1) How much of the books is true?
Ever since the publication of Starbrow, this is the question most often asked – and it’s almost always the first question readers ask me. And the truth is, I could probably write several more books just trying to answer this question! Simply because there are so many elements in the books that in order to do justice to the material – I would have to look at each separate element and then answer in relation to that. But let me take some of the main elements in the books and try to give you some (relatively short) answers to some (very big) questions:

The nature of reality and the nature of mind
The insights or “lessons” about the Force, the Good, and the connection between our thoughts and our experiences which Starbrow and his friends get during the course of their adventures is the very heart of the books and the story. And interestingly enough, these insights or lessons were also the very first thing I wrote – way before I even got the idea to write the story that in time became Starbrow and Starwarrior. These insights are not something I made up. They are based on my own experience and exploration of this thing called “life”. When people ask me what made me start this exploration, I usually say it was the two “spirations”. A little “in-spiration” and a lot of “de-speration”! What got Starbrow and his friends to begin to wake up to reality in the books is that they are literally “called” by a motley crew of guardian angels, extraterrestrials and ascended masters. And it was the same for me – except that my helping angels and masters in the beginning weren’t called Ticha or Ashtar but rather “unhappiness”, “suffering”, “crisis” and “desperation”!

When I was a teenager, I went through a period of deep insecurity, depression, and existential crisis that lasted several years. I was even thinking about suicide. Until one day – some months before my 20th birthday – I had some radical and revolutionary insights about reality and the mind. In brief, I realized that the reason why I was feeling as I did – the reason why I was happy or unhappy – had nothing to do with the external circumstances in my life (e.g. my body, the people around me, my work, my finances). I realized that day that the reason (the cause) for the way I was feeling was inside me, that it could be found in my own thoughts and beliefs about life. This realization completely and totally changed my picture of the world and from that moment, my whole life started to change radically and for the better. As the years went by, my understanding of the relationship between our thoughts and our experiences (and of this whole thing we call life) continued to grow – and so did my understanding of the basic causes of suffering and the way out of suffering to happiness and freedom. And more revolutionary realizations kept coming – most important of all that reality (which I call the Force in Starbrow) is everything and that reality or the Force is Good.

Another interesting thing that I gradually discovered as the years went by was that I wasn’t the only one who had reached the same conclusions about reality and the mind. I found out that there have been many throughout the ages and in all cultures who had reached the same conclusions: Buddha, Jesus, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj – as well as newer teachers like Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie.
So it was these realizations that formed the basis for the lessons and insights that Starbrow & Co. learn on their adventures. In a way you could say that the books’ heroes’ gradual awakening was a way of telling about my own gradual awakening!

Once you start to understand that Reality is Everything and that Reality is Good and that the cause of all our experiences (and in fact of the whole world) is our thoughts and beliefs, this helps us understand a lot of other things. For example:

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Reincarnation and past lives
When you understand that the Force / God / Life is eternal and immortal and that every human being or soul is – in his/her essence – an individualization of the Force, then it makes sense to say that the soul is eternal and immortal and that therefore, the soul in the course of its eternal life, goes through countless incarnations and lives. Most of us cannot remember our previous lives – and probably for a good reason as I describe in my books – but some of us do get glimpses of our previous lives on occasion. And some people get more than a glimpse. Recently I saw a fascinating documentary about children who (for some inexplicable reason) had precise and detailed memories of their previous life. And there are many well-documented books and a lot of research about this exciting subject.

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Glastonbury, Tintagel, Callanish and other locations
All the physical locations in my books – such as Glastonbury, Tintagel and Stonehenge in England and Callanish in Scotland are real, physical locations which I have visited many times. All of these places are exciting and fascinating to visit and explore so I highly recommend going to these places if you haven’t been there yet!

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Old Britain, Avalon, Merlin, King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table
There are countless legends, stories and myths about all of the above, so obviously these are things I didn’t make up. But how much of it is fiction and how much is fact is something that is still hotly debated today. My guess is that it is probably a mixture of fact and fiction – and that the parts of the stories that are true go deeper than most of us believe. In my books, I try to describe some of my experiences with these things.

The first time I visited the little town of Glastonbury in southwest England was in November 1996 with Barbara and my two brothers Mark and Robin. I had known about Glastonbury, Avalon and the many legends about these places for many years, but I had never been there before. I still remember the first time we turned around a bend and I saw the legendary hill Glastonbury Tor in the horizon – as well as the first time we drove up to the foot of the hill and climbed it and looked out over the landscape – and the first time I walked alone among the trees of Avalon on the small pathways around the hill. It all felt so very familiar – so much like home – as if I knew this place just as well as I knew my own hometown Copenhagen – even if I had never been in Glastonbury before (at least in this lifetime!). I still feel that way when I visit Glastonbury today.

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Out-of-body experiences
I had a fascinating experience about 6-7 years ago (when I was in the process of writing Starwarrior – the sequel to Starbrow). One of my close friends was going to have an operation and I went with my friend to the doctor before the surgery to hear about the procedure. The doctor was going through the details of the procedure with my friend and I was sitting and listening. Suddenly I started to feel very warm and unwell – my whole body felt strange… and suddenly… wham… I was up on the ceiling looking down at my own body. That lasted only a moment and then I suddenly found myself in a circle of light. I found myself standing in the middle of a circle of living beings of light. I couldn’t see their faces or forms very clearly but I knew they were pure light and love. It was a very powerful feeling. I felt as if I knew each one of the beings in the circle more deeply and better than even my best friend on Earth and they felt the same about me. They were my family and they loved me and knew me and knew everything about me. Then the beings began to fill me with information. They communicated with me in a language without speaking or using words and filled me with information about who I really was, what my mission was and what tasks were waiting for me… I don’t know how long this lasted but it felt like a very long time. And then suddenly… wham! I was lying on the floor in the doctor’s office and my friend and the doctor were bending over me calling my name. I felt very disoriented. According to my friend and the doctor, I fainted and just slid off the chair and landed pretty hard on the floor (which explained the big bump I had on my head!). They said I was gone for a few minutes.

When I later tried to recall the experience, I still had a very strong feeling of the great love these beings had for me and how they knew me so well but I could not remember any of the information they gave me while I was with them – or at least I could not consciously remember any of it!

Gradually as my understanding of the nature of mind grew I began to realize that what I and most people call an “out-of-body experience” is not in fact an out-of-body experience. Our true self – which is unlimited consciousness – is not in the body or in the world for that matter – because how could what is unlimited be limited like that? It is the body and the world which is in our true self, which is unlimited consciousness. What I thought was an out-of-body experience was in fact an experience of what reality is like all the time. We are the unlimited consciousness that contains both the body and the world. Or as Deepak Chopra says, “The amazing thing is not that we can have an out-of-body experience, but that we can have an in-the-body experience!”

One of my earliest memories from my childhood was asking my mother, “How can it be that of all the millions and millions of people on Earth, I am looking out of these eyes and not out of your eyes or someone else’s eyes?” A good question right? But as I grew up and understood more about the nature of consciousness, I began to realize that the part of me that was asking that question as a child was the unlimited, not-body-identified consciousness that we all are. It is only our unquestioned thoughts and beliefs that make us believe that we are our body and our personalities – and not the unlimited consciousness that contains (and in fact imagines) the body, the personality, and the world. This mechanism – the way in which your thoughts (thinking) creates your body, your personality and your world is not just something that happened when you were a child – in fact it happens every morning when you wake up. If you are alert, you will discover that there is a fraction of a second just when you wake up when you don’t know who or what you are. You just are – but you are nothing specific, named, defined or limited. You are pure consciousness. And a split second later all your habitual thinking and beliefs comes rushing back – “I am so and so. This is my body. This is my wife sleeping next to me and snoring. It’s seven o’clock and I’ve got to get up and go to work. And so on…” Every single morning, in fact every single moment, you are creating the whole world anew with your thought and stories. If you watch your thoughts, you will begin to see this happening.

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Earth Changes
As Starbrow and his friends gradually discover, our thoughts and beliefs are the cause – and our experiences (including our physical bodies) are the effect. The physical body bears testimony to your actions and to your thoughts and feelings. The same holds true for our collective physical body – which we call Planet Earth. Today we are becoming more and more aware of this cause and effect relationship between our collective thoughts and behavior and our collective body – the Earth. Just think about global warming and climate change. Just think about the tsunamis and the enormous flooding that is going on so many places around the globe. Or think about the droughts and deserts that are spreading and the strange weather patterns we are experiencing. And the earthquakes, volcanoes and powerful storms and hurricanes. Try watching Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth and see his amazing predictions, many of which are already happening right now. (And think how the world would have looked today if he had been elected President of the US instead of Bush!) It’s interesting to note that so many of the so-called “Earth Changes” I wrote about in Starbrow and Starwarrior so many years ago are fast becoming our reality.

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The collective consciousness, critical mass, the hundredth monkey phenomenon
“The hundredth monkey phenomenon” is not something I made up – but a real experiment that was carried out by scientists on some Japanese islands in the Pacific many years ago. You can read about “The hundredth monkey phenomenon” on the Internet and for example in the book “Lifetide” by the biologist Lyall Watson.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation organization has also done some fascinating research on the subject. And at the moment, film director (Twin Peaks, etc.) and TM practitioner David Lynch is traveling around the world talking about his project to create meditation centers where thousands of people can meditate at the same time and thereby lift the collective consciousness (as described in my books). (And by the way, if anyone out there has David Lynch’s address, please send it to me so I can send him a copy of Starbrow!)

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Intelligent life in the universe
The more astronomers and researchers explore what we call the physical universe, the more we realize that the universe is so incredibly much bigger than we human beings imagined (not very long ago)… even if the whole of the physical universe is just a dewdrop in the infinite ocean of consciousness. To date, astronomers have discovered that the sun or star which our little planet Earth revolves around is just one out of some 400,000,000,000 (400 billion) stars or suns in our galaxy which is called the Milky Way Galaxy (stars and suns which all potentially have planets and moons circling around them – and therefore many of these potentially are home to intelligent life). And the Milky Way Galaxy is just one of several hundred billion galaxies – all with hundreds of millions of stars, suns, planets and moons. The more powerful our measuring instruments become, the larger we discover the physical universe is.

When you take the universe’s incredible size into account, it must mean (as far as I can see), that the chances that we human beings are the only conscious and intelligent creatures in the universe are almost zero. And when you also take into consideration the fact that the known physical universe is several billion years old, I also believe that it is more than likely that many of these intelligent creatures “out there” are far more developed and conscious than we are – both technologically and consciousness-wise.

So then of course we have the classic question: “So if you really mean there is intelligent life out there and it’s probable that it is more developed and conscious than we are – why hasn’t it contacted us yet?” One answer could of course be that because the physical universe is so incredibly large (in our physical standards) it would take thousands and millions of years just to travel from the one end of our galaxy to the other (Planet Earth is located in a far corner of the Milky Way Galaxy approx. 30,000 light years from the center of the Galaxy). But when I get this question, I can’t help but think of the comic strip “Calvin & Hobbes” where the two friends one evening are lying on their backs looking up at the stars and Hobbes asks Calvin, “Do you think there’s intelligent life out there?” After some thought Calvin replies “Yes”. Then Hobbes asks, “If there really is intelligent life out there, why haven’t they contacted us?” Calvin is quiet for a moment and then replies, “I think the fact that they haven’t contacted us yet is a really clear sign that there really is intelligent life out there!” Think about it a minute. Even if we human beings are perhaps reasonably developed technologically and materially, we are still at the baby stage both mentally and consciousness-wise. We can’t even figure out how to live in peace and harmony with each other or how to take proper care of our beautiful planet. So how would we react if we suddenly were contacted by an armada of intelligent extraterrestrials? I believe the most probable reason why we haven’t been contacted by extraterrestrials yet is simply because they know we are not developed enough (consciousness-wise) to handle such a meeting. Nevertheless I do believe there will come a time when we will be developed enough consciousness-wise to deal with such a meeting – a so-called “Contact” – and what this type of meeting will mean to humanity is one of the things I explore in my books.

Another answer to the question of why we haven’t been contacted yet by extraterrestrials is of course that we have been contacted already. And that they are observing us, are among us, and that some people have actually seen them and are in contact with them. Some even say that we humans come originally from other star systems and galaxies. The Ashtar Command and the intergalactic fleet of extraterrestrials which I describe in my books is not something I made up – it is based on the descriptions of real people of their experiences with this type of phenomena. (For more about this, see my book list further below).

Now I’d like to tell you about one of the many fascinating experiences I myself have had. In early 1994, about two years after my first “awakening” and three years before I started writing Starbrow in 1997, I was inspired to make what I call “Affirmation Art”. Affirmation Art is an attempt to make beautiful and inspiring pictures with statements (or affirmations) that focus our attention on the truth about the nature of reality. For example, “Divine Substance is the One and Only Reality” or “Every day in every way I am getting better and better and better.” I often used David Malin’s incredibly beautiful and fascinating astro-photographs of distant star system and galaxies as the background or as one of the ingredients in my pictures. There was especially one picture with a distant cluster of stars with seven blue stars in the background that I and my mother Barbara Berger (who’s written many excellent books about the nature of mind) were very drawn to. The year after, in 1995, we used this picture as the cover of Barbara’s popular book The Road to Power – Fast Food for the Soul. We also printed the picture as a poster and made exhibitions using this picture and other Affirmation Art pictures in many of Denmark’s bookstores. The pictures were also exhibited at Charlottenborg Museum in Copenhagen. And a McDonald’s restaurant in Denmark actually bought six huge six feet tall Affirmation Art pictures from us to decorate their fast food restaurant – way to go McDonald’s! It was about this time that I discovered that the star cluster with the seven beautiful sister planets was known as the “Pleiades” or the “Seven Sisters”.

Many years later (I think it was around the year 2000 when I was writing the sequel to Starbrow) I had a powerful meditation experience. I was doing one of my favorite meditations at the time. In brief, the meditation exercise was to mentally erase the boundaries between my physical body and my physical world so that I literally didn’t have any boundaries anymore. Mentally I saw myself gradually being and containing everything… the room I was sitting in, the building the room was in, the street, the neighborhood, Copenhagen, Denmark, the whole Earth, our solar system, the other stars, moons and planets in our galaxy, the whole galaxy, all the galaxies, the whole “uni-verse” (the one song) and on into infinity… I had done this meditation many times before and always found it to be a very expansive and blissful experience.

But this evening, something quite unexpected and unusual happened during the meditation. I started the meditation by mentally erasing the boundaries between my physical body and the world around me and I began gradually to see myself being and containing everything around me – the room I was in, the building the room was in, the street, the neighborhood, Copenhagen, Denmark, the whole Earth, our solar system, right by the other stars, moons and planets in our galaxy… and then wham! My consciousness suddenly stopped at a magically beautiful cluster of stars comprising a lot of blue stars and their many planets and moons. It was the star system that I had felt so inspired by many years previously and which I used in my Affirmation Art – it was the Pleiades! But the most amazing part of it was that I had this really powerful feeling that I knew this star system really well – that in a way it was my “home” (or in any case a previous home). I felt such a sense of belonging and unity with the stars and planets and immediately I started having the most amazing visions of how life was on these planets. They were “water” planets – most of the planets’ surfaces were covered with water… I saw lots of small islands sticking up out of the enormous turquoise-green-white oceans, islands with vertical cliffs that were hundreds of meters high… white seagulls and other seabirds… dolphins... and beautiful white houses built into the steep walls of the cliffs and on top of the islands… temples and gardens and pavilions… and the inhabitants of the planets… it all felt very feminine… it felt as if the feminine energy was very strong … I saw beautiful goddess-like women with long black hair and light-blue skin… I saw that the planet’s inhabitants had a highly developed mental control over their physical environment (which otherwise seemed very etheric) … I saw one of their favorite games which was to lift – using the power of the mind – heavy stones and throw them towards and past each other like gigantic pieces in a mental game of chess… It was an incredibly strong experience which is very difficult to describe in words. But the most powerful part was this inexplicable feeling that I knew the place so well and that I had been there before – that I in fact came from there.

Another interesting thing which I later discovered was that I wasn’t the only person who felt this strong connection to the Pleiades. In Shirley Maclaine’s fantastic autobiography from 1985 – “Out on a Limb” (which was also made into a film in 1987 in which she plays herself), she tells about her meeting and experiences with the Pleiades. And there are many other books and stories about people’s experiences with this fascinating star system.

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The multi-dimensional universe, ascension, the ascended masters
When you first hear about the multi-dimensional universe, you might think it sounds like pure science fiction, but it’s interesting to consider that much of what we human beings regarded as “science fiction” in the past is today regarded as “scientific fact”! More than 100 years ago when Jules Verne wrote “Around the World in 80 Days” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” “From the Earth to the Moon” – his books were definitely regarded as science fiction – but today everyone knows that traveling to the moon, sailing under the seas and traveling around the world in less than 80 days or 80 hours is no longer fiction but reality. The same holds true for many of the things we previously regarded as science fiction or fantasy. When you consider the latest scientific research, it probably won’t be long until we’re saying the same about the dimensions.

Scientists and especially quantum physicists have long known that everything we look upon as individual “physical” forms is in reality one unified field of energy (the Force). What we call the “physical” or 3rd dimension – that which we perceive with our so-called physical senses – a tree, a galaxy, a flower, a car, a human body – is in reality just energy that is vibrating at a certain frequency. But the mystics have long said there are an infinite number of spirit worlds or other dimensions besides the 3rd dimensions – which is pretty much what scientists seem to be finding out today. For example, take a look at Physicist and Professor Michio Kaku’s fascinating book “Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension”.

What I call “ascension” in my books is just another word for the evolution of the soul or consciousness moving from one level of consciousness and/or vibrational frequency to another level. When I and other people use the term “ascended masters” or “ascended beings”, it is simply a term which describes a soul or consciousness which is vibrating at a higher vibrational frequency than the physical 3rd dimension. An “enlightened master” like Buddha or Jesus is a person who has awakened to the Nature of Reality. An “ascended master” is an “enlightened master” (such as Kuthumi and Serapis Bey) who is no longer in the 3rd or 4th dimension (the dimension where the soul rests between death and rebirth) but in the 5th dimension or higher. Ask yourself: Where are Buddha and Jesus now? We know that they are no longer in their physical bodies, but at the same time we know they cannot be dead since the soul or consciousness in its essence is just as immortal as the Force or Life itself.

Some people mistakenly believe that the 5th dimension (or higher) is what we call “heaven” or “paradise”, but this is not entirely true. Reality or Life as well as all the worlds and all the dimensions are (without exception) heaven or paradise because Reality is All (everything) and Reality is Good.  (For an explanation of how we can know that Reality is Good, see Starwarrior page 282 – 308). Also, as far as I can see, what we call “hell” is not a physical or dimensional location but a symbolic designation for the suffering, unhappiness or stress you feel when you believe thoughts which are not in harmony with Reality (since Reality is Good). In the same way, we can say “purgatory” is a symbolic designation for the state of consciousness you are in when you are not completely awake to the Nature of Reality but are not completely asleep either (does that sound familiar?).

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Angels, archangels and guardian angels
According to most definitions, an angel is “A messenger of God, a being of light and love”. And isn’t this exactly what every person, every human being is, in their essence? As far as I can see, every single person – without exception – is God’s messenger, a being of light and love – and therefore an angel! People are angels in physical form! And then there are the angels who are not in physical form at the moment and who are expressing themselves on other vibrational frequencies. Pretty cool isn’t it!

Another way of looking at angels and archangels is to see how the various angels symbolize various aspects of Life or the Force – aspects such as Life and Strength, Love and Compassion, Intelligence and Wisdom, Inspiration and Creativity. Sometimes when it can seem too abstract to think about God or the Force as Unlimited Love or Unlimited Wisdom, it can be easier for the mind to think about this aspect as an angel or an archangel who exemplifies these qualities.

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Starbrow, Moncler, Telperion, Elmar, Ben Nevis, Rebecca and the other people in the books
Most of the people in Starbrow and Starwarrior are based on real, living people even though in some cases I have changed their names to protect their privacy.

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The story itself
As you can see from the above, the answer to “how much of it is true?” is not so black and white. Some people believe that either everything in the books must be true or everything must be fiction. But it’s not that simple! You can say that I took all these more or less real and true elements and mixed them together and then used them to tell a story that I thought was interesting and exciting and hopefully gives food for thought.

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2) How did you get the idea to write Starbrow?
Nearly as far back as I can remember, I’ve always been fascinated by two things: Adventures (like The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table) and of spirituality (the exploration of the Nature of Reality). For many years I thought these two interests of mine were separate things – with no connection to each other – until one day I realized that these two interests of mine were in reality two different sides of the same coin! The reason why we human beings love adventures and tales is because they tell us and show us something deep and profound about our true nature – about the Nature of Reality you could say. And when you take a closer look at the Nature of Reality, you discover that this thing we call your life and my life is a spiritual adventure that is every bit as wild and exciting as the adventures of Frodo Baggins and Luke Skywalker!

This realization made me look at all my beloved adventure stories in a completely new light. For example, I realized that the hero’s quest which is at the heart of every adventure, symbolizes every single person’s inner journey from unconsciousness to awakening to the Nature of Reality. All the adventures and tales follow the same pattern. The hero is puttering innocently around in his or her little every day life (Frodo is enjoying life in the Shire, Luke Skywalker is daydreaming on the desert planet Tatooine). Then everything starts to go terribly wrong (Sauron wants to take over Middle Earth and make everyone his slave, Darth Vader and the Evil Empire want to become masters of the whole galaxy). The hero is then called and to start with feels very uncertain about his or her ability to live up to the task (Frodo vows to throw the one ring into Mount Doom, Luke Skywalker begins his training as a Jedi knight and his battle against the Empire). During the struggle, the hero meets terrible dangers and obstacles (orcs, Black Riders, Stormtroopers and evil Sith Lords). But fortunately, there is help and guidance at hand (wise elves and wizards, small green Jedi masters). Also during the struggle, the hero begins to discover his or her own unrecognized resources and also how big the world around him/her really is (the little hobbit Frodo manages to travel through Middle Earth all the way to Mount Doom, Luke Skywalker learns about the Force). And finally, the hero conquers all the obstacles and becomes – during the course of the journey – a wiser, more loving and compassionate being (Frodo throws the ring into Mount Doom and sails west to the Undying Lands, Luke Skywalker wins over the Empire and resists the temptation to let himself be controlled by his anger and kill his own father.)

Doesn’t this sound just like your life? Didn’t you go around enjoying your own little everyday life until suddenly one day everything started to go wrong? Maybe your partner left you or you got fired from your job or you got a serious illness or lost someone you really cared for. And then didn’t you start looking for help and for answers – and didn’t this make you begin to ask yourself what is this thing we call life or reality? And didn’t you meet terrifying obstacles on your way – your own false thoughts and beliefs, your own prejudices, fears and confusion? And wasn’t there help and guidance around in the form of spiritual teachers, books and lectures? And didn’t you begin to realize more and more how fantastic you in reality are and how fantastic this thing called life really is? And didn’t this all gradually make you a wiser, more loving and compassionate human being?

When I realized that adventure stories and the hero’s quest in reality were symbols of every human being’s evolutionary journey through life, I of course was overjoyed and immediately felt like I wanted to share my discovery with my friends – especially my two Dungeon & Dragons friends Jacob and Janus. So I decided to write my discoveries and realizations down for them in a little “spiritual adventure” handbook (which later became the first three lessons about the Nature of Reality which Starbrow and his friends learn from the Ascended Masters). After I had written my first draft for this little handbook, I asked Barbara to read it and comment on it because she’s written so many handbooks. She read it quickly and said she thought the contents were good but the form was so dry and boring that no one would want to read it (fortunately for me, my Mom is always ruthlessly honest with me about my writing!) – least of all my Dungeon & Dragons friends! I had to admit she was right. After this, we started talking about if there wasn’t another way to communicate my insights on spirituality and adventures – for example in the form of a story instead of a handbook. And so, the first seed of what was to become the Starbrow series was planted.

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3) How did you get the name Starbrow?
About a year before I started writing Starbrow, I was sitting in deep meditation one evening with Barbara and some other friends. At this time, we were meditating a lot on the Ascended Masters and on this particular evening I felt the strong presence of Master Ashtar. Near the end of the meditation I suddenly had a completely clear and strong feeling that Ashtar turned towards me and called me “Starbrow”.

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4) How much of what you write is autobiographical? Are you Starbrow?
The more I observe the world, the more I can see that everyone and everything in the world is just a reflection of my inner life, of my mind and my thoughts. So looking at it from this point of view one could say that yes, the main character Starbrow is based on me – and so are Moncler, Telperion, Ben Nevis and all the other people in my books. They are all me! And they are all you! The people you admire and feel attracted to in my books (and in all books) are you, and the people you don’t like and feel repelled by in my books are also you!

But to answer this question more concretely, I am not Tim Ray an older bearded man who lives in a remote cabin somewhere in the Canadian wilderness (as many of my readers even here in Denmark for some odd reason believe!), but Tim Ray a Danish-American man who in fact does live in Eastbridge in Copenhagen. And yes I was only 24 when I started writing Starbrow. And yes it is also true that I was a passionate Dungeons & Dragons player with my real friends Jacob and Janus when I was a teenager. And I have also had a wise Elmar in my life, but he wasn’t my grandfather. But I don’t have a little sister, but two younger brothers.

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5) Did you do a lot of research when writing the books?
Yes. For every printed page in Starbrow and Starwarrior, I wrote ten, twenty and sometimes several hundred pages of background material on everything from the Nature of Reality to the placebo effect, the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon, Atlantis, the Light Grid and the Starseeds. Together with Barbara I visited all the important locations in the books – first and foremost Glastonbury and Tintagel in England and Callanish in Scotland – many times. In addition to going exploring and taking hundreds of pictures of Glastonbury Tor, Chalice Well Garden, Glastonbury Abbey, Wearyall Hill, Tintagel Castle, Merlin’s Cave and the Callanish Stone Circle, we meditated many times on these “Power Spots” where we had many very powerful experiences. And I always had a very strong feeling of having been in these places before, even though I had never been any of these places before (not in this lifetime anyway!).

Also you might be interested to know that the first draft of Starbrow (and later Starwarrior) was much much longer than the final printed versions. Thanks to my faithful and ruthless editor Barbara, all the comprehensive background material that would have stopped the fast pace of the books was cut away or edited down to much less. Barbara always called the many hundreds of pages of background material I had written “The Metaphysical History of Planet Earth – the short version” and said that this could be a whole book or several books and that maybe one day we would publish this material too!

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6) How long did it take you to write the books?
My whole life! In one way it is difficult to say that I started writing the books on any particular day because so many previous events were so crucial in forming the books – events that were again the result of other events – such as my lifelong fascination with old Britain and Avalon, my Dungeons & Dragons game with Jacob and Janus, my “crisis years” and my awakening in 1992, listening to Eric Klein channel the Ascended Masters in 1996, and the guidance that Barbara and I suddenly got one evening in November 1996 from the Masters that we should go to Glastonbury in England and that we had to go there the very next day (which we did!).

But if I should set a specific date for when I really started writing the material that would become Starbrow and Starwarrior, it was Saturday, February 22, 1997 (yes I do have the most amazing memory!) when I received a mysterious letter from my old Dungeons & Dragons friend Jacob who was at that moment studying at a university in Oxford in England. From that moment, I wrote almost non-stop on Starbrow. And when I finished Starbrow, I immediately started writing the sequel Starwarrior which I finally finished in the summer of 2004. (I wrote the original book in Danish and then translated them to English with Barbara’s help.) So all in all, it took me 7½ years to write the books! Wow – what an adventure!

For the Starbrow nerds who would like to have the exact details, here is a Starbrow and Starwarrior timeline:

November 1996: Tim and Barbara’s first trip to Glastonbury
February 22, 1997: At the age of 24, Tim starts writing the “spiritual adventure” handbook which would become Starbrow.
July 1997: Tim and Barbara’s second trip to Glastonbury – and this time also to Tintagel.
January 1998: Tim finishes the first draft of Starbrow (at that time the novel was called The Return of the Starseeds. Tim was also thinking about calling it The Staff, the Sword and the Star). Tim and Barbara start editing the manuscript.
July 1998: Tim and Barbara’s third trip to Glastonbury and Tintagel.
October 1998: Tim and Barbara finish editing the book and the title is now Starbrow.
November 1998: BeamTeam Books publishes the first Danish edition of Starbrow.
December 1998: Tim and Barbara start translating Starbrow to English.
Summer 1999: Tim and Barbara write, compose and record Starbrow’s Song with Joshua Ray.
October 1999: BeamTeam Books publishes the first English edition of Starbrow plus the second Danish edition of Starbrow.
December 1999: BeamTeam Books releases the CD-single Starbrow’s Song. Tim starts writing the sequel to Starbrow and the working title of the book at this time is Starday.
July 2000: Tim and Barbara’s first trip to Callanish and the Standing Stones on the Outer Hebrides off the northwest coast of Scotland.
Fall 2000: Tim and Barbara write, compose and record (with Chris M) the songs Guardians of the Earth and The New Vision – both songs to the books.
Fall 2001: Tim completes the sequel to Starbrow and it is now called Starwarrior.
August 2002: Tim and Barbara’s fourth trip to Glastonbury and Tintagel. They start translating Starwarrior to English. After that, Tim visits Glastonbury on his own four more times in October 2002, November 2002, December 2002 and in April 2003.
Spring 2003: Findhorn Press publishes the second English edition of Starbrow in cooperation with BeamTeam Books.
Spring 2004: De Boekerij publishes the first Dutch edition of Starbrow with the Dutch title De Gelofte (The Vow).
Fall 2004: Findhorn Press publishes the first English edition of Starwarrior in cooperation with BeamTeam Books. The English edition of Starwarrior has been edited and rewritten, so it is quite different from the Danish version. (It’s dangerous to translate your own books!). Tim’s first CD Spiritual Pop Songs is also released by Findhorn Press and by BeamTeam Books.

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7) Were the books “channeled” to you?
It depends on what you mean by “channeled”. As I said, I used really a lot of time to do research for the books and to explore the backgrounds of the main characters, develop the plot and so on. But when I first started writing, I often had the feeling that something bigger and greater than me (anyway something bigger and greater than the “I” that I normally identified myself with) took over and was writing through me. It was a fantastic, blissful and completely timeless experience. So you could say that “the Force” wrote the books through me in the same way that “the Force” was working in and through Starbrow and his friends. My job was just to make myself as empty and receptive as possible so I could listen and be an open channel.

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8) What did you to do get “in state” so you could write the books?
My “favorite ritual” (if you can call it that) was to go up to a wild and deserted beach in North Zealand (the north of Denmark) with Barbara where we spent the whole day. Our program was usually to talk things through, for example difficult places in the plot or ways to explain a certain insight, and then to forget everything about the book and go walking in the silence for many hours. After we had been silent for several hours and began to feel we had emptied ourselves and felt empty, new inspiration and information would just pour in over us. And then I knew what the next step in the story should be. After that I would go home and write and write.

Other activities that helped me get “in state” were – physical exercise (especially dancing), singing and chanting, and of course meditation, scientific prayer and other forms of spiritual practice. Sometimes a good novel or an action film was just perfect, especially when I needed to take a break from it all. The problem was a good film usually gave me even more good ideas! It was like being pregnant for several years in a row – no matter where I went, I carried this living presence with me which was hard to forget!

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9) How did you get the inspiration for the scientific prayer about “The Force/The Good”?
Many of the things I wrote about in the books came to me without warning and without any special effort on my part. But the scientific prayer or affirmation about The Force/The Good which Starbrow and his friends meditate on all the time to complete their mission is something Barbara and I really worked on for a long time. It went through different drafts and versions before I finally found a form that I was satisfied with and felt was right. I wanted to have a prayer or affirmation that was universal and which covered everything and which could be used by anyone regardless of their spiritual tradition or background. Something which could be used at any time in any situation (yes I have always been very ambitious!).

I remember when it all clicked – it was the summer of 1998 and Barbara and I were sitting one beautiful, quiet evening meditating on the top of Glastonbury Tor. We had been editing Starbrow for more than a half year and were almost finished. But we still weren’t completely satisfied with the scientific prayer. And then, during the meditation, it came to me: “IN THE BEGINNING, THE FORCE…” There it was!

To this very day, I still feel the prayer really works and I know many people (including myself) who often use the prayer as a meditation, prayer or affirmation. When I do a workshop or lecture, we often work with the prayer and then I explain to people that you can replace the word “the Force” with any other word for the Nature of Reality that works for you such as “God” or “the Universe” or “the Higher Self”. You can also replace it with the word “the Good” as I do in Book 2 or with whatever aspect of the Nature of Reality you really want to get a greater realization of such as “Love” or “Life” or “Divine Intelligence”. 

For those who wonder what the term “scientific prayer” means, it is a term I borrowed from the American mystic Emmet Fox (one of the Three E Masters in Starwarrior). Fox was one of the founders of the “New Thought” movement in the US which included teachers and healers like Ernest Homes and Emma Curtis Hopkins (the other two E Masters) and Mary Baker Eddy. According to Mary Baker Eddy, a scientific prayer is “an absolute acknowledgement of the ever-presence of infinite perfection” – and I think this is a great description. The Nature of Reality, the nature of Life, your true nature and my true nature here and now and forever is Infinite Perfection, the Force, the Good. To be conscious of this, to give your attention to this, to dwell on this – that is what scientific prayer is. And since what you focus on grows in your experience, the more you focus on the perfection that you are, the more you will experience it in your life. The Force is with you because it is you!

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10) What books and films that inspired you while you were writing your books would you recommend? 
A lot! Here are some of the books that really inspired me when I wrote Starbrow and Starwarrior.

The Nature of Reality and the Nature of Mind
Power Through Constructive Thinking by Emmet Fox plus all his other books
Living the Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes plus all his other books
Scientific Christian Mental Practice by Emma Curtis Hopkins plus all her other books
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and Creating Affluence by Deepak Chopra plus all his other books
I am that by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Bhagavad Gita

Glastonbury, Tintagel, Callanish and other locations
Old Britain, Avalon, Merlin, King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table
Glastonbury – Avalon of the Heart by Dion Fortune
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and all her other books
The Merlin books by Mary Stewart
In Perfect Timing by Peter Caddy
The Findhorn Garden by Peter Caddy, Eileen Caddy, Dorothy Maclean, Roc, David Spangler and the other founders of the Findhorn Community
The View Over Atlantis by John Michell

Reincarnation and past lives
Out-of-body experiences

Earth Changes
The collective consciousness, critical mass, the hundredth monkey phenomenon
The multi-dimensional universe, ascension, the ascended masters
Angels, archangels and guardian angels
Two essays by Emmet Fox “Life after Death” and “Reincarnation” in his book Power Through Constructive Thinking
The Crystal Stair by Eric Klein and all his other books and tapes
Engle til alle tider (The Angel Handbook) by Dennis Stanfeld (Emrys Maryons Stanfeld)
Saved by the Light by Dannion Brinkley

Intelligent life in the universe
The Crystal Stair by Eric Klein plus all his other books and tapes
The Keys of Enoch by J.J. Hurtak
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
A View of the Universe by David Malin

Novels
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and all his other books
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and all her other books
The Celestine Prophecy books by James Redfield

Films
The Star Wars films by George Lucas
Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. by Steven Spielberg
Contact by Robert Zemeckis (based on the novel by NASA pioneer Carl Sagan)

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11) When will the 3rd book in the Starbrow series come?
That’s something I would really like to know too! But the truth is, I don’t. When I started writing Starbrow, I had the strong feeling – right from the beginning – that there would be three books in the series and I knew generally what the main theme of each of the novels would be. And as soon as I was finished with Starbrow, I started writing Starwarrior – and it was interesting to see that the main theme of each of the books turned out to be exactly what I originally saw them to be (even though there were also a lot of surprises along the way!). But when I was finished with Starwarrior a few years ago, I did not feel inspired to write book number three. I don’t know why. So maybe there are only two books in the series and my original vision wasn’t correct. Or maybe it was correct and the third book in the series isn’t ready to be born yet. I simply don’t know! If the Force wants it, I am open!

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12) Are there plans to make the books into movies?
So many of my readers have told me that they really believe the books would make great movies – and I must say I totally agree! When I was writing the books, I often saw them as movies and I saw each scene and the dialogue as a scene in a movie – so maybe that is why so many of my readers feel this way. Another reason is that I’m a very visual person (don’t forget my name is “Starbrow – the One with the Sight”!).

Some years ago I was contacted by a film producer and a film music composer who live in Hollywood who both love the books and who both felt that they would make great movies. One of them tried to get some of the big film studios interested in the project – but so far no luck. But I truly believe it would be great to see Starbrow’s adventures up on the big screen. I already have my wish list of actors in my head… Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings) as Starbrow, Russel Crowe (Gladiator) as Ben Nevis, Paul Hogan (Crocodille Dundee) as Elmar, Vanessa Redgrave (Howard’s End) as Anne Randall… Steven Spielberg as director, John Williams or Howard Shore for the music… any other good ideas?

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13) Is it true that you also made music for the books?
Yes it’s true. I have always loved funky pop and dance music and about the same time as I finished writing Starbrow and was just getting started with Starwarrior, I got the idea to make a CD with funky pop songs with positive, consciousness-raising lyrics. A few years ago, my first CD was released called Spiritual Pop Songs – and three of the songs on the CD are songs to my books:
Starbrow’s Song – which is Elmar’s song about the Starseeds. Listen to it and hear your true self, your Higher Self, singing the song to you and calling you.
Guardians of the Earth – which is the Oath of the Guardians from the book. Listen to it and take your rightful place as a Guardian of the Earth.
The New Vision – which is the New Vision from the book of peace and harmony on Earth. Listen to it and see with your inner eye a positive new vision of peace and harmony on Earth. The more of us who do this, the sooner it will be our reality!

Click here to hear or download "The New Vision".

You can order a CD with all the songs here.

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Photo gallery: Pictures from the spiritual adventure

The first cover of Barbara's book The Road to Power

with Tim's Affirmation Art and the Pleiades (1995)

Tim on his way up to the ruins of Tintagel Castle in Cornwall (1998)

Tim in the ruins of Tintagel Castle in Cornwall (1998)

Tim standing next to the great central stone in the Callanish Stone Circle

on the Outer Hebrides, Scotland (2000)

Barbara in the Callanish Stone Circle (2000)

Tim in front of the old tower on top of Glastonbury Tor (2002)

The Dutch cover of Starbrow (2004)

The Starwarrior postcard with the scientific prayer

about the Force/The Good (2004)

Tim singing The New Vision at Falkoner Centret

in Copenhagen, Denmark (2005)

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