An Interview With Jake Frankel
You must work tirelessly with marketing and promotion. In today´s world a book does not sell itself. It requires hard work to sell many books to get your message out. For instance, even the big publishing companies today ask you for a marketing plan for your book. They do not market it for you.
As part of my series about “How to write a book that sparks a movement” I had the pleasure of interviewing Else Byskov is a bestselling, award-winning author and international authority on the ground breaking work of Martinus (1890–1981), the Danish philosopher, visionary and mystic. Else has written 11 books covering the profound aspects of Martinus’ world view including Death is an Illusion, The Art of Attraction, The Undiscovered Country, The Beginning Is Near, The Downfall of Marriage and The Earth, the Universe and God in a Cosmic Perspective. Designed to be spiritual nourishment for the modern soul, her books are designed to merge science and spirituality, to help readers expand their understanding of the universe and human existence in a revolutionary way.
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you share the “backstory” of how you grew up?
I grew up in Denmark in the 1950s and was an only child, left to my own devices as my parents were very busy making a living. I spent years playing on my own and I think this made me self-reliant and confident that I could achieve what I wanted.
When you were younger, was there a book that you read that inspired you to take action or changed your life? Can you share a story?
A very decisive part of my childhood was my rejection of the religion I was taught by family and at school: That of the strict, angry, judgmental God of the Protestant religion. I thought that it made no sense that this God would be angry at me for my sins when I was also told that “he” had created me. So many things in this religion were illogical, and they collided with my intellect, so I became an atheist and was a searching soul for decades, seeking a logical explanation to the mystery of life.
What was the moment or series of events that made you decide to bring your message to the greater world? Can you share a story about that?
“Seek and you shall find” became true to me when I, at the age of 45, came across the work of Martinus, the Danish intuitive and mystic (1890–1981). A book about his work suddenly came to me, and as soon as I saw it, I intuitively knew that this was where my search ended. I read the two main works of Martinus: “Livet’s Bog” (The Book of Life — 7 volumes and 3.000 pages) and “The Eternal World Picture” (4 volumes and 2.000 pages) in a year, and I was so enthusiastic about the logical answers to the questions I had harbored all my life that I immediately thought: I have to tell the world about this. This resulted in my first book: “Death is an Illusion — A Logical Explanation based on Martinus´ Worldview.” The book was published in 2002 in the USA by Paragon House Publishers.
What impact did you hope to make when you wrote this book?
I hoped that my book would make people realize that this is not the only life we live, that our consciousness, in the shape of the energy field of our aura, survives each and every time we lose a physical body. Who we are is not this body, but the energy field of our consciousness. This field holds all the information about who we are, accumulated over thousands of lives. The mainstream narrative wants us to believe that we are identical to our physical body, but this is absolutely not so. Our energy body or spirit is who we really are, and it is identical to what has traditionally been called the soul. Furthermore, the one-life theory has never been proved, because nobody has ever been able to prove that nothing survives the death of the body. What survives is energy, and life/energy is not something we can lose — we are eternal beings, and there is a master plan with our many lives. Via reincarnation we evolve from primitive, selfish, greedy humans to highly evolved and altruistic humans that cannot cheat, hurt, harm and kill. This process takes thousands of incarnations, but for each life we live, we learn and advance towards the goal: to become finished, all-loving human beings that can only help, support and serve other living beings.
Did the actual results align with your expectations? Can you explain?
I hoped that my book would become a bestseller, and it did, but it took longer than I had anticipated. However, I kept writing and my latest book: “The Earth, the Universe and God in a Cosmic Perspective — The True Theory of Everything Based on Martinus´ Spiritual Science” is my 11th book about aspects of Martinus´ Spiritual Science.”
What moment let you know that your book had started a movement? Please share a story.
The movement of replacing faith and belief with knowledge about the spiritual world was started by Martinus, when he achieved cosmic consciousness during meditation in 1921, at the age of 30. Martinus´ consciousness was expanded to include, not only the physical world, but also the spiritual world, where everything has its origin. Whenever he had a question, the answer came to him immediately, and he gradually realized that he now had the energy of intuition under the control of his will. In this way he had access to all the answers to the big questions, such as: what is the meaning of life, is there life after death, why are we here, is this the only life we live, is reincarnation a fact, how do we create our fate, is there a God? And many many more.
From the day in 1921, when he had his initiation, to his death in 1981, at the age of 90, he was incredibly diligent, and he realized that he had a mission to bring this logical and enlightened vision to the world. His complete work comprises over 10.000 pages of deep spiritual insight plus 100 symbols. When he was in his 70s he had a strong impulse from the divine level telling him that his complete work was to be published under the general title: The Third Testament.
Martinus´ work is a continuation of the first two testaments, and it is meant to replace belief and faith with knowledge and insight about the spiritual world. In other words, we are not supposed to go on being ignorant about everything spiritual, and Martinus´ work reveals so many hitherto unknown, amazing aspects of the world that it will replace our present limited view over time. His work appeals to our intellects and not so much to our feelings. Martinus reincarnated here when he did, because now we, the people of this planet, have evolved so much that our intelligence has overtaken our instincts in strength, and we therefor require logical explanations to the mystery of life. We have reached this point via studies and research of physical matter, and now we need to expand our field of research into the spiritual realm in order to become enlightened beings ourselves. Martinus‘ work is to become the basis for a merger of science and spirituality.
My books are just small contributions to this movement from belief to knowledge.
What kinds of things did you hear right away from readers? What are the most frequent things you hear from readers about your book now? Are they the same? Different?
My readers said that they were blown away by the logical answers they found to the big questions in the work of Martinus via my books. They said that the wisdom and insight they gained from reading them were beautiful and fulfilling. Many said that this insight changed their lives.
What is the most moving or fulfilling experience you’ve had as a result of writing this book? Can you share a story?
Already after my first book was published I experienced a series of events that were so serendipitous that they just could not have been random or unintentional. A few years after “Death is an Illusion” was published, I received an email from a woman who lived quite close to where I live in Southern Spain. She said that she had found my book in a local shop and she was so enthusiastic that she felt she was meant to translate it into German. And she did. While she was doing it, I was approached by a German published. The book came out in German in 2006. The exact same thing happened with the Spanish version: A young man from Argentina was so enthusiastic that he offered to translate it into Spanish. In this work he was helped by his mother, and the two did a beautiful job of translating it. And out of the blue came a Spanish publisher. The book was published in Spanish in 2011.
Have you experienced anything negative? Do you feel there are drawbacks to writing a book that starts such colossal conversation and change?
There will always be protests and objections to ideas that are very novel and out of line with the mainstream narrative. Fortunately, I have had very few of those.
Can you articulate why you think books in particular have the power to create movements, revolutions, and true change?
Books are powerful tools in creating changes in ways of thinking. When you read you have to study and immerse yourself in the subject. You can underline and comment in the margin and return to the place where you found passages of particular interest. Real and lasting learning comes from books. You can also learn from watching programs, but this knowledge will seldom settle profoundly in your mind because it has not been studied as intensely.
What is the one habit you believe contributed the most to you becoming a bestselling writer? (i.e. perseverance, discipline, play, craft study) Can you share a story or example?
I was so lucky that I was greatly inspired to write my books. The title of the next book I wanted to write came to me via my intuition, and the moment I sat down to write, the words just came to me, as if they were downloaded. It was no effort at all to write, and I was “in the zone” during the entire process. Of course, it also took dedication and diligence, but as the Martinus material became my main interest in life, I never considered it “work”. It was pure pleasure and joy.
What challenge or failure did you learn the most from in your writing career? Can you share the lesson(s) that you learned?
I learned that I had to be patient, very patient. Not everybody is ready to learn about what Martinus has to say. His work will spread slowly all over the world during the next decades or even centuries, so I cannot expect immediate success.
Many aspiring authors would love to make an impact similar to what you have done. What are the 5 things writers need to know if they want to spark a movement with a book? (please include a story or example for each)
You must “burn” for your project. Nothing is achieved from a lack of enthusiasm.
You must not only write one book. If you really want to make an impact you must be 100 % dedicated to getting the message across and write, write, write — not only books, but articles, blog-posts, pod-casts etc.
You must work tirelessly with marketing and promotion. In today´s world a book does not sell itself. It requires hard work to sell many books to get your message out. For instance, even the big publishing companies today ask you for a marketing plan for your book. They do not market it for you.
You must have a website with information about your work and lots of free material to download. You must also do a blog plus a monthly newsletter for people to subscribe to.
You must say yes to all inquiries for talks, interviews and presentations.
The world, of course, needs progress in many areas. What movement do you hope someone (or you!) starts next? Can you explain why that is so important?
I hope to make people realize that this is not the only life we live, and that the death that so many people fear is not real. It is the biggest illusion that exists. The never-proved one-life theory generates greed, selfishness, power-hunger, revenge, killings and wars, so we cannot create a peaceful world as longs as most people think that they only live once, and that they must get as much power and as many possession out of their “one life”. The one-life theory is detrimental to creating a harmonious world.
Also, it is immensely important to learn that our fate is ruled by the law of karma, which decrees that we reap as we sow. The idea that there will be no consequences when we cheat, hurt and kill is a huge mistake, because what we sow in one life can come back to us as our fate in a later life. The idea that we can kill and go scot-free is responsible for an endless number of unhappy fates. Ignorance of the law of karma is responsible for the deplorable state the world is in today.
We “simply” have to learn asap that what we do to others, we eventually do to ourselves, and if we want to create a happy fate for ourselves in future lives, we must sow help, compassion and love to all other living beings.
Imagine what the world would look like if everybody knew that when you cheat, you will be cheated, when you steal, you will be stolen from, when you hurt and harm, you will be hurt and harmed and when you kill, you will be killed. Then, and only then, can we create peace on Earth. Knowledge about the law of karma is the greatest challenge facing humankind today.
My latest book: “The Earth, the Universe and God in a Cosmic Perspective — The True Theory of Everything Based on Martinus´ Spiritual Science” reveals hitherto unknown aspects of life and the world, among other things: the Earth is a living being and that it is the “I” of the Earth being that controls the climate and most of the things that are going on here. We cannot come to any appropriate conclusions about life on Earth as long as we keep thinking that we are alive on a dead lump of clay.
Also, the book reveals that we are not alone in the universe, but there are trillions of other planets in the enormity of space with life forms on them. We have to expand our horizon greatly to understand our place in the universe.
And finally, the best part of this expansion of our world picture is when we can include God in our perception. Not the Christian, the Muslim, the Hindu or any god belonging to any religion, but the cosmic God, the creator of it all. Once we start connecting with God via prayer, we will experience peace of mind, and the magic of life will begin to reveal itself to us. And we will come to understand that everything is just as it should be according to our own sowing.
What we sow, we will reap. In this life or in a future life. When we sow killings, disrespect for the life of others and war, we will reap it.
This is the major point of my work: To help create a better world, where we can all live in harmony, via spiritual insight.
We must learn to sow ONLY what we would like to reap.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
This is my website www.newspiritualscience.com
From there you can see a list of all my spiritual books and download free samples of some of them plus read articles and listen to audios. You can watch videos with interviews with me on central themes in Martinus´ teachings, and you can read my blog. You can read interesting facts about Martinus and see some of his symbols. You can also subscribe to my monthly newsletters by entering your email address in the window that pops up.
This is my Facebook page: New Spiritual Science
https://www.facebook.com/Newspiritualscience.101
I have another website: www.elsebyskov.com
This website has a list of all my books in all languages, including my hiking books about Andalucía and my cook books.
I also have a profile on X:
And a profile on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/else-byskov-30948812/?originalSubdomain=es
Feel free to contact me on: [email protected] with questions, comments or requests for interviews.
Please also visit the website of the Martinus Institute, Copenhagen at:
www.martinus.dk (the site is in 20 + languages)
The task of the Martinus Institute is first and foremost to preserve the work of Martinus unchanged for posterity.
The institute also publishes Martinus´ work and sells it via its website. However, the institute has also made all of Martinus´ work accessible for free online in all the languages it has been translated to so far. This shows that Martinus´ work is freely accessible for everybody. There is no sect or organisation around his work, there are no fees to pay, no membership, no affiliation. Every year the institute holds 2 international weeks at The Martinus Centre, Klint in Odsherred, Denmark.
Thank you so much for these insights. It was a true pleasure to do this with you.
Author Else Byskov On How To Write A Book That Sparks A Movement was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.