A memory from the time that I’d just met Julie Mason. Right from the start I knew that I’d always be devoted to her. In this episode we spend an unforgettable first night together in a hotel on the Brighton sea-front, where she gives me intellectual understanding and practical experience of Gilbert O’Connor’s First Way...

Episode One: The Protocol of Primrose Hill

My brilliant life with Julie Mason began in the year 1975. I was an A&E nurse at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, where a colleague of Julie’s husband was a visiting clinical neurologist called Gilbert O’Connor. You could say that Gilbert was above all things a man who loved women – it was his mission in life. Gilbert saw Julie at a party and something special in her made him decide at all costs to have her. He waited, and when Julie’s husband was away Gilbert made his move; he talked her into recklessly going with him on a brief voyage-a-deux on the wild Bloodvein River in Manitoba. During ten days of intimate travelling in the wilderness, Gilbert showed Julie things that would change her life forever. Now she’s back but is she really a Dreamer? It was right after this that she and I met. I knew that I would always be devoted to her and we’ve been together now for fifteen eventful years!

In this lighthearted conversation Julie recalls her life in the days following her return from the Gilbert O’Connor experience. It introduces some central themes of the whole podcast series.