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ASCENT
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SPIRITUAL ANTHOLOGY
Dedicated to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Who continues to be my Guiding Light
“You are a child of God, and it is your God-given role to help others to remember that they are also children of God”
[Divine decree received 2010]
‘Energy cannot be created or destroyed;
It can only be changed from one form to another.
Everything is energy and that is all there is to it.
Match the frequency of the reality you want,
And you cannot help but get that reality.
It can be no other way.
This is not philosophy;
This is physics’
[Albert Einstein]
Why these Writings?
On completion of the Labyrinth here at Jacaranda Haven in 2010, I walked it on my own for the first time and then stood – silent and empty- in the centre. A loud voice spoke telepathically to me:
“You are a child of God, and it is your God-given role to help others to remember that they are also children of God”
Sai Baba had gifted me a pen and vibhuti (sacred ash) whilst leaving Puttaparthi in 1999, renowned psychic Joan Moylan had told me in 1998 to write, and psychic Jennifer Starlight conveyed to me from Spirit in early 2022 that I was meant to write…but what ?
And then I realised that all I could write about to assist others on their paths was my own experiences, teachings and learnings in order to “…help others to remember that they are also children of God”. Hence these autobiographical writings…
Modules
This is but one ‘module’ in this collection of autobiographical writings that I choose to call ‘modules’. Each one stands alone, but some cross-reference others. A completed book is a static thing once finished: however, these modules are flexible in that I can add to them at any time should new experiences/information comes to hand, and the reader can pick & choose which particular modules attract them. The collection of modules thereby constitutes an’ anthology’.
The intent of writing these is to share experiences and teachings that I have been blessed with along the way of a human incarnation – the ascent of consciousness – such that the reader may also benefit to illumine their own path/ascent to the ultimate inevitable goal for all humans: that of ‘self-realisation’.
Belief vs Truth
As a precursor to reading any of these Modules, there is a need to clarify the difference between ‘Belief’ and ‘Truth’: one may ‘believe’ eg it is raining outside by the sound on the roof, but when you actually see the rain falling/walk out and get wet, you actually then ‘know’ it is so – ie it is ‘true’, and so ‘belief’ about that instantly ceases.
Many go through life accumulating fixed ‘beliefs’ about people/things, and, as Krishnamurti taught:”… the moment you arrive at a conclusion/form an opinion/a belief, you block the possibility of further enquiry and discovery”.
So, a hot air balloon called ‘Ascent’ awaits: I invite you to climb into its basket with me, throw overboard the ballast of all those accumulated ‘beliefs/opinions’ you have acquired to feel safe, and therefore allow this balloon to rise free and drift to destinations unknown.
Because, otherwise, some of what you read herein may sorely challenge your accumulated beliefs…
Everything recounted within the Anthology is absolutely true, unless I have qualified otherwise.
John Stephen Butterworth
CHAKRAS AND SACRED GEOMETRY
In her marvellous books ’Hands of Light’ and ‘Light Emerging’, clairvoyant healer Barbara Anne Brennan clearly illustrates and describes how she sees ‘chakras’ generating vortices (see 2 illustrations below) of varying coloured energy issuing forth from the human body. In the early 1900’s, renowned clairvoyant (and one of the founders of The Theosophical Society), Charles Webster Leadbeater (CWL) (1847-1934) authored a small book describing in detail his clairvoyant observations of ‘chakras’[‘The Chakras’ Pub. 1927] and also of ‘thoughtforms’. He also observed chakras as vortices…so I would like to explore this now.
Highly evolved spiritual beings in ancient India adopted the Indian word ‘chakra’ which means ’wheel’ or ’circle’ for phenomena they observed at specific locations in the human body. They reportedly observed energy at key points spinning in a wheel-like/circular motion. Seen front-on, such appeared as such, but clairvoyants like Leadbeater and Brennan also observed them obliquely/at an angle and saw that they are actually vortices expanding out/issuing forth from specific points in the human energy field. Moreover, Brennan (at least) depicts each as containing/enclosing several smaller vortices….
Colour wise, Leadbeater described them as he saw them clairvoyantly to the artist illustrator for his book on chakras as being of a range of colours/tints/hues (probably reflecting the mental/emotional state of the subject at that particular time), and not just the simplistic ‘colours of the rainbow’ often referred to in more contemporary texts on the subject ie red, yellow, green, blue, violet etc…
But back to the phenomenon of the vortices themselves.
What causes such, and does this occur elsewhere in creation ?
Staying with the human body, it is a well established fact that there are currents of energy flowing throughout – commonly called ‘meridians’- which are what the therapeutic modalities of acupuncture and acupressure work with- said to total 72,000 in each human body.
Where 2 or more meridians intersect/merge, they form an energy spiral or vortex that spins either one way or the other…how do we know this?
At probably the largest scale imaginable, consider spiral nebulae in the cosmos…then look closely at a sunflower: in it, you will perceive 2 counter-opposed, but interlocking, spirals…and likewise a pineapple, and the seedhead of a Protea flower, and the skin of an Eastern Australian Brown Snake ,,, and the cones of all coniferous trees (Pines, Firs, Spruce etc), and Banksia cones, a photograph looking into a the curve of a breaking wave – such as one that a skilled surfboard rider would call a ‘pipeline’ and dream of riding through to come unscathed out the other side ,and then, see where else you can see the same patterns in Nature…cyclones/hurricanes, snail shells, Romanesco broccoli, daisies, Dahlias, some cacti etc etc.
[In biodynamic farming practice, the ‘preparations’ are stirred back and forth in pure rainwater for extended periods of time (often by hand), alternating clockwise, then anti-clockwise, then clockwise again, creating powerful vortices from the transitory chaos which draw in energies from both heaven and earth with the resultant potentised liquid then sprayed out over the land/crops…]
With the cones/flowers that have intersecting spirals, each seed forms at the intersecting point because this is where the maximum energy occurs ie the combined energy from each spiral’s meridian/energy line.
And so it must be in the human body/energy field ie that the combined energy of intersecting meridians generate vortices of energy (chakras) that are visible to highly-attuned clairvoyants…
But there’s much more to all of this than simply acknowledging spirals/vortices…
The remarkable thing about all these vortices/spirals is that they all have the same geometric proportion/ratio – that of 1.61803 which the ancients called ‘The Golden Mean’. Also known as the ‘divine proportion’, it occurs frequently through the ages in geometry, art and architecture. Probably Leonardo da Vinci’s best known example is ‘Vitruvian Man’ showing clearly how the parts of the human body are to the Golden Mean in proportion to each other. Da Vinci provided the illustrations for ‘De Divina Proportione’ (On The Divine Proportion), a book about mathematics written by Luca Pacioli about 1498 and first published 1509 which included that famous drawing.
One writer considers that :
“…the Vitruvian man meaning is about connecting man to Nature (seeking) to depict the microcosm, so to say , through the human being, and in turn, this reflected the macrocosm, which refers to the Universe”.
And another, saying “…it depicts the blend of art and science during the Renaissance and forms the basis of Renaissance proportion theories in art and architecture”.
So this is an example of what some call ‘Sacred Geometry’: absolute geometric perfection in Nature which is also aesthetically exquisitely beautiful. The next time you get the opportunity, look at a Passionfruit flower which combines, extraordinarily, symmetrical geometry of 3 and of 5 in its reproductive parts…
Not surprising that humans generally find such expression carried over into art and architecture aesthetically pleasing: I introduced translucent skylights as perimeter highlights to the cathedral ceiling/loft office in our octagonal house which are 800mm x 500mm ie in a ratio of 1.6 -ie virtually the Golden Mean proportion – for that very reason.
Colour & Sound in relation to Chakras
Returning back to the subject of chakras, there has been much speculation over the last few decades at least claiming that there are specific colour and sound frequencies that apply consistently for every human being for each chakra eg that the sound/colour frequency for eg the Heart Chakra is X cycles per second/herz and a specific colour.
Really?
Perhaps a little basic research into the physics of sound and colour might shed more light on the veracity of such a claim, and clarify what might be actually true …
Colour
The eminent British biologist Rupert Sheldrake once declared that the only way that science can describe/explain creation is that it is all energy in a state of vibration (and hence generating sound , but more about elsewhere).(Sheldrake as quoted in the excellent film ‘Of Sound Mind and Body’ by Jeff Volk: highly recommended).
In the multi-faceted field of ‘design’ (whether graphic/architectural/landscape/industrial/fabric design or whatever), final selection of a specific colour for an application often uses what is called the ‘Pantone Matching System ‘ (PMS) whereby the chosen PMS colour is specified.
The Internet confirms that the PMS range includes 2,161 different colours ie that are visually able to be separated…
The visible light spectrum, which is a bandwidth of frequencies, comprises the colours of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet (plus white and black). Just for fun, if one says that this is 8 basic colour names, and you arbitrarily divide 2,161 by 8= 270. Whether that is irresponsible estimation, the fact remains that there are quite obviously a very large number of varying shades/hues of each of those basic rainbow colours. I seem to recall that I was once told that there are at least 72 shades/hues of ‘green’: the Internet suggests 44 different variations – then goes on to declare that humans can perceive “…thousands (of different shades of ‘green’)
To hence declare dogmatically that eg “the colour for the xyz chakra is ‘green’” hence surely needs further investigation/consideration…does it mean that the relevant colour shade/hue falls within the bandwidth of frequencies that all/most human beings would call ‘green’? Hmmm…let’s explore a little further…
Sound
Similar claims are/have been/continue to be made about ‘sound’ ie that a particular sound producing instrument “… is the frequency of the xyz chakra” or like claims…hmmm…
Just dealing with sound waves for the moment, if one researches the physics of sound and most relevantly, the evolution of the ‘tempered’ musical scale that Western ears have been conditioned to, one discovers some most interesting facts…
Several hundred years ago, there was, in the West, no commonly agreed way of like tuning of musical instruments so the following was done: the octave (doh to doh, where eg if the first doh is, say, a frequency of 100 cycles per second, then the second doh is 200 ie exactly double, and any musical scale is subdivisons of the 100 cycles in between) was divided into 12 equal frequency steps, and called the ‘tempered scale’. In light of ‘the scale of nature’ derived from the harmonic series, this was, in my (and many others’) opinion, an unfortunate step, because the resultant scale bears little or no relationship (apart from the commonality of the octave/fundamental) to that ‘scale of nature’ as derived from the ‘harmonic or ‘overtone series’. (If anyone reading this wishes to pursue this deeper, and view a comparison between the tempered scale, and the scale of nature, or ‘just intonation’, simply ask the question on the Internet and you may be interested to see the variances…also check out ‘Just Intonation’.)
What has then happened is that those born in the West are mostly only ever exposed to music played in accordance with the ‘tempered scale’, and hence their hearing is conditioned so. [I spent a weekend once in a house where the piano was tuned to ‘just intonation’: the son would play a little on it from time to time, which initially sounded ‘out of tune’ to my conditioned ears; however, after 2 days, my ears started to adjust and find it increasingly ‘in tune’].
Having been directly involved in the field of the therapeutic and conscious-expanding application of vocal and instrumental sound for at least 30 years, and a musician (double & electric bass, percussion) for about 25 years before that, as player of giant gongs for about 23 of the last 60 years, and as facilitator of the ‘Sacred Sound’ program of workshops & healing meditation sessions through the 1990’s, I respectfully beg to differ. (Also refer to separate module: ’Entrainment’).
I submit that it’s just NOT that simplistic as declaring that the frequency of the human XYZ chakra is ABC herz … it obviously must fluctuate from moment to moment…
The Human Energy Field
In a typical day, each human being experiences (as a general rule) a range of mental/physical/emotional responses from split second to split second.
You may get out of bed cheerful, then trip over something on your way to the bathroom & curse, maybe hobble around with a sore stubbed toe for a while, then get a consoling hug from a family member, then hear some disturbing news over the radio/mobile phone, which makes you momentarily depressed, so you start singing a song to make you happy, then realise you are running late for work…etc etc etc.
All of this obviously must express itself in your energy field – which could be seen fluctuating (just like solar flares) by clairvoyants like Barbara Ann Brennan or CWLeadbeater, and often by my clairvoyant wife! With the auric fields and chakras changing frequencies/fluctuating accordingly…as an example, this is simply what Leadbeater described as seeing from a person in his 1927 book ‘The Chakras’ with muddy browns/pale yellows/fawns in their chakras etc..
Observe Nature
Just look at what is going on at any time in nature around you: the breeze/wind comes and goes – sometimes gentle, sometimes gusting, the clouds are constantly moving and re-configuring, the temperature constantly fluctuates, and so on: the same obviously happens with each human being’s energy field.
As above, so below.
So Where To?
At the likelihood of being dubbed an iconoclast, I suggest that all this be set, respectfully, aside and, if one is eg a sound or colour therapist, I wish to share a very different approach, based on trust in God and purity of intent.
Firstly and foremost, I would cite (and fully agree with) Connie Shaw declaring that all healing comes from God.
And my sense is that it only comes when ‘karmically appropriate’ (see separate modules ‘Karma’ and ‘Healing’).
When I do a sound session (vocal and/or instrumental), I follow the following procedure:
I firstly call on/invoke my ‘Circle of Light’ being Sathya Sai Baba, the ancestors (of the Worrimi Nation, for that is whose country we live on at present), all my Spirit Guides, guardian angels and teachers to be present to envelop myself and others present in Light and guide whatever ensues.
I then request other(s) present to totally surrender to God, to let go and just allow themselves to be immersed in the sounds produced without any thinking/mental activity whatsoever – not trying to analyse what’s happening etc etc.
Just still minds.
[Not long before The Buddha left His physical body, He called on His closest disciples to research and report back to Him as to what technique each considered to be the most effective/powerful in helping humans to quieten the brain/mind and possibly achieve Enlightenment: of all the methods, He concluded the sound was without doubt potentially the most effective].
If I am about to play the giant gongs, I call on the ‘spirit’ of each gong to please use me as a clear conduit for frequencies needed by those present for their highest good at that time, and surrender – going then into light trance, wherein the gongs simply play through me, without any mentation from me/nor trying to consciously strike the gongs with the mallets.
The session then runs its course – not controlled by ‘me’ at all: it just ‘happens’… those attending such sessions consistently report that they are very powerful and cleansing…
To reiterate: it’s all about absolute trust in God coupled with purity of intent.
For those who do indeed totally surrender and trust that all will be well in such a sound session, the results may be physical/mental/emotional/spiritual clearing then ‘healing’ and often ‘third eye’ viewing of beautifully-coloured energies and beings of Light…
May those that have open minds and pure hearts benefit from this.
Vocal Toning to induce Higher/Altered States of Consciousness
In the separate module: ‘Healing’, I share the potential powers of vocal toning, I should like, at this point, to discuss the power to induce higher/altered states of consciousness whether a part of a group or on your own.
I have a few times over more recent years, and definitely at every ‘Sacred Sound’ workshop weekend in the 1990’s, lead a chanting of ‘seed’ sounds or ‘bijas’(pronounced BEEJas) whilst focussing on the 7 best-known chakra centres on the human energy field.
Leading a ‘Sacred Sound’ weekend workshop in the early 1990’s at ‘Karuna’ Buddhist retreat centre Katoomba. A clairvoyant participant reported seeing Sai Baba etherically present in the centre during a group toning session.
An ancient Tibetan system I once learned for these is:
Base Chakra: Tone ‘LUM’ (as in ‘loom’)
Sacral Chakra: Tone ‘VOM’
Solar Plexus Chakra: Tone: RAM (as in ‘rarm’)
Heart Chakra: Tone: HUM (as in ‘whom’)
Throat Chakra: Tone HAM (as in ‘harm’)
Third Eye Chakra: Tone AUM
Crown Chakra: Silence
Either preferably in a group seated in a circle, or on one’s own, tone each one intensely for eg 3, or maybe 9 times each and then go into deep meditative silence.
Around the year 2001, when I had an office day job, I travelled home by bus on maybe a half hour trip. On a couple of occasions, I closed my eyes (even whilst seated next to another passenger) and intensively toned sotto voce the bijas, went into a deep meditative state and had a couple of remarkable experiences.
In the first one, I was suddenly shown in clear colour and detail a translucent device shaped like a very large turnip that contained well-spaced coloured ‘particles’ and was telepathically given to understand that each such device can be attuned to the neurones in the brain of its owner. All that person then had to do was think of a question about anything at all, and the answer would instantly come telepathically to them. [Now 20 odd years later, there is eg Google Home where one vocalises the question and a short spoken answer is provided: it is apparent to me that what I was given a foresight of exists somewhere in the Universe and will be gifted to humanity when the time is ‘appropriate’.]
On the second occasion, I was shown a wheel/cylindrical drum rotating – seemingly floating/not attached- and was told that, in a vacuum and absence of gravity, once set spinning, this would spin forever ie perpetual motion and was a means of continuous power generation.
It will be interesting to see when/whether one/both of these appear publicly in my current lifetime.
The key point to take away is how profound a meditative state can be generated by toning the bijas – and I encourage others with good intent to try it!
Kundalini
As an aside, it is taught by various spiritual traditions that these chakras are located along the spinal column as centres of concentrated psychic energy. It is said that at the base, there is coiled up what is called ‘kundalini’ (‘coiled serpent’) energy passively awaiting a time when it is awakened by focussed spiritual practice/a master. One can read much about it on the Internet – noting the emphasis on the recommended guidance of a spiritual master for its awakening.
In the module: ’Sai Baba’, I recount the extraordinary experience of an Indian man (who used to guide our bhajan group in Sydney about 2 decades ago) who, as a young man, was living a morally loose life until Sai Baba put him firmly on his spiritual path by taking him through a very brief kundalini experience in which his kundalini rose swiftly up his spine and exploded into his brain revealing the Brahmic splendour of Heaven. Sai Baba then told him that this is the ultimate goal of humanity, to stop ‘sleeping around’, and fully focus on his, and others’ spiritual path. Which, needless to say, he did.
Whilst I have never undertaken any spiritual practice concentrating on the awakening & raising of kundalini, I now share the following intriguing tale:
One very hot day a couple of years ago, my wife and I returned home from a day out shopping etc. I always get to the front door first so as to unlock it to avoid my wife standing out in the hot afternoon sun.
Either side of our front door, we have a matching pair of terracotta pots both planted with the succulent Portulacaria afra (Dwarf Jade) plants. As we have a waist-high door handle with a keyhole directly beneath, I have to bend over to see where to insert the key – hence with my head brushing the lefthand plant. As I started to insert the key, the plant next to my head moved: I looked sideways… and found myself head-to-head with a red-bellied black snake that was coiled up in the bush.
We both got a fright: I probably leapt backwards (a natural biological reflex response – even though I carry no fear, only respect and admiration, for snakes) and the maybe 1.2m snake belly flopped onto the deck and shot off the deck edge into the garden below.
However, as I leapt backwards, the word ‘KUNDALINI’ was telepathically shouted out in my head…