IT ALL BEGAN IN VIRGINIA BEACH

Back in the late 70's there were two major spiritual groups in Virginia Beach. One was the A.R.E. group that has been established by Edgar Casey, the famous trance psychic of the 30's and 40's. The other group had arrived much later on the scene. It went by the name The Fellowship of the Inner Light, and was started by another trance psychic, Paul Solomon.

There was a little bit of rivalry between the two groups. The Fellowship was regarded something like the new kid on the block. Nevertheless, strong bonds were forged between some of the members of each group. Two women in particular.

Christiana Davidson of the A.R.E. and Jean Green of the Fellowship made a journey to Findhorn in Scotland where they encountered a spiritual game called the Love Game. This process tool made a big impact on them, and on their way home they conceived of the idea of creating a game of their own.

They started formulating the game. Soon, four other friends became involved. This was the beginning of a "game" group that became the "core" group. Janet Creager was one of the members, and so was Douglas Jefferson. Jean and Christiana were the principal figures in the game's development.. They wrote the cards that form the backbone of this amazing process tool. I'm not certain of what roles the others played in the formulation of the game's graphics, and other features.

At first, the game was called "Chakra-Atune." Later, it became known as the "All Discovery Game." Gradually word got out, and soon there were people eager to experience the game. The core group had to make marketing decisions: what to charge for playing, where to establish a center, and so forth. And soon, there were players who wanted to become game guides. The process requires a trained guide. It soon became apparent that people playing by themselves got little out of the experience. Without the guidance of someone who knows how to make the process effective, a player could easily become befuddled.

This was where I entered the scene. It was about 1979 when I was trained, along with a few other Fellowship of the Inner Light members. We were then living at Carmel in the Valley, a farm-based spiritual community our Fellowship established in the Shenandoah Valley. But that's another story, which I plan to write about and publish as a book. Someday.

From that time on, my enthusiasm for the game increased exponentially. I was soon leading games up and down the East Coast. Altogether, I believe about 42 people became game guides. But it wasn't long before many stopped doing games. Their reasons were many. I remember there was a man from Charlottesville who added the game to his other healing practice of music therapy. For some reason, the combination wasn't as effective as he had anticipated. So he put the game in moth balls. Another person, who was leading games in the Washington, DC area, stopped because of her commitment to a new job as director of a world wide non-profit. She put her game on the closet shelf. And, in fact, she hired me to lead games in her home for a few years.

Soon after I became a guide, Christiana took the game to Los Angeles to demonstrate the game at the Mind, Body, and Spirit Conference held there that year. Her demonstration of the game there garnered such enthusiasm that she decided to move operations from Virginia Beach to Los Angeles. So, the core group moved across the country. This move eventually marked the beginning of the end of the young organization. Christiana attached herself to an East Indian Guru and went off to India. She changed her name, and eventually, friends lost track of her whereabouts. Jean Green moved to Europe. The shrunken core group carried on as best they could.

I visited Los Angeles around 1985 to see my parents. While there, I went to the home of the core group, their place of central operations. We played a few games and talked about organizational issues. It seemed to them that I was the most active game guide of all who were still engaged in the work. The original plan had been to make a strong and cohesive All Game organization, with quarterly national conferences where all the guides could interface with each other and share ideas. That sort of thing. But it never happened.

When I returned to the East Coast, I carried on independently. At one point, I collaborated with two other guides when we worked with the World Bank people at their weekend retreats. But it wasn't long before those two guides fell by the wayside. I think the reason why so few guides stayed with the work was because of the enormous effort it took to make games happen.

For eight years, I did the work as my sole means of putting bread on the table. I learned the techniques of forming game circles of people who committed to play once a month for an extended period of time. These groups were quite often a spiritual community already working together for personal growth. Some were members of A.R.E. study groups. Some were groups that stayed together simply because of the All Game.

One of my methods for stimulating interest in the All Game was to present an evening demonstration at a Metaphysical Book Store or other such type center. A two hour demonstration to a sizable audience usually resulted in the establishment of a group or two that would commit to monthly games. Because only six, or at the most seven, people can participate in a game, growing circles was a slow process.

After my visit to the core group in Los Angeles, I lost track of the core people. As far as I knew, by the mid 1990's I was perhaps the only person presenting games. Later, I did encounter a game guide living near Sarnia, Canada.

About nine years ago, I was leading a series of games at a small spiritual retreat center outside of Asheville, NC. Two players, then a couple, were very enthusiastic about the game. One of them, Stephen Poplin, had been a member of the Fellowship back in the good old days and remembered playing in All Games then. He and his partner, Helen Soos, requested that I teach them to guide games. At first, it didn't seem to me to be a possibility., for I was just simply a guide. But they insisted. After that weekend, Stephen or Helen would call me and press the issue.

And just then, one of those amazing synchronistic occurrences happened. Out of the blue, I got a phone call from Janet Creager . She had returned to Virginia Beach to live with her daughter. Why she decided to look me up, I never discovered. But I was easy to find. I've lived in the same house now over 30 years, and until switched to cell phone exclusively just a couple of years ago, I had the same phone number.

I told Janet about these two insistent people. Helen had offered to finance the making of the game materials, which is a costly affair. She and Stephen had already gotten four other individuals wanting to be trained. Janet said, why not? She encourage me to go ahead with the project. And then a second synchronicity happened. Out of the blue, Janet received a phone call from Doug. He too felt it was the right thing to do. Janet called me with the news.

So, with that endorsement from two of the original core group, I decided to enter into this new phase of my All Game life. After that first training session, Stephen became a training partner. We trained several more people. Then he moved to Europe where he leads games. Helen died from melanoma cancer several years after she became a game guide.

Since the beginning, I've trained over a dozen people to lead games, and am now formulating a training program for existing guides to take on the work of training others. I am presently working on building a sustainable organization that will carry on the life of the All Game after - or even before - I leave the planet.