The Story behind the coming into being of 'The Whole Elephant Revealed'

When something is in line with the universal principles,
it goes easier,
it takes minimal effort,
it is in line with who we really are and
it is in harmony with the greater whole.

How can we know what works and what doesn't work?
Several people asked me how I could know how everything really works in the universe. That is a very understandable question, because initially it seems rather unlikely that I wrote this book in less than three years, while I worked as a fabric artist and a few years ago decided to devote myself to new ways of learning and education.
While writing the book The Whole Elephant Revealed I discovered, that there are many ways of research and learning. And I discovered that when our way of working is as much as possible in line with the operation of the universal principles, our capacities and potentialities happen to be much larger than we are used to think. As an illustration of this, here is the story of the coming into being of the book The Whole Elephant Revealed .

A choice to be true to myself
It all started early in 2003. As a fabric artist I took an extra training to learn to teach art projects at primary schools. I considered it a beautiful opportunity because I wanted to use these art projects to offer children a possibility to express themselves as the unique individuals they really are. To my disappointment I experienced very little space to carry out my plans and ideas within the context of this training and the traditional school system where I was supposed to do my teaching practice. Besides I did not succeed to get across why I thought my plans were not only a joy but also important for the children. But above all I struggled with the question how I could be true to myself and to the children within the existing educational structure.
So, I came to the conclusion that I had to make a choice. A choice between on the one hand looking for a good way of working within the existing structures or on the other hand devoting myself to something new, something still formless, while completely trusting the wonderful potential in every child and in myself. This way I could be true to myself and trust that I would learn whatever would be necessary in my own time and in my own way. So I didn't hesitate long, made my choice and stopped with the training, although at that moment I had no idea what I wanted to do next. Now, in hindsight, based on my insights in the operation of the universal laws, I understand that this way I took the most important first step, necessary to create something new: I had a clear purpose, a clear intent.
To my surprise and almost at the same time a space was put at my disposal that could be used in the future to do creative projects with children. I felt very grateful that this possibility simply fell into my lap. This location had to be completely renovated yet and so in the meantime I went to Hawaii. There James Twyman organized at that moment the first “Psychic Children Speak to the World Conference”. Alongside the many interesting things told at the conference by several specially invited children about themselves and the world, I was very touched by a talk by Mary Bell Nyman. She shared her experiences as a teacher/guide at the “Children’s Psychic School, Yin Yang”. This school existed in California during the eighties. [1] Her experiences confirmed for me that what I was dreaming of, really seemed to be possible!
I came back from Hawaii stronger motivated than ever. My intent was clear and unambiguous and I knew now how a final form of my idea could look like. Now I know that in line with the Law of Dynamic Balance both aspects - an idea and a form - are necessary to be able to create something new. Besides my passion was stimulated adding power to this idea and form. Back in The Netherlands though, I decided to withdraw from the project that was to take place in the offered space. Although it was my own choice, I felt very sad and disappointed and had no idea what to do next. Because  I experienced a feeling of urgency, but at the same time had no idea what to do next, I did unknowingly what was - looking back at it - in line with the operation of the universal principles: I let go of being in control and asked for 'help'. Who or what I asked to help me I did not know. This way - in line with the Law of Surrender - I made space for the Principle of Least Resistance and so for all possibilities - even for those possibilities I could never have thought of myself.
That same day I received a telephone call. Someone called me curiously to hear about my experiences in Hawaii. During our phone conversation she mentioned in passing about a special session she had had a few days earlier. This session had helped her to get a clearer understanding of how she could contribute to a more beautiful world. I recognized this synchronicity as the help I had asked for. And although I had never done something like this before, I asked the phone number and made an appointment to have such a session myself two days later.

Sort out what works and what doesn't work
Only then it started to dawn on me what kind of appointment I had made. The session happened to be a channeling of no one less than the entity known as Ascended Master Kuthumi. To my astonishment, this was what I was told.
First of all the assignment of tasks was explained to me: I was not supposed to come to ask for guidance, but I was supposed to express what I would like to do. Fortunately at that moment what I would like to do was completely clear for me. Next Kuthumi told me that based on that it would taken care of to help it happen. But this could only be done when I would do the actual work.
Next he asked me to share what is was that I wanted, so I told him about my intention to devote myself to new forms of learning and education better suited to present-day children and more in tune with the needs of this day and age and giving children the opportunity to develop their full potential. This was all very much welcomed, but the idea that I would be trying to start something in the backyard of a community was put aside immediately. I was told that that did not fit me very much... Instead I was challenged to see it in a global context. Because, it was explained to me, what was needed were completely new fundamental principles, principles that are acceptable for everyone without being colored by a specific belief system, culture or period.
Next I was suggested to start 'some very interesting research', being to begin to sort out what works and what doesn't work. “Because,” I was told, “all education of the past is not wrong and bad. It is just that when we recognize that we are going to use it for things it can not deliver and it does not deliver it, then they are bad.” And then I got more information about the nature of the 'very interesting research' I was asked to do to sort out what works and what doesn't work: “When we came into planet earth, we threw away the rule book and so we have to sort of reconstruct what it is that works. That is what this research is about. So I am suggesting that you allow yourself a whole year to study the Universal Truth. For as we move into this new period, this new age, we want the best of this Universal truth to come forward. So start with studying the ancient wisdom traditions and look for the golden tread of fundamental Universal Truth woven through all the ancient wisdom traditions. By the way, you may have to start with something like Hermes-Trismegistos and the Hermetic traditions of ancient Egypt. So make sure you will have the substance. But of course, you choose, what you take from what I am giving you...”
Completely overwhelmed I said:  “Yes, but I am an artist...”
And Kuthumi answered: “Yes indeed, you are an artist and I tell you, your artist-aspect will have a great significance in all this that you are doing. The creative aspect of it is paramount and for you to bring that to it... So, take a sabbatical-year and if you are concerned about money don't be. Allow yourself the luxury of a full year. And then maybe we'll find some one who can give you a degree at the end of it. But the thing is, the substance of what you get from doing that! Okay, is there anything uncomfortable here or do you get the energy that it is in alignment with your soul?”

In alignment with my soul
I felt completely overwhelmed and speechless. My ego thought it to be a crazy idea, much to large and unfeasible. But when I felt inside myself and got in touch with my soul I was even more perplex, because then I became aware of a unambiguous YES. My soul was exited and really happy about the plan, almost as if this was exactly what I had been waiting for already for a long time: if I wanted to be true to myself and to the wishes of my soul, this was it!
Meanwhile Kuthumi was waiting for my answer to his question, and to commit myself... And because it still felt as much to extensive to do all by myself, I finally said: “Okay, I will do it, but because the job is so big, I need to know that there is support for me so I am not feeling that I am doing it all by my self.”
That happened to be not a problem at all, for Kuthumi promised immediately: “Yes, you will not be doing alone. There will be help and we will take care of that.”

Help in many ways
And so indeed in the spring of 2003 I did start the research to sort out what works and what doesn't work. I had a clear intention, a directed focus and a powerful inner motivation, because it was in alignment with the wishes of my soul. In fact everything else seemed to turn pale compared to this. This was the only thing I wanted to do. And although I didn't know if I would succeed, I felt confident that there would be help.
Once started, that trust was confirmed time after time, because the help came in many different ways. Already before the summer someone spontaneously offered me financial support, so for a whole year I didn't need to worry about money. When I wondered how I could get insight into the Hermetic philosophy - not without reason called 'hermetic' and so hermetically sealed - soon I met a person who told me he had a solution for that. The next day he emailed me The Kybalion. This Hermetic text said it could be used as key that can serve to reconcile the many bits of Universal Truth that are known here and there, but which seem to oppose to each other. In other words, this seemed to be exactly what I needed to come forward with the golden tread of fundamental Universal Truth woven through all the ancient wisdom traditions. The Kybalion describes the existence and operation of universal laws. After I studied this text several times, I understood what Kuthumi had meant with the suggestion to do a research to sort out what works and what doesn't work. The 'very interesting research' I was doing happened to be the research into the existence and operation of these universal principles.
I did not manage to find a possibility to do this 'very interesting research' in the context of a university though. Therefore I decided instead to write a book. Before I even had written down one word, also here there appeared help in the form of a Dutch publisher who was interested in my intention. Besides help came in the form of a second benefactress, so also the second year I had no need to worry about money.

New forms of learning
What I discovered during this work is that when a task seems to be definitely to big from the perspective of our rational, logical mind but does feel right for our soul, there is the possibility to just let go of the control of that logical mind. The advantage thereof is that we create space for another, less known aspect of ourselves, our inner knowing. This way and by using the beautiful synthesis of my rational mind and my inner knowing, I was able - in alignment with the Law of Dynamic Balance - to function in an optimal way. This way I was able to find relatively quick in the midst of an unlimited amount of information as well the essence as the underlying patterns. So, based on my own experience I became familiar with complete new ways of learning that were much more effective, enjoyable and exiting than everything I had experienced before. And I discovered during this process that - in line with the Law of Oneness - our capacities surely are unlimited.
So how does this work? Looking back I can describe it this way: because for my rational mind that task seemed to big and because I also had the feeling that the time I had for this task - because of my financial situation - was limited, there emerged spontaneously a constructive kind of efficiency. Based on an inner awareness that something felt 'here and now exactly right', I came - in line with the Law of Rhythm - into a flow, in which the next step appeared as a question. The answer turned up as soon as I, guided by my intuition, followed that which felt right at that moment. So, I could go to the library or bookstore and 'know' which books were not relevant at all at that moment and which ones kind of 'lighted up' as if saying 'yes, you are looking for me'. But it also happened that when I took a break and just went through my mail or new email messages, exactly there I found my next answer. Shortly, as long as I was in the flow, synchronicity seemed to happen all the time.
The most important thing is that during this process I discovered that there are not only two different ways to collect knowledge, but there are also two different ways to get insight into the whole. In our Western culture the most common way is to look at the world based on analytic knowledge about the parts. This knowledge of countless details we then use to shape an image of the whole - a rather impossible task. Less known in the Western culture is the procedure to consider the world and everything in it as a whole. In the latter case we observe the working of dynamic principles and the interrelationships between the parts of which the whole is composed. From this perspective we get also - in line with the Law of Correspondence - insight into the great diversity of the parts. Because it offers a frame within which the different aspects of ourselves and of the world fall into place like the pieces of a puzzle. Once I got a general image of the dynamic principles and the interrelationships, it happened to be possible to discern which scientific sources were in line with the universal principles and which were not.

Not one book but two
After collecting a large amount of 'relevant' information about the dynamic principles and interrelationships during one and a half year in a seemingly chaotic way, I got the feeling that I did have all the 'pieces of the puzzle'. So in November 2004 I decided it to be time to quietly and almost as a hermit 'make the puzzle' and find out what 'picture' of the whole would be revealed. This way slowly the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place and the multidimensional puzzle revealed more and more a picture of the whole.
Somewhere during this process to my surprise I discovered that I was not making one puzzle and so I was not writing one book, but I was writing two books. The 'chapter' about what works and what doesn't work, and so the chapter about the universal laws and the Golden Ratio had gotten a life of itself and became a separate book. This is how the book The Whole Elephant Revealed came to be.
While the book The Whole Elephant Revealed has been published in Dutch in June 2007 and actually can be used as a frame of reference for all personal and social transformations which aim at a greater harmony within ourselves and with the greater whole, the other book is still a work-in-progress at this moment.
My second book is about such 'Societies in Balance'. The term 'Societies in Balance' I coined to describe societies that have the insights into the operation of the universal laws as an inherent part of all aspects of that culture. So they are able function in an optimal way and all individuals can flourish. This second book will be based on 'The Whole Elephant Revealed'  and so on what works and what doesn't work and on the new worldview that emerges from that. In my third book I plan to write, I'll describe how we can use all these insights as frame of reference for new ways of learning and education in correspondence with these universal principles and therefore also in line with ourselves and harmony with the greater whole of which we are a part.

Marja de Vries, may 2007

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[1]- Her story can be read here: A Guide for Raising Your Child by Mary Bell Nyman, from "Messages from Thomas - Raising Psychic Children" by James Twyman © 2003; published by Findhorn Press, Scotland;p. 122 - 136, placed on this website with permission from the publisher.

 

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