ANDREW COLLINS

THE REALITY OF ARTEFACT RETRIEVAL:
QUESTING IN THE UK AND THE TIBETAN TERMA TRADITION

 

In one of his only talks for 2003, Andrew will outline the very latest discoveries made on a questing front by himself and colleagues including Richard Ward, who will be on hand to add to the narration. He will also compare recent advancements made in this field with examples of artefact retrieval from Tibet’s unique terma tradition, as once practised by certain ‘wild monks’ of the nyingma-pa ‘red hat’ monasteries.

How is it that a person is able to receive specific information regarding the description and whereabouts of concealed artefacts, and then go on to work with apparent supernatural forces in order to retrieve those same objects, which often appear with relative ease? The answer is it just shouldn’t happen, as it is against our entire conception of scientific reality.

However, over the years Andrew has been witness to the retrieval of literally dozens of hidden objects, some with a mystical and historical background, and he is in no doubt that it is a capability of certain gifted psychic individuals. With regularity he has embarked on countless quests where perceived spirit forms, and even elementals, have led those involved to recover hidden artefacts.

Only Tibet’s Terma tradition offers any kind of age-old system to help comprehend the process of artefact retrieval. For instance, it is written in the holy books of the nyingma-pa monks that at the beginning of Tibetan Buddhism their first master, Padmasambava concealed a large number of texts and religious artefacts at locations across Tibet. Those objects buried were said to have been hidden deep in their place of concealment in order that no one would be able to retrieve them no matter what; they simply wouldn’t be there. However, when the time was deemed right the object in question would be returned to the mouth of the place of concealment and gifted individuals known as tertons, ‘treasure finders’, would be alerted of its whereabouts by dakini spirits. They would lead the way, and when eventually the terton, described often as a ‘wild monk’, reached his destination, the object would be released from the care of its naga guardian and made available for discovery. The terton was then able to retrieve the terma by using the power of one of the four elements - earth, air, fire and water. He could grab it out of fire, catch it in the air, draw it from water or uncover it beneath the ground. Failure to find the artefact would result in it evaporating ‘like camphor’, insinuating that it would be removed once more from the physical plane.

How on earth can such processes work, and how exactly do they relate to the modern psychic questing movement? What can one learn from the other, and how is accepting artefact retrieval going to change our perception not only of reality, but also of space-time itself?


Andrew Collins was born in Bedford, England, in 1957. After an unsuccessful schooling, where he was told he was so bad at English he couldn't take the O-level exam, he became a shipping clerk and whiled away his nights and weekends in a hedonistic manner. He then became actively involved in investigating UFOs, and soon began writing on the subject, leading eventually to him working for the short-lived news-stand magazine Strange Phenomena in 1979.

Andrew's earliest publication, written in 1977, was CATALOGUE OF UFO SIGHTINGS IN ESSEX FOR 1976, which sold just 100 copies. Since then he has gone on to write several internationally acclaimed books including ALIEN ENERGY (1994); FROM THE ASHES OF ANGELS (1996); GODS OF EDEN (1998); GATEWAY TO ATLANTIS (2002) and TUTANKHAMUN: THE EXODUS CONSPIRACY (2002). His trilogy of questing books are THE BLACK ALCHEMIST (1988), THE SEVENTH SWORD (1992) and THE SECOND COMING (1993). He is currently working on an exegesis of the Grail legend, which will include a modern-day psychic quest to find the Grail cup. It will be published in the summer of 2004. Andrew is also the organiser of the annual Questing Conference, which is the UK’s premier event on alternative history, forbidden teachings and other questing pursuits.

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