I was very interested in spirituality and the possibility of reaching the union with the divine for many years. My interest was finally put into practice when a family member took me to a TM course where I learned to meditate. I was very young and didn’t know what I wanted but I knew that I wanted to explore life deeper as I always felt that there is more to life than what we can see.
Although in the TM practice there was a focus on the psychological aspect of oneself I felt that wasn’t enough and that the psychological aspect should make up a substantial part of the spiritual work. So I continued to search and at some point I was a member of an online group that was aiming to support women to change psychologically. I learned a lot about the self change and was given some useful techniques to practice. This comprised of being aware of one’s emotions and drives and to really look into what is behind our desires. Although this approach was very useful I realised that the change seemed to be quite superficial. Through this group I found out about meetup.com and soon after I looked it up in order to join a spiritual group, especially as I wanted to be a part of a group where I could practice with other people. This led me to TGM and at that time they held a course in meditation in one of the libraries in London. I’ll go there and see if I could learn another way of meditating or I could just join with others in their practice, I thought to myself.
The meditation course had finished and the next course was in Astral Travel. I knew very little about it but I really wanted to experience that world and I somehow knew that it was a very real place and that it’s just a matter of practice and I would be able to explore this hidden side of our life. I practised very hard every night before going to sleep and after about the third week I had my first clear astral experience. It was a mind blowing experience and I remember spending all day being emotional and amazed that I had finally proven to myself that all this is real and that there is this amazing world out there that most of us are ignorant of. This experience was a very important step in my spiritual search but what I wanted more than anything at that time was to study my own psychology and to change significantly as I didn’t want to be the way I was, especially in terms of the inner drives and desires. I felt for many years that this was the reason why I had the experiences in life that I had and that it was the reason for some very unpleasant moments in my life.
When the teacher announced that the next course will be in Self-Discovery and Peace I was very excited to hear that. Finally I learned how to profoundly study myself and after some time I also got given a special technique, a tool that I was able to use to get rid of the things inside of me that were causing me so much suffering such as various fears and anger. I was very eager to study and reduce a very unpleasant emotion that was prevalent in my life at that time and because of the practices that I learned in this course, after a while I could see how these feelings were subsiding and I started to react in a different, calmer way. Some other very significant things happened around this time and I had this very strong feeling that I was at the right place and at the right time. It felt this was what I was meant to do with this life.
The London centre closed and quite few of us who were attending the courses decided to move up to Scotland, Edinburgh where a few teachers opened a new centre. I moved there at the beginning of 2011, but soon after TGM closed and since then we continued to practise the teachings of Gnosis. But it was evident that something was missing and that was the guidance and support that an esoteric school such as TGM can give to its students. It’s very difficult to practice and I can see now how a spiritual school like that is a crucial part in supporting and guiding people who want to change.
Tina N