by Harriett Fjaagesund

Since opening her doors one year
ago, Laurel Gregg, owner and
operator of the Nirvana Meta-
physics Centre in Thornhill has

been continually harassed by vari- -

ous church members in the area
who are apparently under the
impression that she and people
who patronize her business are
practising witchcraft,

Gregg, who teaches meditation,

including self-healing classes, says

she has been accused of just about
_ everything from being a practising
witch to participating in devil wor-
ship and black magic,

Although she has made several
attempts to come to peaceful terms
with these people, Gregg explains,
it’s been difficult since they prefer
to remain-anonymous. Most of the
harassment takes the form of nui-
sance phone calls and literature
delivered to her door. Her family,
friends and students have also
‘been harassed. She adds that she
has even been advised to get out
of town, and that she should cut
and dye her hair if she doesn't

BCey

Environment |

want to be mistaken for a witch
(Gregg has long red hair).

“All the things they accuse me of
are things we are not involved in.
These people don’t understand
what it is that I do, they don’t
bother to find out. It’s not neces-
sary to hassle me or my family or
my friends. Whenever I try to talk

to these people they hedge around.

It’s hard to respond when I’m not
given a chance,” Gregg says. She
adds that she has offered to send
out programs explaining the cours-
es at the centre and invited anyone

with questions to stop in and |

speak with her personally. Her
offers have so far been refused.
Earlier this year a group of
churches in the area apparently
held a seminar, billed as Year
2000/New Age, during which
Gregg and the centre’s practises
were one of the topics. of .discus-
sion, Gregg only later learned of
the seminar through a friend.

But when she phoned one of the
clergy involved to ask why she
had not been invited to defénd her-

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Dates and Locations

November 12, 1991 in the Regional District of
Bulkley-Nechako’s Board Room (492 - Alaska

Drive)

Smithers

November 13, 1991 in the Hudson Room,

Hudson Bay Lodge

Terrace

Prince Rupert

November 14, 1991 in the West Banquet Room,
Inn of the West

November 16, 199] in the Penthouse Room,

Prince Rupert Hotel (Note: this session will
- Start at 10:00 a.m. and continue to 1:00 p.m. in
the same format as the schedule above).

Terrace Review —— Wednesday, October 30, 1991 9

_ Metaph ysics teacher endures year of anonymous taunts —

BRANDED
FOR BEING
DIFFERENT

Laurel Gregg: These people don't understand what it is | do,

self, Gregg says, she was told that
it was none of her business. And
when asked if the seminar had
been taped and were the tapes
available to the public, she re-
ceived the reply.that the seminar
had indeed been taped and were
readily available to the public, but
that they were not available to her.

Gregg then wrote a letter to all
the churches in the area, explain-

ing briefly the different functions.

of the centre and the difficulties
she has been experiencing, and
eventually learned through friends
and follow-up phone calls that one
or two church ministers did speak
to their congregations about the
harassment. But several of the

. Clergy apparently refused to dis-

cuss the letter, one even going so
far as to claim that the letter was

“too filthy to read.
_ Gregg adds that the harassment

seems to be fairly well organized;
a group of anonymous people

Claiming to belong to a certain.
_ denomination — Born Again
Christians, Evangelist and Pente-
. costal — will harass her for a

week or two, then it will stop for a
week and begin again with an
entirely different group from
another denomination, Gregg says
she has no idea if these people
actually belong to these churches

since she has been unable to speak

with them personally.
Some of the harassment is direct-
ed at her healing group. Gregg

says she has tried to explain that
she is a member of the United
Federation of Healers in Great
Britain, a fully recognized group
who work in cancer hospitals in
Great Britain and in other medical
and paramedical capacities.

Another area of concern is her
meditation classes. She says she
has been. advised repeatedly that
meditation is the work of the
devil. She points out that this
doesn’t make any sense at all since
monks, who are deeply religious,
spend much of their time meditat-
ing. Another religion that practises
meditation is Buddhism. Medita-
tors often use crystals to lielp them
focus, and while many people
believe there is something mysti-
cal about this, Gregg says they are
ordinary crystals such as those
used in jewellery and radios. They
are simply a tool to aid concentra-
tion.

One of the more liberal-minded
clergy in the area commented,
“All religious groups meditate one
way or another. These people
should get their facts straight
before they begin accusing people
of things like witchcraft.”

Another clergy member added, “T
don’t have any trouble with medi-
tation. I’ve got no problem with it,
although I don’t like to play
around with it. Sometimes it gets
pretty scary for people. The whole
concept of seances, spirits, oija
boards and witchcraft — it con-

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jures up all that, Spirits tend to be
good, too. People sometimes for-
get that. But that’s awful (the
harassment). People should be
free.”

Gregg has also been condemned
for being a channeller (speaking
with spirits from the spirit realm),
but as many religious groups
speak in tongues and do chanting,
she wonders what the difference
really is,

“P’ve even been accused of call-
ing up the dead! I would never be
so disrespectful. No one in the
metaphysics field would do this,
The dead are just energy. If we
had the kind of power people mis-
takenly think we have! People
phone asking if I can tell them
where this or that item has been
misplaced; I don’t know who they

_ think I am! We’re ordinary people.

Metaphysics is not a gift, it’s a
privilege. It’s just who I am.

“People want to shroud meta-
physics, and anything else they

don’t quite understand. Right now —

we are in a Golden Age, people
are exploring beyond themselves.
There are a lot of centres like Nir-
vana in Vancouver, and they don’t
get harassed. I’ve called each of
them to find out if they’ve been
harassed, and they’re not. They
were quite shocked that I was.”

Gregg explains that metaphysics ,

has nothing to do with cults, the
occult, black magic, tarot cards,
casting spells, astrology, or devil

worship. Metaphysics involves

meditation, exploring within one-
self and the universe around us.
Many of her students attend

church regularly. .
She adds that many people who

become interested in the occult.

aren’t actually doing anything
negative, and that often Satanism
and black magic is the work of
bored kids.

“The really bad stuff we hear
about is the work of fanatics. You
get fanatics in these groups, too.

- They use spells, rituals and sacri-

fices. But most people who prac-
tise the occult, etc., are really
doing nothing negative.” Gregg
points out that metaphysics is an
embodiment of the belief that we
go onto higher planes of existence,
different lives, after death, and
that each of us are working our
way forward toward an energy
source, what many religions call
God.

“Basically what I’m trying to do
is tell people to come and talk to
me instead of harassing me. These
religious groups should know by
now that we all have a place in
this world. All the things we work
on here (at the centre) are to make
the world a better place,” she says.

Because this is a somewhat
touchy subject, | was advised by a
member of the clergy to have this
article printed without my name
on it, for my own protection. But
since my job as a journalist is to
report the news in an unbiased

manner, regardless of what my —

personal feelings of the subject
matter may be, I have decided
against that. This newspaper wel-
comes any comments that you the
reading public, including the vari-

ous church groups, may have.

regarding this subject matier.

rere