Dr. Jude Currivan answers the question:

What is the nicest thing a non-family member has ever done for you?

Oh, my goodness. Well, it's really tough to choose one story because I'm very fortunate. Many, many people over many years have been incredibly kind to me. But the one that really feels when I tune into it seemed quite small, but has actually shown to be incredibly powerful through my life.

It goes back to when I was 19 years old, and I was a student at Oxford University. I was a coal miner's daughter. I grew up in the north of England. My dad was a coal miner, my granddad was a coal miner. My dad died when I was 10 years old, and so my mom brought myself and my younger brother up, and I got a place at Oxford, very prestigious. And in fact I was the first member of my family to go to university at all. So it was a big deal for many reasons, including the fact that I'd been a science nerd since I was five years old.

Going to Oxford to read physics was a big deal. And in addition to being a northern lass with virtually everybody else being from posh schools from down south in England, but also being one of six women out of a course of 200 folks, all the rest men, it was quite a lonely time. And the kindness was offered me by a wonderful man called Professor Dennis Sciama. Dennis was the mentor and teacher of Stephen Hawking, who I guess many people know. And when I was 19, Dennis invited Stephen to give a talk, a seminar to postgraduate folks at Oxford, and he invited me. I was the youngest person in the room, I think I was the only undergraduate, and it was phenomenal to see this great mind that is Stephen Hawking begin at that point, because this is back in 1972, to talk about black holes.

Professor Dennis Sciama

This was the new big thing, and it was Dennis' kindness that invited me into that room, and I [entered] that room in one way and came out another, as it were. At the time, it was fine, but it didn't seem such a big deal. But then Dennis said, “Look, you know, there's a university prize, an essay prize for physics, and I think you should enter it.“ I was a bit nervous and reticent, you know, and not very confident at all. But I did, and I wrote an essay on, of course, dark holes. And I won the essay! I won the prize! But not only that, there was a prize money of 25 pounds, which believe me, back then was a lot of beer money. So it was great, but this is actually that essay, and I've kept it ever since. I was 19 then, I'm 67 now, so this is coming up to its half-century, this essay. 

But what he did, and what Dennis's kindness did, was not necessarily make me into academia. In fact, that didn't happen, but it gave me a continuing and lifelong interest in my curiosity about the nature of reality, and not just its appearance in the physical world, but other parts of my life have explored, you know, beyond that physical appearance to the deeper true nature of reality.

So all my life threads have come to the point where now I'm an author, I can write The Cosmic Hologram, which is behind me, and share that after all this time there is a convergence, and even more than that, an integration between science and spirituality, that [creates the] potential to transcend both. A cosmology of consciousness, a cosmology where our universe is being now more and more seen as a great thought rather than a great thing. And more and more, the evidence is showing that mind and consciousness aren't something we have, but literally what we and the whole world are... a revelation that is according with so much of what so many pioneers are now sharing with the world.

I think without Dennis' kindness and that introduction to black holes, which we’re finding actually is a very key phenomenon in understanding this new perception of reality, I wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be having this conversation, and I wouldn't be probably able to share all that I am able to share. Again, with the kindness of a professor who saw this young student, probably saw that I was a bit lost, probably saw that I needed some encouragement, and stepped forward and gave me that encouragement. 

And I just wonder how so many people have what may at the time seem a small kindness, actually is a huge gift that ultimately transforms our path through life. So thank you to Dennis, and thank you to you for this invitation, and thanks for everyone listening. I hope in everyone's life we can remember some times and many times of small and huge kindnesses that are ultimately all great gifts of spirit.

Jude Currivan, PhD, is a cosmologist, planetary healer, futurist, and author. She was previously one of the most senior business women in the UK, as Group Finance Director and Executive Board Member of two major international companies. She has a Master’s degree in Physics from Oxford University specializing in quantum physics and cosmology, and a Doctorate in Archaeology from the University of Reading, specializing in the research of ancient cosmologies.

She has travelled to nearly 80 countries, worked with wisdom keepers from many traditions, and been a lifelong researcher into the scientific and experiential understanding of the nature of reality. The author of six books, with the most recent the Nautilus award-winning, The Cosmic Hologram, she is a member of the Evolutionary Leaders circle, and in 2017 co-founded WholeWorld-View, a growing community of global change-makers serving the understanding, experiencing, and embodying of unity awareness to empower conscious evolution. She lives in Wiltshire, England. 

Click here to visit Jude’s website.