JOHN MACE
Father of Causism • Founder of the Mace Energy Method • Author
In Reflection
My life story has two distinct phases, before 1959 and after 1959, and the ‘before’ and ‘after’ years are like the proverbial chalk and cheese. That watershed year saw me as an established 32‐year‐old Master Mariner with 17 years of, shall we say, colourful maritime experience behind me. More than once it has been said to me, ‘You should write a book about your life at sea,’ but that will never happen, for those years are totally insignificant in the overall picture.
One evening, while on leave, my elder brother introduced me to the ideas on time expounded by Count Alfred Korzybski. To understand what happened, it is necessary to know that as a Master Mariner I was quite proficient in celestial navigation, and that when a ship is in the middle of the Pacific, for instance, you cannot determine its position, no matter what celestial objects are visible, without an accurate time piece – the chronometer. Time was an essential commodity and I knew all about it, so it was with a condescending attitude that a submitted to doing the exercise.
But when confronted with the truth of Korzybski’s explanation of time, my world turned upside down. With the sudden reality shift concerning time came another reality shift: not only was I no longer aware of sitting in a lounge chair but, in a flash, I was also no longer a pragmatic Master Mariner with both feet planted firmly on Mother Earth. I was a timeless unit of awareness, alone in the ether. The sense of being alone was absolute, for there was nothing apart from me – no one else, no physical universe, just me, an astral entity, alone in space and surrounded by a great void. There was no sense of night or day, just a vast emptiness, a vast nothingness. The entire physical universe had disappeared! I felt no emotion of any kind; my only feeling was an awareness of myself, of just being there. Then, from what can only be described as light years away, a kind of wispy something began to form, like flimsy clouds drifting around me, and with it came an awareness of utter stillness. I was the focal point, utterly motionless, in the midst of a stillness that no words can describe. That ‘wispy something’ was the physical universe starting to materialise and drift around me.
I have often pondered that experience and tried to find words to describe it, but that is woefully inadequate, for the experience was so profound that no single word in the English language suffices to explain the feeling. Several years ago, however, the word came, but it was a coined word, not in any dictionary – purposelessness. If you can imagine having absolutely no purpose whatsoever, you will understand what I experienced. A major aftermath was that I felt that I knew everything about life. Knowledge buried in your psyche is one thing but being aware of the knowledge is another thing altogether. An example is that I have often used the expression ‘out of the blue’ to explain the sudden appearance of an answer that solves a persistent technical problem. With that realisation there was no accompanying sense of egotism, just a calm acceptance that the information had materialised. That has been a recurring theme in some of the major developments of the methodology.
The upshot was that I never went back to my ship and began to explore my new awareness of life. Causism™ and its practical component the Mace Energy Method are the result.
Please enjoy reading more about my discoveries in my book, Causism: Discover the Key to Emotional Health and Well-Being.