The Creative Review Blog has posted 4 images showing “The Bible According To Google Earth”. The pictures have been realised by the Sydney-based creative collective ”The Glue Society“, visualising scenes from the Bible as if captured by Google Earth. Four key Biblical events are portrayed as if seen from above, in “God’s Eye View”: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, Moses parting the Red Sea, and The Crucifixion. The Glue Society has realized the pictures commissioned by Pulse Art for the Miami art fair.

James Dive from the Glue Society says: “We like to disorientate audiences a little with all our work. And with this piece we felt technology now allows events which may or may not have happened to be visualized and made to appear dramatically real. As a method of representation satellite photography is so trusted, it has been interesting to mess with that trust.”

Noah’s Ark, by ”The Glue Society“, from (c) Creative Review Blog (extract)

Is really seeing still believing? There is so much “virtual reality” and “reality shaping”. On the other hand, many so-called “new” imaginations and ideas exist since long in the storehouse of the global mind, even from previous ages. Many of the computer games tap on these imaginations for their visual illustrations.

The Eastern wisdom knows a state of very refined inner perception, where an initiate can “read” in the Akasha. Akasha is meaning space or ether, and the initiate who can see the Akashic recordings is said to be able to zoom back and forth in time and space, to whatever location in the present and past, thus also to “Noah’s Ark”. Even if the authenticity of Akashic reading cannot be proven by objective science, being a “subjective” research method, the many different reports about it hint at its existence.

See also the Google-Earth related blog-posts “Looking from Space into the Garden“, “High Resolution Zooming – with Google Maps or Visualisation“, “Google Online Mapping Initiative against Darfur Genocide” and “An Atlas of our Changing Environment“.

I yesterday read about the Microsoft online service “Windows Live SkyDrive“, an online storage system, which now has 5 GB storage space for free. This service is not yet available everywhere, but at the moment in 38 countries.

I thought, oh, that’s practical as a second backup, I can access to my files without having my laptop with me – at the office or while travelling, and this even without a memory stick.

So registered and uploaded a number of files. It worked well. (Accessing at another time had some difficulties, the login page didn’t open for half an hour – so there are “limits to the sky”.)

Of course this isn’t a sure way of storing and transporting data, for others can easily read them while transmitting. But I have no top security files there. It’s another step into “virtually everywhere”. I wonder what are the strategies of Microsoft for offering these services for free – normally business people always have a “second thought”.

Another kind of a sky drive: start of a glider near Berlin, April 06

I yesterday skyped with my cousin, a biologist and IT-programmer. He told me that his daughter had “gastro-intratestinal lapidoptera”. I answered: “Oh, is it a serious stomach disease?” He replied: “A doctor would probably understand the meaning, though he might not know the Latin expression, it means ‘butterflies in the stomach’ – she just fell in love…”

Butterfly – photo by Dinakar, Mysore

Today I got an e-mail from someone who sent me two negative photos of himself as well as a drawing depicting Lord Maitreya, which you can also find on the internet. His face had certain similarities with that drawing and he asked what I think about it.

I answered him that there are many people painting pictures of Maitreya, just like there are many pictures of Jesus Christ. They nearly exclusively spring from the devotional imagination of the artist. Also paintings said to have been received from higher worlds belong to that category, even if they come from a subtle “model”. I told him that when he is flattered that one of these drawings, depicting Lord Maitreya according to the artist, has similarities with his appearance, he may be happy about it. All that inspires us to walk more seriously the spiritual path is certainly of a constructive nature.

Outer or inner similarities? It is easy to mistake the one for the other.

If you are interested to read a bit what the Eastern wisdom teachings say about Lord Maitreya, you find some hints in the Lunar Messenger dedicated to that topic. There is also a beautiful booklet of the WTT about Lord Maitreya, see here the online version.

A photo of the statue of Lord Maitreya in the garden of the Planetary Healing Centre. You find the picture also here as an e-card.

A friend from Argentina, from Escuela Claridad, just sent me the Spanish translation of some blog articles I had written together with my wife, about inner processes. These are “Understanding Relations, “Communication or Riding a Bicycle“,”Clouds of Fear and Overcoming Mental Barriers” and “Burnout or Burning“. So if you like to read them in Spanish, have a look at the PDF.

Deep roots. A tree in a nearby park.

I yesterday received an e-mail pointing to the website of the Spiritual Research Foundation SSRF, mentioning that they are doing extensive research in Spiritual Sciences and sharing the benefits obtained from this research freely with all. On the site they write:

“The organisation conducts spiritual research which includes the spiritual realm, along with physical and psychological factors in determining the causative factors behind problems in life. By spiritual realm, SSRF means the realm of heaven, hell, netherworld, etc. which cannot be analysed by conventional research methodologies. It maintains that spiritual research can only be conducted by the use of an advanced sixth sense (ESP) and is more holistic than conventional research methodologies….

The Spiritual Science Research Foundation is dedicated to exploring the Spiritual science and presenting this knowledge to the world in a modern, contemporary and scientific way. This is so that the common man can understand it regardless of race, religion or culture… Our research does not offer any quick fixes to life’s problems, but what we do say is that if you sincerely put into practice the tools we suggest on a daily basis, then you will witness many positive changes in your life just as the seekers of the foundation have experienced.”

They present with practical illustrations a number of topics about which they have done research in the subtle worlds, giving an overview of spiritual causes of difficulties in life, of spiritual research in physical and mental health and of healing or of diverse spiritual facts.

On their site they present spiritual seekers/persons who have the ability of not only perceiving the subtle worlds, but also of reproducing what is perceived in the form of sketches/pictures.

A fascinating field of research, even if there might be speculative parts in it.

Last Saturday I got a parcel with a copy of the book “Practicing Conscious Living and Dying“, by Annamaria Hemingway (see also her website practicingconsciouslivinganddying.com). I didn’t know her, but I got a letter from her last summer where she asked me if I were interested in receiving a copy once it had been published, and I said yes.

I’m very cautious of accepting new books, which involve the obligation of investing time to read them. I took the time for reading the last chapter, about Annamaria’s experience with the passing of her mother, and it is worth while reading (… I’ll certainly read the rest of the stories…).

Annamaria’s account is full of subtle observations, describing the role her mother played in her life – growing up in post-WW2 Italy, then moving to England, having a full life, the outbreak of skin cancer, the slow process of disease and dying. But besides the outer events, there is a whole world of inner contacts going beyond the physical existence, which Annamaria shows that they are more essential, going beyond the end of the physical frame. The outcome is not only the assurance of the continuity of existence beyond the physical, but a process of transformation deepening the lives of all those who had accompanied the process of transition.

The book contains 16 real-life “Stories of the Eternal Continuum of Consciousness”, showing death as an integral part of life. The description says: “They show how each of the individuals concerned has come to understand that death teaches us that the preciousness of life must be lived with a sense of purpose and meaning, as a celebration of our existence.”

You also might like to read the Lunar Messenger on “Death, Birth and Continuity“.

Two stories related to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi came to my mind when I heard about his passing:

In January 1979 – I just had finished the TM-“governor”-course with the Sidhi-program – we went to Seelisberg, Switzerland, the then capital of the TM-movement, for a meeting with the Maharishi. In a lecture I heard him say that within about four years the “sidhas” (people practising the sidhi-techniques) would be seen flying over the Lake Lucerne by yogic powers, thus demonstrating the control over the “field of all possibilities”, as he used to call the base-state of the mind.
There had been great expectations around about developing yogic powers within a short while. It was attracting and misleading the attention to side issues of the path. I had experienced myself quite strong inner energies with these sidhi-techniques, but I only later understood that this isn’t the purpose of a genuine spiritual growth.

In late autumn 1977 – I just had returned from the TM teacher formation course – the German TM-groups were informed that the TM co-ordinator for Germany had been flying with the Maharishi along the “Iron Curtain”, that separated East and West Germany. The Maharishi was reported to have said that the separation of Germany would end within the next months.
I mentioned this to my father, who said to me: “You are crazy. As long as I live, the Iron curtain won’t fall.” I made a bet with him: If within the next 9 month the curtain falls, he would give me 20.000 Deutsche Mark, if nothing happens within a year, I would pay him 1.000 Marks. We signed a paper with my eldest sister as a witness and put it into my father’s safe. Of course nothing happened, and I gave him the 1.000 Mark, which he later returned to me at another occasion. I never made a bet again in my life.
I later heard the Maharshi had said that the iron curtain would fall “within a short time” – whatever this time might be. When 12 years later the curtain and the Berlin Wall fell within an incredibly short time, I was reminded of my bet, and even my father said, he wouldn’t have thought that the political situation could change so quickly.

I became increasingly immune to all kinds of prophecies and soothsaying. When I hear anything, I put it into an “inner broom cupboard”, without letting it touch me.

A photo sent by a friend, of the “mahasamadhi” of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – his conscious passing over in meditation. Copyright: Maharishi-people in Vlodrop, Holland.

P.S.: I just got n e-mail with the text of Deepa Chopra published in The Times of India. It begins saying: “The Maharishi didn’t die like mere mortals do. He just went into what we call ‘maha samadhi’. On January 12 this year, his 91st birthday, he announced that his work in the world was over and he was going into silence. He didn’t speak to a single soul after that day. And today, he has passed so elegantly.”

You might be interested in reading the revelation by Deepak Chopra of an undisclosed illness of Maharishi and the parting of their ways.

I today read an article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung about the discovery of certain findings indicating that there had been a sunken continent in the south of the Indian ocean, near the Antarctica. An expedition of researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute to the area of the Kerguelen plateau in the contexts of the “Plates & Gates” programme of the International Polar Year wanted to find relations between continental drift and climate. They found in the depth of the oceans structures with silicone stones of continental origin, which is supposed to be part of an ancient continent having expanded much more to the north.

This fact is very interesting, for main stream scientists up to now have dismissed the theosophical doctrine of sunken continents such as Lemuria as fiction and explained the evolution of the globe with plate tectonics. The age indicated by the Plates & Gates-expedition for the sinking of the continent, supposing about 120 million years, doesn’t fit with the teachings of Blavatsky, but these are gigantic periods of time, and maybe some tectonic movements a few million years ago turn out in future as bridging the gulf between occult and mainstream science.

Not just sunken continents…

Today I got an e-mail a friend forwarded to me announcing that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has just passed over yesterday, February 5.
Old memories came to my mind: For over 8 years, from 74 to 82, I had been in his Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement, with all my youthful enthusiasm. I went through the formation as a TM-teacher and later as a “governor of the age of enlightenment”, and even became head for a TM-“Academy for Vedic Science” during my student times. I met the Maharishi a number of times, and for a while I was dreaming to work in his surroundings.

At the beginning I was fascinated by the whole ambiance and the teachings, but then I increasingly found the orientation of the movement strange and too narrow. The grandiloquent vocabulary of the Maharishi, the commercial attitude of the movement and the missing focus on selfless service as an essential prerequisite for spiritual progress were some mayor factors. But at that time the decisive “kick” out of the movement for me was that on my spiritual path I came across several experiences, which didn’t fit into the quite simplifying spiritual “map” of TM. There was a “point of no return”, where I left the TM-movement and its world view from one day to the other. It took long years of search through a number of spiritual movements and teachings to get the “missing links” for the questions I had.

A friend wrote to me about this blogpost saying: “Your blogpost on MMY rang very true and paralleled my own experience after being a National Leader for 12 years. Lack of compassion exhibited by the TM movement is a serious failing in any ‘spiritual’ organization. It is possible that the over-centralization and trivialization of the teachers may improve and the original momentum be regained.”

The TM helped me to get out of the traditional religious background and to learn new vistas of thinking, even if they needed to be revised after a while. I have observed the movement from afar, through newspaper articles about their campaigns or when encountering articles of their Ayurveda business – déja-vu feelings kept coming. Looking back I’m grateful to the Maharishi for learning the steps of regular discipline and for gaining a basic understanding of Eastern (Vedic) wisdom. May he proceed on a lightful path.

The close of a fire ritual