David Attenborough

Gavin has done a wonderful video about David Attenborough for one of his Upschool lessons. I love it. One of my ultimate role models.

Jane Goodall memorial at Taronga Zoo

Gavin and Upschool have partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute so I was invited to her memorial service at Tarronga Zoo. It was very moving and inspirational and the setting was sublime as you can see from the photos.

Jane Goodall is one of my role models. She has done so much to bring attention to the natural world and the need to protect it, especially amongst children. 

Here are some fascinating facts about her ...

• She discovered that chimpanzees use tools.  In 1960, Jane Goodall observed a chimpanzee named David Greybeard using a twig to fish termites out of a mound. This shattered the belief that tool-use was uniquely human and forced scientists to redefine what it means to be human.
• She had no formal scientific training when she began her research.  Goodall went to Gombe Stream at 26 without a university degree. Her fresh, unorthodox approach—naming chimps instead of numbering them, observing quietly rather than imposing strict protocols—helped her make groundbreaking discoveries.
• She transformed the study of animal behaviour. Goodall was the first to document chimpanzee warfare, adoption of orphaned infants, and complex emotional lives. Her findings helped shift science away from rigid behaviourism toward a richer understanding of animal minds.
• She was one of the most travelled activists in the world.  Jane Goodall spent more than 300 days a year on the road (even into her 80s), advocating for conservation, animal welfare, and climate action. She said she’s rarely home long enough to unpack a suitcase.
• Her childhood dreams predicted her destiny.  As a girl, she carried a beloved stuffed toy chimpanzee named Jubilee and dreamed of living with wild animals in Africa. She later laughed that everyone thought she’d “go mad” doing so—until she actually did it.

Gavin's new book is complete and ready for launch

Very exciting !!

School can be tough, but so are kids. Trailblazing teacher Gavin McCormack offers a brand-new approach to how we equip the next generation with the skills they need to become capable, confident and compassionate human beings.

Is your child struggling in the classroom, facing mental health or social challenges, or feeling discouraged? Do they dread going to school? Award-winning teacher and principal Gavin McCormack offers a long-awaited solution for concerned parents and educators seeking effective ways to support kids during these challenging times. He believes when children are given independence, the right tools, and the encouragement to build on their strengths, their potential is limitless. His 7-step guide redefines what it means to receive a `good education’ by highlighting the power of modelling positive behaviour and prioritising essential life skills over academic scores. Drawing on the latest neuroscience of learning and years of teaching experience in mainstream and Montessori schools, he offers practical strategies that will help children navigate life's challenges, learn with passion and grow into well-rounded, resilient individuals.

David Attenborough

I have grown up to David Attenborough's nature documentaries. I remember watching "Life on Earth" and "The Living Planet" as a child and being absolutely mesmerised. David Attenborough played a huge role in instilling in me a wonder and love for nature and wildlife.  He has been such an inspirational figure in my life.

Reasons I love and admire him so much

• His sense of the wonder and sacredness of nature and wildlife.
• The way he makes nature documentaries so captivating and deeply personal.
• A lifelong advocate for preserving the environment and protecting endangered species.
• The way he has introduced so many to the wonders of nature and the importance of conserving it.
• His love of getting out into the world, being filmed on location, getting up, close and personal to nature.
• How he embodies a relentless curiosity about life on Earth, encouraging others to explore and learn.
• His sense of humour and charm.

Some favourite quotes

• An understanding of the natural world is a source of not only great curiosity, but great fulfilment.
• It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.
• Every breath of air we take, every mouthful of food that we take, comes from the natural world. And if we damage the natural world, we damage ourselves.
• People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.
• We must rewild the world.
• Nature is our biggest ally and greatest inspiration.

Documentaries I was mesmerised by

I love this post from Gavin. So blessed to have such an inspiring friend.

It’s amazing how much you can get done in 12 months when you love the work you do! 

This year I have been lucky enough to travel the whole world. Shooting lessons in Antartica, finding polar bears in the North Pole, searching for sloths in Costa Rica, visiting the largest trees in earth in California and Bangalore and chasing rhinos through the jungle in Chitwan. 

Building schools and libraries in Nepal, climbing Everest for charity, speaking at conferences in Bali, India and Dubai. Opening our third Montessori training centre in Kalanky Nepal with Aand Devkota. 

In reflection, I can’t believe that I have squeezed all this in to one calendar year, but that’s thanks to the amazing team I work alongside each day and the kindness and generosity of the people out there in the world who have welcomed me into their lives. 

This work is designed to make the world better. To leave ripples of change in the universe that will last forever, and in the midst of war and famine, we must work collectively to put good positive energy out there into the world to let our children know that the future is not all bad. 

From darkness to light there is always hope and that hope is you!! 

Bernardo Kastrup

I learned of Bernardo through Rupert Spira. He is a wonderful philosopher who makes a very convincing argument for  idealism, the theory that reality is mental rather than physical. I read most of his books and listened to many hours of him very eloquently discussing this theories on Youtube.

Books that inspired me

Quotes

• Physics is a science of perception. We start with perception and then start to model the behavior of those perceptions. Bernardo Kastrup
• Science does not say what things are. It only says how they behave. Bernardo Kastrup
• Experience is already mind in motion. Bernardo Kastrup
• All of reality is a phenomenon of, and in, mind. Bernardo Kastrup
• The brain is like a whirlpool in the stream of mind. Bernardo Kastrup
• All reality is in mind, including your body and brain. Bernardo Kastrup
• We are all multiple personalities of a cosmic consciousness.  Bernardo Kastrup
• How can consciousness arise from something truly unconscious. Bernardo Kastrup
• Death causes us to remember all that we already know but cannot recall. Bernardo Kastrup
• Every whirlpool represents the subjective world of its respective human being. Bernardo Kastrup
• If you can be sure of anything at all, it is that your conscious perceptions exist. Bernardo Kastrup
• The whirlpool represents a partial localization of the flow of experiences in the stream. Bernardo Kastrup
• The whirlpool of mind ‘filters out’ of itself most subjective experiences unfolding in nature. Bernardo Kastrup
• The brain is like a whirlpool in the stream of mind that filters in our experience and filters out all else. Bernardo Kastrup
• Localized points-of-view become seemingly amnesic of everything that doesn’t fall within their respective vortices. Bernardo Kastrup
• According to idealism, all of reality – the entire universe – exists in mind, although not all in your egoic mind alone. Bernardo Kastrup
• In a sense, we have been deputized by mind at large to look back at itself and try to make something out of what we see. Bernardo Kastrup

Marion, wise seer and intuitive healer extraordinaire

I totally love this amazing and beautiful human being. A fellow South African, Marion is an intuitive therapist and energy healer and played a huge role in my life from 2017 - 2021. Recommended by Tina, her wisdom and insight has had a profoundly transforming effect on my life.  

I recommended all my spiritual friends to her and Shushann, Nic, Sharon, Xenia, Aimee, Lydia, Jane and Chris all ended up seeing her and swear by her.

I don't see Marion on a regular basis right now but just knowing she is there if I ever need her makes all the difference.

Marion's husband is also wonderful. We have met up for lunch on several occasions and had deep philosophical discussions. A wonderful meeting of the minds.  He got me interested in Iain McGilchrist whose books on the left and right brain I subsequently read from cover to cover.

Marion and Alun

Some insights and breakthroughs

• Help connecting to my greater Self and to a sense of oneness with All.  Felt connected for days.  All mental aspects fell into place. 
• Anger as 4 or 5 year old. A powerful "Fuck you!"  Then release and laughter.
• Marion drew a diagram of my head with a line up my neck and across the sides of my head. She said it was something for me to have looked at. Extraordinarily, I had experienced pain up my neck the night before, causing a headache to manifest along the sides of my head exactly as she had drawn. I had never mentioned my discomfort with my neck before.
• Confinement in the womb as the source of my fear of being trapped? Release and compassion for my baby self.
• The source of my strident, incessant voices: "Sergeant Rush More!" and "Sergeant Do More!"  Marion asked "What happened when you were 16?" My answer: "I was depressed and coped by immersing myself in hard work." That was the birth of those voices.
• I am worried that I will cause upset. I am sensitive and I pick up on others' upset energy. Marion's advice: "Give them permission to get upset.  Honour that. Remain centred in being caring and loving."
• The terror is not a place but a momentary experience contained in the One. I am not separate from That.  Be the space for the Fear. Be with it as a sensation.
• What would not needing to try look like?  There is no need to try! Allow creativity to unfold through me from Universal Intelligence.
• I have an attachment to Wisdom Trove being popular. Marion: "That's not the true measure of its success. The true measure is if it deeply effects one person who goes into a position of influence.  What you do (and the wisdom gained in the process) goes into collective consciousness for the benefit of the all."
• Visioning is good and fine as well as surrender. It’s God doing it after all.  Surrender is letting go of attachment to results.
• Disapproval is not personal. I’m as they need me to be to process their own stories and projections.
• Profound experiences of disappearing into stillness.
• Mackie chose to go down the stairs and gave up in order to allow me to goto Nepal. It was a fearful experience but also an act of love.

People I referred to Marion

1. Nic
2. Alessandro
3. Aimee
4. Sharon
5. Xenia
6. Jane
7. Chris
8. Lydia