I’ve had an interest in spirituality for over 20 years, and almost 15 of them have been in The Gnostic Movement in Australia. From my first years within the Universal Christian Gnostic Movement of the New Order (UCGM) and then with the Gnostic Movement, I’ve found the courses and teachings over the years to be something special. These courses have helped me to find people that are like-minded who wish to share and experience the spiritual side of life.
I remember when I first started the courses way back in 1999. I had moved to Sydney from country NSW searching for a music career! Well, really a rock band to get involved in to be more exact. This brought me to Bondi where I got involved in the Bondi Wave (a youth music program run by the Waverley council). I was trying to break into the music scene at Bondi, meeting people and hanging out, but I found that I didn’t really like the music scene much as it seemed really pretentious and very self-indulgent. Although, by being in the Bondi Wave I found some friends, played music and talked as much as I could about spiritual things!
Time passed and one day around Bondi I saw a poster advertising a course in Astral Travel. Well I didn’t know much about the title of the course “Astral Travel” but the image on the poster of a person coming out of their body (the astral split) spoke volumes to me. Seeing the representation of the astral body leave the physical body astounded me and immediately caught my attention, as one time back in the country I had an experience which seemed just like that! I thought maybe that’s what happened to me that night and so I took down the details of the course and eventually attended the course in the latter half of that year.
I went to the introductory lecture and I remember a lady talking about the astral plane and the astral split, and all I remember is wanting to give the person a hug as the information just resonated with me. I felt that I had come across information that could explain the unusual experiences I had in my late teens to early 20’s. The lecture had some real interesting information in it that gave new information into experiences that happened to me that I couldn’t explain. It was clearer than other seminars, psychic fairs, expos, spiritual groups and lectures that I’d been to before, without the mumbo jumbo of answering a question without really answering it! The lecture was straight-forward and detailed. Wow, something that actually answered spiritual questions for once which wasn’t vague, or some dreamy idea of a spiritual ideal! After the introductory lecture (which was packed with people by the way) I thought that I’ll go to the course and see what it’s like!
I remember going to the first series of lectures and receiving information on more than just the astral or enlightenment, but the whole process of life: what we are within ourselves, why we have come to this planet, other dimensions, other beings, alchemy – the course covered just about everything and then even more. I really enjoyed it; it was great due to the friendly environment that the center provided and I also made some great new friends. We would get together after a lecture at a coffee shop and talk about the lecture and spirituality for hours. I have to admit it was a really happy experience and this really helped me as a person. At the time I was a shy person from a small country town in a big city which was hard to relate to, but when I met people that were deeply interested in spirituality and like-minded, it was a big relief. I found that I wasn’t alone in a search for spiritual principles and a spiritual way of life – there were people that I could relate to and understand where they were coming from.
The venue where the lectures took place was really active as there were other courses taking place there, and it seemed that a lot of people were involved with running the facility. I remember Mark (Belzebuub) and his wife gave many of the lectures, with his wife giving the majority of the lectures as Mark was ill at the time. They both came across as really nice people and gave a lot of time after the classes to talk to people and share their understanding of spirituality. I remember one time Mark, another person, and myself talking about dreams and on other occasions we would talks about cars and simple things, you know, everyday things too. I saw Mark came across as a gentle person, spoke very respectfully to people and seemed a very calm type of person. The early days of the courses were great for me. I found people who I could talk to about spiritual things, and came across information and practices in a really friendly environment that nurtured a deeper understanding of life. I would recommend those courses to anyone interested in spirituality today if they were still around!
As the courses went on, deeper and deeper information was given and everything was clearly explained, but it just wasn’t a theoretical or intellectual pursuit. The information was backed up by practices which helped to explore the information further. You could go to a lecture on astral travel for example and get specific practices to help you actually project and experience the astral for yourself, which helped to see the reality of the information presented in the courses. The information about dreams and dream interpretation was amazing and really brought dreams into a new spectrum of understanding for me. I really enjoyed that part of the course!
Once the course information had been given, the opportunity to participate in activities was possible and this was magical at times. Being part of developing projects and working together in a team was really helpful for personal development. Using the techniques of self-observation, mindfulness, intuition, and tapping into the consciousness and trying to activate it during activities, helped those jobs in many different ways. I discovered consciousness has the ability to understand things almost instantly. Through the techniques given on the courses, those times that I could tap into the consciousness and activate it was really special as it gave me a deeper understanding to the situation that was at hand – it was marvelous.
The Gnostic Movement offered so much that it’s hard to put it all down on paper, but the opportunities and potential that this information opened up to me is beyond words, except to say it was truly inspirational.
Steve F