THE SEEKER
God, the Devil and Me by Valerie Georgeson
Available from www.o-books.com
Deep inside every human being there is a void that longs to be filled. Something is missing; and we have a profound longing for it. It’s been there since we were born, an aching need that never seems to go away. And we don’t know what that something is. We look everywhere, seeking satisfaction, but soon find that material things don’t satisfy. Nothing lasts. Nor does power, status, or achievement. We long for love and in the end, peace. But, living as we do in a time/space continuum, we cannot hold onto even that. Everything passes. Early man was just like us. Looking up at the starry sky, he too saw the movement of the stars, the seasons passing, our bodies growing old. And the old familiar heartache erupted into a heart wrenching cry for something that never changes, something beyond himself, something ‘other’. It was a Copernican moment before its time.
That was when God came into it, God, the ultimate ‘other’. Let us put ourselves into the place of our ancestors. Looking upwards, watching the stars, our brains fell silent, awed by the immensity of the night sky. Silent brains open their doors to the thoughts, emotions and ideas that float in from heaven knows where and, being human, we share those thoughts and feelings with one another. And then the ‘other’ becomes God and a whole religion is born to fill the void within.
So many religions on our planet, very different from one another, but all centred on the ultimate other. The collective consciousness of all humanity remains, but there are also national and cultural collectives. If we are Hindu, we see the one ‘other’, the one God, in various forms. There is one sun but looking at its light through a stained-glass window, we see it in all the different colours of its spectrum, much as the one God is seen in its different aspects by Hindus. But being human, we have formalised our religions and people have become dependent on the formula, without necessarily making the desired-for contact with the ‘other’ and letting that other fill that crying void. Spirituality gave way to institutional obedience. And rationalism played its part. Not only did it lead to atheism, but it also led to suspicion of spirituality and a consequent dumbing down and even fear of mystical experience. And it wasn’t enough. The void cried out for more. And in the west, a time came when young seekers sought another way.
It all happened in the last century. Beginning in the sixties, it took off in the seventies. It was a time of great optimism, of hope and idealism. A man had stood on the moon. There was a passionate faith in the innate goodness of man, and a belief in a future of peaceful co-existence, based on universal love. ‘All you need is love’ was the mantra of the day. Vatican II was born of this time; so was Greenpeace, the CND, the European Union and the Worldwide Fund for Nature. The young and the not so young were ready to give themselves whole heartedly for their ideals, while a renewed passion in the search for truth and the meaning of life produced a burgeoning interest in the religions and philosophies of the wider world. The London exhibition, Mind Body and Spirit energised a wave of new spiritual movements. And no one questioned whether they were good or bad. Rationalism had had its way. Evil and the devil had become outmoded, alien concepts. Now everything was good. But the Red Brigade was also born of this time and today, living the legacy, we know differently. We may have lost our naivety, but with it, much of our idealism. We have become cynical. But then, in those passionate days, we were ready to believe. And so, I, amongst many thousands of others set out on the yellow brick road of my generation, seeking yoga, i.e., Union with the One we sought, the ultimate other, the absolute, the eternal never changing God.
Seekers are not stupid. They are often very intelligent and talented people. And very often they are spiritually sensitive. Their chosen path is hard. It involves sacrifice. You must be ready to give up everything for God’s sake. Total devotion is essential, but what to? You also need discernment because those who would lead us astray aren’t stupid either. They know what seekers are looking for and what lengths they will go to attain it. We are living in the end times when as Jesus warned us, we should: ‘Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep, but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits’ (Matt. 7. 15.) and in ‘Take care not to be deceived, because many will come using my name and saying, ‘I am the one’ and ‘the time is near at hand. Refuse to join them.’ Luke (21.8) ‘And if anyone says to you then, ‘Look, here is the Christ…’Do not believe it; for false Christ’s and false prophets will arise and produce signs and portents to deceive the elect; if that were possible.’ You therefore must be on your guard. I have given you full warning.’ (Mark 13, 21-23) And the more sensitive the seekers the more vulnerable they are to magic. Like the devil, magic too exists. And it will invade your life unless your contact with God is very strong indeed. Because God IS. (I AM, being the name of God as given to Moses.) Like us, the devil only exists. But if we are on the path to God, then we are becoming – something the devil can never be.
Like many, I was led astray. And I knew that I was on a dangerous course. But having gone so far, I could not go back. If I had only known what I came to know later, the outrageous cruelties and injustices the guru of Sahaja Yoga, Mataji inflicted on her followers, I might have found the strength to pull out sooner. But I saw only what Mataji wanted me to see. Magic has its own logic, and my sensitive nature was more able to follow it than most. I saw the signs, telling me that I was on a coherent spiritual path. But Mataji was laying a false trail. I was hoodwinked. Mataji was not on the side of the angels, engaged in a spiritual battle against the devil and I was not on course for eventual union with God. It was illusion. This was a sect, a parody of the heavenly courts. And the thousands dressed in white waving palms, were not waving them at God, but at the enemy. Without realising it, I had slipped to the wrong side of the mirror.
Getting out of a sect is hard. You need courage and support to make the leap through the mirror – from illusion into reality. The worst thing for me was knowing that I had knelt at the feet of the enemy of the God I sought. But that God came to help me. Mary, Mother of God rescued me and slowly drew me to her Son. The story is told in God, the Devil and Me, the book I was always meant to write.
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God, the Devil and Me is a chronicle of lived experience, this astonishing book is a biographical exposé, its ultimate theme the great battle of the last days, the final war between God and the Devil. Drawing on her journals, Valerie tells how, at the height of a successful career as writer and actress, she suddenly disappeared. An innocent seeker of God, unaware of the pitfalls, or the unrelenting opposition of the devil, Valerie had strayed into an Indian sect where its female guru, learning of her vocation to ‘write a book for God’, feared her as a potential whistle-blower. Vowing to ‘stop Valerie writing’, she attacks her with magic and occult powers. Now, the writing of the book itself becomes the battlefield. Converted to Catholicism and escaped to France, Valerie is helped by an exorcist. And God, giving her the added vocation to pray for souls lost in sects, comes to her in the Eucharist, fighting alongside, granting moments lifted into bliss and finally breaking the bondage. Thirty years on, the past erased, experience with Valerie the inside story.
God, the Devil and Me is available from www.o-books.com and from wherever books are sold.
Book Link: https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/o-books/our-books/god-devil-me