Introductory information

‘Where on earth is heaven?’ was a question the author’s young son asked him over twenty years ago. This book is his response, for what lies behind that question has motivated Jonathan Stedall’s long career as a distinguished documentary film director working with some of the most original and thoughtful minds of our time. His films about Tolstoy, Gandhi and Jung, and about the educational and curative work inspired by Rudolf Steiner have been milestones on his journey of exploration; so too the insights of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Along the way he has pondered deeply on the meaning of eternity as ‘the everlasting now’, the human being as a microcosm of the macrocosm, the role of the holy fool, and the redemptive power of love. Above all he has been increasingly absorbed not only by what is ‘seen’, but also by what is ‘unseen’.

The author’s quest has taken him into the African bush, by train to Arcadia, and into the lanes of Cornwall. Whether in Romania for Easter, among the hill temples of northern India or in the streets of San Francisco, it has often been encounters with so-called ordinary people that have enriched his search. Men and women all over the world struggle not only to cope with the trials of daily life, but also to find meaning in their lives. He has seen how for many this meaning is undermining the dualism inherent in phrases like ‘spirit and matter’, ‘life and death’, and ‘heaven and earth’.

Why should I live, why wish for anything or do anything? In short, has life any meaning that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy? – Leo Tolstoy.

Jonathan Stedall explores challenging questions about living and dying, looking and seeing, heaven and earth, and our human potential. An acclaimed documentary film director, he draws on forty years experience, largely at the BBC. There he worked with inspired artists, scientists and writers such as John Betjeman, Laurens van der Post, E.F. Schumacher, Bernard Lovell, Malcolm Muggeridge, Alan Bennett, Fritjof Capra, Cecil Collins, Ron Eyre, Ben Okri and Mark Tully.

Where on Earth is Heaven? is a personal journey that mirrors the remarkable upsurge of interest in spirituality today. Themes addressed include life after death and life before birth, the evolution of consciousness, reincarnation and karma, eternity and infinity, the seven phases of life, angels and demons, the inner desert, dying and becoming, creation and creativity, and the age-old saying: ‘As above, so below’.