Dr. Anne McMurtry, PhD

As a young teenager, Anne bonded deeply with her grandfather, who often shared with her his unanswered questions, and with whom she frequently discussed theological and metaphysical matters. He spoke about having been sent to China as a physician, where he worked with the missionaries and experienced a dramatic clash of beliefs. He told the missionaries that he had the funds to open up a new hospital in China.

Instead of encouraging him, they said “You are here to save souls, not to worry about a new hospital”! He replied: “If someone is sick and I don’t help them get well, or if they are hungry and I don’t help them find food, then I know nothing of Christ. My work should never be about forcing my ideas and beliefs down someone’s throat – it should always be about love”.

This conversation with her grandfather made Anne realize the danger of any form of fundamentalism. This was reinforced, years later, when she was contemplating attaining a divinity degree at the University of McGill. There, she overheard two students saying, “Those poor Hindus and Buddhists are so lost. Isn’t it great that we aren’t following their path”?  She was so outraged by this that she decided instead to get a Masters of Arts in Comparative Religion at the University of Lancaster in England.

There she studied with the great scholar, Ninian Smart, a pioneer in the field of secular religious studies.

Subsequently, she entered a PhD program in Comparative Religion at McMaster University There she worked with great scholars and spiritual adepts such as TR.V. Murti, and her thesis supervisor, Dr. K. Svaraman. She also received a Shastri-Indo-Canadian scholarship to spend a year in India working on her thesis. There, she had the privilege of meeting some of the greatest enlightened souls on the planet – including Krishnamurti, Anandamayi Ma, and Yogi Ramsuratkumar. She also spent time at a number of prominent ashrams, including those of Ramana Maharishi, Sivananda, and Aurobindo. She spent a whole week with Shri Ram Chandra, her first Master, at his home in Lucknow, sharing meals with him, discussing with him such questions such as, “I already have a Master in Christ. Why do I need you as a Master”? His response was, “By working with me, you will be able to commune with Christ more deeply”. Indeed, she frequently meditated with him in the sacred room he had dedicated to his Master, Lalaji Maharaj.

After completing her doctorate at McMaster University, Anne went on to teach for several years at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The students taking her World Religions course would attest that she encouraged them to grapple with the sacred teachings existentially by asking themselves the two fundamental life questions -“Who am I”? and “What is Real”! They would then go on to examine how the Hindu and Buddhist teachings, for example, addressed these inquiries quite differently.

Anne’s teaching work was followed by a deeper calling – to work with sacred energies. This was facilitated by the passing of her sister, Jill, which seemed to open up a multidimensional portal, enabling her to speak with departed souls as well as with angels and personal guides. This new vocation was further reinforced by a meeting with a healer in San Francisco, who told her that her academic work was just a small part of her destiny and that her real work was about to begin. Heeding this powerful message, Anne immediately began working with quartz crystals and the sacred energy, Reiki. Having done such work in several past lives, this was a deeply familiar path for her.  In 2004 she was ordained in the Spiritus Ministry by Bishop Glenda Green DD, who is an artist and channel herself.

In her healing work, Dr. Anne McMurtry helps her clients remove the obstacles that prevent them from experiencing their essence and moving forward with their Iife’s purpose. It often involves helping them discover the spiritual practice that’s right for them. She firmly believes in never pushing any of them in a spiritual direction that isn’t right for them. To validate this intention. Anne finds inspiration in this passage from the Bhagavad-Gita:

Better is one’s own svadharma (path), though badly performed, than the path of someone else well-performed.

Although Anne had been writing poetry since age 21, it was when she shifted to working with energies that poetry became a more prominent part of her life. Once she began working as a channel, her poetry moved to a new level; she experienced poems coming to her in much the same way as she received messages from the other side when doing readings with clients.

Many of her poems to individuals could be characterized as celebrating and expressing each person’s uniqueness. Getting out of the way and letting Spirit speak is a central intention of her poetry practice. She acknowledges the poems as gifts from Spirit, although she certainly admits to being part of the process!

With respect to both her work as a healer and as a poet, Anne has been known to say. “If my work seems like work, it won’t work; if it seems like play, it always works.”

Anne’s next step is offering a year-long seminar and workshop on angels. She feels that it is especially important to work with them at this critical time in our species’ and our planet’s evolution.