Market Day

Saturday morning is my weekly pilgrimmage to the market to buy locally produced organic fare and have lovely chats with the sellers and not use my car and generally bring forth all good things. Look at all these beauties...

Laurance, the organic veg seller, seduced me with recipe suggestions complete with French gestures of sensual delight, and talked me into buying some budding winter greens (John had already told me about his spring greens dish, and given me the urge, I feel a great urge to eat green at the moment, last month it was mushrooms). I steamed them, and then steam-fried sliced red onions sweet as sugar with a few chopped up dried tomatoes, mixed all together and served. Tonight a spinach salad with tiny cubes of cheese. I won't tell B it's spinach because he HATES spinach, but if he thinks it is lettuce he will eat it. I won't tell R about the cubes of cheese because he HATES cheese. Can't think what I'm going to tell him - to pick them out probably. I can't put ham in it instead because J-C is a vegetarian. I did chicken breasts with a dab of lemon jam from the prune lady, prunes, olive oil and lemon juice. Veggie burger for J-C. Then for pudding, ginger cake with slices of fresh pear, farm yoghurts with fruits from their very own hedgerows and egg custard with a touch of caramel...mmm.

Well I got myself very charged up with the rich fruitful loveliness of my purchases, but all romantic illusions crashed when I served it to the children...below R dramatises about a small inoffensive winter green:

Our Children and New Technology

Thrusting in and Leading Out!


Bring into your mind an image of Miss Jean Brodie in her prime, speaking (add in Scottish accent) to her girls:

'The word ‘education’ comes from the root e from ex, out and duco, I lead. It means a leading out. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul. To Miss Mackay it is a putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education. I call it intrusion, from the Latin root prefix in meaning in and the stem trudo, I thrust. Miss Mackay’s method is to thrust a lot of information into the pupil’s head: mine is a leading out of knowledge, and that is true education, as is proved by the root meaning. Now Miss Mackay has accused me of putting ideas into my girls heads, but in fact that is her practice and mine is quite the opposite…' (From The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark)


Mmm, I think Miss Jean Brodie could be onto something with the "leading out..."


How does New Technology in all its forms fit into our childrens' education? Before we can answer this questions, we need to have some idea of what a child is, and then, what it is to educate the child.  



Can this be part of the leading out? Should we rush to get it in and get ahead? Should we revel in the new possibilities and creativities? Could it be dangerous or destructive? Should we in fact keep it out of schools entirely? Or is it good at a certain age, and if so, what age is a good age to start?  

How do we judge? Everything is new. We have no traditions and very little theory available to help us with this great challenge.

J-C and I went to a talk on this last night at our childrens school, (by Philippe Pyrenes) on this very subject, which has got me thinking.

First of all, when speaking about New Technology in education,  suppose we start with the child and a good vision of what a child is at every age and stage, rather than starting with, for example, some politician or business mogul's view of economic necessity or politics or money making.  We cannot make any judgements about the suitability in education of the ever increasing, exciting and available gadgetry that New Technology puts on show, without having some understanding of the human child, and the role and effect of new technology.

Our speaker identified three main areas of childrens' education:

Sensory Experience

Internal Experience

Human Contact

(Our speaker, an experienced teacher with children and grandchildren, and a background in information technology, wished to express a certain quality within each of these, 'real' sensory perception, 'true' human contact...)

First of all we have to understand why these things are important.

Sensory Experience

The young child grovelling in the sandpit is doing more than just mucking around...

This is about the experience of being there: and looking round, smelling, hearing feeling, touching... The very young child grovelling in the sandpit is doing more than just mucking around - all the sensations of digging and scooping and dribbling the sand, pouring it, making moulds, jumping on it, are helping to build an inner world to which she will later refer with words, and later still prepare an intellectual understanding of the outer world with reference to her inner one. Experimenting with the fall of the sand to earth, for example, gives us a true understanding of gravity - what it is in relation to us, and our experience, even though we haven't yet learned the name gravity, and all that that word entails.

Neuroscience (which is new, only really getting going in the late 1990s) has something to say about this. Neuroscience can now look at how the brain functions in relation to outside stimuli, it has recently become possible to wire people's brains up and see which parts of the brain are responding to an accuracy of fractions of a second. Marcus Kiffer has written about the formation of words from experiences.

A virtual cow

Imagine that you go to a farm and you meet a cow, you stroke it, smell, watch it, are fascinated by the huffing of its dewy nostrils and so forth. Your brain responds with a corresponding set of neural excitation. From now on, when someone mentions the word 'cow', the same set of neural excitations will be visible in your brain!

Now imagine that you have no sensory experience of a cow. For you, the word cow refers to the cartoon picture on your milk carton, or the plastic beast from your farm set, or the cariacuture on the telly or the dull drawing in your interactive educational computer programme. Gone is the rich pattern of neural excitation. Instead, the word references a virtual reality, with a rather dull pattern, and for you the word is stunted, shallow and superficial. Your understanding of the world becomes abstract - you have virtual, rather than real understanding. What is the consequence of this happening en-masse in our society? We don't really know...

Now, based on this, how do we 'lead out' a child's experience of life and development of language? Could it be by, for example, lots and lots and lots of exploratory, free, sensory play?

'Play is the exultation of the possible' writes Martin Buber.

All those of us who have children, have been children or know anything about them know they love to play. Perhaps they know what they need. Perhaps if we start by letting children be, they will be better able to learn and acquire the skills we require of them, when the time comes. We let them do the exploring they are drawn to, with safety checks, and a little light encouragement, and then when the child is ready to emerge from this process, we could begin to 'lead out'. This would not mean teaching intellectual tricks, but involving children in learning by doing: touching, moulding, watching the dance of the world around them, exploring, in all the ways made possible by our bodily existance, allowing thems to put themselves in relation to their beloved world. Gone are the objectives, targets and measures. In its place a gently unfolding cirriculum designed to appeal to the child we see before us. If we get it right, the child will have no need to have knowledge thrust upon him, he will seek it, welcome it and absorb it with delight. This might sound Utopian, but I've seen it done.

Internal Experience

Our speaker pointed out that children nowadays are continually bombarded by outside stimuli. To decide whether this is ok or not, or how much, we need to have an understanding of what we could term 'inner experience'. A vital part of learning, of a child's education, is the 'down time', to use, ironically, a computer term, for processing, reflecting, developing, organising our thoughts, and making sense of our world. Our speaker would see this as vital to building up a sense of self, an ability to think freely. There is nowadays much more 'stimulation' (of a certain type) that threatens to swallow up any quiet, reflective time available to the child, until perhaps the child no longer feels the need for this or notices its absence. What effect would this have on children?

Our technologically equipped children are never alone: always trackable by portable phone, at the slightest niggle they phones or text, are phoned or texted with the niggles of others, they never falls back on himself. Any remaining quiet moments in the busy schedule, such as a wait for a bus, a walk, a bike ride, they experience to the accompaniment of portable music.

What is this doing to the inner world of our children? Are any of the things we are complaining about (increase in attention difficulties, hyperactivity, violence in schools etc) be a symptom? Are there others? It's difficult to measure when there are so many influences on a child's behaviour, and we haven't even had time to do any longitudinal studies, even if there were any that were well thought- out. We don't really know.

Human Contact

Virtual Educator Carmen SanDiego

We can bring in a DVD to enhance a topic, it's easy, quiet and clean. We talk a lot about teaching methods, but what is the role of the educator, that is the person, the very human being,  in education? The one who leads out? The one who notices when the child is ready to emerge from one stage, and needs leading out into the next for example?   How does this real contact, this real relationship, compare to our virtual teaching friends, Reader Rabbit, and the rest? What understanding will children gain if they are saturated with virtual images and lead by virtual teachers ? A virtual understanding of humanity?

Virtual Educator Reader Rabbit

There are, admittedly, some teachers who do little more than transmit a formula, who probably couldn't even be accused of 'thrusting in' anything,  but a truly good teacher, and I think we all know at least one, teaches with her whole being. She teaches by example, by attention, by understanding her charges and responding to what she perceives their needs to be. She listens and responds to the children, and they listen and respond to her. She might be eccentric, passionate, sometimes angry, inspired, tireless, but she is loving, and provides a loving education. She is a human, fully present, dedicated. Along with parents and responsible others in the child's life, she gives meaning to the words for human qualities: love, kindness, joy, enthusiasm, dedication, reliability, perseverance, humour...The educator educates, the educater 'leads out'. How much time do children spend without their educators, running through learning programmes, extracting facts from the internet, watching educational DVDs? How is this handled by our educators? Are there any humans there to guide our children through this? Our are children spending enough time with 'significant educators' who are worthy of the title?

One thing that is clear to me is that children should not surf the internet alone or unsupervised, and even supervised, it should not be a requirement of homework, because there are problems with the following:

Pornography (I suspect this is widespread, and no longer an innocent matter)

Selling and all types of manipulation

Problems with sourcing and accuracy of information

It's an art

You have to know the pitfalls and how to avoid them

It requires maturity

And experience

Even adults haven't got there yet.

Is this kind of thing important? Are these three factors important in education, are they threatened by NT, can we happily introduce some aspects of NT without upsetting the balance, does it depend on the age and stage of the child? These things need thinking about.

Education: A Leading Out

Bring into your mind an image of Miss Jean Brodie in her prime, speaking (add in Scottish accent) to her girls:

'The word ‘education’ comes from the root e from ex, out and duco, I lead. It means a leading out. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul. To Miss Mackay it is a putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education. I call it intrusion, from the Latin root prefix in meaning in and the stem trudo, I thrust. Miss Mackay’s method is to thrust a lot of information into the pupil’s head: mine is a leading out of knowledge, and that is true education, as is proved by the root meaning. Now Miss Mackay has accused me of putting ideas into my girls heads, but in fact that is her practice and mine is quite the opposite…' (From The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark)

Is Miss Jean Brodie right?

Bread and Butter Pudding

Last night I surveyed my collection of dried up baguettes. Anyone who knows French baguettes knows that after 24 hours they become so hard that it takes 10 strong men to break one in half. I've tried grinding them to crumbs to make stuffing, but the Magimix was strained to the limit and the results uneven. I decided to resurrect Bread and Butter pudding - I think this may have been an inspired thought. After a quick trawl on the internet I had enough information to make up the following recipe.

First soak baguette bits in water for 5 hours
Slice in half longways and place in baking dish
Squeeze out the really soaking bits like a sponge and squish into gaps
Lob butter peelings on top
Throw in a couple of handfulls of raisins
Sprinkle with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg and half tsp ginger
Cover with about 5 dessertspoons of brown sugar
Beat 2 eggs into some milk with pinch of salt and pour on
Keep pouring more milk until bread covered
Cook in oven at 180 about half an hour until fluffed up and top a bit brown and crispy

DELICIOUS! You can use up any stale bread like this, British bread can be buttered and layered. It has the texture of a soufflé. Your guests will never know.

I also tried out my mother in law's recipe for quick pastry. This recipe has less fat, less saturated fat, and is much easier to make than the 'rubbing in' method: win win win situation.

Take a small glass, half fill with oil, and the other half with water. Marvel at how the oil rises to the top, add a pinch of salt. Pour into mixing bowl and add enough flour to form a pasty ball, adding more water or oil if or both if you overdo it - and then more flour if you overdo that.

When satisfied that you can pick up the ball and plop it on the table without incident, roll out (you can use a wine bottle if you don't have a rolling pin, full or empty, but not half empty with a loose fitting cork) and use for pizza bases or quiches.

I think next time I would cook it for 10 minutes before adding filling to crisp it up a bit. I used some chick pea flour mixed in for added nutrition. Then slices of cooked red onion sweet as sugar, tomato paste (I condense my own as I can't buy organic tomato concentrate here) slices of mozzarella and grated emmental. Also delicious! Pizzas and quiches can also use up sad leftover lumps of goats cheese, or any soft cheese, simply cover in tomato sauce and sprinkle liberally with grated cheese, delicious.

The pictures of the mostly eaten remains go to show that a woman's work is quickly eaten - or else hangs about in the fridge until it goes mouldy because no-one wants to eat it.

Ring pulls

Yesterday I went to collect B from school. We have an arrangement where he phones me as he leaves and I drive part of the way and walk part of the way, and he walks part of the way, and we have a joyful reunion in the middle.

Yesterday, I carefully checked with B on his mobile phone that he was not dawdling with someone or going to a friend's house, and I carefully reminded him that my mobile phone is out of action (it accuses me of typing in my code wrongly 3 times I DID NOT and refuses to open without a PUK code and when, miraculously, I found one, it refused to open anyway and I've not yet mustered the courage to phone the telephone company's robotic and deeply unmusical answering service for hours of listening pleasure) so I emphasised, B really must come directly home. I repeated this message - come straight home!

'No no, it's alright Mummy' said B reassuringly, (I hate it when they are reassuring, it's always a bad sign) 'I've already left school and there's no-one with me'.

I duly arrived at the designated meeting place and B was not there. I walked the entire route to school, no sign. I buzzed the interphone of his friend D, a child answered.

'Is that D?' I asked, 'It's B's Mummy here'.

'No, its T' said the voice.

'I just wondered, is B with you by any chance?'

'Yes'

'Aaah, thank goodness, only I was supposed to meet him and I was worried, can I speak to him?'

'Yes'. T put the phone down. Nothing happened. I waited in the street, leaning on the wall.

I phoned again

'Yes?'

'I need to speak to B'

'Yes, the door is open' replied T. Sadly it was not. Eventually T gave up and hung up.

I phoned again

'Yes Madam' - French boys tend to use the word 'madam' to prevent mothers from becoming heated.

'Listen' I yelled, not knowing how much time I had before the phone was put down, 'I don't want to come in, I want to speak to B RIGHT NOW or you can tell him I'm going without him and he can WALK ALL THE WAY HOME'.

At this T's brother D came charging down, looking rather flustered, and opened the door. He had no idea why this cross mother had appeared on his doorstep. It took some time to establish that B was in fact not there at all and never had been. Apparently when T answered 'yes' to the question 'Is B there?', he thought I was asking him to open the door. Something which we have established, he was unable to do.

'Did you see B?' I asked D

'Yes, he asked if I wanted to walk home with him but I had to wait at school and then he left.'

'Was he alone?'

'Yes.'

I walked back to our meeting place, a round trip of three quarters of an hour. Deep inside I knew B was alright, but I couldn't think of any reasonable explanation and this caused me distress. I veered between planning what I would do to him when I finally got hold of him, trying to make the best of it by reassuring myself that at least I was getting some fresh air and exercise, and being truly worried.

At last I found B at our agreed meeting place. He had a youth from his class with him. With admirable self control I suggested sitting on a nearby bench, and I said to B,

'What happened?'

'I don't know' said B. (Don't you just love this 'I don't know'?)

So, patiently, I explained what had happened to me and asked him again what had happened.

'Well, we just walked here'

'I need to understand what happened. I can't have missed you, I walked the same way as you. And you are one hour late. Something must have happened'

'Er, I don't know'.

At this point I started to feel rather peculiar and had to clutch at the top of my nose with two fingers. I decided to turn to the friend.

'Hallo J, what are you doing here?'

'I don't know!' said J cheerfully.

'WELL IF YOU DON'T KNOW I CERTAINLY DON'T!'

J gave me a vacant and appealing smile, the one reserved for preventing mothers from becoming heated.

'So, J, you must have been loitering outside the school after hours?'

'Yes. I saw some girls doing something and I stayed behind because I needed to find out what they were doing.'

'Oh yes?'

'Yes, they were running after cars and barking like dogs.'

'Barking like dogs...I see...and you got to the bottom of it?

'Yes yes' replied J.

'I'm really sorry Mummy' said B, who was, 'It's all my fault'.

'I don't need you to say sorry, I just want to understand what happened and make sure it doesn't happen again!'

'Well, we might have gone down the little path...'

'But I looked down that path, you weren't there, it's not possible!. Where else did you go?'

'Nowhere. Oh well Mummy, at least you had a good walk'. The boy is a mind reader.

After 20 minutes of interrogation I established by the use of incidental evidence, background knowledge and detective cunning that the facts of the case may or may not have been as follows:

*B met J and at that moment B forgot all about coming straight home.

*B and J decided to go looking for ring pulls (the latest group hobby is collecting the upper section of discarded ring pulls from drinks cans).

*Somehow they may have wandered the streets and lost all track of time.

After some skilled negotiations with J's mother, J came the rest of the way home with us and the two of them spent the evening painting ring pulls orange, in the hope of fooling a third friend into thinking they had found something rare.

Footprints

Time magazine describes Deepak Chopra as one of the 100 heroes and icons of the century. If what he says is true, it gives us something to think about, and if it is partially true, it still gives us plenty to think about, and if everything he says is untrue, it certainly would give us something to think about.

The more of his recent articles I read, the more I read my own ideas. I'm beginning to think that his spirit guides know my spirit guides socially and are sharing ideas at the Celestial Bar.

For example, 'the only fact that you are sure of is that you are. The 'I am' is certain, the 'I am this' is not.'

I've had this thought early on in my adult life, and isn't it the most extraordinary thing? Isn't it highly improbable that here I am? I never cease to wonder at this. Whenever I am disheartened and tempted to become a dye in the wool materialist, this 'I am' comes back to stare me in the face - it's too ridiculous. I know I'm not to start on any 'I am this or I am that', but here I am in all my glorious complexity!

'God has managed the amazing feat of being worshipped and invisible at the same time...Although it doesn't seem possible to offer a single fact about the Almighty that would stand up in a court of law, somehow the vast majority of people believe in God, as many as 96 percent according to some polls...
One bald fact stands at the beginning of any search for God. He leaves no footprints in the material world' (from How to Know God).
(deepakchopra.com)

Now, if you have made up your mind that the material world is all there is, and deny all other possibilities and make it your mission to spread the word (as do Richard Dawkins and the Brights at the-brights.net) then you need read no further. And if you are open to the possibility that God exists, but will only accept court of law truth, the same applies. And if you are open to the possibility of God, and are absolutely convinced you cannot know anything about it here in spacetime, and that no contact is possible, and you would never try for that reason, then don't read on. Stay with your faith, stick to your decisions. What are you still doing here? Go on, be off with you!

Now, for those of us not yet eliminated, can we accept the following starting point:

There might be a universal truth, not material or accessible directly by the senses, which despite our subjective positions, experiences and thoughts, we could have access to.

If you are drawn to the idea of universal, eternal truth, which although it can't be measured as defined by ordinary science, can be worked towards, prepared for, and received, then try this idea:

We have within us, given to us, the means of access to this truth, tailored to our own nature (this might be expressed as our being the 'children of God').

General Mission: We souls on earth need to work on coming together and finding this uniting universal truth.

We can have (and most certainly will have for this is the time of independence) different paths, different methods, different experiences, different points of view, but we each have a unique contribution to make, and are heading towards one universal truth. (This is very different to everyone having his or her own individual interpretation and making lots of money selling snake oil, or floating off on a detached cloud of bliss, and generally dispersing on multiple spiritual paths that lead nowhere in particular). This is one-pointed. This is work. It is not unscientific, in the sense that there are not as many realities as there are experiencers, and no way of measuring it. There is a universal meeting point, and we are the instruments of detection.

Anyone still up for it?

Our job is to access it, polish it, perfect it, bring it forth in our own lives. To continue to develop and perfect our 'instrument' of detection, which is our very being, in all its multifaceted glory, waiting to be discovered. Only when we all manage that will suffering end. I think you might call it atonement, in the sense of reconciliation. But we don't need to wait for the ultimate communion - each instant of our lives is available for us to touch universal thought.

If we can go with this, just to the point of trying it out, or trying to understand it, then let us begin.

Leading thoughts

I'm just off to the Thinking Class, I can't wait. Methinks there is more to this thinking business than methought. Last week it was so intense I needed to drink several bottles of water afterwards and for the following three days felt light, elevated and energetic. Then there was the inevitable backlash, horrible aches and pains and fatigue - this often seems to happen after a period of elevation.

I can report back from the field about being lead. I put foward the theory that it was possible to listen in the same way that the coach suggested 'being lead' rather than following, in a dance. I have to admit ahem that I have not been successful in executing my intentions to listen fully to anyone - at all. But I know someone who can. The leader of our thinking group. He listens in a state between expectant and expecting nothing, and he goes right along with where the person he is listening to leads him. He goes to where the person leads him and waits patiently even if the speaker starts to falter and the lead becomes confused - he does not suggest anything or in any way interrupt the lead. When the lead has ground to a definitive halt, he speaks. The first thing he does is to summarise where the speaker was leading him, with extraordinary perception, insight, and clarity of thought. He may well suggest where she would have continued to lead him, had she been able to expres it, - for which the speaker if visibly grateful. And then the discussion begins on the leading idea, measured against a certain thought system which I am disinclined to disclose for the time being. All I can say is that it addresses absolutely everything I've ever been interested in and explains it in a way I had never quite come to before. And as the thinking unfolds in lovely whirls and twirls, the ohs and sighs of the group ring out. The ability to listen like this, with full attention, full intelligence and good background research, is quite simply. divine.

Face Lights Up

They confront us in the places where our heart isn’t open. And when it is, they reinforce and reward in us the joy of an open heart. (Stephen Levine).


The Bath Scene, B aged 5 and R aged 2
I am in the bath with the R. I had promised him this as a treat after I wounded him deeply by, in a moment of stress, shouting at him for scribbling on the B’s homework. R explained tearfully that he just wanted to do some too.

R likes to lie on my tummy in the bath, floating happily, while I go through my entire repertoire of nursery rhymes. Isn’t that lovely?

B decided not to join us. After assuring himself that I was thoroughly incapacitated he decided to raid my locked cupboard. The locked cupboard (out of bounds) is the last safe house for Things Not For Children (eg: nail polish remover, paracetamol pointy scissors). B had long ago found the key (not hard especially as Mummy can never remember where she hid it) opened the cupboard, hidden the key where Mummy can’t find it and now he also has forgotten where he has hidden it.

He starts to make damands.

B: ‘I want this cupboard Mummy. Can I put my things in this cupboard?’

Mummy is feeling very mellow but is not really listening. She is thinking, I am enjoying this bath and humming nursery rhymes and I want the B to be happily playing and all to be well.

Mummy; (generous, warm-hearted) I tell you what, you can share it with me.

B: But I want ALL OF IT

Mummy: (still just about warm hearted, the water is very relaxing) Just move my things onto one shelf and you can have the other

B: I want to take all your things OUT.

Mummy: (still not listening, instead thinking, why is he annoying me? I can’t deal with this now I am tired, I am in the bath. Can he never stop Wanting Things and just play? etc.)

Mummy: No, it will make too much mess. You can have one shelf and that is my final offer.

B: (Throws a horrible tantrum during which me makes Horrible monstrous child demands and screeches deafeningly)

At this point the normal war outcome would be some pretty heavy shouting fire and the lobbing of judgemental and crushing statements, to 'make it go away', fuelled by thoughts such as: why is he being such a monstrous child? And then not listening to the answer.

Mummy: (Suddenly remembers children are never upset for the reason you think, breathes deeply into the abdomen, also breathes out, is inspired:) Come in here and talk to me. (genius, genius)

B: (Appears unwillingly in front of bath, Face like thunder, thunder which threatens to last for up to an hour or until Mummy can bear it no longer)

Mummy: (Has fleeting and very satisfying image of roaring out of the bath like a grisly sea monster and counter-attacking, but retains self-control and tries instead): Are you saying that you need a place to keep some of your things safe from your brother?

B: (Face lights up) yes

Mummy: When we put the shelves up in your bedroom, how about we have a special box which you can lock on the top shelf and you can hide the key?

B: Yes, yes, and (goes on to outline several schemes he has in mind. This cheers him up no end, even though the likelihood of J-C and I ever getting round to putting up the shelves before the end of the world is slim)

Why didn’t he tell me in a straightforward manner? Probably something to do with the fact that he is a child. Why did he do it by making demands? Well, he could have learned that off me.

Who is Deepak

Have a look at this film clip on YouTube of a Deepak Chopra interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_rdYiLAz38

What do we think of him? I've talked about looking deep into the 'souls' of toys, but can this be done with people? Do we make these kinds of judgements routinely in our lives? Is it accurate, useful?

I wondered about Deepak because I found some of his publicity shots mildly alarming, and I wondered about the publicity machine which springs into action every time he writes a highly lucrative book. Who is the real Deepak? Is he ok?

I like what he writes. He exhibits and demands clear thinking, he illustrates his work with stories which we recognise and dilemma we face. Deepak is one of the few who has gone into the spiritual side of things with his thinking intact, who has researched widely, and found universal truths in the living heart of many religions.

I'm going to read his latest book The Third Jesus, (the first Jesus being the historical one, the second being the version projected by the subsequent pervertion of 'Christianity', crusade, inquisition, repression and all). The third Jesus is the part in all of us, the Christ Consciousness - but I hesitate to use this phrase as it has already been kidnapped and perverted, so I use the phrase Christic Influence which has not yet been perverted as far as I know, as I have just made it up. I am pretty sure I am going to read some things I want to question, that's the whole point.

When I watched this clip I found myself weeping with laughter and delight, and when I called
J-C over, he did too.

Mind you, he does have a HUGE business empire, a prolific online shop with some more obviously 'New Age' products, his blog is full of adverts, some of them not exactly uplifting. Mmmm, I'm in three minds. I'll have to read that book to get to the bottom of it.