Does a book like The Da Vinci Code – or the earlier The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail — serve a purpose helpful to religion rather than, as Cardinal Bertone has suggested, being alien to it?

Anyone who has read the now voluminous literature on the subject of Jesus’s existence / divinity / marriage / survival / paternity / message … will know that there’s a lot of evidence out there which casts doubt on the Church’s view of these things. The regular furores on topics like this, thanks to books like The Da Vinci Code, actually help religion, I believe, because, however scant some of the arguments, they actually increase the general level of consciousness about some of the most tricky questions we face.

The truth behind the Jesus story, I believe, is the constant push towards ever greater consciousness. The cosmos as we know it is an outrider of the “ground of being” — call it what you will — incarnating individual consciousnesses so that “It” can know Itself.

Jesus is a metaphor for the manifestation of individual consciousness in the universe. He represents us because we are all in the same boat, of the same boat, ARE the same boat. That’s the secret of the universe. People who maintain it’s all about physical bloodlines and DNA — as indeed The Da Vinci Code itself does — tend to be mesmerized by orthodox science. The Church meanwhile seems to be damage-limiting its position and justifying its powerbase.

These are difficult questions which have to be looked at from an all-embracing viewpoint to arrive at anything like an accurate conclusion.

The EnlightenNext organization of American spiritual teacher, Andrew Cohen, is holding two events in London, England in early April.

The first on Friday April 7 is an evening talk by Andrew Cohen and a reception. A vegetarian dinner is available after the event. Entry costs £15, dinner £6.

The second event is a two-day, non-residential retreat with Andrew Cohen on Saturday April 8 to 9, 10.30am–6.00pm. The cost is £140 and includes two vegetarian lunches.

To reserve seats online: www.ticketweb.co.uk. Or call: 020 7288 7000, or email: info.london (AT) enlightennext (DOT) org.

Both events will be held at EnlightenNext, 13 Windsor Street, London, N1 8QG.

The “Library Angel” has been kind again. Some while ago Colin Wilson emailed me a chapter of the new autobiography he was writing. I had assumed it was still to be published, but today, strolling through the local library looking for something inspiring to read, my eyes swivelled purposively towards the Biography section and immediately alighted on “Colin Wilson”: Dreaming to Some Purpose – the very book. On a list of good pals, the Library Angel would rank high indeed.

Colin Wilson was one of the “Angry Young Men” of the 1950s, but after his debut book The Outsider, he went on to write about all aspects of what I think of as the unconscious side of life. His starting point was Shaw’s idea that if he could live for 300 years he would have time to discover the true meaning of life, the universe, and everything. (So it’s clearly not 42!) He has written many books since, all riveting stuff, and, at around 70 years of age, shows no sign of calling it a day.

The Serpent Grail by Philip Gardiner and Gary Osborn is subtitled, “The truth behind the Holy Grail, the Philospher’s Stone and the Elixir of Life”.

This is a well-researched book which unfortunately has a massive flaw at its heart. I have to declare an interest here by saying that the subject matter bears some resemblance to my own soon-to-be-published book, COSMOSITY.

The authors work on the proposition that “enlightenment” is at the core of such phenomena as the Holy Grail and the Philosopher’s Stone. So far so good, COSMOSITY says much the same thing. Serpent Grail goes further and follows what it calls a cult of the serpent in ancient times, suggesting that serpents were real people who had been “enlightened”. This is close to Graham Hancock’s thesis in his new book, Supernatural, reviewed on our Supernatural blog last week.

The problem I have with this book is not the depth of research, which is at times impressive, or with its central propositions about the Grail etc. The disruptive element is the authors’ notion of what “enlightenment” actually is.

Gardiner and Osborn state categorically that enlightenment is a hypnagogic state, that relaxed period between sleeping and waking when vivid dreams occur, sometime prophetic. P. 26: “… the esoteric teaching that the inner sun was located at the neutral mid-point between opposites in the twilight zone of consciousness known as the hypnagogic state.” This is simplistic and betrays a lack of knowledge both of the literature and in their personal experience.

Enlightenment is a state beyond the purview of the brain and central nervous system. It uses a completely different form of perception, what I’ve called “nirvanoception”, or space consciousness.

This is such a major flaw in the text that it simply renders the book unbelievable on a number of fronts. If you can’t trust the central understanding of the authors, why should you believe any of their other conclusions?

Check out the best price for The Serpent Grail.