Bastions of Light
I am researching a lot of old alchemists for my next little book and the stunning parallel in all of their lives was their sheer brilliance. University at 13 or 16 already full of alchemical knowledge, books published or completed at around 20 including Agrippa’s three huge volumes on magic. Traveling around Europe and the Middle East, writing a ton of books and manuscripts. The question is how? Just exactly how can a boy of 16 in the 14th Century possibly have accumulated so much knowledge? How can they have learned to write, read, speak multiple different languages, know the philosophers and so on? It’s just utterly amazing. I realize that there was no TV or internet and so time could be spent on contemplation and so on but back
Read More »Europe is on Vacation
August. Everyone seems to disappear in August. Usually by 2pm on a business day, I would have had close to 50 or so emails and I would be deep into multi-tasking a number of different activities. Today? I have had 1 email on my business account and perhaps 8 on my personal account. OK so the US is about to get to the office on the east coast and things may pick up but here in Europe – everyone but me is on holiday! Yes. The entire continent is on vacation for August it seems. On Friday, I sent an email to a list of contacts about a conference. I would say 95% returned an I am on vacation message! We also decided to spend the weekend at a spa
Read More »Culture, Trips and Extremism
For the next two weeks posts may be somewhat erratic as I will be doing some traveling. This week I will visit Barcelona where I am the keynote speaker at a conference. I shall have my work to do as not only am I giving the keynote on Wednesday but will also present again the following day. However, I have been to Barcelona once before and as I recall it is a magnificent city so it should be a nice trip. The following week, I am going to Budapest where I am giving a two-day workshop and then attending a big conference. It’s all go. I like to travel – less so perhaps now than when I was younger but it is a bonus to get to visit other places
Read More »Try Looking Up!
If reality is so massive that our brain has to continually decide what parts of that reality to present to our consciousness (and it does!), then what are we missing? A lot it would seem. For a start, we look for what we recognize and have an interest in and we ignore what we do not recognize nor have an interest in. We walk our way through life barely seeing a thing apparently. We sleep. Most of us commute to work each day and we settle into our routines. Perhaps we catch the train and armed with our favorite newspaper we seek out our usual seat and then relax reading the paper. Perhaps we walk to work staring at the pavement ahead of us while all of the time thinking
Read More »Faces
We live in a beautiful street just outside the city center of Brno in the Czech Republic. Its beautiful because it comprises of houses built in and around 1900 at a time when the Czech Republic was an industrial powerhouse in central Europe. The families that built these homes were wealthy and it shows in the art nouveaux decorations, construction materials and size of the homes. Designed for a well to do family and their servants, most now are apartment buildings with 3-5 families per building. I have always been intrigued by the motifs on the buildings down the street and I am reproducing some of them below. There is one building I am saving for later and will write a separate blog article on it….. If anyone can cast
Read More »Overpriced, Overdone but Beautiful
So what am I talking about with a post title like that? The United Kingdom actually. I left the UK in 1992 and emigrated to Texas where I spent a good 17-years before returning to Europe and settling in the Czech Republic. Periodically, of course, I get to go back on business or a for a family visit. Over priced – The UK is expensive. How do people there manage? So far as I can tell, salaries have gone up incredibly since I left but despite the fact that people seem to earn what I would have thought of as ‘silly money’ back in 1992, prices appear to have risen even faster! Being in the West Midlands this last week, I paid over four pounds for a pint, had toast,
Read More »The Countdown to D-Day(s)
Well, the book is printed and the eBook ready and on August 17th and 30th it will be D-Day (USA and Europe dates respectively). Why we have two different dates is beyond me but we do. Six years ago, I was visiting with my son Paul who was taking a semester at King’s College in London and we were sat in a pub drinking some real good English beer. The conversation turned to the nature of reality and magic (as it does if you know me!) and I began to outline a basic idea for a story. The basic idea was that certain people with magical training observe better than others and really do have some ability to create reality. These people were being killed off until all that remained
Read More »Dear Mr. President
Hi our Prezza! How the hell are you? Had enough vacations on my tax dollar, thrown enough star studded parties yet to actually DO something – anything? Or still pinning the blame for everything (like all of your loathsome kind) on your predecessor. Yes, I’m sorry, I don’t care much for politicians of any party or persuasion. Actually, to tell you the truth, what I want to ask you about is rather selfish of me but here goes…. When I became a US citizen, I was quite proud, especially when the examiner at the joke of a test that passes for a citizenship examination told me “Congrats, you got all the answers correct, most Americans couldn’t do that!” “Really?” I asked, “How many would they get right then?” “Three or
Read More »A Death and the Sadness of Hatred
It was 1979. The memory of the three-day week and blackouts was still fresh in my mind as I sat in the Aston University Students Union lounge. On TV was a woman. I was listening to what she was saying because, to me, it made a whole lot of sense. Raised in Hull – a working class town if ever there was one – I rejected the bitter class warfare that passed for socialism and I found myself the butt of snide remarks for it too. Comments like “who the hell does he think he is going to college and all – he should get a bloody job like the rest of us”. Some so called school friends never spoke to me again for going to college and betraying my
Read More »A Old Interview
Back in the days when I still thought IJ would sell like hot cakes, I did an interview with Jeff Belanger of GhostVillage.com. Jeff was an old work colleague of mine who suddenly gave up his day job to write…. he now has 12 best sellers to his name! Interview by Jeff Belanger – [email protected] Ghostvillage.com author interview In Inner Journeys, Dr. G. Michael Vasey shares how the study of the occult, meditation, and his deeper self has enriched his life. Vasey offers a path the reader can follow for getting in contact with their own spirit guides. Ghostvillage.com caught up with Dr. Vasey to ask him about his life and the new book. Was there a single event in your life that stirred your curiosity in the occult? There
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