True communication
and healing are possible only through attunement with the
Self, with others, and with God, says Christian Mystic
Stylianos Atteshli, known as Daskalos. .
He
is one of the greatest living Christian mystics, yet
Stylianos Atteshli -commonly known as the
Magus of Strovolos,
the Master, or simply
Daskalos ("teacher")--is not well known in this country
(America). Although he has been teaching since the age of
seven on his native island of Cyprus, the 84-year-old has
never before spoken publicly in the United States or granted
an interview to an American journalist.
As described by Kyriacos Markides in his three-part biography. Daskalos's
practices are legendary and, to my knowledge, unique among
contemporary Christian teachers. They are the sorts of
metaphysical practices we have come to associate more with
Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and shamanism than with the
Western mystic tradition.
For example, Daskalos is
frequently engaged in the practice of "exosomatosis," in which
he is able to leave his body, fully conscious, and travel to
faraway places and dimensions in the company of "invisible
helpers" in order to be of service to others. He claims to
be aware of his past lives (in one, he says, he tended the
rooms where Jesus Christ slept during his visits to the
Essenes) and to be able to revisit these incarnations at
will.
Daskalos has been reported to be instrumental in
hundreds of public healings, such as the following incident
described by an Italian journalist in the Markides
biography: In front of several witnesses, Stylianos Atteshli
healed a three-year-old English boy of polio. I stared with
curiosity at the English-woman holding her child. Only when
she placed the boy in Stylianos Atteshlis' arms did I notice
that [the boy's] left leg was covered with a heavy plastic
brace. It was atrophied and clearly shorter than the other
leg.... Stylianos Atteshli sat on a chair with the child in
his arms and began to speak to him with a very sweet tone in
his voice. As he was doing that, he began to gently stroke
the sickly leg. He pulled it a few times as if to make it
longer. . . . Ten, twenty minutes must have passed; I don't
remember. I had my eyes glued sometimes on the child and
sometimes on Stylianos Atteshli. Suddenly, the child made a
pained grimace. At that point he raised the boy up, gave him
a light slap on his buttocks, and said, "Now, run, my boy.
"And the child began running around the room. Was it a
miracle! Was it suggestion! One can make whatever
conclusions one wishes. I just describe what I saw.
Despite these reputed powers, Daskalos rejects the mantle of
miracle worker. "They are phenomena, nothing more," he
insists. "If we knew how nature works, we would not call
them miracles." Like most genuine mystics, Stylianos
Atteshli has led an outwardly unremarkable life. He was born
in 1910 in the Greek part of Cyprus, near the town of Strovolos, and spent his years as a civil servant, family
man, and Christian. Behind the worldly facade, however,
Daskalos was an altogether different being. Gathering a
circle of students ( "Researchers of Truth") around him in
the Stoa [school room] at the back of his modest home -
Daskalos set about instructing the group in esoteric
Christian wisdom, contemplation, exosomatosis, and the
development of healing powers.
Although such a great soul
would have been venerated in most cultures as a mahatma,
shaman, or curandero, Daskalos was rejected by the orthodox
clergy of Cyprus, who made efforts to have him
excommunicated from the Church as a "magus of
Mephistophelean proportions," to quote Markides. In time, as
Daskalos's fame grew and the harmlessness of his work became
apparent, these misguided charges were dropped by the
Church. Harmless though the work may be, the Gnostic system
that Daskalos teaches is nearly impenetrable for those who
have not been initiated into its terminology and imagery, as
thousands of us found out during two sold-out lectures by
Daskalos at Town Hall in New York City. Stepping onto a
stage littered with hundreds of letters and photographs from
devotees requesting healing, Daskalos led us in the Lord's
Prayer and then spoke for an hour about the origins of the
universe, the psycho Noetic planes, the "mind
super-substance," the holy archangels, the "infinite
absolute Beingness" (God), and the mission of Joshua
Emmanuel the Christ.
As the tall man in a gray suit ranged
mysteriously from topic to topic, many of us--well versed in
meta-physics-tried without much success to follow the sweep
of his mind. I left both talks intrigued, confused, and
convinced that Daskalos was operating at a level achieved by
few. Interviewing such a mystic is far from simple, as I
discovered the next day at a hotel in midtown Manhattan.
Already apprehensive, I was further surprised when this
extraordinary man took my hand and informed me, without
ceremony, that he could read my thoughts and knew exactly
what I wanted to ask. Having established this advantage, he
ignored many of my questions and allowed his discourse to
follow its own self-dictated rhythm.
Common Boundary: I'm interested in what you said about
picking up the thoughts of other people. Is this a constant
experience for you!
Daskalos: It's happened since childhood; for me it was
something natural. I didn't know the others were different.
CB: How did you first know you were a teacher!
D: Wait a moment. Let us settle this word "teacher." The
teacher is Joshua Emmanuel the Christ. No human being has
the right to call himself a teacher. I have rejected the
so-called titles [e.g. magus of Stovolos] given to me in
various books. We call the members of our system "brother
guides," equal to all other brother and sister guides. Many
Hindus call me swami, yogi, but it is unnecessary. And
definitely not the word "magus," for God's sake.
CB: If not Daskalos or magus, what do you want to be called!
D: Nothing. I have completely annihilated the so-called
personality of a time and-place man. What matters is the
teaching, which can help people come out of their confusion!
reshape their lives, and alleviate their suffering. There is
much pain and suffering in the world today due to the
ignorance of not knowing the truth. Now, how did I know who
I was! Who can say! I simply did, from the time I was very
small. It was very difficult for me because even my parents
could not understand me. My father said, "This son of mine,
manifesting these things without learning them, talking in
languages from previous incarnations." He was wondering, Who
is my son! This happened according to my nature and not
through any pre-calculated intention to be a Daskalos. Maybe
it was predestination.
CB: You have said you were a boy at the time Joshua!
D: Yes, I was taken to the Essene school at the age of 10,
destined for the rabbinate. Joshua was in a period of
teaching many disciples--he had many followers. Being an
Essene novice, I was lucky enough to look after these rooms
where he lived four days a month, and to be near him,
adoring him, worshiping him. Can people understand each
other through human language? No--it is the poorest kind of
communication. In few hundred years, human beings will be
able to communicate in a better way.
CB: Until you were what age!
D: When I was 17, he was crucified. Those 7 years were the
best incarnation I ever had. I have had past incarnations as
an Egyptian hierophant three or four times, and I remember,
as if it were my language, hieroglyphics and what they mean.
I have given this information to Egyptologists. Yet, though
I have had very serious incarnations, I was aware even as a
boy of 10 years that I was near something very high in
Joshua. I already had my powers of exosomatosis [out-of-body
travel] at that time, and Joshua knew it. He was teaching
these things, but the greatest thing he taught me was
humility. [We aid interrupted by an aide, instructing me not
to ask any more "personal" questions.]
CB: Let's talk about suffering. We seem to live in a very
dark age--the Hindus call it the Kali Yuga. There are rumors
every day about apocalypse and Armageddon. Is it only our
perception that we are in a dark age, or are we actually at
the end of a cycle of history!
D: Disregarding this question] This is no excuse! God has given
us everything in abundance-fresh air for everyone to
breathe, the super-substance of mind so that we may reach
God. Christ has taught us how to use it! What is prohibiting
man from using reason and love to free himself from his
current state of suffering! These habits of personality are
being presented as an excuse.
CB: I agree, but many find it easier to blame the state of
the world on a divine plan.
D: You see [leaning forward and looking deep into my eyes],
I get much from your thoughts [laughing. You came here to
talk to me about psychology. But what is psychology! What
are psychometry, psychotherapy, psychiatry! Persons use the
word "soul"--psyche-and distorts its great meaning. By
"soul" do you mean the behavior of the personality! This is
not quite accurate. The relationship between soul and
personality is complex. The personality may be sinful, but
the soul is not sinful. It is God. The soul cannot be
harmed. You don't have a soul; you are a soul. In our
system, we speak of something else that we call the
permanent personality. This is the state between
time-and-place incarnations, which has no name except the
I-am-I. This permanent personality actually passes into the
soul. That I-am-I passing away from the gross material body
remembers everything.
CB: Yet I don't remember my past lives.
D: This is part of the mercy of God to give human beings the
opportunity to advance without feeling remorse for the sins
they have committed. People misunderstand the mercy of God.
CB: Are you saying that ignorance is a form of mercy!
D: Yes. Of course, ignorance has many meanings. However,
when you attune yourself to your permanent personality, you
will remember. Then you're out of Ignorance. Let us talk
about healing. Psychotherapy and all forms of healing use
the mind super-substance, the underlying principle of
existence. The mind, as energy, moves through you and is
given to the other fellow to be cured. But who is doing the
work! Some so-called psychotherapists say they have
successes. They definitely have. but unfortunately they have
not healed their own ego personality and go on saying "I, I,
I have done that," meaning their personality They do
nothing! It is He who is doing the healing, not Me. This is
the great truth. You must make your conscience light so that
this vitality I am passing to you will help you recover One
cannot be healed unless he is worthy to be.
CB: Worthy!
D: Yes. No psychotherapist has the right to call himself a
healer, because the healer is God. Agent! Yes On many
occasions, have known how to get that etheric vitality and
pass it to the other. But these healings do not depend on my
will as a personality but on the will of God There have been
cases where this etheric vitality is sent through me and
sent back When this happens three times. I stop. It is not
the will of God that this healing occur.
CB: So you cannot predict what will happen!
D: Before I meet a person, I do not know if it will happen,
but when my aura touches his aura, I feel immediately
whether he will be healed or not. Then I pass the etheric
vitality Atrophied legs become longer-all kinds of things
happen that you would call miracles But I repeat, they are
not miracles. They are phenomena. This is the whole truth.
Nothing is dependent on me; it is all God.
CB: In other words, all of these phenomena are within the
circle of possibilities of every human being
D: If they were not possible, how would it be done!
CB: For gifted people like you, this seems evident. But not
everyone is aware of having these faculties
D: It's true that I've had these things since childhood--my
mother knew it, and everybody knew it. But I always thought
it was something everybody could do. Perhaps in my case it
is the work of many incarnations, the merging of my
permanent and soul personalities. Who can say! What I do
know is that they are not favors from God. You have to earn
and win what you have.
CB: Speaking of God, how can skeptics and atheists work
with their doubts about the existence of the divine!
D: I do not believe there are atheists; there are only
people deceiving themselves. Often they have a lot of God in
them without knowing it. I was talking to the ambassador of
Russia once. A very famous man and a good thinker Suddenly
he said. "My God, my God" I said, "Oh, do you believe in
God!" This question confused him, and he asked me to explain
what God was. I said he could call it love, understanding, a
feeling in the soul. I gave him the example of a rich man
who calls himself a Christian but steals and is greedy, and
on the other hand, a poor fellow who never speaks of God but
who has a piece of bread and shares it with a hungry child.
Though neither the man nor the child will satisfy his
hunger, this man will have the feeling of satisfaction in
his soul and have much of God in him The ambassador still
didn't seem to understand. I said, "If I ask you what
electricity is, you may not know. But you know what it can
do. He said, "I still don't understand, though I want to!" I
said, "By introspection, you will understand, Your
Excellency.
CB: In your system, you emphasize that the brain and the
mind are not the same thing.
D: A battery is not electricity! When I have difficult
things to meditate on, I come out of my body and use the
mind directly, not the brain. One of my students was in
America when a fight broke out in a coffee shop. Somebody
took a rifle and shot, and the bullet destroyed a large part
of his brain. They took out the bullet, and the doctors in
America said that if he lived he would not be able to walk,
talk, or go to the toilet. The boy was about 26. Two medical
doctors brought him back to us in Cyprus. I began trying to
invoke his soul to take control. I can't say it was not very
difficult; it was. You know what happened! This boy, who
could not speak when he arrived, told the doctors, "I want
to get up and walk." They wouldn't let him try, but I told
them to leave him alone. Today this man is working now in
Cyprus, and nobody knows that he had such an accident.
Orthodox science today knows very little about life. You
call such incidents miracles. No! They are phenomena
occurring within the mercy of the absolute
super-intelligence we call God.
CB: It is reported that you are able to move across time and
space at will, with full consciousness.
D: Yes, I can do it, but not with my human brain [laughing].
You've just mentioned something that people do not
understand--motion. What is motion! You said "moving in
time," implying that there is motion in time and space. But
when you attune yourself to the cosmic memory, on the higher
levels of the noetic plane, and you want to see something in
what people call the Akashic Records, this does not apply.
When I want to, I can know everything through the attunement
of my mind in a few minutes. It is difficult to speak openly
of these things, but there are the divine powers in human
nature, when you know how it feels to be God. Through
exosomatosis, you are able to access experiences from other
places and periods of time. You are able to remember all of
your previous incarnations and everything- in your
incarnations. Before that, you cannot remember anything.
CB: Does that increase your pain!
D: Yes. But it is also a divine blessing. I often attune
myself to previous incarnations. Each one is like a book I
have written. It is on my shelf.
CB: How many have there been!
D: Hundreds. It doesn't matter. I can get up and read them
again, live them again nothing is lost. I enter a life and
see things, Christianity is not founded on dogmas.
Christianity is based on only two instructions: Love God
with all your heart, soul, and intelligence; and love every
other being as you love your own self: not as on a
television screen but three dimensionally. You find yourself
moving about in a three-dimensional world, but you can
change nothing, just as a singer can change nothing on a
record. However, the divine mercy is such that you can
understand the lessons of what you are seeing.
CB: An incarnate Tibetan lama told me that it's the wisdom
mind, not the mundane, biographical mind, that continues
from life to life.
D: He is speaking of the soul nature. Many powerful Tibetan
lamas have come to me. Some years ago, I met the Panchin
Lama, who was in Athens on his way to London. This was quite
interesting. First, how did he know me! Definitely not from
the gross material body. I "happened" to be at a friend's
house a kilometer from where the Panchin Lama was staying,
without my knowing that he was in Athens. Someone called and
said that he would be greatly pleased if I visited him. I
went and found him in a great room with a yellow carpet. He
was in an orange robe, sitting on a cushion. I took off my
shoes according to their habit and sat next to him. He was
holding his rosary in his hand and gave it to me. I took my
rosary from my pocket and gave it to him. We sat looking at
each other for five minutes. Not a word in any language of
this world was spoken. He went to give me my rosary back,
and I indicated that he should keep it because the beads
were costly. I got up, put on my shoes. The man of the house
said to me, "Why are you leaving without even hearing his
voice". I told him that we had said more than human beings
can say in five years of daily contact. "I have given him so
much love, and received so much love from him, that I am
happy." Now, what is this! Can people understand each other
through human language! No--it is the poorest kind of
communication. In a few hundred years, human beings will be
able to communicate in a better way. For example, if you say
to me "my house, I can know, through attunement with you,
exactly what your house looks like. But the one who cannot
attune himself will not know what you mean. He will think
that your house is like his house. Therefore, saying the
word "house" in spoken language means nothing. When people
reach the level of our teaching, they will be able to
communicate far more clearly. But at that level there are no
secrets or hypocrisy, because you can know the other
fellow's thoughts.
CB: You can read people's minds!
D: It is not reading. When you are able to attune yourself,
you simply know everything. These teachings have been known
to mystics of past centuries and will be known to the
science to come.
CB: This brings us to the question of contemporary Christian
mysticism. Many Westerners who are hungry for mystical
training go to the Buddhists or to the Hindus or the Sufis
for instruction and inspiration. Where are the enlightened
Christian mystics today!
D: You have the New Testament. Read it. Study it. You don't
need anything else I had a student, a schoolteacher in
Cyprus who was in our circles for five years. He was saving
and saving to go to India. He finally got a year's leave and
came to me and said, "Daskale [the familiar form], I am
going to India." I never stop people from doing what they
want to do. Anyway, he went to a guru and sat near him. The
guru was very powerful and taught him many things. Toward
the end of the stay, the guru asked him, "Why did you come
here!" He said, "I'm wondering that, too. I haven't learned
anything my teacher didn't teach me in Cyprus" The guru
said, "Go to him and try to understand what he is saying,
not what you want to understand." This is the point: Do not
focus on what you want the teaching to mean but on the
teaching itself. Even if you have the greatest teacher, if
you are not ready to understand what he is saying, there
will be no benefit.
CB: Are you critical of the Christian Church today, in which
women may not be ordained priests, homosexuals cannot marry,
and so on!
D: Everything has been distorted nowadays. Christianity is
not founded on dogmas - these are human weaknesses All
dogmas contain within them the weaknesses of those who rule.
True Christianity is based on only two instructions: Love
God with all your heart, soul, and intelligence; and love
every other being as your own self. What is not that is not
Christianity for me.
CB: When you work with someone who is dying, are you able to
help that person through the transition!
D: By death you mean change. St. Paul said, "I am dying
every day." You came to this life as spermatozoa. Where is
that now! Dead. The sperm became pregnancy, a boy or a girl
playing on the ground. Where are those children now! Dead.
What does "dead" mean! No longer existent in the gross
material world. What will you be in 30 years if you're still
alive on this level! Not a single cell of your body will
still be "you." You are constantly dying. Matter in, matter
out. As orthodox science has found now, matter is not
destroyed but transformed to something else and something
else. As a personality, too, you are changing all the time.
But your I-ness, your Atma, is the same. Over time, that
I-ness is simply expressing itself at the various levels of
consciousness. According to the law of duality, you have two
personalities: your changing personality and your permanent
personality, your I-ness. The aim of our system is to help
people know the difference, to find the thing that is you
and that is life. So death does not exist. There is a
transition, passing from the gross material body to the
psychical world.
CB: Are you able to know when you will leave this body!
D: Of course.
CB: One last question. Will Jesus come again!
D: Remember that Joshua said, "I am," not "I was." He is
here today, and anybody can attune himself to the
Christhood. Sooner or later all human beings will recognize
that reality in themselves.
Photographs© Paula Allen; Common
Boundary
Written Material © Mark Matousek, Common Boundary.
Note: The label " Magus of Strovolos "
was given to
Daskalos by a writer who saw Daskalos as he imagined him to be.
Daskalos did not like this label - it even caused problems for
him with the Church on Cyprus. Daskalos was a Mystic not a
Magus Back to
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