Jennifer and I are about to drive north to a small country town called Stanthorpe, which is close to the border of Queensland. It’s an 800km drive, which we’ll do today.

Stanthorpe is best known for its apples, because it is a cold climate town. And for those of you in the northern hemisphere sweltering through a hot summer, here in Australia it’s winter – and it’s been very very chilly.

Stanthorpe will be  freezing!

We’re driving up there because each year, we have a family reunion there.

My family lives in Brisbane, Queensland. Brisbane is about 1200kms from Mudgee – and so each year they drive south, we drive north, and we meet in Stanthorpe.

Why Stanthorpe?

Because Stanthorpe, apart from growing apples, also grows wine.

I mean grapes.
For wine.

They have some wineries, which in the foreseeable future will not in any way constitute a threat to the Cote d’Or in Burgundy, or the Medoc, or even the Rhone River Valley.

Or Central Otago.
Or the Russian River Valley.
Or Oregon
Or Chile.
Or even Mudgee, come to think of it….

The wineries in Stanthorpe are…

Did I mention they grow apples?

The wineries aren’t really the point. The point is Anna’s.

Anna’s is an Italian restaurant  in Stanthorpe, and Anna’s claim to fame, over and above its culinary excellence (as excellent in fact as Stanthorpe’s wineries) is that it has an evening buffet.

A buffet is a genteel word for “ALL YOU CAN EAT!!!”

Yes, my family drives 400kms – and I drive 800kms – to a place where we can pig out.

Seeing my family at a buffet is a singularly sobering experience – that is, if you’ve managed to get drunk on Stanthorpe wine, which is like getting drunk on Drano.

Seeing my family at a buffet is not something I would ever share on Facebook. Zuckerburg would ban me.  It’s not pretty.

My family believes in trying, each year, to send Anna’s broke.

The plates they give my family simply aren’t big enough. My family one year asked if they could bring wheelbarrows. And shovels.

At the end of the weekend as they drive away they have to use seat-belt extenders. Like they give fat people on planes.

And when they get bored, my family has been known to engage in a food fight or two. The food is there to be used, after all – and given our Health regulations, what’s left over has to be thrown out at the end of the night – so why not throw it around the room beforehand? Put it to good use…

This year, Greg and Donna, and Ken and Angie Mitchell – all of them Queenslanders (God bless their souls) – are driving down to Stanthorpe to meet Jennifer and me tomorrow for a lunch – before my family gets in.

It will be wonderful to see them.

As it will to see my beautiful, and very tolerant, family. My mother will be 108 this year. Or thereabouts. She’s getting old anyway. And still in good health, and spirits.

She’s remarkable.

In Australia, the top film industry trade mag is IF magazine –

Don Groves is their best journo, and he’s just published this story on PGS / http://if.com.au/2015/08/16/article/Filmmaker-follows-his-intuition/MDZVGTRZKA.html

Filmmaker follows his intuition
[Mon 17/08/2015 9:03 AM]

By Don Groves

In the past 11 months director/producer Bill Bennett has been criss-crossing the globe, filming interviews with holy men in India and the Himalayas, Aboriginal elders at Uluru, a direct descendant of the Sufi mystic Rumi in central Turkey, and theologians and philosophers at the Vatican.

Accompanied by his partner/producer Jennifer Cluff he’s roamed the US to talk to research scientists, neurosurgeons, psychiatrists and psychologists.

All that is in the service of his most personal project, the feature documentary PGS (Personal Guidance System) the Film.

Bennett, whose credits include Backlash, Spider & Rose, Kiss or Kill and The Nugget, embarked on a quest to understand what intuition is, where it comes from, and how to tap into it after a near-death experience.

“Several years ago I would have died in a car crash, if not for a flash of intuition,” he says. “In the end, I just want to know what saved my life. And why.”

His odyssey began in Dallas after an astrologer in Mumbai told the filmmaker he would make untold wealth and live like a king if he spent at least 15 days in the US city- but it may take 12 years.

In Dallas he met Joni Patry, a Vedic astrologer, who introduced him to a Turkish-based spiritualist, who in turn introduced him to a wealthy London-based jewellery designer, who helped raise money for the film. Another influential supporter is Dallas billionaire Trammell Crow, who has taken a keen interest in the project.

His travels are far from over. Bennett has been invited to Bhutan by the Royal family to shoot there and he intends to film in China and possibly South America too. Another trip to the US is on the itinerary.

Subject to finance, the film will be completed next May and will be released theatrically and VOD in November.

“What has come through very clearly with the people I’ve interviewed is that to really be in a position to access your intuition, you need to clean up your act personally,” he says.

“That means getting rid of anger, resentment, jealousy, hubris of all kinds, putting aside your ego, and learning to embrace humility. And the big one is pay attention. I was surprised that almost everyone I spoke to used those words. Pay attention to the little things around you – but also to yourself. To the thoughts that arise, to how you feel about things, and people. And acknowledge that these are legitimate and very real pointers to your intuitive powers.”  

It was my birthday the other day.

I thought I got through relatively unscathed. I’ve configured Facebook so that my birthday doesn’t appear – because I don’t want to be embarrassed by well wishers.

But bloody Dale and Lynda Lozner.

Somehow or other they found out, and they sent me this crazy birthday card.

Here is a video of it –

Hilarious!

They are two gorgeous people – and Jennifer and I are so looking forward to spending time with them in India.

A couple of days ago I was talking to a gentleman who lives on an island off Seattle.

His name is Stephan Schwartz, and he’s quite remarkable.

Dr. Judith Orloff has worked with him on and off over the years, and she put me onto him, as a possible interviewee for my film on intuition.

He is a truly amazing man.

Here is his bio:

Stephan A. Schwartz is a Senior Fellow in the Brain, Mind, and Healing Program at the Samueli Institute. He has spent a lifetime of work focused on exceptional human performance, particularly involving aspects of consciousness.

Mr. Schwartz’ experimental work began in 1973, when he wrote his first book, The Secret Vaults of Time, a survey of all the research done using the non-local aspect of the mind to locate and reconstruct archaeological sites.

Considered one of the founders of Remote Viewing, Mr. Schwartz became Senior Fellow of the Philosophical Research Society in 1976, where he carried out the Deep Quest submarine study, one of the milestone experiments in parapsychology, establishing that nonlocal performance was not an electromagnetic phenomenon.

After founding the Mobius Society where he was the Research Director and Board Chairman for the next 17 years, Mr. Schwartz carried out many experimental studies focusing on three main research areas: remote viewing, therapeutic intention, and non-local awareness and its relationship to genius, religious epiphanies, and personality types.

From this experimental research he has slowly developed a model for the various kinds of observed nonlocal functioning being an informational process.

Seeking to change the materialist reductionism that defined science, Mr. Schwartz co-founded the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness (SAC), now a unit in the American Anthropological Association, the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM), and the International Remote Viewing Association (IRVA), while starting the peer-reviewed journals Phoenix and Subtle Energies.

Since leaving the Mobius Society, Mr. Schwartz has pursued his experimental and theoretical work as a Research Associate of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory of The Laboratories for Fundamental Research, as Director of Research at the Rhine Research Center, as a BIAL Fellow, and as a Scholar-in-Residence at Atlantic University.

He is the author of four books, The Secret Vaults of Time, The Alexandria Project, Mind Rover, Opening to the Infinite and the soon to be published The 8 Laws of Change. He has published over 90 papers in peer-reviewed publications, and writes regularly for The Huffington Post, and has been an editorial staff member of National Geographic. He has also written numerous magazine articles for Smithsonian, OMNI, American History, American Heritage, The Washington Post, The New York Times, as well as other magazines and newspapers.

Like I say, he’s a remarkable man.

He’s probably best known for his “remote viewing” – that is, for his ability to use ESP, Extra Sensory Perception, to see distant objects and people. He has been employed by the US Government and the military, and by commercial enterprises – and has had great success.

Here is a link to his website:

Home

I spoke to him the other day – and we arranged for me to interview him when I next go to the US, most probably in late October / November.

He has a new book coming out in September, called THE 8 LAWS OF CHANGE, which is about how to use integrity and intention in small choices to institute social change.

I told him I wanted to read the book, so that I was properly prepared before the interview. He told me it wasn’t possible – the only copy he had was one with corrections which he’d passed on to his publisher, and he didn’t even have a digital file. And as far as he knew, the publisher was yet to have copies to send out.

We agreed that I would have to wait until September 25, when it’s published.

I then went onto his Amazon page, and went to pre-order a copy, but my PGS told me to hold off. I don’t know why, but I now listen and act on my PGS, and so I didn’t put in the pre-order.

The next day I got a copy of his book in the post.

There was no attached letter, no sender details on the envelope, I have no idea who sent me the book or how I got it. But it arrived the day after I spoke to him.

I put that down to a small miracle.

By the way, his interview will be a cracker. He’s highly intelligent, articulate, and he has strong views on intuition both from a scientific and spiritual / psychic standpoint. I’m looking forward to meeting with him, and doing the interview…

A few of youse have asked about the Celtic Camino –

We have tentative plans to mount that in October 2016. It will follow the old pilgrimage paths around the west coast of Ireland.

It should be spectacular.

Again though it depends on the level of interest.

Let me know –
bill@gonetours.com

We’re looking at mounting another Portuguese Camino tour in the early part of next year.

Thinking either late April or late May.

Basically doing the same tour we did last year – from Porto up to Santiago.

We had a blast last time.

Please let me know if you’re interested, because we’ll only do this if we get a significant level of interest. Contact me on:

bill@gonetours.com

Three weeks tomorrow Jennifer and I leave for India for 6 wks, for the Mother Ganga spiritual tour. We will have barely unpacked our suitcases from the US.

We have two weeks prior to the tour traveling across the country, doing last minute checks with hotels and transport etc to make sure that everything goes tickety-boo.Then there’s the two weeks for the tour. Then a week in Bhutan, and then a week’s further filming.

India is a vast, complex, and ancient country. It’s random and chaotic and colourful and loud. It’s truly incredible. Even with the best planning imaginable, it’s likely that we’ll be faced with the unexpected. That things will go wrong. That things will be changed on us at the last moment.

That’s India. And that will be a part of this tour – to learn how to travel with patience, equanimity, and grace. And good humour.

Jennifer and I are excited at the prospect of returning to the country that we’ve grown to love. Especially with the bunch of people who are accompanying us on this tour – good friends, some of whom we haven’t seen in a long time.

We’re particularly excited though at exploring with them the spiritual side of India – from the Hindu Aarti ceremony on the Ganges at Rishikesh, to the Tibetan Buddhist culture in Dharmsala, to the unique way of the Sikhs at the Golden Temple in Amritsar Punjab, to the amazing Ganpati immersion ceremony in Bombay.

These will be unforgettable memories.

For some, I’m sure at times India will be confronting. But that’s part of this tour as well – to be taken out of your comfort zone and shown things you wouldn’t see anywhere else.

This ain’t going to be Baja on a banana chair.

It’s going to be way better than that!

Jennifer and I are in Sydney now, with our daughter and her fella – and soon we’ll be driving back to Mudgee.

This travel home time has been a time for me to take stock of everything that’s happened these past several weeks, and to reflect on what I’ve been told by the various people I’ve interviewed.

There are three privileges in what I’m doing. The first is the privilege to meet these people. The second is the privilege to ask them questions. The third privilege is to be able to replay what they say over and over again, in editing.

Here is where the real teaching will happen for me, I suspect. Because through the intimacy of editing will come the knowing and understanding.

I have made some fundamental changes since embarking on the filming last September. And I say “since embarking on the filming” because I embarked on the film many years earlier. It was only in September did I lay my fears aside and step out into the world, with Jennifer, to commence the physical act of production.

My fears had held me back.

Fears of ridicule, fears of humiliation, fears that I wasn’t ready (and in many ways I wasn’t!), fears of losing money and everything I’d ever worked for, fears of losing status within the industry and amongst my peers, fears of what I would discover, and how I would change.

Ultimately I was fearful that doing the movie would be the start of a new life for me. A fundamental change of direction. And that once started, there would be no going back. And I had to ask myself: Did I want that? I was comfortable. I was safe. Why put myself out there? Why risk financial disaster and public ridicule?

I had no choice.
I simply had to make the film.
I knew that, in my heart.
I was just terrified.

And then I had a vivid dream. It was clear in its message to me. I had to start, no matter what. I woke from that dream at 4:44am and discovered, via a quick Google search, that those numbers meant that I was angelically protected.

I was being told to put aside my fears, that my back was covered, and I should just get on with it. So that morning I booked flights to India to begin filming.

I have so much to say about what’s led to this film – and that will have to wait for the book – but just to say this: I now know why I heard that voice which told me to slow down as I approached that intersection.

This came to me in sleep/wakefulness last night.

That voice wasn’t telling me to slow down so that I wouldn’t get hit by a truck. That voice was telling me to slow down so that my life woudn’t crash and burn.

On a primary survival level I heeded that voice, and my life was saved when that truck narrowly missed killing me.

But I didn’t understand that on a deeper more spiritual level, I was being told to slow down and change my ways or else my life as I knew it would be crushed and obliterated in other more fundamental ways.

How have I changed? Caroline Myss gave me some sage advice. In fact a LOT of sage advice. But one thing she said was: Don’t talk about that stuff. Keep it personal, keep it sacred.

And so I will.
The most intimate, the most personal, the most sacred, will be kept so.

But here’s something – I’ve stopped reading fiction.

Those that know me know that I’ve always been a voracious reader of fiction. I love reading great writing, and I love sometimes reading not so great writing. But reading fiction has been a passion since I was six years old.

I don’t have time for that now. Reading fiction. There’s too much esoteric and spiritual material I have yet to read. I have so much to learn from the great minds of the past, and the present.

This last trip has had a profound effect on me. Meeting those that I have. Listening to their wisdom. They were so generous, each of them. Which made me think that they trusted me. That they somehow knew that they were in good hands, and that this film was something they should give time to. That it was worthwhile.

I will be forever grateful to them for that.

My last question to Caroline Myss in her interview was this:
What’s your advice to me? 

She answered straight away:
Make a good film.

I answered back:
I’ll do my best.

We’re heading home today, after an amazing few weeks on the road, filming for my intuition documentary.

Back in Sydney Sunday morning.

Only home for a couple of weeks before we leave for India, to lead the Mother Ganga tour of the major spiritual sites of that amazing country.

Then we’re off to Bhutan, to film with the royal family.

Then – who knows?

Pieter de Vries, Cameraman Extraordinaire, (notice the respectful use of caps?) has been such an important part of this journey. He’s brought not only a technical expertise of the highest order, but also a compassionate and enquiring energy that has fitted in so well.

And Priyanka – she was with us for too short a time! But we’ll be seeing her in India, and she’ll be coming with us to Bhutan. She is a wonderful asset to our team.

I need more interviews to complete the narrative – but the interviews are just one portion of this film. They will provide the spine and ribcage and internal skeleton, but I still need to flesh it out with other material – dramatic recreations, overlay, library and stock footage, linking sequences, etc.

There’s a heck of a lot more to do before we begin post production. But man o man, this is going to be a cracker of a film.

I hope we’ll complete filming on schedule by the end of this year, which would have us on track for the film to be in release by Oct / Nov next year.

And once the film is done, then I’ll go on my long long walk….

I’ve not posted anything publicly about my mate Steve – because I wanted to respect his privacy. However he’s told me that he’s fine with me putting something up on this blog – and so here goes / with his permission.

Steve a couple of months back discovered he had prostate cancer.

As many of you know, he’s a champion body builder – and has taken testosterone regularly over a long period. People on regular testosterone have a pre-disposition to contract prostate cancer, and so Steve has had regular checkups to monitor his PSA levels – the indicator that a cancer might be forming.

Steve told his his PSA levels were always high, however a couple of months back he had a blood test which concerned the physicians, and so he had further tests which revealed that yes, a cancer was forming.

Steve determined, on his physicians advice, that they should remove the prostate altogether.

I talked to him shortly after he’d received this news, and then not long before he was to go into surgery to get the prostate removed. He was very relaxed about it all – said he had a great doctor, one of the best hospitals for this kind of procedure in the US, and he thought he’d be back in the gym within a week.

It didn’t work out as planned.

I won’t go into details, but there were complications right from the get-go.

Now, about a month after the operation, he can only get around with the aid of a walker. He’s been on high level painkillers all this time – and up until a short while ago no-one knew exactly what was causing his immense pain.

Steve cannot walk, cannot lift his legs, he struggles to move around his apartment.

I spoke to him yesterday and he’d just had the results back from a MRI which showed that perhaps the pain was coming from “inflammation” of the groin and lower torso. Steve thinks he might have picked up some kind of infection while he was in hospital.

Irrespective, the situation is that Steve, one of the fittest 73year olds you’re ever likely to meet, has been reduced to a near cripple.

He’s maintained terrific spirits – although at times he’s expressed to me his frustration at not knowing what was wrong – but he has innate fitness and he’s a healthy guy, so once the medicos figure out what’s exactly wrong and treat it accordingly, he’ll bounce back fast.

But it’s been a huge ordeal. And continues to be. The poor bugger. Jennifer and I drove down to Houston to meet with him while he was in ER – and I phone him regularly – but I wish there was more that I could for him.

I’m sure he would appreciate your well wishes –

Please feel free to leave messages here – or if you want to contact him personally outside this blog let me know and I’ll send you his email address.

Here is a shot of Steve on the Portuguese Camino when he was in good health.