Emissary of Love

Some readers may have received the 'Thomas Messages' from the Beloved Community on the internet earlier in the year. The central message is that we are emissaries of love and can immediately begin to live our lives on this basis. The principle is that by adopting such an attitude we will in fact grow into the disposition. This book is the story of James Twyman's thrilling search for the 'Children of Oz' in Bulgaria after one of them - Marco - had appeared to him in a dream and given him the 'Gift' of psychic powers. It takes us to Bulgaria where he is followed by undercover agents who want to use the childrens' powers for their own selfish ends. In the remote monastery we meet the monks and some of the children before discovering that Marco had in fact been dead when he appeared to Twyman - the plot thickens. The monks - like the children - put the emphasis on love rather than the froth of psychic power, but Twyman's fascination with this side (spectacular though it is) gives the book a certain obsessive quality. Back in America to write the book, Twyman comes across 'Lama Tensin', apparently a 15 year old tulku authorised by the Dalai Lama and who exhibits a mixture of profound wisdom and adolescent frivolity. To cut a long story short, Tensin turns out to be a 25 year-old girl impersonation. Deep embarrassment all round, and all credit to Twyman for his honesty. At this point I was reminded of a phrase in Benjamin Constant's novel Adolphe which I read 30 years ago at university: 'Les sentiments que nous feignons, nous finissons par les eprouver' (we finish up experiencing the feelings that we feign). Perhaps there is a positive lesson here when one combines the two parts: one can grow into a new sense of oneself so that pretence or acting ends up being real. However, all in all, there is a lot of narrative compared with the simple substance of the book - love one another as I have loved you - and the cover depicting a cross-legged boy in the Arizona desert is unfortunate. For the genuine article on the children themselves you can try [email protected]