Okay, here's something else for you all. A brief email conversation between myself and Duncan Roads, the editor of NEXUS magazine. They had done a review on Matrix V.
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Hello,
I believe that in an earlier issue of your NEXUS magazine you reviewed the Matrix V Gold Edition material, published by Val Valerian's Leading Edge Research. I had not been familiar with your magazine until now, and I was interested in what your conclusions were about this material? I have tried on numerous occasions in the past to e-mail the anonymous author of this material with questions I had about some paradoxical statements that they made. For example, whilst apparently advocating that the body and its gender are both material illusions that we need to move beyond in order to evolve spiritually, they also state elsewhere on their website that heterosexual sex is spiritually abhorent. The author is also very dismissive of women, frequently referring to them as "bitches" and "cunts". After receiving some very hostile and judgemental responses to my simple questions, my e-mail accounts were blocked from further communication. Finally, after our latest exchange, the Post Publication Segments and Q&A sections on the M5G website have been closed off to non-M5G owners. I had been reviewing the material on the website in order to decide whether it would be worth ponying up the $60+ to buy this book; obviously the author doesn't understand that calling people who are interested in purchasing your material a "Whore-Ass" isn't good salesmanship! On the new gateway page for access to the post publication segments, the following statement now appears: "Observing over time, we have noticed a few frustrated detractors out there, but without exception, every one of them has not actually read the book - they react to material they do not comprehend and come up with ludicrous conclusions. Just like the bimbo at Nexus magazine. Dumb as a bag of hammers." This is what led me to your magazine, and why I would be interested in what your conclusions were.
Thanks, Jason
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Dear Jason,
Your email made me smile. I knew that somewhere out there, there had to be intelligent life
I have a policy of NOT reviewing books I don't like. I would rather not waste space with a negative on someone's work, but would rather publish a positive on someone else's.
But with Val's case I made an exception, purely because I promised I would publish a review if he sent me a free copy (which he did).
The reviewer, Ruth Parnell, and I both were disappointed with the book. His previous research compilations were interesting, and left one able to draw many conclusions. But this one - I think he has gone over the top with his personal issues etc.
Below is a copy of the review, which appeared in NEXUS, volume 8, number 5 (Aug-Sept 2001). We were pretty light on him considering, but he hit the roof. Only a couple of weeks ago he sent me a 30+ page of positive responses (mostly from men I notice) with the intent of rubbing my nose in the majority of public opinion.
Anyway, I find I share most of your observations about the book, as should any reasonable person.
best wishes
Duncan
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MATRIX V: Quest of the Spirit – The Ultimate Frontier
by Val Valerian
Leading Edge Research Group, USA, 2001
ISBN n/a (550pp velo-bound)
Price: US$59.99 postpaid in USA; US$74.95 postpaid to Canada, Mexico; US$89.95 postpaid elsewhere
Distributor: USA–Leading Edge International Research Group, PO Box 2370, Yelm, WA 98597, email val_@ trufax.org, website www.trufax.org
Frontier researcher Val Valerian suggested I allocate two weeks to review this latest volume in the Leading Edge Matrix series, but I'm lucky if I've got two hours to take in and describe the expanse of content in Matrix V: Quest of the Spirit – the Ultimate Frontier. He also suggested I suspend all notions of "body and gender identification beliefs" while I read it. That's easier said than done, even for someone of a paradigm-busting mentality, as some of the material on sexuality seems to smack of "spiritual sexism", to coin a new term. By the reasoning of the author (and I'm not sure if it is Valerian), few women can consider themselves on their "final incarnation" in third-density reality because they do not have the "unlimited creative ability" of men!
This book (it's velo-bound, so it's more a collection of papers) is meant to guide us towards the ultimate frontier, accessible via the Higher Self. However, the author seems to see some overriding ancient Orion agenda inhibiting women's ability to connect properly with their Higher Self. Thinking readers who have ever contemplated and actualised their higher spiritual nature will be somewhat aghast at some of these stances.
While acknowledging a debt to out-of-body pioneer Robert Monroe, Matrix V claims to present material to take us to territory beyond what Monroe even dared to describe. On principle, I'm wary of a book introduced as "the only book that exists on the planet right now that has this high level of information", but I'll leave readers to judge for themselves. No doubt fans of this series will want to continue the journey started with the first Matrix in 1988 and bury themselves in this one for weeks on end; they'll also welcome the reprint of the complete Handbook for the New Paradigm.
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Duncan M. Roads, Editor, NEXUS Magazine
PO Box 30, Mapleton Qld 4560 Australia.
Tel: 07 5442 9280; Fax: 07 5442 9381
http://www.nexusmagazine.com
"Fear is the great barrier to human growth. Unknowns create fears. When these Unknowns become Knowns the fears diminish and disappear, and we are able to cope with whatever confronts us." - Robert A. Monroe