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  Inside the Greater World Christian Spiritualist Church of Jersey in the Channel Islands

'Christian Spiritualists' are 'normal' people

I will keep this as brief as possible. Just in case the reader of this treatise might like to know something about its human compiler, if for no other reason than to perhaps add human substance to the sometimes ethereal subject matter, then here is a summary of my life here on earth so far. I must first say though, that I am constantly aware of my own failures and, indeed, hypocrisy. This, I know, is a consequence of being involved with those who are far more advanced in spiritual terms than myself, and also because dealing with the Truth must of necessity bring out what is lacking within oneself, if I am to be rigorously honest.

In the little Channel Island of Jersey

I was born in Jersey in the Channel Islands in 1960. My father was also born here as was his father and so on. My mother came here from Belfast in Ireland as a nurse at the age of seventeen. I was educated at St. Lukes Primary School and received a scholarship to Victoria College. As a child I was brought up as a Roman Catholic. Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. It is 45 miles square (9 by 5). Jersey has a unique history; it is 20 miles from France and Jersey's past is littered with invasions by various conquerors from Europe. Jersey's main language is English but until fairly recently Jersey-French was spoken by many of its inhabitants.

Jersey was occupied by the German army in the Second World War, and my father spent six months in a cell/dungeon under what is now part of the hospital, as a political prisoner of the Nazis during the German Occupation of Jersey; rather dramatically, he was due to be executed by firing squad on May 10th but Jersey was liberated by the Allies on May 9th, 1945. The population at the end of the Occupation was around 40-45,000; now it is around 85, 000, and many areas have become relatively built up, especially by the finance industry and business in general (for housing and offices). Yet, in the main, Jersey is an exceptionally beautiful island.

Work helps us to learn our lessons

I have undertaken a wide range of occupations including banking clerk, landscape-gardening, 'operating-theatre-attendant' and 'one-hour-photoprocessing'. For the last eleven years I have been working for the Engineering Department at the General Hospital in Jersey.

My regular income is at the lower end of the relative wage scale but this work pays the rent and allows me to run a computer and web pages as a free service to others (which is a good thing as both secular science and the "mainstream" Church seem to oppose Christian Spiritualism, so there is a need to tell people about Life after Death and their Divine Inheritance). I would not have it any other way though, because I know that understanding others and their difficulties can only come through undergoing the same experiences as them; sympathy and understanding towards others would not be real sympathy but merely the mental process of empathy if I was not in the position to know a little of what it is like to go without. How I would hate to go through this life with more than my fair share, and not know what it is like to have to count the pennies when it comes to shopping-time and settle for the lesser (in the material sense).

Of course, the Island of Jersey is affluent (due mainly to Jersey's currently contentious 'offshore finance industry', so-called), and there is a good standard health and social security, and so even though I neither have a house or a car, I still feel that in comparison to millions of disadvantaged people throughout the world, from a material point of view I cannot honestly complain, and I am also grateful to be able to provide the basics for my family. Such an ideal of having no interest in the desire for "riches", may be despised by some, but then I am trying to follow a spiritual path and not a materialistic one. I have learnt to be happy with what I have got and not to hanker after superfluous material things

The Christian Ethic and Ethical Investment

I encourage the promotion of something known as 'Ethical Investment'. This is for people who wish to make investments where money is not the primary motive for the investment. Indeed, investing 'ethically' can make a huge impact upon the transformation of the world for the better, because companies which are harming the world, its people and its animals, will not be considered 'ethical'; similarly, companies which make a positive contribution to the world, its people and its animals, are considered 'ethical'.

Thus investing only in companies which fall within the ethical investment criteria increases both the influence of that area and the awareness of the collective consciousness. However, the power of material ambition has put the very respectable 'ethical investment' funds in the background, and so many people do not get to hear of ethical investment. In our 'developed' society, in the main, money and material profit (material ambition) comes first before, for instance: ensuring that children are not forced into long hours of labour in developing countries to produce money for some landlord; or perhaps making certain that trees are planted when others are pulled up; or perhaps guaranteeing that animals have not had suffering and pain needlessly inflicted upon them in the name of so-called progression.

One man's 'meat' is another man's poison

Although I used to have a liking for wine, I have not consumed alcohol for a number of years now. This is not because of any kind of religious injunction, but because my tolerance to alcohol has slowly over the years become virtually non-existent as if I have an allergy to it, and it is better for my health and the world around me if I remain a lifelong teetotaller. In fact, alcohol, combined with my weaknesses, has caused me to act in ways which have caused me such shame, that I am driven by conscience year after year, to try to make up for it, by seeking to know God's will for my life, and then acting upon the opportunities He sends my way through the spiritual guides who do His will.

With regard to grapes of the unfermented kind, I have at one time eaten nothing but grapes (not taking any liquid other than the grape juice) for a period of 23 days. I enjoyed this so much that two weeks later I ate only grapes for another 14 days, and ten days after finishing that I ate nothing but grapes for a further 10 days. The fructose in the grapes gave me so much energy that it enabled me to carry out a full-time job as well as a part time job at the same time. I have never felt such physical health and physical well-being as during that period of grape-fasting; it is not like total abstinence from solid food at all and is a pleasant and uplifting experience. My research has shown me that eating nothing but grapes can eliminate first and secondary stage cancers from the body within a month, because matter alien to the physical body is attacked and broken up by the qualities inherent in the grape. It is a pity this is not more widely known and taught.

Within is a more glorious and greater world than without

In the past I have travelled on low budgets to places like India and North Africa with the purpose of experiencing something of Hindu and Muslim culture on ground level. In 1984 I lived for 15 months in the British Headquarters for Transcendental Meditation where I was the vegetarian cook for those who lived there too. That was a special time in my life, and I only left the building about four times to go shopping. While there, rather surprisingly I was undeservedly given the extremely long title of 'Director Of The Ministry Of Natural Law For The British Capitals Of The World Government Of The Age Of Enlightenment', which I initially thought was a little strange as I was simply an unpaid vegetarian cook with an Ayurvedic influence. I also became accustomed to witnessing, every day, yogic 'flying' (the movement of the body by contact with a higher energy without any muscle use at all), making it very clear that such activity is normal, natural and nothing to be 'impressed' about.

I have always found it strange that so many people find it so difficult to believe that such yogic powers are possible to ordinary people - in the same way that many people find it difficult to believe that spirits live on with intelligent consciousness after physical death and can communicate with those on earth in the flesh. I have seen confused and depressed people as well as few who have had an addiction to drugs, learn transcendental meditation and benefit greatly. I have seen such people transformed into lively yet calm, stable and happy people able to lead a meaningful life which was not available to them previously - by the simple and regular practise of transcendental meditation. 'TM' is a 'non-religious' practice which certainly has improved the quality of peoples' lives in a number of ways; it can, and does unfold even a damaged flower to reveal a beautiful bloom indeed. It is so strange that there are those fundamentalists (particularly Biblical ones) who think that practising transcendental meditation is dangerous and even 'demonic'; such an attitude speaks volumes for how dogmatic conditioning can alter a true perception of reality.

I have also lived in a temple of the Brahma Sampredaya (following the 'path of Devotion' or 'Bhakti Yoga') and have studied the Vedic scriptures in great depth. One cannot seriously study the Vedas without realising there is something very special about them. Some of the Vedic hymns are the most beautiful forms of music and words available to the human senses in my opinion.

Unbalanced immaturity?

It is undeniable that a part of mankind has put up a brave fight towards his evolution, but I believe that man is still in the infant stages of growth so far as this earth is concerned. For instance, while there is a place for training in self-defence both in the individual and collective sense (in case of aggressors whether robbers or armies), I find pugilism (boxing) to be an example of the state of consciousness of humanity (at least in the 'developed' world). The fact that large numbers of people can become so excited and thrilled because two human beings are determined to punch each other in the head, face and body, until perhaps concussion and unconsciousness - well, this fact demonstrates the level to which man aspires with regard to 'entertainment' in some circles. No doubt my attitude towards pugilism is affected by the fact that I spent 8 years on the receiving end of the punches and kicks of (what modern medicine calls) a violent schizophrenic; however, this does not detract from the fact that (the inner) man was created out of Love Himself, and gaining 'enjoyment' from watching one person physically assault another person's head and brain with calculated blows with the intention of causing as much harm as is legally possible, is hardly a demonstration of real love (the real inner person being literally made of Love essentially) in any sense.

By singling out pugilism, I am not in any way suggesting that those who enjoy boxing are 'less spiritual' than those who do not enjoy boxing; the point I am attempting to make is to show what is 'acceptable' to the world today in order to find a definable point upon which to try to explain a state of consciousness collectively in this present age; and I am comparing it to a collective consciousness which transcends such things and deems them both unnecessary and barbaric. Also, by referring to an infant state of 'consciousness', I do not refer to 'intellect', because consciousness is not dependent upon intellect. Intellect is distinctly separate from true Consciousness; intellect may be very 'sharp' whereas consciousness may be very 'infantile' simultaneously. Consciousness refers to the amount of freedom gained by the spirit within which is of the Spirit of Love; consciousness refers to Spirit-Consciousness. We, as a whole, are young in terms of Consciousness. That is the point.

Secular philosophy and science is grossly inadequate compared to Greater World philosophy and science

The sociologist might decide to label my life as being somewhat 'deviant' in the sense that I appear to hold many ideas, values and beliefs which differ greatly from the 'norm'. But I would say that having gained an understanding of the Greater World (from the Greater World Christian Spiritualist Church), I am in fact living a more 'normal' life than I could ever do if I used Sociology as my creed and doctrine. Greater World Christian Spiritualism is a way of life. It is based on common sense, experiences, morality, and information from those who have the great advantage of being free from the limitations imposed by the over-glorified intellect of the physical mind.

I believe that many sociologist wiseacres have based their assumptions on an extremely limited set of criteria. The instruction of the mind is meant to run in double harness with the instruction of the soul, but with secular science and sociology, this is not the case, and an unbalanced education results.

While sociology can help to broaden the mind in some respects and can be practically valuable (for instance, in preventing unnecessary resource wastage in some areas through time/space/geography management), sociology has based its findings solely upon the physical and mental plane with confined theories developed from perceptions made with the limited human senses - and devoid of the reality of spiritual life. Such theories are therefore always incomplete because all criteria necessary for producing whole theories have not been considered.

Trying to define 'life' sociologically based on purely 'physically' observable perceptions, is like trying to write a book with the use of only thirteen of the twenty six letters of the alphabet. For instance, many sociologists openly admit that they cannot truly explain why seemingly 'normal' people suddenly commit a crime of some sort; certainly, there are theories but they are not very conclusive at all. But when the influence of the 'unseen' is taken into consideration, then one begins to gain a wider picture as to how many fallen souls wandering in ignorance, can either intentionally or unintentionally by association, influence and impinge upon the thoughts and desires of those living in human bodies.

But such truths have rather foolishly been ruled out-of-court by many a sociologist because they are perchance assumed to be something belonging to superstitious and illogically-minded non-scientific people, those who have not cultivated their thinking powers, or those who hold beliefs which really belong to primitive traditional societies from social history in the 'pre-enlightened' age. However, the wiseacres have gone to extremes and have not read between the lines, where the truth is plain to see.

On the contrary, sociology is a subject which has a certain value (with regard to such things as social history), but as it stands in its present limited form with regard to many of its theoretical aspects, sociology will be found in the future to be as close to the truth as frontal lobotomies are for the treatment of psychiatric illnesses. The long-winded and often conflicting theories of the mind of man which have influenced sociology so much, such as those concerned with evolution, crime and psychiatry, have only dealt with one side of the coin, and such diversity - the sociologist may say - is what gives sociology its richness. But, ironically, the other side of the coin - the reality of spiritual life and the Spiritual World itself, generally unnoticed at this present stage of man's evolution - brings a much fuller and holistic understanding of human life to the individual prepared to make the effort to stretch his or her mind and soul a little further. Then true inspiration from the Greater World of Spirit will be his or hers, and there can be no replacing of true knowledge with the faulty theories of the limited intellect of man.

Each has their own path, but each ones path is part of mine

Now I try to give out the principles of the Christ Mission every Sunday at a Divine Service in the Greater World Christian Spiritualist Church in Jersey, and I study those principles given through the Greater World every day, religiously setting aside time for this purpose to make sure that I stay as close to the Truth as possible. This is because, for me personally (my own path) I have found there to be more truth available to me through this channel than in any other system that I have studied from Krsna Consciousness to Christian Evangelism to the Baha'i Faith. There is nothing which is excluded from these principles and all becomes clear when the desire is there to comprehend and overcome bias.

Whilst there are many unifying channels of spirituality in this world, I have not encountered any which cover the actual aspects of real life, seen and unseen, as that found in the original trust of the Greater World. There is revelation in other systems of spirituality, but the thing with Truth is that when it has been made ones own, it cannot be taken away, and there is no going back to something which cannot provide those aspects of Truth, regardless of how spiritual that system may be.

Our 'congregation' in Jersey is extremely small at the moment (a mere handful of faithful regulars), but we were told from Spirit years ago that this would only be for a relatively short time (how long that is we do not know, but a period of 'purifying' is, we are told, necessary, because the waiting, disappointment and striving creates a power which shall last whereas so many things which 'take-off' immediately simply do not have the stamina to have the lasting effect necessary to achieve God's will on earth). However, we do know that until people became more concerned about their own destinies and the destinies of their children after this life on earth, then the higher truths of spiritual life given to mankind, are to be kept as they were given by their custodians.

Please feel free to   me about anything you wish. Sincere investigation is most welcome.

However, there is one thing I must ask: If you e-mail me with the intention of telling me your way (dogma or doctrine) is the only way and that people who have even a slightly different view are destined for an eternity in Hell, then please do me the courtesy of reading the whole contents of this site (around 750,000 words) before you e-mail me. I have spent countless hours answering what are essentially the same points, to individuals whose only intention is either to tell me how wrong I am, or, ironically enough, to tell me to 'accept Jesus into my heart'. Well, almost all of the points that have ever come up from such as these (and the points are always very similar) are dealt with in this site, so please read it first before you make me constantly reiterate the common points that all dogmatists seem to think nobody else has thought of. To answer such people I have to stay up late and get up early; there have been people who, after hours and hours of writing to them on a number of occasions, tell me that they will not read the majority of this site. I say, there seems to be little point in writing to such as these? Perhaps they write to me in the hope that I will buckle to the pressure of their conditioned preaching? Another chap kept me up until two and three in the morning for a whole week by e-mailing me with questions two or three times a day, and then he told me that he had been 'playing a little game' with me, because he 'already knew' what I 'believed'. But as I say, genuine enquiries and questions are very welcome, and with people whose minds are open, there is sometimes little need for the theological side because their spirits speak to them and they 'hear' a little of what is said. If such is the case, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kindest Regards,
 

Jersey - Channel Islands - November 1998