Translation from VLT news paper article in Swedish
Words of wisdom from the world of spirits
Erik Jersenius 20 April 2018
Photo: Erik Jersenius
Since artist and cultural entrepreneur Robert Ferm opened his Ozone Gallery almost two years ago, he has gone his own way in the Västerås art scene.
Now he is publishing ‘Words of Wisdom from the Spirit World - The Dance of Love’ together with Helena Janneby. In the book, ethereal teachings are conveyed in spiritual texts and beautiful art photography.
VÄSTMANLAND. Helena Janneby sits on the chair at the desk that is displayed in a special place in the gallery in Gallerian in Västerås. ‘The energy is particularly strong here,’ she explains. I ask how I should write the article about the book ‘Words of Wisdom from the World of Spirits - The Dance of Love’ and Helena Janneby falls silent and concentrates. She meditates for a short while before she starts to move her head gently as if someone had touched her. Then Helena Janneby quickly starts writing on the pad in front of her and soon fills two and a half pages with words.
It turns out to be the Archangel Gabriel channelling his message to me through Helena Janneby. His loving words read:
‘...I want to tell you that you are an amazing man who really wants to explain to other people what they need to know. With your warm heart, you want to convey everything in your texts with great care, you want people to be able to absorb what they read and, ideally, to be able to develop in their minds...’
Archangel Gabriel's loving message to VLT's culture editor Erik Jersenius. Photo: Erik Jersenius
It is over ten years since Helena Janneby began exploring the spirit world.
‘I have always been a seeker, but through a new friend I met many years ago I came into contact with the spiritual.’
During a meditation exercise on a course she was taking, something happened to her body, her arms and legs started to twitch and she felt as if a cold wind was blowing over her. The course leader took Helena Janneby into a room and gave her a pen and paper. Soon she started writing page after page of scribbles. Then she started practising writing and after four months, clear messages started to emerge from the texts.
She thinks "mediumistic channel" is a good name for what she does, and for several years now she has been helping friends and loved ones find the answers to their questions by channelling words from the spiritual beings of the universe. Often it is the angel Gabriel, God's messenger in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, with whom she makes contact, and she writes so-called automatic writing in which the angel's words are drawn by her hand.
Helena Janneby does not interpret what she experiences with overloaded dogmas and interpretive systems, but meets the spirit world as she experiences it.
‘It should be simple, that's what I ask for. The messages I receive are also simple, but they are always filled with love and positive energy’, says Helena Janneby.
A few years ago, she met Robert Ferm at the Health Fair in Växhuset in Västerås.
‘I had no idea what channelling with automatic writing was’, says Robert Ferm.
He was fascinated by the texts that came out of Helena Janneby's hand and offered to illustrate them with his art photography. This led to a collaboration that has now resulted in ‘Words of Wisdom from the Spirit World - The Dance of Love’.
Helena Janneby has now channelled texts based on Robert Ferm's art photos. Various spirits who previously lived on Earth make themselves known and give their words of wisdom, but she has also come into contact with beings on other planets.
‘You could say that my images have resonated with the energies of the spirit world and extraterrestrial civilisations’, says Robert Ferm.
From "Words of Wisdom from the Spirit World - The Dance of Love". Photo: Robert Ferm
Almost two years ago, he opened the Ozone Gallery, where he exhibits his own paintings and sculptures. Robert Ferm has also made some 80 temporary art installations with his dance sculptures in Västerås and the surrounding area and has previously published several books of art photography.
For over 20 years he has been working as an engineer and has his own company where he works with digital work environment and interaction design for various IT systems. Robert Ferm has also studied at the National Collage of Art and Design, Dublin, and has created art alongside his work. Recently, he has been focusing more and more on art and through his engineering work he is also his own patron.
Robert Ferm has concentrated on creating art by photographing dance performances. Unlike many other dance photographers, he is not interested in realistically capturing the bodies, but instead paints and sculpts with his camera using light and a slow shutter speed to create a kind of abstraction. In this way, he chisels out another dimension of what is happening on stage.
‘I want to capture the movement and emotion of the dance, not the bodies themselves. This also gives my images an ethereal atmosphere’, says Robert Ferm.
From "Words of Wisdom from the Spirit World - The Dance of Love". Photo: Robert Ferm
The new book is published by his new publishing house "Spirit of Cosmos" and the plan is to publish four more books in collaboration with Helena Janneby.
Today's society has a somewhat ambiguous approach to spirituality. On the one hand, there is a great deal of interest in it through television programmes such as "The Unknown", where mediums are invited to the homes of people who are haunted by unholy spirits, and it is not uncommon to hear people talk about spiritual experiences or encounters with people who have passed away. At the same time, Swedish society is characterised by strong religious scepticism and vigilance against such things, and what is called spiritual, superstition and ‘flum’ have no place in the modern, ordered and planned welfare society.
‘The problem is that science has now become just another religion with its own dogmas. Science only takes into account what it can observe or calculate; everything it cannot explain does not "exist" ’, says Robert Ferm.
He himself began his research on the spiritual five years ago. Unlike Helen Janneby, who goes by feelings, Robert Ferm has tried to approach the unknown as a scientist. He has a PhD in computer science from Uppsala University and has worked as a researcher in Scotland. He has read up on religions and spiritual traditions and theories, as well as conducting purely practical experiments that have strengthened his belief that everything is connected in a single energy.
‘I'm an engineer, so I can't go by instinct, but I work methodically and constantly seek evidence’, says Robert Ferm.
Despite their different approaches, Helena Janneby and Robert Ferm have come closer together in their perceptions of the spiritual.
‘Otherwise we wouldn't have succeeded in putting this book together’, says Robert Ferm.
Mixing art photography with channelled texts is perhaps something that the cultural world today raises its eyebrows or even sneers at.
‘We didn't make this book with any target group in mind. What we have seen is that those who are spiritually interested approach my pictures through Helena's texts, and my artist friends are interested in my pictures and thus encounter Helen's texts’, says Robert Ferm.
‘I think you can take what you can and want from the book, the most important thing is that there is a bright and loving message in it. It is also a book for personal development’, says Helena Janneby.
From "Words of Wisdom from the Spirit World - The Dance of Love". Photo: Robert Ferm
But historically, mysticism and spiritual seeking have characterised both art and literature; most of the Western artistic heritage is, for example, characterised by biblical motifs and Christian symbolism or images taken from ancient Greek and Roman mythology. We only have to go back to the late 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century to see a great interest in things like spiritualism, alchemy, occultism and mysticism among writers and artists.
‘Modern art is very much about expressing an idea, and works of art and installations are often created in an effect-creating way, with the aim of providing an outward-looking experience through art. If you can also share your work on social media and achieve such an effect, it is even "better". What we are doing is something completely different, we have created a book for an inner experience,’ says Robert Ferm.
The next book to be published is a collection of 52 pieces of wisdom that came to Helena Janneby from the British rock singer Freddie Mercury, frontman of the band Queen, who died of AIDS in 1991. This time Robert Ferm has created art images inspired by the lyrics.
Tomorrow is the release party for "Words of Wisdom from the Spirit World - The Dance of Love" at Ozone Gallery in the Gallerian mall in Västerås.
Archangel Gabriel's loving message to VLT's culture editor Erik Jersenius.
From "Words of Wisdom from the Spirit World - The Dance of Love".
From "Words of Wisdom from the Spirit World - The Dance of Love".
From "Words of Wisdom from the Spirit World - The Dance of Love".