"A Sign from the Spiritual Teacher, Maitreya" ran the television story. "A strange phenomenon in Auckland tonight, or is it? Believers say the crosses of light in their windows are spiritual symbols, but scientists are more sceptical."

New Zealand TV3 Nightline news commentary added: "They call it the cross of light, inspiration of hope and better living. Discovered all over the world, the latest appearance is in a bathroom window on Auckland's North Shore.

The crosses appear as a hologram through glass and can be seen by shining a light onto it."

Paul Larkin, who has the cross in his home, was featured with his friends on this national television programme. After interviewing Paul Larkin, the Nightline announcer spoke to Dr Tom Barnes, lecturer in Image Processing and Optics, Physics Department, at the Auckland University. Speaking from the Physics Department laboratory and demonstrating the effect of a laser beam shining on a piece of the same glass, Dr Barnes said: "The glass has got an array of dimples along the back and you can see that if I rub my fingernail over it you can hear the buzz. These dimples act like little lenses, and when the laser beam goes through that array of lenses, they bend the light more in the vertical and horizontal directions than they do in the diagonal, so you see a cross."

Later Share International asked Dr Barnes if he had seen this latest cross in Devonport, Auckland. "No, I haven't," said Dr Barnes. "I can't have any opinion about that cross but you probably remember there were crosses of light in Auckland about three years ago. We can explain how the cross of light occurs using the laws of physics."

Dr Barnes was not able, however, to answer the question how in some bathrooms there are two identical windows in the house, the crosses appearing only on one window.

Share International correspondent Shirley Nairn interviewed Paul Larkin at his home. He is a young Aucklander who is studying to be a naturopath. He works as a sign-writer and is also a member of a Transmission Meditation group in the city.

Share International: Paul, what were your thoughts when you first saw the cross?

Paul Larkin: My first impression was "Wow!" It was just amazing, out of the blue. I'd seen the other crosses that had appeared in Auckland* but didn't expect one in my own home.

SI: Was anything special going on in your life at the time you discovered the cross?

PL: I was at a bit of a turning point. I was working out how to balance the different parts of my life. I was going through a lot of problems with my studies. I came to the conclusion that I had to give something up and the only thing I could give up was the meditation to concentrate on my studies.

SI: Did the cross seem significant to you then?

PL: It certainly was. It was reassuring me that everything was going to be all right, that I was on the right track, and that I should keep on with the meditation.

SI: You know there are many crosses of light in the world and quite a cluster of them in Los Angeles, California. People who have crosses manifested in their houses describe how whole families and communities have been transformed by the healing energies of the crosses. Have you experienced any healing energies?

PL: I can definitely feel energy coming from the cross. It was especially potent in the first few days after it appeared. Many people who come and see it experience energy. I think you have to sit there and quieten yourself and then you can feel it.

SI: Will you use this window with the cross on it in your work with natural medicines?

PL: Yes. I think it can be used. Definitely there are energies coming from it and those energies will be felt and will benefit people I am working with. Just having the cross in the room is enough.

SI: Scientists may say that it is just a pattern in the glass and that certain types of opaque glass will show a cross when a light is held up to it, or when light is reflected in it.

PL: That's true. But it's difficult to explain why it wasn't there before I moved in or why the previous tenants who were in the house for four years didn't see it. This is something we now see every night. It's not something you can miss. As the light goes on the cross appears.

SI: You may know that in some of the houses in Los Angeles there are two identical windows in the bathroom. The glass is the same in each window and yet a cross of light will appear in one window and not in the other.

PL: There are actually two panes of glass in our bathroom but one has a slightly bigger dimple pattern in the glass itself and does not produce the same cross. The pattern is completely different.

SI: Paul, you are a sign writer. Do you view the cross you have in your house as a spiritual symbol?

PL: Yes. It's a major sign to me to stick with it and to keep going. Various people will have different opinions about it. They may say it's the sign of a Coming Teacher. It may be. I like people to take from it what they want. Different opinions are valid.

*See Share International October 1997 (p.16) and August/September 1994.


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