IntroductionNebadonia - The Reward of Faith - Psychic Phenomena - Sep 22, 2008 - Marin TM
Nebadonia--September 22, 2008
Marin TM Group--Mill Valley, California--U.S.A.
NEBADONIA--T/R-JL
Dear Mother Spirit and Michael, Tonight I feel a little lost for words on how to adequately express our appreciation for the blessing we feel being here in your presence. We look forward with such expectation and enthusiasm to bask in the warmth and the support of yours and Michael’s marvelous personalities, these real, divine people you have let us know you to be these past few years. I guess personality is the key, all stemming from that original and ultimate and essence of personality, God himself.
You’ve given us so many wonderful lessons on what it is to be a personal being, some dimensions of which are still beyond our perception, but thanks to your contributions and through your insights, not beyond our understanding. So you offer us this wonderful vista, this wonderful vision for our faith, of the kind of beings we actually are. You tease and encourage us to entertain the possibility, not only of what we are, but what we may become. For this we are truly grateful. Amen.
NEBADONIA: Good evening, my children, this is your spiritual mother Nebadonia. I’m always so pleased to be with you this way, as well as part of you everyday. You register within me, within my Holy Spirit which literally defines and encompasses the Local Universe of Nebadon. This goes both ways. The more you can feel me as a presence within you, the more I can feel you as an actuality--I might add, a growing actuality within me.
(The rewards of faith)
As your Urantia book states and it is true, since spirit is the fundamental reality of the universe, the origin of everything, the more spirit you can feel, the more real you are. That’s a good way to tell if you are going in the right direction. Michael mentioned last time how you can enjoy the marvelous transformation of faith into experience. This is the reward of faith, for extending yourself out there beyond what you can yet assuredly perceive.
One definition of faith is acting on the evidence of things unseen, perhaps initially only felt or intuited; but with experience comes confidence, and not only of self-assurance but a kind of Other-assurance too, almost as if the universe, or God, were giving you a big wink and saying, “Right, my children: this is the way.” For your universal Teacher is into all of that out there. Your confrontation with the Other, the not-you, is also your contact with the Unqualified Absolute, that Absolute Reality which cannot be qualified in any human terms whatsoever, yet does exist and does respond to personal reality.
So all that Other out there, my children, does respond to you. You are a part of the cosmic adventure and when your actions and faith get this response, when this interaction becomes a real experience whether with another human person, with Michael or myself, with the Fragment of God within your own mind; this real event illuminates your soul and provides one more link to that vast repository of all your experience here--that Morontia reality that you are already in possession of irregardless of how much you can yet bring it into consciousness. Some day you will literally be your soul, my children, and you will become one with its co-author, the presence of God within you.
We hope you are getting this experience ever deeper in your meditation--this greater, fuller sense of all you’ve been and just how enormous, from a spiritual standpoint, that wealth is. You recall that’s one of those Morontia Mota, those spiritual laws, that your Urantia book gives you for example. Most people are so fantastically soul-wealthy, yet they refuse to believe it. One corollary of that is, so few actually use the full spiritual credit they’ve built up. So Michael and I most readily acknowledge to you, our children, that this does take nerve. We salute you for the courage you show day to day in opening your very vulnerable selves to each other, to strangers, to that vast and often scary Other surrounding you.
(Accepting reality)
On this I wish to clarify a point that Michael brought up last time about accepting even the fear and the doubt you have within you: accepting all that is real within you and without. I can sense some of you are confused on this point for you feel we are asking you to accept the social injustices, the pain and suffering in the world, and taking this as a kind of an excuse to do nothing about it. This is not our meaning at all. We are using the term acceptance to mean the initial intuition and perception of reality itself.
You recall our lessons on the nature of denial and projection as screens you are unconsciously putting in front of reality, built up of all the small painful knocks and scrapes and abrasions, both physical and mental, of your whole life. These screens protect your very delicate and fragile ego sense of yourself. Seeing through these screens is what we mean by acceptance in the sense of being open-minded, non-judgmental, non-prejudicial, and having a genuine humility in realizing that your human reality is transcendent. You and everything/everyone are, in a sense, bottomless. There is no limit to how far you can penetrate to get to that which is ever more real. This especially includes all your troubled and suffering brothers and sisters. You must exercise great courage just in accepting the reality that is, before you can begin to do something about it.
Michael’s whole life as Jesus was dedicated to inspiring hope and courage to enable you to grow, to act in the world and change things towards goodness, towards social equity, the sharing of political power, even the more equitable distribution of the world’s resources and wealth. So this kind of acceptance by no means is sitting back in some smug self-satisfaction and doing nothing. It’s the humble realization you must first allow social reality to come into you, and register, and move you, to know what it is. It’s the way the feeling of your body gives you the reality of the heavy object you’re picking up; the confusion or puzzlement in your mind lets you know you’re facing quite a problem; the terrible emptiness you may feel from time to time lets you know that spiritual value is leaking out of your life. The acceptance of these, even accepting the fear that warns you you’re getting into a pretty dangerous situation; this is what we mean by acceptance and the courage it requires to feel.
We’ve made many subtle distinctions in our lessons between the necessity to admit into you the feelings of fear that might be very valid cautions, yet at the same time, being not-afraid; feeling this fear with courage so as not to let it become an attitude or a stance towards life itself. This is similar to the distinction we’ve drawn between those necessary assessments you make instantaneously by the thousands as you go through your day, as contrasted to settling into an attitude of being judgmental towards yourself or someone else.
This is a learning process. This is a development of character, a living wisdom, a tough equanimity with which you can meet others and really be there for them because you are fully accepting them with a kind of courage that enables you then to be somewhat detached, so you can really help them. Most of you have found this is one of the greatest rewards when you can genuinely help someone. Doesn’t your soul just glow with the wonder that this is possible?--you’ve just done something irrefutably good. And so we encourage you to feel the glory of this. Don’t shy away from genuine accomplishment and become self-defeating with abasement. Ironically, self-abasement is really the spiritual opposite of genuine humility, that ability to see and intuit and welcome all that is so much greater than you. In other words, you needn’t put yourself down; just look up and around. That, my children, gives you something to grow into.
So this is my answer to your prayer on what it is to be a personal being, a creative being, a spiritual being of unending eternal potential. This is what it is to be always a little more than what you know yourself to be. As a human being just wading into life, know that you have soul, an ultimate personal possession growing in a dimension of reality that is a cosmic truth. It is the fundamental purpose of your being an experiential, personal being. All these are tied together in a unity that is itself growing. You call it character. You call it confidence. You call it faith. Isn’t it marvelous there is that which you can know for certain, even in this first phase?
So once again, my children, we assure you that for all of this, we have no fear for you at all. We see you growing your priceless souls and we tease you with just how tickled you will be someday to be totally one and fully conscious of all you are.
If you have any questions or comments, lead them out.
Student: Yes, on the date 2012, is that a spiritual one or is that a man-made concept of importance?
(Feeling and anticipating the planetary Changing Time)
NEBADONIA: Yes, my son, it is a man-made spiritual anticipation. (Mother chuckles) It is the attempt of many human souls, many human personalities to express what they are feeling as a profound change in the spiritual status of your whole planet. We like to pin it down a little more specifically as to what it is.
Student: So it’s the human collective mind reaching for spirituality, grasping at different places or times--as we call it on earth--time that is--in the concept of what man is after, grasping for ways to raise their spirituality?
NEBABONIA: Oh, very much so, my son. That is part of human nature and has been from the very beginning for nigh onto a million years now. What I mean more specifically is the fact that your whole planet has gone through a profound change in the last decade or two. The Lucifer Rebellion has been adjudicated. A two-hundred-thousand-year-old spiritual quarantine has been lifted. Hundreds and thousands of celestial beings are pouring into Urantia to help in this Changing Time that was first inaugurated by Michael, as Jesus. An event of this magnitude, though spiritual, does resonate in every human soul, and then it finds expression as spirit has always found expression--in the particular belief system of whatever peoples it occurs to.
Keep in mind, my son, that every normal-minded human being has a fragment of God in them. But this fragment of God is so pure, its messages, its thoughts are so pure, they must be and always have been translated by your minds into the spiritual language of the people at that particular time. All across your world this great renaissance of spiritual enlightenment, this enormous transformation that’s taking place on Urantia, finds expression in so many different ways according to the culture. You are right. Mankind is reaching for this, but now to a larger degree and in a much more direct way, is actually finding it. We see a spiritual renaissance like--as your expression goes--you wouldn’t believe.
This is that movement from faith and belief into actuality as more and more people begin to realize this direction that we see humanity moving in. It’s a little confusing on the surface for, as we’ve said in our previous lessons, a clarification of certain spiritual laws often leads initially to a polarization of points of view. And so it appears at times that there is even more confrontation and antagonism as various cultural points of view come into contact with each other. But this is a necessary, unavoidable step as major cultures of Urantia, having been separated and deliberately self-isolating for so many centuries, are, because of your mass media now, inextricably, unavoidably coming in contact with each other. So be not dismayed at some of this polarity you see about you. Keep in mind all your Urantia book has taught about the necessity for an evolving world government wherein you can have a full exchange of these different cultural values, then imagine all the necessary intervening steps. Does this help clarify these expressions of anticipation, my son?
Student: Yes. During your transmission you mentioned the word credits. What does that exactly mean; or could you expand on the credits, the spiritual credits or whatever? I think you said something like that.
(Soul credits)
NEBADONIA: I was paraphrasing one of the examples of Morontia Mota--spiritual law that your Urantia book gives you as a way of understanding that in the next phase of your life you will be confronted with and taught spiritual laws everywhere as determining as what you now think of as physical laws--Natural Law. These Mota trump or transcend what you know as psychology--mental behavioral patterns. We see as a truth that your soul, my son, is very contra-distinct from your memories.
Your soul is a Morontia reality you already possess, but because of its quasi-spiritual nature you cannot as easily get a hold of it like a memory. In fact you have to more or less relinquish your tight hold on yourself and allow it to pop up (Mother chuckles) on its own. This is that wealth, that earned reality that folks already have, and this is a kind of credit. Your soul is something you have already earned and if you could only be more aware of it, if you could only allow more of it to reassure you--all that enormous experience you’ve already earned, you would be able to act more courageously, more self-assuredly.
This is what we mean by your having this personality soul-possession, and as you become more and more aware of it, it is a credit you can draw upon. It is the basis for the insight you’ve gleaned from your life, and that leads to the foresight which gives you more and more accuracy in predicting the future. You have these credits, but it takes an open-minded welcoming of your own soul into your life to use them. Does that help you understand, my son?
Student: Yes--yes. I was once into the…(Ed: indistinct…) or human veil they have placed around themselves--or something like that, to enjoy life, but also be aware of the spiritual life. Is this something they must work through, or they should work through, or something like that?
NEBADONIA: Very much so. Your mind and spiritual personality work together to present you with a cohesive reality of all the billions of sense inputs coming into you--to make a single, comprehensive phenomena of your life. You must constantly interpret all of this data. This ability is what you spent all those thousands and thousands of hours of childhood learning how to do, and so is necessarily conditioned by your family, your society, your larger culture as to what is real and what is not. At one and the same time this ability gives meaning and value to your life, it also--as you are intimating with your word veil, limits you to that conditioning.
So the first step is to be aware of this process, that you are interpreting reality; you are, as we say, co-creating your own reality. It is not only what is “out there” but includes your own body, your own mind, and your own spirit. The ways of getting beyond this veil are all the traditional ones of being open-minded to, especially now with your mass media, all your books, your magazines, your television, your movies, your internet, as well as all the other folks you meet. As never before all these offer you such a wealth of ways to escape whatever narrow, constricting points of view you were raised in.
This is also what I mean by meeting your fellows with a kind of tough equanimity and allowing them in, allowing them to register in you, and not be overwhelmed that every single one is a unique individual. Your beloved teacher Welmek years ago gave the exercise of just beaming love at every person you meet. It’s a marvelous tool to let all your prejudices and generalities fall away and begin to perceive individuals: this one, and that one, and the next. Then, my goodness!--what a wealth your life contains. Where before you had categories, now you have real people. So these are ways of seeing through the veil, breaking it down, welcoming that wealth of detail that enriches your conscious life and your soul.
Student: Thank you.
NEBADONIA: You’re welcome, my son. Be in my love.
Student: Yes, Mother Spirit, good evening. The other day I met a friend at Open Secrets, a bookstore, and I remember saying I hungered for spiritual truth, but on the way home I realized it’s more that I hungered for the realities that truth is. And when I went even deeper, I realized I just hunger for the enjoyment of life: what is that: do I enjoy my life? I do in part, but I also know about things in the world--the suffering, the economic situation. So I’m trying to find a balance of these, and usually can, but I don’t feel the sense of joy that others allude to when they experience truth, and love, and the reality of who we really are. Sometimes I feel I’m just a prisoner of my circumstances--kind-of claustrophobic with my own limitations, my own belief system.
I’m reading a book about the failure of utopian societies, about their basic premises and ideologies of compassion, and love, and truth, and beauty, but what happens when others’ beliefs come into contact and conflict with theirs. So can a utopia, or the kingdom of heaven, be experienced moment to moment? I know it’s beyond description and expectation for me, but maybe I keep trying anyway and that’s why I can’t feel the joy or the freedom that the realization of truth is supposed to bring.
(Finding joy and enlightenment)
NEBADONIA: Yes, my son, you are finding a momentary, if only momentary unity as you change your focus from time to time as you seek, say, truth, or reality, or deep joy. Of course, for Michael and me these are all one: reality is what is true; Truth and Reality--if you capitalize them to mean totality--are identical. (Yes…) But this identity is usually only realizable by spiritual beings who may have spent millennia unifying all their inner aspects of conceptualization, impulse, desire, and realization. And in addition, insofar as the universe is a very big place, there is a lot of reality to unify. It starts with what I mentioned tonight as acceptance right in the face of encountering it. There’s a necessary effort here--just in accepting things or people as they are in and of themselves; letting them in to become one with your growing unity of understanding. There are the temptations of denial and prejudice to overcome. This can be very difficult when things seem inimical to your sense of yourself, or your very life as in the case of crime and warfare.
As before, I would caution you, my son, to be very much aware of different ways of expressing the self-realization of this unity, for folks in different cultures or belief systems will--as a matter of tradition--express this as a kind of unending joy, a continuous, single emotion that we’ve cautioned you not to put too much stock in. I wish to emphasize this is in no way a consciously phony or fraudulent spirituality, but does often come from folks able to live somewhat exempt from really trying physical and mental conditions, and so can live an isolated-spiritual existence. In their particular societies, those who are involved in physical and/or mental work may be more than happy to support and sustain these spiritual beacons who provide them with this particular outlook and emotion.
So keep that in mind. There are also those great teachers who deliberately refused to set themselves aside that way but even while fulfilling the role of leader of a so-called spiritual community, assigned themselves the most rigorous physical work to pay their respect and show by example that it is in the most mundane and ever-changing and -challenging efforts, day by day, that one can find the greatest, if also ever-changing-to-meet-the-situation, emotion and enlightenment. That is courageously welcoming the challenge, for as you engage the Other, you sometimes have drummed into you--(Mother Spirit laughs)--the humility of just how enormous it is; and what enormous effort it takes to stay abreast of your own, unfolding life.
As your Urantia book puts it: while your relationship with God the Father is one of a son or daughter to a loving parent, your relationship to the Supreme Being, the soul of time and space, is one of effort. The attempt to separate effort from the deepest joy creates only an energy-stealing illusion. So be careful how you evaluate others’ claims of living in some kind of continuous joy which only makes your own life seem rather joyless by comparison. All these marvelous qualities of spirit, and truth, and goodness are, on an evolutionary planet like yours which has gone so wildly askew from a one-time possible divine pan, a matter of slow evolution. We can only assure you that evolution is inexorable. But it does take effort. It does not--in that sense--happen all by itself.
Student: And also commitment: to knowing, to wanting to know and understand--to actualize that potential.
NEBADONIA: Exactly.
Student: I was watching this very moving documentary by Norman Foleman (Ed: spelling?) called War Made Easy, and afterwards I was thinking and praying to God, what can I do to benefit this planet. What can I do? Is that missing in my life? Maybe; but maybe not. So I wrote what I could about what I saw and felt. I am in life’s--in God’s hands, in a sense.
NEBADONIA: And you have those two strong hands on the ends of your own arms too--His gift to you; His hands if you dedicate them to Him. There is the day to day being of good cheer, the day to day being there for others, maybe teasing them out of their prejudices if you feel them directed at you: just being a real person for them. That could be your greatest gift, for that is what a world settled in Life and Light is all about: everyone being there for everyone else.
Student: Yes. About a month ago--there’s a person I occasionally swim with, an older lady in her seventies or so, who mentioned she was happy to see me because I make her feel whole again. That was kind-of cool to hear.
NEBADOINA: That’s what I meant about the genuine glory you can feel in doing something irrefutably good for someone else. (Mother Spirit laughed)
Student: Without even meaning to.
NEBADONIA: Or you can try to.
(Psychic phenomena)
Student: One more thing. My mother went to a psychic once, back in England, and she asked questions about me--she’s always concerned about me--and the psychic mentioned I should continue my writing because some day I will be published. Ok, so I hear this, and it’s inspirational, but for the life of me I wonder, how much validity should I take in this prophesy?
NEBADONIA: It’s unavoidable it will be your interpretation of it, but let me say that, in terms of psychic phenomena of this sort, there can be no limit put upon the validity of it in either direction, all the way from the most blatant and outrageous fraud to, clear at the other end of the spectrum, those individuals who are so attuned to their own Thought Adjuster, to the presence of God and truth, that they can actually tune in to another’s Thought Adjuster; there can be an amazing amount of valid information exchanged. It runs the full spectrum, and there have been some almost humanly-unbelievable instances of exchanges which approached telepathy. But as to how you evaluate that for yourself, my son, in the case of someone else interpreting your mother’s interests for you--it may help to realize that was what was essentially happening.
I would encourage you--as your spiritual mother… (Yes…) keep writing.
Student: OK!--cool. (much laughter) I was going to ask how, if there is no future, how can one prophesy about it?
NEBADONIA: Oh. As far as the future is concerned: here it comes! There’s no holding it back either. It just doesn’t exist yet. Technically speaking, one never experiences the future: it’s always the eternal now. For a human being the future is actually the foresight you’ve projected from the insight you’ve gained in living. It’s highly accurate with respect to the gross movements of the solar system, say, but not so much as to the exact details of a few minutes from now. So keep feeling all my love.
Student: Thank you.
Student: Good evening, Mother. I don’t have any prepared questions; the only thing that comes to mind is my awareness of how, when disappointment comes up in a relationship with another person--more particularly when I feel their disappointment in me--what they see as a lack in me--I try to adjust to this perception. I can’t always see from a higher perspective what goes on when we disappoint each other.
(Accommodating others V.S. being true to yourself)
NEBADONIA: My daughter, this is another clear example of what we talked about before--human projection. When two people meet, even those who have known each other for years and years, there is this very fluid dynamic of expectations influencing how they see each other. Suddenly, and often in circumstances beyond either’s control, they are forced to see each other as they haven’t before. They can feel terribly disillusioned and disappointed.
There is nothing so wonderful in human relationships as the quality of inner stillness, not as a formal meditation but, as Michael mentioned last time, an ongoing and resilient reflection, or what I talked about tonight as the tough equanimity that allows another to come in and register so, in an enduring friendship, you can keep up with each others’ changes. For sometimes when a period of time goes by, one or the other or both may slip back into a kind of cloying nostalgia, and the sudden realization of a lot of changes can be very startling.
We see many examples of how people can be disillusioned, and if their orientation inside is not toward welcoming this, then disappointment is inevitable. This possible orientation and choice is not always conscious--to accept present, living, changing reality. They may unconsciously cling to the illusion of an unchanging past. All these possibilities are in that dynamic. And so, not wishing to disappoint others, you face the question of being yourself and refusing to accommodate them; and to what degree. This is where--as you say--the situation gets sticky. Various alternatives cling to each other and, to mix the metaphor thoroughly, muddy the water.
There is a living balance to how much you accommodate others and try to be what they want you to be, for, ironically, sometimes this feedback can help you grow; yet at the same time stay true to yourself. Feeling ever deeper the uniqueness of your God-given personality seems to demand it be accepted, so you must find ways to help another individual welcome their disillusionment--if that’s what’s involved. Help them accept your reality for the greater good of both of you. And this you can best do by example. Your acceptance of others and registering their human fullness is the best way to enable them to see you for who you are. This is the marvelous aspect of what you call the gestalt or shared consciousness in any relationship. This is how it works, when it does. This is how your calmness and equanimity creates the dynamic of your being more real and accessible to them.
So lead the way in these moment to moment exchanges, even between old friends. Take the initiative when others can’t. Put yourself out there for them. Forgive little, unintended slights and misunderstandings. Give them the time and the chance to change to accept you.
First student again: So you’re saying that being able to sense another person and communicate your feelings to them, and having them communicate their feelings to you, to feel comfortable? It takes two good people to put two unique or two independent personalities together; two unique or God-given personalities?--I’ll get it right.
NEBADONIA: Yes, all personal beings are unique. And in the dynamic between any two, each has the running choice of accommodating what the other wants them to be, and balancing this against what they feel themselves to be. As you say, it’s being accommodating and at the same time, true to yourself. It helps to grant the other person their need to contact reality, the real you, even if in spite of their expectations. You’re being your real self for the both of you. Does this help you C? (Ed: the initial question)
Student: Yes, it does. What came to me was when one of my children was disappointed in me and how I encouraged him to tell me about it; and how I was able to explain myself to him. I could see his feelings and yet know my own strength with regards to whatever was bothering him. So if I have to deny them something I can take their disappointment not too personally. It really has a calming affect, especially on my one child. I can see how using that--maybe not the same intimacy--but it could be how to be receptive, and still be honest about myself.
First student again: Mother, I have another question. How much is there a spiritual communication between two people they may not pick up or understand on a human level?
(Thought Adjuster communication)
NEBADOINA: Quite a lot, my son. The Thought Adjusters, the presences of God, the individualizations of God that are still what we call pre-personal fragments of God which do not have the kinds of personalities as the two individuals do; they are on Urantia here fairly well experienced. This is not generally their first assignment; they are experienced Thought Adjusters. They are able to communicate with each as well as being genuine Mystery Monitors in the sense of being how God experiences the individual’s life, the fact that God is not separated from His human children.
Being the co-authors of an individual’s soul, the communication between Thought Adjusters is also very much what you would think of as soul--Morontia reality. So if you’re asking what people can experience of this spiritual contact, it is very similar to what you feel is another person’s soul, another person’s character. It very rarely gets as full or comprehensive as your portrayals of science-fiction telepathy where two people exchange actual thoughts. That’s very rare, though, as I just mentioned before, it cannot be completely discounted because it has happened. It depends upon how much each individual is attuned to their own Thought Adjuster, their own inner sense of spiritual value, and soul, and character--these qualities. That determines how much they can realize these in another. That is the most direct way I can answer your question of how human beings can experience these pre-existent and ever-in-contact spiritual dimensions.
Student: So you’re saying our Thought Adjusters are talking to each other and this is the way we are communicating with each other spiritually?
NEBADONIA: Yes, if you realize that their communication is so very multi-dimensional from a human standpoint. That contact is always there, but as your personality is distinct from your Thought Adjuster, the consciousness of this contact varies greatly from one individual to another and is somewhat a measure of their spiritual maturity and development, how much they are attuned to their own Thought Adjuster. Think of someone who you know has great soul, a great character. That’s how the contact is registering in you. This is the depth, the wonderful broadness and depth and genuineness of their personality as you can perceive it. It’s a kind of glowing inside you when you’re around someone who is very advanced spiritually.
Student: And on the other hand, is this what happens when a person shuts down their spiritual side and seems not so lively or full of life?
NEBADONIA: Not so much shut down as never developed. Any degree of Thought Adjuster contact and developed spirituality is rarely shut down--it’s too marvelous. They are the events you remember above all and measure your life by. Liveliness is generally more physical and not necessarily connected with character. Yet your Thought Adjuster is a source of great spiritual strength, and that in turn sometimes transcends and heals amazing physical and mental deficiencies--what you call spiritual healing. Any contact with the presence of God within you is approaching truth, approaching reality, approaching what is or what can be real health.
Student: Thank you.
NEBADONIA: My children, I do believe it’s getting late. You have your lives to get on with, and I have my enjoying being part of them. So we’ll bid each other a fond adieu, keeping in mind there’s really no separation here. You have that expression: later? Or: until we meet again? Just keep in mind I am always part of you, and Michael is always right beside you. Be in his peace and my love. Good evening.
END
Nebadonia--September 22, 2008
Marin TM Group--Mill Valley, California--U.S.A.
NEBADONIA--T/R-JL
- (The Rewards of Faith)
- (Accepting Reality)
- (Feeling and Anticipating the Planetary Changing Time)
- (Soul Credits)
- (Finding Joy and Enlightenment)
- (Psychic Phenomena)
- (Accommodating Others V.S. Being True to Yourself)
- (Thought Adjuster Communication)
Dear Mother Spirit and Michael, Tonight I feel a little lost for words on how to adequately express our appreciation for the blessing we feel being here in your presence. We look forward with such expectation and enthusiasm to bask in the warmth and the support of yours and Michael’s marvelous personalities, these real, divine people you have let us know you to be these past few years. I guess personality is the key, all stemming from that original and ultimate and essence of personality, God himself.
You’ve given us so many wonderful lessons on what it is to be a personal being, some dimensions of which are still beyond our perception, but thanks to your contributions and through your insights, not beyond our understanding. So you offer us this wonderful vista, this wonderful vision for our faith, of the kind of beings we actually are. You tease and encourage us to entertain the possibility, not only of what we are, but what we may become. For this we are truly grateful. Amen.
NEBADONIA: Good evening, my children, this is your spiritual mother Nebadonia. I’m always so pleased to be with you this way, as well as part of you everyday. You register within me, within my Holy Spirit which literally defines and encompasses the Local Universe of Nebadon. This goes both ways. The more you can feel me as a presence within you, the more I can feel you as an actuality--I might add, a growing actuality within me.
(The rewards of faith)
As your Urantia book states and it is true, since spirit is the fundamental reality of the universe, the origin of everything, the more spirit you can feel, the more real you are. That’s a good way to tell if you are going in the right direction. Michael mentioned last time how you can enjoy the marvelous transformation of faith into experience. This is the reward of faith, for extending yourself out there beyond what you can yet assuredly perceive.
One definition of faith is acting on the evidence of things unseen, perhaps initially only felt or intuited; but with experience comes confidence, and not only of self-assurance but a kind of Other-assurance too, almost as if the universe, or God, were giving you a big wink and saying, “Right, my children: this is the way.” For your universal Teacher is into all of that out there. Your confrontation with the Other, the not-you, is also your contact with the Unqualified Absolute, that Absolute Reality which cannot be qualified in any human terms whatsoever, yet does exist and does respond to personal reality.
So all that Other out there, my children, does respond to you. You are a part of the cosmic adventure and when your actions and faith get this response, when this interaction becomes a real experience whether with another human person, with Michael or myself, with the Fragment of God within your own mind; this real event illuminates your soul and provides one more link to that vast repository of all your experience here--that Morontia reality that you are already in possession of irregardless of how much you can yet bring it into consciousness. Some day you will literally be your soul, my children, and you will become one with its co-author, the presence of God within you.
We hope you are getting this experience ever deeper in your meditation--this greater, fuller sense of all you’ve been and just how enormous, from a spiritual standpoint, that wealth is. You recall that’s one of those Morontia Mota, those spiritual laws, that your Urantia book gives you for example. Most people are so fantastically soul-wealthy, yet they refuse to believe it. One corollary of that is, so few actually use the full spiritual credit they’ve built up. So Michael and I most readily acknowledge to you, our children, that this does take nerve. We salute you for the courage you show day to day in opening your very vulnerable selves to each other, to strangers, to that vast and often scary Other surrounding you.
(Accepting reality)
On this I wish to clarify a point that Michael brought up last time about accepting even the fear and the doubt you have within you: accepting all that is real within you and without. I can sense some of you are confused on this point for you feel we are asking you to accept the social injustices, the pain and suffering in the world, and taking this as a kind of an excuse to do nothing about it. This is not our meaning at all. We are using the term acceptance to mean the initial intuition and perception of reality itself.
You recall our lessons on the nature of denial and projection as screens you are unconsciously putting in front of reality, built up of all the small painful knocks and scrapes and abrasions, both physical and mental, of your whole life. These screens protect your very delicate and fragile ego sense of yourself. Seeing through these screens is what we mean by acceptance in the sense of being open-minded, non-judgmental, non-prejudicial, and having a genuine humility in realizing that your human reality is transcendent. You and everything/everyone are, in a sense, bottomless. There is no limit to how far you can penetrate to get to that which is ever more real. This especially includes all your troubled and suffering brothers and sisters. You must exercise great courage just in accepting the reality that is, before you can begin to do something about it.
Michael’s whole life as Jesus was dedicated to inspiring hope and courage to enable you to grow, to act in the world and change things towards goodness, towards social equity, the sharing of political power, even the more equitable distribution of the world’s resources and wealth. So this kind of acceptance by no means is sitting back in some smug self-satisfaction and doing nothing. It’s the humble realization you must first allow social reality to come into you, and register, and move you, to know what it is. It’s the way the feeling of your body gives you the reality of the heavy object you’re picking up; the confusion or puzzlement in your mind lets you know you’re facing quite a problem; the terrible emptiness you may feel from time to time lets you know that spiritual value is leaking out of your life. The acceptance of these, even accepting the fear that warns you you’re getting into a pretty dangerous situation; this is what we mean by acceptance and the courage it requires to feel.
We’ve made many subtle distinctions in our lessons between the necessity to admit into you the feelings of fear that might be very valid cautions, yet at the same time, being not-afraid; feeling this fear with courage so as not to let it become an attitude or a stance towards life itself. This is similar to the distinction we’ve drawn between those necessary assessments you make instantaneously by the thousands as you go through your day, as contrasted to settling into an attitude of being judgmental towards yourself or someone else.
This is a learning process. This is a development of character, a living wisdom, a tough equanimity with which you can meet others and really be there for them because you are fully accepting them with a kind of courage that enables you then to be somewhat detached, so you can really help them. Most of you have found this is one of the greatest rewards when you can genuinely help someone. Doesn’t your soul just glow with the wonder that this is possible?--you’ve just done something irrefutably good. And so we encourage you to feel the glory of this. Don’t shy away from genuine accomplishment and become self-defeating with abasement. Ironically, self-abasement is really the spiritual opposite of genuine humility, that ability to see and intuit and welcome all that is so much greater than you. In other words, you needn’t put yourself down; just look up and around. That, my children, gives you something to grow into.
So this is my answer to your prayer on what it is to be a personal being, a creative being, a spiritual being of unending eternal potential. This is what it is to be always a little more than what you know yourself to be. As a human being just wading into life, know that you have soul, an ultimate personal possession growing in a dimension of reality that is a cosmic truth. It is the fundamental purpose of your being an experiential, personal being. All these are tied together in a unity that is itself growing. You call it character. You call it confidence. You call it faith. Isn’t it marvelous there is that which you can know for certain, even in this first phase?
So once again, my children, we assure you that for all of this, we have no fear for you at all. We see you growing your priceless souls and we tease you with just how tickled you will be someday to be totally one and fully conscious of all you are.
If you have any questions or comments, lead them out.
Student: Yes, on the date 2012, is that a spiritual one or is that a man-made concept of importance?
(Feeling and anticipating the planetary Changing Time)
NEBADONIA: Yes, my son, it is a man-made spiritual anticipation. (Mother chuckles) It is the attempt of many human souls, many human personalities to express what they are feeling as a profound change in the spiritual status of your whole planet. We like to pin it down a little more specifically as to what it is.
Student: So it’s the human collective mind reaching for spirituality, grasping at different places or times--as we call it on earth--time that is--in the concept of what man is after, grasping for ways to raise their spirituality?
NEBABONIA: Oh, very much so, my son. That is part of human nature and has been from the very beginning for nigh onto a million years now. What I mean more specifically is the fact that your whole planet has gone through a profound change in the last decade or two. The Lucifer Rebellion has been adjudicated. A two-hundred-thousand-year-old spiritual quarantine has been lifted. Hundreds and thousands of celestial beings are pouring into Urantia to help in this Changing Time that was first inaugurated by Michael, as Jesus. An event of this magnitude, though spiritual, does resonate in every human soul, and then it finds expression as spirit has always found expression--in the particular belief system of whatever peoples it occurs to.
Keep in mind, my son, that every normal-minded human being has a fragment of God in them. But this fragment of God is so pure, its messages, its thoughts are so pure, they must be and always have been translated by your minds into the spiritual language of the people at that particular time. All across your world this great renaissance of spiritual enlightenment, this enormous transformation that’s taking place on Urantia, finds expression in so many different ways according to the culture. You are right. Mankind is reaching for this, but now to a larger degree and in a much more direct way, is actually finding it. We see a spiritual renaissance like--as your expression goes--you wouldn’t believe.
This is that movement from faith and belief into actuality as more and more people begin to realize this direction that we see humanity moving in. It’s a little confusing on the surface for, as we’ve said in our previous lessons, a clarification of certain spiritual laws often leads initially to a polarization of points of view. And so it appears at times that there is even more confrontation and antagonism as various cultural points of view come into contact with each other. But this is a necessary, unavoidable step as major cultures of Urantia, having been separated and deliberately self-isolating for so many centuries, are, because of your mass media now, inextricably, unavoidably coming in contact with each other. So be not dismayed at some of this polarity you see about you. Keep in mind all your Urantia book has taught about the necessity for an evolving world government wherein you can have a full exchange of these different cultural values, then imagine all the necessary intervening steps. Does this help clarify these expressions of anticipation, my son?
Student: Yes. During your transmission you mentioned the word credits. What does that exactly mean; or could you expand on the credits, the spiritual credits or whatever? I think you said something like that.
(Soul credits)
NEBADONIA: I was paraphrasing one of the examples of Morontia Mota--spiritual law that your Urantia book gives you as a way of understanding that in the next phase of your life you will be confronted with and taught spiritual laws everywhere as determining as what you now think of as physical laws--Natural Law. These Mota trump or transcend what you know as psychology--mental behavioral patterns. We see as a truth that your soul, my son, is very contra-distinct from your memories.
Your soul is a Morontia reality you already possess, but because of its quasi-spiritual nature you cannot as easily get a hold of it like a memory. In fact you have to more or less relinquish your tight hold on yourself and allow it to pop up (Mother chuckles) on its own. This is that wealth, that earned reality that folks already have, and this is a kind of credit. Your soul is something you have already earned and if you could only be more aware of it, if you could only allow more of it to reassure you--all that enormous experience you’ve already earned, you would be able to act more courageously, more self-assuredly.
This is what we mean by your having this personality soul-possession, and as you become more and more aware of it, it is a credit you can draw upon. It is the basis for the insight you’ve gleaned from your life, and that leads to the foresight which gives you more and more accuracy in predicting the future. You have these credits, but it takes an open-minded welcoming of your own soul into your life to use them. Does that help you understand, my son?
Student: Yes--yes. I was once into the…(Ed: indistinct…) or human veil they have placed around themselves--or something like that, to enjoy life, but also be aware of the spiritual life. Is this something they must work through, or they should work through, or something like that?
NEBADONIA: Very much so. Your mind and spiritual personality work together to present you with a cohesive reality of all the billions of sense inputs coming into you--to make a single, comprehensive phenomena of your life. You must constantly interpret all of this data. This ability is what you spent all those thousands and thousands of hours of childhood learning how to do, and so is necessarily conditioned by your family, your society, your larger culture as to what is real and what is not. At one and the same time this ability gives meaning and value to your life, it also--as you are intimating with your word veil, limits you to that conditioning.
So the first step is to be aware of this process, that you are interpreting reality; you are, as we say, co-creating your own reality. It is not only what is “out there” but includes your own body, your own mind, and your own spirit. The ways of getting beyond this veil are all the traditional ones of being open-minded to, especially now with your mass media, all your books, your magazines, your television, your movies, your internet, as well as all the other folks you meet. As never before all these offer you such a wealth of ways to escape whatever narrow, constricting points of view you were raised in.
This is also what I mean by meeting your fellows with a kind of tough equanimity and allowing them in, allowing them to register in you, and not be overwhelmed that every single one is a unique individual. Your beloved teacher Welmek years ago gave the exercise of just beaming love at every person you meet. It’s a marvelous tool to let all your prejudices and generalities fall away and begin to perceive individuals: this one, and that one, and the next. Then, my goodness!--what a wealth your life contains. Where before you had categories, now you have real people. So these are ways of seeing through the veil, breaking it down, welcoming that wealth of detail that enriches your conscious life and your soul.
Student: Thank you.
NEBADONIA: You’re welcome, my son. Be in my love.
Student: Yes, Mother Spirit, good evening. The other day I met a friend at Open Secrets, a bookstore, and I remember saying I hungered for spiritual truth, but on the way home I realized it’s more that I hungered for the realities that truth is. And when I went even deeper, I realized I just hunger for the enjoyment of life: what is that: do I enjoy my life? I do in part, but I also know about things in the world--the suffering, the economic situation. So I’m trying to find a balance of these, and usually can, but I don’t feel the sense of joy that others allude to when they experience truth, and love, and the reality of who we really are. Sometimes I feel I’m just a prisoner of my circumstances--kind-of claustrophobic with my own limitations, my own belief system.
I’m reading a book about the failure of utopian societies, about their basic premises and ideologies of compassion, and love, and truth, and beauty, but what happens when others’ beliefs come into contact and conflict with theirs. So can a utopia, or the kingdom of heaven, be experienced moment to moment? I know it’s beyond description and expectation for me, but maybe I keep trying anyway and that’s why I can’t feel the joy or the freedom that the realization of truth is supposed to bring.
(Finding joy and enlightenment)
NEBADONIA: Yes, my son, you are finding a momentary, if only momentary unity as you change your focus from time to time as you seek, say, truth, or reality, or deep joy. Of course, for Michael and me these are all one: reality is what is true; Truth and Reality--if you capitalize them to mean totality--are identical. (Yes…) But this identity is usually only realizable by spiritual beings who may have spent millennia unifying all their inner aspects of conceptualization, impulse, desire, and realization. And in addition, insofar as the universe is a very big place, there is a lot of reality to unify. It starts with what I mentioned tonight as acceptance right in the face of encountering it. There’s a necessary effort here--just in accepting things or people as they are in and of themselves; letting them in to become one with your growing unity of understanding. There are the temptations of denial and prejudice to overcome. This can be very difficult when things seem inimical to your sense of yourself, or your very life as in the case of crime and warfare.
As before, I would caution you, my son, to be very much aware of different ways of expressing the self-realization of this unity, for folks in different cultures or belief systems will--as a matter of tradition--express this as a kind of unending joy, a continuous, single emotion that we’ve cautioned you not to put too much stock in. I wish to emphasize this is in no way a consciously phony or fraudulent spirituality, but does often come from folks able to live somewhat exempt from really trying physical and mental conditions, and so can live an isolated-spiritual existence. In their particular societies, those who are involved in physical and/or mental work may be more than happy to support and sustain these spiritual beacons who provide them with this particular outlook and emotion.
So keep that in mind. There are also those great teachers who deliberately refused to set themselves aside that way but even while fulfilling the role of leader of a so-called spiritual community, assigned themselves the most rigorous physical work to pay their respect and show by example that it is in the most mundane and ever-changing and -challenging efforts, day by day, that one can find the greatest, if also ever-changing-to-meet-the-situation, emotion and enlightenment. That is courageously welcoming the challenge, for as you engage the Other, you sometimes have drummed into you--(Mother Spirit laughs)--the humility of just how enormous it is; and what enormous effort it takes to stay abreast of your own, unfolding life.
As your Urantia book puts it: while your relationship with God the Father is one of a son or daughter to a loving parent, your relationship to the Supreme Being, the soul of time and space, is one of effort. The attempt to separate effort from the deepest joy creates only an energy-stealing illusion. So be careful how you evaluate others’ claims of living in some kind of continuous joy which only makes your own life seem rather joyless by comparison. All these marvelous qualities of spirit, and truth, and goodness are, on an evolutionary planet like yours which has gone so wildly askew from a one-time possible divine pan, a matter of slow evolution. We can only assure you that evolution is inexorable. But it does take effort. It does not--in that sense--happen all by itself.
Student: And also commitment: to knowing, to wanting to know and understand--to actualize that potential.
NEBADONIA: Exactly.
Student: I was watching this very moving documentary by Norman Foleman (Ed: spelling?) called War Made Easy, and afterwards I was thinking and praying to God, what can I do to benefit this planet. What can I do? Is that missing in my life? Maybe; but maybe not. So I wrote what I could about what I saw and felt. I am in life’s--in God’s hands, in a sense.
NEBADONIA: And you have those two strong hands on the ends of your own arms too--His gift to you; His hands if you dedicate them to Him. There is the day to day being of good cheer, the day to day being there for others, maybe teasing them out of their prejudices if you feel them directed at you: just being a real person for them. That could be your greatest gift, for that is what a world settled in Life and Light is all about: everyone being there for everyone else.
Student: Yes. About a month ago--there’s a person I occasionally swim with, an older lady in her seventies or so, who mentioned she was happy to see me because I make her feel whole again. That was kind-of cool to hear.
NEBADOINA: That’s what I meant about the genuine glory you can feel in doing something irrefutably good for someone else. (Mother Spirit laughed)
Student: Without even meaning to.
NEBADONIA: Or you can try to.
(Psychic phenomena)
Student: One more thing. My mother went to a psychic once, back in England, and she asked questions about me--she’s always concerned about me--and the psychic mentioned I should continue my writing because some day I will be published. Ok, so I hear this, and it’s inspirational, but for the life of me I wonder, how much validity should I take in this prophesy?
NEBADONIA: It’s unavoidable it will be your interpretation of it, but let me say that, in terms of psychic phenomena of this sort, there can be no limit put upon the validity of it in either direction, all the way from the most blatant and outrageous fraud to, clear at the other end of the spectrum, those individuals who are so attuned to their own Thought Adjuster, to the presence of God and truth, that they can actually tune in to another’s Thought Adjuster; there can be an amazing amount of valid information exchanged. It runs the full spectrum, and there have been some almost humanly-unbelievable instances of exchanges which approached telepathy. But as to how you evaluate that for yourself, my son, in the case of someone else interpreting your mother’s interests for you--it may help to realize that was what was essentially happening.
I would encourage you--as your spiritual mother… (Yes…) keep writing.
Student: OK!--cool. (much laughter) I was going to ask how, if there is no future, how can one prophesy about it?
NEBADONIA: Oh. As far as the future is concerned: here it comes! There’s no holding it back either. It just doesn’t exist yet. Technically speaking, one never experiences the future: it’s always the eternal now. For a human being the future is actually the foresight you’ve projected from the insight you’ve gained in living. It’s highly accurate with respect to the gross movements of the solar system, say, but not so much as to the exact details of a few minutes from now. So keep feeling all my love.
Student: Thank you.
Student: Good evening, Mother. I don’t have any prepared questions; the only thing that comes to mind is my awareness of how, when disappointment comes up in a relationship with another person--more particularly when I feel their disappointment in me--what they see as a lack in me--I try to adjust to this perception. I can’t always see from a higher perspective what goes on when we disappoint each other.
(Accommodating others V.S. being true to yourself)
NEBADONIA: My daughter, this is another clear example of what we talked about before--human projection. When two people meet, even those who have known each other for years and years, there is this very fluid dynamic of expectations influencing how they see each other. Suddenly, and often in circumstances beyond either’s control, they are forced to see each other as they haven’t before. They can feel terribly disillusioned and disappointed.
There is nothing so wonderful in human relationships as the quality of inner stillness, not as a formal meditation but, as Michael mentioned last time, an ongoing and resilient reflection, or what I talked about tonight as the tough equanimity that allows another to come in and register so, in an enduring friendship, you can keep up with each others’ changes. For sometimes when a period of time goes by, one or the other or both may slip back into a kind of cloying nostalgia, and the sudden realization of a lot of changes can be very startling.
We see many examples of how people can be disillusioned, and if their orientation inside is not toward welcoming this, then disappointment is inevitable. This possible orientation and choice is not always conscious--to accept present, living, changing reality. They may unconsciously cling to the illusion of an unchanging past. All these possibilities are in that dynamic. And so, not wishing to disappoint others, you face the question of being yourself and refusing to accommodate them; and to what degree. This is where--as you say--the situation gets sticky. Various alternatives cling to each other and, to mix the metaphor thoroughly, muddy the water.
There is a living balance to how much you accommodate others and try to be what they want you to be, for, ironically, sometimes this feedback can help you grow; yet at the same time stay true to yourself. Feeling ever deeper the uniqueness of your God-given personality seems to demand it be accepted, so you must find ways to help another individual welcome their disillusionment--if that’s what’s involved. Help them accept your reality for the greater good of both of you. And this you can best do by example. Your acceptance of others and registering their human fullness is the best way to enable them to see you for who you are. This is the marvelous aspect of what you call the gestalt or shared consciousness in any relationship. This is how it works, when it does. This is how your calmness and equanimity creates the dynamic of your being more real and accessible to them.
So lead the way in these moment to moment exchanges, even between old friends. Take the initiative when others can’t. Put yourself out there for them. Forgive little, unintended slights and misunderstandings. Give them the time and the chance to change to accept you.
First student again: So you’re saying that being able to sense another person and communicate your feelings to them, and having them communicate their feelings to you, to feel comfortable? It takes two good people to put two unique or two independent personalities together; two unique or God-given personalities?--I’ll get it right.
NEBADONIA: Yes, all personal beings are unique. And in the dynamic between any two, each has the running choice of accommodating what the other wants them to be, and balancing this against what they feel themselves to be. As you say, it’s being accommodating and at the same time, true to yourself. It helps to grant the other person their need to contact reality, the real you, even if in spite of their expectations. You’re being your real self for the both of you. Does this help you C? (Ed: the initial question)
Student: Yes, it does. What came to me was when one of my children was disappointed in me and how I encouraged him to tell me about it; and how I was able to explain myself to him. I could see his feelings and yet know my own strength with regards to whatever was bothering him. So if I have to deny them something I can take their disappointment not too personally. It really has a calming affect, especially on my one child. I can see how using that--maybe not the same intimacy--but it could be how to be receptive, and still be honest about myself.
First student again: Mother, I have another question. How much is there a spiritual communication between two people they may not pick up or understand on a human level?
(Thought Adjuster communication)
NEBADOINA: Quite a lot, my son. The Thought Adjusters, the presences of God, the individualizations of God that are still what we call pre-personal fragments of God which do not have the kinds of personalities as the two individuals do; they are on Urantia here fairly well experienced. This is not generally their first assignment; they are experienced Thought Adjusters. They are able to communicate with each as well as being genuine Mystery Monitors in the sense of being how God experiences the individual’s life, the fact that God is not separated from His human children.
Being the co-authors of an individual’s soul, the communication between Thought Adjusters is also very much what you would think of as soul--Morontia reality. So if you’re asking what people can experience of this spiritual contact, it is very similar to what you feel is another person’s soul, another person’s character. It very rarely gets as full or comprehensive as your portrayals of science-fiction telepathy where two people exchange actual thoughts. That’s very rare, though, as I just mentioned before, it cannot be completely discounted because it has happened. It depends upon how much each individual is attuned to their own Thought Adjuster, their own inner sense of spiritual value, and soul, and character--these qualities. That determines how much they can realize these in another. That is the most direct way I can answer your question of how human beings can experience these pre-existent and ever-in-contact spiritual dimensions.
Student: So you’re saying our Thought Adjusters are talking to each other and this is the way we are communicating with each other spiritually?
NEBADONIA: Yes, if you realize that their communication is so very multi-dimensional from a human standpoint. That contact is always there, but as your personality is distinct from your Thought Adjuster, the consciousness of this contact varies greatly from one individual to another and is somewhat a measure of their spiritual maturity and development, how much they are attuned to their own Thought Adjuster. Think of someone who you know has great soul, a great character. That’s how the contact is registering in you. This is the depth, the wonderful broadness and depth and genuineness of their personality as you can perceive it. It’s a kind of glowing inside you when you’re around someone who is very advanced spiritually.
Student: And on the other hand, is this what happens when a person shuts down their spiritual side and seems not so lively or full of life?
NEBADONIA: Not so much shut down as never developed. Any degree of Thought Adjuster contact and developed spirituality is rarely shut down--it’s too marvelous. They are the events you remember above all and measure your life by. Liveliness is generally more physical and not necessarily connected with character. Yet your Thought Adjuster is a source of great spiritual strength, and that in turn sometimes transcends and heals amazing physical and mental deficiencies--what you call spiritual healing. Any contact with the presence of God within you is approaching truth, approaching reality, approaching what is or what can be real health.
Student: Thank you.
NEBADONIA: My children, I do believe it’s getting late. You have your lives to get on with, and I have my enjoying being part of them. So we’ll bid each other a fond adieu, keeping in mind there’s really no separation here. You have that expression: later? Or: until we meet again? Just keep in mind I am always part of you, and Michael is always right beside you. Be in his peace and my love. Good evening.
END