FINDING GOD IN THE CELESTIAL CITY by Paul Millward
Now available to buy on Amazon Kindle
Follow Paul on his extraordinary journey towards God in Venice. Read about the spiritual power hidden within the art of the old masters of Venice and how his exploration of the city's remarkable churches proved revelatory. He was astonished to find that the powerful Christian paintings he was witnessing became a living reality to him. Miraculously, Christ was directly calling him from the canvasses.
But it was on San Michele Island that he received the most profound spiritual revelations. Here he experienced the universe as a place of pure eternal love: "I was now seeing the world as it really is: a place of perfect harmony and perfect beauty sustained by pure love." He saw that there is no such thing as time and space - only being and eternity.
Discover how Paul used this experience to begin to transcend the world of illusions we are trapped in and find that place of pure being which exists at the core of all of us, the place where we are joined to God, a place of pure joy and bliss suspended within the eternal moment.
If you would like to buy this book or find out more about it, just click on the link below:
FINDING GOD IN THE CELESTIAL CITY
BIO
Paul is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about culture, travel and spirituality. He has travelled extensively over the years and enjoys using those experiences to create both fictional and factual stories ranging from the amusing to the profound. He has explored Italy in some depth and is a great art lover with a special interest in the Italian Renaissance.
Some years ago Paul had a remarkable spiritual experience in Venice which changed his life. Here he experienced the world as a place of pure love and this has become the bedrock of his Christian faith. He is keen to use his writing skills to inspire seekers of truth and meaning and help people understand the healing powers which can transform their lives. He has learnt that many of our problems are caused by dysfunctional thinking which blinds us to who we really are - pure loving spirits.
Paul has now written a book about his Venice experiences because he wants others to know the wonderful truth about the true nature of reality. There are many people today who are searching for spiritual answers and he believes his story could initiate spiritual development in their lives. It could be of great benefit to anyone struggling to make sense of their lives in an apparently insane world and is full of fascinating spiritual insights.
MUSIC AS THERAPY
Paul Millward
I have naturally been using music as a way of entering an altered state of consciousness for so long now that it has only been in recent years that I have realised that I have been practicing a form of self-hypnosis and meditation. But it is now scientifically recognised that music can help a person enter a trance- like state where self-hypnosis becomes possible. Hypnosis can be a life changing experience; it enables an individual to enter a deeply relaxed state where they can make major health related decisions regarding addictive habits like smoking, drinking and drug taking.
Meditation is also an excellent way of reducing stress and people who do it regularly find it easier to change addictive habits like the ones mentioned above. The medical profession is now waking up to the potential that music has to enable a person to enter a meditative state, and for those who find the idea of formal meditation a little intimidating as I do, music can be used as a slightly easier alternative.
Music can have the most profound effect on both mind and body. Researchers have discovered that when the brain interacts with music, the brain actually changes. This explains my own experiences of listening to music, which seems to have the power to transform me and is as nourishing to my spirit as food and drink is to the body. In fact music is as essential to my existence as eating and drinking. If I go more than a day or so without listening to music I begin to whither and my mood lowers, but once exposed to music again I instantly become overwhelmingly happy.
The therapeutic effects of music on the deepest parts of our spirit and psyche have been known for many centuries. Doctors have long recognised the powerful healing effects of music when applied to seriously traumatised patients: for example music was used in hospitals after both world wars as part of the convalescence program of recovering soldiers. Today there is a recognised branch of healthcare known as music therapy which specifically uses music to heal people.
The medical profession is now finally tapping into the potential that music has to make positive changes in people's lives. Hospitals are beginning to use music to combat the debilitating effects of depression. Listening to appropriate music has the power to dispel the dark clouds of anxiety and despair and lift our mood into sunny optimistic skies – music gives us hope, music gives us love, music transcends our personal circumstances and can take us to other dimensions.
It is commonplace for many people to use music as a way of relaxing in a very informal way, but research has shown that music can be used by healthcare professionals to calm patients with serious anxiety and stress problems. It can be effective when applied to hyperactive patients who need to relax and it has been found to be particularly helpful with children suffering from ADD. Music not only changes our mental state, it can also change us physically and healthcare experts now encourage patients to listen to music to relax their bodies and ease muscle tension.
Meanwhile I continue to enter a world of overwhelming bliss by immersing myself in my own personal music collection. Some of my favourites are The Beatles, The Cocteau Twins and Puccini! But obviously it's down to personal taste, so have fun searching for the music of your dreams; it's all out there somewhere, just waiting to be discovered.
EAST MEETS WEST: THE BEATLES AND THE MAHARISHI
Paul Millward
Fifty years ago on 5th October 1962, the Beatles released their first single Love Me Do, launching the most successful recording career of all time. Within a few short years these four liverpool lads would become the most famous young men on the planet, whose music and personalities would conquer the world.
The Beatles were musical evangelists, placed into a position of monumental influence in order to spread the gospel of love and joy to the world. Through the mid-sixties they developed both musically and spiritually at extraordinary speed, their Eastern influences being most clearly displayed on Tomorrow Never Knows, the remarkable finale to the Revolver album. By 1968, when the Beatles went to India to study under the spiritual tutelage of the Maharishi, they were already familiar with certain aspects of Eastern thinking and culture which had been informing their music and lyrics for the past three years.
As early as 1965 they were proclaiming spiritual love as the answer to life with a track called The Word, unobtrusively tucked away on the Rubber Soul album. As the sixties progressed the Beatles embraced the burgeoning hippie movement, naturally finding themselves the unofficial leaders of the world's youth and spokesmen for the counter culture. Their message of love and peace reached its apotheosis in the summer of love of 1967, with the live recording of All You Need Is Love, transmitted around the world to millions.
The Beatles saw the Maharishi as a vehicle to generate new ideas to promote global peace and also to develop their own personal spirituality. They were the four most successful people on the planet with wealth and fame beyond compare, but they were too intelligent to believe that this in itself equated to true happiness, and it was happiness which the Maharishi was most keen to bring to people through the practice of Transcendental Meditation: "Under all circumstances be happy. Just think of any negativity that comes at you as a raindrop falling into the oceans of your bliss."
The Maharishi developed the TM method of meditation in 1955 and began his first world tour promoting it in 1958. He argued that TM was a way of unlocking the infinite capacity we all have within us: "Within everyone is an unlimited reservoir of energy, intelligence, and happiness". In many ways The Beatles and the Maharishi were made for each other. The Beatle's music was an expression of the very joy and bliss that the Maharishi proclaimed was accessible through his meditation technique. The Maharishi's "energy, intelligence and happiness" could easily be a description of Beatle music.
During their time together in India, the Maharishi taught the Beatles about the illusory nature of the world, or "Maya", and that meditation was a way of attaining spiritual peace, giving each Beatle his own personal mantra. For John and George in particular, meditation was a way of finding true meaning and insight into life, furnishing them with ideas for both personal and global peace.
The Beatles time in Rishikesh, India with the Maharishi has been described as possibly the most significant spiritual retreat since Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness. It generated the most extraordinary publicity, capturing the spirit of the times perfectly, introducing new spiritual concepts to the West which have informed generations of spiritual seekers ever since.
FINDING GOD IN THE CELESTIAL CITY by Paul Millward
Now available to buy on Amazon Kindle
Follow Paul on his extraordinary journey towards God in Venice. Read about the spiritual power hidden within the art of the old masters of Venice and how his exploration of the city's remarkable churches proved revelatory. He was astonished to find that the powerful Christian paintings he was witnessing became a living reality to him. Miraculously, Christ was directly calling him from the canvasses.
But it was on San Michele Island that he received the most profound spiritual revelations. Here he experienced the universe as a place of pure eternal love: "I was now seeing the world as it really is: a place of perfect harmony and perfect beauty sustained by pure love." He saw that there is no such thing as time and space - only being and eternity.
Discover how Paul used this experience to begin to transcend the world of illusions we are trapped in and find that place of pure being which exists at the core of all of us, the place where we are joined to God, a place of pure joy and bliss suspended within the eternal moment.
If you would like to buy this book or find out more about it, just click on the link below:
FINDING GOD IN THE CELESTIAL CITY
BIO
Paul is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about culture, travel and spirituality. He has travelled extensively over the years and enjoys using those experiences to create both fictional and factual stories ranging from the amusing to the profound. He has explored Italy in some depth and is a great art lover with a special interest in the Italian Renaissance.
Some years ago Paul had a remarkable spiritual experience in Venice which changed his life. Here he experienced the world as a place of pure love and this has become the bedrock of his Christian faith. He is keen to use his writing skills to inspire seekers of truth and meaning and help people understand the healing powers which can transform their lives. He has learnt that many of our problems are caused by dysfunctional thinking which blinds us to who we really are - pure loving spirits.
Paul has now written a book about his Venice experiences because he wants others to know the wonderful truth about the true nature of reality. There are many people today who are searching for spiritual answers and he believes his story could initiate spiritual development in their lives. It could be of great benefit to anyone struggling to make sense of their lives in an apparently insane world and is full of fascinating spiritual insights.
MUSIC AS THERAPY
Paul Millward
I have naturally been using music as a way of entering an altered state of consciousness for so long now that it has only been in recent years that I have realised that I have been practicing a form of self-hypnosis and meditation. But it is now scientifically recognised that music can help a person enter a trance- like state where self-hypnosis becomes possible. Hypnosis can be a life changing experience; it enables an individual to enter a deeply relaxed state where they can make major health related decisions regarding addictive habits like smoking, drinking and drug taking.
Meditation is also an excellent way of reducing stress and people who do it regularly find it easier to change addictive habits like the ones mentioned above. The medical profession is now waking up to the potential that music has to enable a person to enter a meditative state, and for those who find the idea of formal meditation a little intimidating as I do, music can be used as a slightly easier alternative.
Music can have the most profound effect on both mind and body. Researchers have discovered that when the brain interacts with music, the brain actually changes. This explains my own experiences of listening to music, which seems to have the power to transform me and is as nourishing to my spirit as food and drink is to the body. In fact music is as essential to my existence as eating and drinking. If I go more than a day or so without listening to music I begin to whither and my mood lowers, but once exposed to music again I instantly become overwhelmingly happy.
The therapeutic effects of music on the deepest parts of our spirit and psyche have been known for many centuries. Doctors have long recognised the powerful healing effects of music when applied to seriously traumatised patients: for example music was used in hospitals after both world wars as part of the convalescence program of recovering soldiers. Today there is a recognised branch of healthcare known as music therapy which specifically uses music to heal people.
The medical profession is now finally tapping into the potential that music has to make positive changes in people's lives. Hospitals are beginning to use music to combat the debilitating effects of depression. Listening to appropriate music has the power to dispel the dark clouds of anxiety and despair and lift our mood into sunny optimistic skies – music gives us hope, music gives us love, music transcends our personal circumstances and can take us to other dimensions.
It is commonplace for many people to use music as a way of relaxing in a very informal way, but research has shown that music can be used by healthcare professionals to calm patients with serious anxiety and stress problems. It can be effective when applied to hyperactive patients who need to relax and it has been found to be particularly helpful with children suffering from ADD. Music not only changes our mental state, it can also change us physically and healthcare experts now encourage patients to listen to music to relax their bodies and ease muscle tension.
Meanwhile I continue to enter a world of overwhelming bliss by immersing myself in my own personal music collection. Some of my favourites are The Beatles, The Cocteau Twins and Puccini! But obviously it's down to personal taste, so have fun searching for the music of your dreams; it's all out there somewhere, just waiting to be discovered.
EAST MEETS WEST: THE BEATLES AND THE MAHARISHI
Paul Millward
Fifty years ago on 5th October 1962, the Beatles released their first single Love Me Do, launching the most successful recording career of all time. Within a few short years these four liverpool lads would become the most famous young men on the planet, whose music and personalities would conquer the world.
The Beatles were musical evangelists, placed into a position of monumental influence in order to spread the gospel of love and joy to the world. Through the mid-sixties they developed both musically and spiritually at extraordinary speed, their Eastern influences being most clearly displayed on Tomorrow Never Knows, the remarkable finale to the Revolver album. By 1968, when the Beatles went to India to study under the spiritual tutelage of the Maharishi, they were already familiar with certain aspects of Eastern thinking and culture which had been informing their music and lyrics for the past three years.
As early as 1965 they were proclaiming spiritual love as the answer to life with a track called The Word, unobtrusively tucked away on the Rubber Soul album. As the sixties progressed the Beatles embraced the burgeoning hippie movement, naturally finding themselves the unofficial leaders of the world's youth and spokesmen for the counter culture. Their message of love and peace reached its apotheosis in the summer of love of 1967, with the live recording of All You Need Is Love, transmitted around the world to millions.
The Beatles saw the Maharishi as a vehicle to generate new ideas to promote global peace and also to develop their own personal spirituality. They were the four most successful people on the planet with wealth and fame beyond compare, but they were too intelligent to believe that this in itself equated to true happiness, and it was happiness which the Maharishi was most keen to bring to people through the practice of Transcendental Meditation: "Under all circumstances be happy. Just think of any negativity that comes at you as a raindrop falling into the oceans of your bliss."
The Maharishi developed the TM method of meditation in 1955 and began his first world tour promoting it in 1958. He argued that TM was a way of unlocking the infinite capacity we all have within us: "Within everyone is an unlimited reservoir of energy, intelligence, and happiness". In many ways The Beatles and the Maharishi were made for each other. The Beatle's music was an expression of the very joy and bliss that the Maharishi proclaimed was accessible through his meditation technique. The Maharishi's "energy, intelligence and happiness" could easily be a description of Beatle music.
During their time together in India, the Maharishi taught the Beatles about the illusory nature of the world, or "Maya", and that meditation was a way of attaining spiritual peace, giving each Beatle his own personal mantra. For John and George in particular, meditation was a way of finding true meaning and insight into life, furnishing them with ideas for both personal and global peace.
The Beatles time in Rishikesh, India with the Maharishi has been described as possibly the most significant spiritual retreat since Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness. It generated the most extraordinary publicity, capturing the spirit of the times perfectly, introducing new spiritual concepts to the West which have informed generations of spiritual seekers ever since.
