My journey so far…

It was clear, from a very young age, that I saw the world differently to my friends. Although I was said to be bright, academically, I was completely unmotivated throughout school, and the year of my leaving, 1989, was to be the start of my education.

In December that year I attended a Psychic Fair and after swerving an induction into the Church of Scientology (they were very persistent, but I resisted) I decided that I wanted to have a Tarot reading with a very attractive woman from Liverpool. I put my name down on her list and waited patiently. Through a series of slips and misses, all my attempts to actually have a reading with her that day failed. This did cause me to doubt whether my motives were all that spiritual, but I was only 17!

Anyway, I returned the next day to try again but my hopes were immediately dashed when I saw that she was now absent. “Called home in a family emergency” said the organiser. Downcast, I scanned the room for something else to do.

Immediately my eyes alighted on an old man with twinkling eyes, sat in a light blue sweater in a corner of the room. His presence and energy was stronger than anything else around him, yet I had only just noticed him. I stepped forward and requested an introductory reading, a little bit of tarot, palmistry and numerology, looking at his menu of offerings. His name was Arthur Norris.

He proceeded to tell me all manner of stuff about me and my life, as well as issuing forth a series of precise yet absurd predictions, all of which seemed both incredible and impossible. Although this man certainly had presence his words failed to strike any chord and I dutifully paid him and took the tape recording home with me, where it immediately went into a drawer to be forgotten.

Fast forward six months, and my life had disappeared down the toilet. Through all manner of desperate circumstances everything I had held dear had collapsed in a heap on the floor and I was in dire straits. Shuffling through my things I came across Arthur’s tape from six months previous and put it on to play.

Arthur’s voice reverberated around the room as I heard him predict every single thing that had happened in the past six months. Every slip, every miss, every error, every failure had been laid out by him, six months previously, along with advice on how to avoid it. Why had I not heard this before? Why had I not listened? How had he been so accurate? I needed to find out, so I wrote to him. And thus started a 20-year long association where he taught me everything he knew.

Throughout those years it was fair to say that I was not exactly a model pupil. If there was an argument to be had, a conflict to enter into or a piece of advice to ignore then I did. But such is the way that we learn. And learn I did.

In 1989, when I first met him, I was a shy, awkward, unconfident-yet-a-bit-cocky teenager. I had few qualifications, no driving licence, no girlfriend, lived in perpetual conflict with my parents and was just about to drop out of school entirely. By the time of Arthur’s passing in 2010 my life had been transformed beyond all recognition. I credit the wisdom and practices of Arthur for this, and am grateful to have been passed them for custody.

The intervening years saw business success and failure, romantic upheaval and satisfaction, travel, study, change, movement and adventure. Mistakes - large and small, and successes - grand and trivial. It took me from midnight raves in English fields to 100mph night-time dashes across the Polish countryside; from plush boardrooms in London to run-down factories in Wales; from conversations with trees in California to addressing eager crowds in Yorkshire. It saw many, many weird, odd, mind-blowing experiences and what could only be described as a series of initiations into an entirely different way of living. I could not have imagined how it would all turn out. Indeed, if someone had told me in 1989 where I would be today I would have poo pooed them. In fact, to my shame, I did. But there are no regrets. How could there be?

Where next? Well, I continue to write books, give talks, readings and workshops and provide training and guidance for those who seek a better way but have not yet found it. There’s a big world out there, and to make the most of it I will continue to just be myself. Here’s to the second half of life!