2018 A NEW BEGINNING A NEW CHAPTER PART l
“The Universe is whispering to us” . . .
Jill Iggulden-Stevens, Founding Editor Odyssey Magazine 1977-1984
The Enquiring Mind, set up in 2015, was in its second phase and we had introduced an element of research, à la parapsychology, for the layman! Still out on a limb in attempting to prove the power of belief through the cutting-edge science of quantum mechanics, I had decided to concentrate on synchronicity. Our increased awareness of meaningful coincidences became almost second nature. Unlike serendipity, whereby a discovery is made accidentally, synchronicity is linked directly to an intention and its practical outcome.
This issue of Odyssey, exemplifies (dare I say entangled!?!) synchronicity in full swing. Silke’s and Debra’s twinned intentions, a-causally linked across more than a thousand kilometres, brought about a committed change of ownership within three days.
We wish Odyssey’s crew and its passengers a safe, meaningful and blessed voyage as the magazine embarks on its fourth journey. The uncharted waters ahead invite a growing understanding of scientific spirituality in a rapidly changing world with Debra at the helm.
I am deeply moved and honoured to have been entrusted with a regular column, with unconditional freedom to share my thoughts with Odyssey readers. However, my remit is to open with a bumper version which is to include my personal journey – the story that has not yet been told.
Facts and opinions referring to the first seven years have been well covered in newspaper articles, editorials and Chris Erasmus’s June/July 2007 issue, celebrating Odyssey’s 30th anniversary.
In order to avoid repetition, I re-read the 30th anniversary article. A particularly significant paragraph caught my attention. I had referred to the magazine’s relatively painless birth. Yet, according to a concerned warning by the printer’s accountant, this could not have happened under normal circumstances. “We had been told that it took at least two years to establish a market for a new magazine and that one needed a lot of funding. The Odyssey Foundation’s only material assets were a home-made light box and an electric typewriter.”
So, what, besides my faith, I asked myself, were the ‘abnormal’ circumstances which gave me the acquired confidence to go out on a limb!
Going through my diaries I found that I had become obsessed with wanting to know more about the realm of spirit. In April 1974 a very dear friend had drowned. At the time, I was a successful freelance journalist, taking on short-term supply teaching to boost my income. While standing in for the head of the English Department at the Notre Dame Convent in Cape Town, I became friendly with a colleague who, upon hearing of my obsession, told me that she was involved in rescuing lost souls who had passed on. Her claim was way out of my personal belief system. Fortunately for me, she was also a member of an A.R.E group (Association for Research and Enlightenment) in Tokai, a suburb close to my home in St James. The group met once a week to study the readings of Edgar Cayce. I was interested and she invited me to join her for their next meeting.
The ‘Cayce’ group was run by Mrs. Hazel Tops. Her study was, for me, an Aladdin’s cave with bookshelves of reading material that I could but dream of – the works of Carl Jung, Alice Bailey, Marilyn Fergusson and – most intriguing – Bob Toben and Fred Alan Wolfe, authors of Space-Time and Beyond.
In retrospect I can say with confidence that Odyssey was ‘conceived’ during those first few months and that Hazel was the midwife at its birth.
Hazel was a mine of information and was connected to several meaningful alternative groups including the Friends of Findhorn, the Soil Association and the Theosophical Society. I had had no contact with the Friends of Findhorn, but I owed my success as a Freelance Journalist to Fay Goldie, who happened to be a member of the Theosophical Society. In 1964, I had enrolled for a comprehensive journalism course at her New Era School of Writing in Durban. I remember well the evening when she walked into class wearing a bright red bow in her hair. Some of us couldn’t suppress a giggle while others felt embarrassed by the class’s disrespect. Fay Goldie never batted an eyelid. Facing the class, she said gently “My dears,” I do not recall her exact words, but the lesson was clear: Know Thyself. What others think about you is irrelevant.
Mrs. Fay Goldie King was an excellent teacher and several of us went on to be successful editors, journalists and writers.
London1953: Aged 19, with a year’s worth of credits towards a science degree, I arrived in April for an interview with the Women’s Royal Air Force – lured by an advertisement recruiting matriculants for training as radar officers, which I had read in my mother’s Women’s Weekly. I was put through a series of practical cognitive and reaction tests. My responses met the required standards. I was told that I would need to join the ranks for two years because I was too young to be placed in charge of men in their 40s.
It was Coronation year. London was abuzz with visitors from all over the Commonwealth. The newspaper vendor’s announcement “Everest conquered” still echoes in my in my ears. I had found a super job at Cheiron Press in Berkeley Square. Six months working in the art department, spotting and stripping large negatives over a light box, proved to be a major cost-effective experience in 1977.
On my return to South Africa in 1954, for some ‘unknown reason’, I enrolled for a three-month course in touch-typing. I then went on to study through Unisa, majoring in English and Psychology. The section on psychosomatic problems, which confounded the medical profession, introduced me to the existence of a-causal phenomena. This made me realise that thoughts literally have the power to affect our physical bodies.
Having ‘researched’ my own story, I can understand why in 1977 I had no qualms about launching a magazine. I was virtually into all the alternatives – from technology, philosophy, medicine, vegetarianism to Transcendental Meditation and my first love – the interface between science and spirituality.
I was soon to realise that all I needed for the initial stages of production was an IBM typesetter and a light box. I remember placing a photograph of a typesetter upright on the desk in front of me. It is the only time that I have ever actively engaged in a meditative visualisation to materialise an object ‘of my desire’.
Lo and behold it worked! I was able to lease a brand-new typesetter from IBM which. unbeknown to me at the time, automatically become Odyssey’s property.
The rest is history, well covered by local newspapers, the 30th anniversary issue and Chris Erasmus’s editorials.
The miracle of Odyssey’s survival into the 21st century
The events leading up to Odyssey’s unplanned change in ownership are detailed below. They illustrate the influence of subjective, so-called ‘a-causal’ phenomena (visualisations, emotions, thoughts) upon our physical reality.
On 27th June 2018, I received my regular copy of Dr Bruce Lipton’s3 on-line newsletter’. It occurred to me that it might be of importance to Odyssey’s then editor, Chris Erasmus… I had not been in touch with either him or his wife Silke since a meeting at their home in Tokai shortly before they opted to go Digimag.
On reflection, I asked myself, why I would have felt the need to bring to the editor’s attention, a newsletter which I thought he may or may not have been aware of.
Four months later, on the evening of 30th October, I received an email from Silke, who had been scanning through unanswered correspondence. She told me later that she had been contemplating selling the magazine for some time and that, in reference to the content of my email, she had made a spontaneous decision to sell. She thanked me for the information about the newsletter,, welcomed me back to Cape Town and informed me of her decision, explaining that she had decided it was time to move on and focus on writing some books.
Debra’s name sprang to mind.
On 31st October I phoned Silke and gave her Debra’s telephone number. Then left it at that.
On the 19th of November I received a call from Debra to invite me to lunch the following day. She had signed a contract to buy Odyssey and was due to meet Chris and Silke in Tokai on 21st for the handover. The effective date of new ownership would be the 23rd November.
I already knew why Silke had decided to sell. I was curious to know what had motivated Debra to buy? She told me that it was her passion to write. For about two weeks, she had been manifesting with an affirmation. Her son was about to set up an internet blog for her, when she received Silke’s call.
The Universe wasn’t just whispering, it was prompting ‘loud and clear’ with a twinned personal broadcast between Silke and Debra which lasted a mere three days! Following my call to Silke on 31st October, Silke had phoned Debra. Debra said she was interested. The following day on the 1st November Debra sent an email to Silke confirming interest. By the 3rd of November an offer had been made and accepted.
I would like to congratulate Silke and Chris on their dedication to the principles of the magazine over their 18-year tenure
The recipe for survival? Chris, Silke, Debra and I have, independently, ascribed the longevity of Odyssey to a spiritual dimension – each within his/her/our own belief system. I see the smooth transitions from 1984 to the present as being an esoteric continuum, with the ‘persona’ of the publication remaining true to itself – metaphorically – as in Polonius’s advice to his son, Laertes.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. (Hamlet Act 1 Scene 5)
Excerpt from Jill’s ‘Wavelength Column’ in the first digital magazine January 2019 preceding Odyssey Magazine going back into print, with the winter edition 7 July 2019,
