Dear ,
I hope you are well and enjoying the start of the summer (if you’re in the northern hemisphere). The highlight of my last month was a trip to Portugal, to do a Transpersonal Psychology workshop. The workshop was in Lisbon, which I was pleased to visit because it was the home of great poet Fernando Pessoa (pictured below). I had a cup of coffee in the restaurant where he reputedly wrote a lot of his poems. He is a fascinating figure
because he only published one book of poems in Portuguese during his life time (strangely, he published two books in English, as he was brought up in South Africa and was a fluent writer and speaker) but on his death (in 1935) a giant chest was discovered in his apartment, filled with 25,000 pages of unpublished writings. Even now the pages are still being examined and edited. Pessoa is also fascinating because he wrote in a series of poetic ‘alter egos’, each with completely distinct styles and
voices. He was quite a troubled guy, extremely sensitive and prone to depression, but his poems are full of a spontaneous spirituality, a joy in being alive in the present moment. I particularly like the ‘Odes’ he wrote in his alter ego of Alvaro de Campos. He was a great admirer of Walt Whitman, and wrote a fantastic poem called ‘Salutation to Whitman.
In Portugal, I stayed in a town called Cascais, about 30 kilometres down the coast from Lisbon. I had one free day, and enjoyed myself swimming in the sea, running along the beach and cycling down the coast, looking out at the
amazing Atlantic ocean.. It was also great to hang out with my friend Mario Sende, a Portuguese transpersonal psychologist. I feel very at home in Portugal, and love the laid back atmosphere and the friendliness of people. I can sense some kind of connection between Portugal and England, although I’m not sure what it is precisely.
It’s strange that I love exercising so much now. When I was younger I lived an incredibly unhealthy lifestyle - smoking heavily, drinking a lot, terrible diet, never exercising. I was caught up in depression and a kind of duality and intellectualism which saw the body as something less valuable than the mind, a kind of machine which could be neglected. Now I feel that the body is sacred, just as much a part of spirit as my mind or inner
being. Looking after the body means saying 'Yes' to life, feeling glad to be in the world and wanting to stay in it, experiencing its wonder and making a contribution to the human race. So I love running, cycling, swimming, going to the gym, doing yoga and chi gung. It makes me feel ecstatic. (At the end of this newsletter I’ll include a poem I wrote about swimming in the sea in Portugal.)
Recently I was asked to give a talk on ‘How to Slow down Time’ at the Leeds International Festival, based on my book Making Time. As a result of the talk, I was asked to write an article on the topic for a website
called ‘The Conversation.’ The article went viral, and has been read nearly 300,000 times, as a result of which Making Time briefly became a bestseller again.
There was a lot of attention in the media, and I was interviewed by Italian and German newspapers, and also by the UK Guardian. It’s strange that this was all in relation to a book I wrote 12 years ago - and about a topic which is not one of my major interests!
My Memoir/Autobiographical Novel
A few weeks ago I started to write a memoir/autobiographical novel, based on the four years I spent living in eastern Germany in the early 90s, just after the fall of communism. I wrote some sketches and chapters several years ago - I found them on an old computer by chance and was surprised by how well they worked. So I decided to back to them, to rewrite and expand them, adding new chapters. I’m still going strong, and really enjoying
writing it. It’s mainly about the loss of identity and breakdown of ego I experienced, and how that led to a new life - a kind of ‘transformation through suffering.’ It's a very different kind of writing to my other books but it's flowing very quickly so I’m going to carry on until I've finished - and then I’ll think about whether I wanted to get it published, and who could publish it. At the moment I feel like I’m writing it for myself.
The Puzzle of Altruism
My academic paper 'The Puzzle of Altruism - why do selfish genes behave so unselfishly?' has been accepted in the prominent American journal Explore. The article is largely based on anthropology, suggesting that there is no reason why human beings should have evolved to be selfish and individualistic - on the contrary, there is every reason why we should have evolved to be cooperative and altruistic. It puts forward a theory
of altruism based on my 'panspiritist' approach. I don’t think the the full version is online yet, but you can read the abstract.
One Day Conference in London
On June 8th, London, I’m chairing a one day conference in London, on Science and Spirituality. I’ll also be giving a talk based on Spiritual Science. The other speakers are Dr. Oliver Robinson and Dr. Tamara Russell, and there will be a panel discussion at the end. I’m really looking forward to it. For details see here.
Other Talks
26th May, London - I’m leading a workshop on ‘Spiritual Science’ at the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival in London. For details, see here.
June 17th, Leeds - A talk on 'The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening.' Details here.
Portugal Poem
As mentioned above, I wrote a poem after swimming in the sea in Cascais, Portugal. Here it is:
Back Home
Wherever I go in the world
I am always at home
in the sea.
When strange cities seem overwhelming
and other cultures seem incomprehensible
and human beings seem suspicious,
the sea always welcomes me
with easy-going tenderness.
She senses my presence straight away,
like an animal that remembers my scent.
And as soon as her cool tide touches my feet,
I can feel the ancient bond between us.
And when I swim, she massages my limbs
and the tensions of land-based life
slowly fade away.
No matter how much chaos human beings cause
as we scurry across islands and continents,
the sea is steadfast and nonchalant.
She knows she will outlive us all.
Every morning since the beginning of time
sparks of sunlight have danced across her waves
gleefully, just like this morning.
And every night since the beginning of time
white ribbons of moonlight have streamed across her waves
majestically, just like last night.
And right at the beginning of time,
the sound of her roaring rumbling rush began
and has never stopped for a moment since,
never even changed tone or pitch.
The ancient mother
who gave birth to life
hundreds of millions of years ago
and who embraces all her children
whenever they return.
All best wishes and blessings, Steve
|
|
|
|
