By Anonymous, Lismore, Australia

In my mid-twenties, I was living with a couple of flatmates in Byron Bay. I was living an apparently idyllic lifestyle, with close friends, many hours spent walking on the beach, going surfing and being creative. I worked part-time as a graphic designer for a local newspaper and in odd retail jobs.

It looked like an easy fun-loving life on the surface, though I felt there was something amiss in my life. I felt a deep sense of sadness that I was not living my full potential and that my relationships were not working. My intimate relationships never seemed to last and I would usually be the one to run away. I was in a poor mental state and recall feeling very lost and alone, often calling Lifeline for someone to talk to.

I remember speaking with my flatmate about these issues and she suggested I could go to see Serge Benhayon, a healing practitioner who lived nearby. After living in Byron Bay for many years, I had tried many healing therapies, including different styles of meditation, yoga, chiropractic, natural therapy, acupuncture, psychic readings and massage. I was interested in crystals and energy, and read many spiritual new age books to try and find a deeper understanding of what was missing in my life. Continue reading “Coming Back to Truth” →

By Matilda Bathurst and Judy Joy. 

Do you ever get that feeling when you wake up that you have to work through some fogginess to come to the sense of opportunity that each day has? Why is that? Why do we not wake feeling the lightness and joy we did when we were young and that we know we naturally are?

In our daily lives how often do we allow ourselves to see and feel the opportunities presented to realise the joy that sparkles in often unexpected places and situations?

Whilst shopping today there was a little girl in a shopping mall wearing sandals with a built-in squeaker and with every step she took she visibly delighted in these shoes and the noise they made. The ripple effect of her joy was properly palpable in all who saw and heard her. People stopped and literally lit up as she passed them by and conversations started up between strangers. It was an instance of twinkle and joy… a moment that touched many. And we have no idea how far this spreads beyond this shopping mall to conversations and interactions throughout all the lives of the people who witnessed this. Continue reading “Magic Moments – True Medicine” →

By Carmel Reid, Volunteer, Northern Rivers, NSW, Australia

I read an article recently about Dementia that mentioned the stunning effect a change of diet had on one woman who totally recovered her senses and no longer had dementia. This caused me to stop and reflect on my many friends who are associated with Universal Medicine most of whom follow a healthy diet with plenty of meat, fish, and vegetables and no alcohol, caffeine, gluten, dairy or refined sugar. Interestingly none of these friends, who are in their 60s, 70s and 80s, have dementia or any signs of it and to me this is worth noting.  Of course, there is more to dementia than diet alone but it is a contributing factor and one we can all do something about.

I’ve met a lot of people with dementia recently because I’ve been volunteering in an elderly care home and I work with residents of differing abilities and varying ages – some are mentally just not there, others are physically disabled but mentally fully present and others are in between. Some move around in wheelchairs and some use walking frames and walking aids with wheels that make them bend over even more. Continue reading “Dementia and walking frames – not an inevitable part of ageing” →

By Roberta Himing, Student of Life, Australia 

The final check for the visual function of the new lenses following cataract surgery was complete and the journey home once again on the public transport system, gave me the opportunity to reflect upon this latest little medical adventure of mine. So much to marvel at as I thought about the surgery associated with the cataractous lenses. Dr. Anne Malatt, an ophthamologist, had gently indicated a few months earlier it could be time to consider the removal of the thickening cataracts from my eyes.

What was it that was being revealed to me? What lay behind the fact of experiencing ‘blurred’ vision or even the fact of having had to wear prescription eye glasses since a teenager? Had I been viewing life in reaction rather than response?

There had only been a few events in this life that I had knowingly recoiled from in fear, trepidation or disbelief, wanting desperately for the things that I saw or was aware of to be different, though I had had a difficulty in accepting the horror of the newsworthy events of the world, subjecting myself to feeling the pain and supposed injustice personally.

Continue reading “CATARACTS and the CATACOMBS of the MIND” →

By Gabriele Conrad, Goonellabah, NSW

I had quite an eye opener of an experience the other day. And eye opener is the appropriate term here, as it showed me firsthand and very tangibly what I had known for a long time about how we use our eyes.

I work as a book editor and a colleague had sent me two lines of a text with a typo in it to add to my collection of errata for its second edition; I had quickly skimmed the email and gleaned that there was an ‘r’ in the wrong place.

When I got back to the email a couple of days later I ended up staring at those two lines for a long while; I just could not spot the typo. May I add here that I have a lot of experience in this area; you could say that I am a pro. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not see the typo. There was no ‘r’ out of place, no matter how often I examined these two lines of text. And here they are:

They key to any minor or major problem is

to find the simplicity that has been ignored.

Serge Benhayon, Esoteric Teachings & Revelations, Volume II, ed. 1, p 367

I was very puzzled; extremely puzzled and confused. How come I could not spot this simple and straightforward typo, one that somebody had already pointed out?

Continue reading “We see what we want to see …” →

by Joan Calder, retired/volunteer work, Frome, UK 

It is a known fact among actors that there are moments on stage when you cannot remember how you arrived at the point you have reached, but more terrifyingly, you just cannot remember your lines. The mind goes blank and panic sets in. This can happen more frequently as they age until some have to give up their profession entirely. It is not only actors who suffer this in older life, all those who develop some form of dementia follow the same pattern.

Often in life we hear people confessing they find themselves somewhere and have no idea how they arrived there, or they can’t remember names, or what they were going to do next. Perhaps not so surprising, if as per Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage” and we are all transient actors entering and leaving.

Recently there was a research project with a group of older actors which came out with some surprising results. The research team followed a group of older actors as they took part in a course of improvisation classes at the National Theatre. Many actors who have been used to learning their lines and having to remember them find it difficult to improvise, the same with musicians, especially those older actors who were trained in the old way of learning lines by rote or memory and did not experience the newer style theatre training with lots of free form improvisation.

Continue reading “Memory Loss  –  Learning the lines or improvisation, or neither?” →