Michael - Facing Difficult Realities - Feb 19, 2015 - Jerry Lane, Lightline

Michael—T/R-JL

Subjects:

1. (Terrorism)
2. (Facing difficult realities)
3. (Understanding complexity, avoiding simple-mindedness)
4. (What is your creative solution?)  
5. (Political points-of-viewing events)
6. (Various constituencies)
7. (Trusting the media?)
8. (Humility)
9. (Individuality—God’s gift)
10. (A dangerous psychology and belief)
11. (Treasuring freedom)
12. (No two alike)

Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, welcome.  We are happy to have you with us, especially tonight when we come to this meeting with heavy hearts because, recently, our news media have been filled with events taking place on earth that really challenge our imaginations--even to try to conceive what people are doing to each other.   

It is rightfully called terrorism because it seems that what they are doing is not just to eliminate those who disagree with them, but doing so in such a horrific way so as to terrorize the people around them into strict obedience. So we welcome whatever you have to say on these events, knowing, Michael, that when you lived here in your life as Jesus, you also faced and ultimately experienced what happens when one group of people do their best to control others through sheer terror, the promise of unimaginable pain and suffering.   We do humbly come to you tonight with open hearts and open minds. Thank you, and Amen.

Michael:  Good evening, this is Michael. Definitely, Mother Spirit and I accept your warm welcome. We too have heavy hearts resulting from what is taking place on this poor, plagued planet--our dear Urantia, your dear home. As you mentioned, in one way this is nothing new because the human race on Urantia has been pretty much at war with each other now for nigh onto a million years. We refer you to the history given to you in the Urantia Book of how rare this circumstance is on evolving planets. It’s been very rare for both the celestial presence of a Planetary Prince and his helpers, and then later, Adam and Eve, to have gone astray and left the evolving human races pretty much to their own devices.

(Terrorism)

Sometimes you call this behavior, all most too easily, that of savages or barbarians. But that does mean you are acknowledging things that were hopefully left in your distant past, when they were almost universally done between warring tribes, then later nation-states and whole empires--the Roman Empire when I was alive on your world. Yet the fact is these practices of terrorizing people still exist. The one supremely novel component is the way these organizations are themselves advertising and promulgating on worldwide social media just what they are doing.  

As you say, they are not content to only kill those who oppose them politically and socially, but are advertising their torturing so as to terrorize others into abject obedience. Indeed, in some of the small towns, villages, and neighborhoods of the larger cities they have conquered, they themselves have put out pictures of a hundred people laying in the street, face-down with their hands tied behind their backs, awaiting a tribunal to see if they will live or perhaps be killed as I was. For there are even crucifixions happening again.   

Of course, by their thinking, someone who ascribes to their cause and their beliefs is immediately tested to see if they too will kill innocents of a different faith or belief. So you have a horrendous psychological institution of those having to kill others to prove they are one of the group. Then too, the group is held together in large part by this same kind of obscene things done to others. It’s the threat hanging over each head that if they show any hesitation in continuing to support what the group is doing, they will instantly become the next victim. This is what those already in the group are living under.

And since they are armed and organized, the soldiers of the group have to be stopped. As Mother Spirit said last time, there are those who can be rehabilitated, but those that are willing to die, or even see as a wonderful thing to die for their cause: their murdering rampage has to be stopped.

(Facing difficult realities)

This is a hard reality to face.  But, as you try to keep things in proportion, my dear ones, remember a hallmark of wisdom is a sense of proportion. You must also do your own best to--right within your own mind--as hard as it is--realize and accept within yourself what is happening. I say this because, in all humility, you must admit that you cannot pretend to know even for a few minutes what these folks are actually going through. You can only imagine and respect the kind of fear and pain they are facing, those who are captured and awaiting the most obscene kind of death that can be imagined. So even words like barbarians or savages , too often repeated, can be a kind of cover to ignore what is happening.  

This is the great spiritual challenge for all of you, especially you dear, sweet, peace-loving folks, to open yourselves to what is actually happening – this reality. In doing so you avoid becoming fundamentalist yourself. The closest synonym for that would be simple-minded. These are folks who believe they are so close to the fundamental truth, and that they alone possess this truth, they do terrible things in the name of God--who is love, who is sharing and connecting, who is life-supporting and life-affirming: the Creator of life. Open your hearts and open your minds to what it is they are doing—if only the plain, physical facts if you will, for which there is no excuse.

As difficult as it is to put yourself in the position of either the victims or the victimizers--those who are doing these things, this is where your open-minded meditation and your prayers help you from becoming fundamentalists yourselves. You avoid espousing some all-too-easy, simple-minded solution. For this kind of terrorism must be met and understood on all levels, not only the physical of what is being done to people’s bodies, but also their minds and the whole psychological warfare that is going on.  

It keeps you from too easily wondering why the folks in that area of the world don’t just rise up and themselves throw out these terrorists. You have to realize how they can conquer so much territory through these practices because, to speak up against them results in immediate pain and suffering, and not only to you but also to your family. Consider the things that are done to children in the presence of their parents. This is what you must open your hearts to wonder about. Open yourselves to all the possible ways of confronting this, for Mother Spirit and I are aware of the broad spectrum of political and social ideas put forward on how to confront this.

(Understanding complexity, avoiding simple-mindedness)

The first thing is just to be open-minded and willing to look at everything.   Entertain all points of view, and then back those political or social groups which, in your own deepest wisdom, best confront this reality.

This is the hard work. This is the true warfare for the hearts and minds of all those who are aware of what is happening. This is your responsibility, your ability-to-respond; and always, always first by striving to know and be aware--as much as possible--of what is actually happening.

In the face of such truly obscene horror, the human mind flies into denial at times. So it is in denying yourself that escape, that is the real, courageous response. Be informed. Be aware and truly, deeply care. Wonder what you can do to help the situation on all levels, including physical support and even military response to that part of it.

(What is your creative solution?)  

Psychologically, in the mind realm, do your best to understand what is happening, and why. In the spiritual realm, you yourself need come up with your own creative ideas and possible solutions. Be part of the solution to this problem. Because, my dears, it is time for this poor, tired old world of yours to move beyond this. As we have taught so many times, the best remedy for any kind of fundamentalism of any group or religion is open-mindedness and freedom of expression. It is being aware of all aspects of life, all aspects of your current social and political organizations, of your different nations and nation-states, different religions and ways of approaching God.

This is the duty of every citizen. This is the glory and the gift of every citizen and the only way this kind of terror will be eliminated. So my dear ones, with your heavy hearts and rather challenged imaginations--understandably so, there is a good, spiritual humility in acknowledging to yourself and even to each other that some of what is taking place is beyond your comprehension, so far, far removed from what you could ever do--causing even one other person to suffer the fear and the pain that is now being done, and has been done to tens of thousands. This is the situation.

Dear Father, we come to you in our prayers and our meditation and most humbly ask for help. Help us be aware. Help us care. Help us understand. Help us act wisely to truly affect an elimination of so much pain and suffering. Amen  

Now my dear ones, if you have any questions or comments this evening, we can do that.

Student #1: I have a question. It may be one that cannot be answered, but why isn’t our government taking a lead in this situation?

(Political points-of-viewing events)

Michael: Yes, my dear. As you have probably noticed, Mother Spirit and I generally refuse to get into particulars about this because of the very language involved. We are aware of your political and social spectrum, as I have said, from one far extreme to another. So often the very words used by different political parties or social groups are so loaded it would take an hour sometimes, just to clarify the terms that we could use. Your government is composed of, again, such a wide variety and broad political spectrum of folks that you simply have to listen to the different groups and see what they suggest. Then consider the relationships between your President, your Congress, and your Supreme Court, and the way they handle these things. Look at your news reports. They often tend to be extremely liberal or conservative with sometimes exactly opposite ideas of what is the best thing to do.

This is your government in the sense of all these different view-points of what to do. As I tried to point out tonight, there’s even the human difficulty of accepting the reality of what is happening.  

Student #1:  I don’t know.  I feel—unfortunately--we have gotten to a point where we don’t even really trust our government.

(Various constituencies)

Michael: Well, that could be a very wise assessment--how much your government does respond to the folks. In a modern democracy, who the government is and who it responds to is an extraordinarily complex thing, as you know. Keep in mind, my dear, that “the government” and “the people”--as you say--are all individuals answering to a whole spectrum of demands and constituencies. So far as your elections are fairly open and honest, all the folks in government, from the President on down, do respond to different constituencies. Think of how your polling, even it worded and asked by different groups, shows this difference of opinion as to what should be done.

This is why, tonight, I tried to address the psychological phenomenon of denial, of too easily glossing over particular, specific events, even by using words like “barbarian acts” so many times it looses its meaning. To know your president and his administration, your congress with all its different voices, tune into different viewpoints in your news so you can get a good sense of who their different constituencies are, how they got elected, and who they represent.

Student #1: I feel that is largely questionable too.

(Trusting the media?)

Michael:  Exactly. It is also a very complex situation with the media--who controls it and who has a voice in it; as well as in your Congress and who they represent. But there is no way shy of this in being well informed yourself. This is your prime responsibility as a citizen and as a member of a social group; to do your best to be well informed.

Student #1:  Thank you. Thank you so much.

Michael: You are welcome, my dear. Again: keep in mind all these different viewpoints being expressed on how to handle this situation, this world situation and all the different areas involved: the European, the African, the South American, all the Asian--China and Japan. All these different countries each have their own different relationship with what is happening.

(Humility)

It is very complex, but it is possible with today’s media expressing different points of view, that you can get a pretty good idea of what is happening and why. In this there is nothing so precious as God’s gift of curiosity as a part of you. Open yourself and wonder--you, yourself--wonder about all of this. This is why we say there is such a great spiritual quality and blessing in humility, being aware of and acknowledging enormous events happening. You can feel humiliated, insignificant, and crushed by it all; or you can be spiritually thankful for what you can be aware of--the enormity that you can be aware of. And be in my Peace.

My dear ones: let me close this evening with a lesson that Mother Spirit and I have touched on from time to time. There is a kind of worldwide spiritual evolution happening. There is a progress happening, if in no other way than the fact you can be aware, and all the societies of the world can be ever more aware, of what is happening perhaps some place so far away, so totally removed from your own day-to-day life. There has always been a World Soul of connection on the spiritual level, but this is becoming more and more into personal, individual consciousness, a broader consciousness, because of your electronic media.

(Individuality—God’s gift)

This is the very thing all fundamentalists are rightfully afraid of. For the terrorists themselves, a huge part of their goal is to insist upon an absolutely single belief system being broadcast, and the submergence of the individual into the group. It might seem a small or even a petty thing, but Mother Spirit mentioned the fact of the anonymity that is being offered, that so many of these terrorist groups wear masks. Even the individuality of the human face, each person’s own face in these cases, is being eliminated. Each person becomes only a thing, just another masked terrorist doing hideous things to other people.

This abnegation of personal responsibility is a big factor in enabling human beings to do the things they are doing to others. And again, there is that terror right within the group, that were they to hesitate, they too could be turned upon in an instant. This is another glue that holds them together, and it requires that they expand. They cannot just be static within and between themselves doing such things, now in their souls.

(A dangerous psychology and belief)

So understanding the psychology of this is essential. In a very ironic way, they are to be pitied--to have such obscene deeds in their souls for all eternity. But at the same time they are extremely dangerous and have to be stopped.

(Treasuring freedom)

And so, my dear ones, treasure the freedom you enjoy from such things. Treasure the openness of those societies where a person is accepted and given the right to live and to prosper in spite of race, or sex, or age, or religious belief. Then what variety, what wonderful, wonderful variety of individuals and all manners of expression come blossoming forth! Contrast that to a black-clothed mob of masked, faceless men--no color allowed, no individuality allowed. They are truly pitiful, these obsessed people; but doing the most obscene things. This is the full reality of who and what they are.

While most of the rest of the world knows something called love and has their souls filled with sharing all the variety of others, all these other unique personalities created by God, in their full expression. What a contrast!

(No two alike)

So enjoy your loving each other, my dear children. Glory in it. Glory in the individual where, ironically, everybody is the same: no two alike. Each person is unique--God’s gift—for you and themselves--and he would not have you harm another of his.  

Mother Spirit sends her love, and I bid you be in my peace. Do all you can to see it spread over this beautiful earth. Good evening.

END