Ian's August 2025 Newsletter

For this month’s newsletter I would like to provide an update on my recent three-month teaching trip in Europe and Japan.

The trip began in Bulgaria where I taught the White Light Essences workshop in Plovdiv. Just like last year, when I held my first workshop there, it was very well attended. I also taught this workshop in Italy a month later.

There is something truly special in running the Spiritual workshops when a large group of people meditates together after taking one of the Essences. Not only is there a great spiritual depth created by the collective presence of everyone’s spirit guides, but there are also many Beings of Light gathered together in the same space. This allows the people to have some very profound, deep insights and visions. It never ceases to amaze me how different each of the meditations are in this workshop – from the gentle, nurturing, yet emotionally charged meditation with Water to the heavy, almost physically immobilising Earth meditation from which it feels very hard to come back. The Fire meditation generates a lot of heat and always warms people up - fortunately it wasn’t too hot in Plovdiv and Garda, Italy when we meditated on this Essence. All seven meditations over the two days are totally unique. 

After the workshop Desi and her husband Evgeni, our distributors in Bulgaria, took us on a road trip to Rose Valley, the source of the famous Bulgarian Damask Rose products and of course, an ingredient in our Rose Hydrosol.  In my mind I always envisioned this rose to be dark red, rather than the very heart-centred pink colour that it actually is. We then continued the journey visiting a nearby ancient Thracian cult temple from the 5th century B.C.

The Spiritual theme continued in Aschaffenburg, Germany, where I taught the Divine Presence Essences. Once again, the joy of deep meditations with a group shone through. Like many of the overseas workshops, it’s fascinating to see people travel from all regions of a country attend, with a few even coming from other countries. I also taught my Numerology here. One of the pleasures of workshops in Germany, is having Carsten, my friend and distributor, next to me translating. It’s always a family affair with Delia, his wife and daughters also involved in running the workshops. Following the workshops, Carsten and his daughter Dorina, took Jane and I to one of the most important baroque palaces in Europe, the Wurzburg Residence which was completed in 1744. Restoration, following bomb damage at the end of the second world war, took until 1987 to complete. There are over forty palace rooms open to visit including the court chapel, the mirror room and an array of exquisite furniture, tapestries and paintings.

It was a very short visit to England this year with not even time for a session with my mentor Chung Fu or a catch up with Sally, Sophie and Jerome in Glastonbury. Before the workshop Jane and I had a session with Stephen Turoff, an amazing psychic surgeon. I’ve had the privilege of experiencing his work a few times, with him sticking his hands and fingers into various parts of my body! This was followed with a catch-up with an old mate, Ian Watson in Lewes, Sussex. Ian set up the Lakeland homoeopathic College in 1993, with Anne Waters, another dear friend, who unfortunately is no longer with us. Ian was visiting Watkins Bookshop in London when my book Australian Bush Flower Essences fell off the shelf on to his head. He duly took this as a sign, bought the book and read it on the train back to the Lake District. Ian then introduced my Essences to the other teachers at the college and they were soon added to the student dispensary. Shortly afterwards I began regularly teaching workshops at the college, which continued for many years.

My London workshops continued this homoeopathic theme as they were organised by Marcus Fernandez’s Centre for Homeopathic Education (CHE) and held in Regents Park University. Just across the road, Regents Park was awash with blooming roses and hundreds of happy people enjoying the sunshine and flowers.

I got some extra practise driving on the right-hand side of the road after picking up a rental car in Milan to visit friends just outside the city and then head off to Mendrisio in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. I have taught for Danila and her students at Scuola AFF there almost every year at the same venue.  It is a very spacious centre with magnificent old trees and teaching facilities, along with numerous blocks of accommodation for individuals suffering with mental health issues. It seemed quite appropriate that I was teaching my Mental Health & Wellbeing workshop here as there was a steady flow of residents passing our teaching room clearly exhibiting many of the conditions I was discussing. Danila has worked very hard in organising government recognition for her school.

Two hours’ drive from Mendrisio took Jane and I to Garda, on Lake Garda in Italy where I have been teaching my Bush Essence workshops for our Italian distributors, Green Remedies, for over 20 years. They have always been my best attended workshops. Sometimes there have been over 200 attendees and this year was no exception.

Anna Guiliani, owner of Green Remedies, recently sold her other business, distributing company Solgar in Italy, and is now fully focused, along with her children, on growing Green Remedies with her entrepreneurial expertise. It is always a joy to catch up with Anna and her staff, especially the fantastic team she has teaching and promoting the Bush Essences. 

Jane and I had never been to Sardinia, though it had always been on our list. This year we scheduled two weeks there as our reward for a busy teaching schedule in Europe. We invited our daughter Grace, her husband Lachlan and our sixteen-month-old grandson, along with one of Jane’s closest friends from the States and her young family to join us. We were very fortunate and grateful that Anna lent us her apartment in Costa Smeralda which has the most stunning beaches in Sardinia.I was very glad that we had Mulla Mulla with us as the temperature was 35 degrees or more every day, though it often felt about 40 degrees. This was mid-June and I wondered how people cope in August. However, it turned out that a heatwave was sweeping through many parts of Europe at this time. Even when we arrived in Prague it was 35 degrees and during my Level 3 workshop there the whole city lost power for three hours – probably due to all the air conditioning units running full tilt! I was able to improvise my teaching without access to my PowerPoint presentation, but I was very relieved when the electricity came back on. 

After Prague we travelled to Japan where I also taught my Level 3 workshop in the mountains in Nagano, about a four- and half-hour drive from Tokyo. The biggest challenge for this workshop is deciding which Essence we will make up as a group – and of course trusting that there will be enough of the same flower for all the participants to be able to tune in to and meditate with.  Arriving on the afternoon before the workshop I was a little concerned about what was available. The venue manager accompanying us on the walk insisted that one of the flowers, though fully closed at the time, would be open in the morning. I wasn’t convinced, but next morning the fields were covered in yellow-coloured Cat’s Ear which was clearly calling out to be made. Teaching this workshop in the countryside and as a residential we were able to share all our meals together and entertain ourselves in the evening which was quite a contrast to the one-day Happy Healthy Kids workshop in Tokyo held the very next day after the Level 3.

I usually finish my teaching trip in Japan by which time Jane has usually had to return to Australia to play in the Opera. This year was different as she retired a few weeks before we left and was able to accompany me the whole time. I wanted to show her the town of Niko which has stunning shrines and temples along with pristine alpine lakes and landscape including wetlands. I also wanted to visit Hiroshima, especially in relationship to Mulla Mulla and the Electro Essence which was used so effectively by Green Cross in working with children in Belarus impacted by Chernobyl.

Surprisingly, I never felt the heaviness here that I have in other war-ravaged cities such as Berlin and Dresden. I think this is due to the focus of so much prayer, Light, healing and hopes for peace directed to Hiroshima. Before visiting Hiroshima, we went to Naoshima, often referred to as the ‘Art Island’ where there are some fantastic art museums, sculptures and architecture. In one spacious room of the Benesse Art Museum, Jane and I found ourselves alone, aside from a single gallery attendant, with four large water lily paintings by Monet. I can’t imagine any other place in the world where you could have such an experience entirely to yourself. Nature, art and friends – old and new, are certainly the icing on the cake of our teaching trips.