Back in the mid-eighties, I hosted a radio show. My guests were people who were at the cutting edge in their fields. I covered everything on all four levels of human existence -- body, mind, emotions and spirit.

One of the guests that I enjoyed the most was Ram Dass. His message was simple -- "Be Here Now."

This message flew in the face of many spiritual seekers who believed fervently that the only way to enlightenment was to disdain the body and meditate long and hard in order to release the spirit from the body.

Then one day I interviewed an eccentric black and white photographer named William Giles. Giles was a protege of Minor White and had been a full professor at Rochester. But that was before he took his camera and began his spiritual journey. At each step along his path, he documented his journey.

When I interviewed Giles, he said that Little Joe told him he was on the earth and of the earth. This was similar to what Ram Dass was teaching. Little Joe was a Hopi Elder. Giles participated in many Hopi rituals during the seven years he studied with Little Joe. Many of them involved the use of mind expanding substances.

Giles never really described to me what he saw or experienced during these rituals, but the thing he said that has remained with me all these years is this.

"While you are on the earth, you are of the earth. When you are spirit, you are spirit. If God wanted you to be spirit, you wouldn't have a body."

He went on to say that "Before enlightenment you chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, you chop wood and carry water. You have a body so God can work through you and perform His miracles upon the earth. Enlightenment is a life long process of cleaning your lens so light can shine through you with no distortion."

Giles taught me that the cleaner your lens, i.e.; the more you have purified your "human nature", the more purely you can reflect God to others. Photography is all about light... about the reflection of light. Living a spiritual life is allowing God to reflect your light to the world... and vice versa, allowing yourself to reflect God's light to the world.

Giles lived for years in solitude in the middle of a forest near the ashram of Baba Ji. He also lived with the Hopis. During these years he was balancing his left brain academic training with his right brain spiritual self. After many years of solitude, he moved to New York City, and then to a warehouse studio in the industrial area of Los Angeles. Why did he do this?

He believes that you must use all your training to make your part of the world, beautiful enough for God. For Giles, it didn't matter if his world was a slum or a paradise, there was always something he could do to make it a better place. I own two of his photographs that he gave the same name: "The Eye of God". One of the photographs looks exactly like an eye, but it is a reflection from the pool in Zeus's cave, after a drop of water had fallen into it. The other photograph also looks like an eye, but it is an old and rotting, tar and gravel roof on the warehouse in east L.A. The two "eyes of God" make me realize that "wherever you are -- there you are" -- (another Giles aphorism) -- wherever you are, it is you and your mind through which you filter your surroundings. A palace can become a prison, a slum can become paradise, or paradise can be paved to put up a parking lot.

When local politicians were going to put a four lane freeway over the only open space left next to the ocean, Giles prepared a presentation using color slides and music. He said nothing, he let his images tell the story. Over twenty years later, that piece of land, is still pristine and untouched. The people who wander through it have no idea that one man with a camera was able to change the "vision" of a city council and preserve a small piece of earth as it was before asphalt.

When he moved into the warehouse in Los Angeles, the neighborhood was dangerous. People had been murdered in the alley behind his studio. Giles used his "light" to bring the community together. They became a family who looked out for each other. An alley that had been full of garbage, human and otherwise, was tranformed through flowers and brooms. It became a little bit of paradise on earth.

His studio became a gathering place for directors, photographers, writers, artists, students and teachers of all kinds. As he shared his artistic gifts he also allowed God to radiate from his clear and undistorted "lens".

He was the one who taught me that it is a waste of our God given life to sit and meditate in our cave. Quiet time and reflection are important in order to clean your "lens" so God can flow through you undistorted... but God needs you in the world. God needs clear people through whom He can work his miracles.

As Ram Dass said, "Be Here Now." Live your life consciously and use your God given blessings to make a difference.

The magic of this Forum is that we seem to be able to cross the divide from the spiritual to the material without missing a beat. We can flow from politics, death and destruction to uplifting thoughts that allow our spirit to soar. Each of us is both student and teacher.

Rumor Mill readers choose to get involved. All you have to do is read the message from Les Coleman, (front page, left column) to understand what we -- as a community -- are able to accomplish.

The Founding Fathers were a very small percentage of the people who lived in the colonies, but their vision changed the world.

While the rest of the political online magazines have been following the most extraordinary political crisis of our nation, people on Rumor Mill have been keeping a perfect balance of mind, body and spirit.... and I almost forgot .. politics!

This is what I love about the Forum. While it can get mean and nasty at times -- it can also give you what you need to allow your spirit to soar.

Thanks to all of you for making it the success it has become! And thanks to all of you who have realized that I can't do this by myself. From the moment bj posted her comment about my having to return to work, the clicks on the banners have gone from 20 or less to over 80 each day. I have already received almost $100.00 through Pay Pal. I need to realize that I have to ask for help. If I don't, no one will know I need it. I am in the process of creating a page that lets people know that Rumor Mill is paid for and run by one person who needs to ask for help occasionally to keep it going.

Rayelan
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: One of my favorite Don Juan lines is when Carlos asks him why
: the Yaqui brujo gave him all those different drugs.
: "Because you're dumb" said Juan. I saw Carlos'
: ubiquitous notebook as representing his consciousness, by
: which he thought he could learn the Yaqui way. But the
: magic is in the unconscious, yes? How can you dance if
: you're thinking about it?

: The process of "civilizing" us cuts our links to our
: own psyche, and therefore to our magic. Years ago I read a
: book by an Englishman who studied with the Arab mystics
: called Sufis. He began remembering his dreams. One night he
: dreamed the same dream he recalled having at age 8, where
: he "flew". But near the end of that boyhood dream
: he knew he would never dream of "flying" again. I
: put the book down and cried.

: The road back is arduous, for there are demons within, with
: whom we must come to terms. But under all is our True Self.

: In Crowley's system of ritual "magick" is a concept
: called lust of result. You put as much power and intent
: into the ritual as you can, and then you "forget"
: your objective--i.e., leave it up to your unconscious to
: carry out. Any conscious fragment of intent (lust of
: result) screws up the working.

: Enough rambling. Rayelan, this forum is one of the most
: beautiful and magical places I have ever known. I will
: click on the ads, and send you what I can. Thank you so
: much!