LONG, BARRY

(1926–2003)

Australian teacher of realization

Barry Long was a spiritual teacher from Australia whose realization of immortality in 1965 trans-formed his life and advanced him to realization of a higher consciousness.

Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1926, Long pur-sued a career in newspaper editing and politics. At the age of 31 he experienced a death of self and a dawning of a new sense of existence. The event sparked in him a lifelong quest for truth and self-knowledge. In the 1970s he traveled to London to secure publication of his experiences. There he continued writing and began meeting regularly with small groups of people interested in his teachings.In the 1980s he started holding meetings and meditation classes with larger audi-ences. His first widely circulated book, The Ori-gins of Man and the Universe, published in 1984, increased his public recognition.

The Barry Long Foundation was established as an educational charity in England in 1985. Later that year, he founded the Barry Long Centre on the Gold Coast of Queensland. In England, North America, Australia, and New Zealand he taught seminars in his increasingly popular Course in Being. In 1993 Long began teaching a 16-day event called the Master Session, which took place annu-ally in New South Wales. His teachings emphasize the living of truth and the realization that no dual-ity exists between one’s self and the greater power. Long’s seminars introduce the stillness of being and the attainment of an inner place from which people can live their daily lives. The Barry Long Foundation headquartered in Australia does not have formal membership but continues to publish and distribute Long’s written works through its publication branch, Barry Long Books.

Long died of prostate cancer on December 6, 2003.