Ian Fleming and his lump of ambergris

The first reports of the finding of a valuable lump of ambergris on a beach in Wales earlier this week by a man who was walking his dog appeared in Welsh newspapers: 

“Ever fancied spending thousands of pounds on a big, yellow and black piece of vomit? Well here’s your chance as an auction house is offering exactly that for sale later this month. Now confirmed as whale vomit – or ambergris – it was found by a dog walker on an Anglesey beach.

The material is used in the perfume industry, making it very valuable, which is why auctioneer Chris Surfleet has slapped an estimate of £5,000-£7,000 on the lump weighing just over a kilogram and measuring little more than eight inches long.

A 6lb lump of ambergris found on a Lancashire beach sold for £100,000 to a buyer from the perfume industry.”

The idea that a substance secreted and cast off by whales is very valuable and can occasionally be found washed up on beaches by anyone who happens to walk past is widely appealing to the imagination. The story was picked up by many other papers and even appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post.

Seeing the headlines reminded me of something I read about Ian Fleming many years ago. This anecdote can be found in The Life of Ian Fleming by John Pearson:

“…Fleming told of how he found his first treasure - he was a compulsive treasure-hunter all his life - at the age of nine… One afternoon he found in a cave a lump of ambergris ‘as big as a child’s football’. He knew it was ambergris from the adventure books he had been reading – it was a real treasure: 

‘Now I would be rich and be able to live on Cadbury’s milk chocolate flakes and I would not have to go back to my private school or indeed do any more work at all. I had found the short cut out of all my childish woes.’ 

He carried it back…but the ambergris began to melt and soon he was a dreadful sight. ‘What did I care? There would be no scoldings or punishments ever again.’

 …It was then that one of the waiters explained that the ambergris was really a lump of very rancid butter from a supply ship that had been torpedoed off the coast.”

Unseen forces can affect our lives

Unseen Influences by Dick Sutphen (1982) is a good introduction to the idea that we can be adversely affected by many subtle influences without our knowledge. A few, very diverse, examples of such influences are: positive ions, refined sugar, concentrated hidden hostility and people who are energy vampires. I think that there must still be many people who would benefit from reading this book: just becoming aware of the possibility that these forces exist can raise our resistance to them. Forewarned is forearmed, and knowledge is certainly power in this case.

Environmental and dietary factors that affect our health have been written about by many people. Energy vampires, negative people who unconsciously sabotage the lives of people around them and similar topics have also been covered elsewhere, but I have some ideas and information, coincidences and connections of my own that I would like to share with anyone who might be interested. 

Some people who are being badly affected by certain unseen influences may not even know what they are up against never mind how to deal with it, and I would like to help them. I have survived many attacks by energy vampires and been affected by many unseen influences. Writing about my experiences helps to distance me from them; collecting background information has helped to put them into context and perspective and highlight recurring patterns. I am now going to publish my findings in the form of a series of articles in the hope that other people will find them useful.

Unconscious sabotage

Here are some examples of unconscious sabotage to get things going. 

Many years ago, I found a very good new job. I did not tell anyone in my family about this, which speaks for itself. However, 'by coincidence’ a dreadful letter from one of my sisters arrived in the post early in the morning of the day that I was due to start. I very stupidly opened the letter before I left for work; it knocked the stuffing out of me, thus ensuring that I went through my first day feeling that I had been hit by a truck - and just when I obviously needed to be very alert and make a good impression.