Journey of a Spiritual Vagabond
A true account of one man’s journey through spiritual traditions, altered states, and the search for inner truth.
Why I’m Writing This This blog is an attempt to tell the story of my spiritual life as I have actually lived it. Not as a teaching.Not as a warning.Not as a manifesto. But as a record. Over the years I have moved through many spiritual worlds. I have studied within formal religious systems. I…
I have been revisiting the topic of my Honours Thesis in Studies in Religion, and it turns out to have been pretty brilliant. I will make a separate post about the incredible material I have uncovered in support of my thesis. A natural extension of my analysis of the Rg Veda was this conversation I…
The ongoing search for a cure for my narcolepsy has been a major theme in my life—a quest that has led me to cross paths with a wild array of spiritual teachers, magical healers, masters, and shamans over the years. But one of the most remarkable chapters of this search began under the vast, ancient…
At the same time as I was diving into esoteric books and developing a sharp cynicism toward organised religion, another powerful current was shaping my young mind — the world of myth, heroes, and epic adventure as depicted through movies and books. Conversations with My Father My father and I talked constantly. At the kitchen…
While I was becoming more deeply involved in the Sydney ashram — attending programs several times a week and finding my place through drumming — I was still living the life of an ordinary Australian kid. Around the age of ten I changed schools, moving to Barker College, the same Anglican boys’ school my older…
After our powerful trip to India, we returned to Australia and life fell back into a new kind of rhythm. School continued during the week, but several evenings a week my parents and I would drive to the Sydney ashram for the evening programs. I looked forward to Fridays most of all — that was…
On the second day after our arrival at the ashram, the moment we had travelled halfway around the world for finally arrived. It was time for me to visit the legendary samadhi shrine of Swami Muktananda. My parents had brought me to India in the hope that a miracle might relieve my narcolepsy. At the…
Two posts ago, I described how my parents decided to take me to India in the hope that my narcolepsy might be cured at the samadhi shrine of Swami Muktananda. My mother had read that his presence remained active there after death, and that sincere prayer could bring about miraculous healing. In the last post,…
A brief explanation In my last post I described our long and eventful journey to India, hoping for a miracle cure for my childhood narcolepsy at Muktananda’s samadhi shrine. But I realised I never properly explained what an ashram actually is. If you’re not familiar with Hindu or yogic traditions, you might be wondering: Is…
In the middle of 1983, My parents and I had been attending the new Sydney ashram for a few months. I had gotten to know most of the kids that were also regular attendees with their parents. There was a feeling of being a part of a community and I don’t remember feeling too uncomfortable…
As mentioned in my previous two posts, my mother attended a learn to meditate course run by Siddha Yoga in the hopes that it may help her deal with the stress and anxiety she was experiencing due to my brothers behaviour and myself getting narcolepsy. This was in the period immediately after the founder of…
Below is an excerpt from a short book written by my father about my mother and their relationship. It is a chapter written by my mother for a book called Living Spiritually. In it she goes into great detail about her experiences, and shows the intense nature of her love for Gurumayi, whom she wanted…
During the period when my brother’s situation was placing enormous strain on our family, my father happened to see a newspaper article about meditation groups operating around Sydney. One of the groups mentioned was the Siddha Yoga organisation, which was offering introductory courses for people interested in learning meditation. My father had always been interested…
“Before meditation and mantras, there was crisis and confusion.” While I was living what felt like an idyllic childhood, there were events unfolding in my family that I was completely unaware of. Only recently have I come to understand how much was happening behind the scenes during those years. My older brother became involved with…
I was born in the 70s, and experienced my teenage years during the 80s. Because of this I got to experience the kind of childhood many people now romanticise. We lived in a suburb called Gordon, on the North Shore of Sydney. My house was located at the end of a long street, which marked…
One of the most important influences in my early spiritual life was my father’s bookshelf. Long before I joined spiritual groups or met teachers, I was surrounded by books on magic, mysticism, and hidden worlds. My father had been interested in spirituality and the occult from an early age. He visited libraries and bought spiritual…
The Influence of My Parents To understand my own spiritual journey, it is necessary first to understand something of the two people who shaped my early life. Before I began consciously searching for spiritual truth, powerful influences were already at work in the background of my childhood. In many ways, the foundations of my later…
My spiritual life did not begin with a belief system. It began with a medical problem. As a nine-year-old, I had a whiplash accident playing cricket with the other kids in my street. Not long after, I began experiencing symptoms that didn’t make sense. I was exhausted in a way that sleep did not fix.…
Why I’m Writing This This blog is an attempt to tell the story of my spiritual life as I have actually lived it. Not as a teaching.Not as a warning.Not as a manifesto. But as a record. Over the years I have moved through many spiritual worlds. I have studied within formal religious systems. I…
Journey of a Spiritual Vagabond 