Graham E. Nicholls - Founder and director

Graham was born in London, England into a working class family, his father was a refuse collector and his mother worked looking after the sick and elderly. He grew up in a tower block on an inner London estate or housing project. As a young child he started to undergo spontaneous visionary experiences, which intensified from twelve to fourteen years-old when he began to have the first of hundreds of out-of-body experiences. These experiences radically changed his perception on life. He began to actively explore this area of understanding and started working with different spiritual teachers and organisations. By sixteen years-old, he began working for a prominent international esoteric lecturer. Inspired by his experiences and the new arena of ideas he was encountering he started to learn and practice a range of new disciplines including meditation.

At sixteen he also added vegetarianism to his spiritual disciplines having already committed himself to abstain from tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs at the age of just ten years old.  At aged nineteen he traveled to India for the first time and explored the practice of yoga and came into contact with Jainism for the first time, which left a lasting impression on him. Shortly after returning he felt that he should do something creative with his ideas.

He decided to apply to art school and despite having no formal qualifications he was accepted to Central St. Martins College in London, becoming the first in his family to go to university. While still studying he gave his first public lecture on a metaphysical topic at Oxford Town Hall, England aged just twenty-two. The following year he was given his first solo art exhibition, which took place in central New York City, USA. 

Graham's artistic projects are actually multi-sensory environments that use audio recordings to take the participants on inner meditative journeys. Immersing them in a powerful and unique experience. Many participants have described being deeply moved by these hypnotic experiences. In May, 2004 he created a new kind of immersive environment using Virtual Reality computer technology called The Living Image, which was displayed at London’s Science Museum. The project was designed to take the viewer into a psychological state akin to meditation or trance. His creative work has received praise in much of the press, including the BBC, the Telegraph and Time Out as well as other magazines and websites. 

In his mid to late 20's Graham continued to have and explore spiritual experiences and began to develop a practical philosophy. This philosophy is based upon direct experiences with two energy forms or psychological levels one of which became known to him as Shah, the other as Mai. It was through these Shah and Mai levels that he started to become aware of a major shift in his practices and relationships to others and the world. It was like a growth of compassion, akin to classic descriptions in many of the worlds religions. At this time he also underwent the most intense experiences of his adult life, some of which appeared to include precognitive events. These events have given him a basis to explore areas such as parapsychology in an attempt to rationally examine psi phenomena.

He is currently working on a book that explores his many experiences and the philosophy they have inspired. The book explores his experiences in a rational and fair way and engages with the social and psychological factors within himself, and the lives of others who undergo similar experiences. This he hopes will help overcome the stigma and sometimes hostile reactions that psi or 'psychic' phenomena can evoke in its critics.

The Shahmai Network is a first step towards helping others to understand and explore their own psychical and spiritual experiences in a balanced, rational and life-affirming way.

 

Copyright © 2006 Graham E. Nicholls, all rights reserved.