 |
Newsletter Menu Realitycheckers Books Screensavers 
The Alpha And Omega Of
Toronto's Edition #71 — Thurs, 21 July 2005 Last week, my friend Rita and I spoke about the passing of a mutual friend: The Omega Bookstore in Toronto. Once North America's second largest New Age Bookstore and alternative mentality meeting place, the store met with a slow, agonizing death by economic and spiritual starvation. It was laid to rest this June, survived by it's many caste-out staff members. But will it be sadly missed? The Alpha of The Omega Story I first walked into the doors of the Omega Bookstore back in August of 1993. A friend had told me to meet him there for a seminar. He didn't make it, but I stayed for the show, literally and figuratively. In fact I stayed there almost everyday for about 2 years. After that it was every other day... Back in its glory days, The Omega Bookstore was THE spiritual hangout. No surprise really, being on Toronto's Yorkville Avenue. After all, who better to save than the vain, the rich, and the aggressively self-centered? Back then, the Omega Bookstore received orders for books from all around the world, and the store was a magnet for big-time celebrities looking for a little extra spiritual insight. Big name actors and musicians came to browse and buy with the rest of us civilians. And almost weekly a world-famous author would come in to sign his best-selling book and talk to readers. I met and spoke with many of them over the years; a real treat. In 1993, The Omega Bookstore was a true community — or at least it felt like one to me. The store sold books on anything from Quantum Physics and Einstein to Buddha and the Bible, but the key to its success, in my opinion, was the Conference Centre in the back room. This venue was packed almost every night with people gathered to hear lectures on anything from Kabballa and Alien Abductions to yoga and wholistic bodywork. The "Conference Centre" was where my fondest memories of the store were made, as well as some enduring friendships. I was very active in that community. I even co-hosted some "conferences" with an artist I was helping at the time. I was in the loop back then, and I came and went as I pleased because I was not only a regular, but also a strong advocate for what the Omega Bookstore stood for. But that was soon to change. The Beginning Of The End The first major upheaval came when the walls (and bathrooms) of the conference center were torn down to make room for an even bigger store. Becoming a huge, reverberant arena full of New Age books and spiritual merchandise, it lost its feeling of intimacy. The Conferences Centre, the heart of the store, was torn from the body and moved into another building to make room for more inventory. What was one was torn asunder. The split would prove to be a fatal blow to the stores "vibe". Mikael A. ran the Conference Centre back in its heyday. He must have done a good job for the place bombed after he was replaced by a rather "spiritually-challenged" events coordinator. I'm not big on disliking people, but she made it too easy. She was another bad omen in the Omega's impending Apocalypse. She'd been hired by the soon-to-be-fired manager at that time — could it have been an intentional act of self-destruction? Both these women harbored a chilling, unfriendly demeanor, especially towards me. In their presence I felt the flame of the Omega Bookstore dying. Although death wouldn't arrive for ten more years — stubborn embers I guess — by the end of June, 2005, the store was an empty hull; the memory of a good idea corrupted by fear, greed, ignorance and selfishness. The common blight of big business and organized religions had now seized this once thriving new age book store. Grossly Dysfunctional Over those dying years, I watched a litany of lost sheep enter the Omega Bookstore; the largest congregation of wounded seekers I'd ever seen in one place. And that was just the staff. Many were "grossly dysfunctional" as one fellow witness put it to me. Some so deeply lost in the woods of their own self-delusions that they may never find their way back to reality. How could they help others if not themselves? I struggled to reconcile that paradox on many occasions, and all but telling some of them to "Shut the hell up" and get off their milk crate podium. They can consider this my "last word" on the matter... It was classic "the blind leading the blind," with nary a seer between them. People were legally changing their names while the conferences floundered; they would reach for magic healing wands in times of need instead of searching within themselves for truth and healing. Typical materialists. Few were willing to take the plunge and "get real." Most just wanted to live inside a Harry Potter novel. After all, that's a lot more fun and far less work... To me, their behavior didn't represent a spiritual quest. It was merely an orchestrated trampling of sacred pearls by an ever-changing sea of swine. I had to have a sense of humor, otherwise I would have suggested we flog them all in the public square (On Pay Per View, of course). Keepers Of The Flame Amidst the chaos and confusion, there were still some bright lights shining in the store. Me, of course — that's an obvious one, but I wasn't staff. But many who came through those doors felt the warmth emanating from long-enduring keepers of the flame like Helen K. and the store's manager, Tony. Helen was always helpful, kind and graceful under pressure. Tony, bless his smiling, dedicated soul, stayed aboard the sinking ship to the very end. My friend Rita, once a buyer for the store, got out years before as the hull of the HMS Omega was breached and the vessel took on water. There were others I got to know, but these three stand out as beings of enduring integrity — what you saw was what you got; from the moment I met them until this very day. They were people who cared about how they and the store were perceived. Most others, I felt, were too troubled and self-absorbed to notice, or even care. An all-too familiar theme in this day and age. Reality Check On the fond side of my memories, The Omega Bookstore was where I launched my first book, Reality Check. Thanks to people like Tony and Helen, it made #8 in the top 10 bestsellers — a small victory I'd like to recreate in several million locations around the world. They helped keep my book prominently displayed and it sold well for quite some time. Indifference by new staffers caused book sales to dry up, as ultimately the store also did. Both out of neglect. One guy even treated the store as his private singles bar for hitting on women. If you wanted to know where he was, you just had to look around the store for the most attractive female. Subtle he wasn't. Thus, the store simply died from a lack of loving attention. Back then, theft was also an issue; sometimes even by staff members. Ultimately, it's no wonder the lights went out. The vibe was lost. Yet there's an aspect to the stores demise that offers us hope... Initially the Omega Bookstore was unique because it offered books not available in the mainstream books stores. It had a niche. Today, you can walk into any giant chain bookstore like Chapters and Indigo, or go online to Amazon.com, and find the same genre of books once the sole domain of the smaller boutique book stores. The occult is no longer "hidden." The world is improving, opening its eyes. Those who made James Redfield a rich man by reading the Celestine Prophecy were hungrier for more, and that also meant more profits. New age and "occult" books are now at the front of major book stores. Oprah can have Gary Zukav come and talk about reincarnation and no one in the audience flinches...too much. Yes, we've changed. This change in the buying climate also forced the Omega Bookstore to distinguish itself as unique, since the other stores were now offering Deepak, Dyer and The Dali Lama at cheaper prices, plus a cup of coffee to boot. The conference center was the key. But it was already Missing In Action; its light long since dimmed. A few blocks away, seminars at the Learning Annex's were drawing the old Omega crowd. Healing Is Not About Location The Omega Book Store began with a sincere desire to share spiritual wisdom and bring together those of like mind. Most who entered its doors were seeking a meaning in life beyond what consumerism and organized religion had promised but failed to deliver on. In the beginning, this ideal was realized. In the end, the Omega Bookstore became just a hideout for dysfunctional individuals unable or unwilling to integrate into the outside world because of their attachment to some ideal, fear or private delusion. It's usually those in crisis who reach for spiritual sanctuary — once everything from addiction to faking it has failed them in the self-proclaimed "real" world. That might explain why I saw so many "like-minded" people at the Omega Bookstore. There the confused would reach for a magic healing wand while outside its doors, the confused would grasp for a newer wife, newer shoes, newer boobs, newer drugs, or a newer bottle of beer. It all comes down to the same thing: quick fixes that never work and a refusal to "own" our "stuff". Only a change in our inner perspective will clear the path to joy. No one's fault, really. Just a part of growing up. As for spiritual evolution, it comes down to one simple truth: spiritual healing occurs in one specific location — within yourself. For that, you could be in a bookstore surrounded by gentle music and incense, or living under a bridge in a sleeping bag that smells like urine and stale beer. It doesn't matter. "Wherever you go, that's where you are," as they say. There's no hiding from it. Healing will find you. It's The Player — Not The Uniform I once had the notion that "new age" hangouts like the Omega Bookstore might be a place where the kind-hearted, tolerant, flexible and evolutionary-minded would congregate. Today, I know this was just my own naive, wishful thinking. A uniform does not a team-member make, nor does proximity to light mean that it will permeate the soul. Look to religion as an obvious example. It may take several disappointments before that realization sinks in. Yes, new age venues do seem to attract more of the open-minded and "liberal" types than the anchor-happy and overly-cautious conservative crowd, but they aren't immune from being turned into the mirror of the dysfunctions of those who enter its doors. Somehow, the Omega Bookstore — and the world at large, in fact — is only as strong as its weakest link or as pure as its most contaminated source. You can't throw toxins into a flowing river and not expect those downstream to be tainted by them. And until all the toxic people come around to love, reason and empathy, we can expect that no effort to systematically evolve the human race will be safe from the worst of "the seven sins," notwithstanding fear, ignorance and just plain old stupidity. Good-Bye! The Omega Book Store And Conference Centre was once a great educational vortex in the heart of Toronto. A thriving and well-respected spiritual resource center. Today, it is a dark, empty piece of real estate on Yorkville Ave. The Omega's light has finally gone out; its seeds scattered to the wind. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a little sad and nostalgic. I even learned a few truths there. One is that wearing a t-shirt that says "Hey, I'm spiritual" doesn't make it so. You don't need incense to know thyself — you just have to have the courage to question your own answers. I hope I'll always have it. I hope you will too. We all have our delusions and warped perspectives. I know I'm rather fond of my own. And when it comes to truth, it may also be safer just to stick with our own version of reality, allowing in only what feels like a long-lost part of us reuniting. And let others have their truths, no matter how false they may seem. Eventually, I know we'll all come around to something much richer and rewarding than what we consider "truth" in this day and age. Maybe tomorrow, maybe in a thousand years. Be patient. Tell jokes while you're waiting; give yourself a reality check from time to time (of course I recommend my book for that) and above all: keep yourself amused. Heck, burn some incense if you have to... I rest my case,
Subscribe to free newsletter
Search Realitycheckers.com
|
|
