Vera maintained a close friendship with the author, Jungian therapist and Leicester-based pioneer of student counselling services Mary Swainson, helping prepare her texts for publication. She read a wide range of books on what has been termed “The Ancient Wisdom” including post-Theosophical writers—particularly Alice A. Bailey and Vera Stanley Alder. Her notes included works by Geraldine Cummins (“The Road to Immortality” and “Beyond Human Personality”) and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s profound book (“Eastern Religions and Western Thought”). Before the current New Age movement, these interests were very influential among circles of forward-thinking people who aimed to better the world and find independent spiritual paths away from organised religion.
Vera also participated in an originally North Indian Hindu/Sikh religious movement drawing on the Sant Mat tradition. Founded in 1960, it peaked worldwide in the early 70s and had a presence in the indian community in nearby Leicester. Called Divine Light Mission (DLM) its primary message was “in principle all religions are one“ and the path to peace comes from looking within, using specific meditation techniques. By then it had become overly focussed on the founder’s young son Prem Rawat, who first spoke in the UK at Glastonbury Fayre in 1971, attracting people seeking hope after the collapse of 60s counterculture. The movement rapidly mutated and faded in the 70s. For Vera, DLM was a way of learning and exploring meditation, and offered a sympathetic community within which she felt able to explore and share her own inner journey with others. However, DLM was only a temporary part of her much wider range of influences.
The writing here is in the form of short notes and pieces, written spontaneously in a lined exercise book.