I was channel surfing last night.

I’d watched the most recent episode of BETTER CALL SAUL (fabulous), I’d watched the final episode of Season 3 of the Scandinavian noir series THE BRIDGE, (heart-wrenching and so so smart), and I’d endured another episode of THE PEOPLE vs OJ SIMPSON (horrible writing, horrible performances, but the car chase down the 405 is still mesmerising, even if fictionalised.)

I flipped channels and came into a programme half way through, called WORLD’S BEST RESTAURANTS. 

I’m always intrigued by the best of anything – excellence in all its forms fascinates me, and I always like to try and learn from those who are the best at whatever they do.

And so I began watching this show.

It was about a restaurant in New York called ELEVEN MADISON PARK. It’s regarded as one of the most expensive restaurants in America, but also one of the best.

Someone was being interviewed – it must have been the Chef, Daniel Humm – because he described how when they first started out, they were given a review by a famous food critic. The review was largely positive, but the review finished by saying that the only thing wrong with the restaurant was that it “needed a bit more Miles Davis.”

Humm was confused by that statement.
What did the reviewer mean?

Instead of dismissing it, or rejecting it as being too obscure, Humm and his team over the following months tried to determine exactly what that reviewer meant by that statement: They needed to be a bit more Miles Davis. 

So they compiled a list of commonly used keywords associated with Miles Davis, and they came up with the following:

• Cool.
• Endless Reinvention.
• Inspired.
• Forward-Moving.
• Fresh.
• Collaborative.
• Spontaneous.
• Vibrant.
• Adventurous.
• Light.
• Innovative.

Eleven words for ELEVEN MADISON PARK. 

This became the restaurant’s mission statement. They put this list up a board and hung it in the kitchen. And they decided that they would become “a bit more Miles Davis.”

It propelled them into the stratosphere. They became one of the top restaurants not only in the US, but in the world.

Their cuisine became renowned for being all those things on that list –

Why do I put this story up on this blog?

Because it’s a wonderful lesson in how to deal with negativity. You can dismiss it, or allow it to consume you, or you can use it to your benefit.

You can examine it,  learn from it, and you can grow.

That’s what those guys did…

We’ve been editing four five days now, and last night I invited two people in to look at some early cut footage.

Geoff Michels and I go back to 1976, when he was my Executive Producer at the ABC, while I was working as a current affairs reporter on THIS DAY TONIGHT. Geoff later left the ABC and built a very successful career in corporate public relations.

Over the intervening years we have remained friends, and many years ago now I told him that I wanted to make a film on intuition, and he thought it was a great idea. Geoff put in some early seed money, and he has since brought in several investors. He’s now an Executive Producer on this film.

Last night he brought along one of the investors and I showed him some cut interviews, and some visual footage. The interviews were:

Dr. Dean Radin – the Chief Research scientist at the Noetic Sciences Institute in Northern California, and one of the world’d leading research scientists studying human consciousness.

John Geiger, academic and former editor for the Toronto Globe & Mail, now CEO of the Canadian Geographical Society. Most famous for his best selling book, THE THIRD MAN FACTOR, which documents the phenomenon of a “sensed presence” that appears to some people when they’re under extreme duress, and when their life is in peril. It’s a term that was coined by Sir Ernest Shackleton on his infamous trek through the Antarctic.

Dr. Norm Shealy, one of the world’s leading research neuroscientists, and an expert on pain management. He’s regarded as being a pioneer in holistic medicine in the west.

James Van Praagh – a celebrated American psychic and author of many best selling books.

So I showed Geoff and the other investor some of these cut interviews, and some footage, and Geoff sent me this email this morning, which he wants me to disseminate to the other investors…

(And, I have to say, Geoff comes to intuition from a rationalist viewpoint. With his journalistic background, he has a healthy scepticism of all things “spiritual,” and leans heavily towards science and a belief in only what can be proven…)

There’s something that I’ve learned.

This might sound simplistic, and self evident, however it’s hit me just now with a profound wallop.

Life is full of choices.
And there are only two choices you can make:

You can choose to act out of love.
Or you can choose to act out of fear.

Most of us, most of the time, choose to act out of fear.
Usually, it’s fear of loss, or fear of lack.

And so we live according to the choices we make.
We live in fear.

Next time you’re faced with a choice, ask yourself:
Am I making this choice out of fear? 

To do this, you have to be aware.
You have to be awake.

Most of us aren’t.

So the first step to making choices out of love is to wake up.

How do you wake up?

Become mindful.
Pay attention.
Be here now.

Make choices consciously, with awareness, and learn to ask yourself:
Am I making this choice out of fear? 

If so, then ask yourself:

Is this really what I want?
Or do I want to trust… 

Today we started editing my film on intuition – called INTUITION IS YOUR PERSONAL GUIDANCE SYSTEM. 

The editor is Rishi Shukla, who edited the sizzle reels that have helped get the film such early notice.

By saying we started editing though, that doesn’t mean the shooting has stopped.

I estimate we still have at least a third of the film yet to shoot, and possibly more. But by commencing editing now, I can see exactly what I’ve got, where it fits into the structure, and what I need to get to complete the storytelling.

I’ll be shooting and editing side by side for many months to come.

We are making the film for cinema – for a theatrical release, with a VOD release to follow – and so the technical side of things has to be exact.

Josh Pomeranz, head of Spectrum Films, has come on board as an investor in the film – as have Wayne and Libby Pashley, from Big Bang Sound Design.

We are editing out of Big Bang Sound, but using Spectrum’s gear.

Josh and Wayne and Libby have been long term supporters of me, and of this film. I am incredibly grateful to them.

Jennifer is producing alongside of me. She’s produced my last six movies, and so she comes to this film with a vast and sophisticated knowledge and understanding of story, and cinema.

With this film though her input will be invaluable, because of her knowledge of the subject and the arena. She’s been studying the esoteric principles of spirituality for some 25 years.

The film will be more than just a spiritual interpretation of intuition though – it will explore intuition from a religious and scientific perspective as well.

Rishi and Jennifer and I started the day in a coffee shop, talking about the film – going through the underlying principals of the story.

I have to say – and I say this unreservedly: this is the hardest film I’ve ever attempted to make. I’ve made films in very difficult locations, with very difficult actors, in snow, in searing heat, with technical breakdowns and interfering studios – but nothing compares to this film in it’s degree of difficulty.

Because the difficulties here aren’t exterior, they lie within the very nature of the story.

But that’s what excites me.
That’s what gets my juices flowing.

I have to find a stillness, and allow the film to guide me. If I try to “make” this film, I’ll botch it. I have to allow it to make itself.

It will speak to me.
It already has, many times.
That’s what’s got me to where I am right now.

Going forward, into the edit, I just have to listen to its voice,
and trust,
and follow.

I got a wonderful five star review for my book this morning –

This book really spoke to me. I am finally going on the Camino this June and feel energized yet a bit daunted about what I’ve committed myself to. Will I be able to complete the Camino? Bill Bennet’s narrative has awed and inspired me to take the leap of faith. Thanks, mate!

One of the things that knocks me out about how the book has fared is that it’s encouraged others to walk the Camino. That gives me great pleasure.

The book has been out in the marketplace now about two and a half years, and it has far exceeded my expectations. It seems like each year it finds new readerships – perhaps as more folk consider doing the Camino.

I have now finished a screenplay based loosely on the book – and have initial interest from Universal. The film will be humorous in tone, like the book.

It takes a long time to get a film made – so don’t expect it in the cinemas any time soon – and I have two other films to make in the interim – PGS and DEFIANT.

I am constantly amazed at how social media works.

This blog goes out on Facebook and Twitter.

And just a short while ago I got notification that Fatburger liked my tweet – which was my “Religion is a Fatburger” post, which I put up yesterday.

Isn’t that cool?

Meditation is the key to any spiritual practice.

Twice a day, twenty minutes a time, and new worlds can open to you.

But how do you meditate?

I’ve been asked this by a lot of people.

Here is a section from Alice Bailey’s book, FROM INTELLECT TO INTUITION. It was written in 1932, and it’s a classic, as are many of Alice Bailey’s books.

Here’s her step by step guide to beginning a meditation practice…

MEDITATION FORM To Develop Concentration Stages

1. The attainment of physical comfort and control.

2. The breathing is noted as rhythmic and regular.

3. Visualization of the threefold lower self (physical, emotional and mental) as a. In contact with the soul. b. As a channel for soul energy, through the medium of the mind, direct to the brain. From thence the physical mechanism can be controlled.

4. Then a definite act of concentration, calling in the will. This involves an endeavor to keep the mind unmoving upon a certain form of words, so that their meaning is clear in our consciousness, and not the words themselves, or the fact that we are attempting to meditate.

5. Then say, with focussed attention —“More radiant than the sun, purer than the snow, subtler than the ether is the Self, The spirit within me. I am that Self. That Self am I.”

6. Concentrate now upon the words: “Thou God seest me.” The mind is not permitted to falter in its concentration on their significance, meaning, and implications.

7. Then, with deliberation bring the concentration work to a close, and say —again with the mind re-focussed on the underlying ideas —the following concluding statement: “There is a peace that passeth understanding; it abides in the hearts of those who live in the Eternal. There is a power that maketh all things new; it lives and moves in those who know the Self as one.”

Jennifer uses another more advanced practice, and I will post that at another time.

We have different types of hamburgers.

We have McDonalds

We have Hungry Jacks.

We have In ‘n Out Burgers.

We have Fatburgers.

They’re all hamburgers, but they’re different.

They appeal to different tastes, they sit at different price points, they come with different sides.

Some appeal to the young, some to Baby Boomers, some spend a lot on marketing, some are popular through word of mouth.

But still, they’re all just hamburgers.

They’re all essentially the same, selling the same thing – meat in a bun.

They’re like religions.

Religions are all different. They appeal to different cultures. To different beliefs. To different nationalities and historical predelictions.

But they’re all selling the same thing, which is God.

You don’t need to go to Maccas, or Hungry Jacks, or Fatburger, to eat a hamburger.

You can make one yourself.

And you can make it just the way you like it, not the way a fast food joint makes it.

The fast food joint makes it for the masses, to appeal to a broad based clientele. The more generic it is, the more popular it’s likely to be.

The fast food joints want to appeal to the masses, because that’s how they make money. They don’t mind that their hamburgers are generic.

But you might not like your hamburger generic.

You might like it different, to your particular taste – with those special things that make it appealing to you.

Chilli sauce, Turkish bread, avocado spread instead of butter, pineapple…

Whatever.

It’s still a hamburger. But it’s the way you like it.

That’s spirituality.

Versus religion,

Which is a Fatburger.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

In the past 6 days, Jennifer and I have driven more than 2000kms to go visit The Crystal Castle just outside Mullumbimby, (north coast of NSW) – with our good friends Ken & Angie, and Donna & Greg.

All are Camino buddies from when we walked the Portuguese Camino two years ago.

On the drive up, Jennifer and I had stopped at a beach called Arrawarra – a beautiful deserted beach north of Coffs Harbour. Late in the afternoon we went for a walk on the beach, with storm clouds overhead, and the sea white-capped.

Jennifer stopped and picked up a small white stone. It was a smooth oval shape, and it was almost perfectly white. She handed this to me and said it was my soul stone.

I put it in the top pocket of my shirt, and from then on carried it close to my heart.

Cut to:

We went to The Crystal Castle with Ken & Angie, Donna & Greg, and we had a great time. It is a very special place, and one that I would certainly revisit at any opportunity. In fact, we’ve agreed to do it again in a year’s time.

Cut to:

On Sunday morning, on the way back from Mullumbimby I stopped in at Lismore and I did a fabulous interview with a person whom I’d been guided to. His name is Serge Benhayon, he runs an energetic healing centre called Universal Medicine, and he gave me a terrific interview for my PGS intuition film.

He told me the voice I heard that saved my life was my soul’s voice.

Cut to:

This morning. We’re in a motel in Tamworth, about 500kms from Mudgee. I woke up early and re-read a section of Gary Zukav’s book, THE SEAT OF THE SOUL. 

For me, everything comes back to the soul. That’s what WHITE WITCH, BLACK WITCH is all about – will be all about when I finish the series – and that’s what my intuition film is all about. It all comes back to the soul.

Here’s what Zukav says:

The individual unit of evolution is the soul. This perception is new to us because, as a species, we have not before been aware of the existence of the soul. In our religious thoughts we acknowledge what we call the soul, but we have not, until now, taken it seriously enough to consider what the existence of the soul means in terms of everyday experience, in terms of the joys and pains and sorrows and fulfillments that make a human life.

We have not studied the soul, or sought to help it attain what is necessary to its evolution and its health. Because we have been five-sensory, we have focused upon the body and the personality. We have developed an extensive knowledge of the physical apparatus that the soul assumes when it incarnates. We know of amino acids, neurotransmitters, chromosomes, and enzymes, but we do not know of the soul. We do not know how these physical functions serve the soul, or are affected by it.

We seek to cure dysfunction of the body by controlling its environment at the molecular level. In other words, our approach to healing is based upon the perception of power as external. This type of healing can be helpful to the body, but it does not, and cannot, heal at the level of the soul.

Consider that those who are trained in this way are accustomed to learning about Life through the study of dead matter. They seek to learn of Life through the study of carcasses and corpses. Through the study of that which does not have spirit, how can they see spirit? 

Cut to:

Some time later, Jennifer and I are packing up to leave the motel.  I pick up the shirt that I’d been wearing a few days ago and went to put it into my case. I heard something drop out of the pocket and fall to the floor.

I couldn’t see anything on the floor though.

I got on my hands and knees and looked under the bed, and then under a cabinet.

Still I couldn’t see what had fallen out.

I thought maybe it was some small change, and a cleaner would probably find it and have a little $2 windfall.

I packed the shirt away, put some stuff in the car, then I came back to get my small carry-on case that has my computer and leads in it. I’d packed it earlier, and it was on a stand.

I grabbed it and picked it up – but I’d forgotten that I hadn’t zipped it up. Everything fell onto the floor, including my computer.

Now, you have to understand, I never do this. I’m always fastidious about closing latches and zippers, particularly with my luggage. Jennifer is the opposite. She leaves her luggage half open all the time. Drives me nuts. I go around and I close all her bags and cases. I point this out to her and tell her she will lose things if she doesn’t close her bags properly, but she just shrugs and says: There’s no such thing as loss in the Universe. 

Like I said, it drives me nuts.

Anyway, this morning, I’d forgotten to close my case, and everything fell onto the floor. I think that’s the first time that’s ever happened to me.

I picked it all up. And then I wondered if anything had rolled under the bed, or the cabinet. And so once again I got on my hands and knees and peered under the bed, and then the cabinet.

And that’s when I saw it –
The soul stone.

It had fallen out of my shirt pocket and rolled under the cabinet. I hadn’t seen it the first time I looked, but this time I saw it clearly.

If that accident with my case hadn’t happened, I would have driven away without ever finding the stone.

So here’s the thing – you can look at this two ways:

You can use your rational mind and say that it was just co-incidental – a quirk of fate that my bag spilled out – or you can use your spiritual mind and say that it was the Universe once again tapping me on the shoulder, reminding me that it’s there, watching out for me.

All I can say is:
Thanks guys…
I like that stone…

Mullumbimby is a sleepy little town at the back of Byron Bay – just south of the Queensland / New South Wales border.

I remember Mullumbimby in the early 70s, when I used to go surfing up and down that part of the coast. It was a major hippy joint, largely full of dope heads and stoners, everyone wearing tie-dyed cheesecloth and loose elephant print daks from India.

The dread-locked hippies burned incense in their clapped-out rusty Kombis and stole mangoes from trees by the side of the road and for breakfast they ate magic mushrooms, which pretty much set up the rest of the day for them…

Mullumbimby was regularly raided by the cops, and the locals never failed to disappoint.

I drove into Mullumbimby yesterday, after not having visited the place for something like forty years. It’s still a hippy joint, although the hippies have now gone establishment, and run restaurants like The Magic Pot Eatery, or operate Wellness Clinics where you can have your chakras punctured or your bowels cleansed.

I didn’t drive nearly 1000kms though to have my chakras punctured. Nor to have my bowels cleansed, although they probably needed it… especially after that curry the other night…

No, I came for The Crystal Castle.

Jennifer and I have two Camino mates – Greg & Donna – who did the Portuguese Camino tour with us a couple of years back. We’ve remained good friends. and for some time now they’ve been telling us we should come up and visit The Crystal Castle.

Greg & Donna live in Brisbane, and for them it’s a drive of only an hour and a half, so they’ve been to the Crystal Castle many times. They kept raving about the place, so finally we said we’d drive up and make a weekend of it.

What is the Crystal Castle? It’s a magnificent private Botanical Garden full of Tibetan Buddhist stupas, and statues of Hindu gods and goddesses, and…

Crystals.

Big mothers pulsing energy like a stadium rock band…

I wouldn’t say I’m a crystal guy.

I don’t put crystals by my bedside before I go to sleep, like my wife does.
I don’t “recharge” my crystals in the backyard on a full moon, like my wife does.
I don’t use crystals to divine whether I should wash my hair tomorrow or next week, like my wife does.
I don’t place a rose crystal over my heart chakra when I think about Syrian refugees, like my wife does.

For me, crystals fall into the same category as Hobbits.
Except they’re not as hairy.

Crystals and Hobbits, whilst you wouldn’t immediately see a direct correlation, do come from the same gene pool. Gandalf for instance would have been a crystal guy. (Yes, I know, Gandalf was a wizard, not a Hobbit, but he hung around with Hobbits. And wizards are definitely crystal guys.)

I have strayed.

The Crystal Castle is a really cool place.

It was established thirty years ago by a bloke named Naren King, who had a business importing crystals. He went to a New Years Eve party on a 25 hectare property at the back of Mullumbimby – and immediately wanted to buy the unique building that was on the site.

He found a bank manager willing to stake him in a venture that would have him establishing magnificent gardens, and building huge statues of religious iconic figures, in amongst grounds studded with gigantic crystals.

Thirty years on it’s a thriving business, with hundreds of people from around the world visiting each day, paying an entrance fee of $22 to wander around these tranquil gardens.

There’s a spiral with a large crystal chair in the middle, there’s a labyrinth based on an ancient design, there’s a beautiful bamboo grove at the end of which is a statue of Vishnu and Garuda – and there is a massive Buddha in a lotus pond.

I’ve gotta say, I’m not a crystal guy – did I mention that before? – but I liked this place. There was a very powerful energy there.

And I thought it was wonderful that such a New Age hippy enterprise would attract so many people from all walks of life, from all over the world.

They hold yoga and meditation classes, and workshops where you can use crystals to clean your subtle body, and you can have a photo taken of your auras which sets you back $45. There’s also a fabulous bookstore and cafe, and of course a shop where you can buy all sorts of crystals ranging in price from a couple of bucks to $30,000.

The $30,000 crystal was tempting, I have to say, but I’m not a crystal guy…. And it wouldn’t have fitted in the back of the car. That’s what I told the lady in the store, anyway.

I thought about buying a smaller and somewhat cheaper crystal, which would have been more easily transportable, but then I figured that if I did, I would have to put it out in the backyard on a full moon to recharge it. And I have a hard enough time motivating myself to put out the garbage on a Wednesday night.

We did spend some money at the store though. Jennifer had a photo taken of her auras. She was told that her auras showed she was creative.

When I heard that, I decided not to invest $45 and have my auras photographed. I was concerned that they might show that I was un-creative.

And that would have shattered me.