Swimming with the Whale

“Ascending, ascending, and ascending the ladder of evolution. That is Self-Realization. This is the real aim of any Researcher of the Truth, at least of the circles all over the world I am heading. How can we, as human beings, find our real nature? How can the boundless be limited? How can the imperishable become the perishable? It is the Present-Day-Personality that must open, extend, and develop that little self-consciousness to the levels of its real inner nature and reach, what we call, ‘Self-Realization.’ Many make the mistake to think that Self-realization means knowing the Present-Day-Personality as it is. They make the mistake to think that their Self is only their personality (the material, emotional and mental bodies). When I say Self-Realization, I don't mean that. Of course, you must start from this point – to analyze and know your Present-Day-Personality.

But then, step forward and say, ‘I am not only that. I am something more.’ This means after becoming the master of my material body, the master of my emotions (Psychical Body) and my thoughts (Noetical Body), I must break the mirror in which I see myself reflected and see that I still exist and I still AM – without seeing my image in the mirror. Who am I then? You are making the mistake to consider you are the reflection of yourself in a threefold mirror of matter, emotion and thought where you see your real Self, distorted very much. You have to get rid of the images in the mirror. Then you will find who you are! ~ Daskalos”

Do not mistake the reflection for the real; you are an eternal Spirit-Being, and this Truth can be researched and revealed.

Swimming with the Whale is three books in one: personal witness to the life of the Cypriot mystic Daskalos, structured teaching drawn from his two-millennia-old system, and a practical guide. Dr Stylianos Atteshlis – known as Daskalos – began his healing and teaching work in Cyprus at the age of seven and would go on to organise an ancient lineage of Esoteric Christian teachings into an integrated System for the Research of Truth. Its central premise is one of mistaken identity: you are not your Present-Day-Personality, the temporary configuration of body, emotion, and thought you take yourself to be. You are an eternal Spirit-Being, and your personality is merely a reflection in a threefold mirror. The system unfolds across three worlds of existence – the Material, the Psychical, and the Noetical – in each of which you carry a corresponding body. Every thought and desire you generate creates an Elemental, a thought-form that accumulates and either builds or imprisons the personality you inhabit. The path of the Researchers of Truth is to work consciously with these forces: to harmonise the three bodies, dissolve unhealthy Elementals, and gradually awaken from the Present-Day-Personality into full Soul Self-Awareness. At its heights, this path opens capacities for distant healing, reading the Akashic Records, and conscious travel in the higher worlds. The aim throughout is not escape from life, but its sanctification – to become a clear, loving conduit through which Absolute Beingness serves its Divine Plan.

Swimming with the Whale draws on more than two decades of Daniel Joseph's direct study with Daskalos in Cyprus – beginning in 1989, at a moment when it was still possible to sit with him in his living room, to study at close quarters, and to experience the teaching as a living thing. Joseph has practised and taught his system ever since, and the book carries that intimacy: not just a record of what Daskalos said, but a guide to how his wisdom is actually lived.

The starting point is always the same: know your aim. Joseph is clear about what that aim is: “We are going to find that buried treasure, hidden in the field as Christ put it. That treasure is the Inner Self – the Soul-Self Awareness.” Self-Realization – not self-knowledge of the personality, but the full awakening to your Soul Self – cannot be reached without first becoming master of your Material Body, your emotions, and your thoughts.

The daily practice that anchors everything is introspection, one of Daskalos' five Golden Keys. Each night before sleep, you breathe in a 4:4 rhythm (box breathe), relax completely, and walk back through the day – not to judge yourself or others, but to observe with detachment. What did I think or feel that I should not have? What did I say or leave unsaid? What did I do, or fail to do? Daskalos was unsparing about why this matters: “Researchers of the Truth come out of their illusions by self-analysis and introspection, studying their circumstances with courage, studying the nature of their emotional bodies, of their desires, seeing that they created weaknesses, hatreds, jealousies, and passions in their personalities.” Practised consistently, this nightly review gradually draws subconscious behaviours into the light of waking awareness, freeing you from the grip of the habitual thought-forms – the Elementals – that accumulate across a lifetime.

Alongside introspection, Joseph leads you through a sequence of meditations that train you to feel and inhabit your three bodies consciously. In the Three Suns Meditation, you attend to each body in turn – a sky-blue light radiating from the solar plexus for the Material Body, a white-rose light at the heart for the Psychical Body, a golden-white light at the crown for the Noetical. These are not visualisation exercises. They are acts of conscious self-mastery, practised in the body, in real time. The Pulse of Life Meditation goes deeper still, into the heartbeat itself: “Make an altar in your heart. The Inextinguishable Light-Life is burning on the altar. Now, light another lamp of your personality's love to God and to all human beings around you. Do not allow those flames to flicker.”

The Seven Promises – made to oneself, not to any teacher or organisation – seal the commitment: to meditate daily on Absolute Beingness, to serve the Divine Plan, and to check each night whether thought, word, and action have been in harmony with Divine Law. As Daskalos put it: “The promise is to yourself that you will try living by the promises. You may not be able to do it in the beginning, but you can keep on trying. So, in fact it is an obligation to your Self.”

For those who wish to go deeper into Daskalos’ work, the Researchers of Truth offer teachings, meditations, and circles worldwide.