Biography
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT:
Bernard de Montréal (1939–2003), author and percipient, lectured over a period of nearly three decades, teaching an evolutionary psychology for the new man. His fundamental teachings also remain in the form of over one thousand recorded lectures and filmed interviews.
Bernard de Montréal was born on July 26th, 1939 in Montreal (Canada). Raised in a modest, bilingual household, he lived in the Catholic society of post-war Quebec. His early education was dispensed by the Congregation of the Holy Cross, where he studied the classics. His spirit of independence and secular leanings led him to continue his undergraduate education in the United States. He attended the University of Albuquerque (New Mexico), where he studied anthropology.
Bernard de Montréal is the author of three fundamental works, The Genesis of Reality (La Genèse du Réel) (1988), Dialogue with the Invisible (Dialogue avec L’Invisible) (1997) and Beyond the Mind (Par-delà le Mental) (1998). The author defined his teachings as Psychologie Evolutionnaire, which translates as Evolutionary Psychology, (not to be confounded with the same term dealing with a branch of cognitive psychology, which draws on the sociobiological theories of natural evolution). He gave over 1700 recorded lectures and filmed interviews over a period of 26 years (1977-2003), from the age of thirty-eight until his last breath, at age sixty-four. Thousands of recorded lectures and interviews, of which several were filmed, testify to the strong will, personality and undeniable charisma of a man who never let his public down in 26 years, until his passing. His genuine mode of interaction with the public and the intensity of his speech made him a fascinating figure. His singular experience and works reveal a creative mind and percipient who never subscribed to any form of spiritual ascesis. According to many testimonies, this consciousness raiser and soul healer could alleviate a person’s suffering, whether of a psychical, psychological, emotional, or paranormal nature. His insight and experience helped thousands of individuals to deal with the hardships of life through the understanding of the mind and soul's mechanisms and components.
Bernard de Montréal associated this source of inner knowledge with a life-transforming event he experienced in his Albuquerque (New Mexico) home in 1969 at the age of 30. Following this event and his ensuing memory loss, the author was forced to abandon his studies and began to experience an altered state of mind. He was aware of new psychic abilities which altered his consciousness. He became receptive to a flux of unsolicited information, which at the time proved to be difficult to harness. During several years of adaptation, the author forcefully sought to counter the resulting state of imbalance, suffering and exhaustion by waging an internal battle of will towards a greater mastery of self. He later recovered a sense of balance in his life, facilitated by his wife Pierrette’s support and love.
His personal victory over the effects of this profound psychic transformation, eventually led him to rebel against this overbearing state of mind. In 1977, he chose to confront this internal and relatively integrated source of infused knowledge in public, thus launching his career as lecturer and author, which never ceased to grow in momentum. This heightened perception eventually led him to address multiple topics by questioning a “pre-personal” source through conscious channeling, which he qualified as a state of "fusion". He would regularly venture beyond his personal sphere of knowledge, whether dealing with meta-psychism, metaphysics and parapsychology.
Bernard de Montréal would later explain his New Mexico experience as a highly painful and lengthy “depersonalization” process of his thought, which became increasingly “pre-personal”, that is egoically detached from his person. The seminal nature of these groundbreaking teachings and the constancy of their underlying principles became a beacon of knowledge for many. His expression was unwavering and direct, colorful and yet detached from the speaker while being in agreement with him and subject to his consciousness. The critical awareness of this clairaudient is perhaps one of the aspects which distinguishes him most as a channeler. Yet the author expressed a singular detachment from the content of his lectures, which he felt was the fruit of his “condition”. He seemed capable of tapping into an endless font of knowledge and information.
From that period onwards, Bernard de Montréal explained his condition as being a constant and permanent “state of fusion” with “levels of communication” where “freedom from thought pollution" could be experienced. Although he lost his reflective memory, he accessed levels of knowledge which, he said, would eventually become characteristic of the “new man”. The author would later address this determining aspect of his life in his introduction to The Genesis of Reality (La Genèse du Réel).
"The study of supramental consciousness began in 1969, when the light of cosmic intelligence descended upon earth to objectively instruct man in the laws of life and the universe. Strengthened by this new energy, which would allow him to finally recognize his vital link with universal consciousness, prospective and instructive, man would comprehend the cosmic lie of which he had been victim for millenniums, enabling him to unveil the mysteries of the unknown by answering conclusively the questions of existence."
As a conscious amanuensis, he was also known for his automatic writing, or channeled mental dictation, while remaining in full control of his consciousness. He, at times, made use of this mode of communication, to capture channeled information using a chalk placed at his disposal, or a pen borrowed from the audience, scribbling his illegible communication. The availability of his internal source, he said, could be accessed at any moment. This mode of communication would not only become a familiar aspect of public lectures and private discussions, but also a mode of expression that soon became his trademark.
Bernard de Montréal and his era
Bernard de Montréal’s perception and expression are closely tied to the social climate of his native Quebec and its francophone milieu. The Quiet Revolution, also referred to as “l’âge de la parole” or “the age of speech”, which redefined Quebec society from the 1960’s onwards, symbolized the emergence of a freer and more individualized mode of thinking for this province, French-Canadian and Catholic in majority. This awakening to secular and critical thinking for Quebecers, produced by the war and the ensuing economic and social transformations in Quebec, broadened local thinking habits towards a world-view. Quebecers were inspired to confront the mysteries of spirituality and religion. It gave breadth to discussion groups and independent gatherings. This inquisitive spirit and taste for debate about an ideal society grew from a background of revolt against the clergy’s monopoly over matters of spiritual and metaphysical bearing, and against the prescriptive censorship in literature, where debate and philosophy were portrayed as matters which distance one from God. In the wake of the mounting anticlericalism of the 60’s, North-America witnessed a growing interest in metaphysical concepts. The repressive tendency surrounding spiritual matters eventually gave way to a social climate that became increasingly receptive to the author’s line of thought.
Bernard de Montréal was a frequent guest on the televised show Esotérisme Expérimental, a Canadian program dedicated to the exploration of paranormal phenomena and the “unexplained”. This platform allowed the author to express a distinct approach to topics of public interest bearing on esotericism and the paranormal, carving a name for himself in the field of esotericism. During the late 70’s, North America was taken by storm with media coverage of U.F.O. sightings reported by the population. Bernard de Montréal commented on various controversial issues, namely the U.F.O. phenomenon, (despite his reluctance to be associated with ufology). He also spoke of man's psychic development as he is confronted with contemporary social realities. Despite his reserve in dealing with these topics, he became a reference for the comprehension of such controversial phenomena.
Finally, his teachings influenced a generation of Quebecers thirsting for answers. His thought found a pragmatic application through an accessible formulation of metaphysical concepts of relevance to the understanding of contemporary issues and ills. His personal engagement towards the public is most palpable in his lectures. Bernard de Montréal felt a genuine affection for this public, profoundly sensitive to their suffering and hardships, and the public responded equally, through the sustained and heart-warming contact it maintained with the author throughout the years. During his numerous lectures in Quebec, namely in Montreal, members of the audience would express their gratitude for a specific lecture or for an a new understanding. The deep and fundamental questions bearing as much on the nature of life as on the nature of death itself were addressed; topics which to this day, remain taboo and problematic in society, and marginalizing in light of their inconclusive definitions from the disciplines of psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychology and parapsychology.
Bernard de Montréal had refused several invitations to lecture abroad, preferring to work in his native Quebec. On October 3rd, 2003, Bernard de Montréal held his last lecture in Montréal. He passed away a few days later on October 14th, in his beloved Laurentian mountains (Quebec), following a battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Pierrette, his daughter Christine, their life-long friend Elizabeth Winton and a large Quebecois following.