What Now?

Posted on July 10, 2018 by Author Richard F Holmes

Indeed; what now? I’m really glad that Eyesight To The Blind is out there in paperback form, and the kindle version will launch some time later this month. But I appear to have entered a flat phase and am continually asking myself, what now? This really is a weird time of transition for me, I’m no longer working as a medium, my day job is stale and way past its sell-by date, my writing project has finished, so yes, to say I’m feeling quite flat at the moment would be an understatement.

I wanted to write a post last week, but “what to write”? I thought to myself. Anyway, the most important thing is to be in communication, so I thought I would share three quite different and random things with you. Two that came along recently and one from around 18 years ago.

Firstly, and I can’t quite believe that I’ve never written about this before; anywhere! I’m going to share with you the one and only experience I’ve ever had of spirit manifesting itself objectively; in other words, right before my eyes and not on the inner plain. I think the reason I’ve never written about this before is because it has simply slipped my mind. It’s also not something that I would attach a lot of importance to these days, but it was very interesting at the time and I’m sure some of you will also find it quite interesting.

It happened round about 1999/2000. It was when I was going to the open circle at the spiritualist church. A man named Tom would quite often take the sessions in those early days. We were sitting there in our circle, not in the dark but with the room dimly lit, and all of a sudden as I was looking at Tom, slightly behind him and to his left, there was a build up of spirit; literally. The image of a man I believed to be Tom’s dad literally built up from the floor until it was a full manifestation. He looked elderly and he had a briar pipe in his mouth. The manifestation was not pure white, as you would probably imagine, but a very faint blue. The image remained for a few moments and then disappeared.

The second thing I want to share with you happened very recently; less than two weeks back from the time of writing. I wanted to spend a night away from Tetbury, so I had a look on Airbnb and saw a nice cheap room with en suite facilities. I then realised that it was in a town called Highworth, which I knew quite well from my time living in Swindon, as they are in close proximity to each other. I booked, and to my pleasure, the hosts turned out to be a lovely couple; she being a yoga teacher and he being an extremely learned and well-read man who worked as a creative writing tutor. They were both very interesting to talk to.

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will probably have realised that I don’t have a very high opinion of the church, and even though I do not accept the Biblical version of Christ, I do actually embrace the concept of a man who was called Jesus Christ and who walked the earth more than 2000 years ago. However, my view of who he was differs drastically from the story pedaled by the church. My male host, I will call him Peter, during a discussion said that there is no evidence anywhere, and there never has been, that Christ even existed. I knew I was not as well-informed as him so I did not contest his view; instead, I listened intently. Then he said something else, that was so obviously true, that it had never occurred to me before.

I’ve always felt that there is very little truth in the Bible, but Peter said something that gave me a bit of a eureka moment. He said that there is only one passage in the Bible that has any significance; the rest you can just throw away. That passage is in Exodus 3:14 where Moses asks God what he should say if, when he goes to the Israelites, they ask him the name of, “the God of their forefathers”, who sent him. He gets the reply, “I AM, that is who I am”. That statement, “I AM, that is who I am”, must surely be the most profoundly true and powerful statement in the entire history of history itself. That seven-word statement tells us everything we would ever want and need to know about that great and old chestnut; the meaning of life.

No beginning; no end. No birth; no death. The all and everything summed up right there and then in one seven-word statement. You are already that which you seek. Spiritual awakening is the realisation that you are already awake. I could go on, but I won’t; thanks Peter!

Thirdly, after stating in Eyesight To The Blind, that my out-of-body experiences are very few and far between these days, what happens? Yes, I not only have an astral adventure, but quite a humdinger too! There was a hell of a lot going on; it was like three different stories playing out during the course of my journey. I’m sure it all had some sort of meaning, but unless I experience something truly spectacular these days, I will not be going into detail anymore; simply because I no longer see the relevance. I just found it quite ironic, that after making that statement in the book, quite a detailed out-of-body experience followed during the early morning of July 5.

Anyway, where was I, oh yes… what now?

It’s Nearly That Time Of Year Again!

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Author Richard F Holmes

It most certainly is nearly that time of year again; when the Christian Church dusts the cobwebs off its story and peddles it once again to the unsuspecting masses. I must say that I do find the whole “epic” just a tad ironic. First of all, let me just mention that I have no doubt in my mind at all that Jesus Christ actually existed; and I have no doubts at all that he was a truly incredible soul. However, the story that organised religion wants us to believe just does not stack up.

We have to understand that Christ was not a Christian; Christianity is the man-made religion founded by unscrupulous religious leaders in an effort to control the naive and the gullible through fear. Christ was strictly non-religious, however, if you really had to pigeon-hole him, you would have to say that he was a Buddhist. He studied the teachings of Buddha in the monasteries of the Himalayas and he also hung out with the Essenes and the Nazarenes, who were religious sects that practised a form of Buddhism. Christ was attracted to these people because their religion was non-violent. It was common practise in those times for live animals to be sacrificed in the temples, and Jesus was against this (and made his feelings known in no uncertain terms). Christ was the original hippie activist and was considered to be a subversive by the religious leaders of the time.

It’s worth noting that it is because of his association with the Nazarenes that Christ is often incorrectly referred to as, “Jesus of Nazareth”. Historically, Nazareth was nothing more than a tiny hamlet that Jesus may or may not have passed through at some time or other. So, why do I find the whole Christmas story a tad ironic? It’s because the church peddles their messiah as being, “the one and only begotten Son of God”. According to Christians, God is an all-powerful entity that is separate from us mere mortals, and Jesus is his son. This theory completely contradicts the Buddhist teachings, amongst other belief systems, that Christ followed. Buddhists do not believe in a deity as such, rather in a Creative Force, or infinite consciousness that permeates the whole creation. Christ’s message was simple. He said that we are all the same as him, we are all Gods and that we will find the Kingdom of Heaven within ourselves; it is not a place we can go to.

So the Christian messiah is marketed by the church as something that he would never have considered himself to be. I also can’t help thinking (cynically perhaps) that the reason the church marketed their messiah as a meat eating wine drinker, which he wasn’t, was simply so that they could justify their own gluttonous desires.

Merry Christmas!

It’s Been A Long Time…

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Author Richard F Holmes

It seems like an absolute age since I communicated with you; probably because it is! You may also have noticed that I’ve deleted several of this blog’s pages and I’m not displaying my books and CDs anymore. Well, I’m going through a bit of a transition at the moment; sort of reinventing myself, although there doesn’t seem to have been much reinventing taking place. I’ve unpublished all my books and CDs because they somehow don’t seem to be who I am anymore. For sure, there will be more writing in the future, but only when the new me emerges from the obscuring clouds and I have something fresh to write about. It was important for me to communicate with you today because I really appreciate the following and don’t like to have huge gaps between posts. I suppose I should also give you a little bit of an update.

I’ve still got the fatigue (must be over five years now) that hampers me; but I manage it to the best of my ability and just have to pace myself. I’m still working at the hospice, which helps to keep me grounded, and since my last post I’ve had my 61st birthday (on April 22). The photo is the latest of me and was taken just a few days before. So, now all that is out of the way, here is a teaser for you…

Question: Do the following exist?

Angels, Krishna, trance mediumship, cheese sandwiches, spirit guides, Jesus Christ, physical mediumship, Buddha, life after death, clairvoyance, the spirit world, reincarnation, fish and chips, the afterlife, aliens and…my socks.

Answer: Yes; but only when the ego falsely identifies with the body.

Hell-Fire And Damnation Part Two

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Author Richard F Holmes

Here at last, after many months, is my follow up post to Hell-Fire And Damnation. I’m sure that some of you won’t even remember the purpose of these posts; it’s been so long since the original, so I will give a quick recap. My aim is to demonstrate that the scriptures, even though they have been written in a way that strikes fear into the average person, are not that fearful at all. Far from it, in fact; it’s just that they were written in the language of the day and contain a great depth of symbolism. Now, before I go any further I will add that I am of the opinion that the scriptures, especially the Bible, have been altered over the centuries by unscrupulous religious leaders and are now only a shadow of what they were meant to represent. I also think that it’s pretty obvious that only the most tunnel-vision Christians would not agree with that statement.

Take for example the following passage from Matthew XII : 36 & 37:

But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned – Jesus Christ

That is quite a scary statement, especially if you are not aware of the symbolism contained therein, and you take it literally. There is also the little matter of the fact that Jesus spoke in parables more often than not when he was addressing the masses. So, I would like to offer an interpretation that will not turn the reader into a nervous wreck.

If you examine the statement carefully it seems to be a reference to the laws of karma and cause and effect and a reminder that even the things we say are subject to these very precise natural laws. We know that creation moves in continuous cycles, and we also know that we are responsible for our own actions. So, it stands to reason that even the things we say will one day bear fruit; and that fruit will either be positive or negative depending on what our intentions were at the time. There is no such thing as the “day of judgement” where we will all have to stand in front of an old man with a long white beard and either be given passage into heaven or cast into the fires of hell. “Day of judgement” in this context (and to put it in layman’s terms) is the day when our actions, be they spoken or otherwise, come back to bite us on the legs. It will be the point in time when, in accordance with the laws of karma and cause and effect, our actions (or words) will have gone through their natural cycle and ended up back at their place of origination.

So, we can conclude by saying that Christ, in his loving nature, was simply saying “hey peeps, watch what you say because as sure as eggs is eggs your words will come back to haunt you”. Simples!