The Travellers – Three New Novels & an Historical Companion

I have published in April 2023, on Amazon, three new novels in the nine books series and a companion History book that provides the context for the Roman aspects of The Travellers. The first three are on the Author page as well but here is a link to more details.

My Author page on Amazon.com is here. These books are also published in all of Amazon’s major markets as well.

Vespasian – A Social History

This book is a companion to the Vespasian aspects of the Travellers series. It is an historical biography that I hope adds more context to the novels.

Why do I call this book “A Social History”?

My approach has been to make connections. Connections between people and connections between events. You will see in this book that there are significant connections between Antonia Minor, Caenis and the Familia Alexander that grow over time to provide Vespasian’s ability to reach for the purple. To my knowledge, no other historian has pursued this linkage. Even the idea of the Familia itself, central to this book, is ignored.

I hope that I have been able to present these people in a more human light.

Tight with money but generous in his support and love, Vespasian could be trusted in a world where trust was rare. He was a man who looked beyond a person’s status or appearance. Look at whom he chose as  friends: a slave, 20 years older than him; a young prince that all had dismissed as a fool; a penniless Jewish King and a Jewish banker. These are not the choices of a regular Roman on the make. Vespasian was self-deprecating. He was humorous and accepted jokes about himself. He looked like a farmer. He talked with a Sabine accent. He lived simply. He was direct and to the point. What a contrast to the Emperors before him and after? And what an heir to take on his work! History is full of stories of princes who hate their fathers, and of Kings who hate their sons. Domitian is the obvious example of this model. But to have a son like Titus, and for Titus to have a father like Vespasian, what an experience for both.

Underneath all of this, is I think the central relationship of his life and one of the great love stories of all time. It is Caenis that is the shaper of this epic. The Mother/Lover figure is well known in ancient myth. Caenis gives Vespasian the gift of this rare combination of forces. As a lover, she feeds his body and his soul, as a mother, she protects and advances him. In return, Vespasian honours her with his respect in private, and, more importantly, in public. Her power is her love. When we think of mistresses or girlfriends, we tend to think of younger beauties. It’s interesting to me that we have not a single image of Caenis. She never put herself forward. She hardly appears in the texts and then only to be praised by men like Tacitus who praised few women and none, other than Caenis, who had power. It is important also to remember her age. We don’t know when she was born, but the texts say it was in the reign of Augustus, who died in 14 BCE. She dies in 74 CE. Vespasian is 65, Caenis is possibly 88. Ponder that for a moment and you realize what a rare relationship this two people enjoyed.

This history book is a companion to the series of nine novels that I am writing that make Vespasian their main focus. The series is called The Travellers. You can find out more about them here on this website. In May 2023 there will be six books available.

The Next Three Books in the Travellers Series

The Travellers Book 4 – Tests, Allies, Enemies

This book, the fourth in the series, runs three stories in different times. All are connected.

In all three timelines I explore the complimentary nature of good and evil.

Bad people don’t think of themselves as bad. They have an explanation that works for them. Good people often have to make compromises to survive. Many call this mix, “The Grey Zone”. The Grey Zone, according to Primo Levi, is the space between the oppressors and the oppressed, where individuals are both victim and perpetrator, hero and villain. Levi asserts that the Grey Zone is a complex space where people are forced to confront their own morality, often making difficult decisions that blur the line between right and wrong.

To establish this idea, part of this book is set in Auschwitz where the pressure to survive, to make it through one more day, has never been so great. We see that even here the “bad” people have their reasons and sometimes they do good things. Similarly, our protagonists, who are in the “good” class have to make moral compromises to survive.

We also inhabit the world of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at the time of the founding of the Templars, and the world of the Imperial Court at Rome. Here also, the pressures of survival also force our lead characters into The Grey Zone.

As in all the books in the Travellers series, my invented characters live in a world of historical characters and events. I have tried my best to stay faithful to the historical record. In particular in the Auschwitz section, where I have used first person testimony as the framework.

The Travellers Book 5 – The Ordeal

In this the 5th book of the series, our focus is mainly on the Templar and Roman timelines.

The book is entitled “The Ordeal”. Here many of the main characters are tested to their limit.

Some of the ordeals in this book are conventional in that they involve pain, such as the experience of Agrippina as an exile, Agricola during the Boudican Revolt, or how castration shaped Constantine. Others though are hurt by love and passion such as by Titus and Marcia, the future Emperor Trajan’s mother. Talking about mothers, we see why Nero killed his mother and what this act did to him.

Today, we are told to avoid or reduce pain. In this book I wanted to show how it can be productive. For an ordeal is always transformative.

The Roman section of book five focuses mainly on the young Titus as a Tribune. In Jerusalem, we see how against all odds our protagonists help King Baldwin win the ransom and so save his crown and the Kingdom.

As usual, the the main events are rooted in the historical record and all the historical figures are based on the sources.

My work has been to fill in the gaps and to make connections. Later in life, Agrippina becomes the villain of the time. But, I think she had her reasons and I explore them. I was aware of how much she had suffered as a young woman. Her mother and two of her brothers had been murdered. It was likely that her father, Germanicus had been murdered as well. To be a close family member of the Emperor was to have a target pinned to your back. When she was banished for life, her brother was a young man. She must have felt that she would never be free again. I think her ambition was fuelled by these experiences.

My story of Agrippina as a sponge diver is as far as I know my own invention. It is, I think a good story, and it answers an important question. How did Agrippina learn to swim so well? There are no details in the sources about how she lived on her Island. She had to have learned how to swim and to find her way in the water in the dark. Who knows? Maybe my intuition is correct? Salacia, the name that Agrippina gives herself, is the name of the initially reluctant wife of Neptune who is brought to him by a dolphin. Her negative feelings towards Vespasian were not only because he was a member of Narcissus’ coterie but were personal. As a new member of the Senate, Vespasian led the debate to have her carry Lepidus’ ashes by foot all the way from Antium to Rome.

As we have seen, Nero also had a hard upbringing. We learn why he had such trust in Anicetus. Anicetus must have been given the role of Nero’s protector by Lepida. He would have known Nero since he was a boy of two. Responsible for both Nero’s mother and wife’s death, Anicetus was the most trusted of Nero’s inner circle.

In this book we are introduced to the boy Trajan (Marcus). Later, Titus marries Trajan’s mother’s sister. Little is made by historians that Titus is Trajan’s uncle. I have never understood this omission. Trajan’s father becomes a devoted follower of Titus. In books seven and eight, we will see more of him and his son. It is highly likely that young Trajan accompanied his father in the Judaean campaign. Trajan’s skills as a war leader were unparalleled except by Julius Caesar himself. My sense is that he learned his trade in the field as a young man. Trajan was trusted not only by Vespasian and Titus but also by a man who trusted no one, Domitian.

The person I enjoyed writing about most in this book was the young Agricola. The sources tell us that both Titus and Agricola were in Britannia during the revolt. It is likely that Agricola travelled to Britannia along the Rhine route. The Rhine was the super highway of the Empire in the west. All the heavy goods that were shipped to and from Britannia went by water. This included the people. I cannot imagine Titus’ sister not stopping on her way to meet her brother and to introduce her new husband. The relationship between Titus, Agricola, Cerialis and Civilis that were forged in the Boudican campaign will play out in the civil war in 69 AD. In this book, I lay the groundwork for future triumph and tragedy that involves all of these men. Later, Agricola as Legate of the LXX and then as Governor always demonstrated a deep respect for native culture. I enjoyed writing about how this unusual bias, for a Roman, might have arisen.

I cannot avoid talking for a moment about Pliny. His nephew describes his uncle’s work habits in detail in a letter to Baebius Macer. I make no exaggeration when I show how he worked nearly every waking hour. It is likely that Pliny the Elder spent at least 10 years at Castra Vetera. As only one of the nine Batavian Alae were based there, I have to assume that Castra Vetera was the depot for all the Batavians and so Pliny was the Roman in charge of the regiment. By treaty, the Batavians commanded their own Alae. A unique honour in the Roman Army. After Castra Vetera, Pliny never held a senior role until the accession of Vespasian. Then, he was always in demand. He ended his career as the Admiral of the fleet at Misenum. He died trying to save people at Pompeii. He dedicated his greatest book, his Natural History, to his “Tentmate”, Titus. Pliny also wrote about the details of the Roman trade with India and the east and is a major source of that part of the story.

The central dramas in the 12th century are all rooted in the sources. Somehow, Baldwin deceived Al Bursuqi. Al Bursuqi survived the ambush, but was later murdered by an Assassin. Baldwin’s strategic problem was that he had no male heir. In later books, as we follow his life and the life of his eldest daughter. The problem is that as a woman, the same is true for her sisters, she has to marry. The husbands become the problem. Melisende will soon be in conflict with not only her husband but her sisters. That is, all her sisters except Yvette who becomes an Abbess.

The Templars go from strength to strength. In the next book, we will see how they made the shift from an order of “Poor Knights” to an order with more wealth than any King or Pope.

All these characters, invented or not, good or bad, come to me at night or when I am walking the dog during the day. They fill my life with joy and I hope that you like them as well.

The Travellers Book 6 – Rewards

This is the sixth of the series.

This book has the subtitle, The Reward. We see that death was the reward of the choices and actions of several of the main and supporting characters. Maybe a lesson here is to be careful what you hope for?

In this book, I also explore some myths and mysteries.

We are told that Nero began the first significant persecution of Christians, but there is no contemporary evidence of Christians being fed to the Lions or being used as living torches at dinner parties. There is also a legend that Nero murdered St Paul. Paul’s body was buried outside the city walls in a small cemetery on the Via Appia. Lucina, a member of the Christian community in Rome, is said to have provided the funds. Had Nero ordered Paul’s death, I am sure there would be no grave. Executed people were routinely tossed into a rubbish pit or the Tiber.

In summary, there is no evidence of any persecution of the Christians by Nero. Much of this is myth-making by the church, which needed a good villain. The Flavian and post-Flavian historians claim that Nero kicked Poppaea to death and castrated Sporus as a replacement. Neither of these crimes makes any sense to me. It was clear that Nero was obsessed with Poppaea, and bearing in mind how dangerous childbirth was then, it was not unusual for a well-born woman to die in childbirth. That is one of the reasons that I have included so many deaths from this cause in this volume.

I find it unlikely that Nero would have Sporus castrated and immediately take him on the tour to Greece. It would have taken at least a year for Sporus to heal. It is also worth recalling that Sporus later joined Nero at his death. Surely this devotion is evidence of Sporus’s love for his master. I think it is much more likely that Sporus had been castrated years before and could have been a gift from Tiridates. I have done my best to make out why this was so.

Poor Nero, is I think vilified like Richard III was by Shakespeare. Nero suffered from having some of the finest Roman writers do their best work in making him out as a monster. I have tried my best to understand him.

What about Paul and Josephus? Was their concurrent stay in Rome my invention? The sources say both were there simultaneously, but I noticed a series of coincidences that I cannot reconcile. Both Paul and Josephus are shipwrecked on the way to Rome. Paul is on his way to stand trial for disturbance. Josephus has come to Rome to intervene in a trial for other Jews for the crime of disorder. Both men are rescued and make landfall on the Island of Malta. The stories seem identical. Is this a coincidence?

Why does religion become so important in this book? I use Nestor to help us understand the conflict first between Rome and the Jews and then with the Christians. The core idea in the three “religions of the book” is an exclusive God. This definition inevitably creates conflict with the Roman view of gods and so sets the scene for the Jewish Revolt.

The Judaic concept of sin is why Tiberius Alexander has such a struggle. It would have been impossible for him to have played a role in Jewish life as a committed gay man. In a Roman context, his sexuality was part of the norms. He chose Rome because it offered him freedom.

Now to some personal mysteries. Most historians suggest that Trajan became Emperor by a twist of fate. Nerva had no heir. I make the case that Trajan was close to being an adopted Flavian. Even Domitian trusted him. This trust began with Titus in Castra Vetera, but was strengthened during the Armenian campaign via Tiberius.

In the following three books, we will see how Titus becomes a central figure in the young Trajan’s life again. This relationship will explain the adult Trajan’s exceptional abilities as a military commander.

Here is my last word about Banna. She arrived in book four as a minor character but developed into a major one. I have enjoyed writing her story more than any other. Why did she have to die? In book seven, Berenice will arrive as the central female character in our story. Berenice will have no rivals in life or fiction. Farewell, dear Banna. Her back story will be in one of the future books.

In this volume, we close out our founding story of the Templars in this book. Much of the context of this part of the book is historical. The Frangipani did indeed live in a fortress made out of the Colosseum. There was a major struggle about chastity at the council that approved the order’s founding. In this book, I offer a hint that back in Jerusalem trouble is brewing for Melisende, who will have to marry Fulk of Anjou. In the following books, we will discover how Melisende overcomes many crises and finally triumphs over her husband, her sisters and their husbands’ ambitions. My band of fictional warrior women will play a role in this success.

You may have noticed that my visitors from the future increasingly have doubts about returning to the modern world. They have deep connections now to the world of the past. Their struggle concerning the possibility of eternal life will grow as the series progresses. At 73, my own death is on my mind a lot, making their struggle ever more poignant.

Thank you for reading my books
Rob

The Travellers – A series of historical fantasy

The Travellers is a tale of adventure, friendship, and courage set against the backdrop of time travel.

This series explores the idea that there really is a curse related to our modern world that has put most of us to sleep. A sleep so deep, that only acts of great courage and love can awaken us. We will see that this awakening is only the start. For the forces that cursed us with the sleep, fear those that are awake and seek to destroy them.

In Book 1, young Sasha, the son of a prominent Russian oligarch, is to spend his summer vacation at his mother’s castle, a proposition the Russian boy is not looking forward to. Yet his fears of spending a long, boring summer alone with his security detail and the castle staff are quickly snuffed out when his parents are murdered.

Sasha’s world is turned upside down and the summer holidays soon become a life and death adventure filled with surprises, new friends with impressive talents and old enemies that seemingly can’t be defeated. The only way forward for Sasha and his terrifying new friend is in the distant past, where they must hide from their formidable foes.

Book 1 was published in early October 2018. You can buy the book on all of the Amazon national sites. Here is the link to Amazon.com – 

Here is the link to Amazon.ca

Here is the link to Amazon.co.uk

In this, the second book of The Travellers, we follow Sasha and Aurora back in time to Britain just before the Roman invasion in 43 AD. Meanwhile, in modern times, Milla confronts her destroyer and her greatest fears. Mikhail and Elspeth have to escape to a hideaway.

Available now on Amazon.com here

In Book 3, after many trials, the conflict, in Britannia, between Sasha and Artaos is eventually resolved and Vespasian “wins” the war for the Emperor. The first step of the prophesy that he will become Emperor has been taken.

We find Milla and Georgi in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in about 1120. In this time, Georgi is Gondomer, a Spanish Knight. Gondomer is an historical person who was one of the 9 founders of the Templars. To allow herself to be with Georgi, Milla is pretending to be his male squire, Ludo. They have escaped the clutches of Fr Huw Payne in modern times, but, his old persona, Hugues des Payens, is in these times, and is the Grand Master of the Templars. With all Hugues des Payens’ powers, Milla and Georgi will have to be very careful. Shortly after they arrive, King Baldwin II is kidnapped and is imprisoned far away in Armenia. His kidnapping and the daring rescue attempt are a central part of Book 3. These extraordinary events are based loosely on what actually happened.

In the present time, Carmen Francis, “Termie”, is on a mission to penetrate the Master’s organization. As a test, the Master sends her on a dangerous mission that will ultimately take her to Jerusalem. Fortunately she has a new ally.

In Book 3, the last book in Series I, Jerusalem is an important new location where most of the separated characters will eventually converge both in time and place in future books in the series.

In all, I plan a total of nine books. Rooted in historical truth, they explore a magic that may not be purely fantasy. At the heart of the books is the question, has civilization, as we know it dulled powers that humans still latently have that only need to be awakened? They also explore a culture that is deeply personal that we have also lost. They ask the second question can we recreate a personal culture where what we do defines us, where our word is our bond and where friendship and honour are at the core of all we do?

Now available on Amazon.com and all Amazon sites

Noblesse Oblige

“Noblesse Oblige” is an intimate history of the families of Montreal’s once famous community of wealth and privilege, the “Square Mile”. Using their own words and images, the book seeks to answer the question of why they lost their power and influence so quickly after the Great War.

It is available on all Kindle Markets

We first meet our central characters in the summer of 1914. The great days of entrepreneurial adventure in Canada are over. A new generation of young men are taking over the reigns of leadership from their hard-driving new-immigrant fathers. They have inherited their fathers’ businesses and grand mansions. They have installed their wives as chatelaines. It’s a brilliant social life but, underneath the glamour, many of these men and the women want more meaning. Some, at the very top, had tried rebellion. But the powerful forces of conformity squeezed them back into the norms of Edwardian upper middle class life.

This deep sense of pre-war ennui explains the feelings of exultation that the declaration of war brings. The young men sign up. Their women immediately book passage to Europe. 30,000 women, the same number as their menfolk, cross the Atlantic that fall. Their principal concern is not risk or death but that they might miss the adventure. None feel this concern more keenly than the rebels.

By mid May, 1915, everything changes.

At Ypres, on April 21- 23, 1915, the men face their first true test. Knowing nothing of soldiering, facing gas for the first time, the Canadians stand and die. Duty and honour demand this. The First Division, suffering a 40% casualty rate, sets the standard for how all the men of the Square Mile are to behave for the rest of the conflict. On May 7th, the Lusitania is sunk. Many of its victims are women and children of the Square Mile. In a tribal society, there is no greater crime. On May 8th, the men of the PPCLI are effectively wiped out. Only 153 officers and men are left out of the 1,000 that had sailed from Canada. Honour now demands that the men and the women of the Square Mile commit to “Total War”.

In the knowledge that their future was certain death, the younger brothers of the First Contingent continue to sign up for service. Many of their fathers join up. Badly wounded men return again and again to the front. Men, in safe staff jobs, return to their old units to die with their men. Like grim-faced Spartan matrons, the women of the Square Mile send their men off to die with honour. Chatelaines become CEO’s of war service organizations. Mothers return to work the day after they hear of their child’s death. Sisters of the dead drive ambulances at the front. Young women work themselves to death. Like the lairds of old, the men and the women of the Square Mile bring their servants to war. Master and servant give their lives for each other.

Love replaces adventure as the primary motivation. This love is not a romantic love. Nor can it be explained as friendship. It is the same primeval love that drives a mother to die for her child. The Greeks called this love ‘Philia’. It is this love that, in the face of death, can make a man feel overwhelmingly alive. This love is why some men discover that they love war itself, it’s addictive. Philia also sustains the women. As mothers lose their own children, they expand their concept of family, and so their hearts, to include all the children of the tribe.

Ultimately, at the front and at home, the heart can only take so much. The exceptionally close ties of the Square Mile mean that every individual family loss is felt as everyone’s loss. There is no limit to the pain. The few who survive the conflict lose most of their friends and they lose most of their family. They freeze inside and dare not love again.

By 1919, the finite capacity of love met the infinite capacity of industrial war to inflict pain. Other elites lost many sons. Other elites lost much of their wealth. The Square Mile’s tight social structure, and its implacable honour code, meant that it had also lost its spirit. Only ghosts remained.

Principal Characters – Linked by Blood, Friendship and by Sacrifice

At the core of Montreal society are the Allans of Ravenscrag, Sir Montagu and Marguerite, Lady Allan. Their youngest daughters, Gwen and Anna, are killed on May 7, 1915. when the Lusitania is sunk. Marguerite survives the sinking and goes on to finance and to run a large hospital in England. Montagu sets up the pension scheme that becomes Veterans Affairs. Their only son, Hugh Allan, is killed on his first mission with the RNAS on July 7, 1917. Their eldest daughter, Martha Allan, dies, aged 47, in 1942 of pneumonia that she first contracted in 1916 while nursing her father’s best friend, Henry Yates. Henry Yates, 2nd in command of The McGill Hospital, dies in January, 1916. His wife, Alice Yates, comes to England and works with Marguerite Allan and Julia Drummond. In 1918, Martha Allan and Emily Yates join their mothers as nurses.

Dr. John McCrae, friend of Lady Allan and veteran of the Boer War, signs up in September 1914, as second in command of a battery. He writes In Flanders Fields after the death of a friend at the second battle of Ypres in 1915. He is transferred to the Medical Corps where he works at the McGill Hospital. Weakened by PTSD and overwork, he dies from pneumonia in January 1918.

Guy Drummond, Julia, Lady Drummond’s only son, is killed April 22, 1915 at Ypres. Trum Warren, his best friend is killed the day before. They are married to two sisters. Dorothy Braithwaite, their younger sister, is drowned on May 7 as she travels with Lady Allan to comfort them. Going back to work the day after receiving the news of Guy’s death, Julia Drummond organizes The Information Service and the Maple Leaf Clubs, organizations that look after the personal needs of all Canadian soldiers at war in Europe.

Hamilton Gault, personally finances the establishment of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. In the fall of 1914, he travels to Europe with the regiment and with his wife, Marguerite Stephens Gault. Her mother, Frances Stephens, travelling with Lady Allan, dies on the Lusitania with Marguerite Stephens Gault’s 18 month old nephew, baby John Stephens. Chattan Stephens, the father of baby John, broken-hearted and weakened by trench fever, dies in the flu epidemic in 1918. Lonely and afraid, Marguerite Stephens Gault betrays Hamilton Gault with a fellow officer. Their divorce is the scandal of the time.

Hartland Paterson, double first cousin of the Allans, loses a leg in 1918. His older brother Alex Paterson serves at the front from February 1915 until September 1918, when he is badly gassed. He is involved in every action of the CEF and is awarded the DSO and a bar. Suffering from PTSD, he kills himself in 1956.

George Slingsby, a valet, is a protege of Lady Allan. As the Lusitania sinks, George, who cannot swim, gives his life jacket to his friend, Lady Allan. Ray Appleton, Gault’s peacetime butler and wartime batman, carries badly wounded Gault for three miles back from the front and so saves Gault’s life. Herbert Cruikshank, McCrae’s batman and William Dodge, his replacement, defend McRae’s beloved horse, Bonfire, from his enemy, General Guy Carleton Jones. Caroline Milne, nurse, dies with her charge, baby John Stephens

McGill University sends the largest Canadian hospital of the war to France and provides the PPLCI, via Percival Molson, with their replacements. The Bank of Montreal in London serves all Canadian officers in Europe. 50% of BMO’s staff enlisted.

Lessons from Vimy

Just over a 100 years ago, generals were faced with the same kind of problem that modern leaders have today. They had been shaped by an era that made them ill equipped to understand and apply the new technology of their time. But, on Easter morning in 1917, an army made up of amateurs, who were not bound by the old ideas, won the battle of Vimy Ridge and showed how the new technology could be used.

This short book is the story of what the Canadians did to solve this problem.

The lessons that they learned apply to all who wish to lead our organizations into the network age.

The book is a practical manual for cultural change paid for in blood and so has great rigour. It is also a human story about an English aristocrat, a real estate salesman and a university professor who together changed the way of war and set in motion a process that lead to peace.

You can buy the book here on Amazon

General Sir Arthur Currie’s After Action Report after Vimy Ridge

 

“The great lesson to be learned from these operations is this: if the lessons of the War have been thoroughly mastered; if the artillery preparations and support is good; if our intelligence is properly appreciated; then there is no position that cannot be wrested from the enemy by well-disciplined and well-lead troops attacking on a sound plan.” Arthur Currie

In April 1917, the Canadian Corps, under General Julian Byng, demonstrated, for the first time in the Great War, that a strongly held position could be taken. His chief planner and successor was General Arthur Currie. Currie went on to become the go to general and the CEF, the go to unit, for when a great assault was required.

In this short booklet, you will find General Arthur Currie’s report on the attack of the First Canadian Division on Vimy Ridge in April and May of 1917.

Until now, this document has only been available in the archives in the UK and in Canada. The intent at the Brome County Historical Society (BCHS), is to make this document widely available to all.

The importance of this document is that it shows, for the first time, the new thinking that ultimately enabled the British Army to find the answers to the stalemate of the Western Front.

This document is laconically titled: 1st Canadian Division – Report on the Vimy Ridge – Willerval – Arleux and Fresnoy Operations – April 9th – May 5th 1917. Dated June 1917. It was written as a tutorial for officers. It is part of the new culture of the Canadian Corps to share hard won lessons immediately.

In this booklet you will find the full text transcribed for easy reading. We have also added a running commentary and end notes that include more detail.

This copy of the document comes from the papers of Canadian Brigadier General Dennis Draper. At the time of Vimy, Draper was the CO of the 5th Mounted Rifles. Recruited in the Eastern Townships in Quebec, the home of the Brome County Historical Society, the 5th CMR served in the 3rd Division at Vimy. After the Great War, Draper donated his military papers to the BCHS.

My work here was to add the commentary to Currie’s document.

You can download the pdf for free here

VIMY-BCHS6

Your Freedom – The Power of the Network

Are you free?

Or are you bound by chains that you don’t see? These chains might be how you rely on your job to provide an income. They might be how you rely on medicine to keep you well. They might be how you rely on your bank for the credit that keeps you going.

Relying on your employer, your doctor and your banker can constrain every part of your life. They can control your time, where you live, how you live and what you fear. You may know this. But what you may not know is that you can work constructively to break free from their grip on you. You can control how you make a living. You can control how you access credit and you can control most of the factors that make you healthy.

Based on my own experience of taking back control in these important areas, I have written three short books to help you take control of your life and so become free.

I start with the “Job”. “You Don’t Need a Job” – Link to Store – If we can see the Job for what it is, a construct of a paradigm, then we are no longer trapped. For how we make our living is the starting place for the journey.

The second book in the series is called “You Don’t Need a Banker” – Link to Store – More than any institution today, Banks seem supreme and essential. But I will show you that to get the credit you need to make a living and to have a good life does not mean that you have to depend on banks as we know them today.

The third book is all about health.

You Don’t Need Medicine to Get Healthy –Link to store . What if our health did not depend on doctors and drugs? This book will explore the new science of Ancestral Health and show you how to take charge of your own health and well being.

When you are no longer reliant on these modern institutions, you can have more control in your life. You can be free. Free in a world where most still are slaves.

You can indeed change the world by changing your own self first.

We have done this before as this short video will illustrate.

All the best to you

Rob