Gordon Smith has a new book out: Through My Eyes, published by Hay House. Having read his earlier books, I’m looking forward to reading it and will review it here.

So why aren’t we putting this post on our Supernatural site? The reason is that, contrary to expectations, Gordon Smith of the Most Haunted TV show, is amazingly down to earth:

“People ask me why so many mediums have native American Indians as their Spirit guides. I always say there have to be a lot more Indians on the Other Side to sort out all the cowboys pretending to be mediums.”

He continues: “If someone comes to me and says they’re possessed by Spirits, I tell them to go home and clean the windows, wash the car, and do some gardening. It’s a lot of nonsense. Spirits don’t behave like that. People need to live in this world and get on with their lives.”

I suppose if you deal with Spirits every day, they just become a normal part of the scenery, and that’s just how you’d regard them.

Gordon has an enviable reputation as Britain’s most accurate and detailed medium. Anyone who has seen him at work on TV will know what awe he elicits from even the most spiritualist-savvy audience. No “tall, dark handsome stranger” for him, it’s “a man called Peter with a scar over one eye” … to gasps of recognition from his subject.

Having given up his barber shop in Glasgow, Scotland, he now makes his living from writing books, speaking to spititualist audiences and television. He doesn’t charge for one-to-one sittings, viewing his mediumship as a gift for helping others.

Check out the latest offer on Through My Eyes by Gordon Smith.

In the final post on Ramana Maharshi as part of this series, here is the opening page of Ramana’s book, Spiritual Instruction:

1. What are the marks of a real teacher?

Steady abidance in the Self, looking at all with an equal eye, unshakeable courage at all times, in all places and circumstances.

2. What are the marks of an earnest disciple?

An intense longing for the removal of sorrow and attainment of joy and an intense aversion for all kinds of mundane pleasure.

Read the rest of this entry »

A fragment of the Gospel of Judas.

An ancient Gnostic manuscript written in Coptic is to be unveiled to the world by National Geographic on April 6. It is the Gospel of Judas, one of a series of Gospels which were not included in the Biblical canon because they were deemed too mystical. They also diverged from the story decided on by the Church in the 4th century.

Only 26 pages of the disintegrating manuscript are available, but the contents are said to be explosive. From this perspective Judas Iscariot is seen as a friend of Jesus who helps him fulfil his divine mission and the Biblical prophesies of the Old Testament.

In the text, Christ asks Judas to betray him with the words: “You will become the apostle cursed by all the others. Judas, you will sacrifice this body of man which clothes me.”

That Jesus speaks of the body as a garment which clothes him, presupposes “his” existence apart from the body. Since the Roman church does not believe in the pre-existence of the soul and assumes that the body is resurrected, this is clearly a mystical step too far for Catholicism.

The Coptic text (the ancient language of Egyptian Christians) is thought to be a 4th-century translation of an earlier Greek book. Tests have confirmed its authenticity.

Already the world of Biblical scholarship has been turned upside-down, while Vatican sensitivities are stretched to breaking point. It hasn’t helped that the text is being published just weeks before release of the film version of “The Da Vinci Code”.

Spiritual Nirvana will be covering this event with great interest as the story unfolds.

The following extract from my forthcoming book, The Nirvaneans, covers Ramana’s initial enlightenment experience:

The second incident occurred when, at an uncle’s house, he chanced upon a book describing the lives of Tamil saints. Ramana felt a strong reaction while reading through it and, although he put the volume aside without much comment, the yeast had been added to the must.

It was not until the year 1896, at the age of sixteen, that the event which tore him apart erupted from within. That he was ready for it there can be no doubt, given his subsequent history. The founder of Christianity is attributed with the enigmatic statement that “whosoever shall lose his life shall find it.” No timid “rebirth by declaration” is prefigured here. It is nothing less than the death of the personal ego, which may happen gradually over a period of time, or in a mighty upheaval as in the case of the young Venkataraman.

… It was so sudden. One day I sat up alone on the
first floor of my uncle’s house. I was in unusual health.
… a sudden and unmistakeable fear of death seized me. I
felt I was going to die … I did not however trouble
myself to discover if the fear was well grounded…I felt
I had to solve the problem myself then and there.

The shock of this “seizure” forced the boy’s thoughts inward, introverting deep into the mind and its functioning.

“What is it that is dying,” he questioned? “This body dies,” came the reply. He followed the train of thoughts ever more inward and physically imitated the state of death by stiffening his limbs and holding his breath.

This body is dead. It will be burnt to ashes.
But with the death of this body, am “I” dead? Is the
body “I”? This body is silent and inert. But I feel
the full force of my (self) and even the sound
“I” within myself, apart from the body…I am
therefore the deathless spirit.

In later years he explained this part of his experience in terms of the “aham sphurana” which is an intermediate state between normal ego-mindedness and full realisation of the Self. The aham sphurana is a kind of emanation of “I” or, as he puts it above, “I feel — the sound “I” within myself.”

This sphurana clings to the Self as a prelude to enlightenment: “When the mind…remains attending to the aham sphurana, which is the sign of the forthcoming direct experience of the Self — the Heart — remains in the form of That (the Self).”

Ramana stressed that this was not a mere intellectual process. The insight “flashed before me vividly as living truth … The material body dies, but the spirit transcending it cannot be touched by death.”

The form of this realization, “I am not the body. Who am I?” was to set the tone for his highest teaching throughout the rest of his life.