Features

How Can Feng Shui Alter Your Life? - a guide to Feng Shui, that is, the art of placing objects in certain positions to gain chi.  By Jean Fowler.

Miracle Man - the story of an Indian Miracle Worker and Healer described as a 'phenomenon' by his millions of followers.

Britain’s Wartime Witch Trial - the fascinating story of Helen Duncan, the last person in Britain to be jailed as a witch.

Another Realm For Glasgow Medium - the biography of Britain's last witch, as told by Mary Armour, renowned psychic.

Did You Know? - How one Scottish-based company is helping conquer the racing world.

Faith Healing - Spiritualism is the best medicine.

The Drug Problem In Sport - How narcotics are ravaging the sporting world.

Out Of Body Experiences - Fact or fiction?

My Living Has Not Been In Vain - Another article about Mary Armour.

Helen's Pardon - More on Helen Duncan.

Carl MacDougall: Tapping The Source Of Creative Energy - Profile of writer Carl MacDougall.

The Music of Taizé: Meditative Singing

Radio Forth’s ‘Open Line’ Presenter Andrew Monaghan… ‘Still Hanging By A Tack’
 
 

Over four thousand years old, Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art of promoting health, wealth and happiness by harnessing positive energy, or chi, from your environment.  By arranging one's home according to the principles of Feng Shui, practitioners can encourage good luck and protect themselves from bad luck using this long-established art.

Today, this practice of living in harmony with nature and one's environment is undergoing an exciting revival.  In this article I hope to take you through the essential guide to harmonising your home in order to enhance good fortune in your life.

Residential Room Layouts

Good Feng Shui starts with the main door, which should open outward to an empty space, termed the bright hall, where the cosmic chi can settle and accumulate before entering your home.  It should also lead into a space that is not too cramped.  This allows the chi to gather before meandering through your home.

Well-lit and clean apartments attract auspicious energies.  Small, dark and unused corners create killing breath, so air store rooms occasionally.  Do not have too many doors opening from a long corridor, this will cause quarrels.  The ratio of windows to doors should not exceed 3:1.  Doors should not directly face a window, as chi will come in and go out again.

Arranging Furniture

Living room furniture should never be L-shaped.  Try to stimulate the Pa Kua shape when arranging a lounge suite and coffee table, as this is conductive to creating good social interactions between those sitting there.  It is a good idea to find your favourite place when entertaining friends.  It should be one of your auspicious compass directions.  Place the television and the stereo on the West or Northwest side and a plant pot or some flowers on the East side of the room.  The fireplace should ideally be located in the South, but it is also acceptable to situate it in the Southwest or Northeast.

Bedrooms

Bedrooms must have good arrangements.  Place the bed diagonally opposite the door and do not sleep with your feet directly pointed towards it, as this is deemed the death position.  Do not sleep under an overhead beam or mirrors directly facing the bed, as this is extremely inauspicious.  While plants generally represent good Feng Shui, it is not advisable to have them in the bedrooms.  The Yang energy of plants can sometimes disturb the Yin energies required for a good night's sleep.

Although there are many elements to Feng Shui the main element is concerned with the harmonising of wind and water - the literal meaning of Feng Shui.

Just these few minor changes to your home environment could alter your life - forever. 

Sai Baba has been called a ‘master of love’ by some, a ‘master of deception’, by others. Attempts to discredit him as a fake, magician or trickster continue with a vengeance.

Yet every day a flock of seekers leave home to go on pilgrimage to Puttaparthi, north of Bangalore where Sai Baba  - as he his known - lives. He is estimated to have 100 million followers worldwide. He is associated with extraordinary healings and cures, using ‘vibhuti’ ie sacred ash, and performing miracles. What does this giant of a man with a magnetic personality look like?

Patricio, a cancer sufferer, travelled from Madrid to India to see for himself. Patricio described Sai Baba as a surprisingly small man in a glowing saffron-coloured robe. ‘I saw an aura of light extended from above his bushy hair to the bottom of his robe. As he came forward he seemed to glide over the ground, flowing rather than walking. His presence immediately filled the enormous space of the courtyard and I could feel the power of the energy emanating from him even at a distance of several 100 yards. It was an amazing experience.’

What makes a person like Patricio become a Sai Baba follower?  Is it because he is confused, weak, and incapable of taking charge of his life? Or, is he empowering himself on the road to self-realisation? The ball has been in both courts – sometimes simultaneously.

Sai Baba’s ‘demonstrations’ defy logic. In our highly prized age of rationality, there seems to be little room for the inexplicable. If something cannot be grasped or understood, it must therefore be a con.  Miracles don’t happen. Or, do they?

Dorothy was told by an orthopaedic surgeon that unless she had both knees replaced she would soon be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Sai Baba advised her against it. No operation, he stated, emphatically.  He would operate and cure her! He did. She walked freely without crutches for the first time in years.

Jill had heard of Sai Baba and his so-called miracle cures. When she was diagnosed with a brain tumour, she decided to go and see him. Shortly after arriving at Puttaparthi, she had an interview with Sai Baba. ‘I was delighted to be there’, Jill said. I remember I couldn’t stop smiling, he was my one and only hope.

‘Then he asked me what I wanted. I have a brain tumour, I said, crying.  He touched my head and told me to think only of him and not to worry, so I have done just that. I am back at work now and I don’t worry.’

When I asked Jill if she had returned to the doctor or if she had had any surgery, she replied with a beautiful serene expression. ‘Absolutely not. I knew I didn’t need to. I only think of him’, she said with implicit faith and admirable courage.

In another case, Anne’s husband, John, was diagnosed with throat cancer – so advanced - it was considered incurable. A friend of a friend had described Sai Baba to Anne, and a miraculous operation on a crippled boy’s spine. Later, it was said, that the boy was able to walk. Inspired by the story, Anne decided to go to Puttaparthi to see Sai Baba in the hope that she could save her husband.

‘When I got there and saw him, I did not tell him anything. I didn’t have a chance. So I don’t know how he knew, but he just asked me not to cry any more, and said, “I will cure your husband’s cancer.”  He then made a rotating motion with his open palm and transferred a handful of vibhuti from his hand. It just appeared, came from nowhere.’

According to Anne, it was later reported that on the day she got the ashes, her husband had apparently sat up in bed and spoken for the first time in a fortnight. ‘It was extraordinary’, said Anne, because Baba said at that time, that he could hear my husband. And I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what he meant.’

Anne’s husband died two years ago but she believes that Sai Baba performed a miracle, and more. ‘John was a much nicer person after I saw Baba. He valued the little things in life and I would say that during the two years before he died, we were

really very close. And just before he died, even though he was suffering a lot, he was at peace with himself. It doesn’t make sense but he was happy.’

As well as cures and healing, Sai Baba has produced gold and diamonds out of thin air. He does this, supposedly, to strengthen the faith of doubters. By giving people what they want materially, his miracles offer proof which invariably strengthens the faith of doubters.

He uses his power to attract crowds, to awaken the dormant power of those totally absorbed in the material world - and makes them turn toward their goal – God. His teachings are simple: ‘Start the day with love, fill the day with love, end the day with love, this is the way to God’.

It is said that whatever Sai Baba wishes in his heart, it must immediately materialise. All sorts of things willed by Sai Baba supposedly appear in his right palm. He then gives them to visitors to cure, console, bless and encourage them. A spiritual uplift?

Sai Baba tries to bring love and unity among followers of all religions throughout the world. He asks people to do two things: continue following their own religion with sincerity, and develop love for all people and creatures - and do service for them.

His many discourses contain wisdom expressed in very simple language and morality tales from all religions and prophets. He teaches through simple illustration: when he asks people ‘Where is God?’ they give the usual answer – ‘God is in me’. ‘See this handkerchief in my hand’ he continues, ‘I am not in the handkerchief’, and so reveals the correct answer: ‘I am in God’, not ‘God is in me’.

‘Reduce your desires. Desires make your mind heavy. Less luggage in the journey of life makes it easy. Don’t worry about anything. Just be happy. Difficult circumstances should have no effect on the continuity of inner bliss.’

He has prophesied his death in 2022, aged 96, and prophesied that Puttaparthi would become the spiritual centre of the world, drawing millions of pilgrims. No one believed him, yet the number of followers keeps growing.
Is Sai Baba a divine incarnation?  Seven years on after making his pilgrimage to Puttaparthi, Patricio, the cancer sufferer, is alive and well. He testifies to the divine attributes of Sai Baba and like millions of others, he believes that Sai Baba’s power and love is bringing about a spiritual transformation of the earth. 

Scottish medium Helen Duncan was torn from her family, branded a witch, and cast into prison.  This was not medieval Britain but 1944, in the midst of World War II.  Her crime was revealing, during a séance, a closely guarded War Office secret.

Mrs Duncan was jailed for nine months under the 1735 Witchcraft Act for ‘pretending to raise spirits of the dead’ at the Old Bailey and was banished to the notorious Holloway Prison.

The medium practiced extensively in Spiritualist Churches in the early 1940’s, believing she brought comfort to bereaved families by allowing them to see and receive messages from their loved ones at her seances.

It was at one of these seances that Mrs Duncan rattled authorities when, in trance, she revealed a top-secret naval tragedy.

During the séance in Portsmouth attended by a large crowd, a dead soldier appeared with HMS Barham written on his hatband, who gave the exact date and time of his death.

Mrs Duncan identified the sailor’s wife in the crowd and passed on a message for her, but the stunned wife insisted her husband was alive.

Those present were shocked, as were the Admiralty when asked for confirmation.

HMS Barham had been destroyed three months earlier by a German submarine.  But, in the interests of morale, no official announcement had been made.  Even the families of the perished crewmen had not been informed.

These revelations led to Mrs Duncan’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment. Oddly, Mrs Duncan was initially charged with vagrancy, facing a maximum fine of five shillings if found guilty.  Refused bail by Portsmouth magistrates her charge was changed to Conspiracy – which in wartime Britain carried the penalty of death by hanging.  By the time the case reached the Old Bailey the charge had altered again to one of witchcraft – a law unused for over 200 years.

It’s claimed the authorities believed the mother of six could be a war-time security risk, fearing she could use her powers to ‘see’ and reveal the sites of the D-Day landings – and she was jailed to ensure her silence.

The trial caused a storm of controversy, grabbing sensational headlines even in the midst of a raging world war, and made Mrs Duncan the most famous medium of her era.

Winston Churchill was shocked by the trial and demanded a report from the Home Secretary on the Witchcraft Act and the cost of the case.  He dismissed it as “obsolete tomfoolery to the detriment of necessary work in the court.”

At the trial 19 witnesses including a magistrate, a solicitor, and a respected journalist, swore the medium was genuine.  The defence offered the court a demonstration of Mrs Duncan’s powers, but the prosecution refused this and the jury convicted her within 45 minutes.

After her release Mrs Duncan vowed never to hold another séance.  But having the rare mediumistic gift of being able to produce ectoplasm, a substance that spilt from her body, appearing to take on the physical form of the dead, she soon started again.

However raids and accusations continually hounded her.

A respite looked probable when six years after her release the Witchcraft Act was repealed and replaced with the Fraudulent Mediums Act.

Instead, in 1956 the police raided another of her seances. Spiritualists claim the police’s actions, bursting in with bright lights and touching Mrs Duncan in trance caused her death.

Spiritualist’s claim shining a white light on ectoplasm or touching the medium producing it causes the substance to rush back into the medium’s body with such force it can cause serious injury.  A doctor summoned after the raid found Mrs Duncan suffering from second-degree burns across her stomach.

Five weeks later Mrs Duncan died, officially of natural causes being a 20-stone diabetic.

After her death the Spiritualist movement claimed her trial was instrumental in the repeal of the witchcraft act and hailed her as a heroine.  These supporters have launched a campaign to have Mrs Duncan posthumously pardoned.

Founders of the British Society of Paranormal Studies, James MacQullian, a former neighbour of Mrs Duncan, and author and medium Michael Colmer are spearheading the campaign for her pardon, fully supported by Mrs Duncan’s grandson.

It had been intended to mark the 100th anniversary of Mrs Duncan’s birth in November 1997 with the pardon, but the Criminal Cases Review Commission refused to take the case back to the Court of Appeal.

Mr Colmer said: “We decided to launch the campaign because the 100th anniversary was approaching.  The Home Office has told us we may apply for a pardon but if we do then we will not get it.  However, we do not seek a pardon for Mrs Duncan, instead we seek this conviction to be quashed as unsafe.”

Since before the campaign’s official launch in spring 1997, supporters have worked tirelessly gathering evidence to support their case.

“We have spent over four years collating all data on Mrs Duncan from all official Spiritualist archives and other sources,” said Mr Colmer, “These include a large number of personal testimonies.  We now hold the largest collection of data on her life and work.”

Information on the campaign and updates, including copies of newspaper articles highlighting Mrs Duncan’s case, are posted on its website, http://www.helenduncan.org.uk, which has generated massive interest worldwide.

Mr Colmer said: “When we launched this campaign I doubt if more than 100 folk knew of Mrs Duncan or her remarkable gifts.  Since then over 10.7 million have surfed our website.  This has succeeded more than our wildest dreams in drawing attention to her plight.”

Michael Colmer has written a book entitled, Begging Her Pardon, charting the campaign for Mrs Duncan’s exoneration, which is due to be published soon.

Backed by several unidentified celebrities, the next stage in the campaign may be a published letter listing their signatures of support.

It is claimed Mrs Duncan has made contact regarding the campaign to pardon her.  She said: “It seems to matter a great deal more down there than it does up here.”

Fame for the Scottish medium is set to further intensify with her an unofficial biography being released, ‘My Living Has Not Been in Vain’ by Mary Armour.

And Hollywood movie moguls have also shown an interest in Mrs Duncan’s story.  Fox Studios plan to release a film about the extraordinary life of the working class mother of six – who was the last person in Britain to stand accused of witchcraft. 

A Glasgow medium is venturing into the realm of publishing – with a book chronicling the life of Britain’s last ‘witch’.

Mary Armour’s revealing book entitled, My Living has not been in Vain,’ is the culmination of 15 years spent researching the life of Helen Duncan.

Helen Duncan, a famous Scottish medium, was found guilty of ‘pretending to raise the spirits of the dead’ and was imprisoned for nine months under the 1735 Witchcraft Act at the Old Bailey in 1944.

Mrs Duncan shocked authorities when, during a séance, she revealed the sinking of a British battleship – HMS Barham – a tragedy being kept secret by the Admiralty.

It is claimed the War Office subsequently feared Mrs Duncan could use her ability to reveal the sites of the D-Day landings – and she was jailed to ensure her silence.

After her release the Scottish medium returned to holding seances.  But, she was continually raided and hounded by accusations until her death in 1956, five weeks after her final séance was invaded, and five years after the act which jailed her was repealed as archaic.

Spiritualists believe the second degree burns Mrs Duncan sustained that night, were caused by ectoplasm – a substance associated with the supernatural – rushing back into her body which led to her death.

Officially, the 20-stone diabetic Perthshire-born medium died from natural causes.

Now, medium Mary is to publish her biography – revealing the true reason her last séance was raided.

Mary said:  “I’ve spent 15 years looking into the background of Helen Duncan and probably know more about her than any living person.”

One of Scotland’s best-known mediums, Mary said her enormous admiration and respect for Helen Duncan compelled her to write the book, and reveal the truth about her life.  However, she admits she is anxious about its reception.

She said: “I felt drawn to Helen.  She gave us (mediums) the light when the witchcraft act was done away with. Because of her we as mediums could stand and practice publicly.  Before it was all done behind closed doors.   I’ve been born to tell the truth about Helen Duncan.  It’s taken 50 years for someone to stand up and say this is really what happened.”

Laughing she said: “I’ve been told I’ll be moaned at but I won’t be locked up.”

The retired nurse added: “I have all the legal documents; all the personal hand-written messages; the spiritualist documents; the police documents, given to me by a friend of the Duncan family, and they are reproduced verbatim.”

Unexpectedly receiving these previously unseen documents, which contradicted much of Mary’s research, caused the book to be largely rewritten and delayed its original publication date by three years.

Mary said: “I had originally wanted to have it out on Helen’s 100th birthday in November 1997 but when these documents were handed to me I had to throw away the Helen Duncan story and start again.”

A former intensive care nurse Mary spent most of her career caring for seriously ill patients. As a medium she gives another form of comfort, passing on messages from ‘the other side’ but she dedicated time to completing her in-depth research of Helen Duncan and, since her retirement,
travels the world lecturing on the subject.

She said: “Since I retired ten years ago I have actively pursued the path of the paranormal.  I’ve travelled from Iceland to Australia lecturing on Helen Duncan. I’ve also lectured in Glasgow and Cardiff University.

Mrs Duncan’s story has attracted the interest of Hollywood movie moguls after they became aware of the campaign for a posthumous pardon for the medium.

Fox Studios has approached Mary to collaborate on the movie script but she has refused – up until now.

Explaining her consistent refusal she said: “To make a movie of Helen Duncan they may have made her look like a comic cut, and I have tremendous respect for this woman’s work, her family and her memory.”

However Mary might be about to change her mind. She said: “I may have to think again because copyright laws in America are not as tight as here.  Once its public domain they could use it anyway.”

Therefore it may be off into another exciting realm for housewife Mary - Hollywood beckons.

‘My Living Has Not Been In Vain’ by Mary Armour will be published on 8 December 2000, priced at £7.99.
 

Did you know that Sun Microsystems in Linlithgow are one of the main contributors to Mclaren Racing team? Well Sun Micro not only sponsor to the former world champion constructors but they also have many parts that are made at Linlithgow under the exterior of that famous silver bullet.

Sun provides McLaren with the design technology for the car used by Scotsman David Coulthard and Finnish star Mika Hakkinen.

They also provide the part that communicates with the pits to relay any faults with the vehicle that may have to be changed in a pit stop. It also allows the constructors see how the car is performing with all information coming from the car to a screen visible to the engineers.The term for this piece of equipment is telemetry.

Throughout the racing season it is said that around 80-90 per cent of the car is altered to try and get the best out of it for the next grand prix.

Sun attract this type of contract through a variety of ways including a direct sales force, both in the UK and globally, as well as high profile marketing.

McLaren is only one of SUN’s high profile customers. You will be able to meet some more in the next issue of Connect.

There are more and more people turning to faith healers instead of waiting months for operations as the NHS waiting lists get longer and longer.

People are getting injured every minute of the day with some of the victims needing to be operated on but unfortunately, not all cases can be dealt with immediately therefore have to wait months for their operations.

This can cause serious discomfort for the people who are waiting on operations so some may look at alternative avenues for treatment.

There are many people who don’t quite understand what faith healing actually is and whether it is spiritual or not. Well, I can tell you that faith healing is not spiritual, it is a subtle material power, that’s all.It is simply an advanced tehnology, often mistaken as being spiritual, some may even think it’s magic. This is just because they do not fully understand the technology.

For instance, there may be some natives in Africa who may have never seen airplanes. When they do see one they become amazed by it. They may think that the people in the planes are Gods or something, they may even consider the visitors as super mystics because they are twice as tall as aborigines. They will also be curious of the light around their eyes and the ticking on their wrists but to us they are just wearing sunglasses and watches.

For these aborigines this is all some kind of magic and they may consider their visitors as being somehow great and spiritual but the fact is they are just witnessing a superior technology which they don’t have any previous knowledge of.

A faith healer may actually be a hard hearted person and not a lover of god just like you may be a doctor and not a lover of god. The doctor, for example, may understand the technology and all the workings of the human body and he may also be able to heal a disease through some medicine but this doesn’t mean that this doctor is necessarily a lover of God.

You can be a medical doctor and be a total materialist similarly, a so called faith healer can also be in the same dimension as far as mentality is concerned.

Faith healers just have the access to a more subtle technology. I am not saying that they are all lovers of God but what I am trying to point out is that their power is irrelevant as far as their love of God is concerned. Powers do not have anything to do with one’s religion.

In an article published in a magazine a faith healer mentioned that whenever he indulges in sex he loses his power to heal. This means that his power is physiological, not spiritual. It is known that if you retain the sexual fluid you can direct that energy and derive power from that on the mental or physical platform.

It is connected with the process of astanga yoga where you gather the energy through “pranayam” – through the air and atmosphere through the food you eat and from the sexual fluid. You collect the energy in such a way that you get physical and mental strength. There are faith healers who are very strict on losing their sexual fluid.

The samer idea applies to martial arts as in the movie about Shaolin Temple boxing, the monks were supposed to remain celibate in order to develop their mystic powers. All serious yogis whether they are looking for powers or not will not waste their sexual fluid. By controlling the life air, breathing and concentration and physical exercises the martial artists try to retain or gain “chi” or “prana”.

To develop their mental powers or their mystical abilities like the faith healer, they collect energy and place it at the point between their eyes. To develop their physical strength, they place it at the point of the abdomen.

Some people may ask, “Are the powers bad?”. I’m not saying that the powers are bad. It’s all right as long as you dovetail whatever power you have, physical or mental, to the service of the Supreme. This is the way you serve others and God because it’s your talent or ability. Similarly, you may be a faith healer and a martial artist and it may be natural for you to have these powers but you should somehow avoid the danger of thinking that you are the source of that power.

You should recognise that God is the only source of power and you glorify Him as such. Rather than putting all your effort into developing power, you should develop your love for the very source of that power – God.

There are hundreds of faith healers in Britain today therefore many of the victims who need operations on their bodies may think about going to a healer rather than wait on the NHS lists. There are people who would rather go to faith healers not only because of th elists but because they think that the treatment is a lot better. On the other hand there are others who would not go within a mile of a faith healer for treatment and much rather wait their turn for an operation.

It isn’t only people with injuries who go to faith healers. In the not so distant past the former England football coach, Glenn Hoddle, called in Eileen Drewery, a faith healer, to try and help his squad gain confidence before crucial internationals.

However, this didn’t do the former Chelsea boss any favours as the majority of the population criticised his decision to bring Drewery into the squad and within a few months he was out of a job.

This goes to show that there are many aspects of life that a faith healer can take part in that we didn’t think about. As the years go by faith healers will probably get busier and busier as the waiting lists get longer and longer. However, be careful and research the faith healer thoroughly before you go and make sure that they are well respected in their profession.

In recent years there has been more and more sportsmen and women found guilty of taking drugs to try and enhance their performance.

Drug cases aren’t confined to any one country, or sport, with ‘cheats’ being found throughout the world from near enough every sport, if not all.

In our own country we have recently had two Premier league footballers kicked out of their club for the alleged use of cocaine. St Johnstone’s George O’Boyle and Kevin Thomas are believed to have taken the substance when on the clubs Christmas night out.

This isn’t the first time that football has been put under the spotlight with past experiences including the likes of Tony Adams, Paul Merson, Alex Rae and Andy McLaren to name but a few, all contributing to the unwanted problems in the game.

However, football isn’t alone. Athletics has also had their fair share of ‘drugs cheats’. Again Scotland has had their experience with European 200m Champion Dougie Walker, who was found guilty for the use of the performance-enhancing drug Nandralone.

Walker recently completed his comeback race at the Scottish Indoor championships, after seeing through his two-year ban. On this occasion Englishman Mark Hylton, who has also had an encounter with the drug testers, beat the Scot to the line.

Hylton is also said to have tested positive for a performance enhancing drug 12 months ago but due to an error with his test he managed to avoid a ban unlike Walker.

The 23 year old athlete seemed to disappeared for the entire 2000 season which was surprising to say the least with the Sydney Olympics taking place towards the end of the athletic year. The 400m star would almost have been certain of a spot in the 4x400m relay team as Britain had already suffered the loss of Welshman Iwan Thomas to injury and British number two Mark Richardson through the another positive drugs test.

Richardson was found positive at the start of the season and, like Walker, insisted that he was innocent.

The Commonwealth Games silver medallist was allowed to compete towards the end of the season as his appeal was to be heard just days before Sydney 2000 was due to kick off. Richardson managed to run the olympic qualifying mark during this time so if his appeal was successful he would be eligible to run the 400m in Australia.

However, the Englishman decided that this would not be good preparation for the championships therefor he withdrew and subsequently his appeal was put back to 2001 which gives his team of lawyers and doctors more time to provide a cast iron defence.

Other athletes who have had to face up to being called drugs cheats are Ben Johnson and CJ Hunter.

Johnson was the first athlete that I came across being found positive for drugs, during the 1988 Olympic games at Soul. The Canadian ‘won’ the 100m ahead of Carl Lewis and Linford Christie only for the Gold medal to be stripped from him and given to the American, Lewis. For me, this was when drugs became a big issue in sport.

Hunter, the husband of 100m olympic champion Marion Jones, was found guilty during the 2000 Sydney games. Through this arose suspicions that drugs may be behind the phenomonal success of his wives rise to the top of the world. The field eventer was thrown out of the games and awaits news of his punishment.

Swimming has also been scrutinised in the past with the surprising success of Michelle Smith from Ireland during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Smith won many gold medals during these games only to be accused of drug taking by many of her rivals. The Irish swimmer found these accusations very hurtful and insisted that she was innocent. The multi gold medallist is now living in Holland with her husband but suspisions still surround her rapid rise to fame.

The recent Australian Open in Tennis capped a remarkable turnaround for American Jennifer Capriatti as she went on to win the title only months after being found guilty of drug taking.

Capriatti was one of the games brightest propsects in her teenage years only to find the pressure too much to handle and turned to drugs which proved to be her downfall.

However, the US star found hope and kicked her habit and fulfilled her early potential when she lifted the Australian Open title last month. This shows great courage of a girl who has refused to admit defeat and is now back playing at the top of her game and competing regularly for major titles in the sport.

Back on home soil we saw snookers Ronnie O’Sullivan suffering severe depression and therefore having a brief encounter with drugs and alcohol. The Englishman was having a few family problems at the time of his depression but like Capriatti he has fought his problem and is back amongst snookers elite and challenges for honours regularly.

A lot closer to home we have looked on as Dundee football club have signed a World Cup star who is well known for his involvement with drugs. Claudia Cannigia has been a major success for the tayside club since his recent arrival from Argentina and is now hailed as a fans favourite.

Dundee are also trying to tie up a glamour friendly in which the hope Cannigia’s great friend and ‘Player of the Century’, Diego Maradonna will play in. A fee of around £250,000 has been agreed between the club and player for his guest appearance in the Dark Blue of Dundee.
 

Out of Body experiences are very common in this country with over two thirds of the population claiming to have ‘left’ their body at sometime in their lives, usually if they are in a life threatning situation.

There have been many studies carried out on this subject by doctors such as Sabom, Kubber-Ross and Moody. These studies involved the testimonials of hospital patients who have been snatched from the brink of death and these in-depth findings demonstrate that most people report similar experiences- they step out of their body into their astral form.

As the person leaves their body they usually look down on themselves from a vantage point which is usually the ceiling and watch over their ‘body’. Many of the people recall the situation clearly, when resuscitated, and sometimes the person has actually witnessed themselves being operated on.

An example of this was in 1967 when a woman had a severe asthma attack and was rushed to the old Royal Hospital in Portsmouth. This lady vaguely recalled waking in an oxygen tent and a lot of fuss going on around her.

“I don’t know at what point I drifted out of my body but I do know that my heart stopped and I was rushed into the Resuscitation Ward. I could see myself attached to a ventilator with lots of wires connected to me,” said the woman.

The lady went on to describe the events that hapend after that. She added, “I could see a doctor, two nurses and the bizarre sight of a man dressed in a bow tie and full evening suit! I then went into cardiac arrest and I watched them all trying to restart my heart. I didn’t feel any pain and felt no difficulty in my breathing. I was an on looker, so to speak, watching myself fighting for my life.”

There was no telephone in the womans home so the police went out and collected her husband and brought him into the hospital to be by her bed side. When he arrived at the hospital he asked the doctors if there was any hope and the response was, “Very little”.

“I felt myself falling down a tunnel and saw my life flash before me like a rapid series of camera pictures. Suddenly I was standing and feeling wonderful with a sense of lightness and happiness as I knew I was surrounded by a great love. Added to this was the feeling of tranquility, I felt so wonderful,” continued the woman.

This womans fantastic journey didn’t end there however, “ I then found myself stood at one side of a small arche bridge. There were people singing, not hymns but a lovely song of joy. There were colours such as I have never seen and I wanted to join them but for the thoughts of my husband, I couldn’t ‘leave’ him.

“There were also things that I still wanted to do with my life such as have a baby – but it was so very, very tempting to cross that bridge.

“Stood on the bridge was a jewish man holding a cross. He ‘spoke’ to me telepathically and asked ‘Are you ready to cross?’ I can recall myself saying No No No! then I was immediately returned to my body. I could now ‘hear’ conversations going on around me in the hospital. ‘She’s slipping away’ they said but I knew that I would live and started fighting the ventilator to prove that I could breathe by myself,” continued this amazing woman.

Four days later the miraculous recovery was complete as she was detached from the ventilator and gradually got over the major scare. The man who previously wore the evening suit when the woman was in the coma was now in a doctors white coat as he walked into the ward. The woman asked the nurse about him and the nurse replied, “He’s the surgeon who performed a tracheotomy operation on you to try and save your life.”

“I know” replied the woman, “But why was he wearing a bow-tie and evening suit?” The nurse was dumbstruck and then went on to explain that he had been called out from a very important dinner engaaement.

The woman did have her child and he is now 27 years old. “The previous year I lost a baby but I know he lives on and one day I will see him. I now that I am lucky to have had such an experience,” concluded the woman.

This was an example of an Out of Body Experience that happily didn’t end in death. There are many different explanations for these experiences and they include techniques such as the Carbon Dioxide Technique.

Many people use techniques like these as they are not out of body experiences due to fate but planned as you can carry out the technique that will lead you to an experience.

The Carbon Dioxide technique requires you to have good lungs, heart and cardio-circulatory systems. You can produce harmless, voluntary carbon dioxide toxifications. This should be done by following physiological processes that cause the increase of carbon gas inside the tissues of the human body, in a slow gradual process.

Through slow breathing, you can diminish the gas exchange process, as you breath in a smaller volume of air and, consequently, a smaller volume of oxygen. It maintains a greater volume of carbon dioxide in the physical body and can predispose a slight non – alignment of your bodies, or partial disconnection of the psychosoma (astral body).

This process will provoke a decrease in the activity of the brain hemispheres, that causes the sleep sensation, reduction of both the cardiac rhythm and the general physiologic functioning, and will also provoke the disconnection of the psychosoma from the dense matter.This is a brief introduction to the carbon dioxide technique for out of body experiences.

Many out of body experiences take place each day throughout the world with the majority coming from near death situations with the rest being from ‘planned’ techniques. Unfortunately, there are those who don’t live to tell the tale of their experience of leaving their body.

Former nurse, Mary Armour spent many years of her life caring for people  in intensive care.   Now retired, she brings comfort of a different kind to people every week, passing on messages from ‘the other side’.

Mrs Armour, 60, of Aisla Road in Gourock claims to have been psychic for 56 years.   “I was very aware of it during my childhood.  I put it to the back of my mind in my teenage years but picked it up again at the start of my nursing career which I embarked on for 15 years.   I retired 10 years ago and have since actively pursued the path of the paranormal.”

Throughout her busy schedule, Mrs Armour has still managed to find time to do some in-depth research on Helen Duncan, the Scottish ‘witch’.

At the Old Bailey in 1944, Perthshire woman Helen Duncan was jailed for nine months under the 1735 Witchcraft Act for ‘pretending to raise the spirits of the dead’.   It is claimed the authorities feared she might use her powers to reveal secrets such as the plans for the D-Day landings, and she was jailed to ensure her silence.

At separate séances, Mrs Duncan is said to have disclosed the sinkings of two British battleships, HMS Hood and HMS Barham, before their losses were announced by the Admirality.

Mrs Armour has spent 15 years devoted to the life and times of Helen Duncan.   She has hundreds of thousands of testimonies from people who claimed to have known or spoke to her.   Her new book on Helen Duncan has recently been published entitled ‘My Living Has Not Been in Vain’.

A message was given to Mrs Armour from Helen Duncan ‘on the other side’ regarding the book saying “You’ll get mumped at and you’ll get moaned at but you’ll not get locked up.”

Executives from Fox Television have started work on a script for a film based on Helen Duncan called ‘Helen’s Pardon’.   They approached Mrs Armour to offer her a small fortune if she collaborated with the script.   She initially refused, but may have to change her mind if they approach her again as her book has since been released.

Mrs Armour is a member of the Noah’s Ark Society, which is the only society in the world that promotes the safe practise of what they call ‘physical mediumship’, where they have real guides who can actually produce ectoplasm in the form of the ‘dead’.   They can speak, dance and communicate back memories of their life to their relatives.

Angelique Le Beau is the name of Mrs Armour’s guardian angel.   She believes that everyone has one.   “A lady from Cardiff called Kay Leveritt does some very beautiful psychic drawings.   If you send this lady a sample of your handwriting, she will send you a drawing of your guardian angel and a message.   I was given one of these drawings as a birthday present from a friend.   It was a big coloured lady wearing a grey turban.   I put the picture back in the specially prepared envelope and waited for proof.   Nine months later I was in Cardiff at a Sunday service and a medium turned round to me and said ‘I’ll have to stop because your face has gone all black, what a funny grey turban you’re wearing.’   I went home, put the picture in a frame and put it in my spirit room.”

A talented medium named Gordon Smith also described another guardian angel of Mrs Armour.   He told her his name was Charles and he had a long, curly moustache.   A while after that a very bereaved woman came to her for a reading.   The lady went away and came back two days later to give her a beautiful Chinese statue with a long moustache that had been described by Gordon Smith.   That was her proof.

Although most of Mrs Armour’s spiritual experiences are good;  she has had a few spooky encounters.   A man who was terribly allergic to penicillin died and came to her with a message to give to his mother.   She arranged for the mother to come and see her at 11 am on a Tuesday morning.   The man arrived to tell her “It’s OK I have him here.”   The mother did not know what this could mean.   At 5.30 pm later that day, his best man from his wedding died in a motorbike crash.   That means that they knew on the Sunday that they would be taking this man over on the Tuesday.

Her psychic qualities have also brought her into contact with the law before.   When Mrs Armour was giving two sisters a reading one night, she went into their house to find the spirit of a little girl in the living room.   She went upstairs to give the first sister her reading, but all she could hear was the little girl saying “Chrissie, woodlands, pond”.   There was no pond or

woodlands near the house and the sister didn’t know anyone called Chrissie.   When the second sister came up for her reading she got the exact same thing.   The next day, Mary got a phone call from the family telling her to look at the front page of the Daily Record.   When she read it, it said “Christine Lee, murdered body found in pond in woodlands.”

The little girl who had been talking to her was the girl who had been murdered.   The police got involved and discovered Mary had information on this.  She was taken to the police station, and with the help of two other mediums, the little girl came to them and described her killer, what he was wearing and how he had been in trouble with the law before.   He was picked up and arrested.

Mrs Armour tries to help as many people as she can, but she has had to turn some people away in the past.   A man came to her door once and said, “I just want to know if the MI5 are still following me.”

Mrs Armour has very special powers that prove that there is life beyond our time on earth.   “I can’t die for the life of me”.   However, despite having this great gift, she is still a very down-to-earth and normal person.   “I’m not egotistical – at the end of the day I’m a housewife.”

Helen Duncan was a simple woman supporting her disabled husband and her six children by working full-time in a bleach factory, and part-time as a Spiritualist medium.

Her messages during the Second World War became so accurate that she was arrested and tried as a ‘Witch’ for fear she would reveal the date and location of the pending D-Day landings in Normandy.

Mrs Duncan was born in Scotland in 1898 and married at the age of 20.  A self-professed Psychic she travelled around the UK holding séances in private homes and Spiritualist churches.  During the 1930s and 40s her talents were much in demand and she convinced thousands of people that the dead could return in physical form.  However, there were many sceptics who believed that her “materialisations” were produced by trickery.

She was convicted of fraud in 1933 when it was alleged that the manifestation of Peggy, a child who was supposed to act as a guide in the spirit world, was a woman’s under-vest manipulated by the medium.  A policewoman grabbed this vest at a séance and it was produced as evidence at a court in Edinburgh.  Mrs Duncan was fined ten pounds.

This did not deter people from going to see her.  The evidence that flowed from these physical phenomena séances was astonishing.  ‘Dead’ loved ones appeared in physical form, spoke to and touched their earthly relatives, and in this way brought both proof, survival and much comfort to thousands of traumatised and grieving wartime families.

One sitting was attended by a man named Vincent Woodcock who had brought his sister in law for an evening’s demonstration. Vincent gave evidence in London’s premier Old Bailey courtroom that the medium Helen Duncan slipped into a trance and began producing ‘ectoplasm’ (the substance from which spirits are said to materialise).  His ‘dead’ wife emerged from this matter and asked both Vincent and her sister to stand up.  The spirit then removed her wedding ring and placed it on her sister’s wedding finger, saying, “It is my wish that this takes place for the sake of my little girl.”  A year later the couple were married.

Mrs Duncan was arrested at a séance held in Portsmouth on 19th January 1944.  As ‘ectoplasm’ began to issue from Mrs Duncan’s mouth, a plain-clothed policeman who was present at the sitting blew his whistle to give the signal for his colleagues to burst in.  A grab was made for the ectoplasm but it dematerialised quicker than he could catch.  The séance ended abruptly in commotion.  Although nothing incriminating was found, Mrs Duncan together with three others who arranged the séances (Ernest and Elizabeth Homer and Francis Brown) were arrested and subsequently appeared before the Portsmouth magistrates on a charge of conspiracy.

The prosecution were not certain on what charge the four accused should be indicted.  At first they were charged under the 1824 Vagrancy Act – but this was later amended to conspiracy.  However, when the case was finally transferred to the central criminal court at the Old Bailey in London, the Witchcraft Act of 1735 was cited.  Under this act the defendants were accused of pretending “…to exercise or use a kind of conjuration that through the agency of Helen Duncan spirits of deceased people should appear…”

Mrs Duncan was further charged with Larceny, which accused her of taking money “by falsely pretending she was in a position to bring about the appearance of the spirits of deceased persons.”

The prosecution were determined to prove Helen Duncan a fraud.  Her trial took place barely a few months before the famous D-Day landings and lasted for seven gruelling days.  Spiritualists were dismayed by the use of the Witchcraft Act to bring a prosecution against one of their number.  A defence fund was quickly raised.  It was used to bring witnesses from all over the world to testify to her genuine gifts.

One of the most impressive defence witnesses was Alfred Dodd, a learned academic who had written books on Shakespeare’s sonnets.  On the penultimate day of the trial, this star witness was called.  He told the court that he had often attended Mrs Duncan’s seances between 1932 and 1940.  He said that at one of these his grandfather appeared.  After speaking with his grandson the spirit then turned to his friend and said, “Look into my face and into my eyes.  Ask Alfred to show you my portrait.  It is the same man.”

The defence offered the jury a demonstration of Mrs Duncan’s mediumship but the judge suggested that Mrs Duncan should be called as a witness instead.  The defence pointed out that she could not testify as she was in a trance during the séance and unable to remember or discuss what had transpired.  On the final day the judge changed his mind about the demonstration and asked the jury if they would like to have one – after some discussion they turned the offer down.

The jury took only half an hour to reach their verdict.  Helen and her co-defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to contravene the ancient 1735 Witchcraft Act, but not guilty on all other charges.

The presiding judge announced a weekend’s delay whilst he considered sentence.  Helen herself left the dock weeping in her broad Scottish dialect;  “I never hee’d so mony lies in a’ my life”.

Mrs Duncan was sentenced to nine months imprisonment.

When she was released from prison on 22 September 1944, Helen Duncan announced that she would never hold any more seances.  But she soon changed her mind and was holding so many that Spiritualists became concerned that she was “over-sitting”.  The quality of her manifestations had deteriorated and eventually the Spiritualist’s National Union withdrew her diploma.

In November 1956 police raided a séance in the Midlands City of Nottingham held by Helen Duncan.  They grabbed; strip-searched and took endless flashlight photographs of her.  They claimed they were looking for beards, masks and shrouds.  They found nothing.

The interruption of a physical séance is said to be extremely dangerous by Spiritualists.  The ectoplasm withdraws into the body too rapidly.  After the raid Mrs Duncan was in great discomfort and had to be treated by a doctor.  He treated her for shock and later discovered two second degree burns across her stomach.  She was so ill she returned to her family in Scotland and was hospitalised.

Five weeks after that police raid she was dead.

He walks and walks carrying a story round and round in his head. In the company of friends there are times when he’s not fully present. He walks to find solitude, to avoid conversation while he carries his thoughts on long distance trails. He climbs and climbs, meditating, his thoughts clarifying in the silence, ideas connecting, as the mountain peak nears. He pauses, knowing what to write next.

Carl MacDougall is the acclaimed Scottish writer of Elvis is Dead – a collection of short stories including Mrs Bernstein and The Lady on Horseback, published in 1986. His first novel Stone Over Water followed in 1989. ‘This novel… sets Carl MacDougall firmly among the pantheon of Kelman, Gray and Archie Hind… sparkling and exhilarating in many places; wise and, above all entertaining’, said Iain Crichton Smith. He has produced numerous works for theatre, radio and television. Russell Hoban described him as a ‘writer who is willing to be jumped on by things everyone doesn’t see’.

At age seventeen, Carl tasted ‘heaven’ when he came across Ernest Hemingway in Possilpark Library, Glasgow. During his exploration of American contemporary writers, he discovered John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, which ‘knocked him out completely’. A short time ago he spent nine to ten months working in California and took a trip to Salinas where seeing was truly believing! There he encountered ‘Lee Chong’ and ‘Flag’ restaurants – almost as if the place had been created on the back of the Steinbeck story.

‘There was something about Hemingway. You knew he was a good writer, but I couldn’t relate to it. Cannery Row was the first book I ever read that I could relate to.’

Writing is often an exploration for Carl, a means of getting in touch, not with feelings or beliefs about which he is certain, but a way of exploring the greyer areas. ‘I had a fairly traumatic childhood, which I’ve written about in the books. Therefore bits of that keep on surfacing. I’ve lived in other countries for long periods of time so elements come from this source, too.
‘Writing is also about telling lies’ he says with a laugh. He sees himself as a paid liar whose job is to make the readers believe in his lies. Sometimes the stories he makes up are based on truth, but that does not mean the truth is in them. ‘Writing a letter to your girlfriend or boyfriend will differ from the one written to your mother. You give different information’.

He remembers a time in Paris when he could not afford the price of a stamp for a letter to his mum. In it he told her how happy he was and how well his French was coming along. He was selective about his information. Choosing information in accordance with what is considered interesting to another person is what Carl - in the broader sense - does as a writer.

‘I was brought up with stories. Stories have been around all my life. There has never been a time when I’ve not had stories. My mother was a great storyteller. Her stories weren’t terribly well constructed. They didn’t have what we realised were the forces of narration and the particular narrative point or characterisation. Whether the stories worked, which they did, depended on me knowing the character, or at least knowing my mother. And what was important to that was language.’

Senile dementia was written on his mother’s death certificate. Carl watched her change into an entirely different person until she no longer knew him. He struggles to understand the transference, what caused the change? And for years he felt very angry about her condition. Today he is still angry, but sufficiently detached to enable him to analyse the process that took place.

His mother’s tragedy has taken his curious mind on another journey of inquiry. He wonders how people’s memory is affected by their refusing to deal with issues as they arise - a sort of selective memory syndrome wherre we forget what we don’t want to remember. He also wonders if, when a drop of imagination is added to this state of ‘ignoring’ or denial, then what might result is a series of memory pictures that form a fresh internal story?

Ideas are always kicking around Carl, appearing in one form and then another. He often finds himself going back to the same idea again, yet almost unawares. He can’t explain - except that he is drawn to it, and the fforce appears to be more powerful than trying to find a reason.

He illustrates a similar process at work in the simple task of buying a shirt. He knows what a shirt is and what it looks like. If he thought he needed a blue one and set off to Marks & Spencers to buy one, and then returned home with a check shirt from Frasers - where did that idea come from, he asks?

Carl is intrigued by the workings of imagination and memory and the way one affects the other. He says: ‘If what you remember is important then what does that say about what you forget? That it is unimportant? And what happens when someone reminds you of something and you smile? What happens when this new memory suddenly assumes importance again?

He finds the way time operates ‘absolutely fascinating’, and the ability we have to just move on when these slippages occur ‘amazing’. ‘Memories are poured in like water into our store and it just keeps going in.’

His new book, Painting the Forth Road Bridge, published in May, has taken two and half to three years to write. The subject is mythology, and in it he searches for the Scottish identity through the various mediums of painting, music, dance, and folklore.  He explores Scotland’s mythology and finds much of it devoid of history - mere constructs! In his opinion, Christmmas in this country has more symbols than other places with its colour red, trees, robins, fireplaces, stockings etc, all belonging to a landscape without substance.

‘The mythology I’m doing is part of a bigger mythology. I think the stuff that everyone should know is not so much about where we’re going. We’ve got to know where we came from and we’ve got to know what the basic truths of our existence are, and the lies we tell ourselves.’

He explores the perpetual need the Scottish people have for a hero whether in the form of Rabbie Burns, Willie Wallace, Billy Connolly or Ali McCoist and evaluates the saing: ‘Pity the land that has no heroes, no, pity the land that needs heroes’.
Carl has gone back to an earlier writing style, a time when he wrote specifically for the voice in order to establish characterisation through the spoken word. Along with other writers, he has played about with form and decided to reduce punctuation to the minimum ‘so that the elements of the story are not separated but instead, read as one’.

He now uses full stops, semi-colons, commas and indent paragraphs - but no exclamation marks. He avoids using question marks though admits they are sometimes necessary. Excess punctuation is ‘nudging’ or ‘fudging’. He believes the reader ‘knows’, he makes sure of that by working very hard at his craft.

His new novel, as yet untitled, took two months to write and comes out next year. The section that he spent most time on was the dinner party scene toward the end of the book, which involves seven people in conversation.

‘No names are used because these people already know each other. So the names have got to be introduced in their natural way. As I don’t use quotation marks it’s got to be obvious to the reader who is talking. And I do that with seven people. I don’t do it for very long, but that, for me, is a technical exercise. I think it works out at about four pages but it’s obvious.’

Further omissions in Carl’s writing style are ‘he said’/‘she said’s’. A disciplined writer, he apparently used to have a big sign at his desk reminding him to question all adverbs and adjectives. ‘The aim is to pare down the writing to make it as hard as possible so that what you are doing, and what you are saying will count.’

Carl has recently left Glasgow to live in a remote glen in Perthshire, Glen Lochy, which he describes as ‘stunningly gorgeous, wonderful’. Mysteriously, he wrote about moving from the country to the city and back again, in his novel The Lights Below.

He becomes animated and his speech accelerates: ‘This guy’s been released from jail and because I’m a writer I look at being in jail as a metaphor for inner stuff. So when he’s released from jail, are we really talking of release from the prison of the mind? Anyway, that’s what this guy, Andrew Patterson does. (Andrew after the patron saint and Paterson after son of the father.) He goes off and guess where he goes? He goes to the next glen that I’m living in.’

Carl wrote the story many years ago. He was familiar with Glen Lyon then but never thought he would land up living in Glen Lochy. He wonders how it happened? ‘I haven’t been in Perthshire long enough for things like this to surface.’ Once more, Carl is searching for answers, wondering about coincidences, wondering about these mysterious forces at work, once again tapping the source of a powerful energy that fuels his writing.

He has always felt perfectly happy with his peripatetic lifestyle, a reality since childhood when his life was divided for months at a time between Glasgow and Oban. Going in and out of places, however, has never bothered him.

‘The way I see it, I don’t actually come from anywhere. I’m one of these people. I don’t come from anywhere. You know you hear people saying - where are you from? and they say, ‘I’m from Stirling, I’m from Falkirk, Galloway, or a wee village somewhere. But I can’t do that.’

Perhaps it’s because he does not belong to a particular place and eludes geographical identity, that people have said of him: ‘MacDougall has always had the ability to encompass the entire country’.

The Taizé community near Lyon was founded in 1940. From there emerged the music of Taizé, now unique and world-famous. To call it music, however, is almost inaccurate. It is better described as the chanting of a simple melody sung by many people in one voice.

The Taizé sound is timeless, trans-rhythmical, having the effect of raising the spirit higher and higher, healing hurts, and also invoking prayer. Believers or non-believers alike, its calming influence enables relaxation, brings peace and more.

Jan and Brian had waited a long time for their first child. They eagerly looked forward to the joys new life would bring. Four months into the pregnancy Jan knew something was wrong.

‘I had a dream, it was so clear, but I did not want to believe it. I woke up with the knowledge that I had lost my baby.’ Jan miscarried the following day. Brian supported her as best he could but he was grieving too and doing his best to conceal his true feelings.

‘I took it very badly’, said Jan, ‘I felt that I would never get over it. The pain of the loss was unbearable. Brian and I had always talked openly about everything but I think I was so upset that it became really difficult, impossible to speak to him. I put a face on for him but as soon as he had gone to work I would burst into tears.’

Several weeks later a friend gave Jan a tape recording of the Taizé chants. The first time she played it she was touched by a sense of what she could only describe as ‘grace’. ‘I was uplifted by its beauty and the harmony gave me so much comfort.’ She had never encountered anything like it before. Although disinclined to listen to the tape, to listen in fact to any kind of music as she felt all joy had gone out of her life, she found herself playing it again.

A common experience of the Taizé chanting is that it stays with you after you have stopped playing it. Jan caught herself chanting while she was cooking or doing the housework and she felt uplifted and soothed by the experience that flowed out of her naturally yet unexpectedly.

A seed of hope had somehow been planted in her and it continued to grow. Jan shared her Taizé experience with Brian and through that medium, they began to heal their wounds and grow closer to each other again.

Many people have similarly been affected by the Taizé chanting. So what is special about the style? Part of its magic seems to be found in its simplicity and repetition. Taizé chants have an endless quality, a continuity that soothes like balm, a gentle caress that strokes and strokes until peace descends and the heart is filled with love and light.

There are few lyrics which, when repeated continuously, somehow instil calm, and seem to pervade one’s whole being. As the words are sung over and over again the singing becomes a meditation, and meditation then becomes contemplation. It is the simplicity of the arrangements and the repetition of few words that seem to facilitate a contemplative state. The beauty and power of the sounds of gentle human voices and their particular vibrations are conducive to relaxation and calm.

The music of Taizé rarely fails to move, touch, and affect individuals in some way. The sweet angelic voices and the celestial harmonies enter the soul’s depth. Taizé music is like a glimpse of heaven, a taste of joy, a drawing nearer to the ineffable.

My special favourites are from the Cantate recordings, available on CD. They are Adoramus Te Domine, Veni Sancte Spiritus and Ubi Caritas.The fact that they are sung in Latin and the meanings of the words are obscured, adds to their beautiful mystique. These songs are available in many languages.

For believers, listening to these songs can be a way of listening to God. Prayer need no longer be boring. As the simple beauty of symbols is repeated over and over again, the heart opens and the soul is nourished. Aridity vanishes as the soil is tilled and watered. The inner life cannot help but blossom and unite with God.

For agnostics or atheists there can be a sense of being awakened by beauty that induces gentle feelings of harmony. And even long after the music has ended, the benefits continue, especially tranquillity and serenity.

Amid the chaos of everyday life, the songs sustain strength and well-being. Even unawares, whether at work, in conversation, at rest, or in sleep – the memory and energy of Taizé chanting subtly continues. After a period of listening you might just find yourself humming one of those infectious beautiful songs that promotes inner peace in a noisy world.

The Taizé songs, as well as giving pleasure to countless people, elevate the spirit and can also be a soothing aid in more troubled times.

The Open Line Radio Show, now in its 24th year has become a phenomenon. It will be featured in a Channel 4 programme this summer. Andrew or ‘Andy’, as his listeners know him, has never missed one of the Saturday-Sunday slots between 11 pm and 2 am. Perhaps that explains why he gives the predictable answer when asked how he’s doing – ‘I’m hanging by a tack’.

Andrew was born and raised in Bathgate. His father worked on the railways while his mother stayed at home to look after his oldest brother – who was born profoundly handicapped. He has two younger brothers. He attended St Mary’s School until he joined a seminary, where he studied philosophy, theology and scriptures for six years.

Once ordained in Bathgate, his future was mapped out, or so he thought. He was going to go on to the Sorbonne University in Paris for further study. After passing the entrance exams and going to Paris to make the arrangements, he fell ill and ended up in hospital for 3 months. He was never to go to the Sorbonne and instead found himself in teaching and radio-broadcasting.

The Open Line is the radio equivalent of an agony aunt/counsellor, or as Andrew describes it: ‘the helpful person in the ‘stair’, of days of old, who listens and helps people help each other’. He describes his role as being a bridge between people who are able to be helpful to others in the community, and those who are frail and fragile.

‘Somehow I’m an enabler of those bridges to be built, so that people can go to a professional organisation that they would never dream of going to, or find it difficult to summon up the courage to go. If they’ve actually talked to me in the first instance, it gives them the confidence to go to these organisations.’

When Andrew has talked on air about a problem to a listener and recommended an organisation to them, not only will the person make the contact, but other listeners with similar problems will also get in touch.
His other role is to bring people together in conversation, saying to those who are in desperate trouble: ‘I was like that one year, ten years, twenty years ago, and what I did was this, and I got through it like this – and you can do the same.’

When the Open Line first started, he deliberately went on as ‘Andy’ because he felt that people might see him in a different way, if they knew he was a priest. ‘If people institutionally have seen a priest as the one who gives advice and tries to make people do what’s right, then their perception would harm what I was trying to do.’

In the beginning, there were three counsellors on the Open Line and they all aimed to come across first and foremost as caring human beings rather than as professional counsellors. They shared the view that an ordinary human being who listens can be of more value to another when he or she is fragile.

People gradually found out who Andrew really was (i.e. a priest) but by then the reactions were usually, ‘I ken you’re some sort of minister but I’ll talk to you anyway’, or ‘I never thought I’d ever talk to a priest, but you’re different so I’ll talk to you’.

He has different levels of relationship where some people talk very explicitly to him because he is a priest, and in terms of asking for prayers for loved ones that are ill and depressed and so on. There are others who totally repudiate that and see him just as a friend and a mate.

‘You get folk phoning up from the prison and saying you’re all right because you talk the same language as ourselves. And you get folk who are perhaps drug addicts or drinkers and they’ll say, I know you don’t drink but I know you understand what it’s like. And that’s fair enough.’

He copes with the pressures of the Open Line by not pretending to have all the answers but he does get involved with, and is affected by, the callers. He is adamant about that, so much so that he would say: ‘I don’t believe that a counsellor should ever be emotionally uninvolved. I think if they are, they’re monsters.’

In his view, the only good, effective counsellors are those who are prepared to be involved. That does not mean, however, that the involvement destroys them as human beings or that they allow that to happen. He thinks that all the professional skills both of support from other professionals, of opening up one’s own vulnerability are valid. ‘I believe that there is a radical difference between being emotionally involved in it and feeling the hurt, and feeling the pain and sharing it.’

People phone in about all sorts of problems. ‘If you want to analyse the content of the calls, then loneliness is going to be behind a lot of the problems that are talked about, and sometimes the problem that’s talked about is not the real one. It’s the symbol, if you like, the medium, whereby the person can talk about the loneliness and how they can cope with it, or perhaps ameliorate it.’

The Open Line has brought him many happy and sad experiences; so many, that he tends not to remember them all that well. He recalls one memory from the very earliest days of the programme. There was one woman who phoned and said that she had just come out of hospital after losing a baby. She felt she would never get over it, and felt estranged from her husband as a result.

Immediately that night, someone phoned up and said that the year before she had been in a similar situation. She wanted to reassure her that the way she felt about her husband was understandable and that it would ease and go away in time. The other feelings of love and togetherness would rediscover themselves. The caller wanted to tell her that she now had a new baby – one year after her miscarriage. Other callers phoned in to say the same thing had happened to them and that the wounds would heal. ‘That’s the sort of unfolding that is so precious’, he said.

He gave another poignant example: ‘A young man talked to me, he felt he couldn’t go on. And I talked to him about how he could find some sense of togetherness in that situation. But the next week I got a phone call from his sister saying that he had committed suicide and that he had left a letter saying that he wanted her to tell me that though he hadn’t managed to listen to my advice, though he hadn’t managed to live on, he had been given a sense of peace, that he was loved at the time he felt most alone. And she thanked me for that. You feel very small on these occasions, helpless and fragile.’

The Open Line is about fragility and frailty and if Andrew got it into his head that he was able to help everybody, then he confessed he would go mad. The only way he admits he can continue with the Open Line is twofold: accept his own frailty and the fact that ‘if we can just do a wee bit to help somebody then we are very privileged but we can never do everything. I’ve done the wee bit that I can and if I believe in a God of love and caring then I have to believe in a God who will pick up the mess that I’ve made, the fragility that I have, the frailty that I have and the little things that I try to do.’

The Open Line reflects different problems at different times: for example, when it first started issues relating to unemployment were frequently aired. Nowadays it might centre round low wages. The content of the programme reflects the wider problems in society.

When Princess Diana was killed the phone lines were flooded with people who identified with her pain because it was almost an icon for their own frailty, and they were then able to talk about their own problems in the light of that. It seems that while the superficial bits of the programme change, the profound human realities do not.

Nearly a quarter century has come and gone for ‘The Open Line’. Andrew has helped thousands of people cope with personal problems. An amazing achievement for someone who hangs by a tack!