My childhood years were overshadowed by low self-esteem. I was always comparing myself with others, and gained only momentary satisfaction from my few achievements. As a young man I studied psychology and found myself becoming the national spokesperson for a new form of psychotherapy. The self-confidence that came with this new-found skill and popularity was shattered when I experienced a nervous breakdown in my early thirties. During the long years of recovery I was wary of re-creating that same type of belief in myself which could be destroyed so easily, and so the search began for a more lasting foundation for my confidence and self-esteem.

Perhaps the most significant discovery was that I was not the ‘doer’, that every action was done ‘through’ me by a mysterious, ever-present force. This realisation is like a flute becoming aware that it cannot create music by itself – it is simply an instrument been played by something far greater than itself. Realising that I was not the doer meant that I could no longer take credit for anything that I achieved. At first I felt somewhat diminished by this, but then I began opening up to the possibility that anything – truly, anything - could be done through me. Ron Farmer was disappearing but something greater was taking his place - the universal ‘I’ and the all-inclusive ‘We’.

This dawning appreciation that Ron Farmer was but an instrument of something beyond understanding exploded into crystal clarity in 1998 on one of our many trips to India. My spiritual teacher, Sathya Sai Baba, whispered to me, “I can do anything!” At first I thought he was boasting but soon realised that it was a spiritual teaching for me to focus on – that the ‘I’ in me could do anything.

This ‘I’ is who I really am. ‘I’ live in a body called Ron Farmer. ‘I’ observe the movements, thoughts and feelings happening through this body of mine. This ‘I’ is not separate from all the other ‘I’s, including yours, and is identical with the vast, limitless power underlying the whole universe (which some refer to as God).