Tag: Martinus Cosmology

Who is independent?

Who is independent?

“Still waiting for a qualified, independent socio-religio-philo-psychological etc study of this movement & its history. Independent in the sense of non-affiliated. I.e., by people who are not invested or too happy in their object of study.”

When I posted this post on my private page a couple of years ago (which I repostated today as a “memory”, with the text above) I received some criticism.

That time I had written:

“Today, 130 years ago, this man, Martinus Thomsen, was born in a village in Jutland. Poor, not much schooling. He eventually trained as a dairyman.

In his thirties, he had a strong religious experience that would characterize the rest of his life. He began to write, lecture, o paint. A couple of hundred strange pictures (like the one he’s working on here). A Scandinavian “mystic”, one must well call him.

Still, pretty much unknown to the general public. As well to scholars. Only now is there an independent academic research project on its way. A study Of what he actually accomplished, I’ve heard, and of the movement that grew around him. Congrats, Martinus!”

That’s the thing about “independence.” After all, several academic papers have been written about Martinus and his “cosmology”, which have been approved, at various academic levels. A-, B-, C-, Master’s level. Yes, recently there was even a doctoral thesis. However, as far as I know, exclusively by supporters. But aren’t these works independent, after all? At least at a higher level, there are rigorous requirements on the text to be of good quality?

And I still feel like there’s something I’m missing because I’m going to think it can be really interesting.

There has something to do with Martinus Thomsen’s own claims – and how he is thus perceived, worshipped within the movement – to be a perfect individual with infallible knowledge, which I find difficult to see that it does not risk “messing it up”.

Someone objected at the time, that e.g. psychoanalysts write about Sigmund Freud, is that background disqualifying as well? Isn’t their in-depth knowledge of history, theories, etc., rather an asset?

But I don’t buy that. No one (or at least very few, and those probably enjoys no great respect) would claim that Freud was infallible, incorruptible, a perfect man who recorded the Truth in his books.

Am I being too harsh?

Credit where credit is due

Credit where credit is due

“Ojai”… I see an ad from the Krishnamurti Center on the U.S. West Coast. I have probably mentioned that my two foremost sources of inspiration — not only for what they actually said and have written, but as individuals, almost as “archetypes” for two different kinds of spiritualities — have been the Danish mystic Martinus Thomsen and the Theosophical apostate Jiddu Krishnamurti.

And I’ve had the universe on my side, it seems 🙂

The first time I was going to visit the Martinus Center in Zealand, Denmark, early summer -84, I started hitchhiking in Stockholm in the morning. And got to that center far out in the countryside the very same night. A combination of strange circumstances, it was like a wave of helpfulness.

In the spring of ’90, I was sitting on a Greyhound bus along the coast of California, glanzing through the window. Suddenly saw a sign for an exit road that had such a familiar name: “Ojai.” I knew Krishnamurti had lived in a place called that. I thought it was in India? I guess I catched a bus back just to check. And so I ended up at that center, too.

In both cases, however, I came three or four years too late to meet the founders themselves.

It’s as if every type of spirituality has its possible despecies. Esotericism, like Martinus, then one tend to become far too fond of the answers, “the thought system”. Such systems which there are several similar ones of. But that you has been able to find that one that is superior to the others, etc. And that other kind of spirituality, of which Krishnamurti is a representative? My impression is that the approach can get too aggressive and cross-confident, in its own way. Adherents of Krishnamurti can sometimes behave as spirituality’s equivalent of those organisation fighting against pseudoscience and alternative medicine, etc. (“Vetenskap och Folkbildning” and “Humanisterna”, in Sweden.)

I don’t know how to get their respective teachings together, Martinus and Krishnamurti? Or, in a broader sense: Western Esotericism and Non-duality. When I was more active, I fantasized about how the two might be seen as a kind of “epoxy” solution. Like a two-component glue. They each had an angle. It could not be expressed through the same person. Together, though they were a guarantor that one would not become too cocky, one-sided, fundamentalistic.

Am I a supporter of any of these men today? I guess that’s a matter of definition. Krishnamurti, for example? If someone were to scan my brain – if possible – and see which individuals had made a big impression, whose words and quotes had kind of built up my inner world, then it would say “Jiddu Krishnamurti” on a lot. (Others may in a similar fashion have been nourished by other philosophers, then one would find their names, of course.)

So, I would like to honor him by calling me a supporter. (I’ve barely read a line of him since I was twenty-five, though, but it matters less.) Credit where credit is due.

Then I don’t know if maybe Krishnamurti towards the end got a little too grumpy, like some of his contemporary adepts, too? A long life and having to answer a lot of questions that didn’t reflect what really interested him, along with age, maybe made him tired… He went a little on a routine.

But still, his story about the devil and a friend of his who were out walking, which he included in the speech 1929 when he dissolved the Star of the East, is a really bright light. Like a psychospiritual equation, a magical spell:

“You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, “What did that man pick up?” “He picked up a piece of truth,” said the devil. “That’s a very bad business for you, then,” said his friend. “Oh, not at all,” the devil replied, “I’m going to let him organize it.”

Better late than never

Better late than never

This is so internal, I’m reluctant to post it. But I’ll do it anyway! It’s part of my own story. Perhaps it has a general message built in even.

The movement around Danish mystic Martinus Thomsen (1890-1981) has had its fair share of quarrels, internal battles. Of course. Why would it be any different from other cults?

But at least one such old lockdown seems to have been released. Earlier this week, a delivery man arrived at The Martinus Institute in Copenhagen, which the institute inform about in an email. With him he had an absolutely invaluable material – for those with an interest in the history of this Martinus movement, at least. Many cartons with original manuscripts, films, hand-painted centuries-old glass plates (like those in the picture! this was before the slide projectors), personal possessions, etc. Stuff that a close co-worker and friend of Martinus Thomsen had been keeping since the founders death and had been reluctant to give up.

A general message? That with age can come more sense, wider perspectives, a greater capacity for self-examination, an urge to put things behind you and try to reconcile while time is, perhaps.

Maybe it’s because it’s Christmas time 🙂 🎁

(Photo: Jens Christian Hermansen)

Martinus faces resistance

Martinus faces resistance

Always refreshing, but so rarely only happens when the Danish Martinus Thomsen’s (1890-1981) esoteric system gets some qualified, interested, moderately benevolent, resistance like this! (The section will be a kind of variant, with the same qualities, as the Nexus article from -82,I think.)

“Martinus Thomsen was in his thirties experiencing a transformative spiritual experience. He received strong divine light, and met a Christ figure. This led to him receiving what he called cosmic consciousness. He spent the rest of his life writing down what had been revealed to him. The life’s work was named the Book of Life. The name Is also the Third Testament.

We talk to Mikael Krall and Olav Johansson about the man and the work.”

“Magical Thinking – About the Bigger Reality” #075 MARTINUS THOMSEN (2 h 2 min)

Link to podcast: https://bit.ly/3xk4VRL

An interview that evokes the thoughts of both those who interview, as it seems, and in me who listen.

Surely it’s about faith, for me (even if I’ve been cowardly out of? o hardly dealing with metaphysics anymore) and most people. But with the addition that perhaps there are others for whom the beliefs in this field (reincarnation for example) are actually knowing, I don’t know what’s possible, but I feel like I need to keep this open in the wigifying case.

Otherwise, I became some kind of… I don’t know what?… The philosopher of dissatisfaction who takes every opportunity to cause trouble just because… Or as if it were trapped in some belief of their own (either that something metaphysical is not found, or that in a matter of fact it is not possible to have self-perceived knowledge of this) … And that would be a kind of prison, that with, o waste of energy.

I have a great sympathy for the approach that the big questions, which Martinus and others have published the text about, would in fact lack answers. At the same time, can’t even your attitude include keeping life open might actually work in a certain way, o that others may have gained knowledge of this? It doesn’t cost anything, keep it open, I think.

But what would it take? It has to be a balancing act in higher school. Some kind of wonder yoga 😃

Martinus Thomsen and his movement

Martinus Thomsen and his movement

It has probably been glimpsed, here o there in my writings, that I have been interested in the Danish mystic Martinus Thomsen (d. 1981) and his visions. Here is a post I posted elsewhere this spring for the centenary of what he himself said was the start of his work.

What makes me think of him right now? Well, this week came the ruling in a protracted dispute over copyright that has been going on for more then ten years. An dispute that has divided and chattered the Martinus movement. It’s not strange in itself, that happens in most spiritual environments.

This is not an opinion piece. No solicitation attempt either. A little world surveillance – a VDN label of me, maybe. And my idea of right and wrong in the dispute does not belong here. Let the dead bury their dead. Life goes on.
– – –

Behind this window a hundred years ago, something strange happened. The young dairyman Martinus Thomsen came home one evening, sat down in his wicker chair and soon had some kind of prophetic experience that sent him in an unexpected direction for the rest of his life.

It’s actually remarkable no matter how you look at it. Philosophically, for what he then shared, if you’re laid in that direction. Religious studies. A mystic in our neighborhood with a large production of texts, lectures and “symbol images” over half a century that – until now – has hardly received any attention at all from academia.

Or psychologically. I never met him myself. I became acquainted with Martinus Thomsen and his staggering “cosmology” only the year after he died. But I have met many people who have known him. And he seems to have behaved, no weirdness, no major scandals or extravagances. The picture you get is of a simple, friendly and fun-loving man. Of course, over time, he became a kind of cult leader, with a few thousand loyal followers. But there was never much money involved, no missionary, there was nothing you could become a member of even.

So psychologically, he’s not easy to understand, or explain away, either. To combine the person with his work. A psychotic, or at least disturbed, someone who was driven by a desire to impress and gain power over others, etc. In fact, he seems to have been a rather different new-age-spiritual foreground figure. I always say that this movement is like my spiritual hometown. Nowadays hardly more than that. But I always think of Martinus Thomsen (1890-1981) with warmth.

(The chair is preserved at the Martinus Institute in Copenhagen. The house on Jagtvej 52 is still standing and looks much like then. He himself rests in a small mausoleum at Frederiksberg’s old cemetery.)