Newbie from London

[Nimborio]

Hi everybody.

I attended Anthony's fascinating talk at the Society For Psychical Research in London two weeks ago. I really did not know what to expect. I guess I was assuming that it would yet be another "I have the power" type person or somebody who made lots of unsupportable statements about life after death.

Anthony's presentation was simply stunning. His enthusiasm was palpable and the audience, well the people around me and those I spoke to afterwards in the social gathering all thought so anyway. His talk was powerful and although I may not agree with some of his conclusions (maybe because i don't think i fully understand them) the way he pulls together information from so many sources is very impressive. However I think that his real strength lies in his ability to relate to the audience during his Q&A session at the end. He really does know how to engage his audience. I am absolutely sure that the more people that hear and see Anthony lecture the more people who will become involved.

What is really frustrating is that I have been telling all of my friends about the talk and how exceptional it was (possibly even life-changing) for me but then knowing that Anthony has no London talks planned for the future.

Anyway, enough for now. I just wanted to say hi and let you all know how much I am looking forward to getting involved on this site.

[Anthony Peake]

Nimborio,

You will have me blushing if you are not careful.

I am glad you enjoyed the talk. For me the most important thing is getting my ideas across. I do lectures because I am keen to have feedback from the audience. This can be positive or less than positive, I really do not mind. Indeed I was quite suprised that the SPR audience did not ask some searching questions of ITLAD/CTF. I was particularly hoping that one particular member of the audience, Guy Lyon Playfair, would have put me on the spot. As you may be aware Mr Playfair
spent a year investigating, with Maurice Grosse, the Enfield poltergeist as documented in his book "This House is Haunted" (1980). He then collaborated with Uri Geller on The Geller Effect (1986). After publishing two other books on non-psychic subjects he returned to the field in 2002 with Twin Telepathy, which led to successful experiments shown on television (Richard and Judy, Channel 4, January 10th 2003; also on Discovery's Miracle Hunters and National Geographic's Naked Science). His most recent book New Clothes for Old Souls - Worldwide Evidence for Reincarnation, commissioned by the Druze Heritage Foundation was published in 2006.

I guess that maybe he didn't ask any questions because my talk had somewhat underwhelmed him!

On the positive side the "compare", Professor John Pointon, the Hon. Secretary of the SPR congratulated me on the talk and he has sent me a paper he had written for the SPR Journal that he thought would be of interest to me. He was right!

[Anthony Peake]

Nimborio,

I am intrigued by your choice of name. I know of two places called "Nimborio" (one is a small bay near the main town of Yalous on the Greek Island Symi and another is the old name of the main town on another Dodecenese island called Halki). I know that this is a very popular place name in Greece. At least I thought it was but on doing a Google search it seems that these may be the two. This is Symi's Nimborio:



And this is Halki:



Now what is odd is that the first location (on Symi) is where I set a short story, called "Jocasta and the Dryad" and the second location (on Halki) is where I got married (in the triangular shaped building behind the clock tower) and the taverna on the extreme right of the picture (Remezzo's), is where we had the "Wedding Reception".

So is this just coincidence, or is there a the link?

[Hurlyburly]

Hi Nimborio,

Welcome to the Forum, so glad you joined. I was at the talk with Anthony also, I agree with you about his presentation skills and his ability to relate to the audience. Never fear, I am an hour south of London and Tony does manage to get down this way several times a year. Hope you stick around, enjoy the FORUM.

Martin

[SM Kovalinsky]

Hi, glad you joined, Nimborio! I am in New York City area, but would love to have been at Tony's talk before the Psychical Research society. I know what you mean, exactly, about Tony NOT being one of those "I've got the power" types (ugh) . And yes, his presentations are stunning, aren't they? He is enormously talented and gifted. I saw him speak in New York City in August 2009, and Martin Huxter was there as well, introducing him. His energy and grace onstage were amazing, and he was in front of 350 members of the Manhattan press and public, in the old Grand Ballroom at the Roosevelt. I had people emailing me for weeks, asking when he would return. Yes, his books always provide much fodder for thought, don't they.? Again, welcome to you!! ( I have written, in the past, many philosophy posts on this forum. Work does not allow me to much these days, but will try and eke out some new ones.)

[Nimborio]

What a wonderful welcome from all of you. Anthony mentioned in his talk that this forum was like a group of friends and I now understand what he meant. Indeed I overheard that one couple had travelled from Paris to hear Anthony speak. I don't know if they are forum members or not. This is certainly an amazing place!

As is the reason for my joining .... Anthony, you asked me why may username is Nimborio and it is because I am a regular vister to the island of Symi and, yes, I did name myself after Nimborio on Symi. But there is another reason .... one far closer to your writings.

I bought a copy of The Daemon a few days after you SPR lecture. Imagine my amazement when, on page 13 you mention the small waterside hamlet of Pedi on Symi. My heart leapt into my mouth. I had been sitting on the very beach reading Richard Dawkin's Climbing Mount Improbable seven months ago. And then I read that you sat on that very beach reading Dawkins' The Blindwatchmaker, not only that but you cited this as an example of a weird, backwards-in-time synchronicity. I found this coincidence really weird, in fact bordering on the bizzare. It felt as if I had created you as part of my world by using images and snap shots from my own past ..... which is exactly what you suggest in ITLAD.

There is clearly something of significance going on here .............

This is the view of Pedi Bay ...

[SM Kovalinsky]

Ha, Nimborio! You are now in on the secret: It seems all of us who have encountered Tony did so at first by exactly one of those "heart leaping into the mouth" synchronicities you describe. Welcome to the Peake club! You obviously fit right in with all of us

[Anthony Peake]

Oh does this have the memories flooding back.

I know that view so well, although the little Pedi Beach looks slightly more crowded than I remember it being.

I first “discovered” Pedi back in 1978 when my then girlfriend, Jane, introduced me to the beautiful island of Symi. She had been there the year before and we travelled over from Rhodes (we had been staying in Lindos). I had already read an amazing book called “Bus Stop Symi” by William Travis so I knew a little about this idyllic island. However nothing had prepared me for the breathtaking beauty of sailing into the main harbour, Gialos, in the late morning Greek light. It was love at first sight for me, both of Greece in general and Symi in particular.

Jane was keen to show me the “famed” bus stops. There are five of them dotted round the island. ‘Not in any way strange’ I hear you say. Well in 1977 Symi had no buses and, outside of the main town, very little roads. These bus stops had been placed in the strangest of places – one half way up a hillside. The municipality of Tarpon Springs in Florida, a place with a large Greek (Dodecanesi) population, had donated a sum of money to the island with the specific demand that they “build bus stops to protect the population from the rain”. The Symi council did not question this and simply did as instructed ….. even though they had no buses!

Anyway, that is an aside. One of the bus stops can be found on the “Pedi Road” running from the old town (Horio …. As the are called on virtually every Greek island) down to the small (and I mean small) port of Pedi. Jane and I arrived in the heat of the afternoon and had a lovely late lunch on a taverna at the waterside. Absolute bliss. I promised myself that I would return to this special place. Sadly Jane and I were to part six months later (my fault and selfishness unfortunately) and Jane was to die tragically young a few years later. I returned many times to Symi over the next ten years or so but I never felt at ease in Pedi. It was haunted by Jane’s ghost, her curly blond hair forever blowing in the warm sea zephyrs that bathed the island. Jane’s timeless beauty had, for me, imbued itself onto the place.

In 1995 I returned and stayed in a small house at the far end of the bay. I spent a week on my own just soaking in the atmosphere and mulling over my own past. I guess I went there to bury ghosts but in many ways I only managed to resurrect them. Going on holiday alone was something I had not done for over twenty years but I really needed my space. It is only now, looking back, that the events of that week alone in the Greek sunshine planted the seeds that were to blossom into ITLAD/CTF.

I walked a good deal, up into the thyme laden hills around the island. I also had time to think about myself, my life, and what I wanted it to be. I was 41 and I guess that I was going through the classic “Mid Life Crisis”. I am now sure that subliminally ITLAD/CTF had found a home in my mind. The incident with the dog-earing of the Dawkins book was one of many odd psychological events that took place during that week. I felt really alive and attuned to the world around me. I noticed things that I had never noticed before, colours, sounds, the smells of the Greek landscape. In many ways I felt like Nicholas Urfe, a character in my favourite novel, The Magus by John Fowles. He also “finds” himself whilst on a Greek Island. In the book he meets somebody who, with hindsight, is his Daemon, a mysterious older man called Conchis (Conscious?) who teaches young Nicholas through a charade he calls the “Godgame”. I had taken this book with me to read (for the seventh time) and in the Greek sun it really meant something to me ….. it was, in some odd way, a book that had been written solely for me and solely to be read then. Looking back I wonder if this is when my own Daemon, my own inner Conchis, manifested itself and started me on the life-route that was to lead me to writing ITLAD. The Dawkin’s book incident was simply the most obvious message to my future self because on my return to the UK I was soon to set into action a series of events that were to change my life forever …… and through the pain of those events would rise “Cheating The Ferryman”.

My apologies for such a long, and somewhat personal, posting, but my Daemon seems to be at work today!

[mikegrove4]

My apologies for such a long, and somewhat personal, posting, but my Daemon seems to be at work today!

You had me in tears mate, about Jane. Peoples life stories are always amazing an i really love the way peoples descriptions of things can move me upwards and downwards. Personal revelation is food for both souls (not our soles - as i was gonna put - oursoles(?)).

Anyway, love it mate, reminds me when my granddad used to tell me all those life story type events that I loved to hear about so much.

I love the way you describe her blonde curly hair blowing in the breeze - I can see it clearly in my minds eye - so sad and I can feel your pain.

I have that book 'The Magus' but I have not got round to reading it yet, everytime i hear about a book, theres two more! I have about 5 lined up now...

Anyway, thanks for that. I always find that a few tears purify the sole a little, and a wotsit shared is a doobrey halved eh?

[SM Kovalinsky]

Tony, I also loved reading the above post. I recall when you showed me a picture of Jane: She was absolutely beautiful, and she must have somehow been part of your Daemonic unfolding. Beautiful post, and thank you for it.