Ian Gardner was born on the 20th February 1934 in Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, and christened Basil Ian Gunewardene.
He was born two months prematurely and nearly died five times in his first two months. He moved to Australia in September 1969 where he changed his surname to Gardner. From childhood, he had an enquiring mind and an innate interest in the supernatural.
Since 1986, nineteen years of meditation, "searching within", reading and revelations have culminated in this book which has been nine years in the making.
There is more information in the preface of the book.
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Authorship of This Material (1).
1. If a reader were to ask me what I think or feel about what is written herein or in "The Milk Is White" my answer would be that I do not think or feel - it is what I am. Thinking is of the mind and feeling is an emotion. Similarly, if I view this authorship from Ian's perspective I am humbled but amazed at what I have produced; however, if I view it from my perspective it is nothing - it is just something that is.
2. If a reader wonders how an 'ordinary person' (that is one not dressed in robes, with long hair and a beard and living a monastic life) can be responsible for this material the answer is that, for me, it is the result of an unprompted "inner upwelling" - sometimes in response to prior intellectual input, sometimes in response to observations but, mostly, spontaneous. When putting these into words what seems to happen - and this is very difficult to describe - is that the normal thinking process changes; there seems to be a change of focus or a shift in dimension - perhaps what one might call an altered state or a shift in consciousness; a sort of tunnel vision in thought accessing the information and expressing it in words clearly. Often it takes considerable effort to get the 'perspective' right and then communicate it accurately.
3. Hitherto known only to a few, and mentioned here only because it may be of help or interest to the reader, is some information from psychics.
I have always been sceptical about past life readings as I thought, and still think, that anyone could tell me that I was once Julius Caesar or Cleopatra, or anyone else: I would have nothing to substantiate the statement and, therefore, dismiss it. However, in January 1995 I felt a need to go to the Aquarius Festival because I felt that the negative vibrations I was feeling from the commercialism of the Gold Coast could be alleviated, if only temporarily.
At the festival, both a Tarot reader and a numerologist effectively told me that an opportunity was coming up which I should grasp with both hands. Within two months, a series of events occurred which took me to Maleny, a place whose vibration was conducive to the emergence of The Milk Is White.
As I walked around the festival grounds I saw the sign of a past life reader and, despite my scepticism, I was drawn to her booth about three times but it was crowded. Eventually, she was free and I went to her in an exploratory frame of mind and, unexpectedly, during her description of the first past life, something resonated deep within me as a result of her description of my then "unusual" method of teaching and my current thoughts on the matter. The impact was sufficient to make me weep and, as she continued, the weeping occurred frequently to me as well as to her. She said that all this was too strong for her and at one point she had to rest.
What she described first was me as a teaching Master in Greece; secondly, as a much loved Hindu Master in India whose funeral, which she described, was attended by thousands of mourners; thirdly, as a female 'spiritual' temple dancer in Greece during the period between the end of Atlantis and the start of the Greek cultural period. She described the dancer's hair and it was exactly like my neighbour's wife's hair I had seen some two weeks before when I was seated behind her in a car when she was on her way to a wedding. I had thought at the time in the car how exquisite her hair looked.
There was also the time when I called on a psychic friend in an attempt to find the answer to a teasing question that I had. After this, more or less as an afterthought, she communicated with her spirit friends about me and, during this, mention was made that Mahathma Gandhi had been very keen on my writings and had learned a lot from them. Apparently, my name as that author was Spiro but I could find no reference to such an author anywhere so I went back to this psychic. She sought clarification of the Spiro name without success but she was told, "He was once a messenger, so what he writes is correct."
If the above is true it may explain my present 'talent' but, apart from that, it is of little consequence as what matters is the present. What is relevant is the sum total of all past lives as expressed in the present.
Note: When past lives are read it is only those, out of thousands, which are relevant to the present life that are given.
Note dated 23.03.13: re Spiro mentioned above c.1965.
Ever since the psychic reading above I have tried to find the elusive answer to the question of who Spiro was and, a few months ago, when doing something totally unconnected, I came across a reference to Baruch Spinoza, or his writings, and was struck by their similarity to mine and what appeared to be a like mind. On investigating a little more, and considering related facts, it seems evident that the name conveyed indistinctly* to my psychic friend was "Spinoza" and not "Spiro".
*When the psychic was doing the reading she was amused by, and commented on, the chatter created by the spirit guides et al which made hearing difficult.
Authorship of This Material (2):
In 1985, a psychic correctly described the dozen or so books I had and twice said, "There is no need for you to read these books as Spirit will give you this information."
Later, in October 1995, I asked a psychic for an explanation of the, till then, often repeated presence in my dreams of a one time friend. For simplification, we called her "The S Factor." The psychic did an I Ching reading that read as follows:
It is like a fire that comes from the depths, and blazes up, illuminating and beautifying the mountain. Consider the substance that lies beneath the surface. Appearances count for little in this. If there is any S Factor that requires addressing it is to advance your own creative energy.
Because you are in harmony with your Higher Self - which could be viewed as the S Factor - she being as an ideal or an idea - it is in your better interests/higher work to be forthcoming into the public arena. The "S Factor" is that of the channelling through the wisdom of the inner self - which is Yin, the feminine, through to the outer, thus being as the fire on the mountain.
The psychic explained the reading as follows: " the fire of the molten lava coming up from inside the mountain and being deposited on the outside."
Not until the writing of the book "The Milk Is White", which commenced in March 1996, did I make the connection with these readings.