Looking Back 25 Years On by Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston)
Additional article written for inclusion in The Spirit World in Plain English
At the beginning of the 90s, a London Docklands graphics partnership I had, started doing computerised design work. I mentioned to Glyn how the technology made producing a book easier and if he wanted to write one, I could type it for him and format the text. As an enthusiastic and creative youngish man as Glyn was then, he instantly suggested we write something together, which I wasn’t expecting. Our conversation led to work not only on the book you are holding but to others that followed.
The Spirit World in Plain English was initially titled Tune in to Your Spiritual Potential by the book’s first publisher, W Foulsham, who released it in September ’99. At the time, Glyn and I were considering calling it Synthesis of Spirit in order to link it with Part Three. We later gave it its new title when we significantly revised it in 2011. Due to other commitments and the slow process of publishing in the 90s, the first edition was the result of an eight-year project from conception to being released in printed form.
When we started writing together, I was in my mid-30s and Glyn was in his early 40s. I feel the content benefits from our younger years as they add a noticeable youthful passion to the chapters that comes over in the reading although it can be said that Glyn was always young at heart throughout his Earth life.
Several of Glyn’s sections he wrote in longhand and others were dictated by him when we were on a two-week summer holiday in the New Forest area, which gave him time away from public work and freedom to focus on teachings and exercises he wanted to include. The depth and breadth of insights he shared was amazing. I felt honoured to have the opportunity to write alongside him and share my own reflections on unfoldment. We worked on various parts together and contributed passages that were included in each other’s chapters, and often offered suggestions on wording, terminology and areas to consider to one another. I’d tell him I needed extra material for a topic and he’d instantly tell me what to include. For some chapters, inspiration suddenly came for us and worked perfectly as text, while others took time to take shape.
After our initial burst of creativity, I began a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious studies at King’s College London and had to hand in essays almost every week, which enhanced my writing and editing skills, and helped me refine the way the book was reading. Synchronicity also played a part when Glyn and I got to know a Yoga writer and former Oxford University Press editor, Julie Friedberger, who kindly offered to cast her editor’s eye over the completed manuscript. Incredibly, synchronicity happened again, when the editor of Psychic News, Tony Ortzen, phoned to ask Glyn if he would be interested in writing a book for a publisher he was scouting for. Glyn promptly replied, “Steve and I have just finished one!”
We then waited two years for it to be printed and did a book launch at the SAGB (Spiritualist Association of Great Britain). Upon its release, Two Worlds Magazine graciously predicted it was “Destined to become essential reading” and, along with Psychic News, featured chapters from the book. It soon became the Arthur Findlay College Shop’s bestseller and has remained a popular title there ever since. Over the years the book has sold in different parts of the world, due to not only the book’s contents but also Glyn’s popularity and readers discovering his published works, as well as the growth of the Internet.
After the book’s release, people told us how much they valued the in-depth chapters and the book’s inclusive and holistic overview of different areas of unfoldment. I’ve known churches and centres to have used passages for reading in their public services or to have study groups that used the book along with other titles Glyn and I jointly worked on. Organisations such as the Interfaith Observer, which is housed inside the Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement at Seattle University, have even followed the book’s Facebook page, and the SAGB has posted various quotations and a large extract from the book on its website. In addition to a legally required complimentary copy, the British Library Legal Deposit Office requested six hardbacks for distribution to prestigious library connections it has. I can only hope the positive interest shown for the book continues and it will be considered a helpful source of practical inspiration for the next 25 years.
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A brief biography about Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston) can be read on GreenSpirit’s website on its Publications Team page.
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Paperback and hardback 160 pages
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