Interview with Dr Jude Currivan
First published in Kindred Spirit magazine September/October 2007
Q You have released three books in two years, an impressive output considering the subject matter. How have you managed this with every-day life and why do you believed this has happened?
A I don’t know how I’ve managed it (!), other than I felt passionately that this was something I could do to make a difference. As a scientist and healer, I feel that this is a momentous time and that we collectively need a deeper perspective on who we really are and our place in the Cosmos. Whilst mainstream science has tried to convince us that the universe is merely material and purposeless, leading-edge science, frontier research into consciousness and the spiritual wisdom of all traditions is now coming together to say this isn’t the case. Instead a new and in my view wonderfully empowering vision of the Cosmos is emerging. And I feel that part of my contribution is to share the understanding and the hope of that with everyone.
The three books are a trilogy that explores that from different perspectives. If you like, The Wave shares the understanding of the mind, The 8th Chakra the wisdom of the heart and The 13th Step the transformation that comes with following our inner purpose and “showing up” for life. I call these three ways to inner wholeness the way of the sage, the shaman and the seer.
My higher guidance was to undertake the global quest I share in The 13th Step and to write the books and so I too “showed up” and doing so has transformed my life and I hope will help many other to transform theirs.
Q With your understanding and experience of conventional business, how would you advise the vast majority, who still have to function at that level, go about the process of spiritual emergence. Is it indeed ever possible to embrace the path to best self and still function within the matrix?
A Most of my workshop participants and students at my healing classes are fully involved in conventional business lives, as I was for twenty-five years, so I do understand the pressures. And like everyone else, I still need to go to the shops, clean the house (including the loos), look after my family and deal with “ordinary” life.
When people come to me and say they want to change their lives and become say a healer, my most frequent response is to suggest to them that being a healer isn’t a job or even a vocation, it’s a way of being. You can be a healer and a secretary, a healer and a car park attendant, a healer and a policeman.
Equally you go about the path of spiritual emergence by the choices – large and small – you make every day. From making a choice from love rather than fear, by treating everyone as you would hope to be treated, by speaking the loving truth. And whilst others may treat you badly, only you can choose how to respond.
And when people ask me what they can do to change the world – I reply, as Gandhi did; be the change you want to see and take responsibility for your own choices.
Q 2012 has been jumped on almost as a brand to sell books, products, films and even instill an urgency into the masses to do or be something better – much like Orwell’s 1984 was hijacked for showcasing a darker future. Yet there are many cultures who believe this date is but a loose guide and that we should be working on ourselves all the time, now, not waiting for the start gun…no time like the present, what do you feel and how do you see the state of the human condition changing after 2012?
A I agree that the most important thing is to work on ourselves and, now!
Q You have spoken about your own quest starting in early childhood. What was it like for you then, how did others receive your thoughts, do you still carry a part of the young Jude with you today and how does that aspect influence you now?
A My life has been an incredible journey of weaving the ordinary and extraordinary together.
I grew up in the north of England. My dad, who was a coal miner, died when I was ten and my mum then raised my brother and myself alone. We had very little money and so I began work at ten to help mum, and have worked hard ever since. From stacking shelves in supermarkets to being the Group Finance Director of major international companies to my lifetime work that I’ve come to describe as helping others to re-member who they really are, thanks to mum’s influence I’ve always appreciated the benefits of hard work and always aimed to do the best job I can.
When I was four I heard my first psychic message and from then on, my life has been a journey of inner and outer discovery to understand who we really are and our place in the Cosmos – and now to share that understanding to help others empower themselves.
I remember mum invited the neighbours around when I was about nine to talk to them about quantum physics. I don’t think they understood a word I said but they were very kind and enjoyed the tea and biscuits! But whilst I shared my growing understanding of cosmology and how the world is as it is, for many years I didn’t share any of my spiritual understanding or that I was directly receiving higher guidance. It was a private apprenticeship and my teachers have been archangels, ancient gods and ascended masters.
The young Jude is very much with me. I think we have a role reversal going on though. Usually it’s the inner child who’s fun and the adult who’s more serious. In our case, with all she went through, she needed to grow up very young. And so after many years, I’m the one who’s showing her how to have fun! And she’s the one who’s keeping me asking ‘why’ and trying to find answers that helps us all.
Q You have travelled extensively, especially for your most recent book The 13th Step. Are there certain parts/peoples of the world further along their paths than others. If so why? Could it be that as Susie Anthony suggests that the /west for example resonates better with its original belief systems rather than forgoing these and trying to force the Eastern traditions to fit.
A I think that forcing anything to fit something it doesn’t is rarely a good idea. Nonetheless I feel that different people may be drawn to a different spiritual tradition to that they were born into. Ultimately, there are many roads up the spiritual mountain and I would suggest that it is undertaking the inner journey rather than the particular route you take that is the most important thing.
I do feel however that we can tend to underestimate what it beneath our noses. In Britain we have a wonderful spiritual tradition that goes back many millennia to the time of Avebury and Stonehenge. And the reverence that our ancestors felt for the living Earth is one that I feel we all now need to re-establish.
Wherever we live and whatever traditional or new spirituality we follow, I feel the aim is to expand our awareness to re-member the wholeness of who we really are and to embody that as spiritual beings undertaking a human journey.
Q Can you see a time when Religion and Spirituality will once again be as one?
A Whilst I honour all spiritual paths, I do feel that more and more people are, and will, decide to undertake their own journey of enlightenment away from religious organisations. I feel that Judaism, Christianity and Islam have all, to some degree or other, marginalized and oppressed women. And whilst an emerging and balanced spirituality is for everyone, because there are currently more women than men opening up, I feel that unless the organised religions become much more balanced, less hierarchical and more inclusive their influence will continue to decline.
Q There are some who would argue, we are not the most enlightened of beings on our planet. Based on the theory of language complexity it has been argued and documented on film (Star Trek) that Whales have a more evolved understanding of their surroundings and both a deeper connection and respect for Mother nature hence perhaps we should take a more humble approach to our own status. As you probably know the Aborigines and many other Pacific Rim tribal people believe Man evolved from nature itself, be it trees or other animals and so we have been deluded into believing we are more deserving of a greater connection to Source, why do you think that is?
A My own perspective is that the entire Cosmos is an inter-related, multidimensional and conscious whole. I see the physical universe as co-created by Source or cosmic mind for evolution to develop ever more complexity and beings that progressively embody self-awareness. It doesn’t mean we have any greater connection to Source, because in this view everything and all we call reality is integral and we are both creation and co-creators.
Having walked between worlds all my life, I fully agree with the primary peoples who perceive the living Earth and her children as “all our relations” as the Native American tradition describes them. And I believe in these momentous times that one of the most important things we can do is to appreciate this and re-establish our co-creative relationship with Nature.
Q To have an ego or not? Is that the question or even an option? What are the alternatives?
A I believe that we are spiritual beings undertaking the physical experience of being human. In doing so, we take on a personality, an ego-based persona that goes with the territory. I don’t feel that we can or should attempt to be ego-less, but I do believe we can go beyond just living from its limited and often imbalanced view of the world. When we begin to take responsibility for our choices, listen to our inner voice, live in love rather than fear, empower ourselves and sense something greater than us alone, we begin to not only balance the needs of our ego, but to transcend it and become ego-free.
Q For those who are only just discovering the world outside their “heads”, our new readers say, how would you advise they most sure-footedly start on their path of enlightenment? Your top tips for the “keen but green” brigade if you will.
A;
- Realise that you can’t take responsibility for anyone else’s choices but you can for your own.
- Make choices from love rather than fear
- Treat others as you would hope to be treated yourself
© Jude Currivan 2007