Sacred Britain Tours
Research & Articles
Sacred Earth
- an excerpt
Martin Gray
Sacred Britain ToursResearch & ArticlesSacred Earth- an excerptMartin Gray |
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WHEN I WAS A YOUNG BOY, I BEGAN TO EXPERIENCE remarkable inner visions of something I might do when I grew to be a man. Inspired by these visions, I yearned to serve one day as a paintbrush in the hand of God, to express beauty and goodness in the world. That yearning has guided my life during the past four decades and has resulted in my new book, Sacred Earth: Places of Peace and Power (Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. / October 2007). 
National Geographic magazine awakened my early enchantment with photography and archaeology. From the age of eight, I dreamed of becoming an explorer and photographer in exotic lands. When I was twelve, my father's work took our family to India for four years. During those years, I traveled frequently, alone and in the company of pilgrims, to the temples, mosques, and sacred caves of India, Nepal, and Kashmir. Reading of Hinduism and Buddhism, and fascinated by the mysterious allure of these religions' sacred places, I thought of one day producing a photography book of the great Asian pilgrimage shrines. After my family's return to the United States, I entered the University of Arizona and began studying Mesoamerican archaeology. But the call of the spiritual quest was strong in my heart, and I soon returned to India. While traveling there, I became a member of a monastic order and for the next ten years, in India and the West, cultivated a deep practice of meditation. At the age of twenty-eight, I left monastic life behind, returned to the States, and started a travel business. Within two years my company was sending hundreds of people to the Caribbean and Mexico, and I was becoming a successful businessman. Yet I felt a sense of emptiness, for I yearned to do something more aligned with my spiritual ideals. My prayers were answered in a most unexpected way. While meditating one evening, I had a visionary experience in which I saw an image of the stone heads on Easter Island and received a message saying, "Go here and you will begin to find the answers to your prayers." Traveling to South America, I had two more visionary experiences. At Easter Island I was told to "follow the pilgrimage routes of the ancient religions," and at Machu Picchu in Peru, I was directed to begin my pilgrimage in Japan. So compelling were these visionary experiences that I sold my business and began a twenty-year period of traveling as a wandering pilgrim to more than one thousand sacred sites in eighty countries around the world. Often traveling by bicycle and staying at temples, monasteries, and on sacred mountains, I conducted extensive mythological and anthropological research, as well as photographic documentation, of the holy places. Along the way, at sacred sites of both ancient and contemporary religions, I continued to experience visions regarding my pilgrimage. Since 1984, while traveling in more than 80 countries, I have visited and photographed over 1000 sacred sites to acquire knowledge that I believe is significant to the well-being of the planet and humanity. During the past twenty years, I have communicated this knowledge by presenting slide shows for more than 150,000 people throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. In 1997, I created the Web site SacredSites.com and since that time more than twenty million people have visited the web site to view the photographs and read the accompanying essays. Excerpted with permission by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. © 2007 by Martin Gray I hope you will join me for my slide show on November 3rd at the Crop Circles, Sacred Landscapes, and Spirit Wisdom Conference. Together we can take a magical journey to experience the beauty and power of sacred sites from all around the world. My Best, Martin's book, Sacred Earth: Places of Peace and Power, will be available to purchase at our conference. For more information on Martin's work you may visit his web site, Places of Peace and Power, at www.SacredSites.com |
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