Beware sour-faced gurus

You know what really gets my goat?  Sanctimonious spiritual people.  Po-faced gurus.  Judgmental New Agers.  Well,  okay, there are more but that'll do for now.  See, what gives anyone the right to tell you (or me) what to do?  There’s a lot of wisdom out there, for sure, but once someone starts believing they’re the only one who’s right, that there’s only One Way and that way just happens to be theirs, I start whistling and examining my toenails.  You know how I feel about religion but, to be fair, there’s an awful lot of crap being spouted in ‘New Age’ or holistic circles too. 

Which is why Barbara Ford-Hammond delights me.  I met her on Twitter (at least I think so, I forget) and she describes herself as ‘a holistic therapist and muse’ which would, under normal circumstances, make me narrow my eyes and pick up my foot.  But she’s alright, is Barbara.  She doesn’t take herself too seriously; she has a good sense of humour (and, see, I rather think a real guru would have a blasted good – if not nigh-on evil – sense of humour). She’s just published a book called The Psychic Way – Fine-tuning your Intuition and, if you’re remotely interested in a world beyond cupcakes and shoes – it’s well worth reading. ‘I believe that we all have natural but often hidden or ignored abilities and talents that are tucked away in our psyches,’ she says.
‘You are responsible for what goes on in your mind. Only you. Others might try to influence you but unless drugs or brain-washing are involved you have the ultimate control of you. When you accept full awareness of yourself and the power within your own mind, practically anything is achievable. The only limitations are those imposed by you.’

Read that again, will you?  See, I agree with that wholeheartedly.  I really do. Whether you do or not is, of course, entirely up to you..  ;)

I actually think the title of this book is a little misleading or maybe it’s just a little offputting.  Psychic sounds alarm bells for a lot of people but really it’s only science we can’t quite measure yet.  As Barbara says, reassuringly (bless her): ‘We will remove the weird, the wacky and the woo-woo without losing the magic and charm available to you in your inner and outer world.’

If you’ve ever wondered about chakras or auras; hypnosis or meditation; clairvoyance and its cousins; spirit guides and angels; cosmic attraction; past life regression or even future life progression, this is your primer.  It doesn’t preach and it doesn’t patronise. Just gives you a matter-of-fact lowdown on the airy-fairy stuff.  Well, that's my feeling.

I gulped this book down like a long cool glass of water.  Yes, I already knew most of the stuff in it, but I like the slant Barbara gives to familiar material.  I’m now slowly re-reading it, trying out some of the meditations, pausing to let some of the images and thoughts settle in my head.  My only gripe about this was that it didn’t come with a CD of the meditations. But then it was pointed out to me that you can get downloads of a fair few of Barbara's meditations at her website: here.
And you can read her blog here...
Let's end with some quotes from the book.  If these please you, or inspire you or irritate the hell out of you, you would probably like to read this book!  If they just leave you cold, then move on...

'It's all make believe, isn't it?'  Marilyn Monroe

'Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.' Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland.

'Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them.' Coco Chanel.

'All serious daring starts from within.'  Joan Baez

'Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.' Sharon Salzberg.

'It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward.' Lewis Carroll.

'Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.' Niels Bohr.