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.

The post on Caroline Myss was my 777th post on this blog.

Ha – and I was going to stop after I finished the Camino.
But you guys wanted me to keep going.

Now you can’t stop me!

Today was the last day of filming. And it was an interview with Caroline Myss.

Caroline Myss is to intuition what the “L” is to Chicago. For those interested in intuition, she is a goddess. For those interested in intuitive healing, she is a magician.

She’s written many books, perhaps the most well known are ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT, SACRED CONTRACTS, and ENTERING THE CASTLE. 

Here is Caroline Myss’ Amazon page – CAROLINE MYSS’ BOOKS

Caroline is a genuine mystic. She describes herself as a Roman Catholic mystic. She is a fast talking, no nonsense, no bullshit, purveyor of truth. She has no time for frauds, for pretence, for fakery or deceit of any kind.

I asked her about science and its attitude to intuition, and she let forth a blast on the spiritual movement, and its inability to step up to the plate and see things clearly.

Her interview was fascinating because she was able to talk in terms of myths and archetypes – both subjects she has written on widely, and knows intimately.

What came through strongly though was her passion, and her wisdom.

We both didn’t realise but today – the day of the interview – was the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. She did a 9 minute monologue about how the very nature of our existence changed when that atom was split. She brought it all back to the Vedic belief that “As is the atom, so is the Universe.”

It was an amazing piece of oratory.

I don’t know how I can use it in my film on intuition, but I’d like to find a way to make it available because it was a wonderfully passionate and erudite verbal treatise on how our very existence changed irrevocably when that atom was split.

I’d gone into the interview very prepared with a list of maybe 25 questions. About five minutes into the interview I threw them all away because I knew the interview wasn’t going to follow a conventional course. And so I followed her leads.

The interview lasted about 90 minutes, and I didn’t refer to my questions once.

Caroline was the last interviewee on this current trip. Tomorrow we return to Australia. It’s been an extraordinary journey, this one. We’ve met some remarkable people. And they each have contributed to the film in their own unique way.

I have some fabulous footage to review when I get back home.

The last couple of days have been very busy.

We’re now in Chicago, after a solid 10hrs drive from Toronto, split up by an overnight stop at the Holiday Inn Express in a small Michigan town called Charlotte.

The Holiday Inn Express Charlotte MI was notable for the fact that it had dial-up speed internet, just when I needed to send some large files to Dubai for an investor to sight.

The trip into the US was also notable because we got stopped at the Canadian / USA border.

My own stupid fault.

There was a huge line of cars at the border crossing, waiting to get processed by immigration. I noticed one line was moving much faster than all the others, and so I deftly manoeuvred the car into that line.

And yes, the line was moving much more swiftly than all the others.

Whoopee, I thought. We’ll be through in no time.

And then Pieter said: What’s NEXUS mean Bill? 

Over our lane was a big neon sign saying NEXUS ONLY. I thought that meant a type of vehicle, you know, like a LEXUS, but spelt wrong. It IS America after all and they’re not that good with spelling. I figured I could talk my way around that one with the Immigration Officials if it came to that. Something along the lines of: Oh, I’m driving a Toyota. That’s made by the same company that makes Lexus. Am I right to go? 

Well, then I realised that the car in front had stopped at some kind of camera, and the driver had shown a card to a camera, and then had been waved through.

This was why the line was moving so fast.

It came my turn to stop at the camera. I read a sign that said: PLEASE SHOW YOUR NEXUS CARD. 

I showed my credit card.

And then I had to stop at a window where a very strict Immigration Official asked me some questions. It went like this:

US Immigration: And what are you doing in the United States?

Me: I’m making a film on intuition. 

US Immigration: Really? And how’s that going?

Me: I have a good feeling about it. 

He didn’t get the joke. Or maybe he did, and didn’t find it funny, because we then had to drive to a Guantanamo like compound and then go through half an hour of rigorous questioning. While that was happening, they searched the car. They even searched the suitcases, and found in Jennifer’s suitcase Pieter’s heavy tripod head and baseplate.

(Pieter had asked her to carry them on a flight to balance out the weights.)

We finally got released, with a very severe warning not to try and jump the line ever again by going in the NEXUS lane. We walked out to find another official holding up the tripod head and baseplate. From a distance it looked like the parts of an Improvised Explosive Device – that is, a bomb.

We explained what it was – the official looked at us skeptically, but then allowed us to go.

The reason we’d gone to Toronto (we got in at 11pm, and left at 1pm the next day) was to do an interview with John Geiger, Senior Fellow at Massey College, Toronto University, and CEO (formerly Governor) of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society.

He’s also author of THE THIRD MAN FACTOR and THE ANGEL EFFECT – both books examining what scientists refer to as “sensed presences.” A lot of those who have sensed these presences prefer to call them Angels.

In both books John has meticulously detailed first hand accounts of people who have reported “divine intervention” with a sensed presence.

John took a secular approach in the interview, which for my film was great because I have enough people referring to angels and taking a spiritual or religious approach.

John cited scientific research which gave plausible explanations for these phenomena, however he conceded in the interview that science really can’t explain everything.

For instance, he said that most of these so-called angelic encounters are accompanied with an overpowering empathy or feeling of what’s been described as love.

Science has no explanation for that.

It was an important interview, and will balance the ledger a little in my film – which is much needed for those who will watch the film and hanker for an empirical answer to these spiritual questions.

Today was a big travel day.

We left the hotel in Portland before 5am, and caught a flight at 7 to Chicago. There we waited for 3 hrs for a flight to Buffalo, where we picked up a van and drove two hrs to Toronto. We got in after 11pm.

Why not fly straight from Portland to Toronto you might ask?

Money.
It was cheaper this way.
We can’t afford direct flights on this budget!

During the flight I finished John Geiger’s book – THE ANGEL EFFECT.
It’s an incredibly powerful book.

John details instances, both contemporary and historical, where people have literally been touched by an angel.

Most of these people did not hold religious beliefs, but the majority of them tell of their experience with a sense of awe – and a belief that it really was their Guardian Angel that stepped up to help them.

It’s a terrific book – beautifully researched and written – and if you’rre interested in this stuff you really should read it. Read it even if you aren’t interested, because it might make you consider the world a little differently.

John was formerly a highly respected journalist, and now he’s an academic at Toronto University, and Governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

He writes from an objective secular viewpoint, and includes many interviews with neuroscientists, psychologists, and researchers who provide plausible rational explanations for these phenomena.

However, as John says in his book, science can’t answer all the questions that arise from these first hand accounts.

The overwhelming conclusion that you have once you’ve read the book is that there is more unknown than is known. And those that believe in angels – those that have had first hand experiences with these incorporeal spiritual beings – have as much right to say they exist as scientists have to say that they don’t, and it’s all a function of the brain under stress.

I’m interviewing John tomorrow for my film on intuition, and he promises to make a fascinating contribution.

On the drive from Buffalo up to Toronto we stopped in at Niagara Falls – right on our route. None of us had been to Niagara Falls before, and so we had to drop in for a quickie selfie.

Just as I never expected Uluru to impact me as powerfully as it did, nor did I expect Niagara Falls to make an impression. I’d always thought it as being a bit tacky and down-at-heel – like the back blocks of Las Vegas.

But i found the energy that came up from the tumult of water – the prana in the air – was almost so thick you could grab it and swallow it whole.

I stood back and soaked in this prana – and wondered at how extraordinary it must have been before the arrival of white settlement – what this must have meant spiritually to the Native Americans. What myths and legends they must have created.

Now it’s hard to find beauty there.

Carparks have replaced woods, and ugly buildings – mainly casinos – crowd the skyline, and concrete walkways jut out over the falls. But none of this unfortunate aesthetic can take away from the prana that exists independent of all that.

We could only spare a short visit, and so I quickly tried to find some interesting shots which weren’t the usual touristique shots you take when you go to one of the great Wonders of the World.

Here are my attempts:

I had a persistent cough since Assisi. 

That’s since April. 

I went to the doctor twice. He checked my chest and wrote me scripts. 

Despite double rounds of two separate antibiotics though, the cough remained. 

I should add here that I don’t usually take medicines of any kind. I have a belief that the mind heals the body. It took me about a month after returning from Assisi to finally bring myself to go to the doctor and ask for antibiotics. 

That’s how bad my cough was. 

Sometimes it was so bad I couldn’t speak. It kept me, and my wife, awake at night. It was exhausting me. 

And I don’t get sick. 

I never get sick. 

I thought leaving Mudgee in winter and coming to the U.S. in summer would fix it. 

It didn’t. 

Then one night while I was in Mount Shasta my cough was so bad it kept me up till 1am. When I woke in the morning I saw that I’d coughed up blood. A worrying amount of blood. 

That morning I had to interview psychic teacher and healer Michael Tamura. 

When I arrived at his door that morning he took one look at me and he knew something was wrong. 

I told him I’d been up a good deal of the night coughing, and that I hadn’t been able to shake the cough despite various antibiotics. 

He asked me if he wanted me to heal him. 

I said yes. 

He directed me to sit on their lounge chair, and he sat opposite, about ten feet away. Then he did what he called a reading. He closed his eyes, and used one hand to feel the energies in my body. 

And then he opened his eyes and asked me three questions of a personal nature. 

They had to do with a person in my distant past. 

He was checking what he knew. What he’d picked up with his energetic exploration. He was right with his three queries. Startlingly so. 

How could he have possibly known about a person in my past that he said was causing my cough? Again I won’t go into specifics, but he told me things about this person that no one could possibly know, other than myself and that other person. 

He did more exploratory work, told me more startling things about myself and my life that were unerringly accurate, and then he did his healing work. 

It involved clearing energetic blockages that were causing the cough. Blockages caused by unfinished business between myself and this other person. 

He did this by twirling his fingers in a way that looked like he was conducting a spiritual orchestra. 

His eyes were closed, his eyelids fluttered uncontrollably, and his mouth was agape. 

He was somewhere else. 

I haven’t coughed since. 

That’s not entirely true – I have coughed now and again – but more of a clearing, rather than the entrenched persistent cough that I had before. 

What he did, whatever he did, worked – where antibiotics and western medicine failed. 

It’s amazing. 

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