happenings in my youth, upon reflection, showed me how inter-connected we all are — that is the people who are on our wave length and the oracles who speak to us every day — but we are too preoccupied to notice.
At a Cub night when I was about ten years old I arrived late to be greeted with rubber mats all over the hall floor and parents of the cubs sitting around the perimeter. As I walked in the cub master said “OK King you’re next!” Not having a clue what was going on I was confronted with a huge guy charging towards me! Something inside me got very angry. Instinctively I touched his nose with my finger, made a circle in the air and to my and everyone else’s amazement, he followed my finger, did a complete somersault and landed flat on his back. Not a sound came from the parents as I walked out the door. I never returned.
Possibly because of my father’s neurosis I have resented anyone imposing — or trying to impose — their authority upon me. I believe all of us should take responsibility for our own lives. To be as self-reliant as possible; never imposing our will upon others or harming nature, animals and our fellow human beings.
Leonardo de Vinci is reported to have said, “one day mankind will come to look upon the killing of animals — whether for sport or food — with the same horror we view the killing of fellow human beings. Also we will cease to be the walking grave yards of their slaughtered bodies.”
Living in a house of meat eaters was difficult but from my late teens until I left home at twenty-one, I tried to eat as little as possible. I had promised Eric Roberts that I would stay until I was twenty-one to nullify any karmic debt I owed my father.
As I mentioned previously hidden forces within our souls — possibly learned thousands of years ago — will surface when the need is there.
My father raised his arm to strike me once when I was about fifteen. I heard a voice arise within me and instinctively raised my hand to point at him. The voice — not mine — I’m sure as it was so deep said, “Stay!” His arm froze in mid-air and he walked from the room with his arm still raised. What he said to my mother (I know not) but I did notice a more subdued attitude for a while. Goodness knows what went on there. Was it an echo from a bygone era when sounds were used as very forceful weapons or aids to construction?
There are many legends of huge stones weighing so many tons. No crane is available even today to lift such stones and yet they are in place so tightly; not even a sheet of paper could be inserted. These stories come from Ancient Egypt, South America and even parts of Asia. The legends say key notes of the stones are found enabling them to float. Coral Castle in Florida is a recent enigma of the practice.
Chanting used in meditations would also fit into this category.
Fifteen must have been an important year for me as I also had an experience of waking up outside my bedroom window about 2 am. It was a clear moonlight night. At first I was concerned I had died as I could see my body on the bed. Closer inspection revealed I was still breathing and I could see this fine silver cord connecting ‘me’ to it.
The feeling of elation was profound. I decided to ‘fly’ up to the clouds where I could see the city, the ocean, the mountains — everywhere I looked was so energising and thrilling. I kept telling myself “be careful or you will wake up!”
Then I glided down to our back garden which was very large and as I ‘flew’ between an orange tree and the side fence I was confronted by a large spider web. Firstly I thought “yikes”, then just as quickly, I thought, “no worries”; I’m not physical, so it won’t cling to me. I then started to rise up into the night sky once more and, bang — I was awake in my body on the bed once more. There have been several times this has happened since but that first conscious realization of my being in control of my thoughts and what I wanted to do is forever etched in my mind.
In the morning I inspected the orange tree and sure enough there was the spider web as I remembered it.
CHAPTER THREE
Throughout these teenage years I suffered all the usual problems young men go through as they mature. There is guilt — lack of confidence in one’s self and many more hang-ups too numerous to mention. All very important and horrible for me at the time. My acne was so bad the bank paid for medical help! Of course it was all caused by the stress constantly created at home by my father. These facial eruptions started in my early teens and continued until I was twenty-one and within a couple of weeks of leaving home they completely cleared up.
At thirteen I heard the glorious violin music of a master for the first time, David Oistrakh. Years later I once jokingly said to a friend in the music world “David Oistrakh ruined my life”!
In a sense it was the complete opposite but I did go down a tortuous road for many years as a result of hearing him play at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music. Again it was just an hour or so of amazing music that opened up another world for me.
He staged a special concert for school students and I was lucky to be able to go at a cost of four shillings a ticket. He commanded much more than that at the main Town Hall recital. I had never heard anything like it in my life and at the age of thirteen was desperate to learn to play a violin.
The music teacher at school said he would teach me if I had my own instrument. Having no idea how much money one would need I asked my mother if she would buy one. “No” was the direct answer; even though the one pound a week I earned as a delivery boy at the chemist shop was taken by her for board, bus fares to school and clothing. I was left with two shillings for over twenty hours work a week.
It was only when I had left school and was in Brisbane at my sister’s home I was able to buy one for eight pounds. I found a teacher, Miss McGilchrist, in the old Palings Building in Sydney and so began years of torture as I had left it far too late to master such a difficult instrument. Lacking confidence in myself also did not help much.
The plus side was that music opened so many doors to so many wonderful loving people and their homes. I discovered the music of Bach — Mozart — Beethoven and many others. However the Master for me was Richard Wagner.
I had read when I was young the myths and legends Wagner had based his music dramas upon and when I finally did hear the music on record for the first time; all fitted like a glove. His music is very special and, I feel, important for mankind at our stage of evolution.
To experience the Ring Cycle and Parsifal in the right setting — production and mood — one is transformed at a soul level and even at a physical level. I feel his works are a guiding light for mankind in his descent and ascent on his spiritual path. In this materialistic age man needs to remember his spiritual heritage otherwise materialism may take over.
Without these amazing gifts to Mankind I feel there is a huge danger he could descend into an almost sub-human level. So many people today scoff at this suggestion but through my own experiences I know there to be an element of truth in it all. I am at a loss to understand how we can look at the wonder of the human body — its beauty — its methodology etc, and say that it’s all just chance! A few cells that started in slime and divided and evolved into us!
Of course each of us is master of our ship and we determine by the set of our sails the way the ship goes; not by the way the wind blows! We have always the free will to make or break our own lives. It is no use always blaming others, as out of every adversity we encounter some new thinking, some new impulse often very positive that would have lain dormant had we not gone through that particular ordeal.
When one thinks about it, some of mankind’s greatest gifts of literature, music and art have come from individuals who
