It’s nearly four years since I walked my first Camino, and the impact of that pilgrimage walk continues to resonate.

It resonates in a number of ways.

Physically –

I now walk everywhere. Whereas prior to the Camino I would drive up to the shops, or I would drive from point A to point B, now whenever possible, I walk.

Last week I walked 82kms. That’s not a huge distance, but in amongst my work and everything else I was doing, it’s still a healthy distance. I average about 300kms a month. If I need to go somewhere, my first thought is: can I walk there.

Somehow, I’ve healed my knee.

I’m really not sure how I’ve healed it, but this is a knee that had lost all its cartilage. I was bone-on-bone. My surgeon told me that, quote: “A knee replacement is not a matter of if, but when.”

I didn’t accept that. I bought a brace, wore that on a couple of shorter Caminos, then this last year I walked the Portuguese Camino without the brace at all. My knee was a bit twingey a few days, but basically it was fine. I now don’t wear the brace at all.

How did this happen?

I didn’t accept what the doctor told me. I listened to my body, I took it easy, I exercised it, and gradually my knee improved. Whether the cartilage has grown back, I don’t know. I don’t take vitamin supplements, I haven’t had any injections – I’ve just walked most days, and as I say, I’ve listened to my body, and throttled back when the knee’s got cranky.

Emotionally –

I don’t get het up about things like I used to. On the Camino, I adopted a mantra: What’s the worst that can happen? That mantra has stayed with me.

If I’m faced with an issue that, prior to the Camino, would have caused me concern or anxiety or stress, now I ask myself: What’s the worst that can happen? And invariably, if you honestly consider the worst, then the worst isn’t so bad.

For that to have full benefit though, you have to have your shit together.

For instance, I don’t consider death or disability or ill health to be so bad. I don’t consider loss or lack to be so bad. I trust that I am being guided on my right path, and what falls along that path falls for a very good reason. Those reasons I agreed to before I was born. So if I believe I agreed to them, how can I bitch and moan?

What’s the worst that can happen?
Really, nothing.

When you get to that realisation, life becomes very simple. I’m not there yet fully – in truth – but I’m working at it. I now meditate religiously each day, a minimum of 21 minutes, and that helps a lot.

I don’t let things bother me anymore. Even when I get back to my car and a ranger is writing me up a parking ticket, I figure: Poor bugger, I bet a lot of people yell at you.

I used to.

Also, another thing I’ve brought back from the Camino is the concept of what I call Incremental Achievement. Incremental achievement is walking 800kms across a country by walking 20kms a day, day in, day out. Putting one foot in front of the other, and not giving up till you get there.

I write.
A book is 80,000 words, give or take.

If I apply this Incremental Achievement concept to writing a book, then if I write 1,000 words a day, then in 80 days I’ll have written a book! 80 days is, what? less than three months? Bloody hell. All I have to do is write a 1,000 words a day and in less than three months, I’ll have written a book.

Wow.

That’s the same as if I walk 20kms a day, in 40 days I’ll have walked the Camino Frances. That’s a pretty powerful concept, Incremental Achievement. I’ve brought that back from the Camino, and it’s changed my life.

Spiritually – 

Where do I start?

I’m not the person I was before my first Camino. Period. Before my first Camino I had the potential to be the person I now am – but I needed that experience to bring it into full realisation.

I now am in awe of wonder.
I now am in awe of possibilities.
I now have an inkling – an inkling – of life’s purpose.

And it leaves me in awe.

It’s difficult to bring the Camino back with you, back into your everyday life when you return. You have to work at it.

You have to remember what you learned.
What you experienced.
How you felt.

Maybe for you it was just a walk.
It wasn’t for me.
For me, what I learned continues to resonate.

(By the way, in the photo below, there’s too much headroom)

It all started with the lawn mower.

Damn thing wouldn’t start.

You start my mower by pulling a cord – you know, to turn over the motor.

I pulled and I pulled.

Wouldn’t start.
It had dirty spark plugs or something.

I pulled harder – and without realising, I tore a tendon in my shoulder. There was no immediate pain. No warning that I’d done any damage, But later, quite a bit later, I discovered that my shoulder was hurting like hell.

I’ve mentioned this before on this blog – that I never go to the doctor, and I believe that if you listen to your body, and you’re sensible, the body will heal itself. It has that power, and you have that power.

So I let it be.

But the hurt got worse. So bad that I couldn’t sleep on my shoulder at night.

I’d roll onto that side of my body and the pain would wake me. And I also discovered I had limited movement in my arm and shoulder. For instance I couldn’t stretch my arm up vertically, without considerable pain. And I couldn’t reach behind me.

However, I figured that it would heal itself soon, and so I continued to let it be.

But the pain got worse, so I went to a physio.

She examined me, and sent me to have scans done.

The scans came back and evidently I had Bursitis. I’d never heard of Bursitis, but I was told that it’s a painful inflammation caused when a tendon tears. Here’s what WebMD.com says about Bursitis:

The physio said it would take up to six months or longer for the Bursitis to fully subside. She gave me a print out with diagrams of a series of exercises I had to do, using an elastic strap. She said if the pain hadn’t abated in a couple of months, then I’d have to get a Cortisone injection.

I was about to go overseas for two months – America and Germany. I packed the print out, and I packed the elastic strap – and decided not to do a damn thing. I was going to be traveling, I’d be busy – I didn’t have time to do exercises on my shoulder.

Stupid me.

The pain persisted.
I couldn’t sleep.
I couldn’t move my arm or shoulder properly.
It was sore.
Bloody sore.

I found myself in Mount Shasta – one of the most powerful spiritual vortexes on this planet.

At Mount Shasta is a man who is an extraordinary healer. Michael Tamura and his wife Raphaelle have become good friends, ever since I met and interviewed Michael for my PGS film on intuition about two years ago.

At the time, Michael healed me of a persistent hacking cough that had been plaguing me for about eighteen months. It literally disappeared overnight, after Michael worked his magic.

I’d gone to Mount Shasta to show Michael and Raphaelle a cut of the film. The next day we met up again, and as we were finishing up lunch, Michael pulled me aside and asked if I wanted a healing.

To explain: Michael doesn’t do personal one-on-one healings anymore. It’s part of an agreement he’s made with his folk upstairs. So for Michael to offer me a healing was an extraordinarily generous gesture, and one I gladly and gratefully accepted.

We returned to my motel room, we sat opposite each other, and Michael began the healing.

It’s hard to accurately describe what Michael Tamura does during a healing – other than he goes somewhere else – but in his trance-like state he’s exploring my energy field, dipping into my past lives, and looking for those energetic blockages that are causing distress.

(Michael, please forgive me if I am not explaining this correctly!)

In this instance he told me that I was carrying energetic burdens relating to my work and my family –  and it was the weight of these burdens that was causing pain in my shoulder. He asked if I wanted these burdens lifted, and I said yes – and Michael dealt with them.

He also gave me information about my film – what I was to do, how I was to handle various issues in the coming months. And later, I felt that this was the reason he wanted to do the healing session – to give me these instructions.

What he told me, what came through him for me, was exactly what I needed to hear – answers to dilemmas I’d been wrestling with concerning the film.

That night I slept soundly for the first time in months. I still had some feeling in my shoulder, but the pain had largely gone.

I continued my travels in the US and then Germany, and came home for Christmas. I never did any of the physio exercises, and the elastic strap I’d bought remained in its wrapping, unopened.

And yet my pain left me. Within a week of Michael’s healing, it was all but gone. And this was an ailment that I was told would require months of physiotherapy – and could even require a Cortisone shot.

Nup.

It was an amazing spiritual healer in Mount Shasta who fixed me.

I’ve been on a journey for a bit now – and it’s by no means over.

There’s still such a long way to go.

I’ve always been a big reader. From an early age, after mum and dad kissed me goodnight and turned the lights out, I would grab a torch and under the covers I would read until I fell asleep.

I’ve always read a lot of fiction – and if asked, I would probably say that the two greatest books I’ve ever read are Salman Rushdie’s MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN and Charles Dickens’ DAVID COPPERFIELD. I’d be tempted to throw Cormac McCarthy’s BLOOD MERIDIAN in there too…

But lately my reading has been focused on books of a metaphysical nature – and as a number of you have privately asked me to recommend books for you to read, I thought I’d do a post of the books that have had an impact on my spiritual growth. So here they are, in (very rough) order that they came to me.

(And books come to me, I don’t come to books…)

It starts with a book I found in the drawer of the bedside table of a Tokyo hotel in 1970. I had just turned 17. It was a Buddhist Bible, and it would have a profound effect on me in the years and decades to come.

I then began to study Buddhism, and discovered Dr. Walpola Rahula’s What the Buddha Taught. It became my companion for many years. And that led to other books on Buddhism, then onto Hinduism, and meditation, and later yoga, and so on.

So here is my list. It’s by no means comprehensive. These are just the major works that have impacted on me, and brought me to this place where I am right now…

The Teaching of Buddha (The Buddhist Bible)
What the Buddha Taught – Dr. Walpola Rahula
The Bhagavad Gita
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying – Sogyal Rinpoche
An Experiment in Mindfulness – E H Shattock
Tranquility & Insight – A Sole-Leris
Flight into Freedom – Eileen Cady
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull – Richard Bach
Hatha Yoga – The Yogi Philosophy of Physical Well Being – Yogi Ramacharaka
The Science of Breath – Yogi Ramacharaka
The Complete Yoga Book – James Hewitt
Light on Yoga – BKS Iyengar
Light on Pranayama – BKS Iyengar
Autobiography of a Yogi – Paramahansa Yogananda
The Holy Science – Swami Sri Yukteswar
Wherever you go, There you are – Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Art of Mindfulness – Thich Nhat Hanh
Old Path, White Clouds – Thich Nhat Hanh
The Tao of Physics – Fritjof Capra
The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
His Dark Materials Trilogy – Philip Pullman
The Wizard of Oz – Frank Baum
The Complete Works of Florence Scovel Shinn – Florence Scovel Shinn
Eastern Astrology for Western Minds – Joni Patry
Astrology of the Seers – Dr. David Frawley
Varieties of Religious Experiences – William James
The Rig Veda – Ralph TH Griffin
A Course in Miracles – Dr. Helen Schucman
Unveiled Mysteries – (Saint Germain series, Vol I) – Godfre Ray King
The Magic Presence – (Saint Germain series, Vol II) – Godfre Ray King
Anatomy of the Spirit – Caroline Myss
A Dweller on Two Planets – Phylos the Tibetan
The Rumi Collection – Rumi Foundation
The Systems View of Life – Fritjof Capra
Kriya Yoga – Swami Yogananda
The Conscious Universe – Dr. Dean Radin
Ascension Handbook – Tony Stubbs
Don’t think like a Human – Lee Carroll
The Sermon on the Mount – Emmet Fox
Adventures of the Soul – James Van Praagh
The Seat of the Soul – Gary Zukav
You are the Answer – Michael J Tamura
The Soul and its Mechanism – Alice Bailey
From Intellect to Intuition – Alice Bailey
Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path – Rudolf Steiner
Intuition – Knowing beyond Logic – Osho
The Human Soul Revealed – Monika Muranyi
The Other Side – Tony Stubbs
The Light Worker’s Companion – Amanda Guggenheimer
The Channel’s Companion – Amanda Guggenheimer
I am the Word – Paul Selig
The Book of Love and Creation – Paul Selig
The Book of Knowing and Worth – Paul Selig
The Book of Mastery – Paul Selig

As I said, this is not a comprehensive list, nor does it include many works that have helped me enormously along the way. And as you can see from this list, there are big big gaps in my knowledge and reading.

I have only really dipped into the Saint Germain series for instance, and I have yet to read Baird Spalding’s Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East. There is so much for me to catch up on, and learn. 

I am currently finding Paul Selig’s series of books incredibly powerful and transformative – but I couldn’t have really got what they are saying without having first read Amanda Guggenheimer’s The Light Worker’s Companion, and before that, Tony Stubbs’ Ascension Handbook. 

I’m finding that the right book comes along when it’s needed. Having just finished Paul Selig’s Book of Knowing and Worth, I’m now currently reading Deepak Chopra’s The Higher Self.

I’ve also found Lee Carroll’s channellings of Kryon to be of huge help to me in my understanding of how it all works. He posts them on his website as free podcasts. It’s an incredible resource. Here is a link: http://www.kryon.com/k_freeaudio.html

Every person comes at it from their own unique perspective, and they call to them books that they need to aid them along their path. My list is my list. It’s not Jennifer’s list, and it won’t be your list. But I can certainly recommend any and all of those books above…

And it all started with this one – the original book from that hotel bedside drawer at the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo, in 1970…  (By the way, I didn’t pinch it, I paid for it!)

This is how it works ~

I had a problem. It was a technical problem with my writing.
In a story I was writing.

I couldn’t figure it out.
I spent the entire day trying to figure it out.
It drove me nuts.

Anyone who thinks writing is easy is not a writer.

So here’s what I did. When I went to bed, before sleep, I asked.

I asked that in the morning, I would have a clear solution to my problem.

And that’s what happened.
When I woke up, in that state when your soul is drifting back into your body after traveling all night, the problem was solved. I had the answer.

That’s how intuition works.

You have to ask – then you have to let go – and you have to not be invested in the outcome.

What does that mean – not be invested in the outcome?

It means you must not try to predict the outcome. And you must trust that no matter what answer you’re given, that it’s the right answer, no matter how wrong you might think it is.

Caroline Myss said to me: Bad things happen to good people. But what’s a bad thing? How do you know what’s a bad thing? 

Same with answers that come through intuition.
How do you know what’s the right answer or the wrong answer?

What happened when I asked, before going to sleep?
I let go my rational thought processes.
I gave it over to sleep.
And I trusted that my innate guidance system would do the work for me –
Which it did.

There’s a saying in intuition: First thought, best thought. 

It’s true.
But how often do we dismiss our first thought?
Think that it’s crazy.
And we revert to logic, or common sense.
And we do what we’ve always done in the past.
We don’t move forward.
We miss opportunities for growth.

First thought, best thought. 

Learn to trust it.
It’s your guidance –
Your Personal Guidance System.

Each time this year I review what I did during the year, and whether I met my expectations.

Invariably I don’t –

This time last year, I wrote a post: All I did this year, and next ~
In that post, I stated what I wanted to achieve this year, 2016. Here’s what I wrote:

This time next year, I want to again answer the question: What did I do this year, by saying:

• I finished my PGS film.
• I wrote and published the 2nd part of WHITE WITCH BLACK WITCH.
• I wrote another book on the Camino.
• I started my Indian honour killing film.
• I mounted a 2nd Portuguese Camino Tour.
• I mounted a Wild Atlantic Way Tour on the west coast of Ireland.
• I mounted a 2nd Mother Ganga Tour.
• I began the 2nd stage of the online educational resource with QUT.
• I set up a new film, based on the new screenplay – which in fact is about the Camino.

So how did I go?

• I did finish my PGS film – kind of. I finished the cut, but there’s still more work to be done. So I did not achieve this goal.
• I didn’t write and publish the second part of WHITE WITCH BLACK WITCH, and the reason is that the first book, which I self published, got picked up by Penguin Random House in a major three book deal. The first book will now be published in February 2018, with the second book six months later, and the third book another six months after that. It’s now called PALACE OF FIRES, by the way.
• I didn’t write another book on the Camino. Nup to that one too.
• I didn’t start my Indian honour killing film, although my producing partner Anupam Sharma and I worked hard on it, and progressed the financing.
• I did mount another Portuguese Tour, with a group out of New Zealand. And it was wonderful. Jennifer and I made some great friends.
• The Irish tour never happened.
• The Mother Ganga tour did happen.
• The online educational resource at QUT got put on hold because the Professor I’m working with had to take extended leave, for family reasons. It’s still on the burner though.
• I am in the process of setting up a new feature film based on my Camino memoir, The Way, My Way. I now have a US sales agent / financier on board, and Screen Australia this year provided two tranches of development funding, and also provided funding for me to attend the Cannes Film Festival. I have interest from two Australian distributors.

So my strike rate wasn’t that crash hot this year, but that’s because I spent most of the year in the editing room on my PGS film. And when I wasn’t editing I was shooting.

What do I hope to achieve work-wise this coming year?

• The feature film PGS – Intuition is your Personal Guidance System will be completed, and released.
• I will actively market the film.
• I will write two books associated with the film, for sale on release of the film.
• The first two books in the Palace of Fires series will be completed and delivered to Penguin Random House.
• The Camino film will be budgeted, scheduled, key cast will come on board and I’ll have a workable finance plan.
• The Indian honour killing film will be set up to shoot the year after.
• Jennifer and I will mount another Indian tour.
• Jennifer and I will mount another German Christmas tour.

That’s about it.
That’s enough.

On a  personal level I’d like to learn how to channel.
I want to get to know my spirit guides and teachers.
I think they’d be pretty cool.

Christmas is many things to many people.

For some, it’s parties and drinks and buying and giving presents, and time off work, and time at the beach or watching cricket or the Sydney to Hobart (if you’re in Australia!) or revelling in the snow and hot wines and hot dinners if you’re in the northern hemisphere.

It’s Christmas carols, and Christmas trees, and tinsel and turkey, and family.

For others, it’s a deeply religious and spiritual time – a celebration of the birth of an Ascended Master, of a Christ, of someone who showed us just what was possible.

For me, it’s all of the above.

I wouldn’t call myself a Christian, and yet I celebrate the arbitrary date of a very special birth – a hallowed birth. And I understand the need for myth and ritual. It’s crucial to our understanding of who we are…

I don’t ascribe to the current fashion of taking the Christ out of Christmas by saying “Happy Holidays.”  This diminishes and trivialises the sacred nature of the occasion.

I respect the HIndu holy time of Diwali, and Islam’s Ramadan – and other religious celebrations.

Through this blog I have made many friends all over the world. I feel very fortunate to know you all – and to call you a friend. Each one of you has enriched my life, and will continue to do so.

I wish you all the very best for this Christmas time – and look forward to sharing stories and feelings and provocative opinions (!) with you this coming year.

And I hope 2017 brings all you wish for…

Bill

It was the last day of our tour today.

It seems to have just whizzed by.

We spent the day casually roaming around the old part of Munich – through the Viktualienmarkt to look at the Christmas goodies on sale…

Then through some department stores to see their Christmas sections, then out into Marienplatz at 11am to look up at the Glockenspiel clock and show of moving figures that lasts more than ten minutes and captivates all the spectators way below –

Then we went our separate ways – Sue and Bruce to climb tall towers, Jen and Angie to go to the magnificent Saint Michael’s church –

It was a relaxing day once again full of wonderment and delight. It’s constantly fascinating to see how the German’s celebrate Christmas.

In the evening we went to a nearby restaurant that specialises in pork knuckle. We had a massive plate – along with dumplings, fried potatoes (in case we didn’t have enough carbs from the dumplings), sauerkraut and two token bowls of salad.

The meal was a feast.

After dinner we wandered back to the luxurious Platzl Hotel, had some coffees, Ken and Bruce and Angie and Sue sang a version of the “Twelve Days to Christmas” song that included references to all the funny things that happened on the tour.

We videotaped it and will put it up on Vimeo later.

We said our goodbyes, sadly, because during this relatively short period we’ve had some truly wonderful and memorable experiences that will stay with us all for the rest of our lives.

Today was all about castles.

In particular, the fabled Neuschwanstein Castle, in the southern reaches of Bavaria, just near the Austrian alps.

We left our hotel early, with frost covering the windscreen again, and drove 5kms to the small village where you can park your car and walk up to the castle.

We did the walk in minus 3-4C, so it was chilly, and the light was blue. As we climbed the winding road leading up to the castle, we caught glimpses of it through the trees.

A backroad leading to a bridge overlooking the castle was closed, so we jumped a fence and tried to make our way down the road, but it was blocked by some tree fellers. Or tree fellas. Whichever way you want to look at it.

Bruce and Sue posed for an incriminatory shot behind the Do_Not_Cross_This_Barrier sign…

Unfortunately you’re not allowed to take photos inside the castle, so to see and experience the full spectacle you have to hoof it to Germany and see it yourself – or do our Romantic Road tour next year. Yes, we are thinking of doing it again…

While waiting for the gates to open for our English speaking guided tour, Angie and Jennifer decided to do some yoga poses. This one was the Lion…

After taking these photos I required first aid…

No pictures can describe the elegance or majesty or sheer grandeur of this castle. And the story of its construction, and the King who built it, would make a movie.

Speaking of movies, driving away from the castle after our visit, we passed a white church that was in the Steve McQueen movie, The Great Escape…

how cool is that?

We’re now in Munich. We have just returned from dinner at the Hofbrauhaus – Munich’s most famous beer hall – and tomorrow is our last day of the tour.

It’s gone so damn fast, and we’ve had so many truly wonderful experiences which will turn into so many wonderful memories…

Today we arrived at the designated end of the Romantic Road, even though it’s not the end of the tour. We still have three more days.

The end of the Romantic Road is a small town in the foothills of the Alps, called Fussen. Fussen is only a short distance to the borders of Austria, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland.

It’s only a 100km drive south from Augsburg, but it’s as though we’ve driven into another country.

We stopped about 40kms out of Fussen for a coffee, and Angela rugged up. Here is a sequence of pics of Angela zipping up her jacket –

Note Angie’s eyes in this last image,

In fairness to her, this is before she had coffee….

Fussen is famous for being the stepping off point for the majestic Neuschwanstein Castle – the fairytale castle that Walt Disney fashioned his Fantasyland castle on…

It’s 6kms to the castle, and so we walked, being walkers as we are… It was overcast, but very beautiful.

We caught our first glimpse of the castle through the trees… (that out of focus smudge on the mountain side in the distance is in fact one of Europe’s most beautiful castles…)

And an adjacent castle, Hohenschwangau… (taken later, when the sun was out, on the walk back.)

We have tickets to visit the castle tomorrow, so today we visited the magnificent Museum of the Bavarian Kings to bone up on our history before we hit Neuschwanstein tomorrow.

As mentioned, the sun broke through on the walk back…

A couple of swans were fossicking for food by a river bank.

Tonight we eat at a gorgeous local restaurant called Madam Plusch. I worry about the name. And that we might get extras with the meal…

Seeing we’re in castle land, another castle shot to finish the post!