Ommmmmmm......

The Golden Temple at Amritsar, India

Most people will find a calming atmosphere in a place that has traditional religious or spiritual associations.Some such buildings are spectacular structures, like the Sikhs' Golden Temple in Amritsar, set in a sacred lake and enclosed by a wall all around.

Back in England, I sometimes watch people as they walk into the cathedral in my home town of Lincoln and see them pause and soak in the atmosphere of a near-thousand-year-old building that was, in its time, a technological project as complex and daring as putting a man on the moon in more recent years. 

Some of the standing stones at Carnac

But you don't need a magnificent structure to get that sense of peace and calm, as I discovered many years ago when I took two of my children on holiday to Brittany. 

The standing stones at Carnac number over 3,000 and are between 3,500 and 4,500 years old. They are set out with geometrical precision over an area roughly 100 metres wide and more than a kilometre in length.

Whatever their original purpose may have been, the site retains a powerful atmosphere - not forgetting that both Brittany in France and Cornwall in England emit natural radiation from the granite bedrock well in excess of the levels that have been set as safe and acceptable for human habitations that are close to nuclear power stations. 

So don't be surprised if you tingle a bit after hugging one of the stones.

And what, you may be thinking, has this to do with Mauritius? - that will, to some extent, depend on your degree of scepticism or open-mindedness, because the whole island of Mauritius is identified by some spiritual leaders as having unique properties. In  particular, there are claims made for a woodland glade near the tiny hamlet of Riambel, on the south coast.

The "Spiritual Vortex" at Riambel

Riambel is known in the metaphysical world as the location of one of the world’s 14 energy vortexes. New Age healers claim this particular energy vortex is a “link between our Earthly dimension and the fifteenth dimension, one that exists in the lower levels of our universe.”

They say that energy enters the world in Mauritius and flows through the planet, exiting in an identical vortex on the opposite side. The theory of the vortex is that there is both an “in” and “out” flow, like two identical passages that reinforce but do not inhibit the other. They believe that the vortex on Mauritius is the first to become active, and the exact locations of all 13 others still remain to be identified. 

For more information on the power of the vortex, have a look at James Dyson's vacuum cleaners, but I doubt if you'll be much the wiser about any of the claims made for this calm woodland glade.  

Nonetheless, I found that this location does have a strange atmosphere that is quite enervating. After 20 minutes, I felt quite dizzy and - no - I had not been drinking. 

What I have come to realise over the past few days, is that you can take Mauritius on any level, from hedonistic night-life to spiritual retreat. I have found a special quality that encourages me to slow down, and ask all those New-Agey questions like what have I achieved in my life, and what should I do next?

I think that the fact that Mauritius was uninhabited for thousands of years has given it a special quality that is accessible to anyone who is prepared to open up and feel the difference. 

Just breathing. . .

There is something very powerful about just sitting on the beach, and trying to think of nothing whatsoever. There's nobody pestering you to buy T-shirts or trinkets, and nobody hawking drinks or snacks, either. Hot sun, warm water and nothing to disturb the peace.