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Urantial050493Thru060593TM_Discussions_Part4

THE URANTIAL ARCHIVE

Consisting of 10 Parts

From December 14,1992 Through February25, 1994

4 May 1993   Thea Hardy       Experience Revisited

Subject: Experience Revisited In-Reply-To: [9305041511.AA06904@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 David,

 How can we possibly be aware of the relationship between ourselves and the Father without our experience of it? Or of any other relationship? It is precisely in our experience where we make it the living truth of our lives and take it beyond a mere idea/ concept, beyond mere intellectual knowledge. This is what I mean by experience. Yes, for me, too, the ground is the relationship between myself and God, but not merely the fact, but the living truth which is the only thing that has ever had the saving grace of altering my life. The truth must be lived, as I see it, and that means experience. I fear I was too vague in my initial statement. And experience must forever be being put to the test with the Spirit of Truth.

5 May 1993   Dennis Shields      The problem with paridigms is

Subject: The problem with paridigms is that *shift happens*

 Aloha Logondonters sojourners of the new Urmia

 David thanx for your take on ON CAMPUS I find your opinions informative from both a read the line and a read between the lines perspective. But I still have this question as to the date of the Vern messages is the 1985 date you refer to about the FOG apologies? Regarding the lack of sarcasm in the koresh 1 mac 0 posting David David David dont kid a kidder in your *drive by shootings* you use sarcasm the way a gang member would use a mac10 or an uzi. Being sarcastic has nothing to do with the fact content of that posting.

 Phil as to our expectations of the types and amount of error we might find on the mansion worlds I would have to consider the Lucifer Rebellion as many orders of magnitude worse than a no show or a late appointment. Interesting to speculate on the Mansonia margin of error doncha think?

 Jim McNelly; all truth and no fact you say, ... hum ... sorta a cosmic *get outta jail free* card? From a prior posting I am still curious about Planet earthworms Pats your brother and 1975 a Mexican bar in Fullerton???

 The truth does not fear an honest examination department

 I am reminded of a routine by the late great Lord Buckley about the Lords own drunk Buckley recounted how one evening he had taken on the duty of guarding his cuz moonshine still and being a curious soul Buckley decided to investigate the product of that still in fact he investigated sooo well that he was transformed into * the Lords own drunk and a fearless man* and he was proceeding on quite nicely when up came the bear and seeing he was the Lords own drunk and a fearless man stayin put when the bear expected him to split well the bear was stuck. In Buckleys words *it hung him up*. So Buckley offered the bear the fruit of the still sooo much that after a while * the bear began to do the bear dance it was a shuffle to the left and a step to the right it was so simple it eluded me* ...... such is some of the criticism directed toward the TM *it was so simple it eluded me* by this i mean that some criticism looks for the complex verses the *sky is blue* simplex found in the TM consider the following:

 

 **Dear Ones, my Friends,

 **Remember, the words which are transmitted through you may not be received on the level we intend. Humans tend to wrap each word uttered into their own perceptions, their own caring and concerns, their own narrow limitations, their own opinions. What you say may not at all be what is heard. What you intend may not at all be understood. What you try to communicate may not be communicated at all but replaced with someone's perceptions of what you attempted to communicate.

 Your teachers must remember this. They try many methods of getting information to you. Many ask why there is less "meat" in the transmissions than they would like to have. The content of the message is in direct relationship to the content of the intentions of the question. Is the question intended to make a decision simple? Is the question intended to make the decision for one? Is the question intended to encourage deeper thought and thorough investigation into the subject of the question? Where would you have us help? In crippling you through dependency? Have you not seen the evil of this kind of help? Would you have us make your decisions for you? Have you not read in your textbook, The Urantia Book, that making the decision is the whole purpose of your experiences on the material world of Urantia? Would you have us broaden your base for making decisions in your experience? Then you would have us cause turmoil and discord to challenge and stretch you.

 Do you wish to attain this level of spirituality and then coast through the rest of your life? Would you want to offer only this much to your students which will be those we send to you? Have you only the desire to socialize and have the wisdom of the ages transmitted into your circle without any effort on your part?

 Of course not! We know what is in your hearts.

 Each of you has personally expressed the desire to know more, to love more, to grow more, to serve more. You have the opportunity and the challenge from us to do this.

 Each of you has asked to be of service to Father and each of you have declared the desire for your personal will to be the Will of the Father, for Divine energy to enliven and express through you. How do we allow this without stretching you into your perfect potential one tiny step at a time to encourage you to try out your potential as it is revealed to you?

 Each of you has personally stated that you trust us and to learn from us. Are you trusting if you do not step out in faith, if you do not practice what we teach, if you do not discipline yourselves to move out of discomfort into strange new comfort?

 All sincere seekers must be welcomed. All must find their way to be part of the group. All must learn to voice their discomfort to the whole group -- not to one or two individuals who are expected to "fix it". There are to be no "fix it"s -- all things work together for good. Feelings will be hurt from time to time, but the growth in group trust will expand. Until the one whose feelings were hurt can approach the whole group with that personal challenge and ask for clarification of the intent of the comment or action which "hurt," the individual will limit personal growth and the group is denied an awakening and awareness.

 We find it interesting to see the millions of words in your vocabulary, the sincere intent of personal love and service which each of you so freely brings to us, and the commitment to the group which each of you has, results in so much confusion and isolation from others within the group. We are studying this and trying to discern how to circumvent this evil left from the rebellion and smooth the path of reconciliation and understanding amongst you -- as a group, and as individuals. There is much work for us to do. This would be made easier if you were not to take offense so quickly.

 There is much diversity in the personalities and expressions of the Father in the individuals which comprise this Corp. There is a polarity which occurs between those in agreement and those out of agreement. Many times, had we not stepped in, some would have thrown up their hands in frustration and quit -- or some would have gotten emotionally out of control of their reasoning powers. There is Truth in the midst of you. There is reception in the hearts of you all. There is ability to learn from and trust in all of you! Wake up. Listen with your hearts, not your perceptions. Listen with focus on God's will, not individual feelings. Listen to the depth of intent behind the words, not the words themselves. Open thine eyes that you may see, visions of truth and perfection. See!

 You are our promise of restoration of Urantia! You are among those selected to function in the Corps of Destiny. You!

 Are you special? You bet! Each is unique and has a perfect position to fill. This does not mean that you are circumventing anything, that you have been pulled into positions of glory and honor? On the contrary. those of you who have the fortitude and faith to rely on the strength of your Source, to go forth in spite of reluctance and human fears, to serve with intentions of loving mercy -- those will suffer much in ridicule, much in battered egos, much in personal frustration and doubt. But, if you are sincerely ready to tune your will into the will of the Father, then you will indeed be very valuable in the service of our Creator Son, Michael! If Michael suffered --even with his great love of all mankind, of his great service to all of mankind, to his portrayal of a human aligned perfectly with the will of the Father, then how much must you withstand while in those mortal material forms? Take heart! You have not been forsaken. On the contrary, you are Michael's Plan for restoring Urantia's place among the Planets of Light and Life. You are the Plan for restoring peace and confidence among the children of the Urantia Orb. You are the Plan for gauging and adjusting and attuning those reluctant ones who know not the enlightening teachings of the Urantia Book, or the inspirations of knowing God, or the viewpoint of the great New Dispensation which brings Teachers by the thousands to your planet.

 Not only are teachers arriving daily, but those educated and experienced in government and politics, those technicians of biological uplifting, those working with methods of restoring and healing the earth itself, those calling the downhearted and downtrodden into hope and faith, those who educate on all levels are arriving daily! Much is happening! More will happen. This is not bound by time.

 If the earth is the "stubbed toe" of the Universe, then the "bandages and first aid" are arriving at a spectacular rate and ministering in each possible method to restore Light and Life to that "stubbed" toe!

 Remember, as it is done among the few it will be done to the many. As one shares with one, and the two share with two more, and the four share with four more, and the eight share with eight more, this expands in a rippling manner until the entire population has shared the good news! One will reap the benefits when all reach the goal! (Does this not remind you of the Supreme?)

 As we can introduce and instill the Truth in your small group, we can introduce and instill it into the entire globe! As we can move you out of comfort into challenging discomfort and stretching towards potential, we can stretch all peoples of Urantia into their potential! When a few are functioning in harmony, many can do so. When unity can be brought to a group of such diversity as your group is, then unity in diversity can ring out all over the land!

 This is happening! Stand ready! Be prepared! Begin to live! Begin to express! Begin to BE! You are what you are made to be -- in potential! Stretch through the human perceptions which are limiting and venture into those areas of freedom. Don't just talk about Free Will. Use it. Choose to go forward! Combine your efforts in a great movement towards change and reformation of attitudes and perceptions. Ask yourself why you perceive life as you do. Ask yourself why you have the opinions that you do. Ask yourself if you really want to move into discomfort and growth to find Truth and Peace and Life and Light! Mercy is active. Love is active. Love unexpressed is not love. Mercy is applied love. Use mercy in all situations. Apply love to all situations. Love is the answer. But first you must find a new open unlimited definition of Love. There are no limitations to love. There are no limited definitions to love. Only those ready to move forward, express their unique aspect of God's Will and unite in brotherly attitudes of Truth (intellectual meaning) Beauty (physical harmony) and Goodness (spiritual value) bring good through bringing the understanding of each and all into knowing Father. You know Father, by expressing him. You know Father, by spending time with him. You know Father by looking from his perspective. You know Father by moving out of self satisfied comfort into action. It has been said many times, in many ways, by many beings, that "the journey begins with the first small step" and each step after that point -- regardless of size -- leads you towards or away from your goal. Which way are you going?

 My Dear Ones! You are on the journey. There are many ways to attain your goal and none of us wishes to pressure you into stress for the sake of pressure and stress. You have agreed to this mission/assignment and for it to be successful we must find your commitment and responses to each drop of Truth we sprinkle from your source. We cannot rain the Truth upon you lest we drown you. We cannot make a pond, lest you enjoy splashing and clowning and playing with it. We cannot put it into your tank for fuel of momentum to continue on your material way. We cannot withhold it lest it stagnate and die. Therefore we are limited in how much we give you by the amount you can hold.

 This is a trip into the imagination. Think well on these things. You will see Truth if you are open to receiving it. As you think deeper you will find different levels of Truth. It is your choice to begin and/or complete this Truth journey in imagination:

 Imagine a glass of water... full to the rim. Are you satisfied in your thirst by holding that glass before you and knowing about it? Must you drink of the water to slake your thirst. Will the urge to find truth within you be quenched if we drown you with it? No you will rebel! You will cry out in alarm! You will pray for it to stop!

 If your glass of water filled to the brim stays full and you drink none of it, how then can we add more? It would spill out and run away and be lost in the nothingness outside of the glass which holds the water! Where will Truth go if we give you more than your container will hold, more than you can understand at this level of being?

 No, Dear Ones, we are here to urge you to drink the Truth. Live the Truth. Express the Truth. Seek the Truth and Find the Truth! As you are ready, you will find nourishment and sustenance. Doubt not! You are given the opportunity to seek and find as much as you are ready to receive. There are no limits. It is your decision.

 What about a cup filled with Love instead of water? What about a cup filled with Mercy instead of water? What about a cup filled with Good instead of water? What about a cup filled with Spirit instead of water? What about a cup filled with Trust instead of water? What about a cup filled with Forgiveness instead of Water?

 Now I ask you also to consider these things: What about a cup filled with misunderstanding instead of water? What about a cup filled with anger and resentment instead of water? What about a cup filled with hurt and revenge instead of water? What about a cup filled with doubt and distrust instead of water? What about a cup filled with hate and evil instead of water?

 If your cup is filled with muddy water and you add more muddy water what do you have? If however, your cup is filled with clear sparkling water and you add muddy water what do you have?

 Would it not be better to add the clear sparkling water to your cup? If the cup is muddy to begin with the clear sparkling water will soon lighten it until it also is clear. If the cup is filled with clear water it will remain clear and sparkling and be as a light on the mountain top for all to see and drink from!

 I tell you truly to tend to your cups. Examine their contents. Choose what you will add to the contents.

 Let us take this one step further:

 Suppose there is a well of water close by and easy to get to, but the water from the well is quite discolored and muddy. Would you take the easy way and use that water for your personal cup?

 Suppose there is a well quite distant but easy to access, but it means spending a good deal of time to get there. Would you make the effort? Would you try to find someone to go for you?

 If you had made the journey and gotten your water and then you saw others trying to make the journey to the clear sparkling well and were lost, how would you help them? You have choices here:

 You could help by bringing water to them and making your load heavy and cumbersome? You would have done a good deed and ministered to one. But at what cost to them? What happens next time they need their cup refreshed? Would there be another to fetch it for them?

 You could help them through the obstacles and show them which fork of the road to take and expose them to the joy of fulfillment and pleasure in attaining their goal? And, when they next needed refreshment for their cups they would know how to make the trip themselves.

 Some would help by generously paying someone else to make the trip for them. They would help by sending some to help. Does this bring joy, fulfillment or pleasure to either the payer, the fetcher, or the receiver?

 What would happen if you organized a team who worked together?

 Then either a line could be formed to the well and containers of water could be passed from hand to hand until all had some clear sparkling water.

 

 

 Or, each member of the team could cover some portion of the pathway to the well to help others make the trip in their own consciousness, under their own method of choice.

 I tell you to look deeply at what you were just given. There is much truth contained here. The questions are challenges to move into higher levels of consciousness of your daily experiences!

 What if the cup were the Urantia Book?

 What if the cup were the study groups where the textbook is used to dig into deeper and more extensive knowledge?

 What if the cup was your consciousness?

 What if the cup was your soul?

 What if the cup was your thinking?

 What if the cup was your life style?

 What if the cup was filled with your decisions?

 How then would you refresh it? Or would you be happy holding it and feeling that because it is full you can relax?

 Is your cup collecting dust from disuse? Is your cup empty because you have not time to make the effort to refill or refresh it? Is your cup satisfied with what others bring to you? Is your cup too full to take in more? Is you cup filled with murky muddy water because you have not been adding sparkling clean water to it -- you have been willing to settle for what is easy to access?

 How can we, your teachers, help you if you are willing to sit and admire a cup already filled to the brim which can't hold any more?

 How can we, your teachers, help you if we have clear sparkling water and you will not make the effort to attain it?

 How can we, your teachers, stimulate you to move along the pathway to the sparkling clear water?

 How can we, your teachers, help you formulate a "team" to help others along the pathway?

 How can we, your teachers, reassure you of the sparkling water if you are content to settle for the muddy water in easy access?

 This is a lesson in thinking. What you do with it is up to you. We have brought it to you because you have asked. It may be shared around the world because there is Truth in different levels to stimulate those of all levels of perceptions.

 You always have free will and you can choose to learn and grow each day, or you can choose to be content to wait and watch. In the end you must make a decision to move forward and upward or stagnate and slip backwards. But it is always your choice. You have been given your cup and it is up to you to seek to fill it and use it (live it) and refresh it (move to add to it). Each decision along the way adds either the muddy water or the clear water of Truth. Are you making the best with what you have been given? Or, are you complaining because your cup isn't as big, or as small, or as light and someone else's?

 I tell you. During the experience of your life thus far, you have filled your cups with your choices and decisions. You have been given large cups with enormous capacity, but even these will dry up or fill up from time to time if you do not use, refill and refresh them. Do you hear? Do you see? What you refill them with is also important.

 If you have a cup filled with discontent, disharmony, unforgiveness, limited perceptions, ignorance, fear, doubt, --evils of un-Godlike substance, what will you do with it? What will you begin to refill it with?

 If you think you have a pitcher full of refreshing water to give to others, perhaps you had better look again. Even good depends on perspective. You cannot fill nor refresh others if they do not want what you have. You can only guide them towards the source of the refreshment for themselves.

 This is what we, your teachers, are with you to do. We see your cups of large capacity filled with so little compared to what they will hold! We see that the planet can benefit if we can teach a few to seek to refill with clear sparkling Truth, and then point the way for others to find this Truth. Then, the many will help more, until the whole planet has been filled with Truth and Light and Love and Mercy -- applied love! This is your purpose. This is the purpose of the Corps of Destiny! This is the goal! This is your Destiny if you will but accept it! We are ready. Are you ready? We await your decisions. We watch your efforts to seek and find. Only then, can we help you.

 Awake! You have been given the tools for the task we ask you to accept! You have a textbook. You have a lifetime of experience. You know the Father. You have become acquainted with us. You have a unique destiny to fill -- and only you can fulfill it! When one begins an effort to manifest an idea, another must be inspired for the work to be completed. When two or more are gathered within the Will of the Father, all things can be done! Each one added to the two adds much more than the addition of the number, and as this number goes up the quality of the energy expands at a greater rate than the quantity putting forth the effort.

 An example of this is to draw 3 dots which form a triangle if joined by lines. Add 1 dot anyplace. Now how many triangles do you have? Add 1 more dot. How many triangles do you have? Continue to do this until you have added about 1000 dots. How many triangles are there contained within the figure represented by the dots?

 Think now of translating these dots to individuals within a study group. Then think of translating these dots into study groups. How long before this grows to include everyone on the planet?

 Now place three dots far away from one another (on the very edge of the paper). Add one dot in the center. Now add one dot in each of the sections. How many triangles are you adding with each dot? How soon before you have the en circuited and surrounded all space on the sheet of paper?

 Do you see what can happen within the study groups as they work in harmony and expand in ripples of love? You bring the Love of the Father down to a level of time and space for all to know and desire!

 Each study group will begin to send one or two members out to combine with a third to begin new study groups. Then when that study group grows it will send its members out in twos to join with a third to form still more study groups! So on and so forth until there are thousands of study groups. Imagine a study group of 10 people. In a few months they continue their study group, but add 5 more by going out in twos. You now have 6 study groups. When ready, these 6 study groups go out and begin new study groups... how many study groups will you have in 10 years? If 1000 study groups begin this process in 1993 how long before everyone on the planet can know about and begin to learn to live as these study groups are doing?

 Now, what if, in addition to the study group sessions, if there were also other groups, other functions expanding at this same rate and ALL were moving towards Light and Life? How many could increase more rapidly if they had the tool of the Urantia Book textbook? How many could accomplish more if they had teachers to help them? How many could grow in greater strides if they had the tools that you have?

 Think on these things. Ponder them in your hearts and minds and in your imaginations. Let them grow with more thought. Go with the flow of your imaginations as you visualize this quest. What can you learn from this exercise?

 Is there an ingredient missing? What is it? Can you add that ingredient? Where can you find that ingredient? What is your role in this process? Think on these things. Write to yourself from your higher or inner self. Let the Thought Adjuster help you find new consciousness in this exercise. Allow us to guide you to new Truth and cognizance and awareness of your self.

 Dear Ones, you are precious to the Father! You are unique and completely qualified to take on this task. The opportunity to serve the Father and the Brotherhood is at hand. You knocked and the door is open. What is your choice?

 I leave you with this. No longer fret over the pettiness of misunderstandings. Go forward and discover Truth. Look to motive and intention and let go of success and failure. You plant the seed and we will nourish it. Let's join our energies and creativeness and stretch Urantia into the next stage of Light and Life!

 Upward and Inward we march on wings of efforts and decisions. I am here to guide you and teach you.**

 

 

 I find several things of interest in the forgoing as pertains to the on going discussions of this forum the two by two splitting off of study groups and the discussions here on creating the new cult (implied from p.966 ).

 The first paragraph seems on the money as to how the messages from the TM are received.

 I bring the forgoing before this forum not as a believer rather as an examiner of the merits of the message. I chose to not discuss at this time the purported teacher or the individual whom this came through (other than to say I am not the one), not for any reason of secrecy rather to open for discussion what is being said and not the trappings surrounding these statements. The question of the hour is the preceding quote instruction as to how to apply Jesusonianism? If not what sets it apart from applied Jesusonianism?

 Aloha from the Orchid Island Thea; Yes, experience is essential and primal -- I did not want to negate that. You make the following statement:

 "It is precisely in our experience where we make it (our relationship with the Father) the living truth of our lives and take it beyond a mere idea/concept, beyond mere intellectual knowledge. This is what I mean by experience."

 I'm not sure what you mean by this. This statement implies that experience is a somehow a secondary element in our relationship with God; I think it is the primal element. To me, it is not a matter of taking it beyond a mere idea/concept -- the experience comes first. It is the task of the idea/-concept to explain the experience. Consider:

 Page-1141 "The mission of theology is merely to facilitate the self-consciousness of personal spiritual experience. Theology constitutes the religious effort to define, clarify, expound, and justify the experiential claims of religion, which, in the last analysis, can be validated only by living faith."

 It is not a matter of constructing a rational system which then makes possible the experience of God; the problem is to *explain* our experience with God which we find to be so profound and significant.

 The moment we interpret that experience of God, the moment we attach symbols to it in order to help us think about it or share it in our community, we are engaging in theology or philosophy.

 I agree with your statement that "truth must be lived", because we have the same problem with truth. It can be perceived but the moment we attempt to capture it with symbols, we destroy it.

 I think it is essential to be *conscious* of the criteria by which incorporate our experience into the rest of the symbolic context in which we live. As far as I can tell, it is not the role of the Thought Adjuster or any other of our unseen helpers, to engage directly in the task of selecting for us the symbols by which we interpret our experience -- that is the domain of free will choice with which they do not interfere.

 How do the symbols get attached to the experience? As far as I can tell, we can either let it happen by itself -- let the unconscious do it for us (as most people do) or we can make ourselves conscious of the process and establish some criteria and procedures for doing so. It is a common mistake to think that if we simply don't interfere with the process and just let it happen that we will be hearing God speak to us. I don't think this is possible. I think that if we attempt such an approach that in reality we are simply abandoning the process to our unconscious.

 You say "the truth must be lived and that means experience." To me, the truth which is *experienced* is truth relating to my personal relationship with God. The truth which must be *lived* is this same truth translated into my relationships with other people. The truth which is experienced is not consciousness of fact -- it is *truth*.

 I do not think that consciousness of fact is possible without some underlying philosophical assumptions upon which to base the symbolization of the experience of being conscious of the fact. The point I am trying to make here is that our direct experience of God has to do with qualitative aspects of relationship. It is not the same as consciousness of fact. Statements about the Lucifer rebellion, or a new dispensation starting, etc. are statements of *fact* which I do not believe are a part of the experience of the presence of God. That is not to say that they are not true, but I think it is a serious error to say that "God gave me this fact..." or even to say that "God appeared to me in the form of a burning bush..." I do not think that *any* statement about our direct experience of God can be more than metaphoric, and that it is a serious error to attempt the translation of metaphor into historic fact.

6 May 1993   Philip Calabrese      TM and More

Subject: TM and More

 ------- Dear Logondonters,

 On page 1000 the Urantia Book lists seven criteria for judging religious experiences. The first criterion is: does it make one physically healthy? These criteria are meant to be used to evaluate a personal experience, to tell whether one is going in the right direction or not with respect to some religious practice or experience. Meeting these criteria does not constitute a validation of the correctness of any specific content of the experience except that on average the experience is leading in the right direction. These are criteria for evaluating experiences that are intended to be applied only to the person having the experience. They are, in my opinion, not intended to apply to epochal religious experiences - belief in a revelatory book of epochal significance. Such a belief, since it directly involves other people and external reality, requires a much higher standard of evaluation. It is not enough, for instance, for the TM proponents to say that they are roughly going in the right direction, but that any specific thing, no matter how important, that a TM teacher says may be garbled beyond recognition by a TM channeler.

 If the words in supposed "Teaching Mission messages" are substantially altered by the human channeler, then the "teachings" are not like words coming over the telephone or in writing, where both ends hear the same words. So without passing judgment on the possibility of (we can still hope) any particular content (like the opening of the System circuits, the arrival of "teachers", or the scheduling of a famous person to appear) what "comes through" must be examined very carefully for distortion or outright fabrication, much more carefully than simple "messages" and simple language with high word fidelity as come over the TV, telephone, these electronic mailings, or the written word.

 A public mission of the spiritual authorities to bring teachers to Urantia is not a personal practice being evaluated on relative terms. It asks one to believe a much greater event, an epochal event - a world wide context - what the spiritual authorities have in mind for us.

 This brings me to the question of errors on earth versus errors in "heaven". The Lucifer rebellion was many orders of magnitude "worse" than a no-show at a planned appearance of a famous person. But the error and sin of Lucifer was purposeful and planned. It was efficiently executed. Compared to the many botched announced appearances of famous persons already by TM channelers and other "contactors" I have known, we humans ought to get a teaching assignment concerning scheduling appearances. We do pretty well in that area; our percentages of fulfilled obligations when scheduling famous persons are high, maybe 99 %.

 So I'm left with Dennis' message today, saying to myself. This has some truth in it, but it is fabricated to an unknown degree by a human mind.

 The big question is whether there really is a special "teaching mission" occurring, recently launched on Urantia by the celestial authorities and if all the garbled "messages" and the less obviously garbled ones too, are being in some special way sponsored by those authorities. So far, I've not seen or heard anything to make me conclude that there is. But I can hope for Urantia to fall over the "brink" of an enthralling new adventure. But don't we have too many Bosnia's for the time to be ripe?

 In the meantime, while we wait for further developments, it behooves all of us to regularly put down our intellectual weapons in defense of our beliefs and join spiritual hands together in the eternal kingdom of the personal presence of God. Let us here electronically even now come together simply to be with God and with each other, perchance to recall a feature of Jesus' life among us. By thus coming together and doing this act of faith presence, we are all transcending the momentary struggles of the intellect by the restful peace of our spiritual unity. And by such unity in the face of diverse beliefs we shall be bearing witness that we have truly been touched by God's spirit. We have truly been with the Master.

 

6 May 1993   leo elliott            Input Editors

Subject: Input Editors

 

 By the by, are any here familiar with Timothy Wyllie's "Dolphins, Angels, and Extraterrestrials," published around 1986, which references some type of allegedly angelic communication (with a Urantia frame) occurring in Canada -- is this possibly what Nancy Johnson has referred to in some of her communications? The name of "Sandy Garrick" comes to mind here, but I may be suffering from too much datadust in my eyes, or, as is often the case, I have been out of position to make the proper call. I trust any with publicly disclosable info will feel free to present it to the commons. Wyllie presents a very lyrical account of his encounters with dolphins (reminding me of some now- unrecallable passage in the UB about how the angels (or midwayers?) have some sort of dominion or ability to use "the beasts of the realm"???) as an "alien intelligence," along with UFOs, and then posits in an equally lyrical format the same possibilities that the TMmers are describing (end of the rebellion, etc.), this several years ahead of the TMmers public accounts. Anybody read this?

 

 

 

6 May 1993   Thea Hardy       Bried Musings

Subject: Bried Musings In-Reply-To: [9305061352.AA06775@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

  Hi Logondonters, hope your weeks are going well.

  Leo, I enjoyed your input-editor bit. I do vote for flexibility because in my experience, any group that tries to "think alike" is doomed to some pretty sever difficulties. I take what Michael said when he spoke of not wanting us to think alike pretty seriously. If we can find the heart of the matter - the truths that we do share - and then permit that individuality of approach that will ever be present as a result of personality diversity, I think we can all enjoy each other more. However different we are, we are all of equal value by virtue of the indwelling adjuster, out ultimate "editor" (at least the TA makes the editorial decisions about what goes into our soul, eh? :) That is why I am comfortable in the TM even though I may not see eye to eye with every detail. I am less concerned about material details than about the shared spirit. When I see people actively seeking time with the Father and actively seeking to love and understand their brothers and sisters, forgive me, but I am not always entirely concerned as to the exact details of their philophical underpinnings. In this, I have altered rather a lot since I got my MA in 1982 and was much more nit-picky on these things. I believe that all of us who share this incomparable revelation, both in and out of the TM, have something that we share which is vastly more important than that about which we differ. I would like to do whatever I can to encourage us to keep coming together and sharing together.

  To wit, along with some of the other things we have been discussing, I am interested in what others do in regards to prayer and worship - what the experiences of others are, the feelings, the thoughts about, the ways these times of experience with the Father and Michael are encouraged in your lives - what you do to enhance them, develop them, encourage them, experience them. I have found that sharing on this subject is very enlightening and growthful and would love to hear from some of you on this. I enjoyed very much the sensibility that Sara and Peg shared about nature's beauty and would like to talk even more about the relation of that and other aspects, like David's stained-glass windows and Bach, to our connection with the Father. What say, gang?

  Leo, BTW, I do know of someone else, not in Canada, who claims to have received similar messages in 1986 (also UB oriented).

  David, I have obviously not been keeping up on my verbal accuracy since the good old philosophy days (which frankly, were a bit of a beast). In looking over my words, I discovered plenty of vagueness. I meant to express that our relationship with God _is_ in our experience with him. Yes, they are the same thing. Except insofar as he has provided us, by loving us, giving us a TA and personality, with the very underpinnings in which and through which that experience can take place. Sorry for the vagaries. Further in your message when you addressed how symbolism is presented to us et al, I was pondering the possibility that however much similarity we may have in these symbols, if there is not also an element that is ultimately personal by virtue of being conditioned by the unique personality of each. Sometimes I think of the truth that the Supreme will one day reveal as being akin to the tale of the blind men and the elephant - that it requires the unique perspective of each of us together to come to the completion of the Supreme. There, now I have probably stirred up another kettle of fish. (Wish my system would let me compose off-line!)

  Dennis, thanks for reminding me of the particular message, with which I am already familir but had not read for awhile. I found it helpful just now. Did I tell you I know the dab of Hawaiian from an old boyfriend (30 years ago) who was from the islands? Him plenty pilikia. But I learned some bits and pieces. I lived there for six weeks once. Loved it, but malihinis have a hard time getting work - esp in 1964.

7 May 1993   Dennis Shields      If Jacks in love with Jill hes

Subject: If Jacks in love with Jill hes no judge of Jills beauty

  Aloha Logondonters, Phil I very much appreciate the tone and spirit of your *TM and more* posting. It occurs to me that the Bosnia s and koreshes of the world could indicate that Urantia instead of under ripe is over ripe *to fall over the brink of an enthralling new adventure*.

  As to the blotched messages and failed appearances attending that known as the TM; months ago with the rumors connected to the death of Vinnie Ventola I came to a conclusion that if the TM was real it had the appearance that we were dealing with a celestial entourage of imperfect beings *the gang that couldn't shoot straight* was how I began referring to them. I began looking at my expectations of perfection of those spiritually just above me and realized that I had to include that some margin of error must be expected from those levels of celestials which were closest to mortals level of standing in the ascension scheme, regardless of the realness of the TM.

  I agree with you Phil those questions, weather a teaching mission is occurring, is the hierarchy of celestials involved in some special way, and what degree of human garbling is present, these are the questions of the moment. Also if the explanation of this event are the mixings of true adjuster communications with human collective consciousness then what to do with these thought gems?

 Leo interesting that you recollect the same time frame for the Vern messages as we do here in Kona. The article in Newsweek regarded a misinterpretation by the Soviets of a NATO war game called *Able Archer* this I am told Ive yet to see the article.

  Regarding the similarity or lack of between the TM and the experiences of the Contact Commission for the Urantia Book I think the following quotes from Mark Kuliekes *Birth of a Revelation* are interesting and to the point.

  

  **Only the Contact Commission knew the identity of the human subject and certain of the details relating to transmission. Even so, they asserted that there were many missing links in even their knowledge of the contact process and that total understanding on anyone's part would be impossible. However the contact experience may have begun, it eventually embraced many forms of contact and several personalities and

 must, from the evidence, have included at least the following:

  .....3) Conscious guided writing. Someone other than the human subject who was also a member of the contact group received inner impulses of words and meanings of which he was conscious and which he then wrote down, but which would not be heard or noticed by other s. This seems to be how some instructions came. It would not surprise me if all members of the Contact Commission had this capability.** As to the length of messages fear not I don't intend to abuse this communication forum with constant large up loads but when relevant I intend to periodically upload applicable information.

  Aloha from the worlds largest monolithic mountain mass and the worlds tallest mountain as measured from its base. Late:

Sat, 8 May 1993 02:31:17 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of _The_Urantia_Book_ [URANTIAL@UAFSYSB.BITNET] Sender: Discussion of _The_Urantia_Book_ [URANTIAL@UAFSYSB.BITNET] From: Byron Belitsos [71055.3435@COMPUSERVE.COM] Subject: Interlude....

 Dear friends,

 I have been overwhelmed with catching up with obligations since the trip to Naperville. Also, we are spending our spare time finishing our Teaching Mission transcripts (at long last!), because this Sunday we will be holding our first open session for our colleagues in the Oklahoma City Urantia Society. Among those attending will be none other than Berkeley Elliott, who has always shown herself to be a courageous woman down through the years.

 David thought I had retired into "bliss" (thank you for the complement!) but I should remind you all that I am in the fourth month of starting up a new high technology service business and it has been quite a struggle.

 I was gratified David by your thorough review of my "Cultism" paper, as well as the discussion that has been pursued by Phil and others on this subject, and pledge to return with some replies. I have been keeping up by reading all messages, or at least skimming. (David, you are not allow to label a 7K posting "Quick Response"!)

 By the way, I am looking for another panelist for my workshop at IC93 on the subject taken up in my Cultism paper. Any takers? I am ideally looking for someone who has actually attempted to go beyond the study group format by setting up a "religious group", a "living temple of spiritual fellowship", an organization of some kind that conforms in some way to the Book's very explicit teachings on this subject (page 1092,1763, etc.).

 ....One thing I cannot let pass is David's comment that I stated somewhere that the Naperville materialization did not occur because of the Waco tragedy. This is untrue. You must have picked up this story from Berkeley Elliott and somehow attributed it to me; it is true, though, that some others have promulgated this strange theory. My views on this event were summarized in an earlier message: those who would test the TM with such material tests will be themselves tested.

 I will add here that a particular individual from Arizona concocted the idea of "concentric human circles" and more or less by force of will persuaded the Naperville hosts to let him stage a theatrical spectacle that, not suprisingly, put him in the limelight. The resulting scenery did present at times a compelling symbolism, but for the most part this ritual threw emphasis on the element of the "glamour" of the Teacher's presence in a most comical and even silly manner. We are fortunate that such a superficial conception came to fore -- was exposed as a fraud -- and can be dispensed with by healthy and intelligent criticism. This learning experience was a necessary part of the evolution of the Teaching Mission.

 The main action in Naperville, as with most conferences, was in the hallways, where 200 or so TM adherents from about 20 cities compared experiences and fraternized in the joy of participating in this vast outpouring of love from our celestial friends.

 So I can only say that this event strengthened the Teaching Mission....Now, my skeptical friends, go to town with that one!!

 It is unfortunate that (I believe) no one on Urantial, aside from myself, was at the Naperville event, leaving the field almost completely to David's predictably sarcastic account, (since I was too busy to offer an account). I have extensive notes for an article on it, but there will be no time to finish this in the next few weeks.

 Much of the discussion that takes place herein on the TM occurs in a relative vacuum, often being conducted by those who have little or no first-hand experience with the Teachers, with the exception, of course, of Thea, Michael, and a few others. Thus the discussion is only marginally useful, although it helps one to gauge the mind-set of the many skeptics who are sincerely grappling with this unprecedented phenomenon.

 Bob's Jungian interpretation, based again on almost *no* primary research into the phenomenon -- and even minimal reading of the texts -- is one of the most entertaining attempts. This article was published also in the SF Society's newsletter, and I would remind you, Bob and Sara, that you had agreed to "equal space" in this publication for TM views. So far you have not followed through with this promise, and as a result you have used the Society platform as a vehicle for unbalanced coveraged of the TM.

 Again, it is probably impossible to understand the TM without first-hand experience, or, at minimum, doing field work that involves interviewing TM adherents. Reading the transcripts helps, of course, and I can say now that mine are now available to those who request them.

 But for those whose minds are settled on the subject, and have chosen to stop doing primary research -- and this includes most of the leadership on the Fellowship's Executive Committee -- I suggest that you discontinue your attempts to interpret a phenomenon that you have experientially separated yourself from; without new data from the field, there is little more of value you can offer to the discussion. It becomes speculation that increasingly falsifies its object. Settle on your views and just move on! There are as many valid paths to the Father as there are individuals. I honor your path! I honor your sincere skepticism! We all know your views now, and you are beginning to look like you are beating a dead....angel.

 I suggest that you instead turn to a productive occupation such as developing the foundations for a policy of how to adjust organizationally to the presence of the TMers. Benign neglect and gentle tolerance would be your best policy, really. Will you permit TMers at your conferences, at your worship sessions, in your society? How will you carry out Jesus' commandment to be tolerant? That is a productive subject both for policy discussion and soul searching.

 There are many paths to God. Leave us free to follow our hearts! In my prayers I daily ask to learn respect for your path too. Nothing is more important than celebrating our diversity, enjoying our differences, profiting from the variety of ways in which the Father manifests himself in our spiritual journeys.

 Finding common ground of unity in face of these diverging paths -- and meditating together in the presence of the sovereignty of our one Father -- is the challenge of this period in the evolution of the Urantia movement. This in itself is that of the quest for Beauty. (See my Platonic poem below.)

 ....Meanwhile, I must turn my attention to a new deadline, a paper I am preparing on "Gender and Sexuality", which I will be presenting at the Fellowship's "Wrightwood Forum" in Chicago in two weeks. I am reading Camille Paglia, George Gilder ("Sexual Suicide"), and the leading authors in the so-called "men's movement" in this connection. Any thoughts from a man's point of view on the issue of gender roles and gender differentiation would be appreciated.

 Meanwhile, allow me to leave you with this poem (yes, from pre-TM days!). Hope you enjoy!

8 May 1993   Sara L. Blackstock    from Bob B. to Byron B.

Subject: from Bob B. to Byron B.

 Dear Byron- re your comment: >[Your Jung article] was also published in the SF Society's >newsletter, and I would remind you, Bob and Sara, that you had >agreed to "equal space" in this publication for TM views. So far >you have not followed through with this promise, and as a result >you have used the Society platform as a vehicle for unbalanced >coverage of the TM.

 In connection with the 1/30/93 Golden Gate Circle forum on the TM, there were several papers written--you, Bob Slagle and David K each provided one and distributed it at the event itself. I felt remiss in not having a paper available to be distributed at the forum so prepared one to be published in the GGC newsletter "Developments," since those who attended the 1/30/93 forum were people on that mailing list. Sara also distributed a copy of my article to those members of the General Council who expressed an interest, and also provided a copy of Slagle's, Kantor's, and I believe yours. I also submitted my paper to a half dozen other newsletters in the Urantia movement, and I see that at least one in addition to "Developments" used it (the "606" newsletter in Australia). It was not my understanding that no papers on the TM would be distributed or published subsequent to the 1/30/93 forum. It was agreed that a video of the 1/30/93 event would be produced, and it would not be distributed until each participant had an opportunity to edit it. Although I see the issue as described above, I can understand that it might appear that the newsletter of GGC, with Sara as the current president of GGC, was used as a "vehicle for unbalanced coverage of the TM." But still, I don't see a whole lot of people pushing Jung's psychology in connection with the TM, yet in numerous local Urantia society newsletters, there are many publishing the view that the TM is celestial personalities. I would love to see equal time, and if one or two of the regulars (TM'rs, included) on this list-u forum were to read Jung's essay I referred to in my article, then there might be some discussion. No, I do not feel we were off base in publishing my article in the "Developments" newsletter, at least with my present understanding of what agreements did or did not exist, but I have some misgivings about posting it in this list-u forum. I have received some feedback that it may have been somewhat presumptuous to just throw it out there without some preliminary tilling of the ground. I am having some difficulty understanding, or intuiting, the etiquette of e-mail.

8 May 1993   leo elliott            Pepper Etiquette

Subject: Pepper Etiquette

 If I were now to frame my reflections on the last six-months that I have been observing this set of phenomenal events sometimes alluded to as the Teaching Mission as a possible student-visitor-anthropologist or religious-sociologist might put them, I would have to say that while there seems to have been a general increase in the overall level of tolerance and mutual respect generated in these conversations, and while there has to date been little evidence of witch-huntings or burnings, this is not to say that these fearful and intolerant attitudes are not still extant amongst these readers of this new revelation, nor to say that these sentiments do not sometimes come out in the heat of belief-discussions. And there are certainly some commentators who would definitely ascribe these phenomena as Caligastian in origin, delusional in nature, and of no destiny-value whatsoever.

 Both amongst the critics and the adherents, it would seem, this secret desire for public verification remains well-rooted. I would suspect that Tenskwa's denunciation of the vices of the white man may have been the message of major import, and his prediction of the eclipse simply icing on the cake. "Many true teachers have appeared among the various tribes and races all through the long ages of evolutionary history. And they will ever continue to appear to challenge the shamans or priests of any age who oppose general education and attempt to thwart scientific progress." (page 988)

10 May 1993  Dennis Shields      part 1 welcome to change

Subject: part 1 welcome to change

 "Welcome to Change" A personal view of the Teaching Mission by Bob Slagle

 "Urantia is now quivering on the very brink of one of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment." (UB 2082:7)**

 The teachers first touched my mind in the summer of 1991 when a friend sent me some transcripts of Abraham transmitting to a group in New Zealand. I was more or less nonplused by the seemingly less than Urantia Book quality of communication. The message seemed true but simply a restatement of truths replete in The Urantia Book and common in many other spiritual resources. I was skeptical. I was even biased - against "channeling," at least in my limited understanding. It seemed unlikely that Abraham, the Abraham, Machiventa's Abraham, would suddenly pop up in New Zealand to deliver a message to a small, remote group of humans only mildly aware of The Urantia Book. Besides, deceased mortals rarely return to their native planets. (Technically, Abraham graduated in a previous dispensation, and could, as I understand The Urantia Book, return to Urantia [UB 1230:6, 1646:3, 1680:7].) Meanwhile, I was preoccupied with sorting out many other claims of revelation and prophecy alleged by other Urantia Book readers. Isn't there a lot of "stuff' out there? Seeking and sorting the myriad claims to truth and prescience can quickly become a full time job. It boggles the mind. Yet, if I had not been both open and willing to plow through much superstition, confusion, and zillions of "spiritual" books, I might not have found The Urantia Book with its lofty teachings that have so elevated my life. So, I have continued to purse potential truth even when garbed in unorthodox raiment. One brother in particular had caught my attention with his lengthy and comprehensive "prophecies" that seemed reasonably compatible with The Urantia Book. I sought the counsel of Jesus' Spirit of Truth, but as is often the case with me, not much seemed to be illuminated immediately. Discouragement comes easily when so much out there winds up proving to be another ego-bound delusional system punctuated with enough half-truths to catch the eye. Maybe I should just stick with The Urantia Book. But, in sticking with The Urantia book, I find that it leads me to continue my search for Truth, within and without, in likely and unlikely places. Again, there is so much out there to be examined. Have you read, The Scripts of Cleophas? I haven't; it's bigger than The Urantia Book. Yet, if I hadn't kept on looking, I would not have found the Course in Miracles, or Mary Strong's wonderful Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood, and many other sources of inspiration. Eventually I was guided to the conclusion that my would-be prophet brother, however sincere and well-intended and in possession of much truth, was tragically intoxicated with creative delusions. It was hard. I had spent many hours on the phone with this man and had developed a genuine love and affection for him despite his overly confident eccentricity. When I first heard rumors of the channeling in Utah, I thought, "not likely." These rumors came in the wake of my unfruitful exploration of this other supposed "prophecy." Besides, I was busy with still another situation. A woman I had not met called me and left a message that she was a reader and felt led--that it was appropriate to contact me. I returned the call, and she unfolded her astounding story of psychic experiences since adolescence, initially unnerving her, and later settling in as a way of life. She had a doctorate from Juliard and had taught at M.I.T. She was coherent and articulate. She claimed that she transmitted for the Order of Melchizedek. I thought, "not likely." After the last prophetic cul de sac, I was a little impatient with her but painstakingly pointed out that, if she was a Urantia Book reader, surely she knew how improbable it was for her to be legitimately channeling for "real" Melchizedeks. We talked further. I tried to take a gentle, tolerant tone with her as I believed Jesus would. I asked questions. I listened. I took notes. We had four hours of telephone appointments. After studying my notes and reflecting, I decided that my truth bells had not been rung; her channeled material was not spiritually relevant to my life at that time. Before long, a dear friend shared a broader horizon with me of the channeling in Utah. He sparked my interest. He sat me down and played a tape of a small group session he attended with one of these "teachers" speaking through a "receiver transmitter." I was skeptical, but it was not long before I was responding to the clarity, love, respect, poise, and down-right personality charm of this "person." Since I know my friend well, it was easy to empathize with his questions and reactions as he asked questions of the "teacher." There was something about hearing the voice, the pauses, the caring, the deliberation, the subtle intonations of this "other" and "greater" mind that was irrefutable to my heart. This was really real. I asked for more tapes, and soon early Ham tapes arrived from Utah. Ham spoke slowly with many long pauses. This was different from the flowing conversational style of my first "teacher" contact. But the truths Ham spoke were no less real. Of course, I had intellectual questions and doubts too numerous to mention. Okay, I'll mention a few: Why the name "Ham"?, celestial lunch meat?, why channeling (I had been turned off by the likes of Ramptha and Seth)?, why New Zealand and Utah?, why seemingly "favored" people?, updating the Reserve Corps?, why were some questions answered with such generic answers, others evaded altogether?, are some people deluded--going along for the ride?, why were words like "stillness," "correcting time," "teaching mission," not emphasized in The Urantia Book ? (Or were they, but subtly and by other names?, ["silent communion" (UB 1002:5), "New Age" (UB 1860:5), "new teachers" (UB 2082:9)]), why didn't any of the folks at the Foundation or Fellowship headquarters know more about this?, like the church-lady from Saturday .Night Live says, "Could it be, could it be SATAN!?" Why do I need "teachers" when I have a magnificent epochal revelation, a perfect inner Guide, and many spiritual resources? Perhaps, if I ignore it, it will all just go away ("not likely").

 Encounter of the Celestial Kind

 I feel blessed that I had the good fortune to have a meeting with a "celestial teacher" who allowed me several hours to experience his presence and unburden myself of many questions. The transmission occurred through a highly gifted receiver-transmitter whom I hardly knew. This transmission was articulate, flowing, conversational, personal, intimate, and touching. I know from The Urantia Book that personal experience has no substitute; it is "the master teacher." (UB 1195:4, 2076:5,1961:4) And I find that there is no substitute for direct experiential contact with this Teacher Corps. The reality of this private session was so real, so profound, so loving, so revealing, so comprehensive, that all doubts were removed regarding the reality of this celestial teacher. He is an ascendant son from the seventh mansion world and was (to my amazement) willing to speak to me. All my intellectual arguments and doubts were short-circuited to a heart-soul reaction of certitude. Even most of my intellectual doubts were abundantly answered. My intellect strained to penetrate this event; I could not, but my truth bells had been rung on multiple levels. This teacher reached toward me with tender heartedness, sensing my anxieties, putting me at ease. "...not everything must be squeezed into this tiny temporal moment. It Is merely a getting to know each other type of a meeting.... Just relax and ask any questions without censorship that might be on your mind and heart. And if I am able to answer and if my contribution helps to enlighten you or spark your spiritual quest even further, then it is I who is blessed." I asked how to better discern my Adjuster's guidance. "That is the quest of the human: How to discern the human mind from the Divine mind. This is your great challenge as it is of every other mortal on this planet. First, do not spend overmuch time in the examination and intellectual evaluation of your thoughts. Try to come from the quicker emotional intuitive level, not emotional in terms of feelings, but the gut, more instantaneous reaction which in truth is coming from the integration of higher mind with human intelligence and memory experience. It is a good compass, and you should trust it more than you do. Second, if confusion still reigns in your mind, consider the spiritual fruits and ramifications of your guidance: will it have a good effect on you, on your advancement God ward? Does it hold the spiritual values of good to your fellows" I asked how to get to better know my seraphim.

 "The seraphim are the closest non material beings to you. They are quite similar in reactions and understanding of Deity and truly love you and friendship you. The emotions which push the seraphim away are the human emotions of fear, anger, and a distraught or unbalanced state. The seraphim cannot break through these emotions which they cannot truly fathom in the human, and you in essence erect a wall of negativity which repels your guardian angels. So, an attitude of inner peace and serenity, cheer and joy, love, hope, would be best." I asked how to be more forgiving. "Forgiveness does not depend upon the remorse of the person who wronged you. Forgiveness is a capacity in your own being. It is a gift bestowed by God to man. And your capacity to receive the Father's and Michael's merciful forgiveness is and bears a direct relationship to your ability to forgive your fellows. To truly forgive you must foster soul growth and fruits of the spirit in yourself. As you grow in understanding the true scope of your fellow humans, it is not hard to forgive, but it becomes the natural order of a spiritual being. Fully evolved spiritual beings have no need to forgive, for no offense is ever seen by them, as they can see the heart-soul potential-desire of their fellow sojourners. We are not so fortunate as to be in such a high place. Yet, pray for you to forgive yourself, and as you grow, it will become easier to see your fellows through the spiritual eyes of love, tolerance, and understanding. " I asked about this mission and how the teachers perceive us mortals. "I have traveled through the seven mansion worlds but have not fused. I have not seen Michael but have studied your planet for many, many hundreds of years, and there was great competition to be chosen for this mission. I was quite honored to be amongst those chosen because of my similar background...and my study of your planet and peoples. How do I see you mortals? Not as differently as you would think. I have down-stepped to a more morontial form to be able to make contact. So, I perceive a Light emanating from the head region at times which is your Adjuster. I can, if given permission, search your mind circuits for memories or knowledge of other humans of which I have none. I gather information just like you do, by meeting the human or searching the mind memory patterns of a human who knows the individual in question. Travel for us is quite fast, and we are aided by seraphim and Midwayers. The Life Carriers help to effect the necessary connection for transmission and receiving as well as first and secondary midwayers. We hope to achieve in the next thousand years of the Correcting Time a spiritual up-step, using transformed individuals to ultimately transform this world. We are a continuation of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. We are not a separate bestowal, but this phase of the revelation was planned from the beginning. However it was decided not to reveal this to the original contact personalities because of the danger that would place the revelation in--over emotionalism, non belief, dismissal the book had to stand and root on its own. Now we proceed to take the humans who are ready and activate them out into the world. We will contact on a world-wide basis to readers and non-readers alike. We begin mostly with readers as there is less groundwork to lay. Does that answer?" I asked many more questions, too voluminous to quote, and wound up asking how to discern legitimate channeling. "How to tell? There will be a network amongst the true transmissions. For yourself, judge the spiritual content, use your Spirit of Truth.... Truth may be gathered like a bee from flower to flower from sources which are human inspired. Celestial or non-corporeal beings do not have a monopoly on spiritual insight. So, whether a transmission is from us or is from the human higher mind is really just a speculation which humans and we like to engage in--to speculate about what could be. The message, if spiritual, will illuminate." Amazingly, this experience was on one level very ordinary, just like you and I chatting, and on many other levels it was very extraordinary--truly awesome. It was reassuring to my soul. This experience was a cherished privilege which I hold dear. However, the teachers are no respecters of persons. They desire to get to know each one of us equally. They honor us immensely and see our true virtues through spiritual eyes. They never judge us. Some might think that this type of experience would lead to ego inflation. Not necessarily so. While on the one hand I feel blessed and deeply reassured, on the other hand I have a greater sense of my limitations and smallness. I am far from perfect and have a long, long ways to go even in this life and must struggle daily with my flawed human character. As this teacher said to me, "The struggle against anger, fear, envy, lack of love, anxiety, etc. must be done in the trenches of day-to-day life through reality experiences with others and the world.... The true fields of spiritual growth [are] disappointment, conflict, despair, etc.--uncertainty. Your uncertainty will last, as will every human's, until you are repersonalized on the mansion worlds. This is a life-long struggle, and much growth comes from doubt versus faith struggles in the human heart." The fruits of this encounter in my life were immediate. I felt a new buoyancy, an enhanced desire to discern my Adjuster's will, an enhanced desire to be more conscious of my seraphic guidance, renewed energy to reach out and love, and augmented willingness to seek daily communion with Father. "Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

 I remembered the teaching of Jesus to remain for a time in silent receptivity after prayer to allow the Adjuster to speak to the listening soul (UB 1641:1). Over the years I have tried to practice this stillness after prayer but ashamedly have not regularly sought to fully quiet my mind in prayer and worship. In my prayer life, I am guilty of perhaps talking more than listening. The emphasis on silent cosmic contemplation (UB 622:4) and silent communion with the Father are certainly replete in The Urantia Book, not to mention Jesus' living portrayal in his own life of frequently going apart, alone, for solitary communion (cf. UB 1754:6), as well as the times he sent the apostles out apart and alone to find the answer from within. So, I began the "stillness practice." I found this difficult and frustrating. At first it seemed I could not cease my mind chatter for more than a few nanoseconds at a time. Occasionally when I did reach a point of stillness, my mind would have to start a commentary on the process, "Gee, I guess this is the stillness; I wonder if I will hear voices." Then I would space on in more thoughts despite myself. Some days I felt such emotional physical agitation that I would have to stop and get up and go do some "very important" thing I had just remembered. Soon I learned that coffee (caffeine) is an anathema to the stillness--rd be "futuring" or "pasting" but was rarely in the present. I think each person is different chemically, and each has to learn experientially what works best. White-knuckling through the stillness with gritty discipline did not work for me. The key is to relax, to let tranquillity descend naturally and fill the body and mind. We know Jesus' teaching of "non-resistance," and I found resisting thoughts didn't work very well either. So, I did what I had learned in Transcendental Meditation but without the mantra. I allowed thoughts and feelings just to pass by, and when I became aware that I was spacing off, I would gently stop myself and attempt to re-focus on that quiet place within where the Monitor resides, where the answers to all questions exist, where the Source and Center of my being is. It was hard not to chastise myself for my spacey tendency not to be in the here and now. Gradually I learned just to matter-of-factly re-focus without berating myself for failing. Slowly, too slowly for my temperament and impatience, my stillness times became easier, more nurturing. There was still variability from day to day, but more often now I would have twenty or so minutes pass without much time consciousness. Sometimes, not always, I felt relieved or refreshed after this quiet seeking meditation. My stillness times improved as I took advice from the teaching mission transcripts I had available. Teacher Daniel suggested imagining a still reflective lake or a white ball of light. But my ball of light would not stay still, and in walking down the memory lane of my travel-log of still lakes, I found I couldn't keep them very still either. Somehow there were always ripples or waves, and if I succeeded at quieting these, a fish would pop up. I took much solace in the words of Daniel that even a few seconds of stillness with intent to find God were worth more than can be imagined. I persisted. I struggled. I was jealous of my friends who seemed to easily take the stillness and achieve teacher contact. I heard teacher Ham say that auditory stimulation was especially distracting. So, I purchased 28 dB sound attenuators (plastic ear muffs) and wore a blindfold. Ah ha! This was better, but no magic panacea. I continued to beseech the Father for help. Eventually, I began to have contact with "otherness" by asking questions after I had given thanks and established a degree of silent communion. The sense of "otherness" for me was very, very subtle. At first it was like my alter ego answering my own questions. But occasionally there would be a hint or clue of higher contact. Sometimes it was the quickness of the answer to my inquiry. Sometimes it was the wording--just a twinge different from my style. Sometimes it was the character or timbre of the "voice" in my mind. Often it was the feeling-tone that accompanied the stillness time. I should add, I don't hear voices. My contact is intuitive or else word-thoughts in my mind. Everyone is unique, and the style of teacher contact seems to be unique to each mortal. Some people hear voices outside the head, up and to the left side, or behind. Some hear inner voices. Some have thought-words. Some see visualizations. Some experience a complex array of intuitive communications for which I am at a loss for words. Some people have more strong gut level reactions. Seeking is what is important and even teacher contact may be of little value unless the fruits are shown in soul growth. It is not words, but the sense of God's love that really counts. Has your spiritual life been richer lately? Perhaps you are having teacher contact, and simply don't realize it yet.

 Could it be the Devil?

 Caligastia is said in The Urantia Book to "still be free on Urantia to prosecute his nefarious designs." (UB 610:1) Is he insidiously working to destroy the Urantia readership through the "sordid practice of spiritualism"? Is the teaching mission another devilish scheme to take over your mind? No. To know the teachers personally is a certain antidote for this fear-dominated belief. I know wherefore I speak. I know that I know. I do not mean to sound presumptuous, just experiential. Such personal knowing is also the antidote for all the "explanations" for the teaching mission that invoke: mass hysteria, communal delusions, archetypal upsurgences, group "needs," and all other manner of psychological speculation. How could Caligastia succeed in seducing us into wickedness by teaching us to seek the Indwelling Spirit daily, to live in allegiance to Christ Michael, and to constantly seek to love? As Jesus pointed out to his adversaries, if the devil casts out the devil, it is a house divided and must fall. (UB 2085:4) If this were Caligastia (and it is not) I would suspect that he has serious indigestion and must gnash his teeth with sleep disturbance. Allegedly being the source of the "channeling," he would have to be constantly lauding The Urantia Book, propose that we do daily acts of kindness to others, respect the will dignity of our fellows, advocate the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and relate to us as a loving friend. Poor devil, he must have a nasty case of cognitive dissonance by now. To follow the fear-mongering Caligastia theory to its logical extreme, let us assume that Caligastia is behind the channeling phenomena. What should the attitude and conduct of a faith-son or daughter be to such an impossible encroachment? Did not the Master teach and practice non-resistance to evil (UB 1950:5)? Did Jesus not teach that we are to love even our enemies (UB 1134:1)? If Caligastia were still around, are we not enjoined to love even him, just as our Master did? Was it not Jesus' non-resistance to evil and divine love for his sons Caligastia and Daligastia and the other rebels that our Lord placed above even his own mortal life? Was it not His mercy that allowed this insane Lanonandek pair to continue to roam Urantia free to prosecute their nefarious designs? And with regard to the apparent strangeness of the teaching mission, how did Jesus treat strange teachers? Consider the Kheresa lunatic, or Kirmeth the trance medium. "..Jesus intervened and allowed him entire freedom of action for a few days. All who heard his preaching soon recognized that his teaching was not sound as judged by the gospel of the kingdom" (UB 1666:3). Should skeptics not follow the Master's policy? When Jesus was faced with teachers of partial truth, he always emphasized the positive and made no attack on the error. We know that fear, suspicion, and intolerance are mind poisons (UB 1575:2,1204:3). Is not the way of Truth to abandon fear and distrust in favor of faith in God's love and his assurances that a sincere soul is never in jeopardy? Some relevant facts presented in The Urantia Book about Caligastia are these. His power was curtailed by the incarnation of Machiventa Melchizedek (UB 753:1). He has been comparatively impotent since the cross of Christ (UB 610:6). "Even before Michael's bestowal on Urantia, neither Caligastia nor Daligastia was ever able to oppress mortals or to coerce any normal individual into doing anything against the human will." (UB 753:3) He is shorn, finally, of all authority on Urantia. (UB 753:2) "...He has absolutely no power to enter the minds of men...." (UB 610:3). I emphasize this passage because my understanding is that if you really desired his wicked presence (however absurd) he could draw near to you and tempt you, but still could not enter your mind. Check page 610; what is your interpretation? And finally, Caligastia is "servile before the divine majesty of the Paradise Thought Adjusters and the protective Spirit of Truth...." (UB 610:4) Let us unveil this "Caligastia theory" to reveal the lattice-work of sophistries that it is. First, does this theory misinterpret page UB 865:7 to mean that all "spiritualism," is sordid? Please read it again. I see no such logical implication. Some "spiritualism" is sordid; the logic of this algorithm does not necessarily imply that all "spiritualism" is sordid. But this is a "straw man," since the teaching mission is not "spiritualism" at all. "Spiritualism" in our common usage seems to me to conjure up seances, melodrama, and contacting ghosts, like dead uncle Ed, a speaking spook, invoked by the supposed powers of an entranced medium. In my opinion, the sordidness of such medium ship is its duplicity. Preying on the needs of ignorant mortals for dishonest gains (money-power) is a scam. My 1933 edition New Century Dictionary includes these synonyms for "sordid": base, low, self-seeking, mercenary. If you are paying a fee for "channeling," compare the teaching mission--the price is right, no charge, a gift from above. Second, we must believe that hundreds of sincere Urantia Book readers and Truth seekers suddenly developed the desire to be cursed with the wicked presence of the devil, or are fooled and incapable of sensing his iniquitous presence. What an affront to the Spirit of Truth. What an injustice to the goodness and sincerity of those brothers and sisters choosing to practice daily communion and acts of kindness as taught by these new heavenly teachers. Third, Caligastia, who was never able to oppress mortals, in now oppressing them; who is servile before the Adjusters, now dominates them; who has been comparatively impotent, is now mighty; who has no power to enter the minds of man, is now doing so. For this '!theory" to be valid, The Urantia Book must be seriously in error. Moreover, what allowance should we make for the new revelation of the teachers speaking through many different transmitters that the rebellion is over and that all the wicked ones have chosen extinction? If it serves soul-growth to believe in this devilish buffoonery, I honor your free will choice. But the truth remains, "The devil has been given a great deal of credit for evil which does not belong to him." (UB 610:6) To me this "Caligastia theory" is one more example of this. Is it plausible that the Lucifer Rebellion would be adjudicated in our lifetimes? From The Urantia Book, it seems that the adjudication was begun during the times of the Urantia revelation. (UB 529:1) It was virtually settled by Jesus on Mount Hermon. (UB 1494:3) Teacher James comments, "...you must understand that up until the time Lucifer ceased to exist, he still had free will and had not agreed to the adjudication. The adjudication could not happen until he agreed that it was the right thing to do and that this date could not have been known precisely by anyone until it came about," (James, 10/4/92) This statement of James agrees with The Urantia Book in that our heavenly Father requires that no action be taken until the sinner himself approves of the justness of the verdict. (UB 615:5, 611:6) Over the years I have not given much energy to worrying about Caligastia or the wicked things he might be up to. I have found much reassurance in The Urantia Book. However the announcement by Ham and others that the rebellion is over did give me a feeling, at first of skepticism, then of sadness and relief What happened to the rebels? "We are sorry and also happy to report that they have become as though they had not been. None repented. It was a hard combination of reality feelings when we received this information," (Ham, Woods Cross transcripts, 1991, p. 1). I am sorry that all the rebels chose extinction. So much love and effort by our beloved Sovereign was extended to them. It is incredible that they would reject His mercy. "Patient is God, and He waits until eternity if that is what it takes, just as He did for Lucifer. This was such an unfortunate case, where one so brilliant could not be reclaimed back into the fold. He was, however, allowed to make that free will choice, and it must be respected. Our Father wept with the news of this decision.." (Will, 1/4/92) An Unseen Helper says, "Caligastia has not been on the planet since approximately 1984-85 your time. All rebellious spirits from Lucifer to the lesser participators of the rebellion have all chosen death and are as if they never were. Only their negative lifeless energy is on the planet. Some will give it life through personal beliefs, fears, and emotions, but it will gradually dissipate and cease to exist." (.Aflana transcripts, 1/27/92) Why a will creature chooses to reject love is truly unfathomable to me. Nonetheless, I believe that Caligastia is naught. My soul soars as I realize that the torturous hand of the wicked Prince is gone. As I look out upon the world, I see that the numbing spectacle of pain and anger is at worst the momentum of the past, that destructiveness from here forward is entirely human choosing. It is the infinite Father's desire that not one shall be lost, but He is so respectful of each of us that no creature is forced to continue life against his own will. What a cosmic coup de gras is the Father's merciful obliteration of those who choose not to be. What a wonder of cosmic justice, this adjudication by the Ancients of Days, the fulfillment of God's great gift to us, freedom of creature will. "Fear not." (UB 1103,1582,1820)

 I found that there is no need to fear a hostile take-over from within. It is the Kingdom of Heaven that is within. It is God that is within, not celestial corruption, "...you may rest in the assurance that there is one inner bastion, the citadel of the spirit, which is absolutely unassailable...." (UB 1096:5) (I especially like that word "absolutely;" that's pretty unassailable in my opinion. And yes, I have dedicated my soul to God's keeping.) I can't honestly say that I have had much fear in this process of making contact with Michael's celestial teachers. Occasionally, I had a twinge of fear that I might be afraid. ~o, I am not fearless. I fear pain. I fear isolation from feeling love. I fear being sick and friendless. I fear decrepitude and the process of dying (not death). The list goes on but is unimportant ;D light of the Father's precious gift of faith which is available to all who reach up and trust in the Father's down-grasp. I do experience reactionary animal fear. After all, this teacher contact is a new experience. Is it Dot ironical that the animal body fears that which the heart most desires? So, most of us have had our twinges of reflex defensiveness when we sense heavenly contact, but it passes quickly in the face of the warmth, gentleness, and caring that accompany this "receiving." Faith and patience have aided me greatly in accepting this new form of communication. It just takes a little stillness time and patience to begin to sense teacher contact. The teachers are in no rush. Jesus was never in a hurry. Why should I be? I discovered early that the responsibility For determining the truth of any given transmission or part of a transmission is mine alone. Each mortal must rely on the Spirit of Truth to verify or falsify any aspect of the teachings. The teachers do not claim to be perfect; errors do occur; it is up to me to discern them. So, often I take a "wait and see" attitude. For some things, time alone reveals the fruits. I have found in general that the spiritual teachings of the mission are excellent and close to error free. As transmissions relate to the material level, human longings and emotions seem to enter in more. However, it is the spiritual that counts; material disillusionment's are a part of life. The teachers are clearly here to teach us more about spiritual living. They are not here to work wonders or provide empirical confirmation of their reality. That is the work of the Spirit of Truth. I am rather impressed by how consistent the teachers are in not working "wonders" or "proofs" of their functioning. I remember that Jesus was repeatedly pressed to show the people a "sign" that he was from God, but he steadfastly refused to appeal to the miracle-seeking nature of humankind. The teachers seem to follow a similar policy They very rarely answer questions about politics, social issues, science, and other worldly matters. We must learn and earn our own way through faith and daily struggles with the grit of life. I see the teachers as respecting us so much as not to diminish our agondonter status nor our right to progressive soul growth through free will decisions. My preconceptions based on The Urantia Book.

10 May 1993  Dennis Shields      welcome to change pt2

Subject: welcome to change pt2

 In December of 1991, I began to listen to tapes of Ham's transmissions to the Woods Cross group in Utah. I was surprised at how many preconceptions I had developed from reading The Urantia Book I thought, if "celestials" are contacting us, surely it will be this way or that way, more perfect, not an isolated communication with unknown people. Why wouldn't the celestials visualize as Gabriel did for Mary, the mother of Jesus, or as had happened on the Mount of Transfiguration? Why would contact be made via humans where unconscious material from the transmitter might contaminate the message? Why didn't they use computers or some other technology for accuracy? Why did some people call Ham, "father Ham"? Why did so many of the messages seem to be a "pablumized" version of The Urantia Book? The Urantia Book is so precise, comprehensive, and eloquent. There seems very little in the mission transcripts that adds to what is already in The Urantia Book. Even the teachers admit to being imperfect and making errors, yet clearly acknowledge The Urantia Book as nearly error free. "Most of the receivers of our teaching are eventually and purposefully brought to The Urantia Book, for it is extremely accurate. In things of our teaching lessons there are some new occurrences which are inevitable when you consider this type of communication. The Urantia Book 1s a bedrock of knowledge for you to build upon, and we are encouraging Its further study and understanding. Yes." (Ham, LA, 2/1/92) Later, Ham answered this question. Q. "...Are there also inaccuracies in the writings of The Urantia Book through the personalities which claim to have written it?" Ham: 'Very few and these are all very minor as to be negligible. It is very accurate." As I continued listening to tapes, I realized that my preconceptions based on The Urantia Book were simply my idealizations and biases. In fact, I didn't have the foggiest notion of how celestials might contact Urantians. I began to open up to Ham's teachings and was often touched by his charming lessons. I still found myself critiquing the human questions during Ham meetings. I would listen in the car and find myself saying out loud, "Hey, why ask that? It's in The Urantia Book," or "Why ask such an abstract question, get relevant!" Then when I began to converse with teachers via receiver-transmitters and listen to my own recorded questions, I was regretful of my judgementalness of others' questions. I often found my own questions to sound foolish and irrelevant. Soon it began to dawn on me that it was not the content or eloquence of questions that mattered. What the teaching contact was about was living interpersonal contact, human to morontial, morontial to human. The value was not so much in the content of material but in the intimate personal experience, the sensing of a higher presence. The transcripts are like the fossilized remains of a living experience, but like The Urantia -Book, can be greatly inspirational. To me the Woods Cross transcripts are spiritually rich. Here are a few sample quotations. I loved the ending to the lesson on the Fatherhood of God. "And now I will leave you with this thought. There is a certain tree which grows in the wild. It is gnarled and bent and small and hearty. On the crag of the cliff, It looks down at the ocean and receives the mist from the tide. It looks up at the sun and receives the warmth of her light. It clings steadily to the rock's face and is secure in its place there. having grown amid so much wind, there is not a wind which can bring it down. Shalom." (Abraham, p. 33, 1991 Woods Cross Transcripts) I much enjoyed Ham's comments on laughter.

 "Laughter Is the best medicine. .laughter is a healing and curing activity which greatly uplifts the attitude of the mental mind which is beneficial in seeing the full nature of the situation. In worry, we tend to look at our feet, so to speak. In laughter, we tend to throw our heads back and look around us. Worry is inner consuming, laughter is outward releasing. Therefore, I say to you, laugh. Laugh fully and often." (Ham, Woods Cross transcripts, 1991, p. 42) Ham has this to say of the morontia life. "The morontial life Is much more enjoyable than your toiling and stressful earthly experience. You will see with Divine clarity the purpose of your ordeals in this life, and will appreciate the ordeals themselves and the guidance which brought you through them. This appreciation will be a great unburdening of your worrisome self, for you will be able to know your purpose. You will be able to foresee your future purpose, and all of this together will be a great relief as well as joy in your innermost core." (Ham, Woods Cross transcripts, 1991, p. 45)

 Ham's announcement to Urantians

 On February 1,1992, I heard Ham make the formal announcement to Urantians of the teaching mission. To say that this event in Los Angeles was strange and bizarre would be an understatement. Human emotions were diverse and intense. In a cavern-like room at the Quality Inn the vibes were intense and complex. There was an interminably long pause before Rebecca, seated lotus-like under a spot light on a large paisley couch, began to transmit. The rumble of planes taking off at LAX filled the long pregnant pauses like a cosmic drum roll. "The love of God enfolds us. The power of God protects us, and the presence of God watches over us. Wherever we are he is. My profound and sincere greetings to you all this evening. I am Ham. I have been commissioned to bring the light of truth and the understanding of our Father to Urantia. I am one of many teachers. All of us are awaiting the greater reception of our words and we are desirous of placing many teachers among you. Great is our mission. understand this in your hearts. The time bas arrived for expanded level of truth to begin correction. We come, not for ourselves no, indeed, rather only in service of Michael. This day is, marks, the beginning of the Correcting Time. Machiventa !Melchizedek has arrived and has been duly inaugurated as acting Planetary Prince of Urantia, an assignment he has accepted from Michael. Long years we have waited this day. The Lucifer rebellion is officially ended in Nebadon. The circuits which have isolated your world are being reopened. All these changes are occurring. I am in accord with the plan of Michael. Happy and joyous is this day, blessed in the sight of our Lord. Gracious listeners, I bid you welcome to change. We mark the beginning of the reign of Prince Machiventa on this day. Questions are welcome, indeed happy am I to serve you.... "

 Had I not had the previous confirming experiences with a teacher in private, and many tapes of Ham, I think I would have been as nonplused at this meeting as many attendees seemed to be. Later, I was surprised at how different my impressions were of what Ham said in person as compared to my experience of the tape recordings and transcription of this ceremony. What Ham actually said, and what I thought he had said, were amazingly different. As I poured over the tape and transcript, Ham seemed much more coherent and clear than I experienced in the vibe-charged room near LAX.

 Requesting a teacher

 In December of 1991, I asked for a teacher for our area. The procedure seemed to be to call one of the people in the Woods Cross group and ask him to ask Ham. I did this and was admittedly a little put off by the protocol. However, I had met some of the Woods Cross folks in Los Angeles and found them gentle, unpretentious, sincere, and down-to-earth. Before long I received the Ham tape with my request and was delighted that Ham said, "Yes." Actually, I had never heard Ham say anything but, "Yes," to the many heart-felt requests of people wanting teachers. More recently this protocol has changed (remember, "welcome to change"). It is no longer necessary to call Utah and ask Ham for a teacher. It is no longer necessary to attend a group with an on-line transmitter. Any human chi]d of God may simply ask the Father during pray-worship communion. This is personal, private, and between you and God, as I believe it should be, in light of the teaching that God is no respecter of persons. The teachers are no respecters of persons either. They want to get to know each of us equally. "Your thoughts and feelings and desires are known. We wish to understand all of you equally, yes," Ham, Woods Cross transcripts 1991, p. 14). In a time-space frame, sequences are common and there may be the appearance of preferential treatment, but if you look deeper, this is not so. In fact, our teacher, Jared, has told us that any human being who sincerely wants a personal ascendant teacher need only ask in the privacy of prayer. I asked, If all five billion people on Urantia sincerely asked for a personal teacher, would one be assigned to each mortal? The answer was, "Yes." (Jared, 10192). Likewise, the teachers are so respectful of our will dignity that they do not contact the minds of mortals who choose not to receive this gift. No judgment is made. Each mortal has a different path to Paradise. Your choosing Not to participate in this mission is respected, and there is no judgment of your worth or soul growth. You are always welcome, and always free to change your mind.

 Transmission errors

 I went back to reading transcripts, listening to tapes, and practicing the stillness. Soon I received transcripts from a variety of teachers. I was impressed by the consistency and high degree of correlation between messages in various transcripts. I was vigilant for errors, inconsistencies' and differences from The Urantia Book. There were minor inconsistencies and errors, but to me this did not outweigh the beauty, truth, and goodness, overflowing from all of the teachers I had experienced. Besides, the teachers are most tolerant of human skepticism and taking a "time will tell" attitude. ".A system that is built upon free will choice is also a system which must withstand the inevitable appearance of conscious and unconscious errors. Particularly when you ask us questions that involve predictions of events on your planet, there is great opportunity for error to enter. The rules bar the preemption of any creature's free will. Between the prediction and the predicted event, an infinite number of creature choices may change the result of the chain of events upon which we relied in making our statement. 'Chain of events' is an imprecise term to describe this process. Rather is the reality better described by the movement of an ocean current, like the Gulf Stream current in your immediate vicinity. Along its margins, top, bottom, and sides, there is continual interplay of waters, yet the whole is moving inexorably on to some further destination. Because of the changeibility of fact sets, questions calling for predictions are disfavored, and only aggravate the human tendency to doubt. It is only secondarily because we fear that you will rely on our predictions that we hesitate to predict. The inescapable margin of error, and its consequences on the human mind, are the primary justifications for our distaste for predictions." (Will, 12/6191) Most apparent errors seem associated with less spiritual teachings, issues where strong human longings and emotions might bubble up. Teacher Will refers to this type of situation as a juggernaut. Since human volition is inviolate, the teachers must allow the longings of human transmitters to well up, emerge, and take their natural course, even if human disillusionment and disappointment temporarily follow. Once I began to understand the tender and intimate relationship between a teacher and a transmitter, I began to understand why teachers don't always or immediately correct human contamination of a message. In my own very limited experience as a transmitter, I know how humiliated and pained I would be if the teacher transmitting through me were to criticize or overly correct me. My doubts are great enough anyway. The transmitter-receivers that I know are typically bumble about their abilities and often think early transmissions are only a product of their human minds. The freedom to make errors without chastisement is essential to growth, and, in the long run, either the previous errors don't matter or are corrected. "... all errors which may be transmitted will be corrected as trust and confidence surely evolve. You will recognize these transitory errors as mere blips in the continuous stream of Truth, ( Ham, private meeting, 5/31/92). How does a person become a transmitter receiver? The talent for being a transmitter is referred to by Jared as "luck of the draw." Some people seem to be innately endowed with the biochemical brain-mind-field suitable for receiving teacher communications more easily than others. Some people just seem to start off transmitting rather easily. The teachers also tell us that there is prior unconscious preparation of transmitters who are willing mortals. Some of us, like myself, are not so gifted, but it seems that anyone who truly desires can learn by persistent stillness meditation. Again, having this talent is no judgment on soul status. Likewise the point in time when a TR comes on-line s no measure of soul worth or spirituality. I have practiced the stillness persistently for over a year and still am able to transmit teachers for only a few words before I lose contact or reflexively block transmission. Another person came to our group with no previous experience with the book or the mission. Her naivete and innocence were complete, yet within just ten days she began transmitting extensively and clearly for Ham and other teachers. (By the way, she is eagerly reading in The Urantia Book now).

 Cosmic psychologists

 Each transcript is a lesson in the nature of human-morontial, morontial-human interaction, also a lesson in group dynamics. The teachers are marvelous psychologists. I never cease to be amazed at the gracious manner in which they juggle the diverse emotions and needs of group members. As a psychologist with much teaching and small group experience, I am deeply impressed by what I see, and I know I see only a narrow spectrum. Teachers are masters of not fostering codependency. They are not so much the giver of answers as guides to our finding our own answers from within. Their uniform fairness to each individual is remarkable, all the more so to me knowing, as I do, the typical challenges of group dynamics, rivalry, envy, hurt feelings, anger, withdrawal, manipulation, enmeshment, ego inflation, and deflation. The teachers are subtle in the tapestry of goodness they weave in a group. But as the transcripts unfold session after session, it becomes easier to see love and group bonding emerge. The teachers are able to honor and praise humans without pretense or exaggeration, yet do this in such a way as not to foster pride. I have never known them to criticize, yet in their gentle understated way they allow us to be aware of our limitations and shortcomings. At the same time, there is no judgment. Sometimes it is hard to believe how accepting and tolerant of human weaknesses they are. I believe contact with a teacher is healing. The teachers are a marvelous projection mirror for students. It seems every question a mortal asks allows for a measure of soul opening. The mirror is pure and free of the legacy of dysfunctional family dynamics so present even in the most advanced of therapists or closest of human friends. It becomes easier to trust these invisible teachers as no comment or answer to a question is ever intended to hurt or depreciate the human. Their humor is delicate and light, never tinged with insult or bigotry. Although above us and beyond us, they never act with an attitude of parental authority. They are not our parents. They are teachers. They are friends. I have learned to be less judgmental because they model such unwavering and unconditional acceptance of us. I see my own tendencies to judge or complain about someone in bold relief. About the time I am feeling grumpy toward someone, a teacher may treat them with such esteem that even though I might want the teacher to chastise a seeming wrongdoer, I come away rather desiring to clean up my act, to become more accountable for my attitude. I am constantly reminded that the Father loves each and every one of us with an infinite love, even the supposedly unlovable. Their interventions are gentle, so understated as to be missed by one who does not seek. Yet, I have never been aware of a teacher being swayed or pressured by a mortal manipulation. If a question has been answered and the mortal demands more, the teacher may simply say, "the answer has already been given, there is DO more to say." Their use of pauses and timing is a study in communication mastery. They use pauses and silence boldly and with great power. They do not come from a fear base, so they do not fear us. They are not afraid to take a long pause or speak directly or challengingly, or steadfastly refuse to answer if they so choose. They are never rude.

 A unified team, a community, a network

 One of the advantages of reading transcripts from different groups is to glimpse the marvelous teamwork of the teachers. In our world I am so accustomed to hierarchies of authority. The teachers seem quite fraternal. There is no hint of elitism or status preoccupation. They refer to each other as well as humans as brothers and sisters. They ask that we view them as friends. Their teachings are consistent from group to group, albeit the variety of expression of the same fundamental truths is delightful. What are their common teachings? A transformed world through transformed individuals. And how will the transformation of the individual human take place? The teaching is deceptively simple: seek guidance in stillness daily; do little acts of kindness to people we contact, strangers and friends alike. This simple sharing spreads from person to person--the benign virus of love (see UB 109~:4). They do not make demands beyond our abilities. We are not required to suddenly be Gandhi or Mother Teresa. They are in total support of The Urantia Book; they refer to it constantly. They claim allegiance to the Father. They are in service to Christ Michael. Their concern for the dignity of human free will is paramount. Their goal for us is to lead us across the dangerous ground of discerning the Adjuster's will for ourselves, to become more attuned to the will of God. The consistency of these themes among groups is not just apparent but astounding.

 Peace within

 I continued to seek daily stillness time with my inner guidance. Sometimes I could get my mind to settle down a bit, but times of silence were still short and rare. I took inspiration from the many teachings about stillness.

 "...For all things a beginning is necessary. Therefore we ask you to try to compose yourself. Clear your mind. Don't think about anything. Don't think about not thinking. I like to use the example of the water in the glass. The more you try to calm the water, the more it is stirred. Just allow it to fall into the bottom and come to rest naturally and you will find that there is a stillness which has great vitality. You will be able to discern the vitality of God Himself, even in what you formerly thought were the empty spaces. Those who can find meaning in the empty spaces are truly on the right path. Do you think you can do that? (Will, 12/15/91) "Practice the stillness, go into the quiet every chance you can find for at least 10 minutes each day. This is the most valuable discipline you can attain at this time to help us. Giving us your permission just before sleep is also indicated if you are not already doing so. We are limited only by your free will. You must choose to be our expressions, our hands and feet, if you will. Through you we can carry a message of Truth to all corners of your world of Urantia. We desire to do just that." (Aflana, 3/3/92) "The greatest single factor in the well being of mortal man is to achieve peace within. 'This peace I leave with you,' was the master's salutation. Your continued effort to seek guidance from your Thought Adjuster by seeking the stillness will provide a fertile ground to the establishment of a permanent peace and centeredness which will permeate your physical body and maintain healthy balance." (Ham, private meeting, 5/31/92)

 "More time each day should be spent in the quietness in stillness. This is an effective way to making communication. You are disappointed if you do not hear small, still voices inside your head. I would tell you that this is not the usual method of communication. All of you have felt urgings, have known the things that you should be doing. You have felt the need to aid your brother, to go to worship services, to love your children, to love your neighbor's children, to love the children of the backward countries who have nothing to eat. You indeed are communicating; these indeed are not just of your own making. These ideas are prodded and encouraged, implanted by your guides. You expect so much when already you have so much. You may indeed hear that small, still voice if you listen. Many do, many do not. You must trust yourself. Trust your inner guidings. Believe that we are here and that we are aiding you." (Clois, 11/1/92). "If you spend time each day in quiet, in a place where you retain the joy of a happy or more relaxed moment, when you give up all worldly concerns and let the mind be free and the heart open, you can release much tension and much aggravation, anxiousness in this process. It is not bad to feel anxious or to worry, however, it is just that it is a waste of time, especially when there is so much to be joyful, or to be at one with, such as the sound of rain, the song of birds, the light of day; yes, there is another way, if you choose." (Astara, 12/11/92) This wonderful freedom of choice, this gift from the Father is so precious. I continued regular stillness even if I felt frustrated or felt that it was unsuccessful. I learned to look to the longer run, not to expect too much in any one session.

 Traveling to Utah and Idaho

 In May, 1992, I traveled to Utah, met with Ham, and attended a meeting of the Woods Cross group. Every group has group dynamics of emotions and viewpoints. This was true of the Woods Cross group. I was rather surprised at how many people had been willing to move from a strong Mormon background to acceptance of The Urantia Book and the teaching mission. I found these people culturally different from my California culture and extremely delightful and genuine. I found very little pretense and very much sincerity and truth seeking. I traveled up to Idaho and met a number of people in those groups. Vistas were beautiful and the people were friendly and charming. Meanwhile back in Utah, I had an opportunity to ask Ham more about the teacher requested for our area.

 "The time of the arrival of your teacher is dependent on those preparing and prepared for his eventual communications to your group. I am, however, at liberty to tell you that the . teacher who is assigned to your group is Jared. Jared is an extremely capable teacher who is even at this time amongst those who are now in the group and will become part of the group.... There are those in your group who have already sensed the contact. Their will creature acceptance is dependent upon the elimination of fear, faith in the process, and the love of Jared, your teacher. This method must preserve the requirement of faith in those who react and act as receiver-transmitters. We are proscribed in this, that it is so subtle a direction that the contact person must have faith...meditation and quiet time is essential...." (Ham, 5/31/92)

 By apparent chance, our study group increased to triple its previous size. The summer was a time of spiritual questing and much excitement. Some of us could sense the presence of Jared's teacher corps during our group prayers even though a speaking transmitter had not yet emerged. There was a crescendo of good feelings perhaps reaching a peak at our Jesus' birthday celebration in August. Our first spoken transmission came on August 25,1992. Our first transmitter, Lisa, is one of those sweet, understated people who, while not having read The Urantia Book, lives the teachings in her daily life. I have known Lisa for many years and I know that it is not her style to seek glory or even speak in groups. She shuns anything pretentious and is a busy working mom. Let me quote (with her permission) some of her story.

 "Beginnings: Personal Experience with Transmissions" from Lisa's Journal

 "Sometime in February or March, I gradually became aware of a voice in my head talking to me about everyday things, gently directing my thoughts and actions. Mostly the voice told me about my kids, things I already knew but confirmed good approaches. It was very positive and loving. The voice mostly spoke to me in the shower, before falling asleep and when waking up.

 "As time went on, I got more comfortable with it and heard more.... He told me neat things about my children, things that worked well with them, regular stuff. It is actually hard to remember specifics; it just became a part of my daily routine. I talked to [my spouse] about it a couple of times and decided it was my conscience or my Thought Adjuster. (Lisa knew of Thought Adjusters from conversations with our Urantia Book readers) "The voice tended to get stronger and more defined. I was clear that it was a man's voice coming from outside, above my head and to the back left. I got really used to the voice; we had nice comforting conversations daily. It naturally seemed a part of me. During the spring, I did attempt to listen to some tapes of Ham's teachings. I found it very difficult and only listened to parts of a couple of tapes. I felt overwhelmed; I could not do one more thing.... "On Wednesday, August 12, in the evening, I asked [my spouse] about Gennie's trip to Utah where she spoke to Ham and asked about Jared. Ham said Jared had attempted to contact everyone in the group. I suddenly sat up very straight. My mind was whirling. How did this relate to me? Was I part of the group? I was terrified; I cried. I asked [my spouse] if my voice could be Jared. My reaction also surprised me. I had not been attending the meetings-why would I respond? "Thursday morning, 8/13/92, I awoke early, which is very unusual for me. I felt very quiet and peaceful.

 I asked:

 "Are you Jared?"

 "Yes."

 "At that moment I had no doubt, the answer was very strong and clear. It wasn't until later that my intellect kicked in and I questioned my sanity....I had not been attending many meetings, done much reading, or even listened to many tapes. I did not know much about this. Bob helped confirm many of my perceptions and reassured me.... After all, he had asked for the teacher.

 "...I continue to be amazed at how presumptuous I felt and yet equally compelled to share this information....I continued to wonder why I was the one to hear Jared, our group's teacher; as well, I continued to question if it was real. I got some pretty clear answers....I am fairly "clean' in that I don't have as many emotional distractions --I don't have many emotional scars from my childhood, I don't consume substances like alcohol or caffeine. The biggest thing: Jared could relate to me about my children.

 "Friday morning, ~/14/92, I realized that the voices were more distant. It is up to me to choose to continue to hear the voices. I must make a conscious, willed, choice to continue hearing. I didn't want to lose them, to lose this opportunity, this gift, so I chose to continue....At the same time, it scared the living daylights out of me. I wanted some confirmation of the reality of it and didn't know how to get it. At the same time, I did not need any confirmation, I knew it was real and I just needed to trust my own feelings.... "September, 1992. During the beginning of September, I am sensing more and more spiritual presence's. The voices become stronger as ~ come to accept more and fear less. The feeling is always warm and loving and patient. They have all of eternity. "Saturday 9/12. We had another practice session at Bob's....It took quite a while to establish contact. ...I was being "plugged in." It felt like it was a pretty good connection and I was able to transmit for 45-60 minutes. I could really feel Jared and was able to transmit his messages. The contact felt stronger-better. I was able to laugh and be more aware of the people without losing the connection with Jared. As is usually the case, I don't remember much about what was said."

10 May 1993  Dennis Shields      welcome to change pt 3

Subject: welcome to change pt 3

 Psychological, sociological, historical, and other explanations for the transmissions

 In my heart, experientially, I am convinced of the authenticity of the mission and its supernal teachers. In my mind, of course, I continue to ask questions. I have had many doubts, especially early on. Now, I occasionally look for doubts but just don't find any that penetrate my heart-conviction-certainty. This is not to say that many aspects of the mission are not a mystery to me. This is not to say that I do not reflect on apparent inconsistencies, contradictions, and seeming errors in transmissions. However, most of these seem unimportant for my spiritual growth. The tendered explanations for the transmissions that I am aware of require more assumptions, suppositions, speculation, and logical gymnastics than the belief that transmissions are really from celestial personalities. I have yet to hear an explanation that explains anything. I have yet to hear a theory that is in any way comprehensive. To me, most so-called explanations are simply labels, buzz words like "mass hysteria" or multiple personality." The trouble is that most psychology that deals with mind dynamics is itself an art, hypothetical, or at the root, simply conjecture. During twenty-five years as a clinical psychologist, I simply have not seen any client or manifestation of pathology that comes near the consistency, depth, or has the spiritual qualities of these transmissions. The power of beliefs, even erroneous beliefs is great and is known in psychology. Festinger's book, When Prophecy Fails, is an excellent chronology of the social and psychological dynamics of beliefs that fail in objective predictions and how people tend to rearrange their outlook to incorporate dissonant data into the old belief system. As William James said, "When most people think they are thinking, they are just rearranging their prejudices." There are natural dangers or pitfalls of the human mind. I do not suggest that it is appropriate to be foolish or blissfully gullible, to accept every unusual thought as from teachers or the Adjuster. The Urantia Book is clear on this. "This is dangerous ground, and every human being must settle these problems for himself in accordance with his natural human wisdom and superhuman insight." (UB 1208:6) Indeed, in our secular and scientific society any belief beyond the dead level of replicable empiricism is often looked upon with disdain, including a belief in the authenticity of The Urantia Book. Present-day scientific psychology still has no place for God.

 Although I have served as a hypnotherapist, have occasionally had to hospitalize psychotic brothers or sisters, and have sat many hours with many disturbed individuals, nothing rings similar to the teacher transmissions. The types of pathology involving auditory hallucinations and complex delusions are typically paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar mood disorder, and dissociative personality disorders such as multiple personality. I have worked professionally with schizophrenic and manic-depressive individuals. I find little similarity between these individuals and the receiver transmitters of the teaching mission. Although DSM-III-R allows for multiple personality, even individuals so diagnosed do not manifest the types of behavior found in the teaching mission. And we know from The Urantia Book that true personality is not multiple and is not even the same construct as is used in contemporary psychology. Involvement in the teaching mission necessitates an accompanying belief system which may have delusional components. The same is true of The Urantia Book.

 The Jungian concepts of "archetypes," "a collective unconscious," and a '"personal unconscious" have little or no empirical basis, depending on whom you talk to. Many theoreticians regard this all as shear speculation. I personally am enamored with Carl Jung and hold the opinion that some of his theory is corroborated by The Urantia Book. However, no psychological theory, much less rubrics like "mass delusions," or "upsurging group needs," even begins to satisfy me in explaining the phenomena of the teaching mission, much less my personal experience (cf. UB 1107:78). I think any theory that claims to invalidate the reality of this mission must account for the following (a partial list): the consistent and coherent Urantia Book values emerging from transmitters at diverse geographical locations; the same values emerging from TRs who have no previous knowledge of The Urantia Book; "teachers that function and manifest as an integrated team; people emerging as receiver transmitters who not only don't know of The Urantia Book, but have no history of any interest in or belief in channeling, or are opposed to it; spouses, relatives, and close friends that quickly recognize that the "transmission" is not coming from their friend, relative, or spouse; people "hearing voices" who have no previous history of hallucinations or pathology; people experiencing "teacher contact" who are totally surprised by the experience and had no knowledge or expectation of it; thousands of pages of transcripts with nearly identical messages despite the fact that many of these groups have no knowledge of one another's activities; remarkably high inter- and intra-transcript consistency; the reported fact that teaching group members can readily identify the same teacher transmitted through different receiver-transmitters by personality and style rather than name; the same reported goal of the mission whether it emerges in the USA, New Zealand, France, etc.; astounding experiential congruence among all the mission transmitters; the rapid growth of the mission; and most important, the testimony of an ever expanding corps of sincere seekers who have directly experienced the teacher personality presence. The Urantia Book does verify that humans can sense personality presence. "Man's own personality awareness, self-consciousness, is also directly dependent on this very fact of innate other awareness, this innate ability to recognize and grasp the reality of other personality, ranging from the human to the divine" (UB 196:4). The teachers instruct us that beginning contact may be detected by the awareness of "otherness," (their word). The teachers repeatedly refer to the transmissions as "a new form of communication." So, historical explanations for the transmissions are greatly limited or nullified. There is almost no historical precedent for this phenomenon which the teachers say is dependent upon the opening of spiritual circuits, closed up to the present by the quarantine of the Lucifer rebellion. Books could be written, filled, with psychological-social- historical attempts to explain the teaching mission as psychic, diabolical, pathological, fraudulent, human, and so on. Lengthy rebuttals could also be generated. But the true answer lies Within. The teachers and The Urantia Book have offered us a way to validate the mission. Try it for yourself. Subject it to the unfathomable crucible of direct experiential validation. Use the criteria on page 1458:3 for when an experience is good. Consider the practical test of strange religious experiences given on page 1000:6. Practice silent communion daily; seek the Father; seek the answer from your Spirit of Truth; look for the fruits of the spirit. Be patient, for not all answers come quickly or easily. What does it matter if you don't find "teachers," this is not what the mission is about. The mission is about seeking within and loving one another. It's very simple, feeling God's love and passing it on to another.

 "I charge you that this is your purpose, to pleasantly infect all those around you with the Truth. At the same time, I would caution you to go about it in the same way that your Creators do. Many of His disciples wanted drum rolls and trumpets, and to declare Truth to the world, and He chose not to pursue this method. And I charge you to take this lesson to heart. The word will be spread quietly by each of you. You each have unique opportunities. Some of you will be traveling to other parts of the country, and of the world. Take the Truth with you and gently, gently, infect those around you. Much is happening now. Many people are being awakened. Many people are finding the Truth. This will be a quiet revolution. There will be no trumpets. There will be no drum rolls. There will be a wave of Truth that spreads, spreads, ever so gently, across the nation, across the planet." (Esther, 8/30/92)

 The Urantia Book Context

 Thankfully, as free will creatures each one of us is at liberty to interpret :The Urantia Book in our own way, according to our own light. You may find other passages or interpret those quoted here differently. I recognize that there is always danger in taking quotations out of context. I offer you a perspective that intrigues me in possibly foreshadowing the teaching mission. I respect that you may have a different interpretation and prefer other passages. "Urantia is now quivering on the very brink of one of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment.'' (UB 2082:7, cf. also 1259:1) Of course, The Urantia Book conditions us to think in terms of centuries or millennia, but how far away could "the very brink" be? "All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus." (UB 1041:5) Is this new proclamation limited just to The Urantia Book, or could there be more. How would the billions of illiterate people be reached? The Urantia Book is not translated into even a handful of the hundreds of languages on Earth. How will "the peoples of all faiths" be touched with Jesus' Truth? "It is understandable that you would be concerned about the availability, the afford ability of The Urantia Book. The Urantia Book has touched many hands and through the hands that have held the book and absorbed into their being the knowledge that is contained within this book, there are many fertile human beings alive on this planet who are able to disseminate the information and understanding of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. It will, in time, find its way into more hands; but for now the important thing here is to be a living book, living the truth and spreading the word through your humanness. Human action, even your thoughts, are means of transporting into others love inspiring faith." (Astara, 11/15/92)

 How crazy is it to think that celestial beings are making direct contact with Urantians at this time? If you are a believer in The Urantia Book, I will assume that you believe: that Ratta gave birth to invisible children; that Adam and Eve were eight to ten feet tall, glowed violet, and communicated with each other telepathically; that there was an invisible planetary Prince with a staff of human-looking but superhuman beings; that an invisible Melchizedek incarnated as a visible human and lived near Salem for ninety years; that two non-speaking primates suddenly gave birth to two completely human children; that one couple gave birth to nineteen children with skin colors of either orange, green, red, blue, yellow, or indigo; that brilliant, high, invisible beings went berserk and created a galactic rebellion in our corner of the universe; that calcium atoms can hitchhike on sunbeams; that demons once existed and could possess the minds of mortals; that humans flew five hundred miles non-stop on talking transport birds; that seers through the ages have received contact from invisible beings; that God lived here as a human, raised a man from the dead, and after his own mortal death returned and appeared to hundreds of people; that other planets are inhabited; that we evolved from frogs; that we have an innate capacity to sense personality as well as the directions of the compass; that invisible beings are the permanent inhabitants of this planet; that Amadon, a primitive earthling, ate the tree of life and lived for over 100,000 years; that ethereal beings spoke through a man who was sleeping and generated the contents of The Urantia Book; and that we have invisible beings following us everywhere we go. Why is it so difficult to entertain the belief that higher beings are contacting us and speaking to us through human transmitters now in the twentieth century? "Divine truth must not be discounted because the channel of its bestowal is apparently human." (UB 1733:1) I was especially struck by the correlation of some of Ham's message with this passage in The Urantia Book. "If Christianity persists in neglecting its spiritual mission..., the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these new teachers of Jesus' religion who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men. And then will these spirit-born souls quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world." (UB 2082:9 - 2083:1) ... Spiritual enlightenment and individual and group and national and planetary progress is anticipated. Also too, along with the spiritual uplifting, we are anticipating and desiring cooperation in other areas of human life endeavor as well, chiefly economic, political, social, environmental and technical changes. Of course, we are anticipating many years duration of this initial phase of our mission." (Ham, LA, 211/92) "This new and oncoming social order will not settle down complacently for a millennium." (UB 1086:4) The teachers have referred to the Correcting Time as 1000 years, (see above). "That centuries have passed with no signs of the appearance of the 'New Age' is in no way out of harmony with Jesus' teaching." (UB 1860:5, 1146:4) "Mortal man is passing through a great age of expanding horizons and enlarging concepts on Urantia,...." (UB 1146:4) "The quickest way to realize the brotherhood of man on Urantia is to effect the spiritual transformation of present day humanity. The only technique for accelerating the natural trend of social evolution is that of applying spiritual pressure from above, thus augmenting moral insight while enhancing the soul capacity of every mortal to understand and love every other mortal." (UB 598:2) I have always wondered what was meant by "spiritual pressure from above," I am inclined to believe the teachers are applying that pressure now.

 What likelihood is there that Machiventa would appear on Urantia in our lifetime? The Chief of Seraphim of Urantia, a primary supernaphim from Paradise, writes, "Some believe that Machiventa will not come to take personal direction of Urantian affairs until the end of the current dispensation.... Still others, including this narrator look for Melchizedek's appearance any day or hour." (UB 1251:4) And, a Melchizedek writes, "...it is altogether possible that Machiventa Melchizedek may again appear in person on Urantia and in some modified manner resume the role of the dethroned Planetary Prince, or else appear on earth to function as vicegerent Planetary Prince representing Christ Michael...." (UB 102~:2) These are, in fact, the claims of the teaching mission (see above, Ham's announcement in LA, 2/1/92). Certainly I would agree that Urantia does not appear on the surface to be nearing the Age of Light and Life. Yet, as compared to a very advanced culture on a neighboring planet, "The pouring out of the Spirit of Truth provides the spiritual foundation for the realization of great achievements in the interests of the human race of the bestowal world. Urantia is therefore far better prepared for the more immediate realization of a planetary government with its laws, mechanisms, symbols, conventions, and language --all of which could contribute so mightily to the establishment of world-wide peace under law and could lead to the sometime dawning of a real age of spiritual striving; and such an age is the planetary threshold to the utopian ages of light and life." (UB 820:4)

 "This world has never seriously or sincerely or honestly tried out these dynamic ideas and divine ideals of Jesus' doctrine of the kingdom of heaven. But you should not become discouraged by the apparently slow progress of the kingdom idea on Urantia. Remember that the order of progressive evolution is subjected to sudden and unexpected periodical changes in both the material and the spiritual worlds.' (UB 1863:12) So, despite the general slowness of evolution, there may be sudden transformations as well. Compare also, "When physical conditions are ripe, sudden mental evolution's may take place; when mind status is propitious, sudden spiritual transformations may occur...." (UB 740:3) "The hour is striking for a rediscovery of the true and original foundations of present-day distorted and compromised Christianity--the real life and teachings of Jesus." (UB 2083:2) "The time is ripe to witness the figurative resurrection of the human Jesus from his burial tomb amidst the theological traditions and the religious dogmas of nineteen centuries." (UB 2090:3)

 A Melchizedek of Nebadon writes, "At the time of this writing, much of Asia rests its hope in Buddhism. Will this noble faith, that has so valiantly carried on through the dark ages of the past, once again receive the truth of expanded cosmic realities even as the disciples of the great teacher in India once listened to his proclamation of new truth? Will this ancient faith respond once more to the invigorating stimulus of the presentation of new concepts of God and the Absolute for which it has so long searched?" (UB 1041:4)

 Regarding China, an Archangel says, "This ancient culture has contributed much to human happiness; millions of human beings have lived and died, blessed by its achievements. for centuries this great civilization has rested upon the laurels of the past, but it is even now reawakening to envision anew the transcendent goals of mortal existence, once again to take up the unremitting struggle for never-ending progress." (UB 888:6)

 Speaking of the later evolution of religion on Urantia, a Melchizedek comments, "Religion progressed from nature worship up through ghost worship to fetishism throughout the savage childhood of the races. With the dawn of civilization the human race espoused the more mystic and symbolic beliefs, while DOW, with approaching maturity, mankind is ripening for the appreciation of real religion, even a beginning of the revelation of truth itself" (UB 1003:7-1004:1) In is interesting to me that The Urantia Book raises the possibility of the benign virus of love so pervading the sentimental emotion-stream of humanity that all civilization would be encompassed by love--the realization of the brotherhood of man (UB 1098:4). Is this what the new teachers intend to bring about?

 It seems to me that the great religious civilizations of the world are gearing up, now, in the twentieth century for a kind of spiritual renaissance. References to things that will or could happen in the twentieth century occur at least twenty-three times in The Urantia Book. Why so many references to this century in a revelation that is alleged to have its golden era hundreds of years in the future? Notable passages can be found in connection with The Urmia Lectures and Secular Totalitarianism. Consider, in just seven years all those references will be history. Could it be that, with the advent of The Urantia Book and now the continuation of this revelation in the teacher corps, Urantia is being prepared for one of those sudden spiritual uplifts mentioned on page 1863?

 The book refers to these as dangerous times (UB 765:2). It says, "And such times of great testing and threatened defeat are always times of great revelation." (UB 2082:8) Even greater than The Urantia Book alone? Why were we instructed by headquarters in the early years to form thousands of study groups? Study alone is hardly the living gospel alluded to so frequently in the latter sections of the book. How could the figurative resurrection be limited to small groups ever increasing with cerebralizations of cosmic facts? How do we move from study groups to living the gospel? from a religion about Jesus to the religion of Jesus? (UB 2090:3) Is the teaching mission the critical link? Jesus referred many times to "an age to come." (e.g., UB 1229:1) "Although Jesus referred one phase of the kingdom to the future and did, on numerous occasions, intimate that such an event might appear as a part of a world crisis...." (UB 1863:13) It strikes me that we are in a world crisis right now in the 1990s. "He promised a new revelation of the kingdom on earth and at some future time; ...." (UB 1863:13) Is the teaching mission part of this new revelation of the kingdom?

 The teachers tell us that they are just a little above us. This follows with a theme in The Urantia Book that those above serve as teachers to those just below. (see UB 498:2, 812:4) The rebellion on Urantia had its origins back in Dalamatia, city of the Prince, with his corporeal staff of one hundred ascendant mortals. (~ 574:4) It does not surprise me that, with the inauguration of a new dispensation, and post-rebellion healing, the Correcting Time, would mirror the Dalamatian model--but with a loyal Planetary Prince. So, Prince Melchizedek has returned now with a staff, consisting initially of one hundred ascendant mortals. This time the staff is not incarnating but is touching us via spiritual circuits recently opened, and the number of teachers is increasing daily to fully accommodate the openness of humanity.

 Experiences with teacher Jared

 It is my greatest desire to share with you my happiness about this new endeavor. Our teacher is a fused ascendant mortal with origin on a nearby planet and is many thousands of earth years old. We do not know much more about the history of our teacher. He has been wise enough to deflect most of our curiosity questions and urges us to search and ask about more spiritually relevant issues. We are told that he is a teacher of teachers and has many beings with him when he transmits. Jared is unwavering m his gracious simplicity, rigorous in his urgings to seek within. Perhaps the best way to introduce Jared is to share some of his words.

 "I am Jared. I am your teacher. Welcome to all of you who have come seeking. I am delighted that there are so many present here who are interested in our teaching mission. We have much to share, and much help is available to those of you who wish for it. We wish also to reassure those of you who are unsure of the origins. We are here only for those who wish to come, and we will contact only those who wish to have such contact. There is always choice available, and even should you choose for contact now, you may later choose not to continue receiving this contact. We have chosen to come in a way that we hope is less frightening. We speak to you in the same way you speak to each other. We come, though, to share God's great love with all of you and ask that you share it with one another. You will find much coming back to you and much that will spread out and be shared with others as they share with others, too. I hope you will be open to these teachings and hope we can assist you on your path toward God's will. Are there questions for me this evening?" (Jared, 1/7/93) Jared speaks with simple eloquence. He is disciplined about referring us back to our inner stillness for the answers to our questions. Yet he shares many truths, some so simple they are easily overlooked. Visitors sometimes shrug and yawn at his many versions of the same message--seek within; do small kindnesses to others. "For each of you to search within yourselves and find God's love and share it with another, it is helpful in changing many things in this world. We hope that by coming to you more concretely and more clearly, you will find it easier to follow God's will. If you mix it some with your own thoughts in your own head, it does not matter as the result is the same: you will be performing God's will. Those people who choose to be transmitters are assisted and cautioned in being more careful in hearing separate voices and being clear of their own part, but each of you 1s encouraged to listen within and find the assistance available in doing God's will. It is not overly important to distinguish the exact source." (Jared, 1/7/93) For me, the most important thing is the personality contact, the interpersonal interaction. I experience asking questions, regardless of how silly they seem, and the receiving of answers as inherently uplifting. Here is an example interchange. Q. "...the study group that I go to and the area that I'm associated with--the people are very negative on the mission and communications of this kind.... What can I tell them the goal of the mission is?"

 A. "To bring great change in this world by each person sharing small acts of kindness with another....' (1/7/93)

 Q. "Good evening. I wonder if you would say something to us about the value of studying the tapes and transmissions of yours and of the other teachers."

 A. "I was delighted to hear the conversation this evening. The tapes and the transcripts are very Important. There are many parts of my message and they require frequent listening to be absorbed. Some people learn better by listening, by hearing the intonations and the phrasings. Others are more visual and absorb best by reading the materials. A combination of methods is probably most helpful to most people. I strongly recommend that each person take time to listen and to read as you will be surprised what you will learn....~'

 Q. "In what way is the searching as important as the hearing?"

 A. "It allows you to search for God and search for God's will. It is a search of faith and a search of trust and many times teaches you to quiet your mind and to learn to see the beauty around you. It teaches you to listen within and to believe in yourself and trust in your own feelings. It is important to know that, as you truly trust yourself, trust in the quietness, trust in the gentleness that is within you, you will find God's will and be able to perform that will with more ease."

 Q. "So, it is really the growth through the experience of doing it as much as it is the answer that you get?"

 A. 'Yes. It is important to remember that many people will never hear a teacher's voice within themselves. It is not the goal of the mission for you to hear us. The goal of our mission is for you to receive our message, receive God's message through us. There are many ways of doing that. For some it has been important that they are able to hear us so they may transmit our message to others. Many people will find their place by listening to the mission and incorporating it and by doing God's will as opposed to hearing it only...." (Jared, 10/15/92) "You are requested to seek stillness to allow us entry, to allow us to speak through you, to allow us to speak to you in ways you can hear. Not everyone will hear us; it is not important that all of you do. It is only important that you seek. Stilling the mind and reaching for us has been found to be very difficult for you. Your efforts are commended, nonetheless. We suggest you continue to try and not be frustrated with your failures. They are not failures. Perhaps your standards are too high. Your seeking is important. Sit quietly and seek for us, for our teachings; think for what you can do this day to help another. Remember also what you did yesterday to help another. Be proud of yourself for your efforts.

 "Stillness is also encouraged when you are going about your daily activities. You can find the stillness even momentarily in daily tasks. This is also very helpful. As you are out watering your garden, quiet your mind, do not concentrate on all the things you have done that day. Instead, enjoy the moment, enjoy the flowers, and enjoy the trees, and enjoy the grass. In that way you are also seeking, you are quieting your mind from your daily anxieties. If possible, give yourself some time each day when you will not allow your anxieties to intrude. In that way you are finding the stillness, in that way you are searching.

 "Many times, also, you are not sure what you should do at the moment. Perhaps you can sit quietly and see what is most important. In that way you are also seeking because you will learn to listen within and that will help with your ability to hear our guidance. Does this help?...." (Jared, 10/1/9~)

 "Perhaps it is time to share with you all the first step in our lessons. In learning to do God's will you must first know of God's will. There are many avenues to that finding, many ways of searching. You are all searching as you have chosen to come. There are many others who are also searching, but who have not chosen to be here.

10 May 1993  Dennis Shields      welcome to change pt4

Subject: welcome to change pt4

 "The first step for each of you is to calm your mind in such a way that you can hear us. There are many, many ways of doing that. Seeking the stillness is our first recommendation. It may work for you to sit quietly and allow your daily cares to leave. Allow peace and tranquillity to descend upon you and allow yourself to relax In that way you are open to us. It helps many to pray quietly and give thankfulness for what is available to them. Others find stillness very difficult. There are other ways of achieving that calm. Find something, find a quiet activity that is soothing and appealing. For some it may be watering a garden, for others washing dishes, for others laying quietly--whatever you can do to allow your mind to rest and be calm.

 "The next step is to allow that calmness to become a part of your life. In your daily activities allow that calmness to be part of you. As you achieve each bit of calmness you will be open to more and more and will find it easier to achieve. Those are very major steps and take a long time. Many things get in the way. Illness, anger, frustration, busyness all are disruptive of this process. Patience is required. It takes a long time. It may take a long time to achieve a calm within yourself. As you seek this calmness, ask for God's assistance. It is available to all of you and will make it easier.

 "There are many in the world not able to embark on this search. Many who begin searching will go no further than achieving more calmness. It is, however, to be applauded whenever progress is made, whenever the search is begun, whenever calmness is increased. It will make tremendous strides in this world. Others are more receptive and able to hear us. Many who seek calmness and achieve some measure of calmness are able to hear us without awareness. As they are truly searching, they will be guided and begin doing more of God's will. That much is a great step and much hoped for by teachers.

 "There are others who are more receptive and able to hear a voice consciously. They will get more guidance and be able to share with others. Lisa was able to hear me as a distinctly separate voice and in that manner grew comfortable with me and accepting of me and eventually learned to acknowledge me as her teacher, as the group's teacher, and because of her trust in me, and her trust in God, has been able to share with the group. I am grateful for her ability to do so as it is the only way I have of affecting many lives. I hope to be able to share God's love and God's teaching with many, many people. I too work one step at a time. I have gained her trust and she in turn has shared with others. I feel your beginnings to trust me and then you will be able to share with others as well. Our mission is to share God's love and God's goodness with all beings. There are many who will, who may not be open, who may not choose to listen and that is, of course, their choice. I hope to be able to touch many lives, those who are willing, those who are seeking. I am grateful to you for coming. I am gratified by your desire for the word of God as shared by the teachers. I am looking forward to many more teachings." (Jared, 10/8/92)

 

 Autographed photo of Jared, 1/23/93

 The teachers much enjoy our sense of humor. It is difficult to put into words the experience of weekly sessions with an ascendant teacher. It is so experiential. Probably the most important things I have learned haven't been expressed in words. There is the time spent reflecting on transmissions, the all too human emotional reactions, the subtler spiritual insights, and always the daily silent prayer time. The greatest change I see in my attitude is a shift in emphasis from asking Jared to asking within. I began more preoccupied with the group. Now, I find my preoccupation is with deepening my stillness, seeking my answers there. And, of course, with this goes the desire to reach out and love.

 The mind of a teacher

 When I read The Urantia Book, I often try to penetrate the minds of the authors, to discern their frames of reference, to sense their outlooks and attitudes. In this way I feel I know these high beings a little. The same is true of the teaching mission. I have noticed that teachers do not seem to forget or lose track of veins of conversation. They often seem to know a question before it is asked. Sometimes the latency between a question and answer is lightening fast. Often the answer is so big in concept and comprehensive that I forget the beginning by the end. I know that I could not generate such lengthy and complete answers in the fraction of a second between some questions and some answers. There are occasions when a question has multiple parts. I often loose track, but the teachers don't seem to. Even after a lapse of time beyond my short-term memory span, a teacher will bring up the remaining parts that even the questioner may have forgotten. Some teachers seem to know who wants to speak next, even though the TR's eyes are closed. Some answers are so long and involved that I cannot track the mind of the teacher the full course. It is nearly essential for me to study tapes or transcripts in order to grasp a communication. Transmitters often garble words in attempting to paraphrase an internal message but are able to transmit without vocal flaws. In my experience, teachers do not manifest ego preoccupation, impatience, fatigue, lapses of consciousness, or loss of poise as we humans do. Their knowledge of The Urantia Book content seems always available to them, notwithstanding the difficulty some TRs have in transmitting names, numbers, and certain factual material. There is a steadiness to teacher presence that, for me, goes beyond human capabilities. At this point the minds of teachers are inscrutable to me. There are many other aspects of teacher communications that convince me of their enormous mental capabilities. It has taken repeated contact for me to become sensitive to these extraordinary nuances. Just one experience may not be that impressive. Personal inner contact with teacher presence may be more impressive. Teacher minds certainly intrigue me, yet I cannot fathom them. "By their fruits, you shall know them...." (Jesus, UB 1572:7) What are the fruits of the teaching mission? This is a difficult question since time must be allowed between planting and harvest. The mission is still very new. I can only share how things appear through my eyes, my own experience. Time will tell. I see many more people in the Urantia readership talking to each other. I see a great upsurgence of new people led to the mission and then developing a hunger for the "backstory" provided in The Urantia Book. I see the teaching mission stimulating a real and broad sense of community. I see the higher purpose of study groups beginning to blossom. I see many people seeking guidance more determinedly than ever. I see people dedicating themselves to daily silent communion. I see more people having first hand rather than second hand spiritual experiences. I see people thinking wrestling with issues of truth. I see new friendships forming. I see more brotherhood and less of the elitism that has tragically infected some reader organizations. I see new openness and new intimacy emerging; the genuineness and open heartedness the teachers show us is contagious. I see a new hope emerging for individuals and the entire planet. I see a conspiracy of goodness leaking forth between the cracks of a bleak and distraught world. And I see The Urantia Book being brought to life Teacher transmissions

 One way to become acquainted with this mission is to read excerpts of transmissions from the various teachers. To me the similarity is remarkable.

 Remember me, asks our Father, for I love you and will deliver you to my side in eternity. Great is our mission to bring us all closer to remembering the Father daily in our lives. With love and gratitude we have come to serve you. Remember, we love you and are keeping you in God's care through your Faith (Ansol, 9/18/92)

 The campfires of your world whether on plain or forest warm their visitors on one side only. But when you stand by the fire of the Father's love, it warms through and through. The Father's flame is a flame that you may carry with you in your hearts no matter how far you travel from your fuel source. You may share its warmth with all whom you encounter. As that flame transfers itself from one fire grand to another, so shall the Father's flame transfer itself from one heart to another. Nothing more is required from each of you than a degree of proximity. We ask that you approach near enough to your neighbors that the Father's flame is allowed to pass." (Melchizedek, Will transcripts, 4/5/92

 "Here is the framework which we propose as a hierarchy for application of our teachings: (l) communion with the Heavenly Father; (2) family time; (3) applications of our instruction to your daily interaction with your earthly brothers and sisters; (4) the ordinary maintenance of material concerns. This is a hierarchy of quality, not total hours...." (Onanecalek l/13/92)

 "I am Ham. Our group in Woods and Cross has been instructed as you have been instructed to go within yourselves, to search for your teacher. We are all equal in the eyes of our Father. He wants us all to be instructed, if we so desire, with a personal teacher. Each one has that privilege. Each one has that opportunity open to him if you so desire it in your hearts. This is a new form of communication as your teacher, Jared, has told you. It is difficult. It does take practice. It does take searching. You will have doubts. You will overcome those doubts as you share with each other. Our group is also in Salt Lake experiencing the same problems. But if you are willing, this will work for you. It is a beautiful new form of communication. Remember that you are all, that we are all, equal in the eyes of the Creator. Our group is also writing- Sometimes it is much easier to write than it is to speak the words. If the thoughts come, take up your paper and pen and write them down unto yourself where you may review those in private. Sometimes this is much easier and less threatening . As time goes by, these thoughts can then be transmitted where through the form of the mouth. This is all your free will. This is a wonderful gift that is being presented to mankind. I am pleased to be with you here tonight.... Let your doubts flee. Try if you so desire. Remember, you are precious children of our Father. Christ Michael is your Teacher, also. He is ever with you. He is there for the asking to help you whenever you need. He is loving. He is kind. He is there for you also. He is no respecter of persons. You are all equal in his sight. Spread his love to all mankind. That is the message. See his face in each man that you meet. know that he is your equal. Each man is your equal...." (Ham, Santa Rosa, 9/17192)

 "AVOID 3-D ING. Doubt plus denial equal despair. All humans experience 3-D thinking. It is painful for you because it causes you to turn your backs to the Father. You must safeguard yourselves from these pitfalls. How? By practicing your stillness daily. This is good news! 'Would you be so grand as to ask the Father only to share your burdens, lighten your loads? Do you not believe the Father wishes to share your joys as well? He would have you bare yourselves to Him--your most shameful acts to your loftiest of feelings. Do not seek the Father only when you think you "need" His help, for without Him, you do not exist. You are mindless in your wanderings, an empty shell without His light.

 "Daily practice of your stillness gives you a foundation for reaching for your Father. It is helpful in times of despair to have already established a knowledge of your own rhythm for spiritual seeking. Familiarity with your path to seeking stillness will help you in difficult times. You will have confidence in your ability to reach for the Lord.

 "You must learn to let go of your fears, to reach for the Father with faith. You must give yourselves to Him and trust that He will provide reward. But, you must be careful not to test the Father. Do not seek Him one second, then stop to test for His answer the next. You cannot know when or how relief-reward will come, but you must surely trust that it will. The Father's ways are quite often unimaginable to you and will provide you with great surprise and joy, if you allow them. This is a most important act, to reach for the Father when you cannot see His arms are there to catch you. It is like a leap from a giant cliff. You must risk yourselves spiritually! It is a great measure of your faith.

 "So, safeguard yourselves from 3D's with daily stillness practice. The more you know your Father, the less you will doubt or deny His Presence. When the 3 D's are upon you, erase your thinking! Take your giant leap of faith back into the arms of the Father. Allow your painful feelings to strengthen your faith in this way. Do not try to intellectualize or rationalize your way back, just close your eyes and Jump!" (Will, Sebastopol, CA., l /l9/93)

 "Now, go forth practicing loving service in brotherhood to all who touch your life experience. Do not neglect those closest to you. They contribute to who you are and how useful you can be, so see to their needs. comfort, and become alert to means of increasing their ability to trust you, rely on your commitments, stand on your loyalties, minister by your side." (Aflana, 3/2/92)

 

 "Go forward into your daily life without fear. The Father is with you. No gaps exist in His plan. You cannot fall; you cannot fail. If you but turn your face to His light, all will be seen. His company is matchless, and He lives in the hearts and lives of every person you shall ever meet. Go out amongst them, for they are awaiting you. God goes with you." (Thicandor, l/l0/92) "The Correcting Time which is now beginning --correction, which is now begun, may last for many years, perhaps a thousand, perhaps more, maybe less, in your terms of measurement. This length of the Correcting Time is dependent on humankind's capacity to understand and accept God and be willing for change to occur, for Light, Truth, and Beauty to reign Supreme on Urantia. At this particular time as the Correcting Time has begun there are Celestial Beings gathering. They have been gathering, watching, caring for you all for many, many centuries. They wait, patent, watchful, careful." (Abraham, New Zealand, 10/4/89)

 Q. "Can you elaborate on the meaning of our personal lives and how this is important for the mission and our spiritual growth?"

 A. "You have asked for the world. I will try to give you a piece. Your planet, Urantia, has been in isolation. You have felt alone and adrift in the universe. Mortals look at the stars and pray that there are others out there. This has been the curse of Urantia and of your life. But now your planet is rejoining the cosmic community.

 'We are your first wave of friends that you can sense. While your planet is being re-in circuited, you will come into contact with more and more beings who co-inhabit the Father's universe. We are merely the pilgrims of this time. We are the first off the boat. You have always had scores, teams, armies of angelic assistance. Surrounding you at all times are the Primary and the Secondary Midwayers, guardians of Urantia. Each one of you can communicate with Michael via the Spirit of Truth--a unique gift to this planet in isolation. And of course, each of you, and each of us, has an indwelling fragment of the Father Himself.

 "But these helpers have not been so apparent as the burgeoning contact with our group of individual teachers. We are preparing you for your initiation into the citizenry of the universe. You will work side by side with beings seen and unseen, heard - unheard, in the days to come this is the meaning of the Correcting Time.

 "That is one element of the impact of this mission on your life. But there is more. You must be made familiar with the tools of the agondonter. You must be taught and led to recognize the voice of the Father within you. You will be taught to discern the gentle nudges of your guardian angels and you will begin to see the fleeting glimpses of the midwayers at work in your world and around your life. As you strengthen your connections, so will your soul strengthen, and you will begin to live more morontially. We will help you. We will guide you. This is the goal. The goal is to have a corps of mortals who live morontially on Urantia, and we foresee great success in this part of our mission. Does that answer?" (Rayson, l l/14t92, Sebastopol, CA.) "All spiritual teachings must be evaluated by their content, and not followed or rejected because of the celebrity of their supposed source. The time is long past on this planet when religion can be promulgated by asserting the authority of the teacher; that system of religious instruction was effectively demolished by the Master in Palestine and the later Protestant Reformation in Europe . Neither do we seek to create a Star System of religious instruction; 'If he said it, it must be so!' "Such acceptance of any teaching does not lead to the kind of sincere searching and proving for one's self that we seek to promote. Again, it must be the teachings themselves and the effect the have on the students' lives, and not the claimed authority of their source that must be the final determinant in evaluating any religious teachings. (Seraphim, l/28192)

 "Doing the will of the Father is the ultimate goal. That will is to become on with the Father and in the process become one with all beings throughout all the Universes; for there is only the Father ultimately, and each of you is as one wit the Father this is your goal...this is you destiny." (James, l0/4192)

 "But the Father works as He always does, one human at a time; heart by heart, the people will be turned to the love of the Father.' (Ramsey, l/26/92)

 'You have a textbook which was to prepare you for this stage of the revelation. Do you have any idea of how fortunate and cared for you have been or Urantia? To receive such a revelation before lifting the quarantine is impressive to me! I've lived a long time and had many experiences during my training, but have never beheld what I see happening here on Urantia--anywhere in the Local Universe! You are blessed among many...!

 "I leave you with this. No longer fret over the pettiness of misunderstandings. Go forward and discover Truth Look to motive and intention and let go of success and failure. You plant the seed and we will nourish it. Let's join our energies and creativeness and stretch Urantia into the next stage of Light an Life! Upward and Inward we march on wings of efforts and decisions. I am here to guide you and teach you." (Lor-E1 6/19792)

 You may choose to participate in this teaching mission or not.

 It is not necessary to join a group to have teacher contact, if you so desire. The mission is not primarily about groups, but about each individual finding the Thought Adjuster. The teachers honor our free will completely. No judgment is made if you choose not to be involved. Each mortal has a unique path to Paradise. You are entitled to your free will without question or prejudice. Who is to say but that you may have another path to God? "But you must know that the most important thing in this life is for you to discover our Father, to feel Him in your being, to know Him in your mind, and to love Him in your heart. All else will come to pass. By knowing the Father, you will know yourself. You will know your brothers and sisters. You will have unraveled the greatest experience of material living. Do not worry about tomorrow, for our Master told you that his Father knows you have need of many things. The Father loves you and will provide for you. Make your decision, stand firm in your resolution, and go forth now--today." (Welmek, 8/10/92) "At this time, in this world, on Urantia, on earth, there is an acceleration of information descending into the earth plane, taking many forms: enlightened books, channels dotted across plains and mountains, across the seas, beings who have invited into their lives speakers from the realms.... Take time daily to look within your heart, for in your heart resides, what is termed, the faith connector, what is known as a path of illumination. Listen to your heart, your feelings. Heart centered people are needed to bring the light to all. Though the mind is a valuable tool, it is not so dependable as the heart.... And so be ever aware that there is no specific path to enlightenment, to God, other than through the path of love, through the heart." (Astara, 11/15/92)

 Complete Acceptance

 There is much about the teaching mission that is difficult to express in words. There are subtle nuances that emerge slowly, week by week, in a teacher group. In the Daniel transcripts, for example, there unfolds the delightful genuineness of the participants as question after question reveals the innermost heart and soul of the person. It is easy to love these people even at a great distance since their openness about personal, intimate matters is so evident. Time and time again group members unburden themselves of concerns and issues that might not serve status seeking or image making or ego gratification but that do serve soul growth. believe that this kind of openness can emerge because the teachers are so completely accepting of us mortals. Most of the teachers had mortal origin s they can genuinely empathize with us. Daniel's lessons are so sweet, like primer lessons of love Among humans, even dear friends, it is difficult to find consistent acceptance from others. Among the best of friends, unconditional love is still more an ideal than a reality. And so there are parts of our selves that we are reluctant to share for there may be the sting of rejection. Not so with the teachers They tell me that we tend to idealize them. The teachers remind us often that they are not perfect, just a little above us. But in my experience I have found the teachers totally accepting even of our worst attributes. We are told that our Lord, Michael truly loves even our character flaws. It is a blessed experience to be in the presence of such total and, indeed superhuman acceptance. It is such a relief to be totally accepted by another. The teachers model this behavior, and it is contagious.

 Writing this paper is my expression of my loyalty to my own experiential truth. I think we each have a responsibility to be loyal to our own personal experiential truth, even if it disagrees with another. To me this is one form of unity without uniformity. My desire is to share my joy with you. Regardless of your point of view, my fondest hope is that we can be friends and to a degree extend the kingdom of heaven on Earth. It does not matter whether you are the C.E.O. of URANTIA Foundation, or the president of The Fellowship, the most wealthy and powerful man or woman in the Urantia movement, someone who gives away computer indices, or the most humble and unknown citizen of Urantia. I does not matter whether you have read The Urantia Book, have a different life-style, are a newcomer to the book, or are the most crazy and obnoxious person on Earth. The Father loves us equally. Our job is to be brothers and sisters, to love one another, to be tolerant of each other's beliefs and practices. "Throughout the vicissitudes of life, remember always to love one another. Do not strive with men, even with unbelievers." (Jesus, UB 1932:3) I am confident that the teaching mission will not be the first or the last great test of our loyalties to these high values. What may initially discomfort us may in time be a blessing in disguise. My prayer for you is not that you believe in the mission, but that you experience the spiritual uplift, the heightened receptivity, that can be had experientially by any child of God on Urantia, regardless of doctrines and beliefs. For you, my sister, daughter of God, my brother, son of God, my agondonter friend, I pray for you that you and I feel the love of the Father. I leave you now with my profound respect for your free will. May it be pleasing in His sight. "To develop the relationship with the Father, the Thought Adjuster, is the single most important thing you can do. Nothing replaces this responsibility. Far better that you do this and entirely ignore the teaching mission, than that you seek a teacher but forget to communicate with the Spirit within. There is no question about this. Seek the Father first, and then all things will come. This is the highest Truth . (Linnel, 12/25/92)

 Acknowledgment I wish to thank all the people in teaching groups across the country who have most graciously granted me permission to quote their teachers. I have chosen to protect the privacy of individuals and not mention names or locations, but there are many of you and I salute you all! .Most of the quotations presented herein are from different groups; a few are transmissions through the same transmitter-receiver in one location. Above all I want to express my gratitude to the teachers themselves for the gift of their words of instruction, inspiration, comfort, and love. Robert W. Slagle, Ph.D. Licensed Psychologist P. O. Box 462 Sebastopol, CA. 95473 USA (707) 823-0876

 * "Welcome to Change," Copyright 0 1993, Robert W. Slagle This document may be copied by any means and distributed in whole only, but may not be sold or incorporated in part or whole into any book or product for sale or any other commercial activity without written permission from the author. *~ The Urantia Book copyright 1955, URANTIA Foundation, 533 Diversey Parkway, Chicago, IL 60614. Comments expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of URANTIA Foundation. References are given by the initials UB, page, colon, paragraph NOTES:

 The Urantia Book says, "Religion must provide itself with new and up to-date slogans." (UB 2077:6) I like this one a friend told me recently: "The devil is dead; Armageddon has been called off; the gates of hell are closed." "Welcome to change," is quoted from Ham, 2/l/92. "God's wake will wash across this universe. It is the tide that raises all boats." ( Melchizedek, Will transcripts, 3/29/92)

11 May 1993  Thea Hardy       Assumptions...

Subject: Assumptions... In-Reply-To: [9305072133.AA26099@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Hi gang,

 Just a brief thought or two brought up by Matthew's comments back a ways about philosophical assumptions... I was realizing when I read his message that my selection of the teaching mission as the paradigm that worked best to explain the experiences I and others I am in contact with that I am, of course, making a thoughtful assumption. Selecting what paradigm or metaphor one is going to apply is doing that - making assumptions. Being agondonters, I guess that is what we have... the capacity to make assumptions that we will live by. And I recognized that faith is this - giving allegiance to assumptions (even revelations cannot be "proved" by science or philosophy) by which I will live my life. I did so with the Urantia book, and many times I pondered this or that aspect of what the book said in the years of trying to live it and live with it. Yet in the end, I have found that it has survived the test of time and it is my primary "assumption" - that the UB is true as much as truth can be short of the Father. Now I am faced with the TM and at this point, I go on the assumption that it is true. So far, it has met the test. But just as I have spent 23 years with the UB in that process of working out living the truth, so I will be spending time with the TM. There is nothing inherent in choosing assumptions to live by that requires that you put your mind on a shelf and follow blindly. But I must choose something to live by. For the present, this assumption that the TM is largely what it says it is, is working to enhance my life and those around me. I live it by faith. And my experience with it over time will be the test. I know no other way to "operate" in regards to my life. My study of philosophy did not necessarily make me a philosophical thinker, but my choices of assumptions to live by has been a growthful and successful process, bit by bit, in my life. Just musing out loud here, not trying to present anything tightly thought out.

11 May 1993  Thea Hardy       Perspectives

Subject: Perspectives In-Reply-To: [9305090620.AA14064@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Hi again,

 Just thinking... it seems like here "outside" the teaching mission, we talk about whether or not the TM is real, what really happened in the transmission of the UB, whether or not ESP et al are valid, etc. "Inside" the teaching mission, we talk about learning to love the Father better, about how to more effectively love our neighbors in our daily lives, about learning to integrate the spiritual more fully into our daily lives, etc. I guess it is a different perspective...

11 May 1993  Thea Hardy       Welcome, Bob S. :)

Subject: Welcome, Bob S. :) In-Reply-To: [9305111747.AA19364@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Hi, Bob,

 Welcome to the Logondonters... It's great to see you on here. Hope you enjoy the meanderings that occur. I, also, am interested in discussing what you refer to as communion. I have been practicing taking daily (well, I try) time to sit in prayer and worship with the Father and Michael for about eight months now. I also have not attained perfection in the stilling of the monkey mind, but I have grown fond of this time instead of perceiving it as a duty and it has extended in duration to greater lengths. One thing that I have learned to do that has really helped me in my daily life is to take whatever problems I have directly to God and talk about them as if he were my friend. Whatever I have on my mind, I try to share with him (UB sharing the inner life with God) and I have come to realize in my experience, not just my conceptualizing, that he really is my friend, that I really do benefit from taking my personal life and turning it over to him, the good and the bad. It is a simple practice, this daily time with God, but for me it has had profound repercussions. I still avoid it on some occasions, but it has proven its worth to me. I think of Jesus going off frequently to commune with the Father, and I understand better what his techniques of problem solving were all about.

 Thanks for bringing up this topic; I had spoken of wanting to talk to the other Logondonters about people's experiences with prayer and worship. Hope the rest of you will jump in on this!

 Thea

11 May 1993  David Kantor      Holly's list

Subject: Holly's list

 Hello, Friends....

 Just a quick break to post the following. I have a friend, Holly, who does a lot of counseling of individuals who have gotten into serious psychological and spiritual difficulties as a result of getting involved in channeling phenomena. She gave me the following criteria for evaluating the inner source of material which presents itself consciousness:

 THE VOICE OF THE EGO THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT (level of mind) (level of soul) ---------------------------------------------------------------- flatters informs commands suggests demands guides tests nudges chooses for you leaves choice to you imprisons empowers promotes dependency promotes independence intrudes respects pushes supports excludes includes is status oriented is free and open insists on obedience encourages growth and development often claims ultimate recognizes a higher power authority offers shortcuts offers integration seeks personal gratification affirms divine order along with the good of the whole.

 

 For whatever it's worth, folks.

11 May 1993  Dan Massey      Rhine, VBG, Toronto, Jared, &

Subject: Rhine, VBG, Toronto, Jared, & EGW

 Friends, When I joined this board a few weeks ago, I swore to myself to stay away from discussing the TM. You can see how foolish my resolutions are. In the following statement I have tried to be candid without being offensive. For true believers in the TM, I have probably failed. "Theology is always the study of your religion; the study of another's religion is psychology." .. Some years ago (ca. 1975) I was perusing the Sears, Roebuck "Big Book" catalog and found a section devoted to Bibles. As I recall, the heading said, "The Bible: Soothing Words for All Ages." It seemed to me that the copywriter must have read the book in question very selectively to come up with that one. Now, I have read hundreds of pages of the original (unedited) transcripts from Woods Cross, and the bulk of it has nothing to do with either The Urantia Book or spiritual development of any type. The parts that do relate to either subject are pretty basic stuff, not very accurately remembered. Since this seemed to be the seminal "contact," I saw no point in pursuing its apparent imitators. .. Of course, truth is often found in the most unlikely places and, after extensive deletions and rewrites, the HAM stuff starts to sound OK, if not particularly inspired. In my view, it's OK for Bob Slagle (or anyone else) to draw inspiration from any source that turns him (or her) on, and to share those inspirations with anybody who's interested, but it's dishonest of him to hold third-party sources out uncritically as a panacea for the problems of socializing religion when the pebbles of substance have been extracted from the muck by using so much of the clean water of truth. The "internal" claim of the TM to be an extension of The Urantia Book is one such dishonesty. This claim is something the editors leave in their transcripts of "spiritual teaching" while leaving out the directions for their failed medical experiments. Why is one text worthy and the other not, since neither have anything to do with personal spiritual growth? Truly, I cannot know what parts of material that might have gotten into The Urantia Book wound up "on the cutting room floor." Perhaps there were things as vapid as HAM's pronouncements on AIDS and cancer and the spiritual and medical status of various unfortunate individuals. .. I do know that the Contact Commission and the Forum, through their efforts, got into print a document of unbelievable complexity and depth which shows up the carefully selected TM platitudes as exactly what they are--soothing (even inspiring) words carefully selected from thought streams in the unconscious mind of an individual. I an sure the TM claims of worldwide spiritual regeneration will come true, sooner or later. Considering the state of planetary consciousness, I can even imagine that many potentially receptive people need to be approached at the level of the TM "nuggets." What I cannot accept is the idea that these materials in any way approximate the vision and depth of The Urantia Book. ..

12 May 1993  Thea Hardy       Re: Holly's list

Subject: Re: Holly's list In-Reply-To: [9305112159.AA21681@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Hi, David,

 Thanks for including Holly's list; this is a marvelous and in my personal opinion and experience, accurate set of guidelines. Whenever aspects from the "negative" side of her list occur, I regard them as from my own self and ego. When those on the uplift side occur, I feel more comfortable accepting them as being at least spiritually valid. Fortunately the vast majority have been on that side. I really do appreciate this list and think that it can help a lot of people to have a care in this process.

 Whether in or out of the TM, this is a useful list. Among other things, if we apply it to assessing our own thought and experience processes, it can help us to decide what to keep, so to speak, and what to toss out. Another use for it is that when we try to lovingly help others, we should stick to the positive side; when we identify ourselves doing the other side, we should think about cutting it out. Also, when we want to see why we feel uncomfortable in a relationship and that perhaps someone is treating us in ways that may not be in our or their benefit, we can also apply this list to see what may be inappropriate in a relationship and to seek to encourage positive changes. Yeah, great offering.

 My thanks to Holly, and to you, David.

12 May 1993  Thea Hardy       Salami or Ham?

Subject: Salami or Ham? In-Reply-To: [9305112239.AA21968@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Dan,

 I guess you prefer salami, eh! :) I had not heard that Ham was edited in any way. We would consider anything more than the occasional deletion for the sake of protecting personal privacy a travesty in our group. And the material available here is almost exclusively about the spiritual life. If the TM is a deli, Ham is only one option, and being a human with individual tastes, as us human critters tend to have, you might prefer smoked salmon. Myself, I like roquefort. To some, it stinks.

 I would say that judging the TM on the basis of the Ham transcripts alone would not have been sufficient for me. I was impressed by Daniel and Will and LorEL. Personally, it is not my notion that the TM is considered to replace or improve on the book, only to help us live it better. Frankly, for that, there are many who _do_ require a simpler message. I don't begrudge any that. Michael's messages were simple enough on the surface. There is a difference between the book and the "movie". What we read and philosophize about is often couched in more complexity than our personal lessons in living. We can read lots of wonderful words in the UB about beauty, but then we see that gorgeous sunset and what are the words out of our mouths? "Wow! Look at that!", we say. Not exactly profound words. But we have just had a living experience nonetheless. One thing I have been trying to learn is to put aside the intellectual arrogance that I cultivated for many years so as to open my heart and mind more fully to simplicity and more simple persons. It isn't always easy, but it is proving rewarding.

 Your tidbits are interesting, although not always directly about spiritual life. :)

12 May 1993  leo elliott            Where is Jerry Garcia?

Subject: Where is Jerry Garcia?

 

 If the TM proves a flash in the pan, so far as cults go, I can't see it as being anywhere's near as destructive, individually or socially, as the FOG debacle was, chiefly because the TM seems to be under so much more public scrutiny, witness this forum, and others. If it proves a flash in the pan and was _really_ what it's proponents present it as (an evolutionary extension of the fifth revealed teaching), then I still feel confident enough in the capabilities of the UB authors to assume that they will find some other evolutionary means to insure the penetration of the Urantia Papers into the various religious markets of this planet.

 If the TM is merely a psycho-social manifestation of the collectively formed (repressed) Urantia Book-reader-psyche, some form of the collective sub- or super-consciousness, and it succeeds in promoting an awareness of the Urantia Book, even superficially and distortedly, then it will have succeeded in having found a niche market in the NewAge channeling community, perhaps reaching greater numbers in less time than the UF or FEF have succeeded in finding a niche market in traditional Christianity or other mainstream religions. (I will leave it to the reader to assess how superficial or distorted the respective UB-awarenesses that have been promoted, to date, by the UF and the FEF.) If it succeeds in promoting a greater sense of spiritual presence in the lives of the residents of this planet, then perhaps greater transformations are possible.

 If the TM represents nothing more than the introduction of Spirit McNuggets to a market hungry for spiritual fast-food, then it will always be possible to compare the quality of a Big Mac and Pepsi (r) to one of Dick's fine bottles of beaujolais, and find the former quite inferior as far as quality of taste or nutritional value is concerned. However, so far as bridging cultures and providing transcultural symbolic referents, the introduction of the Big Mac and McDonald's into Moscow and Beijing may represent a bit more evolutionarily synergistic potential, in the long term, than is represented in a static analysis of the nutritional content of a Quarter Pounder with, say, a nice veggie-burger.

 The money-honeybee stings again. Cheap shots, as Dan has so well pointed out, may still be accurate shots.

 So I see a suggestion herein, that just as Columbus may have been totally deluded to think that he had discovered Cathay, his vision of the earth as round was sound, and his motivation to prove this point was both sincere and admirable. Like Tenskatawa, he apparently had some other character traits that make me have reservations about having him as my next-door neighbor, but I think I could still have more fun living next door to Columbus or Tenskatawa, or even Vern Grimsley or Tim Wyllie, than I could living next door to Torquemada or Bill Sadler.

 The TMmers may be as deluded in identifying their wares as coming from UB-class celestials as Columbus was in identifying San Salvador as part of China. But if they succeed in opening up channels of communication of the kind that have long been dormant or staid or occluded with the accumulated beliefs and dogmas of 20 centuries of 4th epochal distortions, if such channels get opened up (and _stay_ opened) among those various cults of religionists as may arise around the UB, around the planet, such that personal spiritual renewals can renew the communion of homes and families, is the mis-identification of this process as an extension of the 5th epochal project such a terrible dishonesty to suffer?

 Surely there are going to be born into the 5th Epochal New World Order diseases (religious and psychological) just as devastating to certain groups of believers as the introduction of smallpox was to certain groups of Native Americans. I do not wish to belittle these hazards. Nor do I wish to overinflate this TM process by presenting it as the Santa Maria of psychic exploration -- my intent is to call attention to the fact that, if the UB is taken as the fifth EPOCHAL revelation of truth to mortals of this decimal planet, then these are indeed EPOCHAL times we live in.

 The quality of the graft will indeed determine the nature of the fruit to be born, with the TM grafting itself onto the UB, or the UB grafting itself onto traditional Christianity, or with the UB being grafted onto the channeling market. I rely on this select group of taste-testers to provide qualitative evaluation as to the fruits of these speculations, as I would assume those in "real life" study groups are able to provide such to their associates.

 It occurs to me, as a parting nugget, that the enduring quality of any symbolism, religious or otherwise, lies in its ability to miniaturize the meaning of a specific set of experiences, as the cross came to symbolize Christianity, or the Star of David Judaism. Rituals would seem to be effective in addressing the needs of the users to the degree that they make effective use of these miniaturized units of meaning. Stories would seem to represent such symbols, and their telling a form of ritual. What stories get told by the people, about their origin, nature, and destiny, may be a large measure of the creation and dissemination of a culturally enduring/defining ritualized symbolism, to the end that the stories we share here about the origin of the UB, or about the nature of the TM, may not be completely unrelated to our spiritual growth. (Anybody see the recent episode of Deep Space Nine where Chief O'Brien becomes the designated Sirrah, the cultural torchbearer who must "tell the story" to preserve his people from the (projected) evil of the Dolmak?)

 Passing the sweet and sour,

13 May 1993  Thea Hardy       What I say to God

Subject: What I say to God In-Reply-To: [9305122153.AA07160@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Hi Logondonters,

 I used to print everything out, pore over it and try to address things in more depth. I wish I had the time. So unless it is too confusing, annoying (please let me know!) I am going to try to respond with several shorter messages and see how it works.

 Re Communion... Amongst the list of interesting questions, Bob, I selected one to answer because it has seemed to get some results for me. You ask what do I say when I talk to God - I find that my mind is also quite capable of wandering, and one thing I do that usually helps is to just sit there and tell God exactly what is going on with me. If I am in a bad mood, I tell him so, specifically. If something is bothering me, I talk it over like he is my best friend (which he is). If something good has happened, I express my gratitude. If something bad, I ask what I can learn. If I am afraid, bored, elated, confused, satisfied, irritated - whatever it is, I just take it to him. I don't know if this constitutes sharing the inner life with God, or not, but I do know that it works for me. After opening up my heart and kind of putting it in his hands, I usually find my mind wandering less and sometimes an awareness of being loved. For me, the "answers" that seem to come in that stillness after prayer are usually feelings of love that make me want to share that love around. It reminds me that the Father's love is the ultimate answer to everything. That may sound extreme, but as I am trying to live it and understand it more fully, it seems a lot less extreme.

 That is one thing that I do in regards to communion. Hope to hear from others.

 Thea

 

13 May 1993  Thea Hardy       Brief response to Phil

Subject: Brief response to Phil In-Reply-To: [9305131953.AA04286@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Thanks for reiterating your interests re UrantiaL; I found it useful to know more concisely your focus. Our group frequently ends meeting with a standard hand-holding circle and the Quaker-style speaking of whatever comes to mind - usually various thanks to the Father. It really is very nice. I would like to try your Quaker-style ritual. I, too, am interested in the "cult"ural aspect that you have mentionned.

 I think perhaps I _would_ question if you truly have a statistically sound sampling of the TM from which to judge. When you first spoke of sampling only a taste of a gallon of water, it occurred to me that if you are testing water from different springs, you must indeed test samples of each one. But collections of words are not the same as water samples because they are not in fact uniform throughout, so I think there are some problems with your analogy. One could put together some fairly odd "random" samples from the Urantia book. I certainly don't think that every word that comes through us in the TM is TRUTH, but I am still unwilling to disregard truth from wherever it comes. And my own personal sense of the Spirit of Truth says there is a great deal of truth here. I think one thing I find interesting is to hear us talked about in ways that simply do not fit the vast majority of my personal experiences with the people involved. Kind of like someone describing a culture after reading an Illustrated Classic. It is a little hard to take such critiques seriously. Come be anthropologist with us and see how us natives really live. If you want to test this, it must be by the fruits, according to Michael. Fruits consist of more than words, that is for certain. Actually, I wish you could come visit us. I enjoy you and would enjoy talking with you. Thanks as always for your comments, which I enjoy and learn from even when I do not agree.

 More to the rest of you later; I am finding my new posting technique has its problems and drawbacks, too!

 Thea (if you saw what a gorgeous day it is here, you would wonder why I am on-line) Hardy

14 May 1993  Philip Calabrese      Response to Thea

Subject: Response to Thea In-Reply-To: Your message of Thu May 13 15:21:48 1993

 ------- Hello Lonodonters -

 Thea, thanks for your quick response to my last post. I would be happy to have another opportunity to share time with others like yourself, who, in general, highly regard the teachings of the TM. And I appreciate your willingness to try something completely new along the lines of a modified Quaker - Remembrance - Listening - Witnessing - ...) ceremony that can signify and nourish our spiritual unity even though we may intellectually disagree on almost everything else! That may be all we have! Like being married to someone of the opposite sex: If you talk to each other long enough about something, you discover that you've been thinking about two different things! But, we can respect and cooperate with each other as befits the status that we all believe we have. Only sometimes we get carried away.

 As for my water-tasting analogy, I suppose you are right. My sampling of the TM messages and tapes has been more like sampling a mixture, like some mixed nuts. After a few really rotten nuts (bogus messages of appearances, false predictions of recovery from fatal illnesses) I wouldn't want to risk eating those nuts in the dark. Nor would I want to fold nuts with such a high percentage of rotten ones into a cake or other pure batter that had been prepared by the Revelatory Commission - Midwayer bakery.

 Agreeing that the TM is actually a SPECIAL extension of Epochal Revelation being SPONSORED from on high is tantamount to a devaluation of the Urantia Book, a mixing of it's relatively pure truth and cosmic facts with teachings that are all too much like us humans - routinely false as well as true, easily bad as well as good, sometimes ugly instead of beautiful - depending on the topic and occasion, and how emotionally involved we let ourselves get.

 Again, I have no problem with the notion that these TM practices actually make some contact with higher beings. My acceptance of the Urantia Book as essentially the result of a channeling experience (as described in the book itself) implies that I accept some channeling as valid Epochal revelation, prophetic revelation. But having tasted the pure quality of the UB I can not accept a "teaching mission" whose teachings are subject to much more error than the teaching that I recognize in the UB.

 I see a problem as long as the TM presents itself as being specially sponsored by higher authority rather than presenting itself as just a progressive human effort to make contact (sometimes successfully) with spiritual beings and midwayers. To be credible as a program sponsored from on high the TM must display a consistently high quality of teachings. It is not enough to say that many of the TM "messages" have truth. The question is why should one believe they are different from everyday truth. What makes them special? How can they be special when they contain so much that is factually false? Had we not the Urantia Book we might have been satisfied with a truthful but factually erroneous revelation. But the facts of the Urantia Book are still highly accurate more than 50 years after they were written.

 Let us be careful that we do not dilute and adulterate the UB revelation with teachings of far lesser purity and consistency. It would be more than a shame were we to contaminate the thought stream of the Urantia Movement with a confusing mixture of truth and error?

 In short, please don't put the TM teachings on the same level as the Urantia Book teachings, not because equaling them is inherently impossible, but because the evidence doesn't support such a contention based on significant and glaring errors in the TM messages.

 

14 May 1993  Thea Hardy       Short response to Phil

Subject: Short response to Phil In-Reply-To: [9305140805.AA10245@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Hi, again.

 Just a note before bedtime (3:20AM)... I have some nice nuts that are not rotten... Well, maybe I could say that we are comparing apples and oranges re the TM vs the UB. I never thought of them as being a versus thing, and I don't know if I could say the TM is exactly an extension per se, but something more like an adjunct. Kind of like a workbook that is useful, but not necessary, along with the primary text. Perhaps I am just not that interested in things like absolute purity and ultimate verification and the like anymore, though I used to be. What brings me closer to the Father and my fellows, I tend to pursue; what separates me from him and them, I tend to eschew. Arguing about the "facts" just doesn't seem to be my cup of tea anymore when it comes to the truth. The spirit that all of us who love the UB share seems so much more important. All the purity bit makes me nervous, frankly, because it smacks of related subjects like "ethnic cleansing" et al. I would rather risk honoring diversity than the danger of the spiritual straight jacket. I have seen too much done on this planet via fundamentalism that I don't believe pleases Michael much that my errors will likely be on the other side, though I do try to keep as balanced as I can. I don't really see how other teachings per se can dilute the Urantia book itself. I certainly would not want to see the TM material bound in the same volume. They don't serve the same purposes. I don't feel mandated by those of the teaching mission staff to do anything or propound anything as absolute truth. It just isn't like that at all from where I stand, only very gentle and loving and endlessly respectful of free will. Otherwise, I would run screaming. But then Linnel does not do a lot of predicting of "events" and the like. I do appreciate the fact that you seem accepting of the process itself; that is what seems to bother some. It has been an odd thing to come to - to say the least! The last thing I would have ever expected to have been involved in personally. Yet whatever it is that is happening, at least for me personally, is quite wonderful and uplifting. I am still trying to see it from your perspective and having a hard time finding significant "matches". But I do try to understand, even where I do not agree.

14 May 1993  leo elliott            Muddy Waters

Subject: Muddy Waters

 Iron Water Country, VA May 14, 1993

 Hello Logondonters,

 If I may muddy the waters a bit here...

 Phil, I find your candor uplifting -- in admitting that you "have no problem with the notion that these TM practices actually make some contact with higher beings" you go much farther, and imo are much closer to a respectful tolerance of what many consider to be "very real" than are many UB readers who would seem to follow in Sadler's path and want to make some "great wall" between the transmission technique of the UB and that of all prior or subsequent "revelations." In admitting that "My acceptance of the Urantia Book as essentially the result of a channeling experience (as described in the book itself) implies that I accept some channeling as valid Epochal revelation, prophetic revelation," you provide a draught of clear accomodation, something hard to come by in certain circles.

 And furthermore, I think you have put your finger on the crux of what I have been able to gather is the most galling aspect of the TM, in these aforementioned circles, when you say that "Agreeing that the TM is actually a SPECIAL extension of Epochal Revelation being SPONSORED from on high **is tantamount to a devaluation of the Urantia Book**", a mixing of the "relatively pure truth" and "cosmic facts" with the all-too-fallible human. And I must concur, as a sociologist of religion, with your statement that "I see a problem as long as the TM presents itself as being specially sponsored by higher authority rather than presenting itself as just a progressive human effort to make contact (sometimes successfully) with spiritual beings and midwayers." (I don't think asking the TMmers [sorry Thea!] to 'Please stop associating your work with that of the UB' is quite the same thing as asking "them" to go back in the closet -- however, I do not see "their" association of "themselves" and "their" work as necessarily such a "sordid" admixing of the impure with the pure, for reasons to follow.)

 If I may extend the water analogy a bit, regardless of how many samplings may be needed to constitute a "fair witness," in fairness to the TM effort, I must call attention to the fact that the time from the original speaking/writing of the alleged teachings to their dissemination/publication and reception by an audience seems to be a matter of weeks or months, with minimal editing and polishing, whereas my understanding of the process which led to the publication of the UB in 1955 is that it was the result of a very covert process of "test marketing" the "raw teachings" with the original Forumites, a give-and-take questioning-and-answering-and-revising that went on for over two decades! I submit that this process could make a substantial difference in the quality of _any_ published material, but most especially in religious and spiritual material. -- And for those who would choose to make a fetish of the purity of the process of the transmissions, we have all these "minor" glitches like the "east-west" migration of the Red Men or now perhaps the 1806-1808 date of the Tenskatawa eclipse.

 My point is the same one that Dan made to Thea a couple of days ago, which I would reiterate here:

 "I believe that the readership of the Book may face a crisis in the not too distant future when the less-than-wonderful details of the people and situations involved in the origin of the Book will come to public attention, possibly through Martin Gardner or someone less positively (?) motivated. I think we should understand our movement history, warts and all, as protection from excessive disillusionment. For me, the understanding of the temporal origins of the Book makes the founders more human, just like the rest of us."

 I would also concur with Dan's (and Jim McNelly's) sense that the spirit of democratic review had been vanishing in "the movement" in the 70s and 80s, which would seem to lead, imo, all the more quickly into the encapsulation of the fifth epochal teachings into some "channeled book cult" -- with or without the TM. (Perhaps this list represents a return to democracy, as may the TM??)

 For it appears to me, as I make my way now studiously through "The Mind at Mischief", that the more Sadler set the tone for maintaining the surface tension between "his book" and other "sordid" psychic phenomena, the more likely he was to insure, in the long run, that "what you fear comes to you." For while he may have been able to cover his tracks and those of the early years of the Forum for several decades, the truth will eventually out, a piece dug up here by Martin Gardner, there by another.

 This is not to say that I still do not find the teachings/truths I have found and attempted to live my life by for the last 20 years, as I have found them expressed in the Urantia Book, are still not heads and shoulders above anything else in my religious experience, but that I am starting to wonder if some of the contentions of Harold Sherman may have had some validity, jilted suitor tho he may have been. Specifically, he does not say that the "Great Revelation" as he paraphrases it in HTKWTB, was invalid or that revealed truths did not come through, but rather that Sadler interjected and interspersed some of _his own_ "peculiar" attitudes and beliefs, in this decades-long process of reading and revising and rewriting. Not many, to my knowledge, are privy to these "raw" documents as are privy to these TM transcripts of today.

 The swearing of the Forumites to a vow of secrecy (which I believe was not a fabrication on Sherman's part), the way in which he handled the Loose (or Luce?)-instigated "rebellion", as well as my own reading of Sadler's personality in-between the lines of his own writing, combined with the picture now being elaborated by Dan hereon, is all leading me to suppose that the "dictionary of human experience" used in the writing/transmission of the Urantia Book was not strictly that of the contact personality's. All the more evident will this become, over the years, as the "demythologizing" work now begun by Matthew Block and others continues. (Thanks for the ref David -- I have been trying to swear off bookstores during Ramadan, but it may be over now!)

 And how much of this dictionary may have even been Sadler's own will also be an interesting question to pursue. It will be very revealing, once Sadler's works get scanned in, to see the frequency distribution in his works of a word like "sordid" which from my limited reading appears to be one of his favorite adjectives, somewhat akin to "the BLOOOD of Jesus" more familiar to certain types of evangelical rhetoric. Certainly, for the severe critics of the TM, this "sordid" reference seems to be enough to justify immediate exorcism.

 Last night, as I was reading Sadler's discussion of "The Modern Sex Problem" on p. 87 of TMAM, I came across the following:

 "I don't see how we are going to avoid the so-called social problem as long as old Mother Nature gets people ready for marriage when they are fifteen or sixteen years of age, while the demands of civilization and the standards of decent living, to say nothing about the time required to secure an education, prevent marriage for a period of almost a dozen years after sex maturity."

 Is it totally preposterous and heretical of me to suppose that, were the above notions refined and revised for twenty years or so in some sincere and probing discussion, that the following could come out:

 "The great inconsistency of modern society is to exalt love and to idealize marriage while disapproving of the fullest examination of both." (UB, p. 929)

 I begin to wonder, as I begin to get a feel for the patriarch of the UB and a sense of his favorite riffs and reasonings, how many of these "2,000 highest human concepts" may have been his own? Subtle stuff, but reading Sadler, circa 1915, I can definitely sense a similarity in the tone of _some_ of the language, as well as in some of the ideational presentations and conceptual format.

 -- I don't have FV readily available, but one of Preston Thomas' favorite quotes is the one about how the two most difficult things in human life are "making a living in this life, and preparing for the next." (rough paraphrase) From TMAM, p. 84: "I could fill this book with the recital of cases illustrating how the economic struggle--the fight for food, raiment, and shelter-- often comes to constitute the chief conflict of the human mind, and in the end unfailingly serves to break down the nerves and destroy the health in the case of susceptible individuals."

 -- Perhaps someone could likewise pop-up the quote about those "overly conscientious" souls who are so scrupulous that they become some sort of moral literalists, worry-warts of a sort I am personally all too familiar with. Then this from TMAM, p. 85: "Some people have been so unfortunately brought up, or are naturally so hyperconscientious, that they begin to look around for trouble the moment they come to enjoy good health and experience real happiness... I can't help feeling sorry for the earnest souls who go through life unable to enjoy what seem to me to be wholesome, healthful pursuits, just because their consciences tell them these pursuits are wrong."

 So Dan, your posts are becoming my _Turim and Thummim_ (sp?), like Joseph Smith's visionary eyepieces, I begin to see clearly just where cometh Sadler and the ideas he was working with. To go back to the beginning of your time frame, was there some connection between Miller and Joseph Smith, for I seem to recall this 1840s decade as being the approximate time of some of his visions, and/or his exodus to Utah? (I assume there was a typo in your last transmission in the "final date" you referred to as being October 22, 1844 and not 1944 as you typed?)

 Also, it is my understanding from a conversation with Kristen M. that Sadler apparently wanted to get TMAM recalled rather desperately, whether he spilled too many beans about EGW or his contact with the UB contact, or some other reason, perhaps you could elaborate.

14 May 1993  Philip Calabrese      Re: More Mixed Nuts

Subject: Re: More Mixed Nuts

 ------- Hello Logondonters,

 Thea - I thought I stayed up late posting, but 3:20 AM is a new standard!

 Perhaps it was my initially low ambiguity tolerance that attracted me to mathematics as a profession, but later I decided to specialize in probability theory, which is a precise way to measure approximations. However, my experience of extricating myself from the absolute pronouncements of the Catholic Church (delivered to me from age 6 to 18 by very diligent BVM Nuns and Dominican priests) prevents me forever (I hope) from turning my respect for the relatively absolute laws of mathematics and logic into intolerance for the ideas and experience of others.

 But the sensitivity for both internal consistency and depth of concept that the discipline of mathematics affords leads me to declare that the Urantia Book is beyond the conceptual capacity and factual grasp of any group of unaided mortals even today, and will remain so for quite some time to come. So natually, I think the UB deserves to be put in a different category from the TM. I can understand calling the TM a human response of personal evolutionary revelation to the Epochal revelation of the Urantia Book. And as such, I would have no problem. As a part of the human response (as contrasted from `by authority of superhuman sponsorship' I see no problem including the TM in the Urantia Movement.

 The early Christian church came to exclude the gnostic writings and traditions because of some of their less attractive features, but in so doing they also excluded many positive features (like women as ministers, the priesthood of all believers, equality of opportunity to interpret the sciptures, more free-thinking.) and so we Christians were delivered a much poorer overall tradition of the teaching of Jesus. So be not concerned with any supposed desire on my part to exclude the TMers. But neither can I pretend that the TM messages are like the Urantia Papers the Forum read and refined. The TM will dilute the authority of the UB as long as it claims to be on par with Epochal revelation. Were it to agree that the book is a standard (not infallible please!) by which to judge the clarity of the TM messages than I would have no problem.

 This brings me to the Urantia heresy and threatened apostacy of one Leo Elliot.

 (Just kidding) First Leo, I don't believe that I used the word "sordid" in describing the TM, so you must be referring to Sadler. Nor did I ask the TMers to stop associating their work with the Urantia Book. What I am asking that they not claim a special authority, a special sponsorship.

 It strikes me that if the TM is really `by higher authority' then a teacher should come to any truth seeker equally without his publically asking for one. So I'm inclined to think that the TM practice of publically asking for and receiving teachers may be part of the garbling. Furthermore, the practice of the teachers/receivers giving spiritual names to people is in conflict with the timing of this kind of thing as described in the UB for advancing mortals. But as Winston Churchill said `If you can name a thing, you own it.'

 Leo, my understanding of the Urantia Papers that were refined with the help of the Forum readers was that t`hey were asked for their interpretations and questions, not for rewriting. Furthermore, Sadler was well known to be a doubter in the validity of the chanelled material and method of transmission until they received the paper on the Apostles. I find it hard to believe that he was also editing the material during this period. Besides, his views on many things (as expressed in his books) are different from those in the UB. So I find your suggestion that the Urantia Papers were "raw teachings" that were refined by the forum grounds for excommunication from the true faithful community of UBers.

 By the way, there was a pledge of secrecy by the forum but Julia Fendersen assured me that the papers were quite intact from the beginning, although some were revised after receiving questions on interpretation. So I find your heresy totally preposterous! (A mild exageration perhaps ...)

 

14 May 1993  Thea Hardy       One for Leo

Subject: One for Leo In-Reply-To: [9305141241.AA15783@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Good Morning, Fellow Logondonters...

 Leo, that was an interesting post. The lousy typeface on my screen made for a moment of merriness when I thought you had said "how much water for fair wetness..." No apologies to me necessary in our discussions. I am a big girl and not much ruffled by the sincere discussions here regardless of viewpoint. I had an interesting reaction, considering my position - the thought of the Urantia book as just another channeled book is actually appalling to me. No matter what is going on, I don't think I can see it that way. Not so much because of its origins, but because of its content. Yes, decades of rewrites would likely make quite significant qualitative change in the documents of the TM - an honest point. And after going through this experience and recognizing some of its elements, it would not surprise me if a lot of Sadler was part of the UB. I had always reckoned that as a possibility. The comment on "sordid" is interesting because I have often had a certain amount of trouble with the word in the UB. I came to the book not because I believed it to be true in the literal word for word sense, but because after studying a lot of religions and a lot of other so-called revelations, it simply rang more true than any. 23 years of study and the attempt to live it has only made me more convinced that regardless of its source, the UB is the best document of truth on the planet. I am always on the personal lookout for anything in the TM that conflicts in a substantive way from the UB which is and will remain my standard. I do not accept every word that comes out of the TM, and very possibly, there may have been some less than clear and flawless material in the unedited material for the UB. We still have to rely on that Spirit of Truth. I do not fear the material relating to Sadler about the origins of the UB because my concern is less origins than content. Well, there I am, reiterating myself. Time to stop. Three and a half hours of sleep will do that to you! Thanks again for your thought provoking post; I always like examining the grounds of my understanding.

14 May 1993  Dan Massey      Unscrewing the inscrutable...

Subject: Unscrewing the inscrutable...

 Phil...Bravo!

 I would add that one has to set priorities in one's life between spiritual questing and spiritual doing of various sorts and that psyching out channels is a fairly demanding activity. Having sampled a lot of them that the current TMers have probably never heard of and having sampled HAM prime cuts and having had a potpourri of UB channel excerpts mostly from publications on this board, and having found the best parts to repeat basic ideas of the Book and the worst parts (such as the Sedona material) to be orbiting so far beyond Pluto as to suggest an invasion from outer space, I have decided that this is not a productive hole to fish in. Now, this means I really am not interested in reading the output of channelers of any persuasion; however, I continue to look through it when it is thrust under my nose, as with Bob Slagle's posting.

 ON the other side, I am quite willing to accept that the material, when it was freshly emanating from someone's unconscious, was at least partially useful and significant to the recipient and, perhaps, others sharing the feast. Fresh-picked corn beats the canned variety any day! I work constantly at the interface to my own unconscious mind, but have a very different view of what is socially appropriate to do with its emanations. Let me clarify.

 On innumerable occasions I have experienced the projection into my consciousness of ideas, viewpoints, and even complete texts that clearly originated somewhere beyond the threshold of my conscious mind. Many of these projections contain ideas and concepts that I could not arrive at by a conscious rational process. To me, personally, they feel like gifts from the Spirit. I do not, however, assume that they will be of equal interest to everybody else. In fact, I take considerable effort to identify anything of general interest in these projects and to formulate it in a way which will broaden its appeal and make its central themes comprehensible to others. In most cases, this means identifying what in my conscious knowledge and experience contributes to my appreciation of the significance of the projection and trying to bring others "up to speed" in these areas.

 My paper about the significance of Peter's Confession, "But who say you that I am?" is a prime example of this process. After over six months of close study of Part IV of the Book with other members of the Education Committee, and considerable meditation on the task of presenting a keynote/summarizing address to the Summer Seminar, and after generally coming to understand that the key issue was to protray and dramatize certain aspects of the incarnation as they would appear from Michael's viewpoint, I retired one evening confident that I would have the complete thing in hand the following morning. The following morning I arose, sat at the keyboard, closed my eyes, and typed about six pages of rough material into the computer. This material came to me spontaneously as I typed it, and could just as readily been spoken aloud. It was, indeed, a discussion of certain aspects of the bestowal ministry from the viewpoint of Michael. It was also phrased in a uniquely Dan Massey casual vernacular and a reader might have concluded that Dan had developed a severe "Jesus complex". Well, I know I am not Jesus. I also know that, although this material may have benefited from contact with the Spirit, it was not the Word of God. I also know that, because it was supplied from my unconscious in response to a specific question/assignment from my conscious mind, I am better qualified to to interpret and present it to others than anyone not familiar with my intimate mind processes and life experiences. The paper which finally emerged was well received in most cases and, in my opinion, benefited significantly from the unconscious input. On the other hand, the paper is still a product of my own mind and experience and cannot claim the purity of viewpoint of true revelation. I do not know with certainty that what resulted was absolutely true to the "first draft" any more than I can say the "first draft" was true to whatever my Thought Adjuster or the Spirit of Truth might have been able and willing to contribute to the endeavor. I do know that most reasonable people would have found the "first draft" incompatible with a reasoned, rational, sane discussion of the topic, since they would not have had the immediate conscious referents which gave it meaning to me. Bob Blackstock, I enjoyed your paper on Jung very much and would like to discuss it further with you -- perhaps over a beer on the back deck? How do you integrate your expressed views with Jung's own sense of having a personal guide? In Aniela Jaffe's book, "Carl Jung; Word and Image" she talks about Jung's inner figure of Philemon. Here is her quote:

 "Of special significance was the fantasy image of an old man whom Jung called Philemon and with whom he had long conversations. In his book, "Memories, Dreams and Reflections" Jung talks about Philemon. Says Jung, "He said things which I had not consciously thought. For I observed clearly that it we he who spoke, not I. Psychologically, Philemon represented superior insight. At times he seemed to me quite real, as if he were a living personality. To me he was what the Indians call a guru. Philemon and other figures of my fantasies brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life. Philemon represented a force which was not myself."

 What's your take on this relative to the TM claims? (The beer's in the fridge.)

 

 

15 May 1993  Byron Belitsos      New university founded

Subject: New university founded

 Dear Logondonters,

 And you, in turn, have stimulated me, Phil. Brief replies to your recent thoughts -- and to other cyberfriends herein.

 I was not aware of "condescension" in my attitude with respect to Bob Blackstock's Jungian theory of the TM, and I thank you for having the courage to point that out. I honestly think the theory absurd, even within the universe of Jungian thought. In trying to be civil about it, it appears that (at least for you) something else showed through from behind the mask of civility.

 Because the truth of the claims of the TM are so vivid and obvious to me -- rather comparable, in fact, to the sense that you and I and all the rest of us have about the UB's claims to veracity -- it is hard emotional work to deal with the skeptics on a ongoing basis. I went through a similar experience when I was a graduate student in a humanities program, sitting down with various professors -- people in a position to intellectually understand the passages I showed them -- and yet experiencing universal rejection. I once dated a women I love very much, but her bottom line about the UB was that it was "written by a seventh grader."

 Of course, we have all been through similar experiences with the UB. Purvey a "revelation" to the world, and you will find that the world contains an incredible variety of minds with an amazing array of interpretations. Now, you can imagine, being involved with "revelation squared", UB + TM, raises the ante even higher.

 We are now cycling through our esteemed brother Dan Massey, who views the Woods Cross transcripts as "having nothing to do with spirituality of any type". In my better moments, I become prayerful when I contemplate the possibility that our quest for spiritual unity can contain such disparate views, yet behind the scenes, again, there is much gnashing of teeth that one takes to the Father. I hasten to add, Dan, that I offer my hand in gratitude for your honesty and courage in going on the public record by stating your views in such a manner as you have.

 In other posts, I asked that TM skeptics respect the feelings of those they disagree with, and Phil I feel that respect glowing through your words. I want to be able to say that about all of our TM-opponent friends. These _process_ issues are perhaps as important -- if not more important -- than our content issues.

 This is the main reason I have requested that skeptics and critics spend as much energy as possible on process issues such as how to respond organizationally to the TM claims without creating a schism -- that is, striving for the kind of tolerance that is commensurate with the great revelation we have, a tolerance that might even create the conditions for interfaith dialogue in the context of mutual respect.

 Perhaps an even higher process goal is that articulated in some schools of anthropology, which requires that the field researcher attempt to sympathetically enter into the world of the natives of the culture under study, and to see, as it were, with the very eyes of these participants, those symbols or rituals or beliefs that must later be translated into the terms of the anthropologist's culture back home.

 You appear to be approaching the TM in this spirit. Some have stated their reluctance to even worship with TMers, while you have put forth the scenario in your recent post of the all-inclusive Quaker format for worship including channelers and eveyone else.

 This is all by way of preface to a brief response to the following quotes from your recent post:

 >Agreeing that the TM is actually a SPECIAL extension of Epochal >Revelation being SPONSORED from on high is tantamount to a >devaluation of the Urantia Book.

 It is true, the value of the Book is changed. Yes, the UB gets a new status if the TM is valid in its claims to be sponsored by Micheal and implemented by Machiventa. It now becomes the authoritative textbook that underlies the revelatory process, the indispensible reference book coexisting alongside an interactive teaching process and other processes that amplify its core meanings. One of its many, many functions in this sense is as a guide for the TMers in their interpretation of error-prone transmissions. Another is to explain to us just who these individuals are who are now able to reach us with the opening of the circuits. (For example, we were recently introduced to a Vorondadek Son who is delivering bi-weekly discourses to us on the Supreme papers.)

 The Urantia Book is to TM transmission what standards are to computer networks; the standards must be near-perfect, and, if they are so and if they are implemented properly, each person at each node can become functionally related to each other person in a process of interaction that can never approach the perfection of synchrony of the underlying network protocols. Yet one would never say that adding electronic mail to the network devalues the underlying network protocols.

 No, we are no longer just "people of the Book", as in Islam and Protestant Christianity, but participants in a process in which the heavens are opened to us through a variety of media: not just in a near-perfect written text, but through the give-and-take and contingency of individual and group instruction, through visualizations to come, through material incarnations to come for the purpse of direct instruction, through a healing mission that is being prepared, through inspirational gifts to artists (such as poetry recently dictated to us), and much more.

 > Again, I have no problem with the notion that these TM practices > actually make some contact with higher beings.... > ...I see a problem as long as the TM presents itself as being > specially sponsored by higher authority rather than presenting > itself as just a progressive human effort to make contact > (sometimes successfully) with spiritual beings and midwayers. To > be credible as a program sponsored from on high the TM must > display a consistently high quality of teachings.

 Phil, honestly, we cannot help that we are being told in our transmissions that the TM is sponsored by higher authorities, and that it is preparation for Michael's return. It is astounding to us all. This claim is of super-epochal significance, I realize. One cannot simply edit out these statements from our teachers. I join you in my skepticism of the obviously imperfect and error-prone technique chosen to go about this, but I have great faith that over time, a matter of years or a decade or more, the channeling technique itself will be improved through experience (which we have already seen), and the contact methodology will be broadened and upstepped with new approaches.

 

 > Let us be careful that we do not dilute and adulterate the UB > revelation with teachings of far lesser purity and consistency. > It would be more than a shame were we to contaminate the thought > stream of the Urantia Movement with a confusing mixture of truth > and error?

 An extremely valid concern that has been well-articulated also by David Elders and others. But consider the following. The thought-stream of the Movement is already contaminated with the confusing mixture of truth and error as manifest in the "shame" (to use your term) of the manifestation of these teachings in the Movement itself. Jim McNelly's narration of Movement history gives us the flavor of what all-too-human mismanagement of this revelation has resulted in, (exemplary servants such as Dan Massey notwithstanding). I opened to the TM directly as a result of my disgust with the opportunistic and un-Jesusonian behaviour of so many in the movement (not excluding myself!) Two decade of disasters, culminating in Martin Myers ascendancy and the Foundation's decision to cut off the supply of books, and my observance of the disarray and malaise of so many study groups and societies, was enough to teach me that we need higher teachers. A Book is not simply not enough to change a planet that has been rebellion-isolated for eons -- even for that .00001% of the population who have heard of it. The errors of channelling through ordinary human beings are preferrable to the sorry spectacle of the Urantia movement as I have experienced it since 1974. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention the universally beneficial effect these channeled teachings are having on the recipients.

 > In short, please don't put the TM teachings on the same level as > the Urantia Book teachings, not because equaling them is > inherently impossible, but because the evidence doesn't support > such a contention based on significant and glaring errors in the > TM messages.

 Again, The TM is not a unified revelatory text but a teaching process. One doesn't put a graduate teaching assistant's weekly discussion section on par with the professor's lectures or the textbook itself. But one will admit that a university is far preferrable to a textbook.

 As to errors, the time has come in these discussions for an open and frank and detailed examination of each item. Shall we look at them one by one?

 Thank you again for your stimulating comments. I wish I had time now to respond to Bob Slagle's request for accounts of stillness practice. Maybe I should stop and ask the Father if it is his will to pursue these discussions. After all this tonnage of verbiage, I hope so!

15 May 1993  David Kantor      Of Magick and Splatball

Subject: Of Magick and Splatball

 Well, TMers, I have to admit that I've been straining the limits of credulity and pushing the envelope of what I consider to be rational integrity in order to fit your concepts of the TM into the world as I view it. Just when I am beginning to feel comfortable with the TM, someone sends me some more transcripts and I'm immediately back to square one. This stuff definitely speaks for itself. I have yet to see a single transcript which does not impress me with its general mediocrity. (Note the hidden message in TM revealed by playing it backwards.)

15 May 1993  leo elliott            Sordid Apostasy & Stds.

Subject: Sordid Apostasy & Stds.

 I am left very much in the same (wet) boat as Thea, less concerned about the origins than the content, some of which I am sure I will not grasp in this lifetime. My persistence on this issue comes from two concerns: the one Dan mentioned about not becoming disilluisoned should Matthew Block's list grow and grow and paraphrasings appear and appear, and the other I feel personally as a fairness issue to raise in the conversations comparing the quality of the TM transcripts with that of the UB. I haven't seen anywhere any TM transcript putting itself on the same level with the UB. To judge from Byron's accounts, the UB is now being referred to as a textbook, so therein is a distinction I am comfortable with.

 Now, brother Byron, continuing in my apostatic static, I turn my fickle feathers in the direction of your statements about "standards" -- first let me say that as one who has attempted to promote the playing of "humane baseball" amongst 70 or so local adult males, in the face of what appears to me often as some sort of innate, ornery, and at-times ugly competitiveness, I can well sympathize with the licks you have been takin' for what you believe in. However, if I were to make a comment on alleged slights expressed hereon (intententional or unintentional), I would have to concur with something Dick Prince expressed several weeks ago, something to the effect that "I contribute as much to the suffering of the world by taking offense as by giving it" -- therefore, I would pray that Bob or Phil or anyone else who may have anywhere's near as much psychic investment in or ideological attachment to the ideas of Jung, as you have in the TM, would be able to not take offense at your characterization of the collective-unconscious theory as "absurd." (I am reminded once again of the Three Stooges scene here where Curly is snoring away on the night train and Moe slaps him awake several times to tell him "Wake Up and Go to Sleep!" -- "I intended no condescension to your absurd theory!") [G]!

 I share your concern on evaluation-as-a-function-of-process (observation and/or participation), rather than product-comparison (judging the literary or inspirational or fact-content of TM vs UB). What appealed to me originally, months ago, as I began to read some of the transcripts, was that here were some folks who seemed to be actually experiencing, living, DOING, that "mystical union of the worshipping group" that Dick's Quaker quote cites. This was all very appealing to me, having experienced similar dissatisfaction with the read-only, drybones intellectual approaches of so many groups I had been in, where very quickly one person seemed to feel the need to put themselves forward as teacher, rather than facilitator, and from there it was a short path down the road to another spiritual ego trip.

 Like Dick, when David posted his list from Holly, I too placed most of my limited TM experience in the "voice of the spirit" column as well. Yet I share with Phil somewhat of an unease with how many seem so willing to be renamed -- even tho there was but one other "Leo" in my boyhood neighborhood and I oftentimes wished for a more common monicker like "Will" or "Bill", I have grown quite content with the name my parents gave me, the same name as my earthly father. It does seem to be quite a common trait of a certain sort of spiritual seeker, however, so that's just a commentary; we have many friends here in central VA who have passed through Swami Satchidananda's Yogaville community, and apparently one of the first things the novices ask for is for the Swami to give them some new name. I remember that the Catholics used to bestow an _additional_ name at confirmation.

 I suppose all this is leading back to the question of standards, as humans are known by our names, as well as by the company we keep, so the UB or the TM -- and then along come copyrights and trademarks!

 If we are to keep the perspectives driven by the UB teachings vital in our daily lives Byron, I would suspect that the UB should get a new status-check every day, whether or not the TM is valid. Assuming the TM is valid though, I have no problem that the UB could now become "the authoritative textbook that underlies the revelatory process, the indispensible reference book coexisting alongside an interactive teaching process and other processes that amplify its core meanings." It's these "other processes" which "amplify core meanings" where I begin to smell smoke.

 You state that "one of its (UB) many, many functions in this sense is as a guide for the TMers in their interpretation of error-prone transmissions...The UB is to TM transmission what standards are to computer networks; the standards must be near-perfect, and, if they are so and if they are implemented properly, each person at each node can become functionally related to each other person in a process of interaction that can never approach the perfection of synchrony of the underlying network protocols."

 Yes, I'm glad to have and use email, and recognize the need for standards to support its functioning, but it's not exactly "perfection of synchrony" that I'm after in my UB-group experience as much as it is the vanishing of individual personalities that Dick refers to in some sort of non-drug-induced mystical union. It seems to me that this process of spiritual re-naming sort of reinforces individuality of personalities, albeit on some allegedly higher level.

 Secondly Byron, since I'm splattering apostasy in all directions today, your repeated reference to the "near-perfect" text of the UB comes, in light of my above suppositions of Sadlerian interjections, as a statement which belies your disavowal of bibliolatry. Granted, none (I presume) would long feel comfortable being known as "people of the [U]book", and certainly I am always open to the give-and-take of free _discussion_, but I have yet to see many groups where, once the give-and-take of open and civil discussion is given up in favor of the _receiving_ of instruction, where standards of ego do not arise more rapidly than standards of experiential truth-apprehension. Not to say this cannot occur, but when you start some conversation about using the UB as a "near-perfect standard" you seem to be hanging a high, fat curve for the preserve-the-text-inviolate-Foundationists to smack over the sue-em-till-they-drop-fence, and by the same token, as I have remarked here earlier after David posted the batch of transmissions from Sedona, when you start to raise the issue of "standards" for the TM, whether you use the UB as a measure or something else, you would seem to step right back into that same ballpark.

 You seemed to distance yourself from these Sedona transmissions earlier, which nonetheless spoke in Urantianese as fluently as I have read in many of the "valid" TM transcripts.... Can you see where someone such as myself cannot but have a hard time _not_ foreseeing the developement of some sort of priestly class within the TM? I have no doubt that I have personally had MANY "assigned to my case" (as Ted Blaney put it so many years ago). I also have no doubt that when, if, and as they wish to manifest themselves, name themselves, or rename me, that such will occur. In the meantime, I struggle much as Bob Slagle describes, to try to devote some regular periods in my hectic days for spiritual communion, for periods of quietness and stillness and conversation with my maker. Unfortunately, as with physical exercise, it is something that I seldom seem to block out specific times for, but rather do intermittently as part of my daily routine.

 I find that coming here, communally, quietens me enough to begin to sense a bit of my mission, perhaps our mission, in sharing the quiet reflections that sometimes manifest through the noise. (Bob, the only other "regular" kind of quiet time I seem to go through is about 5:30 am each day on my drive in to work -- I often am getting in to my truck just as a train whistle sounds in the distance, which I receive as a greeting, conveyed by my analog facilitators, from my railroadin' earthly father, currently resident on one of the mansion worlds.)

 I for one Byron, would not ask you to edit out anything from the transcripts. You hear what you hear, and pass it on, to the microphone or the keyboard. However, if your statment to Phil is sincere in joining him in "skepticism of the obviously imperfect and error-prone technique" of the TM process, then you must likewise be able to recognize the sincerity in the questionings of those, such as myself now, who may not share your faith that "over time, a matter of years or a decade or more, the channeling technique itself will be improved through experience... and the contact methodology will be broadened and upstepped with many new approaches."

 It is my impression that one cause is not elevated by disparaging another. To disparage the UF or the FEF for mismanagement of this revelation, rather than indicating that now some other group or technique may now manage it better, leads me even more strongly to the conclusion that "this revelation" is not something to be managed by groups at all. Imported into the homelife of transformed families, and maybe some things will begin to change.

 I mentioned some months ago our visiting with some folks who present themselves as "professional" channelers, who had just come from Sedona. I suppose I had seen the name Sedona before, but hadn't associated it particularly with channeling, more with New Age perhaps. In any case, from talking with these folks, and reading some of the mags they showed us, I would have to say that there appear to be as many approaches, flavors, and styles of channeling as their are approaches, styles, and flavors of Christianity. I am sure that it was just a matter of time before the two markets began to meet and have ideational commerce. I am also sure that there could be as much conversation on reframing "failed" TM prophecies as there has been on reframing Scallion's "misses" on the earthquakes, or Nostradamus', or Cayce's, or whoever. It begins to seem like a lot of wordcost to keep intact a leaky belief.

 Channeling has been around forever. There has been a market for this type of information forever. You'll pardon me Byron here, if I share the skeptic's attitude that leads me to doubt that the TM will discover or invent some channeling technique that has not been manifest before, just because the entities on the other side refer to the UB. And you'll also pardon me if I have difficulty foreseeing any unified force of personal and or social upliftment, any more than folks have been getting from channeled associations to date, particularly as more and more of the "secular channelers" or "Sedona channelers" begin to associate themselves one way or another with the TM and/or the UB. Can you see the force of individual transformation dissipating as the raiment of "movement" or "mission" is donned? (reflected so well in Dick' post about how the transcripts and the tapes began to pile up and pile up.) I would suspect that if James Hillman is right about our living in the age of "communication addiction" where folks feel that they can't survive without call-waiting and cellular mobile phones, then it would also be possible for there to be a species of "spiritual-communication addiciton" where one may become so attached to the process that the quality of the product becomes meaningless.

 Moderation in all things, balances difficult to maintain.

 Finally Dennis and Dan, my fellow laundrymen, as regards this "process" whereby the UB came to be, I offer the following from p. 67 out of Martin Gardner's "On the Wild Side" (recapping his earlier articles from Skeptical Inquirer):

 "Harold Sherman, an Arkansas psychic, was a Forum member. In his 1976 paperback _How to Know What to Believe_ he devotes a wild chapter to a conversation with the elder Sadler. Sadler said that the revelators were eager to answer questions. Forum members submitted 4,000. A few weeks later the trance channeler produced 472 handwritten pages that answered all 4,000 questions. More questions and answers followed until the revelation stopped--we are not told why--in the mid-thirties."

16 May 1993  David Kantor      Response to Thea

Subject: Response to Thea

 Good Evening, Logondonters.........

 Thea, you're right; I think Jesus would certainly want us to be tolerant of each other. I was making an issue about the morality of making up quotes and attributing them to Jesus as a way of arguing for one's position.

 I know that the apostle John was described as being particularly intolerant, (I believe it was John and David Z. who dunked Kermith the Bagdad trance prophet into the lake) and Jesus specifically suggested to John that he be more tolerant, but there was never a commandment specifically related to tolerance (although it would certainly be implied in the injunction to "love your neighbor as yourself.")

 However, I do not think that being tolerant requires us to quietly accept error and evil.

 Now don't immediately place me in the Moyer's camp on this.

 In spite of the fact that it does not seem politically correct these days in the Urantia Movement to label something as "error" or "evil," let's take a look at the issue, bearing in mind that such realities as error, evil and sin are significant aspects of the finite which must be dealt with by all personalities as a normal part of the Paradise ascent. These realities exist independently of the personalities responsible for the rebellion here on our world. Even if the rebellion were completely adjudicated, error, evil and sin would still be problems with which we would have to deal.

 Read, for starters, Jesus' "Last Temple Discourse" to get a fuller sense of how tolerant Jesus was of persistent error. And let's review a few statements from the UB about evil and error.

 On page 52 we see "evil" equated with "mistaken judgment". This same quote notes the point at which "evil" becomes "sin."

 Page 138 points out that, "...The good effort of each man benefits all men; the error or evil of each man augments the tribulation of all men."

 Note in the above quote that the error of each augments the tribulation of all. Are we really doing anyone a favor when we are willing to overlook error for the sake of maintaining peace in the present moment? I am reminded of the disfunctionality in a family where one member is an alchoholic and the rest of the family does not want to confront the issue because it might create conflict and controversy -- everyone loses in the long run with this approach.

 On page 613 we find, "Evolutionary man finds it difficult fully to comprehend the significance and to grasp the meanings of evil, error, sin, and iniquity. Man is slow to perceive that...conflicting truth and falsehood create confusing error..."

 Conflicting truth and falsehood -- sounds like TM transcripts to me -- create confusing error.

 Note that on page 1109 one of the functions of revelation is listed as "the reduction of confusion by the authoratative elimination of error." The rationalizations for the multitude of inconsistencies and errors in the TM transcripts sound pretty hollow to me in the light of these statements from the UB.

 Again on page 613 we find, "Sin is potential in all realms where imperfect beings are endowed with the ability to choose between good and evil. The very conflicting presence of truth and untruth, fact and falsehood, constitutes the potentiality of error."

 On page 754 we find, "Error might be regarded as a misconception or distortion of reality. Evil is a partial realization of, or maladjustment to, universe realities."

 On page 1142 is, "When reason once recognizes right and wrong, it exhibits wisdom; when wisdom chooses between right and wrong, truth and error, it demonstrates spirit leading. And thus are the functions of mind, soul, and spirit ever closely united and functionally interassociated. Reason deals with factual knowledge; wisdom, with philosophy and revelation; faith, with living spiritual experience. Through truth man attains beauty and by spiritual love ascends to goodness."

 And on page 1905 Jesus himself says, "There cannot be peace between light and darkness, between life and death, between truth and error."

 And on 2095, "Moral evaluation with a religious meaning -- spiritual insight -- connotes the individual's choice between good and evil, truth and error, material and spiritual, human and divine, time and eternity."

 Now it seems to me that if we want to have a healthy reader community, one of our tasks is to guard against the development of error and evil in that community. (Again, I appreciate that these are politically incorrect ideas amongst a group of relative religious libertarians such as ourselves, but at least consider them.) If I see something developing which I think is an error, I feel I should point it out. If I am wrong, a forum such as this is an ideal place for others to set me straight. Tolerance does not mean that I have to find a way of taking error or evil and philosophically laundering it to make it acceptable.

 I know from experience how acceptance of error and an unwillingness to call someone on poor judgement or personal immorality can lead to evil and suffering for a lot of people. This is not something I take lightly and when I see people misquoting the UB, constantly shifting their positions on key issues, rationalizing obvious errors, making unsubstantiated broad general claims in support of their views and making statements which are just plain stupid (Vorondadeks leading study groups -- give me a break, people!!!), I can't accept that as simply someone else's path to God, just as valid as any other path.

 In my view, the TM is a serious error of judgement bordering on evil and I have stated my reasons for thinking that this is the case. When someone takes something like the UB and makes it an accessory to their own projected ideas, I am going to have something to say about it, and I don't think that is *intolerance*.

 Dick, if we were simply talking about someone being healed here, any sort of magick would be OK. But we're talking about establishing a conceptual foundation for the development of a planetary spiritual culture. Such a foundation must have intellectual, philosophical and scientific integrity as well as spiritual unity, or it will crumble and have to be started over again at great cost in additional human suffering.

 I better sign off here or I'm going to be at the top of Leo's Lotto List again at the end of the month. Besides, I'd rather be responding to Bob Slagle's thread on communion.

 Thea, I may disagree strongly with you on certain issues, but I enjoy sharing the divergencies with you hereon. Thanks for the link of spiritual friendship which exists behind the ever-shifting cloud of ideas.

16 May 1993  Pj Seremjian       derby

Subject: derby

 Dave K: I have read your posts regarding the TM, but to call it bordering on evil, hmmm.. that seems a bit extreme to this neophyte! I'm sure anything has the *potential* for evil, but to classify the whole thing in one lumped together category seems a bit inflexible. how do we know what is real and what is not? I believe it is beyond our scope.

 Thea, I love your posts, you are delightful! (and in such a brief way! [VBG])

 Well, off to the garden, 'tis the season.

16 May 1993  Thea Hardy       Back to David

Subject: Back to David In-Reply-To: [9305160841.AA09783@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 David, I think I am going to have to try, at least once, to do the quote thing - utilize relevant UB quotes to make my position. I am not equipped with a computerized version, or any form of off-line reader/writer software which does not make it easy. Nonetheless, just for you, I will give it a try.

 Not this time, though. I was, of course, just giving you a little tease with the tolerance bit, nonetheless, I found part of your case compelling, at least where principles are concerned. Having grown up in one of those dysfunctional families of which you spoke, I have to agree that the "don't talk" "rule" is part of the problem, and that to remain silent when you believe error is occuring can indeed be less than useful. One problem, however, is that it is hard in this situation to decide which side might be in denial, as it were. I have some problems with things from your position and some things within the TM. So, as usual, I sit on the fence post in some respects. I have a history of pointing out the errors of others; it was spiritually detrimental in my life, an actual part of my family dysfunction. So perhaps I am overcautious when it comes to judging my brothers and their behaviors. I try my best, as the book instructs me, to seek their motivations and apply as much forgiveness as possible. This is often difficult. But I feel somewhat apprehensive at being the one to judge the spiritual practices of others. Now I do agree that stating as a quote what is in fact not would fall in my catagory of error. It would particularly give me concern if it was not true in principle (which in my opinion, the one comment by Byron posed no problem for me about) but somewhat less concern if it were true to the spirit of the law, so to speak, if not the letter. But sometimes, forgive me, some of you seem to appear a bit like the Urantia Police, as though you might have a mandate of some sort to preserve the purity in a very letter-of-the-law way. Don't get me wrong - I sometimes agree with your stances in part if not in toto, and I have grown quite fond of you, David, and others on here, despite our differences. But sometimes it feels like a tad bit of projection going on when the authority issue comes up. Maybe that is because my perception of the TM is that the heart of the TM is not the Authority that we are supposed to have, but the enjoinment to persistently seek the Father and to seek to love oneself and ones fellows, even as Jesus did say (this is a paraphrase :). I recognize that we are being told through our transmissions, and that includes me, that Michael has supervised this and wants us to do it; I recognize that one can see that as authority. Perhaps about as authoritative as it comes, I guess. But the feeling is not that of a commandment, but that of the attraction of spiritual love, so when you use words like authority, they seem almost startling. I don't know if I can explain this, but there is a sort of old testament flavor about some of the arguments on here that I tried to get away from when I first came to the book and found it so enlightening. So when that comes at me, it sort of feels like the faith of my fathers, and a bit puritanical. OTOH, I am not a steaming liberal in these things, either, and personally have my reservations about things like the Sedona bit, and sometimes have concerns that the TM will become too involved in the fringes. I want to be tolerant, but I also do not want to lose my discernment. For the time being, I have chosen to take what I like and leave the rest assuming that if it is false, it will fall of its own weight... sort of like what Michael did when he told the apostles to let the teacher (why can't I think of his name?" who was preaching in his name to just go ahead and do it. Perhaps I am mistaken in this attitude. I don't know. You do make me think about it. But I have seen so much damage done by exclusivity that I perhaps err on the side of inclusivity. Just do know that I do not do any of this blindly without a great deal of soul searching for what is the proper approach. And I know that the same is true for you and many others here in our virtual community. I do not have the same mental equipment of many of you - the sheer intellectual capacity, which I really do enjoy, or perhaps some of the sophisticated logical capacities, but I try my best. Thank you for the willingness to listen to what I have to say and to take it seriously, even as I do in regards to you and my other UrantiaL brothers and sisters. I do believe that the TM is what it says it is in so far as I as a human am able to relate to the scaffolding that I believe all perception from this level of existence to be. But my view of what it says it is is largely a loving request that we DO read our Urantia books more and that we make every effort to live our lives in accordance with what we have learned to believe with the book, attempting to bring the spiritual into the often compartmentalized aspects of our lives. For me, that is first and foremost. I do believe that something is going on here. Mass psychosis on this level and in this exact manner is somewhat rare, I think, despite the fact that there will be those who go astray in this. Whatever is going on, for me personally, it has enriched my life beyond belief, and only confirmed my faith in the UB. Whatever it is that is happening, I believe that the book certainly implies that such a thing _could_ happen. Otherwise, I could never have participated. We will not come to agreement about this. I personally do not feel the need to. What I personally would rather do here is to talk about what we do share, to talk more about our personal spiritual experiences and practices,about how we can live the book all of us love more fully, and less about what divides us. One of the things about the Master that I most aspire to is his method of focussing on the truth in someones comments, rather than the falsehoods, and to then expand on that until the falsehood is crowded out. I have utterly failed in this, but I am still and will ever be in awe and admiration of his divine ability in this charming approach.

 Again, David, thank you for encouraging candor here. I was initially afraid of reactions to my honest opinions, but I feel welcomed despite my position. You have been a part of that!

17 May 1993  David Kantor      Quick Response to Thea...

Subject: Quick Response to Thea...

 Thea;

 I can only respond on the run here to your note of this morning---

 I am very much in accord with your spiritual and intellectual *attitude* towards reality. One of the changes which I have been working to bring about in my inner processing is eliminating sharp good-bad, right-wrong distinctions in philosophic and theologic matters. What I have found more useful is to think in terms of *probabilities.* Things change substantially from this viewpoint.

 >From this view it would be incorrect to say that the TM is an *error*, only that I saw a high statistical probability that it was an error. From this viewpoint, there is a certain probability that the TM is a correct interpretation of reality as well as a certain probability that it is incorrect. The difference between you and me perhaps lies in which elements of our knowledge and experience we use for evaluation and the means we use for assigning what we feel are reasonable probabilities.

 This approach gives me a different handle on evaluating reports of personal experiences of TM adherents. I can consider, given what this person is telling me, what is the probability that they are correct? I can then say, given what I know about history, psychology, theology, religious movements, etc., what is the probability that they are mistaken? I can then arrive at a conclusion based on a compilation of these probabilities which may be more rational than a strict right-wrong labeling. This frees me from the tyranny of having to make a choice between personal experience and outside factors -- I can include everything in my considerations rather than having to exclude some elements so that others can exist.

 Given what I know about the Urantia Book, I have to admit that there is a certain probability that contact such as that which the TM adherents describe could actually occur.

 So my challenge is to take my knowledge and experience and arrive at some sense of the probability that the TM is actually a process occurring in the way it has been described.

 There are some interesting theological ideas which have been developed by Nancy Murphy at Fuller Theological Seminary based on the thinking of Imre Lakatos and Thomas Kuhn. What Nancy puts forth is the idea of "paradigm communities" as primary units for religious research. That is, communities which are built around specific paradigms in which the members live together and explore the implications of the paradigm they have chosen. What are the long-term fruits of the choice? Where does it lead in terms of personal and community growth? What does it do for families and relationships?

 I think this is an alternative to religious conflict which should perhaps be explored more deeply as we become more of a religious movement. Such an approach could provide for the maintenance of spiritual unity while providing environments where a variety of alternative ideas could be explored.

 I am not familiar enough with her work to provide details; I have heard her lecture and read a few of her papers but haven't read her current book which is on this topic.

 Your comment about being tolerant without losing discernment is a real important consideration, and we each have to figure out how to do it. I also agree with you that we will likely not come to agreement about the TM and that there are other things which could more fruitfully be discussed -- please don't take the time to articulate your position with quotes just for me. I accept and appreciate your position but the probability that I will change mine remains less than "slim."

 Curious you should bring up "authority" as an issue. I don't recall even using the term, much less making it a topic of discussion; did I? I have felt that the *TM* was fostering a sense of authority amongst the readership by encouraging individuals to look to T/R's for answers rather than relying on their own rational capabilities.

17 May 1993  Dennis Shields      to do or to dont? applied Jesu

Subject: to do or to dont? applied Jesusonianism dept.

 October 22, 1992

 Dear One,

 All things will come to you. Have you not seen a glimpse of clarification in your purpose? While some are getting acquainted with their supernal teachers and each other, some have been removed from constant group association to begin working on the systems. Still others - like yourself & ****** have proven valuable as teaching aids. You teach faith and risk taking and possibility thinking, and "how to" communicate with the TA and us, your Unseen Helpers. We are delighted to have your assistance and willingness! Each single individual who demonstrates willingness will be trained and will find themselves in circumstances which will enable them to produce something for the Corps.

 Right now, you and ****** are to experience and record various methods of communication and develop "how tos" for others to follow. You will be led as to how to do this. Continue to share your experiences and encourage others to take up their recording instruments and start.

 There is much work to be done and we need your help to do it. Go slow until you know then do one thing at a time until you see how far you have gone!

 Remember to isolate things which disturb you about the process and the actions of those who are in the RC of D which confuse you and discuss this with us and with each other. Our purpose is not to give you comfort when your feelings are hurt or your emotions are out of balance or to solve the confusion. Our purpose is to take those incidents, those feelings, those confusions and teach you about relationships, unconditional Love, and your ability of discernment to move into a greater understanding of it all -- give you a cosmic viewpoint so that you will be of great use to us in the years ahead.

 When the manifestation -- the materialization of the Melchizedeks and Michael occurs, there will not be instant Light and Life. It will take much work to integrate the diversity of personalities and perceptions and prejudices and we will need instruction books and how to examples. You have a part in this. It will be revealed as you are ready. Take what you know and go forth. You will be guided. You will see.

 Your meetings are important as teaching tools, as examples, as experiments and as support groups for the intense training you will receive. Explain this to the others in the group. Enlist their aid and cooperation. You need a support group.

 Know ye not that you have been selected for much responsibility. In the beginning this is just to freely share all you experience. You have done this. You have done this well.

 Your large groups failed to cooperate and work together to carry out the assignments which were given. Some practiced faithfully, some sporadically and some excused themselves because it was uncomfortable. we learned valuable data about human willingness limitations and lack of discipline if not emotionally involved. We stimulated you in many emotional ways but never got group consensus or complete group cooperation so we were limited considerably.

 In theory, different levels of comprehension, different interests, different abilities and talents and strengths of character and the diversities of many consciousness levels should be yoked to create an outstanding Cell for the Corps. But, we ran into personality disputes and separating attitudes and control mechanisms and judgement prejudices which were amazing to us who have progressed to this point. None could fully set aside all preconceived notions of what was happening to follow through to where we could have shown them so clearly. Until all can work as a team to help one another stretch beyond your comfort zones, we can only as you say "tread water" and not go to greater heights of service.

 Your little planet has been in isolation and you are so backward and limited in your scope of cosmic citizenship values that we are almost unable to work with you! We have an assignment from Michael and the Ancient of Days. We are supervised and directed by Prince Machiventa Melchizedek and we voluntarily offered our various expertise to approach the monumental task of guiding you through the Correcting Time. There is much to be done! The small assignments we give you seem to have no meaning in the sea of chaos stretching as far as your limited mortal viewpoint can grasp but each suggestion we give you is imperative for your value in the active Corps of Destiny! The 5 - 15 minute exercises we give you are but baby steps to enable you to take giant steps for mankind in the years ahead. Workers for the Kingdom are needed. You are needed! We are here to prepare you if you choose. Many say they choose this and yet we find them rebellious and critical and useless when we try to move you into higher value. I tell you truly we cannot help you until you are ready! You must address the problem of mortal complacency and mortal propensity to do what is easiest and move through your reluctance and your comfortable zones into new heights of worth and esteem and accomplishment. You have free choice. You must use your free will. Some will tell you what you want to hear. Some will urge you beyond your imagined limitations by making you uncomfortable in the way it is. Some will show you the chaos in which you are living and urge you to bring order. Some will tell you it doesn't matter. And it doesn't. Unless you are interested in moving upwards and bringing others with you.

 The Father stirred and ripples are moving throughout the entire created universe. Existential and Experiential together are knowing this stirring. An idea has been set in motion. Action will follow. It is your choice to flow with it or allow it to wash over you. It is your choice to swim with the flow or not. Someone will do it. Will it be you? That is your choice.

 Have you ever tried to teach a child something they refuse to try? Have you talked until you are exhausted to enlighten someone who does not hear you? Or, their perceptions refuse to allow your true meaning to permeate their consciousness? Have you ever worked with a negative or fearful person to attempt something that others do as a matter of daily activity? Have you ever tried to give instructions to one who was interested in something else? Have you ever tried to get a child to walk hand-in-hand with you when he sits down and refuses to walk? Have you ever tried to communicate with someone who has no concept of what you are talking about? Have you ever tried to pet a cat who won't let you touch him? Or show a bird where shelter from a storm can be found? Show an insect or lizard the way out of your living area? Were you ever successful?

 We are good teachers. We can teach you all you need to know to get on with the business at hand. we have been trained to overcome deficiencies of experience and we can pull you through these deficiencies quickly when you desire it and ask for it! We can give you detailed instructions and much help. But first, we need your cooperation, your attention and your desire. Your permission has been received but that isn't the end of your part.

 Have you ever asked a teenager if they want to learn something. They say they do, and then instead of coming with an attentive attitude and willingness to try your suggestions, they do everything they can to put off the actual lessen? Have you ever asked someone to do you a favor and have them agree and then not do it? Have you ever asked someone to do something for you which will contribute to their comfort and find it remains undone? Have you ever given someone a book you feel contributed to your higher consciousness and understanding of the mortal life experience and have them reject it -- or accept it and put it on a shelf and never open it? Have you ever had someone rave about a flower arrangement, or prepared food, or designed clothing or created something someone really seemed to enjoy and want to share it by giving them the object, or the recipe or instructions to create a similar one? And, then have them throw the object into a corner of their life of unimportance or carefully put the instructions or recipe where it would be lost or forgotten? Have you ever done this yourself?

 We are here. We have the object lessons. We have the recipes, formulas, instructions. We have made suggestions for your accomplishment. We have given you short easy exercises to try.We have assured you success and failure are not to be judged only your willingness to try our suggestions.

 We have given you books - The Urantia Book in particular. We have given you visions and inspirations. We have contacted you for direct communications. We have given you tiny exercises to practice. Did your mortal parents never tell you that practice brings accomplishments and getting up to try again and again developes abilities to succeed?

 At this point it takes more than willingness and permission, it takes a discipline to find the T B & G in your experiences and your exercises and your communications. It takes your attention and your practice.

 All those selected have above average intelligence. all have expressed willingness to serve the Father in years of personal prayers -- conscious or unconscious. All have diverse abilities. All are willing. All are ready. Some will agree to take the risk of trying the baby steps, attempt to follow the formula or recipe or instructions. Some will practice. some will increase their comprehension of the cosmic level viewpoint. Some will pass this enthusiasm and faithful attempt and practice and higher understanding to those around them. some will persist when they seem unable to take a step in the process. some will make it! Some will fall back into comfort zones and wait for the big event - knowing not that they gave away their birthright to be part of the big event.

 Know ye not that if we gave you the "date" of materialization many of you would mark it on your calendars and go on about your daily activities doing nothing to prepare and therefore prolong it? We cannot risk this. You must be ever ready and moving on your Pathway. We cannot make it easy for you to remain in your comfort zones.

 Your scientists know that the frog can lower and increase it's internal temperature to adjust to the environment. All of you know that frogs can leap great distances unassisted. We do not recommend you try this but you can research it through your textbooks if you choose to do so:

 Suppose you were to try to "cook" or "freeze" a live frog and you had only a large pot and no lid. If you had hot water and attempted to put the frog into it, he would jump out. The same with extreme cold water. However, if you put the frog into air temp water and make him comfortable he will remain in the unlimited pot of comfortable water. By very slowly heating the water the frog will consistently adjust it's internal temperature and very comfortably remain in the unlidded (unlimited) pot until it is cooked!

 Human mortals do this too. They become comfortable in their discomfort because it is familiar and the way of least resistance. You will make adjustments and you will squirm and you will voice complaints about your situation, but you often will not move out of your familiar zones into an uncomfortable experience that would open new doors of opportunity and higher understanding.

 Because you have an ego and your free will choice cannot be compromised by goodness, you can stubbornly refuse to move for lifetime after lifetime. Never moving beyond your comfort zones will keep you suspended as a sleeping survivor and prevent you from moving through your spiral to perfection. Eventually you will become aware of your lack of movement and look around and ask for help. When suggestions are given you will then choose to follow these suggestions or remain suspended in inanimate limbo. Only you can choose to move into those areas of service by taking up the challenge or suggestion given by those who have gone before.

 We can help you only when you choose to step out in faith -- trusting us to support and guide you until you are strong enough or enlightened enough or proficient enough to stand and move alone. What is your choice?

 You of much faith must constantly be aware of relaxing in uncomfortable comfort. You of much faith must step out and up. Acto on your faith. Don;'t lock it up in your heart and convince yourself that you had a glimpse and that is enough for you. You are so often like a child who has no vision beyond the immediate attention span. Wake up! Move up! We are here to assist you. There is much work to be done to prepare the planet for Light and Life and we need all willing workers.

 Remember when Van prepared the Garden of Eden for the Material Son and Daughter, only he could visualize the complete goal and grasp the purpose. That was a place in space. We are again building an Eden - but it is not a "place in space" but a place in your consciousness, in your attitude, in your heart, in your whole being. We need your help. We need seed planters of love energy, inspirational goals, expectant faith attention getters, consciousness raisers, dream planers, Truth pointers, Pathway lighters, and enthusiastic workers.

 Ask yourself: "Where can I be of service?" Then let us know what you are willing to do. Then go forth to do it and Trust us to help it happen. If it has T B & G values. If it brings you closer to God or God closer to you. Then, it is worthwhile. If it is worthwhile, and you choose to attempt it , we will move mountains to help you - offering suggestions and guidance whenever you are ready to hear it.

 Let me relay a story to you. Once there was a cold bitter night filled with snow and sleet and wind. There was a small flock of birds who were stranded in their journey south to warmer climates. They were forced out of the sky by the heaviness of the precipitation and onto the ground. Their little bodies could not stand up under the weight of the heavy snow and sleet beating down upon them. Some made it to the overhanging branches of a tree, but could not get a grip to hold on, and the wind kept covering them with new snow. They were almost at the point of giving up the last tenuous thread of life and falling into eternal slumber. About that time a farmer looked out upon the snow and saw the birds. He decided to try to help them. As he ran towards them, in fright they backed away, hiding in the shadows or trying to fly in the blinding snow. The farmer called softly and tried to encourage them by opening his barn door and turning on the lights so they could see. Still they remained in their miserable discomfortable grasp on whatever they were clinging to for support. They were afraid of the farmer -- previous experience told them that these two legged creatures used noisy fire sticks to hunt them. Many of their flock had fallen out of the sky on their way south because of these two legged creatures. Trust him? No way! When he beckoned to the open doorway of his barn, they did not see the warmth and shelter away from the blinding snow storm and biting wind. They saw the trap. If they ventured into the barn, the door would be closed and they would never fly again! The farmer attempted to take a broom a shoo them into the barn, but they were too smart for that! They flew away a little further from the warmth of the barn and looked on in self-righteous knowing. So they remained outside in the cold and shivered almost to their last breath. One by one each began to weaken and fall over, unable to longer cling to its perch. When this happened the farmer would gently gather them up and take them to the barn where they would revive and call to their fellows. However, those outside were oblivious to the enthusiastic calls of their friends because their experience told them this was a trap. What they really needed was for the wind to die down, the snow to end and they could resume their flight southward. Then all would be alright. One brave little bird flew back outside to the others and cajoled and begged them to come see, but they would not listen to his enthusiasm for the trap. He flew in and out of the barn many times to show them it was not a trap, but shelter in the storm. A few followed him, but most remained outside in the cold. One by one they weakened and fell. Some were revived by the farmer's ability to carry them into the barn, some were not. They were so close to warmth and life and light. If only they had stretched themselves out of long held memories of previous experience and ventured into the discomfort of new thinking, they would have found not only comfort but new consciousness of the two-legged creature! While in their uncomfortable comfort, they chose to live or die in what they thought was freedom and never discovered real freedom. Where they thought there was discomfort, they would have found even greater comfort. If only they had opened their perceptions just a tiny bit and found the "safe place" was not where they were, but where they were able to move into!

 When you can grow beyond your own perceptions and find new unlimiting experiences, you too will live in Light and Life. When you can put your goal of expressing the Father and following the Truth, Beauty and Goodness which your Father has for you, no matter where it takes you, through faith you will be set free. And others with you.

 Do not look at others. Do not allow them to influence you to relax and be content with what you have. Do not compare yourself with others. Do not feel you have less or more than another. Each has exactly what he has chosen for himself from the lots he drew in his life birth, and has limited himself or projected himself, only by his own expectations and willingness to risk a little or not.

 Remember your Master Jesus' story about the talents given to three individuals. One out of fear of loss buried his talent to keep it safe. One out of fear of loss invested it in a modest, but safe place, and made a little interest to increase the investment slightly. The other risked the whole lot and doubled his money! When the master returned and demanded an accounting, he took the talent buried and left idle and gave it to the one who would risk and gain.

 I ask you: What are you doing with your talents? What are your talents?

 Do you desire anything? Can you think? Can you dream? Can you imagine? Can you plan a goal? Can you speak? Can you explain your plan to others? Can you give reports of your progress in attaining the goal? Can you give reports of your thrills and your disappointments along the way? Can you tell them of your success or failure of attaining the goal? Can you plan a new goal? Can you speak of it? Can you give reports of it? Can you report the success and failures of your attempts?

 Think on this. It is simple on the surface, but there is teaching there if you avail yourselves of it. I know whereof I speak.

 You have expressed a desire to express Father in your life experience. You have expressed your willingness to come here for teaching and assignments. You have shown a commitment to Aflana's teachings and assignments. You have made the commitment to the group.This group is your cosmic family. You will be with them for a long time. There will be differences of opinions, but no one has any more power than any other. What are you doing here?

 Why are you here? To watch? To listen? To grow? To express yourself? To express yourself for the benefit of the group? To practice being about the Father's business? To practice reporting what you are doing in your daily experience to attain the ultimate goal of becoming a unified member of the cell of the Corps of Destiny? To find your own standing in the Corps? Then I tell you to Think! Give yourself! Express that which you have. Practice giving reports of your experiences. This will enable the whole group to grow.

 You must decide: Will you do your part? I know you will. I have seen you in your private prayers, I have heard your expressions of God-likeness in your daily experiences. I know your heart and motive. Then, follow no man, but follow your faith. You have worked hard to develop your faith. You have experienced much and moved into ever higher spirals toward your perfection. Move forward in faith. Envision for tomorrow, not today. Set your sights on what is not the illusions of your mortal senses. Open your eyes to what is when you realize it. There is no time limits. We do not work in time. You need not work in time either. Know what is! Then it will be!

 Your assignments are clear. They have been clear from the first. If you have studied Aflana's and Vanessa's teachings you will see those assignments clearly. Only your reluctance to stretch into new levels of thinking limit you -- ever!

 Michael is calling you forward, gently and graciously He calls. Do you not hear Him? Go forth and take his hand. We will help you. We will guide you. Your only responsibility is to be willing, reach out of your comfort, practice what you know, and arrive! It is! Can you not see?

 Until next you call on me, I say Farewell.

19 May 1993  BOB SLAGLE             Welcome to Jess Thompson

Subject: Welcome to Jess Thompson

 Dear Logondonters,

 I would like to introduce you to Jess Thompson who is now on the network. Jess is a Urantia Book reader from Los Osos, CA. (near San Louis Obispo, mid CA coast.) He has a family, his wife and two delightful daughters. Although Jess and I have not met face to face to my knowledge, we have had many many delightful phone conversations and I have found him to be a charming person. I look forward to his contributions to these discussions.

 MM--thank you again for all of your efforts.

20 May 1993  Thea Hardy       You got me, Leo!

Subject: You got me, Leo! In-Reply-To: [9305172031.AA02051@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Leo and the other Ls,

 Leo, your post about nested "noise" (reminds me of those nested Russian dolls) could not have been more timely. I just got some material from Sedona today that probably agitates me as much as the TM stuff has agitated some of the other logondonters. I found your discussion extremely pertinent the first time through, then I received this - dare I say it? - junk mail? and found your discussion more than pertinent. Frankly, I think our Urantia book has more to fear from Sedona than from the TM. Sorry for those of you out there who disagree, but I do not believe that those involved with the material I read today from one "human complement Gabriel" are a part of the teaching mission. Sigh. Having said that, I am perfectly aware that I sound exactly like someone who feels the same way about the TM in relation to the UB! How do we distinguish noise from reality? I try to rely on the Spirit of Truth to the best of my ability, but we sure don't all come up with the same answers that way... The Urantia book is anathema to some Christians, the TM is anathema to some Urantia book readers, the Sedona New Age "Urantian" material is anathema to me... where does it stop, and how do we deal with it? If any thing else, this has probably shown me how some of you feel with an immediacy that nothing else might have been able to do. It doesn't change my viewpoint re the TM at all, but it does lead me to be perhaps more interested in dialogue concerning certain aspects than I might have been before. At least I will try.

 I am not really all that offended by the idea that the Urantia book is not the exact words out of God's mouth, since it tells us that it is not. The thought that there might be some human "corruption" involved is not extremely upsetting to me, either. It has come to us via human hands, and that is how it is under such circumstances. It is truer than anything else I know in print. As to the supposed racial slurs - although I may be considered apostate for implying that the UB has not handled the issue perfectly, I think such is the case. My position is somewhat different than some, however. I believe the factual content of the UB in these terms is true enough, but I do not think it is clear enough what it means. To me, what it means is that we are, every one of us, unique. We are different by virtue of many things, race included. We have differing levels of intelligence, of skill, of just about any endowment you can imagine short of perfect adjusters and personality etc. And that is the point. Those so-called inferiorities don't count for a thing with the Father because we are all his equally loved children, and we should try our best to love each other the same way, as equals despite our differences. This country has gotten way far down a path of a concept of equality as identicality, and we have gone through some pretty tortuous pyschological and philosophical twists to back it up. We are not all equal by virtue of anything except out common siblinghood in relation to the Father. And that is everything. It has gotten so distorted that there is suspicion in some quarters over people having too much talent, too much intelligence, etc, because that makes some people feel unequal. James Earl Jones talked about it in reverse recently on a talk show when he said that a lot of blacks felt like it was "white" to get and education and succeed. If our value is not rooted in our being brothers and sisters by virtue of our parenthood with the Father, then we are going to be in danger of losing our essential diversity, or at least losing the right to live it. Whew... bit of a diatribe there... But I do feel strongly about this. If, for instance, there are differences between men and women, as we UB readers are willing to believe, we need to know so that we can draw on our real strengths and shore up our real weaknesses. Likewise with the racial situation. If blacks really do test out slightly lower on the IQ tests (assuming their validity) and oriental test out higher (which makes a statement about cultural bias in these same tests...:) then we need to know the truth so that we can do whatever possible to give children a head start in areas where they need the help. Reality is all we've got to work with. The problem is that difference has come to be a dirty word. Just about any difference. At the same time, of course, cultural and ethical relativism also don't work. Why all this palaver on this topic? Because I think it is pertinent to our discussion of Leo's noise nests. How do we respect each other as children of the Father, and still use the discernment necessary to deal with the problems as they arise? Where are the lines to be drawn? How far do we go to ascertain what "reality" is when diversity presents itself in unpleasant forms? How do we accomodate without losing our values? How can we come to the common values that Michael talked about that keep us together in spite of the fact that we do not all think alike (that is a paraphrase... :)? The thought of experimental communities is lovely, but alas perhaps a bit impractical for some of us. How can we do what we need to do where we live? Can our virtual community here begin to address some of these things in a new and unique was as compared to our usual face to face communities? Before we can come up with social structures and spiritual structures, do we not need to discuss our most basic common values? How else can we proceed?

 I would like to see us discuss our common ground. This has been tentatively begun, in my mind, in our talk of our communion experiences et al, but I would like to see it continue in other ways as well. There. That is my gauntlet thrown out. I am a moody person today; in that perhaps I more fully join the ranks. I don't think that we will solve anything much by debate, but perhaps we can come to something with discussion.

 I send my greetings to every one of you!

 **********

 

21 May 1993  dick prince         coherent commentary

Subject: coherent commentary

 And since I am bent on contaminating our virtual space with my ravings, let me go on to another subject, that of communion. I had an interesting experience in 1980, when I learned Transcendental Meditation. I have been doing it daily since, so I admit to bias. The man who initiated me, one David Wiener, was one of the subjects for Dr. Keith Wallace, of Wallace and Benson fame, for those of you who follow such things, at Thorndike Lab at Harvard.

 Dr. Wallace was doing Ph.D. work in Physiology at UCLA in the 70's, and David was one of his subjects in his research for his doctoral thesis. This work, later published in *The American Journal of Physiology*, vol.221, 1971, pp.795-799, was later reprinted in *Scientific American* under the title *Transcendental Meditation*. Perhaps some of you saw it. It was a seminal work, and I highly recommend it to all who would learn of "the stillness."

 David told an interesting story. Turns out Wallace hooked all subjects up to a brachial artery catheter, with which he could measure carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in the arterial circuit, a "strap" around the chest to measure respiratory rate, electrodes to measure the electrodynamic response, or the galvanic skin response as it was called then, which is a measure of parasympathetic system arousal, heart rate, etc. Poets among the readership, forgive me for describing his protocol in such detail.

 The point is, he was able to measure the activity in the "electrochemical mechanism" which supports the mind rather well. A funny thing happened one day. He had a girl who was a UCLA undergraduate scheduled to come into the lab and meditate. He hooked her up and she did her thing for 20 minutes or so, and when she finished she came out in tears.

 "Oh, Keith," she sobbed, as she joined the group of UCLA undergraduates who were also involved with the TM center and were at the lab at the time. "I had one final exam this morning and I have two more tomorrow. I could barely remember to repeat the mantra, my mind was racing over all this stuff. I have ruined your experiment!" Wallace went back to the readout of her session and was amazed to find that she had registered, metabolically, one of the deepest levels of relaxation he had in his series.

 What does this mean with respect to the TM? When one looks at long time meditators, and when one does EEGs using spectral array processing, a technique which shows frequency of frequencies, one finds that with increased time meditating, the wave train on the EEG becomes more "coherent", more "monochromatic" of you will. I am sorry I lack graphic capability to post the EEGs of meditators on internet, but believe me (or read *Revue d' Electroencephalographie et de Neurophysiologie Clinique*, Vol.4, 1974, pp.445-453; Masson et Cie, Editeurs, Paris, FRANCE) the EEGs of meditators show a progressive and striking change toward activity at a distinct frequency, or "coherence", as laser physicists would say when referring to wave phenomenon of light.

 Why is this important? David Boehm, a Cambridge physicist, and Carl Pribram, a Stanford Neurobiologist, have for the last 10 years or so been propounding a theory of the "Brain as hologram," that is to say a structure in which the whole is contained in every part, only in an attenuated degree. You know, my logondondonting amigos, that if you break a holographic plate on which an image has been stored, the entire image is still there, but in attenuated form, fuzzy, less clear than the original. I think there is, at the very least, an analogy to what happens when we practice "the stillness," whether we do it from the urgings of Patanjali (the Yoga sutras), the Maharishi, or Ham.

 Read again Phil Calabrese's talk at the scientific assembly, recently published by the Fellowship. Not a tuesday night passes but we are reminded again, in almost every paper we read, that the whole is somehow infolded (implicate, to use Boehm's language) in all it's parts. So to the "seekers of silence" on the list I say, "keep on truckin'" because there is a growing body of physiological evidence that, regardless of the source of your inspiration, you are on the right track.

 

21 May 1993  David Kantor      On Evil and being Judgemental

Subject: On Evil and being Judgemental

 

 Remember the quote on page 613, "Man finds it difficult fully to comprehend...that conflicting truth and falsehood create confusing error."

 I have seen many statements of TM adherents, posted hereon and collected elsewhere, which freely admit that all the transcripts contain a mixture of truth and falsehood. Recognizing, then, that the TM is based on error (by the UB definition of the term), any course of action which its adherents undertake on the basis of those assumptions, given the quotes above, constitutes evil.

 I stick with my assertion that the TM is based on error and borders on evil.

21 May 1993  Dennis Shields      Nothing so needs reforming as

Subject: Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits

 Aloha logondonters

 Thea ditto I just received a Sedona *letter* demanding that I move to Sedona in part because of its location: *Geographic location does have something to do with inter dimensional and extraterrestrial transport and visitation, but if we would have had to bring together those with the virtues of higher psychic circle attainment outside of a particular physical location used for transport and visitation, we could come to those other areas in a matter of minutes from any location on the planet. The fact that those who were chosen were able to hear from their God in the highest way and be personally gathered in Sedona, Arizona because they were able to make the necessary sacrifices to do so is a plus and means much more than you could imagine. If many of you who have doubts would come to Sedona to empirically see and sense the geography itself, you would understand what I am saying. It is a known fact stated in The URANTIA Book that a divisional headquarters of the archangels is on Urantia. Where do you think it is, in the Gobi desert? in Chicago? in Woods Cross? Go to these other places and see and feel for yourselves. Wouldn't it stand to reason that wherever the archangels are would be a very special location with or without those who can hear from their God being there also?*

 Now my home is surrounded by 25,000 acres of rain forest. From my office and out onto the deck is a panoramic view of the ocean such that at this elevation on a clear day I can see the curve of Urantia. I dont mean to brag, its just that as best I can tell I live in heaven on earth and If any air headed shamanistic religious sociopath thinks Im moving to some dried up mesa littered hunk of desert fit for scorpions gila monsters armadillos and UFO weirdoes to sit at the feet of some self styled guru as he (or she ) mumbles some pabulum of regurgitated pompous pap then with out doubt the person or persons presenting such demand are in serious need of a long over due trip to the proctologist for a cranial extraction so that they may once again see the light of day. Please pardon me if I have stated my feelings to meekly or softly.

 I am going to gather a number of points relative to this Sedona letter and soon I will offer them up as a filter to separate the definite goats from the maybe sheep in regard to the TM. I have been planing to list a number of differentiating aspects between that body of the TM which perhaps has credibility and that of an experience that a neighbor had attempting to channel. This person claimed that they were the personal spokesperson for Christ Michael and that we were all invited to come to their home in the morning at 8 am sit at their feet and have a sorta coffee kutch with our Maker. The messages coming through this person were a mixed bag of Urantia tidbits with a liberal dose of biblical fundamentalism. I must admit that I have not laughed as hard in many months as when I was told that according to this individuals channelings that several of us in this community (with in the immediate walking distance from my farm there are 10 neighboring farms owned by Book readers (26 adults 36 kids)) were special ambassadors and that I was actually a Primary Midwayer rendered incarnate for this mission , boy did it take me a long time to stop laughing. This persons meanderings were rejected by all and after coming down from this experience this individual now believes the entire teaching mission is the work of the *devil* that Calagastia is out to steal hearts kinda like the plot from a *B* horror movie ( maybe this individual and Earnest M. should do lunch).

 Byron mahalo for the Gender paper it will help inspire me to finish a song Ive been meaning to write *the heart break of testosterone and the estrogen blues*

 Leo: like Dick I had to wonder where this topic of sordid morphings was going sorta what is the point of getting so close to the forest that the trees cant be seen? But your post of this morning (8 am my time is 2 pm EDT) put a needed perspective to the background of your examination.

 

31 May 1993  David Kantor      On Form and Content

Subject: On Form and Content I could wax loquacious here on why I accept that text and it would probably be irrelevant to the resolution of your own apparent conflicts about it. I personally don't demand validation of this text because I find nothing in it which conflicts with my perceptions of reality, my understanding of the historical antecedents of the ideas which it develops, the ideals of reality which continue to emerge from my own spiritual life, the clearly rational presentation of its concepts, its complex integration of science, philosophy and religion, and the integrity of its own internal consistency.

 Contrast this with the supposed "teaching mission" which has brought us such wonderful concepts as midwayers who fix computers and electrical appliances, statements from supposed "melchizedeks" who say that "Jesus has gotten in the way of development on this planet", such sharply conflicting statements as "The Urantia Book is our textbook" and "The Urantia Book has nothing to do with our mission" and such advances in religious practices as the ritual enacted in Naperville which represents a 2,000 year regression to the practices of the Greek mystery cults. Frankly I am baffled that anyone could even consider placing these two phenomenon in the same ballpark, and yet you seem to place the need for validation of the TM claims on an equal footing with the need to validate the UB claim to be revelatory -- "What's good for the goose is good for the Gander..."

 Is your concern about maintaining an "omni-interaccomodative" view of reality such that you have to adjust the meaning of all facts to the point where you can find a common denominator in order to maintain your value system? It appears to me that there is a breakdown point in any philosophic approach which wants to be all- inclusive. If one is not willing recognize error as a significant aspect of human experience, sooner or later a point of "accomodation overload" is reached where confusion precipitates as a result of one's value system becoming too horizontally diffuse; vertical relationships are lost and with them is lost the ability to bring order to the field of relative meanings. If we try to rationalize error and integrate it into a world view which attempts to grasp unity, we are going to have a very confused philosophy indeed. Error is an objective (though transient) universe reality, not simply a subjective value judgement.

 While I appreciate the basic unity of the cosmos, I also recognize that error, evil, even sin and iniquity, exist in the cosmos within the presence of this basic unity. I feel it is a key component of our universe careers to learn how to deal with this problem and the myriad issues which result from its implications in our personal spiritual lives to implications which exist in the social institutions in which we participate -- we're not going to be freed from this problem when we get to the Mansion worlds.

 It seems to me that philosophically we are confronted with a choice of either devaluing the Urantia Book so that it's source is viewed as congruent with the source of the TM transmissions, thus being fully accomodative of all person's experiences, or we can recognize that some individuals are going to make serious errors in adapting the text to their own lives and learn how to deal with that -- learn how to be wise and contributing participants in a vital reader community (indeed, I dont't think that any of us are capable of error-free participation in the finite and it would be nice to know that we were participating in a community in which mechanisms were in place to help keep us all relatively on track). I don't like the idea of allowing the difficulties and challenges of the task to be used as arguments against proceeding.

 A question I would pose to you in this context, Leo, is whether or not you want to seek your unity and identification with the cosmos on the level of the finite, or if you want to find it on a transcendent level which will allow you to participate in the universe problem of the transformation of the finite into a reflection of Paradise perfection? How can we participate in the transformation of the finite if we are uncomfortable even identifying those components of the finite which should be transformed?

 

31 May 1993  leo elliott            On Values and Validation

Subject: On Values and Validation

 May 31, 1993

 Hello David,

 and thanks for the care and concern you put into your respose to my "dark shadows" posting; perhaps I did catch the "validation virus" from some conversations hereon re the TM, but there seems a bit more to it than just one man's effort to level the playing field between the two "competing camps" -- I am at a point where the need to withdraw and seek my own inner guidance on these issues seems paramount. I do welcome the opportunity to be able to share my concerns here.

 While it may appear that my present reservations may have arisen out of the context of the TM debates of preceding months, I must interject here that had the TM not ever come up, and I had, for whatever reasons, been drawn into reading Sabatier and Sadler and some of the other "source material," I think I would have developed the same reservations about the "100% pure" aspect of the UB; it just so happens that what I initially focused on was this peculiar word "sordid" and then, the more I read of WSS, the more I began to hear echoes of certain passages in the UB -- this is the best way I can describe the experience David, and I am not enough of a scholar to offer more than the suppositions I have. Please understand that if the UB has become "invalidated" for me by my readings of these other works, it still remains in the category of Ivory Snow -- or maybe a little less -- 99.44%. What is most unsettling to me is the fact that this .56% (Yag! I start to sound like Truth Calibration Specialist First Class D. Strang!) _could_ represent over 11 pages out of the 2097, which could mean that certain passages such as the race passages, or the passages on sordid spiritualism, could, imo, have picked up a Sadlerised tone, in passing. (Peter, I like that "Sadlerise" -- reminds me of "Simonize" ;) )

 So, I would return the query to you David, and ask how important is it to you to accept each and every word, phrase, idea, concept, presented in the UB as printed? How partial is partial? How transient is transient? How local are these local conditions in time and space to which the UB was adapted -- one generation, two, five?

 I can see where it would be possible to construe my comment about "picking up a Sadlerised tone" as being somewhat in support of the TMmers expiations of their less-than-quality material as being due to the fuzziness or fogginess of the receiver, but please understand that this is the opinion I am coming to about Divine-to-human communications of _all_ sorts, in all of human history, and this does include the UB.

31 May 1993  David H. Larsen    Further thoughts

Subject: Further thoughts

 This in turn reminds me of the most important theme of Christ's teaching as reflected in the New Testament, following his message of love first for God and second for neighbors; that is, the need to accept the truth of God on the basis of faith alone. So much of the discussion over the past many months on Urantial, reflects our underlying fear that the truth as revealed in the UB might someday be snatched away from us. The controversy over the TM certainly reflects this fear, as does the worry over Sadler's role in documenting the transmission of the UB. That somehow this bedrock in which we have placed so much of our faith, could somehow prove an illusion. Indeed for myself and many others who have shared their histories on Urantial, the crisis in faith experienced by those whose faith is Biblically based, is the precursor of the present angst. So much of what I was taught in Sunday school, and on which my Christian faith was based, proved unable to sustain my faith in God when I closely read the Bible and found it full of contradiction and suspected untruths. It was not until my discovery of the UB with it's systematic corrections of what I had seen as biblical error, that I was able to fully experience a restoration of faith in Christ as divinity.

 Here then is the lesson for myself, reflected in the current crisis. That faith based in the Bible or the UB, or the Shroud of Turin, or little pieces of the true cross, always bears the risk of giving way to illusion and spiritual heartbreak. The much harder task is to live in faith derived from direct communion with God, through prayer and/or social action (or as we of the UB would say, through direct contact with the indwelling spirit). As grand a message as is to be found in the UB, and I've never encountered a better one, it is (I have faith) a pale comparison to the spiritual reality of which it is a mere reflection.

 

31 May 1993  Thea Hardy       Quick dash with a Borrowed Mod

Subject: Quick dash with a Borrowed Modem In-Reply-To: [9305311715.AA16189@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Hi gang,

 I wonder if I would seem peculiar if I said that I am not very concerned about the fact that the Urantia book is not the perfect, flawless, pristine Word of God and true in each and every detail? There is a part of me that is apparently too dense to understand this ongoing discussion. I find some of the stuff about WSS interesting, but sort of irrelevant. It doesn't matter what the background details are - I still find the book the best thing in print on the planet despite the flaws that it self-admittedly acknowledges (if imperfect cosmology etc is a "flaw"). "Truth" is a growing thing; it is a quest. Having the book doesn't mean that I am to stop seeking truth wherever I find it; the book itself says quite pointedly otherwise. I find little in it that is truly troublesome. Even the material on race, although phrased less clearly than I would like, can be interpreted in manners with which I do not have so much trouble, and I think some of our own notions get in the way of our deeper understanding. Since the book itself acknowledges that it will use already extant human concepts whenever possible, it does not alarm me when I see them evident. The truth is the truth, and its source is really not the point, IMHO. I consider Michael's spirit, which will tell me at the crossroads, "This is the way" a sufficient guide, as long as I try to live my days in the deepest sincerity that I can muster and to maintain the closest communication possible with my adjuster. Of course I do fail in this, but so far, I have picked myself up with a will and tried again following every single failure. It seems the best that I can do. This book gave me a life, by teaching me some fundamental truth that I use daily. And that life I have through the seeking of this truth, just keeps on growing and expanding. Although I have found the going tough, I am truly learning to love more people through more difficulties and for that matter, to love and respect myself. For me, this proof through living experience as regards the content of the Urantia book, is vastly more important than whatever WSS did or said. Even if he had written the book from end to end, it would still be the best thing on the planet and guided by the Father's hand. Am I just naive, or what?! Tell me what I am missing here?

 THanks for all your interesting discussion, even if I do not always understand.

  

Jun 1993

1 Jun 1993     Thea Hardy       For David L.

Subject: For David L. In-Reply-To: [9306011836.AA01619@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Dear David,

 I hope you will continue to restrain your use of the delete key and post with the kind of sincerity that you are demonstrating. If this virtual place is not for the discussion of very real problems and very real feelings and thoughts re the Urantia book, then I wouldn't know what it was for. Your feelings are real and valid. I have had them myself, and still do when I think of introducing African-American friends to the book. It is not because I believe the book to be racist; deeper reading shows as you have said, that it really is not. It is just that there are differences amongst races and sexes that are just not discussed in the current socio-political climate. Unfortunately, politically correct does not necessarily correspond with "true and valid". It is also considered by many politically incorrect to state that there are brain differences in men and women, even though such differences are observed in other mammals and in birds. I still long for the times when we do not perceive "different" as inferior and "having less of certain abilities" as "of less worth as a human being". We have _got_ to find ways on this planet of honoring diversity, of not tying the value that we each have as individual children of our loving heavenly Father to some pretense of sameness. Every race has its strengths and weaknesses, just as every individual does. I understand from a painful historical perspective why African-Americans have a hard time with such a concept; I only long for a time when we will all find our self worth from our being equally loved as individuals by the Father, instead of this endless competition or whatever one might want to call it, that seems to underlie so much of human interaction, this "I'm better than you are" that appears with such frequency. Personally, as a musician, I honor and am sometimes in awe of the creative talent my black brothers and sisters demonstrate in my field, and I do not consider this a trivial talent. I get so tired sometimes of the focus on all the things that divide us one from another! I personally wish that during the "editing" process (discussion & questions) of this section in the UB that changes had been made, not so much in the content but in the tone of the presentation, in the wording. It could help. But, alas, such is not the case. It is a quandry to which I myself have no answer (and so far, I have none from elsewhere, either...)

 Concerning faith in the book in relation to its origins... I spoke to this in an earlier post but I will say again that in the early days (I have been reading for 23 years this month, but I did have early days and doubts and still have questions as far as literal truth goes) I felt much as did you about this book - wondering when I came across certain things, and when I heard certain stories about its history, whether or not I could believe in the book's teachings. But that is what faith is about, isn't it... believing in the absence of such literal truths and scientific proofs... believing the truth over all the facts, believing in the essence over all the scaffolding and models, believing in the experience one has with connecting with the living God, with the thought adjuster, with what loving others sparks, with the growing spiritual life. I still go through what I call a circle of doubt wherein my intellectual mind goes through this entire cycle of questioning when certain things come up (and the TM certainly put this into high gear!) and in that cycle, absolutely everything I believe comes into question. But the intellect keeps working and the heart kicks in and that verification through living experience with the highest realities that I can grasp brings me back to a faith position, which even my intellect then validates as logical. It is hard to describe, but I am getting used to it over the years, and some days, I have to just let go of the doubts and live by faith. Many days. So far it not only has not let me down, but my entire life is beginning to make a sense that it could not have made by any other route than the faith leaps that I have taken. Therefore, when I doubt, I am no longer as deeply disturbed by it.

 Hang in there, David L. You are doing well. You have something very important - sincerity. If sincerity, sincerity and more sincerity is the keys to the kingdom, then you have it, indeed. Keep discussing whatever are your concerns as long as you like, as far as I am concerned.

 

4 Jun 1993     Sara L. Blackstock    Catching up

Subject: Catching up Thea Sorry for the long delay in responding to your request to receive any misgivings for your friend who is searching for truth re TM. Time/space problems, blah, blah. I appreciate your offer. I have stated most of the following before here, but I continue to be open, think about it and then get more clear, although I would never claim 100%, but I could go for 95% clear in my own opinions/experiences so I will reiterate with a few additions. I do not have any problem with tolerance of the individuals involved who think they are getting "outter space or inner space" messages. Some of my long time and very good friends feel that they are involved in this as a reality, and of course we know that what we perceive as reality is, for the one perceiving such. So let it be known that I do share deeply and spiritually and lovingly with TMers, however there is more caution around this sharing than perhaps would otherwise be. (1) For example, if a friend tells me that "their teacher tells them such and such", I believe that they are "hearing" this from their own mind, and from where all of the transcripts I have read could easily have come. And I ask, silently, "What is it in you or about you that makes it so that you can not say this (the message from their teacher) as from yourself? Where is your confidence in the Spirit of Truth, your TA, your guardians, your unique personality, your years of experience with living and suffering, your dedication to God, and your willingness to make a mistake? So I feel that this friend lacks confidence in "Self". To be truthful, this does make an effect on my way of looking at another and perhaps I experience a feeling of sadness about their lack of confidence. (2) It is my understanding that it is not so easy for even the primary midwayers to have "contact" with "material agencies" (865). It is easier for the secondary midwayers because they are closer to us than to the angels. So if it is that difficult for them, being one step above the secondary midwayers, how has it all of a sudden become so easy for 100's of "material agencies" to have conscious contact with all sorts of beings all the way up to Melchizadeks and Michael himself? This is a blind spot and it is bothersome to rationalize this away. Those of us who stayed in FOG until the end were obviously very good at this kind of mental "trickery". The shelter we climbed up out of was actually kind of comfortable while we were building it. But the clear, sober light of the next morning after the war that wasn't was soooo REAL. (3) Many people now, I understand, are going to TRs (transmitter/receivers) to hear what their "teachers" have to say about personal life problems. This seems to remove us from coming closer to each other and relying on each other's counsel. I want to know what Thea herself would say about something, not what Thea's supposed "teacher" would say about it. What's wrong with relying soley on Thea's wonderful personality, her years of experience, her TA, Spirit of Truth, and angels to see what SHE says about a problem I may have? I believe that this is what we get anyway, but it is bothersome that one can't say, "This is what I think, or this is my advice", rather than "My teacher says". Can you see the problems with this kind of removal from each other's personality. We are bypassing that and going to another supposed wiser personality, but I will state again, after reading transcripts for over a year, I have not found ANYTHING said that would not or could not be said by one good, caring, loving friend to another, nor by a person who has inculcated the truths of the UB and the Gospel deeply into their own soul. (3) There have already been some [SERIOUS] errors made with false predications having to do with life and death, and with two non appearances of high personalities. It would indeed be terribly and deeply spiritually disheartening if the universe was this disorganized, but the reationalizations go on. (4) Things have been said which are in direct contradiction to what the UB says, i.e. names given now which should not be given until much later. There are more examples, but now I have a few minutes of my break left, so I want to get this finished and sent. (5) What makes the TMers think that the celestial government is so interested in them and what they are doing or not doing? This smacks of spiritual ego. There are millions of people in dire situations of life and death who are begging for the spiritual attention and help that some think they are getting, just because they are students of this revelation. If one of the "higher" ones did come to me, I think I would say, "Please, go to others who are doing much more than I, or are suffering much more than I, or who need to hear your comforting words more that I. I know my God and He is here with me". (6) We are all channels - deep channels being carved out by the highest teachers of all the universe. All we have to do to be "TRs" is found in the formula on page 1209 - "It is to the mind of perfect poise..."

 

5 Jun 1993     Thea Hardy       For Sara, et al.

Subject: For Sara, et al. In-Reply-To: [9306042124.AA13071@atlantis.CSOS.ORST.EDU]

 Thank you, Sara. I will pass your statements on to my friend. She has a seeking mind and will be interested in what you have to say.

 For myself, although I can understand your view, my experience does not seem to bear much resemblance to what you mention. I am pretty well known for speaking my own mind, and having a teacher around to be a friend has not changed that much. I don't need a teacher to fall back on and have had that experience through many years (23 with the UB) with the Spirit of Truth and my TA et al. I think I would personally be unwilling to say that any of my brothers and sisters who believe that they are receiving spiritual help of the TM ilk are by definition lacking in self-confidence. In my experience, some are and some are not, just as in any other group of people you may care to name, including, likely, our virtual community here on line. I hope that my tolerance of others goes beyond accepting their blind spots and on to a realization that my own truth may not be the full truth, that indeed, we need all of our perceived truths together to even begin to comprehend the larger truth that will one day be part of the Supreme. I treasure the messages from the teachers and quite agree that they are exactly what a loving friend would say to another, because in my mind, that is exactly what they are, loving friends. I think that their inspiring us to take even more steps to help our less fortunate brothers and sisters on this planet is a perfectly appropriate action as regards helping this planet. If the Father is no respecter of persons, as we are told he is not, then attention to any is not unmerited unless that person fails to act on that attention and spread the love received from the Father on to as many as possible. Encouraging this spreading of the benign virus of love is, to my mind, a worthy endeavor regardless of its source, and far from being selfish, tends to inspire and impel others to act less selfishly. Perhaps your experience with people in the teaching mission has been far different from mine; mostly I see people growing in their capacity to offer genuine love and understanding to their brothers and sisters. I cringe when I see things that are otherwise, just as I have cringed when I watch other Urantia book readers treat each other less than pleasantly. It is not realistic to hold any group of human beings to consistently ethical behavior, however much I may dislike the fact. But I will not reject the Urantia book because some of its readers are less than morally fragrant to my nose, nor will I reject the TM for the same reason. Our teacher (who is transmitted by three different people at present) does not give "spiritual names" of which I am glad, for it would pose ethical difficulties for me as I tend to agree that now is not where this happens. But others disagree with me very much. I live with it as I live with many other disagreements. And in the end, perhaps they will be proven correct. I have often wondered if things were coming from my own mind, and perhaps some of them have, but when I listen to my husband, whom I have known intimately for 20+ years of marriage transmit, I am radically less skeptical. I know him quite well enough to know the difference! I do not need your belief in this mission, and your view of us as lacking in self confidence does not define what we really are. Perhaps neither you nor I know that as fully as we might, about each other. I would really agree with you that any hiding behind a teacher and refusing to involve oneself with other persons would be hideous. Those who know me have a clue about just how little I would appreciate such a thing. In our group, the sharing between people of personal things has increased radically, with great encouragement from our group teacher who says that our sharing together is more important than anything at all that he can say to us. He repeated that only this evening. So my experience just doesn't fit too well in the descriptions that I often hear offered up on this virtual place by those whose experience is peripheral. You may be quite right about other groups; my experience is limited, although I have read a number of transcripts and take from them the truth contained, just as the Urantia book encourages me to do (to take truth from whatever source, however apparently human its source). I can quite understand ... no, I think that is not fair... I probably cannot begin to understand the pain that some of you went through in relation to your experiences with FOG, and I regret it greatly. But I must say to you that this may not be the exact same thing; there are a great many differences. I know that it is impossible not to judge it from what happened to you, but there are dangers inherent therein, just as there are dangers for us if we do not pay attention also to what you have to say. I do believe there are potential problems, and I have my concerns. But such was also the case with early Christianity and probably every spiritual development that has ever come along, to wit the UB itself and some attendant woes. (I am not convinced that our endless discussion of WSS and his contribution or lack thereof is the most fruitful of avenues for our discussion in terms of spiritual growth... I also will not make many statements of this sort regarding the teaching mission because I am still more interested in what we share... an incomparable big blue book, an incredible understanding of the universe from it, a love of the Father and a desire to do his will, a grasp of thought adjusters and angels and our beloved Michael... we have so much to talk about and encourage and strengthen each other with that I will never be overly fond of belaboring our disagreements, but neither am I afraid of them, and it is in my nature, as I said, to speak for myself and my own views when called upon.

 Thank you, Sara, for sharing your views and I will send them on to my friend. We must surely have something in common, for we both love our gardens, our dear flowers! Thank you for your frankness; I hope you will not object to mine.

5 Jun 1993     Michael Million     Good News about the UB

Subject: Good News about the UB

 Greetings to All! I wanted to post some new info I received from the Urantia Foundation and the Good Cheer Press, but first, I want to welcome Fred Harris of southern Florida who joins us via the Freenet network.

5 Jun 1993     David H. Larsen    Picking at Threads

Subject: Picking at Threads

 And the TM. I'm afraid I can't find, at least not as consistently as you, the mediocrity which you seem to feel characterizes the TM. Yes, it may yet prove to be a spiritual flash in the pan. It is far more likely IMHO to prove to be the harbinger of the return of Christ Michael to Urantia which the UB promises and for which I deeply yearn. But, having said so, all in the fullness of time. No point in belaboring the matter.

5 Jun 1993     Dennis Shields      The real Christian is a person

Subject: The real Christian is a person who can give his pet parrot to the town gossip

 Aloha you of cyber status ye members of logondontorland

 A neighbor, one of several TRs in the neighborhood received this communication from Aflana and sense it relates to Urantial and those of us eating thought food off of this communal table. I thought it might be of interest to ya all, as I port this into the net I would remind you that I still regard my own position on the TM as neutral. I am truly interested in the positions on both sides of this quest.

 In a recent semi private E-mail communication from one concerned at the propriety of up loading TM material it was asked *Have you asked your Kona Teachers about sharing on the net? Or sharing, to use your words, "truth to an atmosphere of doubt and closed mindedness and fear." Do you think that uploading unsolicited teacher transmissions would benefit those inclined to closed mindedness and fear?*

 I have shared the print outs from Urantial to those neighbors around me who have been interested. It does strike me as interesting that an answer from a Kona TR to this question was given to me to post before the TR has even yet read this question as it takes several days before my used E-mail is picked up and read by others.

End Part 4

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