Charles Dance starred in "Out on a Limb" with Shirley MacLaine.
Shirley MacLaine stars as herself in this TV movie, a powerfully candid recreation of the passionate love affair and spiritual adventure that took the actress to some of the world's most exotic locales--and to the innermost reaches of her very being.
Shirley, feeling something lacking in her life, finds herself increasingly drawn toward the idea that there is more to living and the world around her than what we generally acknowledge. Delving deeper into the study of metaphysics and religion via books, various kindred spirits and firsthand observations, Shirley, although an inveterate skeptic, becomes more and more absorbed in the infinite possibilities open to humankind.
After visiting many of the world's most exotic cities on her journey, Shirley finds herself in Peru with a fellow seeker named David Manning. Manning shares some of his knowledge with Shirley which aids in her search for cosmic enlightenment which once again turns inward, leading her to a previously unimaginable out-of-body experience. It's not long before her extraordinary spiritual explorations foster a growing belief in reincarnation, the possible existence of extraterrestrials and most importantly, the immorality of the human soul.
The composite character of David Manning in the movie and book is partially based on Shirley MacLaine's meeting's in Switzerland with UFO Contactee Billy Meier. Charles Silva has claimed that he is the main inspration for the David character. Silva told his story in a book called "Date with the Gods" in 1977. When he showed it to actress Shirley MacLaine, she asked him to take her to Peru. Their adventures together lasted the next five years, after which MacLaine wrote her famous best-seller, "Out on a Limb." In that book, and in her 1987 ABC TV mini-series of the same title, she says a character named "David" took her to Peru, taught her about reincarnation and astral projection, and told her about his friend from the Pleiades. Silva says MacLaine broke her promise to tell what she really learned from him about coming events on earth, including geological changes, political upheavals, and alien landings. He says she was pressured to leave all that out of her book by powerful friends, including Bella Abzug and David Rockefeller.
So Silva decided to go on a lecture tour and tell his own story. In his promotional material, he called himself "The Real David from 'Out on a Limb'." Not surprisingly, his lectures and seminars drew large crowds. It wasn't long, however, before Silva got a letter from Bantam Books, the publisher of "Out on a Limb," warning him that he was illegally using copyrighted material in his lectures. He shot back an angry reply, asking if anyone at Bantam was aware that he had published all this material himself in 1977. Going on the offensive, Silva hired a lawyer and filed suit against Bantam, MacLaine and ABC Pictures. Silva claims that Shirley MacLaine signed an affidavit which says that he is David. Silva considers that affidavit a victory. But his legal struggle with MacLaine, he thinks, may have caught the attention of other powerful people who didn't want his story to be validated in so public a fashion.
He started lecturing again. And then, in 1991, he found himself under suspicion of child molestation. "I couldn't believe it," he says. "Somebody charged me with first degree molestation of a six year old child." Silva says he thinks the molestation charge against himself, and the similar charge against well-known UFO researcher Wendelle Stevens, were both set-ups. "If you rob a bank, some people might consider you a hero," Silva says. "But if you molest a child, everybody sees you as the scum of the earth. It is the lowest of the low. It totally discredits you." In Silva's case, it got him deported.
Shirley MacLaine stars as herself in this TV movie, a powerfully candid recreation of the passionate love affair and spiritual adventure that took the actress to some of the world's most exotic locales--and to the innermost reaches of her very being.
Shirley, feeling something lacking in her life, finds herself increasingly drawn toward the idea that there is more to living and the world around her than what we generally acknowledge. Delving deeper into the study of metaphysics and religion via books, various kindred spirits and firsthand observations, Shirley, although an inveterate skeptic, becomes more and more absorbed in the infinite possibilities open to humankind.
After visiting many of the world's most exotic cities on her journey, Shirley finds herself in Peru with a fellow seeker named David Manning. Manning shares some of his knowledge with Shirley which aids in her search for cosmic enlightenment which once again turns inward, leading her to a previously unimaginable out-of-body experience. It's not long before her extraordinary spiritual explorations foster a growing belief in reincarnation, the possible existence of extraterrestrials and most importantly, the immorality of the human soul.
The composite character of David Manning in the movie and book is partially based on Shirley MacLaine's meeting's in Switzerland with UFO Contactee Billy Meier. Charles Silva has claimed that he is the main inspration for the David character. Silva told his story in a book called "Date with the Gods" in 1977. When he showed it to actress Shirley MacLaine, she asked him to take her to Peru. Their adventures together lasted the next five years, after which MacLaine wrote her famous best-seller, "Out on a Limb." In that book, and in her 1987 ABC TV mini-series of the same title, she says a character named "David" took her to Peru, taught her about reincarnation and astral projection, and told her about his friend from the Pleiades. Silva says MacLaine broke her promise to tell what she really learned from him about coming events on earth, including geological changes, political upheavals, and alien landings. He says she was pressured to leave all that out of her book by powerful friends, including Bella Abzug and David Rockefeller.
So Silva decided to go on a lecture tour and tell his own story. In his promotional material, he called himself "The Real David from 'Out on a Limb'." Not surprisingly, his lectures and seminars drew large crowds. It wasn't long, however, before Silva got a letter from Bantam Books, the publisher of "Out on a Limb," warning him that he was illegally using copyrighted material in his lectures. He shot back an angry reply, asking if anyone at Bantam was aware that he had published all this material himself in 1977. Going on the offensive, Silva hired a lawyer and filed suit against Bantam, MacLaine and ABC Pictures. Silva claims that Shirley MacLaine signed an affidavit which says that he is David. Silva considers that affidavit a victory. But his legal struggle with MacLaine, he thinks, may have caught the attention of other powerful people who didn't want his story to be validated in so public a fashion.
He started lecturing again. And then, in 1991, he found himself under suspicion of child molestation. "I couldn't believe it," he says. "Somebody charged me with first degree molestation of a six year old child." Silva says he thinks the molestation charge against himself, and the similar charge against well-known UFO researcher Wendelle Stevens, were both set-ups. "If you rob a bank, some people might consider you a hero," Silva says. "But if you molest a child, everybody sees you as the scum of the earth. It is the lowest of the low. It totally discredits you." In Silva's case, it got him deported.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_on_a_Limb
Charles Dance has a past life connection with Richard William Church.
Bella Abzug
Abzug graduated from Walton High School in New York City, and went on to Hunter College of the City University of New York, later earning a law degree from Columbia University. She then went on to do further post-graduate work at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Abzug was admitted to the New York Bar in 1947, and started practicing in New York City, particularly in matters of labor law. She became an attorney in the 1940s, a time when very few women did so, and took on civil rights cases in the South. Abzug was an outspoken advocate of liberal causes, including support for the Equal Rights Amendment, and opposition to the Vietnam War. This placed her on the master list of Nixon political opponents, and likewise Nixon was apparently on her list, according to the following :
"...[F]ast forward to 1973-1974, to the tumult surrounding President Richard Nixon once the Watergate break-in came to light. James Cannon tells of a succession plot to end all plots in his biography of President Ford, Time and Chance. In October of 1973, Nixon's first vice president, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign in disgrace. The Republican Nixon would be nominating a replacement who would have to be confirmed on Capitol Hill. But Congress was led by Democrats. New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug hatched a scheme to thwart Nixon and — worse — the plain intent of the Constitution. She and several other Democrats floated the idea that the Senate obstruct Nixon's VP nominee. In other words, they would insure that there would be no vice president. Then, when the president resigned because of public pressure from Watergate, succession would pass to the other party, to the Democratic speaker of the House, Carl Albert (since there would be no VP). When Congresswoman Abzug presented the scheme to Speaker Albert, he refused to go along with the extra-constitutional scheme. Some historians have argued that this is the closest to a coup d'etat the U.S. has ever come."
She served the state of New York in the United States House of Representatives, representing her district of Manhattan, from 1971 to 1977. For part of her term, she also represented part of The Bronx as well. She was one of the first members of Congress to support gay rights, introducing in 1974, the first federal gay rights bill, the Equality Act of 1974, with fellow Democratic New York City Representative, Edward Koch, a future mayor of New York City.
In 1976, Abzug ran for the U.S. Senate, but was narrowly defeated in the Democratic primary by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. She was also unsuccessful in a bid to be the Mayor of New York City in 1977, and in attempts to return to the U.S. House from the East Side of Manhattan in 1978 and from Westchester County in 1986. Abzug remained active in politics even after ceasing to be a candidate.
In 1990, she co-founded the Women's Environment & Development Organization to mobilize women's participation in international conferences, particularly those run by the United Nations.
She was well-known for her habit of wearing noticeable hats. Abzug, who was Jewish, appeared in the WLIW video A Laugh, A Tear, A Mitzvah. She was also known in the Congress for being extremely outspoken. This became a problem during her legislative career and led one of her fellow House members to say that her support of any bill would cost it 20 to 30 votes.[citation needed]
After battling breast cancer for a number of years, she developed heart disease and died in 1998 at the age of 77.
Bella seems to have a connection with Elizabeth Fry.
Elizabeth Fry
Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney; 21 May 1780 – 12 October 1845) was an English prison reformer, social reformer and philanthropist.
Fry was the driving force in legislation to make the treatment of prisoners more humane, and she was supported in her efforts by a reigning monarch. Since 2002, she has been depicted on the Bank of England £5 note.
Elizabeth Gurney was born in Gurney Court, off Magdalen Street, Norwich, Norfolk, England to a Quaker family. Her family home as a child was Earlham Hall, Norwich, which is now part of the University of East Anglia. Her father, Joseph Gurney, was a partner in Gurney's bank. Her mother, Catherine, was a part of the Barclay family, who were among the founders of Barclays Bank. Elizabeth's mother died when she was only twelve years old. As one of the oldest girls in the family, she was partly responsible for the care and training of the younger children, including her brother Joseph John Gurney.
At eighteen years old, the young Elizabeth Gurney was deeply moved by the preaching of William Savery, an American Quaker. Motivated by his words, she took an interest in the poor, the sick, and the prisoners. She collected old clothes for the poor, visited those who were sick in her neighbourhood, and started a Sunday school in the summer house to teach children to read. She met Joseph Fry (1777 –1861), a banker and also a Quaker, when she was twenty years old. They married on 19 August 1800 at the Norwich Goat Lane Friends Meeting House and moved to St. Mildred's Court in the City of London. They had eleven children in all (Hatton, 2005, 13), born between 1801 and 1822, including Katherine Fry (1801-1886), who wrote a History of the Parishes of East and West Ham (1888). Elizabeth Fry was recorded as a Minister of the Religious Society of Friends in 1811. Joseph and Elizabeth Fry lived in Plashet House in East Ham between 1809 and 1829, moving then to Upton Lane in Forest Gate tis
Prompted by a family friend, Stephen Grellet, Fry visited Newgate prison. The conditions she saw there horrified her. The women's section was overcrowded with women and children, some of whom had not even received a trial. They slept on the floor and did their own cooking and washing in the small cells in which they slept.
She returned the following day with food and clothes for some of the prisoners. She was unable to further her work for nearly 4 years because of difficulties within the Fry family, including financial difficulties in the Fry bank. Fry returned in 1816 and was eventually able to found a prison school for the children who were imprisoned with their parents. She began a system of supervision and required the women to sew and to read the Bible. In 1817 she helped found the Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate.
Thomas Fowell Buxton, Fry's brother-in-law, was elected to Parliament for Weymouth and began to promote her work among his fellow MPs. In 1818 Fry gave evidence to a House of Commons committee on the conditions prevalent in British prisons, becoming the first woman to present evidence in Parliament.
Fry and her brother Joseph John Gurney took up the cause of abolishing capital punishment. At that time, people in England could be executed for over 200 crimes. Early appeals to the Home Secretary were all rejected, until Sir Robert Peel became the Home Secretary, they finally got a receptive audience. They persuaded Peel to introduce a series of prison reforms that included the Gaols Act 1823. Fry and Gurney went on a tour of the prisons in Great Britain. They published their findings of inhumane conditions in a book entitled Prisons in Scotland and the North of England.
Fry also helped the homeless, establishing a "nightly shelter" in London after seeing the body of a young boy in the winter of 1819/1820. In 1824, during a visit to Brighton, she instituted the Brighton District Visiting Society. The society arranged for volunteers to visit the homes of the poor and provide help and comfort to them. The plan was successful and was duplicated in other districts and towns across Britain.
After her husband went bankrupt in 1828, Fry's brother became her business manager and benefactor. Thanks to him her work went on and expanded.
In 1840 Fry opened a training school for nurses. Her programme inspired Florence Nightingale who took a team of Fry's nurses to assist wounded soldiers in the Crimean War.
Fry became well known in society. Some people criticized her for having such an influential role as a woman. Others alleged that she was neglecting her duties as a wife and mother in order to conduct her humanitarian work. One admirer was Queen Victoria, who granted her an audience a few times and contributed money to her cause.
Fry died at Ramsgate on 12 October 1845 and her remains were buried in the Friends' burial ground at Barking. It is reported that over one thousand people stood in silence as her body was buried.
Fry has two plaques at her birthplace Gurney Court, off Magdalen Street, Norwich and one on her childhood home, Earlham Hall, plus there is an Elizabeth Fry Road in Earlham. There is also a plaque on St. Mildred's Court in the City of London where she lived when she was first married, which in turn is remembered in St. Mildred's Road in Earlham.
In 2002 she was depicted on the Bank of England five pound note. Fry is also depicted on two panels of the Quaker Tapestry—panels E5 and E6. In February 2007 a new plaque was placed in her honour on the Friends Meeting House in Upper Goat Lane, Norwich.
The Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies honours her memory by advocating for women who are in the criminal justice system. They also celebrate and promote a National Elizabeth Fry Week in Canada each May.
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