On day 31 I was really curious to see what I was getting myself into. I had just jumped on the bus from Granada to go to the small village of Quentar to live with a spiritual community for 4 days.
Quentar has just 1000 inhabitants, this being the case there is next to no information on it and although the spiritual community is on couchsurfers, has a website and a small hostel, the information is incredibly vague and I had no idea what I was in for.
https://www.couchsurfing.org/profile.html?id=43UQ6G5
This became extremely clear when I arrived in Quentar with the instruction of finding the school and then a steep path which would lead me to the house. The steep path WTF?? How about the fucking mountain you have to climb before you find the school! Oh my god! It was the middle of the day, the sun was brutal and I had my ridiculously huge suitcase with me (cause I am an idiot). I don’t know if you have ever seen a 49kg woman try to lug a 30kg suitcase up a mountain but it was utter hell! At one point I was so frustrated that I threw my suitcase down and left it for anyone to steal (good luck to them) and set off without it to see if I could find the house.
Me and Bastard! My newly named suitcase
Well……. that was a dumb idea because even without the suitcase I couldn’t find the place. Apparently in Quentar the houses are not in numerical order. I was looking for number 16-18 and so here I was sweating like a pig, walking up the mountain, breathless and frustrated. I finally found the street and the numbers go 2,4,6,10,12,14, 26,34,21,42. What? Where the hell is 16-18? ARRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! After an hour I was so exhausted that I was close to tears, I sat down in the shade and had a smeigel and gollum like conversation with myself. Now this video is almost a life like imitation of what actually happened (just insert the suitcase instead of the leash! but leave the rolling around on the ground and screaming haha)
The conversation however was something along the lines of ‘That’s it, I have had enough! Just go and get your suitcase and throw it down the mountain, get on the bus and leave’ and the other part was saying ‘No Natalie, you are going to go and get your suitcase and you are going to go and get fucking enlightened!’ this was then followed by some light whimpering but the latter voice won in the end ha.
After sitting in the shade for half an hour and allowing my self time to cool off (In more ways than one) I finally admitted defeat and called the hosts to let them know that I was completely lost! They graciously sent someone to come and collect me, little did I know that the person who would be arriving was the spiritual leaders wife and little did she know that we had to walk half way back down the mountain to get my damn suitcase. Ohhhh the jokes, oh the metaphors that were going to come my way about possessions and having lots of baggage and letting go, oh the looks, oh the first impression……. BAH!
And I wasn’t wrong…. By the time I finished lugging ‘bastard'(that’s my suitcases name now) up the mountain it had taken an hour and a half. I arrived finally at the house and as I tried to pull ‘bastard’ into my room, his wheels got caught on the mat and dragged the whole damn thing into my room pulling chairs and tables with it Arrrgh! I fixed the mat, braced myself, went to the kitchen to meet the other guests and by this time everyone had heard about ‘bastard’ and they were laughing at me (bitches haha)
I felt so uncomfortable at this point because I felt out of place, I wasn’t sure what I was meant to do or why these other people were here and if they were just followers or if they had independent thought and I didn’t feel brave enough to find out, so I went to head off to bed for a siesta. Just as I was about to get to my room, I was greated by Axel (the most devout follower) who looks after all the paperwork for new guests. As I was filling in my passport details, Axel asked me what time I would like my appointment with Efendi the spiritual leader (I didn’t even know there was a leader ha). My time was set for 7 and with 5 minutes to spare, I head on up the stairs to Efendi’s house to have my spiritual ‘lesson’. When I arrived I was greeted and we sat on separate couches while his wife brought us something to drink and some cookies. I went to put my water bottle on the table but Efendi stopped me and told me he didn’t like to look at plastic so I had to put the bottle under the table and out of sight! (Ok, well this isn’t going well)
Efendi then asks me why I have come and I not so eloquently blurt out something about going through a period of change and wanting to learn and experience new things, ways of life and thinking. I also said that I didn’t want to make judgements on things until I had experienced them first hand……….. And then, it began and for the next 2 hours, I mainly listened (for a change).
Basically (and you should go and have this discussion first hand) Efendi came to Spain from Germany as he had a ‘hole in his heart’ he needed to fill. He and his previous partner were headed to the Canary islands to buy a block of land but as they were driving their the ‘car’ (an old fire engine) it broke down. They were then assisted by a couple but had to wait overnight to see a mechanic, so they had dinner with this couple instead. Efendi relayed his story of wanting to go the the Canary Islands and then at that point the other man responded by saying ‘No your not going to the Canary Islands, you are going to live in xxxx (and I cannot for the life of me remember where he said)’.
So then the story goes…….. Efendi and his partner kept driving to the Canary Islands but the car kept breaking down, with Efendi completing make shift repairs. But one night the car finally couldn’t be started again, so Efendi and his partner stayed in a little town over night and when Efendi woke in the morning he fell in love with this town which of course was the exact one the gentleman had said. (I can’t say I have ever had an experience where someone knew the path that was layed out for me) Then within a week Efendi and his partner had bought land and a house and over the next few years they somehow created a spiritual community. Now I am not sure how this happened or why people would join with Efendi or how you become a ‘master’. I didn’t ask actually, as the conversation kept jumping all over the place (which I have come to think is intentional on his part). I do know however that other ‘masters’ have apparently recognized Efendi as a spiritual leader or have taken him under their wing as a ‘disciple’ (what ever that means). Many years later the community then moved to Quentar, setting up this lovely home and hostel.
The rest of the conversation was actually quite interesting and I did take things away from it. I liked the discussions around not preaching your values and allowing other people to have their own belief system. I like the part where he said that you know that you have evolved on our spiritual journey when someone speaks against your ‘master’ (or whatever you want to call it) and you take no offense at all because it’s your belief and no one elses. I thought it was interesting when we discussed how small humans are and not to be ignorant and think that we are the only living things out there in the universe and the only planets. I also thought it was interesting when we talked about science only knowing what it knows currently but having to shift and change because of unexplained phenomenons such as a child loosing a finger tip and it growing back.
Now I researched this and it is infact true, I am not sure how true the part is where Efendi told me that a child had been able to do this because it saw a lizard grow its tail back ha.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread873798/pg1
After this discussion we got on to the topic of the subconscious mind and Efendi told me that he had just become a qualified hypnotherapist…… Well, now this REALLY interested me and when I told Efendi this, he advised me that he would be performing a regression on Axel (going into your past life) and I was allowed to come and observe. Yessssss!!!
Stay tuned for how that went and how the rest of my stay played out!
Don’t judge – Experience things first hand!
365 Days of 30 