Someone send us this article below
The idea of having a peace flame which can be handed on from one person to the next is an admirable one, and there is no doubt that most people who use it are well-intentioned and really do desire peace on a personal and international level. However, are they aware that the World Peace Flame may not be quite what the Life Foundation literature says about it?
In the books The Secret Power of Light and The Flame that Transforms we read that the 7 flames from 5 continents were lit by eminent peace-makers. Who were these eminent peacemakers? The first one was Irene, Princess of the Netherlands, who lit the European flame; the Australian flame was lit by Pearl Wymarra, an Aboriginal elder, and the Canadian one by Northern Sitting Wolf (Stan Williams), Chief of the Ojibwa nation. So far, so good. But the African, American and Indian flames were lit by members of the Life Foundation itself, and the Middle Eastern one by an RAF officer who happened to be on duty at the time! Three out of seven...?
If we look a little more closely in The Secret Power of Light, at the chapter on the lighting of the Canadian flame (pp.26-29), we see that Walter Devine was instrumental in not only getting Chief Northern Sitting Wolf to light the flame but also in flying it to Europe. The photo on p.28 shows how important Walters role was. But The Flame that Transforms, written 3 years later, makes no mention whatsoever of Walter and his pivotal role, in the chapter about the creation of the Canadian flame (pp.60-63). How many people realised that, disillusioned by its creator, Walter had in the meantime left the Life Foundation and had therefore literally been written out of the story?
There is some doubt as to whether it would be possible at the high altitude of the summit of Pikes Peak to light a flame, but we do know that the journey of the American flame to Britain is not mentioned in The Secret Power of Light pp.19-20. This is because the freight operator would not allow a lighted flame on the plane for safety reasons, so it had to be put out for the journey. In The Flame that Transforms this is admitted (pp.56-57). This rather belies the claim on the fly-leaf of The Secret Power of Light that seven living flames ... were flown across the world.
Now let us turn our attention to the list of people and organisations who have been presented with the World Peace Flame (pp.288-289 of The Flame that Transforms). The first is His Holiness Pope John Paul II.
Technically yes. But the Pope was not consulted beforehand, nor apparently did he give his permission for the photo quickly taken at the time to be used! The same applies to Sir Richard Attenborough and probably many more from the list. But the photos are used for publicity purposes and the presentation to the Pope features in the video Fiat Lux, giving the impression that this was far more than a chance and fleeting opportunity.
We read on page 276 of The Secret Power of Light that the nuns who look after St Francis tomb said that they would always light the candles for the altar from the World Peace Flame in future. This is totally misleading as the eternal flame there has been burning for nearly 800 years since the death of St Francis, and the friars in charge of the tomb would not even consider using any other flame there.
At the inauguration of the World Peace Flame monument in N. Wales in July 2003, Savitri gave a moving speech about holding out the hand of love and forgiveness to everyone, whilst across the road sitting on the wall was a lady whod been a volunteer for years, but who had been banned from the ceremony because shed rung a friend about sexual irregularities at the organisation. Others who had left because of the hypocrisy, misuse of power and untruths of the Life Foundation were being described as mentally unstable, malicious or else their names were never mentioned and their welfare ignored.
Sadly, like many other activities of the Life Foundation, the WPF Project seems to be based on a lack of honesty and integrity, and although it sounds wonderful in public relation terms, one must question if this is an example of how people have been wooed by the icing on the cake, whilst the rotten state of the cake itself has been hidden. One may feel sorry for the thousands of good-hearted people who have been misled. The Life Foundation should take note of its own words, on p.68 of A Call to Action; how long can we live life with a split between our highest ideals and the way we conduct our work, our words and our actions?