Dr Tuesday Lobsang Rampa (8 April 1910 – 25 January 1981)

A friend first introduced me to Lobsang Rampa over a cup of coffee some 35 years ago, when the book was placed on the table in front of me and I was asked if I had read any of his books. I had never heard of him at that time, and my friend left the book for me to read. I picked the book up and glanced at it, then unfortunately it got placed on my bookshelf and there it stayed for several years.

Out of the blue one day I just picked up this book “You Forever” and read it, I was so intrigued by this authors writings, it was so interesting I could not put the book down, and I felt after reading it I just had to know more, I went to the local bookstore and ordered every book this author had written to date. There were several books that the store could not obtain, but every book that I did manage to buy I read with total conviction more than once. Over the years one lends out books, looses them, etc and some 15 years ago, I decided to buy these books again. Only several had been reprinted and were available from USA so I ordered them. More recently I obtained the rest of my collection from Ebay from all over the world. The writings are just as fascinating today and make excellent reading.

I do keep an open mind on his books, but then again I do believe in fate, and feel sure I was meant to read his books, and learn from them. Over the years he has had many critics and was hounded by the press, but then I think we all know how the media can make or break an individual.

Lobsang Rampa was unique, a remarkable writer, one of the most fascinating and intriguing individuals with physic abilities and should you require something completely different to read, something strangely out of the ordinary, that can be truly enlightening and depending on your beliefs about life can add another perception to the mysteries of the universe. After reading about his experiences and his explanations we can all draw our own interpretation and conclusions from what he had to say.

'The Third Eye' (1956) - The autobiography of a Tibetan Lama

'Doctor from Lhasa' (1959) - Lobsang Rampa, a prisoner of war, proved that mortal man can discipline his mind and body to survive starvation and torture.

'The Rampa Story' (1960) - Reveals other aspects of the authors strange life.

'Cave of the Ancients' (1963) - Lobsang Rampas experiences in the lamaseries of Tibet.

'Living with the Lama' (1964) – Further revelations into Lobsang Rampa’s extraordinary existence – this time from a curious angle.

'You Forever' (1965) – A special course of instruction in psychic development and talks about Astral projection.

'Wisdom of the Ancients' (1965) – A book of knowledge with special sections on breathing exercises and diet.

'The Saffron Robe' (1966) – The personal story of Lobsang Rampa’s boyhood.

'Chapters of Life' (1967) – Predictions and comments on the events taking place.

'Beyond the Tenth' (1969) – Lobsang Rampa explores the spiritual potential inherent in every human being.

'Feeding the Flame' (1971) – Rampa speaks about Atlantis, The Dalai Lama and many other topics.

'The Hermit' (1972) - Introduces the ideas of human abduction and experimentation for genetic engineering purposes.

'The Thirteenth Candle' (1972) – Rampa’s 13^th book where he answers questions and gives information.

'Candlelight' (1974) – Rampa talks about pendulums and religion, and discusses media persecution.

'Twilight' (1975) - Rampa discusses the power of prayer, hypnotism, etc.

'As it Was' (1976) – Rampas life condensed into four parts, As it was in the beginning to As it is Now.

'I Believe' (1977) – Lobsang Rampa explains in detail about life after death.

'Three Lives'- (1977) – A continuation of “I Believe”.

'Tibetan Sage' (1980) - His final book with prophecies for the planet and his final farewell.

One further publication, which I should mention, an anthology which Lobsang Rampa wrote was published without authorisation in late 1958/early 1959 – My Visit to Venus, and a soft cover copy was printed and circulated in 1988 after his death. Rampa did not want this published, fearing it would be dismissed as science fiction.

Another unauthorised book 'My Visit to Agharta' (2003) Rampa talks about his visit to the Inner world of Agharta.

Spam – Name and Shame

The weather has been wonderful and hot the last few days, and this morning was no exception when we woke.

However, the day was really marred when I switched on my pc to find that some website had decided to use our domain name for Spamming purposes, a continuous flow of undelivered returned emails came pouring through into my Inbox, after several hundred I was getting really cross and frustrated. Being in France, with the technical language barrier, one can't take the appropriate action to stop it. Even then I suppose it’s not easy, (640 and still arriving) and of course as we have genuine mail from our site, I have to click each one to delete !

Why do idiots do this, I feel sure no one in their right mind after receiving a spam, would actually go to their website and risk buying any of their products. How could one trust them, well you cant, can you?

OK….. I went to their site and had a good look around, it’s just a downloading site, and an example of what they were selling for downloading on line……….

Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium for Windows Retail Price $1199.00
Our Price $149.95
You save $1049.05

Too good to be true !

http: // bb.ekodoem. com (spaced for obvious reasons) - now I DON’T want to give this Spammer any publicity whatsoever, being forewarned is being forearmed, so I recommend you just avoid them like the plague.

Digressing to Life in General

Whilst on the sit on mower this morning, dealing with the long grass in the orchard and having just completed once again one of Tuesday Lobsang Rampas books “I Believe”, (and I shall cover this topic another time as I could ramble forever about this physic and author) I remembered all the controversy years ago surrounding this gentleman, and my mind wandered onto the subject of life in general.


With the UK news recently highlighting the fact that they have now discovered a “fat” gene, it took me back many many years ago when I remember there was a huge outcry from experts who identified plastics that were used to contain food and drink products, having toxicological effects on the human body.

Scientists concluded that eating and drinking from bottles made of plastic would over a period of time affect the genetic make up of the human body and both physical and mental aspects of sexuality would be affected, together with increase in cancer, and Alzheimer disease to name but a few.

It further concluded that there was also a conflict of interest in allowing the manufacturers to submit to their own testing.

Are we are now seeing those physical and mental changes to the Human Race taking place?

I wonder if its like global warming, nothing will be done by the governments until its too late?

Buying or Selling a Renovated Property in France

Once a property has been renovated, and is sold one has to pay tax on the profits, in other words if you pay 100,000 Euros for a property and renovate it, and its now valued and sold at 250,000 Euros, then 150,000 Euros is taxable (we understand this is about 40% of profits). One can produce all receipts for the work done and we understand this is deductible from that amount. The Notaire deals with this paperwork. So be warned and keep every receipt and bill as one can be faced with a huge capital gains tax demand.

Another thing that has come to light, in the event of us selling our property, is that it was good that we had decided not to renovate the two barns into Gites, as once that had been done then we would have had to have paid 19.6% tax when selling, unless the property has been owned for over 5 years.

We had not heard of this before, and certainly no one had even suggested this, so anyone who has renovated and is in this position may we suggest you check with the Notary Office whether it would apply also to you. It could be a rather hefty sum to pay once sold.

When buying a French property which has been renovated one should make sure you have the 10 year artisan guarantees for electrics, plumbing, heating, etc. in case anything goes wrong, and also you could have problems trying to sell the property on in the future without these. All legitimate artisans French or English, registered under the French system will provide these guarantees. No French person will normally buy without them.

There is a new survey that has to be done by law now by the seller, which is done before signing, and this now takes into account the insulation factor of the property. The cost for this is depended upon the selling cost.

We find the French law very complicated and not easy to find things out until one is put in that position. We say check and double check as once you have signed the papers you cannot back out which is why we decided to go through a French Immobilier and not to try to sell it privately.

When considering buying a property do check out http://www.joinusinfrance.net/html/buying_in_france.html

Can you identify the plant

Having been disappointed with the way that Spurs played, decided not to mention anymore about the game. So I wont.

Awoke yesterday morning to an overcast day, we decided to work on the garden again, there is much to do this time of year with the one hectare of land. It is very warm and with no sunshine or wind made it difficult to get on with any motivation, but we plodded on and most of the landscaped garden is now finished, we also have one of the vegetable plots ready for planting. Just need to deal with the grape vines, which we have three, and that side of the garden is looking good.

Stayed in last evening and watched some television, something we do not normally do, but we both enjoy the new programme Joseph, and last night was no exception, thoroughly enjoyed watching the talent, it is just a shame that we cannot vote from here in France.

This morning it’s quite misty and the forecast is hot, so we shall persevere with an area at the rear of the garden that needs clearing. There is a pretty ground cover plant that has sprung up amongst the weeds, it has small white flowers, and I cannot quite remember the name, although I know it’s a very popular alpine in England. I have searched the internet, but with no luck, perhaps someone please can remind me of the name as it appears to be really bothering me, as you will notice the earth here is already very dry.

Up the Spurs

Well yesterday the weatherman said it was going to rain today, so after nearly killing ourselves in the garden yesterday, we had planned for today to be fairly relaxing, but we awoke to glorious sunshine, and as there is much to do in the garden, made an effort. It has been a hot exhausting day and our muscles are aching. The garden does look good now though and its been well worth the effort. (Well we will think so once the aches and pains go)

Tonight I am in front of the TV, not moving for love nor money, Spurs are playing and with fingers crossed may pull something out of the hat. Really need them to do a “Man U” tonight, but am sure we would all settle for a few goals, wont be greedy and expect 7 !

Being born and bred in North London, my senior school being in Tottenham, just around the corner from the ground, and my Father being a Spurs supporter I grew up with the team, if you know what I mean. There was one season where I never missed a game, home or away. (Except for the friendly at the start of that particular season as it was in Motherwell) Alas, those days are well in the past, but I still retain that Bill Nic was the best Manager we ever had, and still support them from my armchair here in France whenever I can.

Iain cannot understand why I would like a cockerel weather vane on the roof.

Sainte Suzanne

It’s a glorious day today, very warm and no wind, its lovely. We have been in the garden most of today, Iain has been mowing and I have been weeding, and getting the pots ready for planting.

Yesterday when we took the dog and four cats to the Vets for their blood test, unfortunately took most of the afternoon, and cost us 360 Euros for the laboratory and 40 Euros for the Vet. More than we had originally thought.

I wanted today to tell you today about Sainte Suzanne, which I think is very under estimated, it’s a lovely village just a short drive from here, not sure I would like to live there, its quite touristy, but lovely for an afternoon out in the Summer.

On route from here, we pass what I class at my “little stonehedge”, “The Erves Dolmen” its one of the best known monuments in Mayenne. It is made up of a square room entered by a porch. “Dolmen des Erves” is on route to Sainte Suzanne via Assé le Bérenger. There is historical information available at the site.

Sainte-Suzanne is situated just the other side of Evron and is a medieval city, an 11th Century stronghold that was built on a triangular spur of rock. Its known history can be traced back to William the Conqueror, who besieged the fortress from 1083 to 1087. The medieval city with its ramparts dominates the River Erve. Its keep, its castle, its old houses and its museum, testify to the richness of its historical past.

Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Mayenne Town

Mayenne is about 30 minutes drive from our village; it’s a town that is tucked quietly away between southern Normandy and the Loire valley. It offers a taste of real French countryside, an old feudal town, built on hills on both sides of the River Mayenne.

The oldest castle in Europe is well worth a visit, it was built in the 9th and 12th century, it overlooks the river and has several towers, one of which has retained its conical roof. The vaulted chambers and chapel are ornamented in the style of the 13th century. From the ramparts you will discover a spectacular view of the river Mayenne, the embankment and the East Side of the Town.

There are many historical sites to see including the Church of Notre-Dame, with its statue of Joan of Arc, which dates partly from the 12th century.

Mayenne has all the large shops, which one would expect from a major town, and lots of small roads with individually owned shops, well worth a browse in the hot Summer months.

Inhabitants are called Mayennais, and the dialect is quite difficult to understand.

Just another day

Today is a beautiful day here in France, the sun is shining and its warm, the sky is clear blue and it finally feels like Summer is on the way after a long, dark, wet Winter. Another afternoon in the garden and we will feel we are making progress with the borders and flower beds. The trees are covered in blossom, and the shrubs are certainly well on their way. The Peonies are in bud ready to burst into their beautiful colours of various reds and pinks.

Life at the moment for us both due to trying to sell and return to England is generally very boring, particularly around this time of year when it is so quiet. We will be pleased when May arrives and the French General Election is over and things in France have settled down, hopefully the house market will then pick up, and we will have some interesting news to report.

The animals are booked into the Vets tomorrow for their blood tests for Rabies after their booster 10 days ago. We are quite confident they cannot have this disease as they were vaccinated in England before we arrived, but Defra says this is required before we can return them to the U.K. so its something we have to pay out for and do. The cost for this test works out at 450 Euros for the five of them. Certainly not cheap to have pets nowadays.

Our Poppy, a blue/cream Persian we are quite worried about, she is now nearly 17 years old, and looks the worst for wear, we are sure she is deaf, and sometimes she gets quite confused as to where she is and where she wants to go. The Vet did a blood test on her last time we went to check her organs etc. and said she was fine, heart was good and kidneys were ok. So we shall plod with her and hope she makes it through the six month period and the journey.

300

Last night I lay in bed and there was not a sound to be heard, one thing about living here in this area of France, is that it is so quiet. My thoughts took me back to England where living in a small town, I would hear traffic noises, police/ambulance sirens and late at night I would hear people vacating the pubs and clubs normally the worst for wear, and generally quite rowdy and although the noises were quite a way away, one could still hear them. Certainly here we hear none of those noises, even the main road is very quiet, not a noise to be heard, except the occasional owl or late night bird.

Here in this region of France there is no such thing as a rowdy youngster, no binge drinking, no gangs of youths. The teenagers are very well behaved there is no feeling of intimidation when passing a small group.

Last evening we watched a film, the new one “300”, which was based on the novel by Frank Miller, about the war between the Spartans and the Persians, didn’t recognise any of the cast, but I can say we both thoroughly enjoyed it, the animations were excellent, very blood thirsty but all in context of the film.

There are only certain films worth watching more than once, but this one we will certainly watch again, and feel the second showing might be better.

An enjoyable film.

Just a quiet day

Since my mentioning yesterday about the African Hoopoe in our garden, we saw three together this morning pecking with their long beaks. So managed to capture all three of them with my camera, can you spot them? They seem to like the insects in the newly cut lawn. We have been working on the garden the last couple of days as good weather has finally arrived again so perhaps this has encouraged them to stay.

This morning however, we both woke up with backaches, due to the long afternoon of weeding yesterday, so we will not be doing much out there today. It may be a good time to sit and watch the world go by for the afternoon.

We always thought when we got to France we would be sitting out in the garden with a glass of French wine in the afternoon, soaking up the sun, but I don’t think alcohol in the afternoon has ever passed our lips.

Easter weekend without the family around, doesn’t seem to mean much to us here in France, its times like this that we miss England and the family. What with the house market being very quiet due to the elections here, we think it will be quite a time before we can return to England. However, we are trying to make the most of the space here, as once we do return we will not have such a large garden with these outstanding views of the countryside.

The other thing I am sure we will miss are all the animals around us, the field at the back has all the cows in, all tagged in their ears ready for the market. The retired farmer opposite has all the Sheep, and the Chickens, although we have noticed the Cockerel never crows early in the morning, only early evening do we ever hear him and it never bothers us.

African Hoopoe

We woke this morning with the sun shining bright, although it’s still quite cold here. Spotted an unusual bird on the lawn so reached for my camera and through the window managed to get a photograph, its not a very good one, but shows some of the detail of this beautiful creature.

Apparently its an African Hoopoe (Upupa Africana) which I presume most Europeans know, however, never ever have we seen one in England so feel sure they haven’t crossed the channel. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who knows different.

We do not generally encourage birds into the garden due to having the four cats which are often on the prowl, but that doesn’t seem to deter the birds from visiting us, and some are so unusual and different. I will, in the future have to take more of an active interest in capturing these on my camera as there are so many we do not recognise, and they are so attractive.

Feeling Sluggish

Living here in France we have come across some weird looking creatures, we kind of got used to the occasional snake, masses of shy lizards, mating hedgehogs, screaming owls, hornets, extra large tame flies, huge toads, to name just a few. Not sure we could ever get used to the Spotted Leopard Slug, (had to research this one as just had not got a clue to what type of slug it was), however, latin name I think is Limax Maximus so its been around a lot time!

Came across some interesting facts about these creatures:
Their eyes are at the tips of short stalks arising below the base of much longer, more slender tentacles. The tentacles feel what the simple eyes may not see.
Their mouths are directed downward, so that food can be taken from the surface as they travel across it.
They have single, muscular, broad flat-bottomed feet which moves the creature forward.

Understand somewhere there is actually an “International Slug Fest”, a contest to locate and photograph the largest slug in the world, however, did not have a ruler to hand when I wanted to snap photos of these, but they sure grow them big here in this country.

Shopping in France

In England one can wander around all sorts of shops and I suppose just take shops for granted, having been born and bred with the language one doesn’t think twice.

To live permanently here in France, it’s so completely different, you need to acquire technical French for everyday occurrences. Sometimes it’s so difficult to find a specific word and then place that word into a sentence, which is understood without any misinterpretation. The French dialect in our region, we are even told by the French is very difficult to understand, and even the French visiting the area have problems understanding. This does cause us major problems and even stress.

So what chance do we have? It’s definitely a perseverance problem. So one tends to keep to the same shops as after a few visits one can determine how to approach them as they are all different, they recognise you and get to know who you are, and although on the first visit they seem set on not helping you, once they know you are trying to speak the language and make yourself understood, they become much more sociable. However, there comes a time when you need a particular shop only once..and it can be a nightmare.

Once sentence we have learnt not to use here is "Parlez vous Anglais" as the reaction is always a "No" and we feel sure they have been offended by us asking, as usually they will just walk away. (From experience now we know these people can speak a little English, but had no intention of trying due to our question).

We have one particular shop here in our nearest town, it’s a kind of “end of line” “seconds” shop, selling lots of household items, food and clothing at a very reasonable price. It has become our second home, anything we need or require we tend to go there first. We have learnt the way they work, and one can go and see the new range in, and then nearly always go back 3 weeks later and if the items haven’t sold they reduce by 50%…then several days later to 60% or even 70%, it certainly is a good way to keep the bank balance in check. We only buy at full price now, if it’s an “I must have”, and not an “I would like” item. Hence we have many “I would like” items. But don’t tell everyone!

With the shops closing at 12 noon until 2pm, some shops till 2.30pm, you have to change the whole way you shop, it is certainly so different from England. You either have to decide on an early start or the afternoon out. There is nothing worse than hanging about for 2 hours !!

French Elections 2007

The sun is trying to come out today and its quite mild, weather reports say we are in for some good weather, so fingers crossed for some sunshine.

With the first round of the French General Election taking place here on the 22nd April 2007 and the declaration probably on Monday 23rd April for the results of the first round, and the announcement of the names of the two candidates entitled to enter the second round, has made it so quiet here, seems this is quite normal during the election months in France.

We are presuming that it will stay quiet until the final vote on Sunday 6th May 2007 when over 44.5 million French voters which go to the ballot to appoint the new President of the Republic.

President Jacques Chirac announced that he would not be seeking re-election, so we wonder who will gain power. Mr Chirac who is now 74, has been in power since 1995 and has been in politics for 45 years.


12 candidates are officially running in the 2007 election,

Mme Ségolène Royal – Socialist party
Mme Arlette Laguiller – Trotskyite Lutte Ouvrière party
Mme Dominique Voynet – Green Party
Mme Marie-George Buffet – Communist Party
Jean-Marie Le Pen – National Front
Frédéric Nihous – the CPNT hunting and fishing party
Gérard Schivardi – Trotskyite Parti des travailleurs
José Bové – Anti-globalisation campaigner
Nicolas Sarkozy – The ruling centre-right UMP
François Bayrou – Centrist UDF party Union for French Democracy
Olivier Besancenot – Trotskyite Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire party
Philippe de Villiers – Far-right MPF party

We await the outcome and wonder what effect this will have on those of us living in France……

French Cheeses

Looking at our website we decided to do some more research and place another couple of pages of information on it, so I had this idea that I should list some French Cheeses on it which I thought would be interesting, so I set about researching this.

Several months later, I was still researching, as I was not aware that France had over 500 cheeses, and I seemed to be living and dreaming Cheeses. Some were very difficult to research and took a lot of time, French markets helped quite a lot, but was not easy taking photographs from this source without getting some strange looks.

Finally finished and the website had gained over 550 pages listing a very comprehensive directory of all the cheeses I could find. Some very rare and some that were available in all of the shops.

Had I known there were so many I would not have started, but once I began found it difficult to stop.

Iain had the task of setting up the huge database that we needed which also took quite a long of time… but the result we feel was worth it.

http://www.joinusinfrance.net/html/cheeses.html

Blogging

Iain was so taken with my blog, either that or so fed up that I was always "blogging", he has started his own blog, you know the saying “If you cant beat them, join them”.

He is a qualified MCSE so his blog is http://helpwithpc.blogspot.com/ and he would appreciate some comments I am sure.

Our property on the market for sale

Yesterday morning at 7 am our telephone rang and woke us up, it was a pleasant English gentleman, who apologised for the early call but his brother and his wife were on the road travelling down from Calais from England and wanted to view the property. They were touring around looking throughout the region. We of course, had no objection to this and rang the gentleman directly on his mobile to give him directions. He mentioned on the phone he was struggling to find a campsite, which was open, and would be with us when he could. We checked out some in the area, but they were not open for the season yet, so we obviously rang them and said that we had plenty of land; electrics could be connected to the van, and if they couldn’t find anywhere near, they were welcome to stay on our land with no obligation. Later in the day he took us up on the offer and arrived to view late afternoon.

The one thing we should mention here, is that the last few days we have had glorious sunshine, and it has been quite warm. However, looked out of the window after the phone call to see a thick layer of snow, and to make matters worse, it was still snowing very heavy. Just our luck!By the time they arrived, snow had turned to rain, and the sun was trying to shine but it was still quite wet.

It’s strange how things like this, tends to throw one out, and just shows how we are in certain routines and habits in our life, for we felt quite restless. Anyhow, we showed the couple around and spent a couple of hours covering all the property details with them and left them to settle in for their overnight stay. Not sure if they slept ok, but we certainly didn’t, we seemed to be disturbed all night.

Set the alarm this morning to rise early, and not long after they came and thanked us for our hospitality and left for Brittany where his brother lives.

So our day started early and we are both very tired. We are not sure we like this idea of selling ones home very much if this is how we feel when anyone views, its so unsettling.

Details of our home can be seen on http://www.joinusinfrance.net/html/house_sale.html