Seekers in the 21st century

Sture Emby (1921-2011)

"In 1948 - when J. was 27 years old - something happened that continues to shine as a beacon and a promise. /'Alltfort' – means 23 Nov 1987/. And which far outshines all other experiences.”

This is how the author, meditation teacher, etc., Sture Emby, begins a text in which he describes a strong experience he had in his youth. (The text has been posted on the website for a long time Vivotopia, together with many similar "enlightenment" experiences, but take the opportunity to copy it while there is time, you never know how long such things will be available.)

Sture who worked almost his entire adult life in Borlänge, Dalarna. With certain assignments to lecture in other locations. Held courses in Western esotericism (especially Martin's cosmology), meditation, yoga and graphology. Besides being a therapist/soul saver for many who sought his contact.

I got to know Sture Emby when I was in my freshman year of high school. It was a time of searching for me, and meeting him was very significant. We had contact for many years. Eventually I needed to distance myself. The reason for this was no conflict or anything, I just stopped having contact. There is certainly something to think about about this. But it was quite a natural process, I feel. A need for release. Certainly a kind of recoil on long-term idealization as well.

There is much more to tell about Sture Emby. Once he showed a binder he had prepared, a kind of biography, with typewritten sheets and the occasional photo. (Including one where he stood next to a small propeller plane. Surely that was what he did his military service as, a meteorologist, who sometimes had to go up in the air? That's how I remember it anyway.) A skilled pianist, with the ambition to become a concert pianist, but hearing loss in one ear meant that he had to abandon that dream. He began a career in banking, something he soon gave up.

Sture Emby was a loner. There were probably several reasons for this. Personal disposition was one, his natural reticence. All his adult life (after that experience he had) he was ideologically faithful to the Danish mystic Martinus Thomsen, which he always referred to, but never particularly employed or involved in the movement around him. In his "study letters" that he sent out at regular intervals to subscribers, 7-8 typewritten and stenciled pages, the first pages were always Martinus texts that Sture himself painstakingly translated from the Danish. Only then came some sheets with his own reflections or poems. He was actually one of the first to take an interest in and teach about Martinus' cosmology in Sweden, so long there was not much else available in the Swedish language.

At the time, that's how I understood it, there were a couple of things that other followers could find disturbing about Sture, mistrust him for, or maybe even harbor envy because of: Firstly, that he held courses in meditation and yoga, partly that he did not hide the fact that he had his own "enlightenment experience" which to some extent gave him his own authority. When I last had an insight into the Martinus movement, this was not directly disqualifying, but in the 1950s and 60s it probably was.

Yes, one more thing! Sture sometimes took the liberty of making his own "symbols", based on Martinus Thomsen's symbolic language. Which at least at the time was controversial, even considered dangerous. (There was an anecdote that was passed around, about how Martinus would once have warned a mother, whose son dabbled in such things.) But they were rather inoffensive pencil drawings, one might think. Or things he drew with chalks when he was teaching. But I have heard that it was not looked upon kindly by some other people interested in Martinus and contributed to him being perceived as suspicious.

Here is the continuation of Sture's story (and at the end of the post there are links to contributions from others, which may be of interest):

“J. had left the shack a few hours ago for an errand in the building, a phone message to my dear host and client in Gustafs. However, the mission was not carried out, he could not be found.

Somewhat dejected, J. began the mile-long and uphill journey home. /Bicycle - and it was if I remember correctly in the month of June/. So was a little tired when j. sought out a place to rest. Preferring not to be confronted with people on this occasion, I headed to 'Agne's Great House', where there were many spaces and resting places. /Colony members as well as visitors on this day, a Sunday I think, stayed in the 'main building'/.

After a few minutes of pleasant relaxation in one of these bunks or boarded-up, richly decorated rest rooms, a wonderful thing happened to me. Without previous 'warning' or hint - j. was suddenly placed in a new dimension of life for me. I was in some way 'electrified' or illuminated, at the same time that j. himself came to shine through, experience and be penetrated by new and higher worlds according to what j. perceived. My interior as well as the entire surroundings began to vibrate, also lit up by some spotlight-like light, not uniformly but with and in different variations and angles. The experiencer was mesmerized and still dazed, but at the same time fully aware of, for example, the exteriors in the room and outside the windows. If someone had come in to me - which fortunately didn't happen anyway - j. supposes that the vision or the experience - even if somewhat distracted - remained. /This happened later in the day, when j. gradually came to meet my friends/.

I came to perceive how existence had no beginning, no end. That the individuals - I was clearly in focus here - had always existed and would always remain so. There was absolutely nothing to fear. We were all in the enclosure of Providence, and to an equal degree. I saw past scenes of human development, I saw barbarism and complete chaos of the senses, but also how this was fully explained through the later chapters of the life scenes, yes how all this and everything else, were necessary fragments for the construction of perfected and loving psyches, for the construction of highly creative and rich personalities, who were all our inheritance. In this process - for me wonderful, because I had not experienced anything like this before - some were more advanced than others, but therefore not favored but on the basis of their wider measure of suffering as well as life experiences etc.

The currents of infinity worked in and out and through me. They were accompanied by cascades of light and heat. Wherever I directed my inner – and even to a certain extent outer – gaze, I was met with divine embraces. I, the quiet, withdrawn, ignorant Sture Emby.

On this basis it was not so strange that in no phase of this vision did I experience any fear or that I wanted to withdraw. On the contrary: It was as if I could not get enough of these heavenly glories, which at the same time meant vital nourishment for my sensitive being as well as for my intellectual, for thought and variations of thought. /C: 2 years later, j. had a similar but weaker experience/.

That time was out of my control here was probably quite natural. As I gradually got up from my camp and headed out – still without meeting anyone – away from the settlement and onto familiar paths in the woods and moors. Still in the atmosphere of 'natural' intoxication vibrating within me, as ONE with all living things, ONE with eternity and bliss.

It was completely clear to me how the Top Management in all phases of life took care of and followed each one with the absolute greatest care - and without the feeling of freedom and independence being violated. This certainly not only applies to humans but without exception all creatures in the small as well as in the large. And that also the great plan and the great mystery would be revealed to each one. I with my present illumination and experience was certainly not an exception or something unique. - I also learned that I would receive further instructions and management. - When I finally returned to mine on the seat, the vision - albeit somewhat weakened - remained. Even for about ten days afterwards. Then it happened that I - as if with an inner x-ray vision - could from time to time experience the history of human development through several earthly lives, not in detail but in general."

Here are a couple of links with material from people for whom Sture Emby had great personal significance.

A video interview with Sture Emby made by Hans Oldhage and Stefan Frankel:

An interview, etc., by Gunnar Martin Aronsson. (The blog post also includes the obituary, by Per-Anders Hedlund, which was published in a valley newspaper.):

Interview with STURE EMBY