TOUCH THE ELEPHANT

Our journey through life is about becoming totally in the moment. Beyond here and now. It is about connecting with the Oneness that is God and the Omniverse as we perceive it to BE. 

Being in the infinite now.

 It is about becoming a timemaster. Understanding it is circular not linear and future …past and present all are ONE.

 In this infinite moment there is no time.

 Just Infinity.

 

Man is both male and female alike. Humans are different colours and different species and different ideologies. 

There are around 8 billion of us on this planet we call Earth. 

In the last 40 years we have had the advent of the internet – ATM machines and the golden age of jet air travel… we are closer together than ever before… and yet we are still far apart –

- separated by different realities and dimensions.

 Different fixed ideas and orbits… different perspectives and perceptions …different psyches and backgrounds...different status and languages… different cultures and different histories.

 

But on this planet besides the machines that serve us in one form or another… there are OTHER living beings that surround us and live inside of us.

 Microbes… bacteria’s… organisms and entities… there are plants and trees…insects and bees… and there are animals of all kinds …animals who live in the water … in the oceans. 

In the seas. In the rivers… in the sky… on the land… in the ground… in tunnels and in the trunks of the greatest of Sequoia and Baobab…

-in the deserts with the Welwetia..and in the mountains with the smallest of flowers in the highest of caves…

We live on an amazing planet.

 One of a kind. 

Everything is synchronised with each other in its splendour. It is majestic and beautiful. There is the Equilibrium that keeps life in balance and recalibrates where necessary.

It is only us that have lost this knowledge. The knowledge of connection. In our minds. In our hearts. In our bodies.

 In our beings. Life is born and grows …and matures… and with maturity comes wisdom and this last 150 years has been the greatest technological advancement of our human race…

- more than 15000 years have been accelerated in the last 150. And just in the last 50 invisible boundaries and frontiers have been crossed with the tools we now have at our disposal, and we take for granted. 

 But we still are lost.

 

I went to school… I went to university. I travelled the world. I had a family and I had businesses of my own . I worked. I made and I lost money and made it again..I experienced. I learned. I loved. I made mistakes. I overcame…and I touched the miraculous. Yes. 

-The SUPERNATURAL… 

 I touched the elephant!

I remember my first time I travelled. 

-And the first and only time I touched a real elephant in the wild... I was 19. 

It happened in Kenya in the Tsavo National Park. I was hitch hiking from Nairobi to Mombasa on the only road joining the two cities in 1982. 

The sun was setting, and I had just visited Rwanda – the Ruhengeri National Park just as it opened. Diane Fossey pioneered the “habituation” of Man to Gorilla, and it was at this time that I touched my first and only mountain gorilla. 

In the wild. I felt like I had been transported in time ..10 000 years ago… to my most primal essence. Today it costs around 2500 USD to do the same thing. 

But in those days Africa was still the undiscovered continent. At times as I walked towards Cynagugu I was followed by hundreds of people who had never seen a backpacker before.

 It was truly a unique experience which I shall one day record in my autobiography.

( in the mean time watch "Gorillas in the Mist" )

I realised the metaphor of touching an elephant as I replayed this scene in my head a few times and processed its lessons. 

 As I stood on that lonely road to Mombasa, I saw a herd of red coloured elephants walking past in the distance. 

I had been waiting an hour for a ride and quite spontaneously without thinking I crossed the road and walked into the bush for about 500 metres… 

As I came closer, I stopped. I watched the elephants and slowly I walked closer as they were crossing from left to right. The elephants were like mountains themselves. 

But I was not afraid. 

They were just grazing and walking slowly on the savanna… and I just went up to the biggest one and stretched out my right hand.

 Opened it walked closer ….

And touched it.

It did nothing. I left and the day became night as the sun sunk over the African horizon beneath the hills in the distance.

 In 2018 I was test driving a solar powered bicycle on the same road with some friends. This time there were fences. 

A new train built by the Chinese. I tried to recall the place and the moment… and despite seeing the same red coloured elephants -and even seeing one up close on the road… 

But I didn’t have the courage to do it again. 

It was a moment I captured which I could not repeat. But I thought about it. I knew it was a crazy thing to do. But looking back at that young boy travelling and discovering life in the wild African bush… I knew that it couldn’t get more perfect than that.

We don’t all have to go and touch a real elephant. All we need is to connect with the life that is around us. Reach out …and just touch it.

Confront our fears …and by so doing… FREE them or release them. The important takeback is not to holdback… 

Our minds are constantly filled with data that we are struggling to process or figure out. 

I call this “INPUT” – to touch the elephant- is to touch your inner most fear…and overcome it. You can become clearminded. If you wish. 

This is the most important lesson in any true ayawaska or ibogo journey. What happens next is we “PROCESS” what we have learned and APPLY it. If we forget to process this information we become confused. Being clearminded opens incredible doors. 

 

I didn’t go out to become a teacher – but it was my curiosity that gave me the desire to find out what lay beyond the shadows.

 From an early age I found myself in unusual situations and this I believe was the fruit of that desire to “ touch the elephant” … Going through the delusions that bind us..the “ maya” is what brings us to the light of truth…

ENLIGHTENMENT . 

The biggest lesson I learned was to let go of fear. From this point you come back to life. 

 At aged 3 I lived in Winklespruit in the South Coast of Natal in South Africa. My carer – a zulu woman who also taught me the language even before I could speak English properly once saw me playing with a half metre black mamba snake.

 It had dropped on the handlebars of my tricycle and wrapped itself around my arm. She immediately called my father for help. 

For anyone that doesn’t know what a mamba is ..its a very dangerous and aggressive snake that can kill in minutes with its venom. But this snake didn’t bite me. 

I showed no fear. 

But was fully conscious. 

My father came outside just as I had let it on the ground … he grabbed a chair , got on it... and jumped on its head. I was not conscious of the danger.

 But my angels looked after me. It was only later when I discovered the wonders of the animal kingdom that I consciously interacted with dangerous beasts of the wilderness.

Literally touching the elephant means to confront what it is you most fear...

 Another instance I recall being surrounded by an angry mob that wanted to burn a witchdoctor and his friends alive in Harare on Saturday night in a very dangerous suburb called “Cairo”.

This mob of around 100 or so had already stolen our belongings… but now they wanted more… and so my Swedish friend Bjorn and two others hid in a snack shop. 

But I decided to "touch the elephant " - not run…not hide… but confront the crowd. 

 And it was because of this and my prayer to God that assistance came. I thought. “well, if I’m gonna die I might as well pray…

- and I asked the crowd… 

“ does anyone here believe in God? “ – I then prayed the Lord’s Prayer with one person that responded…

We were immediately saved by an angel who drove straight into the crowd in a white sedan and said…

“Get in !”- I could go on and on about various times I had to make a stand in my life… to win the battle within. 

First and foremost. Fear cannot have any place in the life of faith.

 But it all came down to that one moment in Kenya as the sun was setting over Tsavo National Park. Animals can feel your fear. 

Its an unspoken language and they attack because of it. Our training throughout our lives is filled with moments where we must confront what it is we are most afraid of. 

To let GO…and Let God.

To stand and not to run. 

To reach out and not to hold back. To back down…This is the coward’s way… there is no growth in that… there is a time for everything… there IS a time to run and to hide…but there’s also a time not to…so if you believe in Divine guidance … -find out what it is you truly believe in, and confront your fear… 

 "Touch the Elephant! "- ALV- ****** UNLEARN.