Personal Details:
My Background
Ray Edwards
Born 11 April 1948
Trained and studied Karate and the martial arts for over 20 years
Taught Self Defence
Taught Karate
Gave demonstrations
Studied Buddhist, Zen and simple Meditation for many years
Worked and studied at Birmingham University for 10 years on various aspects of development and communication and Finance (CIPFA qualified in 1971) including teaching senior academics. Financial consultant for 14 years.
Attended Spiritual Churches and courses regularly since 1999
Achieved a Diploma in Anatomy and Physiology in 2000
Qualified in Bowen Therapy in 2003
Qualified in Spiritual Healing in 2005
Qualified as a Reiki Master in 2008
Sat for development with Robert and Judy Le Besque for 7 years
Sat for Trance development since 2006
Facilitated a home development circle for 5 years
Hosted development workshops in Evesham for 8 years
Attended Cober Hill Spiritual Development Courses every year for 10 years
Tutored at Cober Hill courses for three years
Tutored in the areas of Healing Methods, Inspiration and Awareness
Been receiving inspired poetry and writings since 2005
Have published four inspired poetry books, one on trance, am writing four more
Edited/contributed to other spiritual books for Jacqui Rogers and Robert Le Besque
Regular Facebook contributor for inspired poetry for 8 years
Tutor for group and individual Spiritual Development since 2016
Member of Internet Trance Speaking and Teaching Circle since Oct 2018
About Ray Edwards
Growing up in London in the early 1950’s my earliest recollections were coloured by memories of a life much quieter and calmer than seems possible now. World War 2 was not long over; people of other nationalities were a rarity; buses and trains would get you anywhere, the radio was the main national entertainment (I had a home made crystal set on the shelf over my bed); people read books for pleasure and talked to each other with a genuine desire to connect; politicians were honourable people with a sense of responsibility and service; there was hope for what the future would bring and respect and fairness were predominant in joined up communities which took care to look after and look out for each other and their own families. Large numbers of people still went to church and Sunday School was the norm for young children. Church fayres and jumble sales were packed with people, and there was never much left afterwards.
Television (when it did arrive) was in small 9 inch screens and black and white only. There were no daytime programmes, no commercial channels, and no TV at all on Sunday nights after 6pm! Skiffle and jazz were the daring new music of the pre rock and roll era. Family Favourites, Children’s Hour, the Goon Show, the Navy Lark, Beyond our Ken, Listen with Mother, Workers Playtime and Forces Favourites were listened to avidly. There were relatively few motor cars (and no motorways), even fewer households with a phone (mobile phones had not been invented), there were two post deliveries per day – regularly – and policemen were there to protect the law abiding and not the human rights of those arrested! Winning the Football Pools was everyone’s dream of making a fortune (and everyone supported a team somewhere). England did indeed seem a very green and pleasant land!
I read a wide variety of books (often under my bedclothes at night, when I should have been going to sleep) ranging from science fiction (which is exactly what it was then – I remember the first sputnik being launched by the Russians), historical accounts of Roman, Greek and English battles and campaigns, the Famous Five and Secret Seven, boys adventure stories, Billy Bunter, and the adventures of The Saint.
I was introduced to the wonders of the art world with my father being artistic and collecting a series of books about the great masters - full of wonderful colour pictures (I remember liking Reubens because he used a lot of red paint, Salavador Dali whose pictures were busy and outrageous, and Picasso who appeared as if he liked a drink from the way he painted people). Many books then were still black and white only, but the colour was added by the reader’s imagination. On the family bookshelf there was also a poetry book called he Golden Treasury, which I looked at occasionally and understood very little of – I seem to recall liking verses by Rudyard Kipling.
At school I was quite good at reading and spelling, but got progressively lazy as I my school career reached its latter years. I moved up to Solihull when I was 11 years old, and really felt as if my roots had been cut. My only sister stayed in London when we moved, and home life was never quite the same again.
My first real interest in writing poetry seemed to be ignited during family stays on a farm in Derbyshire during the autumn school half term holidays, and then only the odd verse here and there. I have included two of those verses in this first book to show those first inspirations. It was not until I became involved with the spiritualist church and went on a course in Cober Hill in Yorkshire in 2006 that things really began to happen. It was then that my meditations began to produce inspired verse in significant quantity – and so I was hooked!
In October 2005 I was fortunate enough to be invited to join the Lyndhurst Development Circle led by Robert Lebesque. I was very nervous and unsure of why I was there. The friendly and supportive environment at the circle gradually led me to relax and relate to the world of spirit in ways I might not have found elsewhere.
In February 2006, as a result of encouragement from friends at Circle, I enrolled to go on the Family Gathering III spiritual development course at Cober Hill near Scarborough. Whilst sitting in one of the morning meditations, I found that I was being inspired to write verse. It was brought into my mind at quite a fast rate, and the verse “God’s Ministers” was written. I read it out to the assembled friends at the Gathering, and it was very popular. More verses came during the rest of that course and I wrote them in my journal, my constant companion.
After my return from FGIII, I started to find that verses kept coming into my mind at all sorts of different times, and on all sorts of different topics. I started to use a small digital voice recorder to get them down, so that I didn’t lose them. In 2008 I had over 300 completed verses and over 500 works in progress.
7 x 7 + 7 Book
Having read some of my verses to others, I was encouraged to get them into print in order to be able to share them with others. This also seemed to be what my inspirers wanted, and who am I to argue? I believed this was the first in a series of books I would bring together and look forward to working on future ones.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the help of Robert Goodwin, my printer and publisher, whose details were given to me at Family Gathering IV, and without whose help this book would not exist.
Do you remember when you were a kid and someone gave you a sixpence? (Ooops, showing my age there – would have to be at least 50p these days!); and you just had to go and spend it? No idea what on, but it was burning a hole in your hand saying “spend me, spend me!”. Well that’s the way it is with my inspirations. I get all these writings and I know I’ve got to get them out there to share with others. This time I didn’t know how to do it, or what format it had to take. The words were burning holes in my brain, saying “publish me, Ray, publish me!”.
Now what was that other book to be about? Oh yes, the one for kids (of all ages, of course!). No rest for the wicked, and boy…..must I have been wicked somewhere along the line………!
Captain Hubble Bubble Gum’s Disciple Book
A while ago I was prompted by a medium that I should consider producing a book for children. Although it sounded a nice idea, I had no idea how to set about it, so I “parked” it.
Now as any Spiritualist will know, if you happen to “park” one of their ideas – they remind you.
A few months later, I was prompted again – this time with a slightly heavier nudge. I was told it should be a book for children of all ages. So I thought I’d better listen this time.
One of the things I learned very early on about Spiritualism is that two of the primary qualities for being involved are Trust and Patience. So what did I do when confronted with the idea of having to produce this book for children? I drew on all of my innate qualities, my training, my self-discipline and my skills and talents – and I panicked!
How was I to write a children’s book? I didn’t know where to start! It was ages since I’d been a kid (although I have been told I act like a big kid at times!) – and kids of today are different.
“So what did you do for the last book?” a voice inside my head asked. I thought back. I’d gathered together all the verses which seemed to fit the theme before trying to write anything else – ok, so perhaps I should do the same this time? I did.
OK. I now had a nice quantity of poems all sitting peacefully and expectantly in a lever arch file – Stage 1 complete!
“What next?” I asked. Nothing. I asked again. Nothing. I asked many times in many different ways. Nothing – not a peep!
“So where do I start?” I asked again one day, expecting the usual nothing. “At the beginning?” came the helpful suggestion. “But the beginning of what?” I asked. Silence.
I thought of trying to write a children’s story like my friend Judy does – but it didn’t feel right. I couldn’t think of a story anyway.
I thought about dividing the book into separate sections with some verses, some games and some pictures – but I couldn’t think what the sections should be.
Was that a tapping noise in my head? Someone drumming their fingers impatiently? “Am I getting anywhere near?” I pleaded. Nothing.
“I am trying very hard!” I say. “I have been thinking about this book over and over and I just don’t know what to do – it’s just not happening!”.
I heard a hissing noise in my head. I listen more carefully. It’s not a hiss. It’s the word TRUST being repeated over and over. Just as I was typing this on my computer my doorbell went off immediately after I typed the word trust – and, guess what – there was no one there!
“I do trust” I say, “but I don’t know what to do.”
“Do you listen?” came the question.
“Yes, you know I do, or I wouldn’t have files full of poems from you”
“And how did you get those?”
“I listened and wrote down what I was given”
“Did you question what you were given, or have to think about it?”
“It works better if I don’t question, but just empty my head and write what I am given” I responded.
“And what was our advice to you about this new book?”
“The only thing you’ve told me is to start at the beginning” I whinge rather pathetically.
“Then why haven’t you started?”
“Because I don’t know where to start!” I was beginning to sound a bit irritated.
I hear an audible sigh. “Then try taking the ‘I’ out of it” came the suggestion.
“You mean just sit down at the computer and see what happens without thinking about it?” I begin to feel a bit stupid now – why hadn’t I thought of this before?
A slight pause, then I’m sure I heard “By Jove I think he’s finally got it!!!”
As I said in my last book, I can be a bit slow at times!
“But that’s so easy, why didn’t you help me see it was that easy?”
“You didn’t ask us to make it easy: but you did say you wanted to ‘work’ for Spirit…..
Perhaps you should have been more careful in your choice of words…………?”
I hope I didn’t detect a slight smugness in the voice that said that – no, it must have been my imagination.
Spiritual Spaghetti Book
You know what it’s like when you’re a spiritualist – nothing’s ever simple – well, it is, it’s just that the stuff which goes on in our heads makes it seem not simple.
Working for Spirit is great, and very rewarding – you just need to know what they want you to do, how and when to do it and then you just get on with it! Easy, right?
You expect to have to explain and justify your self to others who challenge you, even other Spiritualists at times (in fact, often other Spiritualists at times!), but what came as a bit of a surprise to me were the challenges from inside my head – and it’s the same whichever head I happen to have on that day! You may understand that last bit when you’ve read a bit more of the book – if you do, you can let me know and explain it to me, as I’m still working on it!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very lucky. Spirit made it clear to me that I was to receive writings, and I was told by several other mediums that I must publish what I get to share it with others. I was fortunate with my first book “7 x 7 + 7”, which was inspired as an alternative view of the seven basic principles of Spiritualism. Mind you they did spring the odd surprise even on that one. I had just about finished the first draft when a voice in my head said “OK, now what about the illustrations?”. I am no artist, so this presented quite a challenge. But I asked for help (pleaded is probably closer), and in a fairly short time I received the inspirations necessary to complete the fully illustrated work.
So when I was told that I was to do a second book, I thought “OK, they’ll tell me what to do and I’ll just get on with it………..”
How could I forget that the phrase “Working for Spirit” actually includes the word “Work”? So I kept on piling up the inspired writings and asking “OK, chaps, now what? What is it supposed to be about?”. For about six months I was doing this and seemingly getting no answers. I was really bogged down with my day job – the one which pays the bills – and kept thinking “I’m too busy working to pay the bills to get the inspiration for this next book project, what I need is some inner peace”.
Now some years ago I got involved with a group of people from an organisation called “Inner Peace”, which I never pursued the way I would have liked as circumstances were not providential at the time – but in Inner Peace the Earth was often referred to as “The Planet of Emotions”. This suddenly struck a chord as I realised that many of the writings I’d received were centred on emotions (a voice in my head said “you’re getting warmer”). My development circle leader, Robert, has an inspirer who’s always saying “Connections, connections, it’s all about connections dear boy”. So what if I put together a book about emotions? (That voice said “getting even warmer now”). Then I thought “Oh, but how do I do that – I’m so busy working?”.
Have you ever heard the sound of insubstantial Spirits banging their heads on non-existent walls? – rather like radio static between your ears!.
I was guided to extract all the writings I could put together about emotions in one lever arch file (“almost getting hot now!” the voice said). Then I was inspired to think about all the emotions which go through my head in one 24 hour day (smoke was starting to appear!).
It’s probably a good job that Spirit have a different view of time to us, they obviously know by now that I’m not the quickest to catch on………..
About this time I had booked a week’s holiday for my partner and myself in Cornwall. Events took over and it ended up as a holiday for one due to circumstances beyond our control. So there I am, on my own in Cornwall, with a lever arch file full of writings and no other work to do. So it was that the first draft of this book came to be written, which ended up as a day in my head, going through all the emotions experienced in a day – yes, you guessed it – a day at work!!
The Philosopher, Jaria and Seeker Book
In February 2018 I was fortunate enough to attend the Circle of Feathers spiritual retreat at Cober Hill near Scarborough. I was going through a difficult time having fairly recently come out of a relationship which I had hoped would be a rest of life journey. I was feeling a bit lost and looking for a new direction. It was good to be around friends, old and new, who accepted me for what I am and encouraged me to persevere.
I had booked a reading with my friend Steve Newton as part of my hope to find what I should be doing – at least spiritually. During that reading Steve said he felt it would be good for me to try and work with an internet group, having had involvement with them himself in the past….
“You could work far and wide across the world, through the internet. Now, I’m going to say to you that when you meditate you travel and you travel to far off strange places and you get strange colourful psychedelic….. What I am trying to say to you is that you perfectly have the ability to cross the world in the blink of an eye and that is why working online you won’t have a problem. There are some reservations with you about this online business because you like to be in the power. So what I would say to you is that you can build your sacred space in your one bedroom place and allow the conscious minds of the circle to come to you – and that is basically working more on a spirit level rather than on a physical level.”
I wasn’t sure how that would work, but I accepted the advice and put it onto my mental ‘to do’ list. I have to say – this is usually fatal…unless I write things down and put effort into them they gradually slide off that mental list into oblivion. But spirit had other ideas…
On 22 September 2018 I was asked by a Facebook friend “Are you looking for an online trance circle?” This was not someone I had regular contact with at the time and it literally came out of the blue. I got the hint! Spirit know I can be a bit of a slow starter at times – in fact, most of the time they are telling me…I spoke to the circle leader who lives in the USA and I was duly invited to be part of the circle – a small group of six/ seven people who met every Friday evening at 8.30pm UK time. The other members included two from the UK and the others at various places in the States.
The first meeting I joined was on 12 October 2018. It had been about four years since I had sat in a trance circle, which was an ‘in person’ group with my old friend and tutor Rev Robert Le Besque of Bretforton, Worcestershire and his lovely wife Judy. So I was not sure whether it would work for me – or, indeed, how it would work at all, by connecting through Zoom, the internet conferencing facility.
The first meeting was very much a ‘getting to know you’ and balancing the energies event for both human and spiritual energies. To be quite honest – I was astonished to find that I could feel the energy as well as if I was sitting in the same room with everyone – this blew me away! Well, spirit seemed to know what they were doing and I had a communicator who came to speak through me who indicated he would like to be known as “The Philosopher”. The Philosopher seemed to be quite knowledgeable, humble and have a bigger picture overview. He was soon to be joined by a lovely female energy, about a month later, who wished to be known as “Jaria”. She was the other end of the spectrum – with a very simple view of how life should be led.
“The Philosopher” started to come through most weeks and spoke on a variety of topics. He seems particularly concerned that all trance mediums accept the importance of not just sitting in a circle, but of sharing the message of the words from spirit to as wide an audience as possible. He sees this as a very important part of our role.
This was soon to be reinforced quite directly when in February 2019 I had another communicator known as “Seeker” whose first communication was to ask the question “I would like just ask you to remember the question why am I a trance medium? Think - for you need to understand why you are doing this, it is not just so you may have lovely friendly conversations each Friday”. Nothing like being direct…
Our internet circle leader, Julie, has been inspired to use our circle as a teaching circle to help other groups to learn how to establish themselves and run as an online trance circle. There are so many who do not have access to ‘in person’ groups, so the internet offers a viable alternative for the many spiritual seekers who are hundreds or even thousands of miles apart.
I have also been prompted to do what I can to help in this mission – as I was with my inspired spiritual poetry when I started to receive that in 2005. I now use Facebook to do this, as well as having self-published four books in the past (last one in 2012) and I am now working on another four books which I keep getting regular reminders from spirit to get on with, through various mediums. So I have put this book together to help share the wisdom and guidance received from my spirit friends over the first six months of the internet circle.
All our circles are recorded and we produce transcripts so that there is a record of what has been received from spirit. This book produces those transcripts for each of the communicators, each week, which I have linked with some other words and inspirations which seem appropriate. I hope they are of interest and inspiration to all of those who read them.
Latest Situation
I now have over 5,000 completed poems which are added to each week – the pace has slowed down in recent months
I have plans ahead for more books, depending on finances and time and have mostly prepared the poetry to be included. I have also been ‘told’ that there is another book which will not be poetry but prose.
No rest for the wicked – and boy I must have been……….
Ray
12 Dec 2024