing the appearance of his Doppelganger or double. He was standing at the railway station waiting for a train when to his utter amazement he looked at the rails only to find his image looking back at him but in a leering, unpleasant manner. The friend is the reverse of these unpleasant characteristics in this three dimensional existence. He is a man of exemplary character in his life with family and friends. The above story seems to be an example of the ‘evil twin’ idea outlined below in the Wikipedia explanation.

The following is an experience of mine that is taken from our book ‘So You Think That We’re Alone?’ This occurred as I arrived at Yogananda’s ashram in Northern California.

Beneath a tree which offering some sort of shade, sat a man relaxing in his chair. Oh, said he, you have returned to us.

Uh, no, Birch replied. I’ve never been here before.

Yes, you have.

No, I haven’t. Not wishing this encounter to degenerate in pantomime, Birch wandered towards the ashram’s office.

This bizarre exchange could easily have been put down to mistaken identity had it not been for another encounter the following morning. Another person Birch had never seen welcomed him back to the ashram. Two cases of mistaken identity were not so easy to dismiss. The visit had started with an interesting twist.

Perhaps I had been there before projecting an unconscious image of myself. I never investigated the incident further.

Jaqueline, my wife recounts the story of a time when she worked as a supermarket check-out cashier. One day, between serving customers, she glanced up and received what she described as ‘the shock of her life’. As she casually glanced in the direction of the supermarket entrance a woman walked in who was the exact physical double of herself. The height, hair, skin colour, body shape even the style of the spectacles were both exactly the same.

 It was as though they had both been cast from the same mould they were so similar. The woman caught sight of the staring Jaqueline and appeared equally shocked. The woman continued to stare at Jaqueline, open mouthed head turned to the right, as she all the while walked forward towards the lines of tall refrigerators in front of her. Jaqueline struggled in her mind with this bizarre situation as her ‘double’ disappeared out of sight.

 Jaqueline hoped that the woman would come to her till so that she could question her concerning this strange situation. Unfortunately the other woman did not have the courage or the interest to uncover more of this odd connection. She checked out at a different till to Jaqueline’s. In addition the other woman never returned to the store in the year and a half that Jaqueline continued to work there. This story surfaces the question as to whether there are physical doubles or Doppelgangers in this three dimensional reality as well as psychically perceived ones.

 Was this vision an example of the time dimensional shift mentioned below? If so then Jaqueline saw herself in the supermarket.

Friend Mary Fitzgerald had a similar experience to Jaqueline in respect of an encounter with a physical double. On a day out at Glastonbury with boyfriend Mike she was sitting in their car waiting for proceedings with their ritual group to begin. When across Mary’s line of vision appeared an exact double of her physical body even down to the type of headband that she normally wore. The double moved across the front of the car and on into the crowd not to be seen again.

 Later that morning Mary became greatly de-energised for no apparent reason. The story becomes more puzzling. A few days later Mary recounted her experience to me. I received a vision of the background to this phenomenon. I sensed that Mary’s higher self had sent a near facsimile of herself into incarnation in order to double the amount of information that it could receive from this sector of third dimensional experience. The de-energising experience that Mary had was, according to my inner perspective, a realignment of her energies.

 This occurred in order to create a greater connection with higher self and other associated soul fragments. This would give Mary greater potential for wise counsel and information that she would not otherwise receive. By the experience of Mary seeing her double but the double not seeing her then the gift was for Mary only. Another aspect of the de-energising is outlined later in the story concerning Emilie Sagee which follows in another part.

Musing further on the phenomena I wondered if the higher self or soul is split before birth so that double the amount of experience can be fed back to the higher self in one lifetime from two humans. This could be one explanation.

EGYPT PART 3

It is now time for the last temple visits. The ‘time team’ stand on a stone causeway stretching away from Luxor temple. They sense that they have stood on this royal road, flanked by sphinx’s, in times past. I am engulfed by a vision of the three of us in a procession following the pharaoh with lines of priests flanking the procession. Faye, in the vision, saw herbal fronds cast on the floor releasing their perfume as the passing procession stepped on them. Palm fronds waved to cool the procession as the sun beat down from a cloudless sky.

The vision was so real I could feel the heat of the sun bouncing off my white robes. I sensed that the three were part of the spiritual entourage of this pharaoh. The atmosphere was full of loud noises from cymbal, drum and horn. There was an expectant air of excitement around the event. It was as though a great ceremony was about to be performed in Luxor Temple. That was it. The vision faded and we were back in the twenty first century

 Outside the vision I thought the Pharoah was Ramses 11. This temple is largely dedicated to him with a small part built by Hatshepsut. I sensed a peaceful benign energy here. We three walked towards the temple. As we moved I sensed the barrier between this density, the third dimensional one, and a parallel one becoming thinner such that they, the dimensions, began to merge. Perhaps one of the reasons for our visit was to experience this thinning of the veil between densities or dimensions. We, mystics here-present, may have played a small part in this phenomenon.

The final temple visit was, for me, to the jewel in the crown Karnak Temple. This was one of the three spiritual centres that I had co-operated in bringing together energetically months before in a healing meditation. The other two had been Carnac in Brittany and Callanish in Scotland.

The full story of this triad of centres which were healed and re-energised is told in our previous book We’re Still not Alone. It was to here I needed to come on this trip. Jaqueline and Audrey were sick. Only Faye and I were fit enough to make this trip. We stand in front of the sacred lake. Faye remembers being here in another life although not the same as her Filae life. In the Karnak life Faye was trying to escape life in the temple. As she made her escape she was pursued by a man attempting to dissuade her. The escape route was by boat through a tunnel not visible at the present water level.

As we entered the temple I felt connected and comfortable immediately. I was at home. The party entered the Hypostyle hall, the eighth wonder of the world according to guide Radwan. This magnificent place contains one hundred and thirty columns decorated with writing and cartouche from bottom to top. Each column is around fifty feet high. As I sat at the foot of one of the columns I sensed that the mass of detail around me in this powerful place was to throw the mind of the observer out of the mundane and drive the consciousness inward. The plethora of information was too much for the objective consciousness to absorb.

It was time to leave Egypt and return to ‘dear old blighty’ aka Britain. As the party prepared to leave I recalled a conversation I had with Radwan, our caring and able guide, concerning the famous or infamous Danish cartoons about the prophet Mohammed. Radwan is a well educated man, he has a Phd. as well as being exposed to western culture and values. He had spoken passionately concerning his anger over the cartoons lampooning the prophet in a Danish newspaper.

 For the first time I saw the argument from the other side. Freedom of speech is a right in our society that must be protected. However there is also the issue of respecting the views and feelings of other cultures. Muslims, even well educated ones, such as Radwan, are greatly hurt by the lack of respect shown to their religion. I was also struck by the clash of culture between the western libertarian and the Eastern Muslim. No wonder there are problems over the interpretation of what represents human rights, democracy and old fashioned respect.

We also quizzed Radwan on the nature of the original spiritual and religious practices that were conducted here. He reluctantly agreed that the Isis cult was alive active but was not happy to give any further information. I felt his Moslem religion precluded any involvement with the original practices. It was clear that although he was immensely proud of these fantastic buildings and complexes in his country he did not wish to investigate the meaning behind them. Perhaps later generations of Egyptians will honour this most important part of their heritage.

Postcript

There was one item that came after the trip. Jaqueline and I were enjoying a pleasant social evening with friends Joan and Mary. Suddenly the lights in Joan’s house blinked on and off at the same time the cat flap in the back door swung forward and back violently as though someone or something had entered the house. There was no wind outside. It was as though this someone or something was making a psychic entrance, and so it proved.

 That evening a spiritual being made its presence felt to Joan. It was very tall, serious natured and dressed from head to toe in black. Joan had no idea initially what the being was doing entering her consciousness. Later friends told Joan that they thought it was a Nubian being and that it had travelled back from Egypt with Jaqueline and me.

The following week Mary, Joan and I met for their normal weekly meditation. During the meditation Mary and I sensed that this being was present to assist Joan in her spiritual work. That it was to act as a bridge between the spiritual realms and the physical in order to transmit messages back and forth when requested. Birch also sensed that this work was a development process for the tall being.

A couple of days before the social meeting above a very benign being came into my consciousness early one morning. This being smiled broadly and warmly at me as though he was pleased with me. I sensed that this man was Celtic in origin. At the same meditation above Mary felt that this being was there to help me with inspiration in the work that would present itself in the future.

Later that year Audrey and I started to work with a particular energy form. Within days of starting that work I began to receive the vision of walking towards Luxor temple behind the Pharaoh in ancient times. The difference this time was that the vision became stronger and stronger. It re-occurred in my consciousness time after time.

 There was something here attempting to break through into objective awareness. It was time to meditate deeply on this matter. I felt drawn to consult Audrey on this matter for two reasons. First of all the reason for the enhanced vision related to my current work with Audrey and second because we shared at least one life together in ancient Egypt in the court of the pharaoh.

 To date I am still awaiting any further revelations that may present themselves.

EGYPT PART 2

 At 3.30 am one morning an alarm call pulled Jaqueline and I out of deep sleep. Not much lazing around on this vacation. Various ‘wrinklies’ piled out of the boat to enter coaches with their engines running by 4.30 am.

. The boat was now at Aswan as far south on the Nile as it could successfully moor. The coaches headed into the desert in convoy, more than twenty of them. This convoy was not a protection against attack, or so we were told, but as security in the event of vehicle breakdown. For between Aswan and the intended destination on the Sudanese border there was nothing but desert and the snaking road.

 For four hours the convoy wound its way through the unchanging scene. The pristine desert sand and rocks the only unrelieved scenery. Past a military checkpoint, necessary perhaps because of the proximity of a foreign country that was experiencing internal problems, the convoy swept into a car park. The latter was no different from the surrounding desert except the sand had been compacted. The party was at Abu Simbal temple complex dedicated to Pharoah Ramses 11.

 A fantastic engineering feat had moved the whole complex from its original location to higher ground. As the rising water of Lake Nasser created by the Aswan dam crept higher Russian and German engineers battled against the clock to move the temples and enormous figures in time. The cyclopean statues and temples dedicated to Ramses 11 and his favourite wife Nefertara plus others are awesome. They must be seen to be properly experienced. Photographs and film do not convey the wonder of them. For the first time on the trip I resonated with the temple complex.

The temple was built during the middle kingdom when the psychic powers of the priesthood were at their peak. This was unlike the Ptolemaic period, much later, when the old ways were in decline. I felt that I had worked here in another lifetime. The place was so familiar to me. I felt relaxed despite the enormous numbers of tourists. The visit terminated with joining a queue to enter Nefertara’s temple. A Spanish man made the mistake of attempting to ‘jump’ the queue in front of Jaqueline. He received ‘both barrels’ of her verbal ferocity for his pains, in Spanish of course, and retreated.

Since the trip had originally been mooted Jaqueline had been keen to ride a camel as part of the adventure. I was less than keen with this idea. However I went along with it for marital solidarity. The day dawned with my being less than excited about the project. The plan was for those in the party that wished to do this to start in the desert and then complete the ride at a Nubian village in order to experience a little of the culture of this arid region. The adventurous souls disembarked from a motor launch, climbed the desert sands and reached a small plateau on which many camels were sitting.

 Tourists eyed the camels, camels eyed the tourists. It was pretty clear that the local beasts looked the most confident. Fortunately each camel was to be led by a Nubian. The ability to stay in the saddle as the camel rose from a seated position is the first challenge for the untutored ‘wrinklies’. Back legs came up first followed by front legs a few seconds later, camels legs that is! I lurched forward and back during this manoeuvre. I was supposed to be enjoying this. I did, however, manage to stay on board. The party set off one at a time. My camel was about twentieth in the line. One of the issues when riding these beasts is the position of the riders’ legs. For camels are much wider than horses.

Another challenge was the up and down motion of the animal as it plodded along; not great for those with bad backs. The experienced locals rode their camels with their legs crossed behind the camel’s neck and in front of the wooden saddle pommel. I thought about changing position from my uncomfortable one with legs dangling down by the animal’s side. The fear of falling off was so intense I decided against it and continued to bounce up and down uncomfortably. A security man rode up and down the line of camels as we plodded forward; An AK47 nestled in the crook of his arm. I wondered how safe we were here.

I quickly christened my camel ‘Speedy Gonzales’ as it set off at a rate of knots. So much so that within five minutes of the journey it had moved up to seventh in the line. I concentrated on staying on and moving my body such that my spine would still be in alignment by the end of the jarring experience.

 My camel continued its race forward until it caught up with ‘Mr Grumpy’. I felt sorry for the tourist on the back of this animal. ‘Mr Grumpy’ regularly turned its head towards the discomforted rider bearing its teeth and making growling noises in its throat. Its stained uneven teeth completed the unpleasant picture. At least it didn’t spit at its rider which I believe that camels do if upset.

‘Speedy Gonzales’ immediately slowed as it caught up with ‘Mr Grumpy’ and didn’t attempt to overtake the angry one. ‘Speedy’ clearly decided that discretion was the better part of valour and steered clear. Clearly ‘Mr Grumpy’ had clout in the camel world. Jaqueline rode ‘Mr Grumpy 2’. It started to ‘play up’ to the Mexican with noises of its own. Jaqueline’s response was to speak pleasantly to it. Nice Mr camel, treat me well, she whispered.

 The animal duly obliged perhaps demonstrating that there are gentlemanly beasts in the camel world. As the party neared the Nubian village I became more confident. Instead of merely gripping the wooden pommel of the saddle for dear life I began to push it forward and back to persuade the animal to speed up. The effect was the reverse. ‘Speedy’ slowed turned its head and gave me what he could only describe as the ‘evil eye’. The message was clear. Don’t get excited amigo (or the Egyptian equivalent). Let us be clear who is in charge. I responded to the message and returned to clinging to the pommel. The pecking order had returned to normal.

 The party of camels and uncomfortable riders entered the central square of the Nubian village. I slid stiffly and gratefully from my ride. I gave my mount a last look back as I headed off. Speedy Gonzales stared disdainfully back. The journey had been survived in one piece.

 We spent a little time in the village relaxing and drinking sodas. It was interesting how different the Nubian villagers were from the Egyptians we had met. The women were tall and graceful, slim and darker than the town dwellers. There were few men around apart from the camel guardians. We were told that the majority of men were working in the city.

Friday, the day off from travel and outside adventure, arrived. ‘time team’ members Audrey, Faye and me gathered for a meditation in Audrey and Faye’s cabin. I started the meditation by invoking the names of four beings Sekhmet, Horus, Isis and Hathor. The latter three also being deities or powerful energetic signatures. Each of the beings was asked to place themselves in one corner of a psychically created square. The ‘time team’ placed themselves at the centre of the square. Next the sides of the square were drawn up creating a pyramid. The energies of the four beings were invoked to merge with and accelerate the energy bodies of each member of the time team.

 During the meditation Faye was visited by an enormously large Sekhmet who asked Who calls me? Faye asked for inspirational thoughts and was told that all three humans should stand between her (Sekhmet’s) paws, the man in the middle. The three were bowing in obeisance in her presence. Sekhmet gave the three the gift of power. A warning was added that much remained to be done albeit great difficulties would be experienced in this work. The final advice was that with great power comes great responsibility. Three Hathor beings came to Faye with their legs crossed and twitching ears. Faye also saw the three members of the ‘time team’ working at different levels of their being. A more benign aspect of Sekhmet came to me giving the ‘time team’ the gift of becoming part of her energy.

Horus, the offspring of Isis and Osiris, is the energy of the midday sun, active and energetic as well as the protector of the three members of the ‘time team’. It is the aspect of that which is to be revealed. Amun (or Amun-Ra, Amun-Re) is the hidden and unknown aspect of the sun, different from the Horus aspect, representing the hidden element of that which is to be revealed or made manifest.

EGYPT PART 1

Revisiting past life places and enjoying new experiences

The night before  Jaqueline, Faye Audrey and I flew to Luxor from Gatwick I had a visitation immediately before falling asleep. I perceived a close energy connection between Sekhmet and myself. It was as though there was a subtle overshadowing; the energy of Sekhmet gently providing a cover over my own personal energy. Immediately afterwards there were several ‘crack’ noises in the room, at least three. One was very loud. I had always perceived these sounds as signs of changes or leakages of energy and frequently occurred around me. In addition they have been signs for me to pay attention to the messages or thoughts that are being transmitted.

Audrey speaks of the myth that Sekhmet became very violent. Instead of consuming those that had turned away from Ra, the sun god, she consumed the faithful also. Ra played a trick on Sekhmet in order to reverse the situation. He mixed red ochre of the earth with beer in order to make the drink appear as blood.

 This did the trick. Sekhmet was attracted to the liquid, drank it and became very calm and benign. Sekhmet then turned into Hathor taking on a much more feminine aspect. Audrey sees this as the joining of the sun (Ra) with the earth.

Wikipedia says this of Sekhmet

In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet (also spelled Sachmet, Sakhet, Sekmet, Sakhmet and Sekhet; and given the Greek name, Sacmis), was originally the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt. She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians. It was said that her breath created the desert. She was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare… Her name suits her function and means, the (one who is) powerful. She also was given titles such as the (One) Before Whom Evil Trembles, the Mistress of Dread, and the Lady of Slaughter.

Sekhmet was believed to protect the pharaoh in battle, stalking the land, and destroying the pharaoh's enemies with arrows of fire. An early Egyptian sun deity also, her body was said to take on the bright glare of the midday sun, gaining her the title Lady of Flame. It was said that death and destruction were balm for her warrior's heart and that the hot desert winds were believed to be her breath.

The four travellers reach the boat, the Viking Premiere, their floating hotel for the next week. Assorted British ‘wrinklies’ ( I don’t include wife Jaqueline in that description) unload from the coach which had brought them from the aircraft. Faye disputes this title as she is remarkably wrinkle free despite her sixty four years. As the stiff legged travellers walk towards the boat along the pavement past Egyptian street-vendors and other men watching their progress one shouts to me “You walk like an Egyptian”. At the time I has no idea, in my innocence, what this means.

 A few days later on the street I am approached by the same man with the same comment. Clearly the Egyptian had forgotten the previous occasion. It dawned on me that this was an opening gambit to extract ‘backsheesh’ from the unwary traveller. I waved the attempted flatterer away.

It is time for the ‘wrinklies’ to visit Edfu temple dedicated to Horus. All the travellers have been divided into three groups for the purpose of transport by coach and instruction by guides. We four are in Horus group. The temple is magnificent in its construction and size. However something is missing for me. The energy and past life connection that I am seeking is not to be found here. For me there is a ‘deadness’ that takes some time for me to explain. Horus group guide Radwan explains that this is a late period temple built by the Ptolemy’s, those Pharoahs that ruled immediately before Egypt became a Roman colony.

I realised that the profound and stunning magic that had been part of earlier Pharoahonic rule had been lost in this late period. The earlier Pharaohs had been priest/ kings bearers of the sacred knowledge. The late period rulers were merely kings. Egypt was in decline by this time. The five thousand year old jewel of civilisation was approaching its end. The Temple of Edfu was a magnificent example of temporal power and a control mechanism of the masses who laboured for the Pharoah.

 The one feeling that came to me here was a familiarity with the architecture. I felt comfortable in these massive columns and statues, the motifs of Gods and Pharoahs inlaid into the stone; the faces of Hathor peering out from the top of columns. This feeling was a mirror of the one when I had stepped off the plane; an emotion of comfort with the landscape, the shape and sandy colour of the hills. The nearest articulation that I could make of this was that it was as though I was coming home. Edfu was the last great temple erected by the ancient Egyptians. Cleopatra V11’s, she of Anthony and Julius Caesar fame, father finished it.

Next stop was Kom Ombo double temple dedicated to Horus and Sobek, the crocodile headed god. I felt connected to the crocodile energy partly because of a vision some years previously of a crocodile headed being that revealed itself as part of my greater self. The other reason for my connected feeling was my knowledge that Egyptians, by building temples over crocodile pools, had communed and used the psychic energies of these creatures.

 I felt the atmosphere here was magical perhaps because the visit was made after dark and the looming massive edifices were highlighted by spotlights. The contrast of light and shade created an ambience of mystery, probably for the benefit of the milling tourists. Parties of French tourists moved around among parties of English. Sometimes a word or phrase would be said by the English to the French and sometimes the other way round. I sensed an element of competition or edginess between the two races. Quite why this was I had no idea. It may be that old enmities could be raised in the comfort of a large support group and away from home climes.

This is what Drunvalo Melchizedek in The Ancient Secret Of The Flower Of Life Volume 2 has to say about Kom Ombo.

It represents the second chakra, the sexual chakra, of twelve chakras that run up the Nile— thirteen if you wish to count the Great Pyramid. Kom Ombo is the only temple that is dedicated to polarity, or duality, which is the basis of sexuality, and two gods are associated with it. In fact, it is the only temple dedicated to two gods in all of Egypt: Sobek, the crocodile god, and Horus. As you face the temple, the right half of this temple is dedicated to darkness and the left side to the light.

An interesting event recently happened in this temple—sort of a sign of the times. There was a major earthquake in Egypt in 1992, and Greg Braden told me that he was sitting in this temple when the earthquake hit. Practically everything on the dark side fell, but the light side didn’t lose a brick. As you will see in this work that we do, the light is now stronger than the dark.

Years ago I read of the ability of the early Egyptian priesthood to perform ceremonies that would keep the borders secure from invasion. As the civilisation declined these abilities were lost and the society moved towards collapse.

Jaqueline was very nervous about coming to Egypt. She could not explain logically why this was so. Her feelings about Turkey are more positive however. When I suggested a visit to the latter she was most positive about the idea. As the four began this journey Jaqueline asked Audrey to give her a reading concerning her worries, on the face of it unfounded, about this country of Egypt. Now for those who haven’t read any of our books before, one of Audrey’s talents is an ability to link to other peoples past lives relevant for them currently. She does this by reading the Akashic record.

Audrey entered a light meditative state. She saw Jaqueline as a slave here in ancient times. She had been captured from Hittite lands. The Hittites lived in Anatolia which is now part of modern Turkey. Thus Jaqueline’s positive and negative emotional feelings concerning both countries can now be explained. Jaqueline lived in a village in Anatolia. News reached the village that Egyptians had invaded their country. It was some time before the invasion impacted on their quiet rural life. One day the surrounding peace was invaded by an alien roaring sound. Within minutes Egyptian chariots charged into the village.

 The villagers were told to march to the sea to be transported to Egypt as slaves. Jaqueline lost contact with her family. Once in Egypt she never saw them again. She was put to work as a nanny of small children, lonely and grieving for a life that was gone for ever. She wasn’t badly treated but simply abandoned. Thus this is the background for Jaqueline’s emotional reaction to the two modern countries of Egypt and Turkey.

On the first night on the boat I walked to the front of the top passenger deck of the boat. I glanced down to the prow of the boat (The sharp end!) I saw some of the crew making their evening prayers towards Mecca. From the point of view of my perspective this was approximately ten ‘o’ clock on a clockface. To my left could be heard the faint tones of Egyptian music. Welcome to Egypt, Birchy! It was most atmospheric and relaxing.

Philae temple was next on the visit agenda. This place was particularly favoured by Faye before the trip as she believed that she had a life here in times past. As with Edfu this place was built by the Ptolemy’s in the Greek period. The Ptolemy’s were descendants of the Greek generals that Alexander left here on his journey of conquering the known world. Similar to Edfu the energies were not that great for me neither, surprisingly, were they for Faye. They have all gone, she said with some degree of disappointment.

The Temple visits were separated by other activities. One of the major interests for the three ladies that travelled with me was shopping. Retail therapy was a most important activity for them. This had to be done Egyptian style which Jaqueline and Faye tackled with great gusto. They are both adroit negotiators. Their skills have been honed in the bazaars and markets of Delhi, Afghanistan and Mexico. No Egyptian vendor was safe from their assertive bargaining. Audrey allowed the above two to do her negotiating.

 I was completely resistant to any form of shopping as many men are. I was content to trail around ensuring a male presence for them to eliminate the possibility of unwanted pestering. Egyptian vendors and passing males were intrigued by the presence of one man with three women. A number of them questioned why I had three wives!

 As a small tease I chose not to disabuse them. On a number of occasions men would approach me offering to buy one of the wives for a number of camels. This clearly was an element of entertainment for locals and visitors as the former are more interested in obtaining British pounds than parting with non-existent camels. However it kept people interested and largely relaxed. The atmosphere thus remained light-hearted. On one occasion the shopkeeper was so impressed with Faye’s ability to bargain that he offered me, who happened to be listening to the process, two hundred camels to sell Faye. I demanded two hundred and fifty. The negotiation finished at two hundred and thirty. We, the two men, closed the deal by solemnly shaking hands and laughing uproariously.

 The English quartet went their way; Anglo-Egyptian relations had been positively re-inforced.

REINCARNATION PART 2

An interesting story concerns an insight Birch had of someone else’s past lives. It came out of the blue and surprised him because he didn’t feel connected to this work with other people normally. It is not his field.

The story starts on New Years Eve 2003. Wife Jaqueline was away visiting relatives in Mexico. He was invited to stay with friends in Milton Keynes over the New Year period. On the night of the New Year, his friends and he attended a party. There he met a larger-than-life character, who we will call Dan. He was a big man, muscular with shoulders that would not disgrace the front row of the England rugby squad. He had hands the size of plates and fingers that looked like pork sausages. Yet his size was in no way menacing, not least because of his sunny, extrovert personality. He boogied the night away, moving with great smoothness and balance that belied his size. He was great fun.

At the end of the party Birch and his friends staggered back home to recover from the night’s activities. As he lay in bed awaiting the arms of Morpheus, he suddenly had a vision of Dan in what he sensed was a past life. In this life he was a priest in ancient Egypt, very stern and forbidding in persona, unlike his present life. He had responsibility for conducting ceremonies that were to aid the fertility of the Earth and the bounty of good crops. Most certainly this would have been a very important function in an ancient society. Because of the perceived importance of this role, he had access to, and influence with, the highest of the aristocracy. He was very aware of the important role that he held, and he let every one know this by his words and actions. Not a man to be liked or crossed. Most people would avoid him unless forced to consult him concerning his priestly duties.

As he walked across the plazas to perform and supervise the rituals for which he was responsible, he spoke to no-one as he passed. He would wear his high crowned hat of office. Such was the expanded nature of his ego and sense of self importance. The children would make faces behind his back. One of his nicknames was ‘Mr Stiff Neck’, a name that would only be voiced out of his earshot. Time marched on. In his dotage he lay dying on the floor with a single attendant to care for his final needs. No other person bothered to pay him any attention.

Through his friend in Milton Keynes, Birch contacted Dan. He told him of his vision. He was very open to the idea and asked Birch for more information. Birch suggested that Dan send him a crystal or some other object that was his. It would have absorbed and be carrying his vibration. The crystal duly arrived and Birch went into meditation while holding it. What came to him were the fragments of two other lives.

In the first Dan was the chief of a small tribe of Africans. This tribe, and their lands, were threatened by a much larger tribe that surrounded them. Birch saw Dan sitting outside his hut, worried and troubled by the threat to him and his people. The inevitable happened. He saw spears and then darkness. This was the end of his insight into this life.

In the next life he saw Dan again as an African. He was captured by slave traders and shipped to Cuba as a slave. He was intelligent, young, and perceptive. His life however, was one of unremitting toil, as it was for most slaves. Nevertheless, in his unpleasant life the light of spiritual interest was lit in his breast.

In April 2004 Birch wrote to Dan, gave him all the insights that he’d received, and forgot about it quickly in the maelstrom of life. Dan never wrote back. At the end of the year, Birch returned to Milton Keynes for the New Year celebrations once again. As he sat with his friends, bringing each other up to date, he asked casually how Dan was. He was intrigued. His friend dropped a bombshell.

“He is dead. He died of cancer very suddenly, within weeks of diagnosis.”

Birch’s jaw dropped. He was staggered. The whole series of events between the two of them flooded back into memory. Over the next few hours and days, Birch struggled to make sense of this news in respect of the past life histories. Yet he felt he had been privileged to share in the dramatic insights, maybe particularly so at that time at the end of Dan’s life.

The conclusion Birch reached was that Dan needed to know this information before he passed over into the spirit world. The reason that it was Birch that was the messenger was perhaps to do with the need, from his perspective, to be impressed from outside his circle of family and friends. 
 “A prophet is without honour in his own country” seems an appropriate adage.

Birch had already discovered this to his cost, in the past. Or maybe it had something to do with Birch being the most sensitive to Dan’s psychic needs at the time. Whatever the reason, the whole situation had a very profound effect on him. He explains that if we make ourselves available for good works, or ill, then the cosmic and spiritual forces will use our talents and communication skills. However the impetus must come from us. We live in a free will universe.

Above we see a perspective from Birch’s point of view. To him it makes sense, in a crazy, material world, filled with heroism, strength, genius, intelligence, illness, suffering, and death. The above for him is the building block, GCSE, grade C, Reincarnation 101, the basis.

For those interested in exploring this fascinating field a little further, Birch offers more.

In this three dimensional material world, we see time as an ever flowing stream. One event follows another. The whole process is linear. One lifetime follows another. This linear process does not work in the spiritual realms, for time is a material construct. We use it to make sense of the reality in which we currently find ourselves. It gives us a frame of reference.

In the spiritual worlds, as time does not exist and events do not follow a linear path, our lifetimes exist and are all happening at the same time. Thus Birch’s life as  spear carrier, as master of ceremonies in 17^th century Central Europe, as a Chinese mandarin at the court the emperor, are all being played out now; yes, right now. But what does that mean for the relationship of this current life with those that we perceive as being in the past. It means that each lifetime is equally as valid as all the others. In this equality of lifetimes, it gives us enormous power not only over our present life, but over all the other lifetimes, now, in this moment.

Being aware of other lifetimes is merely the first step to having an expanded view of our individual humanity. We are thus far larger in consciousness than our previous perceptions of ourselves. Of course we need to be prepared to move outside the ‘mental box’ to appreciate this expanded perception of self. In this mode of consciousness we are able to turn to other of our lifetimes, heal ourselves, heal the traumas that we experienced, heal the injustices, heal the pain that we are inflicting, and thereby move towards experiencing ourselves as balanced human beings; physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Not only are we greater than we imagine, we are greater than we can imagine.

We are indeed spiritual beings having human experiences. Birch is not keen on the model that places the soul somewhere in the region of the heart, and is only accessed from time to time. This creates the physical as superior, of greater importance than the spiritual, when the reverse is the case. His belief is of a physical body travelling in a spiritual one.

 We are bound to question his perspective along these lines. “This is all very fine and dandy, Birch. This may make perfect sense to you, but how can one work with these ideas if we have no perspective of these other lifetimes going on, and no access to a sensitive who can tell us.”

We can all work with the notion of timelines. The stream of consciousness that you are currently in is a timeline, your current life if you like. Your other lives are timelines. Every time you face a decision or make a choice, you are creating the next moment of the timeline that you are in. The other choices that you rejected are entry points for other timelines. If we don’t put our decision into any other particular choice, then that is an entry into a potential timeline that will disintegrate back into the cosmic melting pot. We have thus not put our consciousness into that potential timeline. It is moribund and will break down.

So if we accept this premise of timelines, then it is a model for changing our reality. We can, in meditation or quiet thinking time, create an alternative reality. Thoughts are things, so by creating such a thought pattern we create an alternative set of experiences for our lives, in fact or in potential. This works. Birch’s own experience includes an alternative timeline that came to his consciousness. This one was presented to him by his inner, spiritual self, rather than an objective externalisation of desire by him.

Without warning he was placed in a vision where he felt himself coming down the birth canal and out into the very cold, very bright world. He saw himself as a young boy in school uniform with a striped school tie. Education finished, he moved to a hot climate with palm trees, discovered the spiritual life, and then this alternative timeline merged into the present moment. He was then free to work with this timeline, filling in the gaps, and helping to create a new future with the revised timeline, free of certain personality ‘baggage’ accumulated in the present life timeline. He works with this to this day viewing it as a ’project’ for his own development, (albeit a never-ending project.)

Are there any other reasons for believing in, and creating, timelines? Birch helps us with this when he addresses the battle between dark and light forces elsewhere in this book.

So does all this have truth, or is it all contained in what psychologists call racial memory? Or is the information of our forebears held in our DNA? Perhaps all are true.

Certainly DNA codes are being constantly unlocked. We are understanding more and more about this source. Birch has experimented in this area of ‘unlocking’ information from DNA, psychically. Within the possibility of all three aspects above being true, Birch believes that Audrey’s skill is manifestly what it appears to be.

He now believes he can access his own DNA information through meditative techniques. He reckons to have proved this, at least to himself. It is much more difficult, or impossible, for Audrey to access his DNA. It is much more likely that Audrey, as has been argued above, has access to this ‘field of human experience’ known as the Akashic record.

Before we leave the subject of DNA, here’s a discomforting thought. We assume that DNA is something that enables us to exist as we do, to have developed as we have and to enable our children to become very much like us. We view DNA almost as a servant for us. But what if… what if we are servants of DNA, as are all other living organisms on earth? What if the prime organism is DNA, and it is our function to provide a body, a vehicle, if you will, to enable DNA to exist and perpetuate itself? That would make us hosts, wouldn’t it?

Birch presents one alternative view. This is from ‘Healing Celebrations Lecture’ by Leonard G. Horowitz. He suggests that one does not need to believe in reincarnation to explain why many people feel they have ancient memories - lucid flashbacks to age-old emotion-packed events - or even divine callings. These experiences may be associated with ancestral memories transmitted through hydro-electrified DNA. This theory is adequately supported by recent advances in electrogenetics, protein crystal science, and structured water biochemistry. Simply consider the subtle yet powerful frequency transmission capabilities and energy capacitance facilitated by DNA-clustered-water-nucleosome resonances. Some of these may be encoded with a spiritual flow containing ancient data.

Birch will finish this section by paraphrasing Spike Milligan’s comment that he wished to place on his gravestone which was. ‘I told you I was sick’. Birch’s version of it for concluding this section is, ‘I told you I would stretch your minds’