As part of the research I’m doing into intuition, and before Jennifer and I head off to India to begin filming, I came across this piece on Steve Jobs, intuition, and India:

People often talk about how intuitive Apple products are and how Steve Jobs had a powerful sense of  what is natural to people’s emotions. His affiliations to Hinduism and Zen Buddhism are well-known and they are often reflected in the aesthetically minimal products that he allowed to come out of Apple’s production lines.

In his teenage years, young Steve travelled to India in search of a spiritual guru, only to find out upon his arrival that the guru he sought had died. Without money, the starving teenager walked to many remote spiritual places in the northern states of India, where he learned something about intuition.

“Coming back to America was, for me, much more of a cultural shock than going to India.  The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world.  Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion.  That’s had a big impact on my work.

Western rational thought is not an innate human characteristic; it is learned and it is a great achievement of Western civilization. In the villages of India, they never learned it. They learned something else which is in some ways just as valuable, but in other ways is not. That’s the power of intuition and experiential wisdom.

Coming back after seven months in Indian villages, I saw the craziness of the western world and its capacity for rational thought. If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things – that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment.  You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.

Zen has been a deep influence in my life ever since. At one point I was thinking of going to Japan and trying to get into the Eihei-Ji monastery but my spiritual advisor urged me to stay here. He said there is nothing over there that isn’t here, and he was right. I learned the truth of the Zen saying that if you are willing to travel around the world to meet a teacher, one will appear next door.” – Steve Jobs

It is a telling quote from a man who was so famously adamant about what is and what is not right for products that would be shipped to millions around the world. While so many companies strived to design for the lowest common denominator, Apple always had one choice to make – Did Steve Jobs like it ?

Only with a clear understanding of his own mind and the confidence that his intuition will lead him to the right answers, he was able to command such compliance from his company men and deliver such massive successes.

This explains his seemingly magical power: 

This is a guest post by Rebecca Bishop, who will be walking the Camino for the first time next year.

She sent me a story about something that happened to her last year. It involved an intuitive “voice” that she heard, and it changed her life. Rebecca is a Mormon – and she interprets that voice as the Holy Spirit.

I’m currently researching the subject of intuition for my upcoming film. Those that adhere to a scientific world-view would explain that voice in terms involving quantum physics, those holding spiritual beliefs would interpret it as a communication from the Higher Self or a Guardian Angel, those with a religious view other than Christian would describe it in ways consistent with their beliefs, or their particular deity.

That to me is what makes intuition such a fascinating subject. Because it can be interpreted in so many different ways.

However, Rebecca’s story is interesting not because of the source of the voice so much, as the subsequent impact it had on her life. In part it led her to the Camino.

Here’s her story:

THE STILL SMALL VOICE – Rebecca Bishop

It was Christmas morning, 2013.

In the weeks before, I had made some very cute gingerbread treats to take to some of the women in my ward. I made up a small package for each of them and set out to make the deliveries.

As I was driving up a deserted arterial in north Tacoma on the way to the last stop, I ‘heard’ a voice say, “You are going to die.”

It was very clear. It was calm. It wasn’t urgent, but it also wasn’t me. It was a still, small voice that I heard in my head.

As member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have no question that it was the Holy Spirit communicating with me. The problem was, I didn’t know what to do with the information.

Was it a warning? Did it mean it was going to happen soon? Was it a confirmation of what everyone knows is inevitable? Or was there something I needed to avoid so it wouldn’t happen right at that minute?

Many thoughts ran though my head in a matter of seconds. I slowed down and felt paralyzed and more than a bit fearful. I wondered if I was going to die right at that moment.

When that didn’t happen, more questions started running though my head: Do I keep going? Maybe there will be an accident. Do I stop here? Maybe I’m going to have a heart attack and if I stop I won’t hurt anyone else.

I had to stop.

I pulled over and just sat there for a few minutes. I thought of my dogs and what might happen to them if I never got home. I wasn’t crying, but there were tears running down my face. My heart was pounding and I felt like I was in some kind of heightened reality.

My mind, my soul, was searching to know that was meant by: “You are going to die.”

Seven months later, I’m still not completely sure why I heard that voice or exactly what it means, but I can say that I have been worried for several years now that my financial means to keep me comfortable would run out before I die.

One of the things I’m hoping to figure out on the Camino is how to earn more money. I have a lot of talents and experience, but I don’t know how to use them to my advantage. I think if I listen to the spirit and ponder these questions, I can find some answers as I walk.

The logical extension is that if I’m going to die sooner rather than later, then it’s time to have some fun. It’s been liberating. I’ve wanted to travel my whole life. So the idea that I have to step out and do something big before I die makes me sense to me. Why wait?

I feel compelled to walk the Camino and I believe these things are intertwined. Perhaps the voice I heard was telling me to get busy. What I know for sure is that it changed everything.

It set me on a new path and I am grateful for that.

There’s a new film coming out soon in the US. It’s called Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon. It’s based on the best selling book of the same name.

It tells the story of a young woman in a state of distress because of the death of her mother, a failed marriage, a heroin addiction and bouts of promiscuity. So on impulse she begins to walk the Pacific Crest Trail up the west coast of America – a journey of some 1,100mls from the Mojave Desert into Washington State.

The book was championed by Oprah, which immediately made it a huge best seller. I found the book to be very moving, very engaging.

Here is a trailer for the film: WILD Trailer

I mention it here on the blog because of two separate conversations I had yesterday with some people about to begin their own long walks.

One was with a woman – a friend of Jennifer’s – who is a very spiritual lady. She’s been considering walking the Camino for some time. She has recently married a fellow who’s a walker – he’s done long walks all around the world – and soon they’ll be undertaking a trek through Turkey.

The second conversation I had was with my brother, whom I love dearly. He’s eighteen months younger than me, lives in Brisbane, and we’re very close. For sometime now he’s been considering walking the Camino with his son, aged 21yrs. His son saw the film The Way, and suggested to my brother they do the Camino together. Father and son.

I called my brother yesterday while he was going over options with his son. He asked me questions about the various Caminos – the Frances, the Le Puy, etc. They’re still undecided as to which route to take. And then he said: “But we might also do a walking holiday through Tuscany.”

Both conversations got me thinking about the spiritual quotient inherent in the Camino.

There’s no doubt it’s a walking holiday for many. It has all the ingredients; food and accommodation are cheap, it’s in an exotic land, you get to meet interesting people, it’s a healthy way to spend your holiday, and if you want, you can party until all hours in a country where the booze costs very little.

But the Camino is also a pilgrimage – an ancient pilgrimage – and for those who are seeking something deeper – a spiritual or religious experience – then it offers that opportunity.

I began to ask myself: Would I be interested in doing a long walk other than on the Camino? The Pacific Coast Trail for instance? Or doing a walking holiday through Tuscany or Turkey?

The bigger question is: Do you have to walk the Camino de Santiago to have a spiritual experience?

I’m firmly of the belief that the Camino has a spiritual energetic imprint along its sacred path, and that imprint subtly infuses itself into your soul as you walk.

That imprint is the result of millions of pilgrims walking that same route for hundreds upon hundreds of years. Each footfall of each pilgrim has left a subtle energetic residue which has leached its way into The Way.

There is a feeling of something inexplicable, something much greater, that resides there along the Camino, and which you can osmotically access should you wish to.

And yet, I’ve also been reading – researching – in preparation for the start of my filming in India in less than six weeks now. For those of you who don’t know, I’m starting filming on PGS – Intuition is your Personal Guidance System. It’s a feature length film about intuition.

I’ve been reading up on Quantum Mechanics and the Bootstrap Hypothesis, the Holy Spirit and it’s association with the Christian concept of God, Theosophy and Madam Blavatsky and her Secret Doctrine, the Eye of Shiva and the Eye of Horus, the Ancient Universal Religion during the Antediluvian Golden Age, glandular links with the chakras, Shackleton’s Third Man Factor and the Higher Self. And so forth.

Some heavy reading. And fascinating. (This is why I’ve been away from the blog a bit lately!)

And one of the things that I’ve been reminded of is that you can access a metaphysical state anywhere, anytime, if you know how. But first, you must have the intention. 

The young lady who walked the Pacific Crest Trail, in Wild, had a profoundly transformative experience. But she had the intention to change. She knew that if she didn’t change, she would die.

I’ve always maintained that most people who undertake the Camino do so wanting a question answered. Often they’re not even aware of it, often they don’t even know what that question is. But I believe that question sits there within them during the walk, and somehow the Camino prises it out into the light, and provides the answer.

Sometimes the answer comes during the walk, but more often it’s well after the walk is done. The Camino creates resonances that sit within you for a long time.

So to answer two questions I’ve posed here: Do you need to walk the Camino to have a spiritual experience?

No – I don’t believe so. You can have a spiritual experience in your back yard, or doing the dishes, as some Zen masters would propose. I think walking the Camino helps – because of that spiritual energetic imprint – but I don’t think that’s the only long walk where you can commune with whatever your concept of God might be.

The other question I raised was: Would I be interested in doing a long walk other than on the Camino? The Pacific Coast Trail for instance? Or doing a walking holiday through Tuscany or Turkey?

No, it doesn’t interest me.

And that’s probably because I’m seeking something more spiritual and metaphysical when I undertake a long walk. I’m contradicting what I’ve just stated above – I’m aware of that – but perhaps I need that energetic imprint. Perhaps my nascent spiritual wiring needs the kind of jump start that a traditional pilgrimage route can provide.

Two conversations yesterday got me thinking. And it’s a fundamental question that almost everyone who walks the Camino asks: Why am I doing this?

Julian has sent through a new post – he’s now got all his gear, and he’ll be a black caped crusader! He will be very distinctive on the Camino!  Here’s his post –

JULIAN LORD:

Well, here’s my kit.

Taken me a year to gather all this, and well you don’t need to be a genius to guess which colour I like best …

But cripes, black hat is just noooooooo, the backpack is the Sister’s, and black sleeping bag is also nooooooooo ….

Awesome BLACK socks just arrived today, so my collection is now complete — the white paper thingy is my beautiful Compostela map ; don’t have my Credencial yet. Also carrying the French liturgical Bible (in photo), a BLACK Smartphone, BLACK camera, and my stainless steel hip flask — engraved:

“Not all those who wander are lost”
(from my brother)

Weight ? Who cares ?
I have a BLACK PILGRIM CAPE !!!!

In preparation for my trip to India in about six weeks, I’m currently reading the Dalai Lama’s book – The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality. 

I had the good fortune to meet His Holiness about two years ago in Delhi. We shook hands, and he looked into my eyes with that mirthful gleam of his, and I was suddenly incapable of speech. I walked away feeling like I had plugged into an energy stream that was boundless.

I want to quote now from this book – because I think the point His Holiness makes here is very relevant –

There are many people, both scientists and non scientists, who appear to believe that all aspects of reality must and will fall within the scope of science. The assumption is sometimes made that, as society progresses, science will continually reveal the falsehoods of our beliefs – particularly religious beliefs – so that an enlightened secular society can eventually emerge. 

In this view, science is perceived as having disproved many of the claims of religion, such as the existence of God, grace, and the eternal soul. And within this conceptual framework anything that is not proven or affirmed by science is somehow either false or insignificant. 

Such views are effectively philosophical assumptions that reflect their holders’ metaphysical prejudices. 

Science deals with that aspect of reality and human experience that lends itself to a particular method of enquiry susceptible to empirical observation, quantification and measurement, repeatability, and intersubjective verification – more than one person has to be able to say: “Yes, I saw the same thing. I got the same results.”

So legitimate scientific study is limited to the physical world, including the human body, astrological bodies, measurable energy and how structures work. This is effectively the current paradigm of what constitutes science. 

Clearly this paradigm does not and cannot exhaust all aspects of reality, in particular the nature of human existence. 

In addition to the objective world of matter, which science is masterful at exploring, there exists the subjective world of feelings, emotions, thoughts, and the values and spiritual aspirations based on them. 

If we treat this realm as though it had no constitutive role in our understanding of reality, we lose the richness of our own existence, and our understanding cannot be comprehensive. 

Reality, including our own existence, is so much more complex than objective scientific materialism allows. 

I’ve recently been contacted by a couple of people asking if we’ll be running another Portuguese Camino tour.

Seems like word got out that the last tour was something special.

Which it was!

Jennifer and I will be leading the St. Francis Assisi tour next April – from Florence to Assisi. That’s locked in, and we’re almost fully booked already on that one. We only have a few places left. We’ll be going to Italy in late September and doing our scout, and we’ll publish a full itinerary and costings shortly after.

But we do have a gap in our schedule for mid to late October – which in fact is a wonderful time to be walking in Portugal. Cool, and not crowded.

I know that Catarina, our beautiful and gloriously hilarious van driver/interpreter/liaison/fixer of all problems will be available, and keen to join us again.

So please let me know if you’re interested, or if you know of anyone who might be interested, because we’ll only mount the tour if we get sufficient numbers.

Contact: bill@gonetours.com

Since publication less than twelve months ago, the reviews for my Camino book – The Way, My Way, overall have been very positive.

I’ve received 65 ***** (five) star reviews, four **** (four) star reviews, one *** star, one ** star, and recently I received a shocker of a * star review. Here is that review:

The reviewer calls me, amongst other things, a self-indulgent bore and not a very nice person. Ahem. I’m sure my mother would beg to differ. I was going to say: I’m sure my wife would beg to differ but I might just check in with her first…

I disagree though that I was singularly ill-prepared. I’d prepared thoroughly. Perhaps too thoroughly.

I’d driven most of the route on a prior trip to Spain, I’d read just about everything there was to read, I’d watched documentaries and YouTube videos, and of course the film The Way. And I’d trained for about eighteen months – testing boots, backpacks, on different terrain, over short and long distances etc. I felt that I’d prepared as best one can when undertaking such a spiritual journey.

Anyway, I feel like I’m defending myself. I shouldn’t have to defend myself.

Then today I received an email out of the blue from a lady named Rebecca Bishop from Washington State. She’d just finished the book and had taken the trouble to track down my email address, to let me know how much she’d enjoyed it.

She then wrote this five star review:

It’s as though Rebecca Bishop and Geoffrey Collier had read different books.

I don’t get it.

When you write something that’s very personal, as this book was for me, then you open yourself up for all sorts of criticism. Especially on the internet. I’m used to it from my film work. I’ve had good reviews and bad reviews. You only ever remember the bad reviews!

Reviews aside, this was a book I had to write, to complete my Camino. I’d come back from the pilgrimage with a lot of deep issues unresolved. For me, the only way I could find resolution was to write about my experiences, and in writing about them it was like I’d lain down on a psychiatrist’s couch. In having to examine them through the rigours of writing, I found a certain clarity.

So I wrote this book for myself. To help me work out my stuff. What’s been pleasing lately though is that I’ve heard the book has impacted on several other people in ways I never could have expected.

I won’t go into details because of privacy concerns, however I’ve been thrilled to hear that several people who are going through some personal hardships have read the book and it’s inspired them to undertake their own Camino. And having made that decision their hardships are already starting to melt away.

I’ve also heard that a few people who have completed the Camino and read the book have gained a new perspective in the light of my experiences and insights.

What I’ve discovered is that walking the Camino is just the beginning of your pilgrimage. It doesn’t start in St. Jean Pied de Port or Pamplona or Burgos or Astorga – in many ways it actually starts when you get home.

That’s when it gets really difficult.

Am I a good pilgrim ? No more than I could possibly describe myself as “a good man”.

The Pilgrimage to Santiago is no kind of magical nor mythical odyssey that will automatically provide any sort of moral nor spiritual advancement in life.

The Camino is a TOUGH path, made of several weeks or months of sweat-filled toil, pain, disappointment, hardship, and constant struggle against doubt, fatigue, and oneself.

It is a Crucible where the Self is tested and revealed, and where you can make or lose a friend in an instant ; but it’s also a pathway where your innermost needs and the depths of your toughness will emerge, no matter the consequences.

NONE of my pilgrimages so far have ever been in comfortable nor easy conditions, and this year will be no exception — not a single pilgrimage of mine has been anything other than a sacrifice ; and this will be, and already has been, the most difficult pilgrimage I will ever have attempted.

There’s still a part of me, as I think there is in all pilgrims, “true” or otherwise, that would like to slip into the easier world of the “tourigrino” experience, into the straightforward 5-6 weeks of a more leisurely social Camino, with no real worries about whatever — except that the one time that I actually attempted it, all of my money was stolen anyway, so I was back at the usual ground zero pilgrim life that seems to be my lot … Ultreia (Carry On) e Sus Eia (and away with you) …

One makes jokes and criticisms about one’s fellow pilgrims along the Way, even simply as a means to relieve one’s own tension, but at the end of the day we are ALL of us imperfect pilgrims, and there’s not a “true pilgrim” among us.

Every rich man and pauper, every “purist” and every bus-pilgrim, every devout Catholic and every self-seeking tourist-pilgrim, we are all of us just as much “true pilgrims” as fakes, because none of us has any better right to the Way than any other, and because we are ALL of us headed towards Santiago.

The hands down BEST Camino advice that has ever been given me was in a little booklet distributed back in the 90s by the legendary mademoiselle Warcollier, Founder of the Paris Association and Archivist of the Camino (and Editor of the modern edition of the Codex Callixtinus) — “La seule chose importante c’est d’arriver à Saint-Jacques” — “The only important thing is to reach Santiago”.

No matter any of our own imperfections — that is the perfect advice for ANY pilgrim.

No matter how, no matter the hardships, no matter how others will look at you, criticise you, misunderstand you, think you’re mad, attempt to discourage you, hinder you, laugh at you, or simply disdain you — the only true pilgrim Way is to the end of the Way. Let nothing and nobody prevent that, and you’ll be as true a pilgrim as any other.

I am advancing my departure date from early August to the end of July — and to the four winds with the consequences !!!

That is my Camino.

Julian Lord…

I can’t believe it.

I posted that at 4:44pm

Did not intend that at all…

(It’s now a bit after 5pm, and I’d just like to add – with that post, I pressed PUBLISH on the WordPress site, then straight away I picked up my iPhone to check for emails. I have my clock on my iPhone as a screensaver, and I saw that it was 4:44pm. Prior to that I had no idea of the time. It could have been 4pm or 5pm or 6pm – I didn’t have a clue. I must admit, this has really knocked me sideways. I find this so weird… )