A Course in Spirituality: An Inspiring and Enthralling Journey into New Age Philosophies

By Alain Aristide

What is New Age spirituality?

Is it relevant to our twenty-first century experience? Alain Aristides book sets out to illuminate the various paths to spiritual enlightenment.

Including short biographies of New Age authors, A Course in Spirituality references materials as contiguous as Eckhart Tolles bestseller The Power of Now, Ernest Holmes The Science of Mind, the wisdom of Abraham channeled by Esther Hicks, A Course in Miracles and the Kabbalah, among many others. It discusses numerous subjects as diverse as esotericism, meditation, mysticism, healing, theology, telepathy, hypnosis, re-incarnation, quantum physics, Ayurveda and many more arcane topics.

A Course in Spirituality is a journey beyond philosophy, filled with personal insights and surprising correlations, which hopefully will inspire others to seek their own individual enlightenment. May these writings be a coruscating ray of light piercing the gloomy skies of todays human consciousness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: May 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491760680

Alain Aristide

Born in France, Alain Aristide has spent the last twenty years travelling extensively in Europe, assimilating different cultures and acquiring a multilingual tongue. A natural polymath, the author recently graduated cum laude in Culture and Language Studies in Rome. He now resides between France and England and works as a carer. Always eager to explore new horizons, he remains an eternal student.

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Copyright © 2015 Alain Aristide.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-6067-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-6069-7 (hc)

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FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I: RESISTANCES

CHAPTER II: HOW TO GET RID OF YOUR RESISTANCES

CHAPTER III: METAPHYSICAL QUESTIONS

CHAPTER IV : THE POWER OF THE MIND

CHAPTER V: THE PRESENT MOMENT

CHAPTER VI: RELATIONSHIPS

CHAPTER VII: MONEY, MONEY

CONCLUSION

SEVEN SHORT BIOGRAPHIES

Gregg Braden

Deepak Chopra

Louise Hay

Abraham-Hicks Teachings

Kabbalah

David Wilcock

Stuart Wilde

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RECOMMENDED READING

ENDNOTES

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T wo years ago, during my university studies in Rome, I woke up suddenly in the night with the urge to write this book. Most certainly this creative impulse came from a desire to send an uplifting message into our tumultuous world. Nonetheless, this unconscious move was not the only motivation in writing this extensive essay about esotericism and spirituality.

Leaving home at sixteen, I began a European odyssey that would last twenty years. Aside from studying philosophy, foreign languages and literature, I accumulated small jobs and lived on a day-to-day basis without ever knowing where I would be the next month. In this peripatetic flow and Bohemian survival mode, I was magically drawn to individuals from different circles and took part in Shamanic rituals, Science of Mind gatherings, Quaker sittings, Kabbalah conferences, quantum physics seminars and learned of meditation in Zen centres. In this whirlpool of inspiring encounters, I met, at the age of twenty, a powerful Celtic witch who practised reflexology and whose wisdom showed me the inseparable connection between body and soul. She helped me to heal most of my traumas, neuroses and fears related to my childhood.

In addition to these colourful and serendipitous human exchanges, I have been reading, in the last fifteen years, numerous self-help books based mainly on New Age philosophies and ancient wisdom. This has enabled me to blend my empirical knowledge with rhetorical study.

To my great surprise, I have discovered that many people, not familiar with New Age philosophies or any metaphysical concepts outside of their own religion, can be extremely prejudiced about these ‘alternative’ schools of thought. They fear them to be an enclave for so-called Gurus and other unscrupulous charlatans, whose main intention is the sexual abuse and, or the financial exploitation of credulous and good-hearted people. For these sceptics, New Age views are pure gibberish.

All walks of life are prey to the badly intentioned and New Age teachers are no exception, but it must be remembered that there is an ever growing core of trustworthy guides, whose sole hope is that their teachings will empower others to have a more fulfilled life.

My hope in writing this book is to offer rational people, those with open minds, information on a number of different spiritual pathways. What people take from this is up to them. Although there is a myriad of books designed to encourage positive thinking, each author tends to remain within their own philosophical parameters. My book is intended to introduce the major currents in an impartial manner and to draw parallels between the different authors so that the universality of their messages becomes more apparent. In doing this I also hope, in my own small way, to lend a hand in spreading a message of peace, love and tolerance to the world and my greatest wish is that this book will inspire others to seek their own personal enlightenment.

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T his twenty-first century of ours, as it takes flight, is a rather turbulent place, host to a world in constant mutation. New technologies continue to arise and unremittingly advance, with such speed that one has to buy four computers a year to keep up with the times. The hegemony of science, gene-based research and regenerative medicine already demonstrates tremendous results. Recently, in America, a severed human finger was grown back to its original dimensions in only four weeks ¹, thanks to a special powder using extra cellular material. Hurray, a human is now comparable to a salamander ²! On the other hand (all fingers naturally grown), wars, bankruptcies, diseases, pseudo-diseases (H1N1 flu) and environmental catastrophes also characterise the genesis of this century. Why should one focus on these ghastly matters? I certainly shall not. On the contrary, I want this book to buoy you up and put a silly smile on your pretty face. If though, you prefer to fixate on this negativity, which will fill your mind with saturnine and moribund thoughts, you need simply to direct your gaze towards the television news for an hour or so and you will be served the most sumptuous banquet of depressing delicacies.

One of the most crucial and positive improvements emerging in our present century is the fluidity and celerity of information, thanks to cell phones, computers and especially internet. I exempt the news media from this appraisal of progress, not for their lack of velocity, but because most of today’s newspapers, television channels and broadcast stations are owned by tenebrous magnates who have political agendas³. Their goals seem nothing less than to sow the seeds of discontent and to propagate dramatic negativity by showing an apocalyptic vision of our beautiful world, spreading among its citizens overwhelming feelings of anxiety and paranoia. Not to mention the constant consumerist pressure with its recurrent advertisements besieging our eyes and ears, condemning us to an addictive profligacy. The propaganda dictum "Arbeit macht frei⁴ nowadays reads gouge yourself and you will be free". Fortunately we can find salvation in a simple downward squeeze of the mute button on the remote control. I know this is a tough beginning, and perhaps a touch political, but I lay these sombre facts before you in order to illuminate the erroneous nature of influences by which wise people may be misled.

Despite these facts, with the luxury of time, one can always find a stimulating newspaper or some enlightening television or radio programmes. We are bombarded each day by new information, which we should cautiously analyse before taking it as gospel. Profusion is always better than a dearth of information if we consider our past history. For example, in medieval times, the Church despotically kept the human mind in the bondage of sins. If an adolescent was surprised in the midst of onanism, a putrid word invented by the Church to hide the joyous act of masturbation, the poor soul was condemned to irremediable guilt for the rest of his youth. He was convinced that he would writhe in the torments of hell, condemned to be sucked by the fieriest mouths and sharpest teeth of rabid Chimeras. Poor boy! Even more dolorous is the thought of the innumerable women who, considered witches because of their independence and superior knowledge, were burnt at the stake. These egregious tales from a darker age should make us proud of our progress and fill us with feelings of gratitude to have been born in our present time.

Another positive fact is that the Church is losing, little by little, its omniscient grasp on human beliefs. I focus, here, mainly on Western Europe and the United States⁵. The religious situation, in other parts of the world, is different, in the sense that most inhabitants still adhere to their religions with a fervid and almost archaic fidelity, which closes them to change or expand their views on religion. By itself, this fervour is not a problem, leaving aside the fervour of fanaticism, which can rear its ugly head on any continent. We should trust the Universe⁶ in all its variety and perpetual evolution. There is enough room for all beliefs.

Let us now spend a little time analysing some reactions to the ‘decline’ of the Church’s supremacy in the Western world. One such reaction is that some people, on the path to deeper understanding of their souls, become eager to explore and discover new ways of thinking and are ready to build new altars of consciousness. This revolution has been a catalyst for the outburst of ground-breaking books which expound new paths and reveal esoteric teachings. I should clarify the meaning of esoteric teachings, since this subject has been to a greater or lesser degree misinterpreted in years past.

In brief, to my mind, these teachings are based on ancient laws, originally written for the benefit of every single human being, in order that they may autonomously lead a joyous and serene life. These laws have been carefully hidden from the masses by religious institutions in order to maintain ignorance and thereby exert control over the public with greater ease. These precious laws were also kept secret by the initiates, who were not motivated by power and control, but rather by prudence. These teachings were only divulged to disciples who displayed a deep interest and dedicated willingness to study these texts for many years in utter devotion. Also these initiates feared that these enlightening revelations would be misunderstood and misused. Finally, the collective level of consciousness, at this time, was not on a frequency capable of assimilating such knowledge.

Esotericism has now been democratised and is available to everyone. A positive outcome, indeed, is the plethora of books on this subject. Before speaking about these books in greater depth, I must throw a cliché over the side for it to drown in the watery depths, never to resurface. When some people hear ‘spiritual’, they easily imagine a bunch of naked people rambling through the countryside, with flowers in their hair and joints hanging from their lips, indulging in orgies and predicating Peace and Love to their neighbours. You don’t need long hair and drugs anymore. Peace and Love still presides in the New Age thought, though this message has been added to significantly.

This recent metaphysical upheaval is frequently substantiated by emerging sciences, such as quantum physics and genetics. Faced with this diversity and at times new and intricate concepts, it can be hard to take the first step and dive into this unknown realm. The purpose of this book is therefore to stimulate your thirst for this existential adventure by presenting some of the major spiritual currents and authors of today.

This book makes no pretensions to be an esoteric encyclopaedia. The catalogue of self-help editions is so vast that in order to cite every single author, I would need to barricade myself in a monastery and read twenty hours a day for many decades. Although this would seem both a challenge and a temptation, my hedonistic nature protests at such a Herculean project.

I make the solemn oath to be as objective as I am humanly capable while analysing these diverse teachings, though some subjectivity may infiltrate as I narrate some personal vicissitudes in order to corroborate various theories, but rest assured, this is not an autobiography. My adventures have, here, the sole purpose of reinforcing and attesting some transcendent messages.

Finally this book is designed for everyone. I hope it will open doors in a novice’s mind and also serve as an agreeable reminder for all the already initiated. I have already switched on my telepathic antennas and wait to hear your feedback, all of you.

To conclude this introduction, and most importantly of all, I am neither a teacher nor a Guru, just a simple student of life who wants to share joyful discoveries, transmitting to you, if you are willing, the well of light contained therein. Now, I invite you to open your heart and come with me on this jocund, jolly and enlightening journey.

P.S. There are, at the end of this book, short biographies about seven authors I have frequently cited. In these concise overviews, I give a précis of the details that make them special as well as introducing and recommending some of their books. My references and descriptions are approximate and subjective: approximate since I could not possibly read all their books because of their extensive work in print, and subjective because each person has a different perception when reading a book. I leave you to make up your own mind about their writings. They have been listed alphabetically to eliminate any order of importance. In the end, these biographies should serve to give you a little flavour of their teachings and some rough direction, as you stand befuddled in front of the immense selection of books relating to mind and spirit.

CHAPTER I

RESISTANCES

"Whatever you fight, you strengthen,

and what you resist, persists."

Eckhart Tolle

W e commence straight away with the serious and painful stuff. This chapter may not please you but is, unfortunately, absolutely necessary to begin our transcendental quest. By the way, all the other chapters will offer you remedies, so don’t feel too discouraged reading these pages; light will come. One of the first steps is to look at oneself with truthful discernment and to accept who one is.

When we were born on this magnificent planet, our souls were pure, joyous, full of Light and divine potential, not knowing fear, limitation or sadness. Alas, after a few years, or even a few minutes, depending on the situation, our precious souls became contaminated with fear. We accumulated, consciously and unconsciously, such a heap of anxiety, grief and disappointment throughout our lives that it almost tarnished entirely our initial glow of Light. The package of these toxic memories, most of them psychological traumas, for which we can thank cruel and authoritative parents, grumpy teachers, bullies, perfidious ‘friends’, obnoxious bosses or disdainful partners (the length and variety of this list depends upon the clemency of your entourage), will unfortunately continue to grow until we acknowledge there are things in our lives that are obviously going wrong.

A perfect illustration would be a woman who has had five relationships, each time with a violent partner. If she does not realise that something is wrong, then, no doubt, the sixth partner will be exactly as bellicose as the preceding ones. But if she pauses for a second and starts thinking clearly about her anger and bewilderment, asking herself such questions as: am I not worthy?; am I causing this somehow?; is it possible that every man is a bastard?, clearly this is the right road to putting an end to her recurrent nightmare and allowing the possibility of meeting a non-violent partner in the future. Inside each of us, the many facets of negative experiences have developed into solid and tenacious resistances. I use this word, resistances, to mean anything that impedes you from reaching your divine Self. Your divine Self is the untarnished Light of your inner being. I will give more details about this gracious state of being later.

I propose to illustrate these resistances through an allegory in order to better comprehend how they hinder our daily lives and perceptions. Imagine a trekker who is attempting to make the biggest ascent of his life, Mont Blanc, for example. The ascent alludes to our soul’s evolution, and reaching the summit, to our final goal, which is our divine Self. Reaching the dizzying heights of this blasted crest is already difficult enough, but we are silly creatures and he has decided to carry with him a knee-bucklingly heavy rucksack full of stones of various sizes and weights. This sack wrecks his back, makes him feel tired after a few meagre steps, and finally forces him to the ground where he relinquishes the desire to ascend.

All of you will have recognised the alchemical transformation of these resistances into stones. They have different weights and sizes, in the sense that we can get rid of some resistances rather easily yet others require a lifetime to eradicate. By the way, a cancer is most often nothing more than a stone that has grown to such an extent that it finally confronts the body with its own death. I am aware that this sounds a little harsh, especially if your father, for example, has died of a cancer provoked by the asbestos he encountered during his twenty years working on construction sites. It is certainly more reassuring and comfortable to tell oneself that it was the asbestos which brought about his death, rather than any psychological or sentimental disturbance. In this case, it is more painful to admit that one of these stones had grown so immeasurably thick that it broke his body and soul. Although this insight is utterly irrational, one must simply consider the other employees who worked with your father and were equally confronted by this toxic mineral substance and who are still alive.

Are we prepared to look at death from another perspective rather than the typically dramatic human one? This might sound cold, but to tell the truth, I was confronted with the serious illness of my own mother. She nearly died of a pulmonary embolism which seemingly came out of the blue. She could have been called the healthiest person in the world (meaning she did not drink or smoke and she had a great diet) and she had never shown any symptoms indicative of such an imminent state. On the other hand, every day she had been faced with the most hellish of husbands, constantly putting her down with his egregious comments and the violence of his fists. Still, she won the battle with death and is still alive now; still struggling but at least she gained the wisdom to jilt this cad of a husband. I can say neither why nor how she survived. I will not give total credit to medicine as the doctor arrived very late, but I would say that the greatest part of her healing was her strong love for her children and the knowledge that she could not leave us alone with our father. She refused death. The incredible faith that contributed to her survival came from her love. In my opinion, this story corroborates the idea that disease is most often created by unresolved negative emotions and conflicts.

To finish with this macabre stuff, a confrontation with death is often the last means at the disposal of the soul to show the individual that he/she can no longer deny the presence of certain stones. This would explain why the people who have to deal with a terminal disease and choose to recognise it as a necessary challenge on their evolutionary journey, instead of feeling a victim of a cruel and unfair world, most often overcome death⁷. This incredible experience utterly changes their conception of life. They do not spend their day brooding about things anymore but rather focus on the beauty of each present moment of their remaining life.

Let’s go back to these nasty resistances. We should all agree that the only way to climb the mountain is by dropping the rucksack. Although this rucksack has a different content for everyone, because we are all unique, some stones are recurrent and will be found weighing each one of us down. The greatest and largest stone is Fear; it is so immense that I need to put a capital on it. Fear is the wellspring of almost all our resistances. The miserable offspring of fear include: judgmental behaviour, egotism, unworthiness, destructive or abusive behaviour, depression, jealousy, guilt, addiction, hostility, fear of failure and success, ageing, disease, obesity, poverty; to name but a few.

The most obvious cases of judgmental behaviour take place during our conversations. Most of the time, the sole intention of the speaker is to convince the other I’m right, you’re wrong! and therefore one does not even hear the responses or listen to what the other person is saying. This behaviour is neither constructive nor loving. Surely, this is in part due to our socio-cultural context, which has conditioned us from an early age to be the best in a competitive world and which discourages us from showing weakness. Here, fear is the motor at the core of this competitive pattern, since vulnerability is unbearable to most of us and leaves us feeling naked and defenceless.

The deceptive and subtle invisibility of judgment is present in our daily thoughts especially when we find ourselves in the interactive ambience of urban centres. Do you recognise some of these: what a preposterous hair colour she has; why can’t he walk quicker, this fat and ugly git; she thinks she’s so pretty, this bitch; look at how he prances, how arrogant? Traffic is the most fertile territory for the most preposterous, hostile and judgmental utterances, such as: did you learn to drive in a zoo, you c**t, and so on. I personally, sitting in the passenger seat, have frequently been unable to maintain a conversation with the driver due to incessant hostile and aggressive mutterings aimed at other drivers. In conclusion, these despicable ejaculations and gestures are a true blight, in the sense that they have become such normal habits that we no longer have conscious control over them. Again the fear of appearing inferior!

Not feeling worthy leads to many undesirable patterns: depression, destructive behaviour, jealousy, failure, laziness, etc. In the nineteenth century, depression, alias melancholia, was known as le mal du siècle (the sickness of the spleen) and was a romantic trend mainly reserved for artists and wealthy aristocrats and which often ended in tuberculosis. Nowadays, depression has certainly lost its artistic veneer by becoming one of the most common afflictions in the industrialised countries. This disease has contaminated every class and can in some cases provoke suicide. In reality, depression is the plague of our century, as it pays us a visit anytime it wants and too often spoils our days.

Alcoholism and drug addiction are the dramatic and final destinations of feeling unworthy. There are many reasons which push an individual to this slow death. Escapism is not wanting to take a good look at yourself and your responsibilities. Drugs and alcohol provide a temporary soothing state of oblivion that impedes awareness of the latent causes of unworthiness. Here, fear wins again. Anger can also lead you down this path. Most of the time your anger is directed towards a member of your family, a lover, a friend or indeed yourself. Of course it is an impossible task to identify all the targets of your anger (the government, your boss, society in general, and so forth). Perhaps it is a cruel and violent father, or maybe a cold implacable mother who has never shown signs of love towards you. This anger is often subconscious and may take many years to identify and thereby face.

In Vienna, in my rather distant past, I lived in shared accommodation. The owner of the apartment, also my housemate, was an extremely intelligent individual who spent his days smoking a water pipe and sinking into the quicksand of despondency. I always wondered why he was so depressed and took so many drugs. One day we were sitting in the kitchen, cooking, when I began asking trivial questions about his parents. Without warning and in a flurry of chaotic hands, he snatched up and threw to the floor every single pan on the stove, together with their boiling contents, then started to demolish vigorously the kitchen’s chairs, all the time wailing and ranting. A real mess! After having calmed down, I asked him why he had shed so many tears and become so angry. He answered: It was my birthday yesterday and my father (a rather cold intellectual person who had been an eminent tutor at a great university) hasn’t called me. He treats me like I don’t exist and has never shown me any sign of affection or love. It’s just unbearable! Here were the roots of this 34-year-old man’s miserable state, such a simple, and yet nonetheless, incredibly intricate cause⁸. To be honest, I smoked the same water pipes and took every drug that crossed my path. I also needed years to discover that my destructive actions towards my body were greatly due to the anger I was harbouring towards my violent father. As soon as I recognised it, my battle with drug addiction was almost won.

Another destructive pattern must be mentioned, which is perhaps more present on the unconscious level, and therefore can seem shifty or sneaky. Sondra Ray calls it the death wish⁹. The words death and wish are queer and contradictory siblings, are they not? This macabre desire is a reframing of the collective urge for auto-destruction. It is the rampant temptation to sabotage your most precious things, such as a relationship, a career or anything which is truly cherished. This urge comes upon you like a vampire with no warning and its effects are devastating for all involved.

For example, you had a nice day and everything is fine. You then go to a restaurant with your beloved partner. All of a sudden, you start saying the most hurtful things, a sport at which you are extremely good thanks to your keen wit, which always manages to find the most mean spirited comments. Once you have started, you cannot stop. You are compulsively driven to make this person hate you in every possible way. Even if you know that you are wrong on a particular matter, you will lie with cold indifference just for