If it were not for a certain dedicated group of small UK publishers who – whilst they keep their feet on the ground financially – do not allow themselves to be dictated to solely by economic factors, many of the books that bring us such joy and insight would never have seen the light of day.
That’s why we'd like to introduce to you Sevak Gulbekian who is, for us, one of the unsung heroes of mind/body/spirit publishing in the UK. For more than 10 years he has managed the small, specialist spiritual imprint Temple Lodge Publishing, and more recently also Rudolf Steiner Press. He is therefore one of those responsible for ensuring that the teachings of one of the 20th century's greatest spiritual luminaries, Rudolf Steiner, have remained accessible to us, despite all the ups and downs of ‘market forces’ – quite an achievement when you consider that much of what Steiner wrote was, and remains, far ahead of its time. His latest project is a new imprint, Clairview Books, intended for the general mind/body/spirit market. Sevak begins by telling us the thinking behind Clairview:
First-hand experience
Clairview features authors who are writing out of their own spiritual experience. We wanted to get away from all kinds of second-hand knowledge, tradition and rigid teaching, and focus instead on people who can write about the reality of the spiritual dimension out of their personal perception and experience.
There is no doubt that a spiritual revival is taking place today, as witnessed by organisations such as Cygnus, but it seems to me that it is also true that the dogma of materialism – the ‘rational’ belief that nothing can exist apart from the physical world – is still very powerful, and rules many people's lives. To counteract it, I believe we need something of a ‘spiritual renaissance’; for spiritual knowledge to be applied to all aspects of life, not just personal development. We are already seeing the beginnings of that happening, for example in medicine with the rapid growth of complementary therapies. In the world of publishing, we need an avalanche of books on spiritual topics. As people tire of consumerism and seek nourishment for their soul and spirit, an increasing number will search for good books to guide them on their path.
Clairview is contributing to that new culture by spotlighting spiritual testimonies. ‘Clair’, of course, comes from ‘clairvoyant’, which in the original French means simply ‘to see clearly’. Our authors have each had breakthroughs in their lives which have allowed them to ‘see clearly’, i.e. to have glimpses of non-physical worlds. What I particularly like about Clairview is that the authors are ordinary people who have, through circumstance, come to realise a greater truth about life. They are simply telling what they know – but that's what makes them so special! I think the time of simply ‘believing’ is coming to an end for most people today, which is why personal stories based on direct knowledge are so valuable.
I should emphasise that Clairview is ‘non-aligned’. While all the books are borne out of a thoughtful, modern consciousness, they are by no means all connected to any one philosophy or outlook.
Becoming interested in spiritual ideas
Although I have always had a personal spiritual conviction, it was not until leaving college that I began to take an active interest in that area of life. Since I can remember, I have had a deep feeling for Christianity (though not necessarily the Church), while simultaneously knowing that reincarnation was also true. At college I did all the usual things that students get up to. But when I left, I felt a yearning for something deeper than the literature I was reading and the rock music I was listening to. I remember one day reading The Sunday Times magazine and coming across an article on monasteries. I had a deep longing to go to one – not to live, but as a retreat. As it happened, despite trying hard I was not able to arrange that visit. Instead, however, I landed a job at Rudolf Steiner Press as an assistant, although I had never read a word of Steiner before. I started reading his books while working there, and gradually realised that this was what I had been looking for. Ironically, my path led me to the antithesis of a monastery, in that Steiner is all about bringing spiritual ideas to bear on practical, everyday life, rather than retreating to a closed environment...
I left after a while and went travelling, but was soon drawn back to a publishing job at Temple Lodge, a community centre founded by an amazing woman called Evelyn Capel. Before long I was left with the job of running Temple Lodge Publishing, and spent the 1990s developing it as a specialist imprint for writers researching and writing out of Rudolf Steiner's philosophy. Being a small concern, I worked alone in the office for many years – the reality of low margin, specialist publishing – and even today have only a part-time helper for Rudolf Steiner Press (although recently I have been lucky to have the freelance help of professional publicist Amanda Cuthbert, who has arranged a great deal of nationwide media publicity for the Clairview imprint).
The challenge of the millennium
I have always felt that the millennium would be a spiritual reality and that it would need to herald change. While I believe that Temple Lodge still has a place as a specialist imprint, I also believe that it is necessary to change the emphasis of our work in response to changing times. It is a question of apportioning the right amount of energy to the right areas. To come full circle, that’s why we launched Clairview, which I hope in the long term will establish itself and complement our other publishing activities.
The Clairview books
I first came in touch with Howard Storm through reading an excerpt of a talk he had given in a book on life after death. I tracked his address in the States, and was amazed that he didn't have a publisher. My Descent into Death tells of his astonishing and highly-unusual near death experience. Howard literally descended into the depths of hell! He describes how murky figures led him away from the hospital where his body lay, and took him to a place of darkness where he was tortured and tormented. As a former atheist, his account is very convincing. He is also one of the nicest and most loving people I have ever met.
Psychic Warrior is a classic, which some Cygnus readers may already know. I discovered that it was languishing out-of-print, and was delighted to get the rights for a reprint. David Morehouse was a highly-decorated soldier whose life changed after being injured. Out-of-body experiences led him to being recruited by a secret CIA enclave where experiments were going on to use psychic and clairvoyant abilities to gather intelligence information. Again, an ordinary man whose life-shattering experiences have transformed him into a modern-day spiritual teacher.
Stephen Turoff – healer and world-famous ‘psychic surgeon’ – will need no introduction. Anybody who has met this wonderful East Londoner will vouch for his sincere nature and profound but practical philosophy. Stephen had self-published his factual account of a young soldier's experiences after death in Seven Steps to Eternity. I felt that the book needed a wider circulation, and happily Stephen agreed.
Light Beyond the Darkness is a reprint from the Temple Lodge list, and one of the books I am most proud of having published. Doré’s son Richard committed suicide at the age of 36, but rather than despairing she sought to do something about it, and discovered means of helping his soul in the afterlife. This is a really solid book which gives a constructive, practical response to suicide.
Finally, Barbro Karlen’s And the Wolves Howled is much more than a collection of reincarnation memories. Some may be cynical about her claim to have been Anne Frank, but what distinguishes Barbro's case is the fact that – years before she spoke publicly of her past-life memories – she was a bestselling author. By the age of 17, 10 books of her work had been published – beautiful, untainted poetry and prose on the meaning of life. It is as if by writing at such a young age she was fulfilling a yearning from the past...
One of the joys of this list has actually been getting to know the authors. It would be marvellous to get them all together in one room with an audience. They all have different points of view, but each has something good to offer the world.
Books which have helped me
Many books have helped me on my way. One of the first spiritual books I ever read was the classic Testimony of Light by Helen Greaves [see feature], and although I am wary of automatic writing, to me that book is a beautiful, accessible portrayal of life after death. I found George Ritchie's ground breaking Return from Tomorrow (one of the first near death experiences to be written about) to be a refreshingly humble portrayal of spiritual experience. And in terms of books on healing – I am a recently qualified homeopath – I have much appreciated Caroline Myss's down-to-earth wisdom (for example Anatomy of the Spirit), and in particular her tapes where her no-nonsense philosophy is so charmingly expressed.
Rudolf Steiner
When I discovered Rudolf Steiner's books, I felt that I had really come home. Steiner is really the original Clairview author! He was unique in being a highly developed and profound clairvoyant and also scientifically and philosophically trained. While his spiritual teaching, given forth in his books and many – literally thousands – of lectures, is in my view unparalleled, what makes him really distinctive is the fact that he was able to apply his ideas to all areas of practical life, including education, medicine and agriculture, to name a few. The thousands of organisations and establishments which have been built since Steiner's death 75 years ago cannot be ignored.
But to my thinking, ultimately Steiner was not expounding a fixed ‘teaching’. In giving all those lectures, I believe he was demonstrating the ability to perceive beyond the physical world, as an encouragement to all of us to get on with our own spiritual development and eventually become our own ‘gurus’ and teachers!
Four of Steiner's books
Of Steiner's books, I would like to mention four volumes which I have found helpful. How to Know Higher Worlds is his key meditation manual. To be fair, it is probably one of the most difficult self-help books on the market. But keen study of it is richly rewarding. What will be most apparent and perhaps surprising to the modern reader is that Steiner does not make a strict plan for meditation. There are plenty of exercises and much advice, but he leaves you free to create your own programme out of it all.
The Fifth Gospel is remarkable because Steiner speaks about the events in Palestine 2000 years ago quite independently of history, tradition and Christian teaching. As a clairvoyant researcher, he is the retrospective witness, giving his direct testimony of the events surrounding the life of Christ. It is an example of a new kind of historical research, which in the long term cannot be dismissed.
I like Manifestations of Karma because it relates the concepts of reincarnation and karma to actual life – addressing as it does everything from illness and accidents to the meaning of earthquakes and volcanoes!
And Rosicrucian Wisdom – in just a few chapters – manages to encapsulate the esoteric background to much of Steiner’s vast spiritual outlook. Again, of course, it is all based on his direct research into the spiritual ‘memory’ of the world.
Photographs © Cygnus Books 18-Aug-2003
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