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Fraternitas Hermetica

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Jonathan

Hella all,

I'm uncertain if this is the right forum to post this but it seemed the most appropriate. A while back there was an organization called Fraternitas Hermetica. They had a website and a forum similar to this one. The links are dead and the forum gone. Anyone know what happened to the organization? I think I read somewhere that Nita (Astral Healer) said it had disbanded.

Sincerely, Jonathan

Rob

Formed by Romero de Cunha, who postured as a light magician, but from what I have heard he is anything but. Most the inner members left when they caught wind of how dark he really is. My advice: stay clear of anything to do with them!!
(!!!Formerly known as Inguma!!!)
You are the Alpha and the Omega. You are vaster than the universe and more powerful than a flaring supernova. You are truly incredible!!

Jonathan

Hello Inguma, and thx for your reply.  

I've been inquiring in a few places about this very same topic and here's what I think happened.  

Nita has very open-minded way of thinking about spiritual development.  This caused a rift between her and the fraternity and she decided to go her own way to teach as she pleases.  Robert hinted at this in a chat session in the Astral Society chat room.  He says, “FH is a very pure order”, which I understand to mean purist (i.e. follow a strict curriculum), as well as having pure intentions.  The old hermetic way isn’t for everybody.  There was probably tension regarding what the best way to proceed was, and Romero had to pull rank.  I doubt she was ill-treated, I’m guessing that on your above statement Inguma, the wording was your own.  

Robert Bruce himself has expressed a desire to form his own group in the future.  The teachings will be an amalgamation of Hermetics, his own methods, and “anything else that works” (his own words from the aforementioned interview).  He also states that he has their approval to do so.  

Robert seems to find himself amidst a dispute between two of his good friends and has chosen to remain silent in these forums as well as the AD forum.  Since I am not bound by that constraint then I see no reason for me not to opine.  I’m guessing tensions are running high right now which is probably why other FH members, that I’m sure are watching, have decided to remain silent.  

Wisely, Nita and Romero have chosen not to post anything here so as avoid turning this into a vulgar show.  It’s one thing for us to give our opinions but it’s quite another for them to do it.  

Lastly, Romero was not the founder of FH he was an advanced member who was appointed to head the external face of the fraternity.  There are more advanced members, higher in rank than Romero, who are actively promoting Bardon’s Work (which are an integral part of FH teachings I believe) and have chosen to remain silent about their involvement with the fraternity.

Jonathan

Inguma, I recall that Romero had an argument in the old Astral Research Forum (the first RB forum), was it with you?

peaceful warrior

everyone loves a conspiracy
The only people truely happy in life are the ignorent and the wise

Jonathan

Quote from: peaceful warrioreveryone loves a conspiracy

No conspiracy here as far as I can tell.

Krashlanmar

Quote from: peaceful warrioreveryone loves a conspiracy

I start conspiracies on purpose XD

When I'm roleplaying as a Warlock, on World of Warcrack... err craft*, of course :-D

Heh. Yeah, that does sound like one though.
"The gate to tomorrow is not the light of heaven..."
~Vincent Valentine, Final Fantasy VII

Krashlanmar, the Black Dragon

I implore you not to judge.

Rob

Jonathon,

Apologies I missed your earlier posts. To answer your questions:

QuoteNita has very open-minded way of thinking about spiritual development. This caused a rift between her and the fraternity and she decided to go her own way to teach as she pleases. Robert hinted at this in a chat session in the Astral Society chat room.

I have spoken with people about this in the past. No, Romero did not simply disagree with her, he really did treat her badly. In fact, all my sources have given very negative impressions of Romero - honestly, I am basing my opinions on people who know the group of are one removed from people who know the group, so this is not just speculation on my part.

QuoteInguma, I recall that Romero had an argument in the old Astral Research Forum (the first RB forum), was it with you?

I remember as well. I dont think I got particularly involved in that, but if I did it was to support RdC and RB, since I strongly admired them both, at the time.

QuoteWisely, Nita and Romero have chosen not to post anything here so as avoid turning this into a vulgar show. It's one thing for us to give our opinions but it's quite another for them to do it.

Well....Romero doesnt post here anyway (maybe once I have seen him around, ages ago) and Nita left to follow RB when the rift occured between Bruce and this forum. More circumstantial than wise I think.

QuoteLastly, Romero was not the founder of FH he was an advanced member who was appointed to head the external face of the fraternity. There are more advanced members, higher in rank than Romero, who are actively promoting Bardon's Work (which are an integral part of FH teachings I believe) and have chosen to remain silent about their involvement with the fraternity.

Interesting, where did you get this info from? I have not gotten this impression in the past, quite the opposite. You are, I assume, referring to physical people rather than astral beings?

So I gotta ask, are you a member of FH? I was thinking of attending their thang in Portugal before I found out all the above (and I nearly sent a friend with heavy depression to get "healed" by Romero....yikes!!!  :shock: ), did you have a chance to get there?

all the best

Rob
(!!!Formerly known as Inguma!!!)
You are the Alpha and the Omega. You are vaster than the universe and more powerful than a flaring supernova. You are truly incredible!!

Jonathan

Hello all and Inguma,

I was basing my opinion of Romero on my personal interactions with him and reading the stuff he posted on the old forum.  I also used his two articles on Robert Bruce’s site to form my opinion.  I did chat with him online a few times.  I never met him in person nor did I attend the meeting they had.  He did not seem like a jerk when I spoke with him, he was very polite and helpful.  Since you claim to have many direct sources that know him well then I won’t argue with you on this point.  I’m simply conveying my experiences with him.  

QuoteWell....Romero doesnt post here anyway …

Very true, I don’t think they post here anymore.  

As for my authority on the fact that FH was not founded by Romero it came from FH itself.  I can’t recall if it was from a communication with RB or a chat with Romero.  The organization had a different name before, Group of Esoteric Studies I think.  I believe in 1999 the Fraternity was founded, which had an external group the Hermetic Congregation.  The latter group had many members from the students of RB, myself included.  This was not the fraternity proper, it was an external group.  I say was because the group no longer exists as far as I can tell.  

There is a member that I know is higher up in FH than Romero and, if you are interested in Bardon’t work and have been reading on the net, you have probably read some of his stuff.  Normally I wouldn’t hesitate to give out a name but since everyone is so uptight about this then I’ll leave it at that.  

We are only human and there will be disagreements.  There’s not need to become paranoid because of this, yeesh.  

Sincerely, Jonathan H

Rob

QuoteThere's not need to become paranoid because of this, yeesh.

yup!! Sorry if I came across rude/paranoid/up tight/knocking yours or anything. Respect you opinion and all that. Thanks for the reply!!

Oh yeah I remember them articles you mention. I thought they were quite good too, and romeros comments were usually fair. Perhaps I have been listening to the wrong people. Meh, whatever, I aint gonna have anything to do with them so I guess it doesnt matter.

Now, I am going to edit out personal stuff from my last post. lol shouldnt give other people opinions away so easily like that !

Rob
(!!!Formerly known as Inguma!!!)
You are the Alpha and the Omega. You are vaster than the universe and more powerful than a flaring supernova. You are truly incredible!!

heynonymous

Hi all,

Having been a member of the Fraternitas Hermetica headed by Romero Laurenco Cunha out of Porto Portugal (current website: www.fraternitashermetica.net)... I have the following things to say:

I was a member for over 1 year, and interacted with Romero and many of his more 'advanced' students. The following text is more of a non-organized rambling, but never the less contains a lot of facts from the viewpoint of somebody who was there and saw how the organization worked from the inside.

There is nobody higher on the hierarchy than Romero in the Fraternity, except for Romero's imaginary astral masters whom no member has ever contacted physically, astrally, or in any other way.

Romero is a highly self-educated person in just about anything esoteric and to some extent theological, but mostly relating to western esoteric topics with focus on magic.  He is mostly a normal person like you and me, he eats, he sleeps, he cooks, he has a wife and a kid (recently), he watches movies, he has friends, an extended family (whom I also met), a house, a car, he likes to play pool, and goes to the beach, eats veggies, fish and most Portuguese dishes that do not have red meat, oh yeah and likes to drink Red Bull  (I am not kidding).

When I met Romero a few years back, he came across as a highly articulate, intelligent and well spoken person, in Portuguese. In English, he still sounds quite intelligent, but his English has obvious gramatical flaws. He also came across as humoros, and very well intentioned, with beautiful words that would inspire anyone looking for a spiritual path or a spiritual teacher.

I honestly believe that his initial intentions for the Fraternitas Hermetica were noble and good, but unfortunately things started going sour after about a year or two, mostly due to his own immaturity as a human being.

Psychological analysis:
By this (immaturity as a human being) I mean, he has an Ego the size of a mountain, it's so big that he works sub-conciously to protect it all the time. When a person has an Ego as bigas his, exagerating all his accomplishments to the extreme, and even inventing experiences that he never had (aka: LYING), and lying to protect anything he's ever said or 'done', are without question a big part of his personality. The problem is, he is an artist at lying. He will convince just about anyone about anything related to spirituality... for a while, and of course it's always much easier to convince those who approach him as a teacher willing to take in anything he has to say. He is able to do this by taking facts or truths from some aspect of spirituality, then stretching them to make his stories sound plausible, often going so far that the person who is not so well educated easily gets fooled and believes him.

Now we (humans) all have character flaws of one type or another, we've all told lies, we've all exagerated truths, many of us have probably stolen something at one point or another, in essence what I am getting at is who am I (or who are you) to judge Romero?

What I am stating in this post is not really for the sake of judgement, "God" will deal with him in his own time. It is for the sake of WARNING those that have interests in Hermetics or Magic that he is not only a false teacher, but potentially a relateively dangerous one (depending how deep you go into the FH).

Now let me quantify "dangerous". Do not imagine for a second that Romero is even 1/10th of anything he claims (for instance right now on his webpage he claims he is at Step 10 of Initiation into Hermetics)... I mean....PUHLEASE! The guy has enough basic character flaws to be working on Step One for the next 5-10 years straight.

So does he have siddhi powers? Have I witnessed any of them? Romero is very secretive about his supposed powers, even to his closest students and best friends. I would say his powers are 95% in his head, and by that I don't mean mental powers like telepathy, I mean, imagined powers. On numerous occassions he tried to show a multitude of his students his powers, but each time, they did not manifest.... he then came up with these amazing stories as to why he wasn't able to demonstrate his power. On other ocasions, he would twist the interpretation of what everyone witnessed such that it looked like it was a power he demonstrated. For example, he might do somehting like wave his hands around in the air and chant some mantras or latin words, and then tell his students to look at the sky and claim "hey see, I made that cloud move", but in a more verbose, exciting and far more convincing manner. If I told you guys some of the stories, you'd think he should be the next Harry Potter-like author. His imagination is really awesome, and his ability to convince (with words) even the fairly intelligent, is also note worthy!

Trying to analyse Romero's character is quite complicated, because after some time you end up coming up with seemingly contradicting aspects in the analysis. From an initial and surface level perspective, he seems highly benevolent, he IS (not seems) highly inspiring when it comes to spirituality, but as time progresses, you start seeing  that there is more to the cover of his book, and that under that beautiful persian carpet, there is indeed a lot of hidden dirt.

For instance, the guy practices meditation everyday (ok so I didn't see him do it every day, but I will give him this much - he sure worked hard to get his students to meditate every day, sometimes several times a day, and he lead by example).  He also teaches (or taught) Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics, though he left out very critical parts, and twisted the meaning of those that didn't fit into his ideologies, or lies/exagerations/stories that he had already told. Romero's take on Bardon, is that he teaches his students primarily about gaining siddhi powers. From his point of view that is *** A-1 *** important, everything else is secondary. What's happened is that a lot of the students that approach him (I would say most in my time), are really well intentioned people, really searching for spirituality, a path, and a good teacher, they want to improve, to be closer to God, etc... and so most of his students are actually very good people, willing to work hard and put in the time they have and the time they don't have (I'll get into that later). But going back to ther powers, from his perspective the students he sees are already so good (as human beings) that he does not focus any time on getting them to do the Bardon Step 1 soul mirrors - Basically, the work of serious introspection is barely looked at... which goes a long way to explain why Romero still has such obvious character flaws.

I mean, one thing is to have character flaws, like all humans do, another is to put oneself in the place of a spiritual teacher with a handful of extreme character flaws - THIS is the biggest problem of the Fraternity.

The teacher is not suitable to be a teacher. Heck, he is barely suitable to be a student of a real teacher.

You see, it might be ok for a Math teacher to lie in his or her personal life, to exagerate truths... but what is the effect of this on his Math students? Probably not a whole lot; however, as a spiritual teacher, you really have to be extremely humble (not EGOistic), extremely balanced and grounded in physical life (unlike Romero who also has a severe anger problem - it doesn't get physical, but he can get verbally abusive and puts anyone down who disagrees with him, and he shouts and yells when he's upset).

Basicaly, he lacks the basics of being a spiritual teacher - it's as simple as that. And because he lacks the basic harmony and balance even in the physical plane, which are the beginning requirements of any spiritual path, it is without question that his Self-boasted powers & levels of spiritual maturity are quite simply a falacy; but never the less a requirement to feed his Ego and have students (people) that look up to him.

Ok, so I got way off topic here... but let's carry on...

-He also is an uncertified Pranic Healer who understands Pranic Healing better than just about any Pranic Healing Teacher out these minus the few international certified "Pranic Healing Masters". The question is, is he an effective Pranic Healer? To my knowledge none of his students have ever followed any of his patients long enough in any scientific study to determine his effectiveness. There are rumours that a few of his patients have died, not necessarily because of his mistreatment, but obviously if they died later on, he did not have the ability to treat them. Again, possibly, on a good day, he can do some effective treatments, as I do believe he has above average ability to concentrate... but unfortunately, in this field there are no measuring tools to see how much energy, of what quality, strength, focus, benevolence, etc is being transfered between him and his patients, so it's wiser not to comment on this further other than to say that on numerous occasions his students have approached him to heal small things, and in some occasions he told them to go to a doctor, and in other occasions after multiple pranic healing treatments, he still could not cure the problem - those are the facts I can state.

But it there's a lot more. Initially the origanization was bent on being non-profit, there were rules to follow, sure students paid some small monthly dues to keep up a meeting place, but after some time, the fees got bigger, on some of the group outings money went missing, some people had to pay far more than others and never got their money back, etc. Without going into a lot of details, money started to become an issue to, so much so that it affected the lives of several of his closest students in a number of ways. A lot of money went missing in total, not necessarily in one lump sum but here and there, and not always in small amounts (ie. from several hundred euros, to a few thousand).

Anyway, the whole point of this posting is just to say that:
1) Romero is without question not suitable to be a spiritual teacher, so don't follow him.
2) He is not an evil person, most of his intial intentions and ideas were good... but you know what they say "good intentions, paved the roadway to hell".
3) He is not a black magician in the sense that he really does not have any significant powers, and even if he did, he is more of a good intentioned person than a bad one, although I wouldn't put the concept of "revenge" past his character possibilities.
4) Fraternitas Hermetica is a false school, primarily because the teacher is a not suitable, despite his really incredible knowledge (even putting his exagerated stories aside).
5) His students are not bad people, and its not a black magic school, but due to his character flaws and instability and his initial students willingness to humbly follow a teacher who *sounds* like a good teacher, a lot of people could be coheresed into just about anything over time.
6) Do not confuse Romero with Nita and Robert Bruce or anybody else that has been part of the Fraternity. Everyone is his own unique person with their virtues and character flaws, but I can say that everyone I met there including Romero himself were well intentioned people.

My friends, the higher aspects of spiritual work is something that should only be ventured into, AFTER you have already found balance in your character and daily living on the physical plane for an EXTENDED period of time. If you are still struggling with school, phone bills or other financial problems, unjust work bosses, personal relationships, health problems, family problems and if your house is literally dirty... then find peace and balance in those areas FIRST, don't go trying to join up some spiritual school, because starting where you are today is the highest priority spiritual work you can possibly be doing, even if it doesn't look like spiritual work. Taking the advise of a person who is not a real teacher (even though he appears to be one at first), will only further screw up your life and waste away your precious time.

Lastly, I also just want to say, even if you do one day come across somebody who can prove they have some kind of siddhi powers, remember that having powers doesn't mean a person is Enlightened or even close to it. Bardon's book clearly shows that with some serious effort, a dedicated person can acquire some incredible powers, but the highest and ONLY goal, is only attained after MANY MANY Steps, the first of which is a balanced character here on the physical plane, before any siddhis of any kind are acquired - Never forget that!

Best wishes,
heynonymous

PS. This was a one-of post, I won't be replying to any replies. I just wanted people out there to have some facts about Fraternitas Hermetica and its leader, rather than having somebody join them just out of curiosity and then getting into personal problems later on.

Parmenion

Greetings,

What an interesting debate. It's a pity your post was a one-off heynonymous, some further discourse would be well recieved.

Quote from: Inguma on February 11, 2006, 08:19:20

and Nita left to follow RB when the rift occured between Bruce and this forum. More circumstantial than wise I think.


Rob, hi

Am I misinterpreting this or is RB no longer associated with astral pulse? If that is the case would you ( or somebody) please be willing/able to tell me what caused this?

Many thanks,

Dave

Novice

Parmenion
Rob's comment was referencing RB and Nita's seperation from Fraternitas Hermetica,which is completely unrelated to the Astral Pulse.
Reality is what you perceive it to be.

Parmenion

Hi Novice,

Ok, thanks for that. It just looked to me as if Rob meant the rift between RB and "this forum" was indeed 'this' forum, meaning Astral Pulse. My mistake  :-)

I know I've not been around here for a while but I do notice that RB specific forums no longer exist here and there is no mention of him on the Astral Pulse homepage. I notice also that www.astraldynamics.com no longer redirects to www.astralpulse.com. It seems that RB has used his original link to give rebirth to his internet community.

Admittedly my abscense here has made me ignorant. Im simply curious  :-)

Regards,

Dave

Jonathan

Hello Parmenion,

There was indeed a rift between Robert Bruce and Adrian, the owner and administrator of the Astral Pulse.  There were some philosophical differences and so Robert decided to set up a separate site at his old address:  www.astraldynamics.com.  He also set up new forums for that site.  You can navigate to them from the main site above, or go directly to:

http://forums.astraldynamics.com/index.php

There was also a split between the organization Fraternitas Hermetica and Nita.  Robert Bruce is still a member of the Fraternity, the last I heard with the degree of Zelator.  The new website of the Fraternity is here (in Portuguese only, try Google's auto translation thingy):

http://fraternitashermetica.net/

with Google's auto-translation to English:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://fraternitashermetica.net/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dfraternitas%2Bhermetica%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D

Nita's site is here:

http://www.astralhealer.com/

Hope this helps to clarify things a bit

Adrian

#15
Hello everyone,

What an interesting discussion!

First of all I would like to thank heynonymous very much for his very well informed, fair and balanced post.

I will say no more than that except to say that Romero stated himself that he created Fraternitas Hermetica at the request of and/or the guidance of inner Masters. I have not been able to confirm that, or indeed whether he was ever in contact with such Masters. That does not mean he was or was not; I just have no evidence one way or the other.

I do however respect the sincere efforts of anyone to establish a power for the greater good; providing it stays remains that way and has direction and management. Again; a general observation.

Regarding the Astral Pulse; I have said this before and I will say it again; the Astral Pulse was never, at any time owned by Robert Bruce.

Around February 2002 I registered the domain name and then created the site which I have managed ever since. I have spent a considerable amount of my own money and thousands of hours of my own time; which I do not have alot of spare, to keep the Astral Pulse forums operational against often considerable resistance. I have moved the forums across 5 different servers and 3 different forums software platforms which; believe me, is not easy with a forum of this size. I continue to put considerable time into the forums both managing the technology and also answering the numerous emails and private messages I receive, as well as liaising with the excellent moderators of the forum.  Robert never contributed anything, but did very well out of the site in sales of books, seminars etc.; which I supported at the time. Later Robert formed his Astral Dynamics site, without my knowing, and attempted to gain control of Astral Pulse at the same time but of course failed to do so.

Today everything is harmonious as it should be with myself continuing to operate Astral Pulse and Robert continuing, presumably, to manage Astral Dynamics.

I hope that clarifies a few things.

Kind regards,

Adrian.


https://ourultimatereality.com/
Vincit Omnia Veritas

Adrian

Hello everyone,

Separately to the main issue I would like to comment on this quote by heynonymous:

Quote from: heynonymous on July 07, 2006, 15:49:05
My friends, the higher aspects of spiritual work is something that should only be ventured into, AFTER you have already found balance in your character and daily living on the physical plane for an EXTENDED period of time. If you are still struggling with school, phone bills or other financial problems, unjust work bosses, personal relationships, health problems, family problems and if your house is literally dirty... then find peace and balance in those areas FIRST, don't go trying to join up some spiritual school, because starting where you are today is the highest priority spiritual work you can possibly be doing, even if it doesn't look like spiritual work. Taking the advise of a person who is not a real teacher (even though he appears to be one at first), will only further screw up your life and waste away your precious time.

Lastly, I also just want to say, even if you do one day come across somebody who can prove they have some kind of siddhi powers, remember that having powers doesn't mean a person is Enlightened or even close to it. Bardon's book clearly shows that with some serious effort, a dedicated person can acquire some incredible powers, but the highest and ONLY goal, is only attained after MANY MANY Steps, the first of which is a balanced character here on the physical plane, before any siddhis of any kind are acquired - Never forget that!

These are wise words indeed.

I have seen and receive messages from countless people who confuse "Magic" with Spiritual evolution.

Life itself is Magic. Everything we think, do or create with our thoughts is Magic.

Making a difference in the life of a fellow human being is Magic.

We are here, in the physical dimension of the Universe, which is a but a tiny fraction of the entire Universe, to commence our journey back to the Divine from whence we came. We are here to interact with the restrictions of material objects and most importantly with a wide range of human beings, for which, in His/Her infinite wisdom, has provided us with the gift of freewill. How we interact with this environment, the decisions we make and the lessons we learn will determine how much progress this individual incarnation will make, and how much is contributed to the overall evolution of our true self, our Higher-Self Who is the total of all individual incarnational facets.

We are are not here to engage is party games of the sort associated with the general perception of Magic as opposed to its true meaning, or of "Magick", which is a contrived word, witchraft, sorcery or anything else. Anyone with the right level of knowledge, concentration and focus can influence Energy to produce what might to some seem like miracles.

It is absolutely wrong to confuse the ability to manipulate Energy with Spiritual evolution which is a mistake many people, particularly many of the more egotistical esoteric orders make. For example; there are many powerful black magicians in existence today who have considerable control over Energy which they use for what is known as "evil" which in fact in turn is still a polarity. This does not make these people "Spiritually advanced", because it is not the power that matters, it is how it is applied for individual evolution and service to fellow human beings of which we are all equal aspects.

True Magic is about the perfection of self, the refinement of our Spiritual bodies in order to progress through the infinite levels of Energy and vibration until we finally arrive back to our Divine Creator from whence we came. This is the meaning of life.

Where understanding and applying Universal Laws does matter is when these abilities are applied for ongoing evolution and the greater good. Understanding the so called "Law of Attraction" is important; i.e. the understanding of how to bring our genuine needs into our lives with something is crude as "money". How to use Universal Laws for healing, how to transmute negative, recessive traits into positive, progressive traits. And very importantly how to transcend the ego; a fundamental objective, and one which was mentioned by heynonymous in the context of the founder of Fraternitas Hermetica. This is why so many esoteric orders fail; they are ruled by delusion, by the ego only being concerned about "rank" and "degree", and about "magical ability" which in fact is usually little more than sorcery at best.

These are all reasons I wrote my 640 page book Our Ultimate Reality which I was inspired to write to clarify these important issues and provide a proper sense of direction.

My friends time may well be short. The great Planetary Spirit known as "Earth" is on Its own path of evolution, and is in the process of graduating from the current density. We do not know how long this process will take, only that it is happening. Extinctions of life on Earth are occurring at 1000 times the historical averages; a greater rate than at any time during the last 65 million years, since the great dinosaur extinction. The Schumann Resonance, a measure of the harmonic of Earth which historically has been 7.83 Hz has risen to 12Hz, and cannot go higher than 13Hz. The polar caps are melting from below; a fact not mentioned by scientists; it is nothing to do with global warming, and I could give you a thousand other facts and figures.

The fact is; every moment on Earth is precious; do not waste it on "powers" that are of no tangible value. Every minute of every day should be spent living life to the full; on the perfection of self and of service to others.

I truly hope you will keep these things in Mind.

Kind regards,

Adrian.



https://ourultimatereality.com/
Vincit Omnia Veritas

Jonathan

#17
Hello Adrian,

QuoteAdrian wrote:
"Robert never contributed anything, but did very well out of the site in sales of books, seminars etc."

I don't think that's accurate Adrian.  Robert did contribute to the Pulse considerably.  As you point out above, he is a popular author and he drew into the forums and the main site a considerable number of people.  I recall that the forum reached the 10, 000 members mark when he was here, and I am certain that many of those people were drawn here because of Robert's work.  You are currently advertising and selling your book "Our Ultimate Reality" and other products at the main site.  An advertisement does not work if nobody sees it, hence Robert's drawing in of people translates into drawing in of customers.

What was the Astral Pulse before Robert set up camp here?  This is not a rhetorical question is an actual question.  I came in with Robert so I do not know what was here before.  The first time I saw the Pulse site it contained Robert's tutorials and articles; plus the forums.  Was there a different site set up before this, if so what was the address? 

The earliest page I can find (in the current address) in the Internet Wayback Machine is a page from May of 2002.  The first lines on the page read:


Hello ! Welcome To Robert Bruce's
The Astral Pulse, a Little Light from Down-Under (down-under refers to Robert's native Australia of course)
The Astral Pulse contains the latest revisions of Robert Bruce's work to date. The subject matter relates primarily to OBE (out-of-body experiences) and metaphysical research. Here you will find books, poetry, articles, free downloads, a training guide, a chat room, forums and more...


Here's a link to the old site: 
http://web.archive.org/2002052153605/web/http://www.astralpulse.com/

So, independently of who the domain was registered to, you have to admit that Robert was 'the main attraction'.  I doubt that the Pulse would have taken off as quickly as it did without Robert's contribution.

I also remember (vaguely so pls correct me if I'm wrong) that Robert actively perusing threads to bring in monetary donations to fund server costs etc.  I do not know how successful those collections were.

QuoteAdrian wrote:
"I have spent a considerable amount of my own money and thousands of hours of my own time; which I do not have alot of spare, to keep the Astral Pulse forums operational against often considerable resistance."

Well it was an investment, wasn't it?.  When you start a new business, you start by putting in some of your money and a lot of work.  Eventually, you get your money back with a profit.  Hopefully you are a stage were the money raised here (through book sales and endorsements etc) is capable of paying for the server costs and with some profit.  Robert Bruce lent you his 'face' to help the Pulse take off and I do not think it's accurate or fair to say he did not contribute.

Last, you mentioned that Robert increased his book sales etc through the Pulse.  That is unquestionably true.  If you look at the link I gave above of the old site and scroll down you'll see and ad for his books. 

Jonathan

Hello all,

The main point of this topic which originally was what happened to the organization FH has now been answered.  Notice the question was posted quite a while ago.  The organization in question has setup a new site.


Adrian

#19
Hello Jonathan,

I have no intention of getting into personalities here because it is not appropriate to do so.

However we can look at the facts. Robert made comparitively few posts, most of which were at the beginning when it was a novelty to him; he implied as much himself. I received countless messages from people complaining that they were posting messages for Robert, as well as sending him emails which were never answered. I would never treat people that way.

He was most certainly not the "main attraction", because most members do not even know who he is, much less joined because of him. The rate of new members joining now is much higher than when Robert was associated with the forums; again a statistical fact.

We agreed that Robert could make use of the main pages of the site to host his own material, which he did for some time and sold alot of books, seminars etc. from. The fact still remains that I always exclusively owned, managed and financed the Astral Pulse then, just as I do to this day.

I would also point out that it was Robert's actions and decision to setup a new site and move his material there; not mine.

There is alot more I can say to disprove your assertions, but as I said, it is history. Due to my own efforts and those of the moderators the Astral Pulse is what it is today, which speaks for itself, and will continue in the future as the leading resource of its type.

I certainly take exception to the fact the Astral Pulse was started as an investment. It was founded for exactly the same reason it exists now; a place where a wide range of metaphysical, esoteric and Spiritual matters can be safely discussed by like-minded people; i.e. it serves a valuable purpose. I have personally put, and continue to put countless thousands of hours into the site, and have dealt with many negative situations over the years, not to mention the time and costs of all the server migrations and ongoing hosting.

However, as I said, Robert is history, and this topic is about Fraternitas Hermetica, so please let us keep it on topic.

Best regards,

Adrian.

https://ourultimatereality.com/
Vincit Omnia Veritas

Jonathan

#20
Hello Adrian,

When I said the Pulse was started as an investment I did not intend to imply anything negative by it.  I simply mean you provide a useful service to the community and get paid for it.  There is nothing negative in this just like there's nothing negative in a supermarket selling food or in Robert charging money for his books and seminars.  In any case, since you were the founder and you say it was not an investment, then it was not an investment, period. 

Since I have your attention, I would like to add that I like the newest format of the forum, it makes it really easy to edit the text you put into it.  It's almost like a word processor embedded in the site; almost  :-D.

I would also like to reiterate that I did not intend to bring up this topic here. As you can see from the first post the intent was to find out what happened to an organization called Fraternitas Hermetica.  This topic sort of just came up.

Later Gator,



Adrian

Hello Jonathan,

Quote from: Jonathan on August 15, 2006, 18:59:19

When I said the Pulse was started as an investment I did not intend to imply anything negative by it.  I simply mean you provide a useful service to the community and get paid for it. 

Get paid for it; are you serious? By who? I have never been paid a penny for it, and never wish to be paid for it. I do know that it has cost me a great deal of money, which I gladly contribute for the greater good. I don't know where you get your ideas from, but they are seriously misguided :-)

Anyway; I don't think this topic serves any further useful purpose; it isn't exactly very substantive to productive discussion.

Best regards,

Adrian.
https://ourultimatereality.com/
Vincit Omnia Veritas