There are many legends of huge stones weighing so many tons. No crane is available even today to lift such stones and yet they are in place so tightly; not even a sheet of paper could be inserted. These stories come from Ancient Egypt, South America and even parts of Asia. The legends say key notes of the stones are found enabling them to float. Coral Castle in Florida is a recent enigma of the practice.
Chanting used in meditations would also fit into this category.
Fifteen must have been an important year for me as I also had an experience of waking up outside my bedroom window about 2 am. It was a clear moonlight night. At first I was concerned I had died as I could see my body on the bed. Closer inspection revealed I was still breathing and I could see this fine silver cord connecting ‘me’ to it.
The feeling of elation was profound. I decided to ‘fly’ up to the clouds where I could see the city, the ocean, the mountains — everywhere I looked was so energising and thrilling. I kept telling myself “be careful or you will wake up!”
Then I glided down to our back garden which was very large and as I ‘flew’ between an orange tree and the side fence I was confronted by a large spider web. Firstly I thought “yikes”, then just as quickly, I thought, “no worries”; I’m not physical, so it won’t cling to me. I then started to rise up into the night sky once more and, bang — I was awake in my body on the bed once more. There have been several times this has happened since but that first conscious realization of my being in control of my thoughts and what I wanted to do is forever etched in my mind.
In the morning I inspected the orange tree and sure enough there was the spider web as I remembered it.
CHAPTER THREE
Throughout these teenage years I suffered all the usual problems young men go through as they mature. There is guilt — lack of confidence in one’s self and many more hang-ups too numerous to mention. All very important and horrible for me at the time. My acne was so bad the bank paid for medical help! Of course it was all caused by the stress constantly created at home by my father. These facial eruptions started in my early teens and continued until I was twenty-one and within a couple of weeks of leaving home they completely cleared up.
At thirteen I heard the glorious violin music of a master for the first time, David Oistrakh. Years later I once jokingly said to a friend in the music world “David Oistrakh ruined my life”!
In a sense it was the complete opposite but I did go down a tortuous road for many years as a result of hearing him play at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music. Again it was just an hour or so of amazing music that opened up another world for me.
He staged a special concert for school students and I was lucky to be able to go at a cost of four shillings a ticket. He commanded much more than that at the main Town Hall recital. I had never heard anything like it in my life and at the age of thirteen was desperate to learn to play a violin.
The music teacher at school said he would teach me if I had my own instrument. Having no idea how much money one would need I asked my mother if she would buy one. “No” was the direct answer; even though the one pound a week I earned as a delivery boy at the chemist shop was taken by her for board, bus fares to school and clothing. I was left with two shillings for over twenty hours work a week.
It was only when I had left school and was in Brisbane at my sister’s home I was able to buy one for eight pounds. I found a teacher, Miss McGilchrist, in the old Palings Building in Sydney and so began years of torture as I had left it far too late to master such a difficult instrument. Lacking confidence in myself also did not help much.
The plus side was that music opened so many doors to so many wonderful loving people and their homes. I discovered the music of Bach — Mozart — Beethoven and many others. However the Master for me was Richard Wagner.
I had read when I was young the myths and legends Wagner had based his music dramas upon and when I finally did hear the music on record for the first time; all fitted like a glove. His music is very special and, I feel, important for mankind at our stage of evolution.
To experience the Ring Cycle and Parsifal in the right setting — production and mood — one is transformed at a soul level and even at a physical level. I feel his works are a guiding light for mankind in his descent and ascent on his spiritual path. In this materialistic age man needs to remember his spiritual heritage otherwise materialism may take over.
Without these amazing gifts to Mankind I feel there is a huge danger he could descend into an almost sub-human level. So many people today scoff at this suggestion but through my own experiences I know there to be an element of truth in it all. I am at a loss to understand how we can look at the wonder of the human body — its beauty — its methodology etc, and say that it’s all just chance! A few cells that started in slime and divided and evolved into us!
Of course each of us is master of our ship and we determine by the set of our sails the way the ship goes; not by the way the wind blows! We have always the free will to make or break our own lives. It is no use always blaming others, as out of every adversity we encounter some new thinking, some new impulse often very positive that would have lain dormant had we not gone through that particular ordeal.
When one thinks about it, some of mankind’s greatest gifts of literature, music and art have come from individuals who suffered great adversity in their lives.
Nothing of great value to man has ever come out of a committee or a government grant. Individuals do change the world for better or worse.
By 1966 I had found a job with BOAC as their accountant in Australia and was able to travel to Europe, Asia and America. Again new doors opened and again I was absorbing so many amazing possibilities in life.
That has always been my problem. The cornucopia of life is so abundant—there is so much to find in joy and fulfilment I could never understand how anyone could be bored for a moment.
The bank had been my life. I knew its workings at a branch level from manager down. I really loved it and got on so well with the customers and fellow workers. My intuition with regard to who was trustworthy and who was not always held me in good stead. My intuition was never wrong.
But the urge to travel was huge and as I was so poor the opportunity provided by this opening with the airline was too good to pass. Again music was central to my life and I attended so many wonderful concerts, recitals and operas both here and abroad.
I joined the English Wagner Society hoping to get a seat at the Bayreuth Festival and had applied for many years with no results. Finally I did succeed through a friend at Lufthansa and was able to go in 1977 for the first time.
As I said — to experience these music dramas in their true home and setting was like an initiation into a special realm. I went again in 1979.
The following year a man who was going for the first time asked me about it my experiences there. The reservations assistant at Lufthansa had told him to talk with me as I had already been twice. I said to him, “Why don’t we start a Wagner Society in Australia?” He was overjoyed at the thought of it and I suggested obtaining a copy of the British group’s constitution etc and we could model it from there. He did and today the Society is still flourishing with many hundreds of members. Groups have also formed in most mainland states. All play an important role in furthering the work of Richard Wagner; in the form of scholarships and sponsorships, etc.
So again from that one concert by David Oistrakh all those years ago so much has blossomed and brought forth so many positive, wonderful outcomes for so many artists, musicians and music lovers all over this continent. Who knows if any of this would have happened, had I not attended that concert on a Saturday afternoon in 1956.
It