Feeling the force of the cosmic bang (From The Northern Echo)

Feeling the force of the cosmic bang

9:33am Tuesday 8th August 2006 in

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TV personality Noel Edmonds says it saved his career - now North-East businessman Stephen Richards has written a book on the virtures of Cosmic Ordering. He talks to Woman's Editor Sarah Foster.

IN certain interviews there's a pivotal moment; a point at which the tone of things is set. With Stephen Richards it comes quite soon. We're sitting in a house in Gateshead - Stephen, his PA Sharon, the photographer and I. The poor photographer is trying to get his shot amid a barrage of interruptions - "Why don't I put my hands up like this?", "I think this would look really good" - then out of the blue, Stephen asks him a question: "When did you first have sex?"

Having caught our attention, he intones sagely: "I sense there will be something sexual for you." The photographer looks bemused. I feel a little bit sorry for him, but mostly, I'm hugely entertained. I can see already that this is going to be fun.

Hot on the heels of Noel Edmonds declaring himself a fan, Stephen has written the Cosmic Ordering Guide, explaining the philosophy and how to use it. A New Age phenomenon, it works on the principle that the whole universe is interlinked and that, by drawing on its power, we can achieve our wildest dreams. It may sound fanciful but Stephen, 41, who lives in Durham, claims to have used it to go from nothing to finding success.

In the Gateshead house which he's only just sold (among his many roles is that of property developer) he gives a flavour of what this means. "I'm an eclectic, universal gypsy," he declares. "What I tend to do is juggle a lot of projects that vary from property developing and property letting to TV series and documentaries, usually as an assistant producer or consultant. I've worked on about 100 different documentaries simply as an advisor."

His television work has come through his writing - he's penned a host of books on gangsters - and the other stuff... well he just seems to have fallen into it. Yet as Stephen tells it, he has the universe to thank for that. "When you connect to it you can take as much as you can get because it's of a sufficient size to give everything," he says.

What started him on the path to Cosmic Ordering was, as he freely admits, sheer desperation. It began with a fractured childhood in which he only learned to read and write when he was 11. Without going into details, he says: "If it was today, I'd have all sorts of psychiatrists, child psychologists and social workers on my case. Looking back on the various moves I had - one of them included a field for the night - to get somewhere I could call home was a precious thing."

Yet it took a while for him to achieve this. He recalls a time of great despondency. "I used to get opportunity magazines," says Stephen. "I would look through them and think 'you know, I could put some ad in there' so I tried to start off a business to hire a queue. The thinking was that if somebody had a pop star coming to do a record signing and the shot wanted a lot of people, they would ring up and hire a queue. About three people joined and nobody ever rang to hire a queue."

So Stephen turned to producing pamphlets on subjects ranging from staying young to winning the Lottery. Whatever he did seemed to turn to dross. "I bet on the horses - I was a bit of a gambling sad loser," he admits. "Everyone in the bookies believed that their horse would come in and I also believed that my horse would come in. I was mixing with losers and I became a loser as well."

The turning point came when he met an Iranian. "He was the guy who influenced me to wish from the universe," says Stephen. "His whole life was immersed in money without him even trying, but he was always happy. He always gave to his family. I saw this and thought I could emulate it."

His first attempts at Cosmic Ordering were less than fruitful. Then one dark night, when he was least expecting it, something clicked. "It was a winter's night in early '96 and I was at the coast," recalls Stephen. "I was eating fish and chips and I looked up at the sky. It was all full of stars and you could see them twinkling. It was only then that it dawned on me that I was part of the universe. I felt different. It was like I'd gone to Mount Ararat or Lourdes. I came back with something more than a £1m cheque - I came back with what that Iranian meant."

Eager to test this new connection, Stephen looked to old habits and tried his luck at the betting shop. He claims the results were instantaneous, with him winning £25,000 in four months. His explanation is fantastical even for him. "This is going to sound mad," he begins. "I wanted to be able to feel and sense what these horses were telling me and that's when I went into the bookies and started doing it. The horses were communicating with me. I was asking in my mind which one was going to win and it was like you looking at me now - the horse was looking at me and giving me the signal and saying it was going to win.

"The horses would talk differently. The first time the ear was flicking. I would say 'are you saying you're going to win?' and it nodded its head up and down - 'yes'. I was saying 'what's going on? Is it real?' and it would nod its head again.

"In some of the races two of the horses would start nodding. Eventually one would win but it led me to believe that the race was fixed. Then in some of the races, all the horses started nodding, so I became knowledgeable that the whole race was fixed and I avoided those."

Stephen starts talking about the crown chakra and the pineal gland and I'm a little lost. He describes the purest cosmic link-up - a sort of broadband connection. "The moment you connect to the cosmos it's such a world apart from where you are now," he says. "It's a spiritual light and it's a bang, and when that bang occurs, it's as if you're on the Starship Enterprise at factor 50. Words can't describe it, it's such an enlivening and enlightening experience."

While you can ask for what you want, there are conditions. "You must be specific," says Stephen. "You have to say to the cosmos 'this is what I want' but as appropriate. There are not enough winning Lottery tickets to go around so it's pointless asking for winning Lottery tickets. There are not enough villas in Spain either but it can be done bit by bit. You can work up to that."

This, says Stephen, is just what he has done - and more than that, he's learned restraint. Having made his money, he knew it was payback time. "I qualified as a stress counsellor and a clinical hypnotherapist," he says. "That's when I started to put something back. I see it going much further in terms of helping people. My remit has changed from being one of greed and wantonness to being one now where I want to give."

Whatever the reason for Stephen's success - and despite his shameless self-aggrandisement (he even feels the need to point out his Ray-Bans) - I can't help liking him. He's loud and brash, and possibly barmy, but he's also bright and self-deprecating. What can't be denied is that, with help from the universe or no, he's turned his life around. "We're all connected," he says, and I think that somehow or other, perhaps we are.

* Cosmic Ordering Guide by Stephen Richards (Mirage Publishing, PO Box 161, Gateshead, £7.99)

* For more information, visit www.cosmicordering.net