Teaching Mission Newsletters

FROM THE EDITOR

Mostly when I start the newsletter, I haven't a clue what will be in it. This issue is a little different because as I start it  I know what most of the content will be and I find myself excited as I work on this issue to share with you information on the 1998 Teaching Mission Gatherings, the 6th Anniversary of the Pocatello Group, Norman Ingram's outreach project, John Creger's Introduction for the SpiritFest 97 gathering,  lessons on healing from Olfana and Veronica and a JarEl transcript from the Arcadia group. Included with this issue are three separate enclosures - information on the 1998 Conference in Nashville and SpiritFest98 along with Gerrry Baker's questionnaire for the '98-99 Teaching Mission Directory for those of you who may not have received a copy. Please help Gerry by returning your questionnaire to her promptly. Those  listed in the '98-99 Directory should expect to receive a copy  sometime in May.

HELP!!!  Jim Evans in Memphis, TN, Cebrun Gaustad in Billings, MT and Moe and Nancy Davis in Vestavia Hills, AL (near Birmingham) are wanting to know of any TM groups or individuals in these areas. If you know of any contacts, please let me know. They will be most appreciative.

May we all be filled with the love and joy of the Father as we put forth our efforts in His Service.

Editor

Allene Vick

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     CELESTIAL WORDS AND TEACHINGS

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE POCATELLO GROUP ON THEIR 6TH ANNIVERSARY!!! As one who has faithfully been reading the Pocatello transcripts from the beginning, I thank your group for your dedication, commitment, courage and hard work to participate, to T/R to transcribe and to share your transcripts. As one who has transmitted and transcribed, I must agree with Bill Kelly in a recent post on the internet in his comment to the effect that having done both there was more work involved in transcribing. I trust, Bill, you will forgive my indiscretion of sharing one of your comments on the tml in the newsletter, but I think it is a point that cannot be stressed enough. Too often the dedicated souls that do the transcribing are overlooked in this process. Without their hard work - and it is hard work! - especially when there is difficulty in hearing the voices on the tapes clearly, the Teaching Mission would not have the volumes of lessons to  read, share and learn from at our leisure. Transcribing is such a valuable service because even when one is in attendance at a group session, the attention is so focused that it is almost impossible to remember all that transpired.  Thus, reading the transcripts later is of immense value to the participants not to mention the value to those not present - a value of such enormity that we cannot even begin to comprehend. Talk about spreading seeds!!!

So, it is a great pleasure to share this transcript from the teachers on Pocatello's 6th Anniversary.

      THE TEACHINGS OF DANIEL - PART VII

January 9, 1998 (6th Anniversary)

Daniel (Bill): This is Daniel, your teacher, guide and friend for eternity. It is my honor to begin our session this evening on this most momentous occasion - the beginning of your seventh year in the active path of searching for God-consciousness, soul growth, community expansion, and additional assistance in walking the pathway of the Father's will. Tonight is for me a most joyous occasion, for I have now helped shepherd you for these past six years - sometimes through dark valleys of the shadow of adversity and sorrow, and many times on the mountain tops of joy, hopefulness, and mirth. You have tonight displayed many moods, ranging from sincerest pleasure in each other's presence to endearing companionship of love that embraces you all in a greater sense than any of you individually can understand. Also have you been somber and serious at times, grieving over your loved ones and friends. You have been reflective and looked back to the past and surveyed your progress. You have taken pleasure in the present moment and you have shared your intuitions about the future. There will be another who will speak to the future, but I wish to leave with you my immense sense of pride and joy in you, my younger brothers and sisters. I have never enjoyed a teaching assignment in my personal past more than this one. It has equaled and exceeded my fondest expectations. And I too look forward to our coming year together for with the completion of seven years we will indeed have established a perfection cycle. By this I do not mean that you will all achieve Paradise Havona levels of perfection, but we as a group will have arrived at a significant number and I expect that this coming year will continue to shower its blessings upon us individually and together. There are several speakers this evening who wish to send their greetings and comments, and so I will terminate my comments to you with this final statement - know how much I love you! I am Daniel.

Tomas (Bill): This is Tomas. I would not let this go by without my request for a brief moment of your time on this most auspicious occasion. Once again, my friends, I regard you all as family and my most cherished companions in the work of Christ Michael. My thanks to Ken for his beautiful presentation of my teachings and the effort that went into it which shows me that he is in fact a lover of the truth. I bring you greetings from Gerdean. She would give her eyeteeth to be here tonight. She is hoping to find a way to pay a visit as has been discussed before. I anticipate this coming year will bring more interaction between the groups of this Teaching Mission. I am therefore hopeful that you will hear from me and I will be graced with your presence more than a few times. Otherwise everything is going well for us in our new assignment and we are adjusting to a different climate of personality complexion. You see, my friends, I originally intended to be the teacher for a group in New Mexico, but human choices were not forthcoming that would have permitted such a group. And then I was invited by Daniel to join him in this marvelous experience here in Southeast Idaho and I have permanent bonds with you all that will never be displaced.

Now in this teaching mission assignment I am learning many new things about the culture of the Eastern United States - many things about a different system of values than I experienced in our presence. You see, teachers are students, as you know, and I am learning even as are my so-called students learning. And you are the same. You are also teachers to each other, to others that you meet every day. Your influence is far grander than you can know in this life. When you review your life on the mansion worlds, you will see how  much progress and how much benefit you have brought to this one-sorry world, now a world in reclamation, a world in transformation. My love to you all. Good evening.

Cora (Cathy): This is Cora, Marty's personal teacher. I have left my charge briefly to stay with the festivities here and make a brief statement of congratulations. Your love and prayers for Mary are heard and are helpful. Please remember her in the coming week. I will withdraw now. Good evening.

(long silence)

Machiventa (Bill):  Greetings. This is Machiventa Melchizedek, your Planetary Prince acting in behalf of Christ Michael, Master Son of Nebadon, Planetary Prince of Urantia. I have been invited by Minearisa to celebrate with you this year completed and to bring you my news. As one who has walked on this beautiful sphere, as one who has presented the truth of the righteous eternal God of the universes to struggling mortal men and women, I know from my personal experience what it is like to be a mortal, at least to at least to a certain degree. We Melchizedeks relish emergency missions. We are natural "wanna-fixers" - that is, it is a natural feeling for us to correct that which is astray. And so I am honored to represent my sovereign, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and Son of Man as acting Planetary Prince.

Indeed is Michael present on Urantia often. He continues to supervise his entire universe as befits a Universe Sovereign, but he has of course a unique relationship to this planet, this planet of his seventh bestowal, of his mortal experience. And, of course, it is his work to bring this Correcting Time to this planet. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit authorized this special dispensation to the rebellion planets of Satania. They endorsed the plan of our Sovereign Michael to bring a fifth epochal revelation to this world. It was a stupendous, enormous undertaking to materialize The Urantia Book in English, and it was a project of many, many years of Urantia time. Of course I had a lot to do with this project because of my connection with the administration of Urantia. The book has simmered gently in the waters of truth over the past number of years and its impact has been gradually increasing. Never was it intended to be understood or experienced in fullness until the process of spiritual and cultural evolution reached the necessary levels to make it possible for its revelation to meaningfully interact with your world. It is our appraisal that the time is near for it to be impacted in a major way.

Even I do not know the future, for I am merely a Melchizedek Son. But our best models of prediction are exciting us with the prospects of what this Correcting Time is going to be accomplishing. And so, like you, we feel excited. We feel that the future will  continue to surprise all of us with its potentials for dramatic improvement, for its capacity for correction. The transmissions of the past which emphasized sudden changes were not in error in content but were misunderstood due to a compression of events that appeared to signal immediacy. If evolution has collapsed over many years into the space of weeks, it appears miraculous, dramatic, and so forth. All the perspectives that you have illustrated in our conversation this evening show what improvement has occurred in your lives in a mere six years. In a mere six years! When this kind of progress becomes more and more pervasive, there will be synergistic acceleration which will sweep across this world with such dramatic effect that it will take your breath away. I am not saying this will happen tomorrow. But I am saying that the progress you have made is illustrative of what is possible, for this is a group experience of the summation of all of our individual lives.

The new thing that is beginning to happen is an infiltration into your culture - and by this I mean the culture of Urantia, not merely the United States - of higher values, of greater truths, of foreshadowings of the future. For example, your fad of angels is not merely a fad, but is fostered by the angelic corps active on this planet. The infiltration into your media is a result of spiritual men and women who are listening to their inner Adjusters that are suggesting to them ideas which are finding fruition at many levels.

Yes, this is your seventh year coming up. It will complete the cycle of seven. I too am excited over its prospects. These are my words tonight to you and because of the lateness of the hour and the nature of this meeting, we will not follow our usual format of interaction. There are two more speakers, therefore I withdraw. My love to you all. Good evening.

Alexis (Cathy): I recognize the hour grows late, but I would like, just for a moment to touch upon something brought up in your sharing time - and that is the topic of addiction. It may help you to recognize that addiction is merely a way of numbing oneself to inner pain. And those who are addicted  do not recognize the havoc they wreak. All they know is that they must have their next fix, be it alcohol, be it drugs, be it food, be it rage, in order to not deal with the inner pain which they believe will consume them. I hope this may be of help to some of you. Good evening.

Minearisa (Nancy):  Greetings my friends. It is my most sincere pleasure to congratulate you for your accomplishments of the past year - for the adversities through which you have grown, for the bonding you have solidified through these difficult times, for the losses you have grieved, for the challenges you have assumed, for the growth you have acknowledged. I am Minearisa, your instructor resident here with you, overseer of this teacher base.

My students, friends, peers, colleagues, we are enormously proud of your accomplishments of the past twelve months as well as the change that is apparent over the larger span of the mere six years. The first twelve and the last twelve have been your most challenging, yes; the first twelve because of the newness, shock, uncertainty, out-of-this-world nature of this interaction and the last twelve because of the trials by fire through which you individually and as a group have walked. The loss of your dear friend and loved one, Rutha, has been most difficult for all of you, to a varying degree. And yet each of you have, at different levels, accepted the truth that God uses all things for the good - and that this passage for Rutha too will be used for all involved for the good. As you know, she is well, joyous, happy, and sends her love to you each this day. She is thrilled with her role in this occasion and her false humility has lifted to the point that she can embrace herself in broad congratulations for facing her fears in embracing this new method of communication and this unknown world of spiritual contact which most of  you now take somewhat for granted. I have been given permission from those in authority above even of the Melchizedek Corps to make these statements to you this evening. Michael himself wishes you to know of Rutha's progress, of Rutha's continuing to follow the news of this group, and of her love for all of you.

And now the time has come to blow the horns, to let the confetti fly, to blow the whistles, laugh, hug, embrace, kiss, be filled with joy. Another season is completed - a new one, full of promise, lies ahead. Step forward with courage, with gratitude, with hope with  the knowledge that you are in good company. You walk hand-in-hand with our sovereign Christ Michael, Christ Jesus of Nazareth. Enter this year in peace and in the knowledge that God will work God's will. Shalom.

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Many of us have not had the opportunity to read much of the teachings from JarEl, so it is a pleasure to share this transcript.

ARCADIA TEACHING MISSION

Teacher: JarEl

T/r Henry

November 16, 1997

Submitted to the newsletter by Pam Sanderson

                     SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Opening prayer: We thank you for your presence here in love. May we learn what we are doing here, and how we can do it better, and how we can involve you more in our lives. Send us your pure light of understanding, of love, of healing into our hearts today, as we prepare our lives to listen to the teachers. Thank you.

JarEl:  Greetings to all of you on this afternoon. I am teacher JarEl. It is good to be here. It is good once again to speak these words of peace and kindness, and to share my wisdom with all of you this afternoon. Again, it is good to see this wonderful and warm group of truth seekers. There are many others, here in this room, who are not so visible to you.

Today, I would like to offer the opportunity for others to share our unseen friends. So I will make available this opportunity to invite anyone who has any message to give.

Myerson: (t/r Don):  This is Myerson. I have a short exercise I would like to share with this group. This exercise has been given to another group on a previous occasion and much fruit came from this exercise. I would share it with you now, but remember this is only an exercise.

Pretend, if you will, or envision that you have been given a time table and on January 1st in your year 2000 of Urantia time, you will catch a Seraphic transport to the Mansion worlds. Now, in reckoning time that is somewhat 25 months from now. The exercise is simply: what will you do for the next 25 months, knowing that you will leave the planet. What hopes and desires, and dreams you have entertained would you put into motion. What unfinished business would you wrap up? How would you extend your personal ministry to your brothers and sisters? Ponder this concept, if you will. At this time, since there are others waiting to speak, I will not solicit replies now, but simply ask you to consider this exercise, and we will speak on it at another time.

JarEl: Are there any others who would like to speak?

Helonia: (t/r Lucille): This is Helonia. Peace be unto you. The Father's love is ever with you. Yes, we should all listen to Myerson. We have many dreams which we have not carried out, and time is going by. So make up your list of what you intend to do, and high on your list, that I would recommend, is to love your fellow man. Recognize, accept, and respect everyone you meet. My messages are generally short, and I will bid you adieu.

JarEl:  Thank you.

JarEl:  Are there any others that would like to speak?

Bersa: (t/r Henry)  Greetings to you. This is Bersa. I would like to take a brief opportunity to share my love with this group. My joy in seeing this group  grow, and seeing the hunger which is brought here and satiated.The words which are spoken here help to give everyone a feeling of oneness. Oneness with God, the great Spirit within. The oneness of fellowship as a group. There is much work for each of us to do individually, in our own personalities, and in our own lives. As well we must also remember to take time to help others as we go along, day by day. It is easy to forget that in your moments of duty, and urgency and importance that others are also experiencing difficulty, challenges, confusion, and areas of other emotional situations. And it is good to remember to lend a kind word, a warm smile to others as you go forth in your world.  In your life, always remember that the greatest help is within each and every one of you. The greatest help is the Spirit of the great God, the Father Mother of us all, which dwells within us. So, when you're not feeling so important, so worthy, and when your self esteem is a little frayed, just remember that there is a strength of tonic within to give you courage and strength, to give you a feeling of worthiness and importance. Thank you for allowing me to share these few words today. Peace be with you.

JarEl:  Greetings again. This is JarEl. Today, I would like to spend a few moments in the lesson to discuss man's relationship with his spiritual nature. We know that it is important that we develop a working relationship with our Thought Adjuster and we also know it is important to attempt to share this relationship with others. In your relationship with yourself, it is important to reach a frame of mind which is balanced and mature, to reach a place in yourself in which you can grow, establish firm roots in spiritual soil, and express your faith and your courage to become a child of God. It is important to feel good. In this respect it is important to get proper nourishment, to take care of your health, to think good thoughts, to read healthy literature, to express healthy emotions, to experience the goodness which life in this world can lead one to experience a stronger reception of spiritual faith and spiritual love. A stance in which one can show forth the goodness, the grace and the love of the Divine Spirit which is resident within.

It is extremely difficult to be spiritually active and spiritually alive if you are in a state of emotional distress or unbalanced functioning and as a human being you will experience an ongoing relationship with the One within who is able to help you balance your functioning, your health and your mind.

As a permanent resident, God has all the answers, the specific answers that each of you desires to unlock the rambling puzzle of one's inner life, of one's mind. It is through the seeking of patience and silence in His presence, through prayer and through listening that one is able to discern one's guidance and what one is being told. So this is very important as a spiritual responsibility to the material vessel which you are given, to express spirit, the love, the joy and beauty of the Divine. And once this is achieved, one is much better able to discern the Will of God in one's life, to feel more robust and confident in expressing the spiritual emission in love and service to others. One will feel invigorated to spread the good news, will feel enlivened to look into someone's eyes, to love your brother and sister, to see ways in which you can be of service. For when one is not so heavily weighed down with one's own burdens of life, one is much more capable to experience the feeling of serviceable gratitude for the goodness which you experience in your life. For to experience this goodness, it is helpful to have goodness around you. To have goodness everywhere you go.

At this time, it is important to carry this goodness with you. To find the opportunity that others present to you to be good to them. So, in this aspect of responsibility, it is important that you remember and practice a series of exercises which will help you balance and bring the best of who you are at this moment into your being. And we encourage you to always seek to find evidence of the Father and Mother in each other. For you will only find one aspect of God in you, the other aspects of God are in others. You cannot feel complete just by loving yourself. It is not designed this way. It is designed to find a complete nurturing love in service to the whole human race. This is the Supreme Being Age. The age of this universe in which Paradise Fragments of God are sent forth to indwell the beings of time to thereby engender and experience growth. To evolve this combined growth into a new dimension of God. A new aspect of the evolving Trinity. A new and actual being of presence, the Supreme. So, yes, on a much larger scale your life here carries weight and responsibility. You are brought here to be of service. You are genetically prepared to be indwelt by a Fragment of God and you are therefore empowered to act upon the faith which this fragment gives you.

This is my lesson for today. Thank you for your patience. I will now entertain any questions or comments any of you may have.

Q:  JarEl:  The other night when I was in my quiet time, the words came across in my mind, "to climb the ladder of faith to reach the Father", and yet last night I was reading from one of the teachers that faith is a gift of the Father. Can we strengthen our faith and climb up higher in it, or is it just a gift that God gives us?

JarEl:  Faith, is a very important gift that God gives, faith is also a very large gift. It has many dimensions. Like all spiritual values, and spiritual tools, faith must be earned. Faith is not magic as a gift. Faith is a gift which is developed through its use. Through exercising the faith you have, through really beginning to believe, to practice what you believe, and beyond all doubts to know that which you are able to feel and discern. So yes, faith is both a gift, and faith is an acquirement. Like all gifts, it is acquired by degrees. In this respect, it is a ladder. Does this help you my sister?

Q:  Yes, thank you. Then it can get stronger as it is tested, or grow larger, I don't know how to express it, but do we get in higher levels of faith as we go along?

JarEl:  You've grown more certain, as you strengthen your faith muscles, through exercise. It is this certainty which adds an increased awareness and spiritual dimension to your understanding of things. Your level that you are at now, as an evolutionary creature, indwelt by a divine fragment, you use faith in its most crude form, raw belief. What gives you the strength is the added variable of blindness, if I may use this as an adjective, because on the world you are blinded to the spiritual dimension, you are not able to see it, it is not made visible. So therefore, the exercise of faith has an even more powerful dimension, one which when exercised can become far stronger, than one who is given to much doubt. It is the battle over the confusion of doubt and believing, which waxes and wanes in man's feeble Faith. But true faith from God the Father within, is strong and confident and certain, and as you grow in your acceptance, your faith will be strengthened. Thank you.

Q:  I am very happy to be here. You said that when we are in emotional distress, sometimes it is very hard to keep that straightforward believing strong, full of joy and faith. I know-- I know, I keep trying to keep that personal contact to my adjuster and ignore the outside emotional distress, but still my very weak human heart is aware of the circumstances surrounding me. How can I seek the full spirit inside of me, to avoid falling into patterns certain situations elicit?

JarEl:  Thank you my sister. This is a very good challenge, a great challenge, to let the spirit in your life, to let the spirit experience your emotional turmoil, your emotional confusion. It is not easy being a human, a mortal on Urantia, or anywhere. This is part of the conflict between man's physical needs, man's physical and emotional nature, and man's potential spiritual identity. To be able to grow, to overcome the burdens of the physical world. This in no way identifies one as being less spiritual. It is good to bring God into exactly what is going on in your life, this is the only way in which things will strengthen and get better in our dealing with your own spiritual growth, with your ability to view the emotional distress, to see what role it plays in your life, how it is brought into being, to strengthen you, so as to be able to experience trauma and distress, for these are part of the constant make-up. But as you grow stronger spiritually, the way in which you react to the trauma and the stresses begin to shift. You are able to view it differently, you are able to view the toil and the sacrifice as a way to grow, as a way to express your love, and your responsibility to the spirit within. There is much guidance through the divine Mother Spirit, whose energy of light and healing is available to anyone, and it is OK to address the Mother Spirit in prayer, and in eagerness ask for her help, to ask for her comforting spirit, and her guiding hand to help in life's conflicts. Does this help you, sister?

Q:  Yes it does, thank you. I feel it is a matter of my having to focus on all of the blessing and the opportunity I have to grow through experience.

JarEl:  This is very true. Life's growth experiences are very real.

Q:  Am I correct in believing that we can fuse with the adjuster in this life, or do we have to wait until we pass on?

JarEl:  The mortal being fuses with the adjuster at that point when the mortal being has become identifiable with all that the adjuster is, when you become one with that great spirit. Yes, this can happen here, or any time afterwards, as long as you are given the opportunity to do so, and this opportunity arises out of your desire to fuse with the adjuster. There are not very many examples of fusion on your world at this moment. Albeit this does not negate the opportunity for such to be. It is intended that as your species evolves spiritually more physical benefits will appear that will make it much more possible for adjuster fusion to become more common. As a matter of fact, it is intended to become so common that the celestial realm brings down a morontial facility to accommodate this great event. I am speaking of the Morontia Temple, which is mentioned in the U-Book. Does this help you?

JarEl:  Once you have accomplished that you will have been of the utmost service to Michael. It is intended for you to use the gifts which you are given. Each of us and each of you have a potential that is unique to yourself, to your personality, to who you are, to give something to the world, to your brothers and sisters. This becomes more evident or obvious to you as you grow spiritually, it may already be obvious or evident to you now. In this respect, yes, there is another dimension. God expects the most out of you personally, the most that you can give, the most that you can be, and He expects for you to give it to others, and not to keep it to yourself. In this respect the greatest gift is the gift of giving. As you pass seasons of giving you acquire a new dimension of understanding, new areas of awareness and growth, who you are and why you are here. Does this help?

Q:  Yes very much.

Q: How can we give our faith to someone else -- I'm not sure how to say it, how can we stir up a faith in someone else. Is it individual completely?

JarEl: First of all let me say that you cannot give faith to someone. Faith is given to each and everyone of you, so it is up to that individual to exercise the faith that they have. You can be an example of faith to others by the way you live your life. This is not something you can do consciously, this is something that will either rub off on others, or it will not. You can give love to others, and you can be of service, so there are ways to indicate value to how you live your life, and who you are, but you cannot make another person see anything until that person is ready to see or accept, or believe, or need, or to ask. So, one must live their life in their own response to their beliefs, and their guidance.

The only other avenue available for you to help another is prayer. Prayer will help give you the feeling that you have asked the Celestial Universe to give particular attention to another in one form or another. Does this help?

Q:  Yes indeed.

Q:  JarEl, there are a couple of things that Jesus taught that were fascinating to me. One that is very simple to understand is the power of unanimity (tape reversing lost a sentence or two. Apparently the parable of the three stewards who were given one, five, and ten talents was quoted.. that it is OK to be a rebel against rebelling (How ever that fits in.) Does that make sense?

Comment: Like fighting fire with fire.

JarEl:  What do you get when you fight fire with fire, -- but ash. At one point it is time to find a more effective way to deal with confusion and disjunction of history that has been handed down through the generations and social organizations on your world, and yet there are times when the feelings of frustration overwhelm you, and you feel that you own the recourse to counter attack, and in some respects maybe at times you do, but one must use wisdom. In wisdom you view the consequence of your actions before you begin, sort of sum up the possibilities, and weigh one action against another. It is in using this wisdom which will account for the possibility to change the tide and direction that confusion takes, to unsort the reactions by first changing ones own self, and how one reacts in an effort to set up a sequence and the possibility for others to use wisdom. As I said when I first started talking, it is not necessary that one hand mimic the other -- but that one hand can take from the other and do something else with it. This is available to man with his freewill choice. Does this help in your seeing the parable a little clearer?

Q:  JarEl, would it be fair to characterize that parable as Jesus trying to demonstrate that this is a Universe of growth and change, and for the one steward to bury his talent was living in the past and not participating in change. The one who was given much more, much more was expected from him, and he participated in growth and expansion of the universe, which is the Universe principle and thereby, he was given more because he had used his talent as it was meant to be used. Is this a fair characterization?

JarEl: Yes this is fair. It is also good to look at the talents as spiritual gifts. When you look at them as spiritual gifts it is  living gift, you cannot take anything living and put it away for it will die. Living things must be nurtured, loved, shared, enjoyed, and used. They become an integral part of your life as spiritual realities are living, my friends, they are not inert masses of valuable property like gold and precious stones.They are more like the energy of life, like breath How many of you hold your breath thinking you might live longer? So spiritual gifts, and like all life, it is conscious, vital and vibrant, so that when one uses one's gifts to seeming exhaustion they are replenished. When one buries these gifts and they die, whereby can they be replenished? Consider this.

Q:  You mentioned spiritual gifts, maybe we can take a lesson from that for ourselves.

JarEl:  It is hoped.

Q:  OK! We have been given the advantage of spiritual exposure to the U-Book and to the Teachers, we have been given more spiritual enlightenment, hence more is expected from us in developing our own spiritual life, and spreading it to everyone we meet, that we then hasten the day of Light and Life for the entire planet to radiate this spiritual light. Would that be correct?

JarEl: Today is a wise day.

Comment:  JarEl, you are having a lot better sense of humor than when we first met a few years ago. Laughter

JarEl: I am overjoyed by the wisdom in this room today. Thanks for sharing.

Q:  I have another question. You mentioned in your original lesson today of goodness that we are to radiate and develop goodness in our life. Would that goodness, as a definition of it, be comparable to our love and service to our fellow man? Is that the goodness we will develop? Or maybe you can give us a little more insight from the celestial standpoint, as to what we should look forward to and what should we take with us in our luggage as we go to the Mansion Worlds. We have only a material perspective.

JarEl:  Well let me first say about goodness that goodness is a basic spiritual element. Goodness is not a cloak that you put on. Goodness is more like the arrangement of the molecules and configuration of our body. Goodness is more to being. Goodness is an attitude of the heart and the mind. Goodness is a balance and a feeling of harmony. Goodness is a basic connection and awareness of who you really are. I would not wait to put goodness in a bag and take it along. I would use it right now. One must become aware of what one is doing now. This is the most important thing, not what you are going to be doing later, how much time you have left, or what you're going to take to the next worlds. What you are doing today, is the most important thing, for if you are doing it today, then you will do it everyday, and you will be doing it no matter where you are and where you go. This is the most important thing to remember. It is not where you do it, but it is doing it.

Q:  There are some things we can't do on the mansion worlds that we can do down here.

JarEl: Ever more reason to do it now.

Q:  Such as what -- What can't we do on the mansion worlds that we should do here?

Comment:  You can't make money. (laughter) There's no money up there. It is an exchange of love rather than money and merchandise. You can't buy a new vehicle to ride around in.

Comment: I hope in the other world, we don't have to clean anything. I'm tired of cleaning. (Laughter)

JarEl: Yourself will be the only thing that needs cleaning.

Q:  I like that question that someone asked, which gives food for thought as to what can we do to prepare ourselves for the mansion worlds. That was why I was hoping you could give a spiritual value that we can use on this mortal plane to develop for that transition. You have given us love for our fellow man. Is there anything else?

JarEl:  Everything that you have acquired of value, of spiritual value. What you have acquired of physical value that you take care of as our estate is your own personal matter. What you have developed as a relationship to others, through understanding your relationship with God, has acquired a living value. Has acquired something which is negotiable in the spiritual realm. In a sense, it is gold. It is hard spiritual cash. And, yes, you will take this spiritual treasure with you. There are many aspects to life and many levels of reality too or also. The purely personal aspect is of the most immediate concern. The altruistic aspect is a much more great dimension. As in viewing the life of the Master one can see that what was important about living His personal life was the way in which he revealed the Father. The love, the compassion, the mercy, the kindness, the caring to his fellow brothers and sisters when He lived on the planet. His own needs and wishes were secondary to what he felt was his first mission here, and secondary to how He was going to accomplish his #1 mission. He chose to accomplish this mission, by incorporating a group of rugged believers, both men and women to begin to understand how to grow in a spiritual dimension, so that this vine could take root and grow into many branches in the successive ages to come, and hopefully bear a little fruit along the way.

So in this respect, He was leaving something greater for the rest of mankind on the world. And what He left, was a part of his life. He left, who He was, here in the hearts and memories, in the beliefs and the actions of all mankind for all faiths. As a Creator Son, he was able to leave His impersonal Spirit of Truth, as a teacher, He left many parables. And also as a God/Man, he left the fact of life and resurrection through death, that man may put down his life today and take it up again in another realm. So He gave evidence of  spiritual dimension that is available to all men and women. So, in some respects, you say, yes. He was a great man and he left a great heritage on the world. I, myself, am not such a great man. My heritage is much more humble, and this is perfectly acceptable. For we can all leave something of the way we lived on this world. It is not important for us each to contribute a completely new heritage to the world, but it is important to realize and to access the gifts that you are given and to develop these gifts and trust these gifts as an instrument for doing the Will of the Father. For it is on the psalmist's instrument that he will play the eternal harmonies of God's Will, be it your life, your work, your actions, or your thoughts. Does this help?

Myerson (t/r Don): This is Myerson. I have a comment. I have ready for you, part B, of your exercise, if you should care to hear it. (a yes response from the group) Very well. The year is now 2010 on Urantia. One or more of you may already have arrived at the mansion worlds. The year 2030, even more of you will be residing on the mansion worlds. Fast forward to that time, of which literally everyone in this room has achieved the mansion world status and imagine with me, if your will, sitting around a room similar to this one, reminiscing about your earth days, things you were able to accomplish, as well as the things you were not, the things you wish you would have done when you had the opportunity, but alas, that opportunity is gone. It is gone forever my friends. You will never have an opportunity to live a mortal life again, in all of  eternity. Part B of your exercise therefore, is to consider this retrogression backwards from a future tie, and look at those things that perhaps you will feel regret that you did not do. Thank you. This is Myerson. Farewell.

                                    * * * 

12/10/97

The enclosed is a copy of the transcript for a session my son, Jeff, had with Susan as T/R and Olfana. My son is "HIV+" and periodically is symptomatic of different ailments which many like to call AIDS. He is pro-active with his health and attended SpiritFest95 with me where this meeting occurred.

My son and Susan have agreed that this can be published in your T/R News if you deem it good to do so. You're welcome to edit it as you see fit and include what you consider of broad appeal and value to others.

Thank you for all you do and accept a small token of tangible support. May our celestial helpers continue to bolster you up and guide your efforts and help you to enjoy peace and happiness this holiday time and throughout the coming year.

With love,

Jerry Dalton

[Off hand I can't think of any messages from Olfana that do not have "broad appeal and value to others". Thus, this is the complete transcript that follows. Thank you Jeff, Jerry and Susan for sharing this with us -Ed]

Half Moon Bay, CA

Private Session: S,J

10:30 PM

Olfana: Allow this connection to begin. Greetings to you, J. This is Olfana, who speaks now. Olfana "scans" J. through S's hands, which are held up, palms facing J, approximately 1 foot from his body.) I am perceiving you in this process. You have strong energy patterns within your being. I would begin this session by speaking of "resistance" as a topic. Resistance, in and of itself, is a neutral concept. Resistance is the construction of a force applied against another force, and resistance can yield one energy to another. Resistance can overcome the power, the flow, of one energy against another. There is the application of this concept in many contexts within our lives. When we approach a growth experience with this resistant force, we are unifying the energies we already hold against a process which can create a turbulence that, indeed, produces growth within us. We are stopping this flow of growth-producing energy that comes toward our being. In this context, resistance can be applied in what you might call a "destructive fashion," because it is stopping a process by which new energy can supplement and increase the patterns that already exist. At the same time, there is this ability we have to resist the destructive forces which can attempt to unsettle the vibration patterns of our being, and this sense our resistance becomes our friend, our shield our defender, against a force of turbulence which would disturb and disintegrate the integrity of patterns, rather than the turbulence that can be caused by this growth energy which disturbs, but not to the point of destruction. Are you with me in your perception of these concepts now, J?

J: Yes. Absolutely.

Olfana: This is pleasing to me. I wish you to become most discriminating in your perception of these forces which can approach your being. You are to develop your ability to release resistance toward those energies which will supplement your being, increase your vitality, allow you to flourish in your growth and strength. And you are to learn better to use the "shield of resistance" as your protector and cloak yourself within a resistant perception of faith and trust that will not allow the energies, as you mentioned, of fear, or hate, or deep anxiety to disturb the equilibrium which you hold within your own vibrating patterns of vitality. As I state this, do you feel the need for further guidance in this process, or is this enough, now, that I have delineated for you, the two forms of resistance that you are to come to understand?

J: I understand, and I thank you. And, I believe that I see the validity of that. I need to work in those areas. I'm wondering, are there, besides the resistance --not resisting the good and resisting the bad--is there any way that I can differentiate better, what's good and what's bad for me? What would be...?

Olfana: First, abandoning, as a delineating term, the concept of "good or bad." This is, I know, a means by which you attempt to, quickly, express your understanding. But, this does not "hit the mark" regarding the distinction I wish you to cultivate. Do you wish to speak further, now?

J:  Instead of good and bad, as a person in my condition, I get people coming to me from all areas of medicine, all areas of metaphysics, all areas of spirituality. They all sound good to me. I'm a trusting soul, and I want to believe that they can do what they say. How can I know whether those are life-giving or life-taking ideas?

Olfana: Ah! This is much "closer to the mark"--"life giving and life taking." Please forgive my interruption, but I wish to note this.

J: I was almost going to...go ahead.

Olfana: No. Please, proceed with your thought.

J: So, the question is some of these things are very costly, and I realize that I will know the fruits of what they have to say or do by what it does for me. But, oftentimes, I can't afford to go down a path and then realize it's not doing anything. How can I know which path to even start which is "life-giving" and turn away from those which aren't, and most effectively utilize the resources that I have available to me both spiritually, emotionally, and physically, and financially, to bring about life for me?

Olfana: This does, indeed, present a great challenge. I recognize this, J. And partly, this comes because God has blessed you with a sharp and acute ability to understand, acquire knowledge, seek out information which intrigues you. You are one who struggles with a "gluttony of the mind" I would say, St. (smiling) You fill your plate  far too full! Excuse me, S expressed "ST." Forgive her. This is one of her difficulties, names are a problem. You and ST--the connection made (in S's Mind) is because he, also is one who fills his mind with much data. And I have spoken to ST of the "heart work," I wish him, now, to do. And, I express a similar concern for you, now, J, that you have filled your plate with many, many choices in terms of your intellectual understanding of life and experiences. Where you will find this resistance that protects and shields is within the zone of your heart. This is a most powerful energy which can emanate from our beings. When we respond to life with heartfelt understanding, we are moving to new levels of perceptual integrity. This is, of course, because the heart connection is the much more direct connection with the Thought Adjuster and His beloved guidance, Her beloved guidance, Its beloved guidance. I struggle at this point with English in terms of its pronouns. But however you define for yourself, J, this Thought Adjuster guide within you, this is the connection which will empower it and increases this communion. I would like to pause, and allow you, once again, to express any thoughts you may have.

J: Two questions. One--I sense that I know nothing of my heart.

Olfana: This is not true. I wish to empower you, here. You have strong, vibrational integrity, but, you doubt, you doubt with your mind this connection which, indeed, already exists.

J: My question was, what's the first step? And I guess you would say that I don't need the first step. I guess I need practice at using that "muscle," or that perception, that view of life. I feel it's the last thing I use as opposed to the first thing I use.

Olfana: Yes. I would encourage you, now, J, to learn to express our self more in the sense of "I feel" this experience, "I resonate" to a mood at this time. You are one who tends to speak of how you "think" this experience has been. You "see" certain points. I would ask you to discover the language of the heart, and speak of how you feel, of how you resonate to an experience. Any amount of this, as a practice, will, indeed, allow this "muscle," if you will, to be increased. But , when you spoke of the first step, I would say to you, that the first step in this communication is, indeed, what was discussed this afternoon. That the guidance of  life-giving choices for yourself will best come to you from this attempt  to listen in your heart for the Thought Adjuster's Voice which will direct you most specifically in the particular choice you will make. It is not even so much a question of "abandon colonics," "ingest herbs," "experience this therapeutic program." It may be that within a certain phase of time, the regimen you choose will be of some of these components, or others, and the following episode of time will demand something different. Do you see the flexibility I am encouraging you to develop in your thinking, and your feeling, of this experience? Ask yourself, "Do I want this experience?" not, "Do I perceive or think this will be a good choice?" Instead, stay with your heart, J, and ask yourself, "Do I want this, now?" And then, become peaceful, and wait with faith for the answer to come. I promise you, that if you attempt this approach, you will, time and again, feel this choice, this wanting, or not wanting, of something, strengthened within you. You will be operating from what is expressed in English as the "intuitive response," the all-knowing completeness--not the logic, the left brained attempt to decipher individual components of a decision. You will be moving, I would say, "from your heart." However, many speak of the "gut-level" response to an experience. I wish you to respond with this perspective of, "Is this something that I want?" Has this helped you, now, my dear, in your understanding?

J: Absolutely. Thank you.

Olfana: Does it provide you with a lifting of your spirit? Do you feel an easing, perhaps, an easing of the sense of a burden upon your own decision-making?

J: Yes. But typical of my nature, I feel impatient about getting the answers, because I want the answers, now. But, I'm aware of that challenge.

Olfana:  Yes. And, this is why I spoke of the "pause." You are to ask yourself, "Is this what I want?" And then, you are to wait. In this waiting, calm our self deeply. Allow yourself a moment of deep breathing. I have counseled others who have also, struggled with impatience, to literally "count to ten." (Smiling) And, I have also said, if there is not the span of time in which to count to ten, at least, count to three. Give yourself this pause before you see the decision you attempt to make.

J: Okay.

Olfana: Do you wish to speak with me regarding further issues? Or do you feel this has provided sufficient input for you, now?

J: I have lots of questions, but I think what I've learned form you, and what I've learned here this weekend, gives me a real good place to start from, that I can find answers from.

Olfana: Yes. I perceive in you a growing sense that you are coming to understand that you have within you the best authority for your own search, your own decisions. It is perfectly appropriate to study the "authorities of the world" if you will. Seek out the experience of others and what they have learned.(Smiling) But, then, it still remains with J to make the decision for his own well-being.

J: Thank you.

Olfana: You are most welcome. If this is sufficient discussion, now, I would very much enjoy praying with you. Will you allow me this in our relationship?

J: Absolutely.

Olfana: I would most enjoy an opportunity to pray with you, not from the mind, but the heart-felt expression which can much more rise to the surface, if you allow a body expression of these emotions  you feel. Will you pray with me, now, J, in a pattern of movement?

J: Yes.

Olfana: Very well. I will speak the words, first, and then, ask you to recite all that I say. And please, watch my movements and follow with me in my gestures. Please begin with this connection.

Father, I wish to join with you, now.

I seek your guidance within my mind and heart.

Empower me, Father, with our Life-Giving Energy  of Love.

Let this Energy flow within my being.

Increase within me, Father, my ability to resist all forces of destruction

Which present themselves within my path.

Let me remember, always, Father, that I am in "potential," in spirit,

In my heart, Your Perfect and Loved Child.

Release me, Father, from my misperceptions of anxiety and fear

And let me resonate, instead, with your love, and Strength, and Grace. Amen.

(J repeats each phrase of the prayer after Olfana.) That was a lovely experience for me, St. (Smiling) Excuse me--J. This is S's confusion. And I wish to say that I most appreciated your willingness to go with me in the "experimental prayer," if you will. I wish you to feel that in such prayers of movement, you are allowing yourself to dance for God! May you have a most restful evening, my dear one. And I wish many blessings to come to you in your path. As my parting word, I wish to remind you that I perceive your being with a very strong energy pattern. This is a most positive and encouraging sign and I would ask you to remember that you have these strong patterns, as you face these choices of what you want in your life. Do you wish any final words yourself?

J: I, too, appreciate your willingness to pray with me and to... I trust that you knew that in a normal prayer that my mind gets into it, and you knew the best way to get out of it. And I thank you.

Olfana: (Smiling) I do, indeed, construct my prayers with my students with great purpose, J. And, I am very pleased to hear that you felt this prayer released you from the mental connection that you are so familiar with in your way of being. I will retire, now, but leave you with much love, and my blessing that you will continue to thrive in the choices you make within this life experience. Namaste, J.

J. Namaste. Thank you.

Half Moon Bay, CA

Many thanks to you, Jerry, for sharing this with us. We will all keep Jeff in our hearts and prayers.

                                    * * *

VERONICA - SEPTEMBER 27, 1994 - 1 p.m.

Volcano, Hawaii - #17

                                HEALING

Dear Friends,

I am joyful of the opportunity to communicate in this manner; however, my vehicle of contact has not yet achieved the necessary experience needed for total expression of my conveyance.

You have received accuracy in meaning, although confusion in reception sometimes spawns error in concepts. Patience, practice, and perseverance will overcome these minor hindrances.

Your involvement in Phase Two of the correction even also encompasses healing, and concentrated effort needs to be focused on healing yourself and others. Your past efforts have tremendous healing properties and will further the advancement of the planet in restorative qualities to allow collective consciousness to proceed with health and vigor of spirit direction.

Your roles as students, teachers, and leaders naturally blend into the essential role of healers whose most important task is to lavish love and heal the many wounded spirits that are abundant on your sphere.

Each day, your opportunities are great and loving concern interlaced with compassionate outreach is the most potent remedy that you can offer. This will always promote healing and generate amending properties to those in need of our curative presence.

Do not ignore the wounds you carry as these hurtful scars are simple to cleanse and purify during your times of stillness with the Father. His love is the most encompassing and effective healing agent available to all; and through you, it will restore any spiritual infirmity.

Always remain steadfast in your faith and trust in the Father, and His omniscient love will mend all suffering and conquer any anguish.

Remember that you are a healing instrument of the Father and you must continually promote harmonious recovery of those that need your help by opening your inner source of compassion to manifest this genuine energy of divine love to everyone you touch for Him.

                                 * * * * *

                           RUMI-NATING

A Conference in a Synchronous Conversation

[This is the Introduction written by John Creger for the SpiritFest 1997 booklet mentioned in the last issue. John sent me a slightly revised version, as he says, edited for flow. How good of you, John, to take the time to do this as busy as you are now. We all thank you.-Ed]

It was as joyful as it was intense, planning SpiritFest 97. We organizers thought we'd looked at the conference from about as many angles as was humanly possible. But working with celestial teachers in the year-long planning, we'd also gotten used to sudden and unforeseen "connections." Still, once the conference itself finally eased into motion, and the parts we'd planned became a whole, we were taken almost completely by surprise at the synchronicity.

             It seemed to pop up everywhere.

One by one our jaws dropped as we realized how, on the visual level, Susan's mandala activity dovetailed with Robert's oval conference logo, which complemented the alternating teacher-participant seating circle Don had devised, each having known little or in some cases nothing of the other's projects beforehand--let alone how they would interrelate. Whole levels of the planning effort suggested themselves.

In helping put this booklet together, I've begun to realize that the visual was only the most obvious level of synchronicity. Another lies in the lovely way the conference theme--loosely, befriending the Father within and then sharing the friendship--surfaces in various forms throughout the conference activities. As you read through he booklet for yourself, you may notice a teacher-led song, during the "soulshop" by the creek, in which each of two refrains--invented and sung spontaneously by two separate people--reflects on part of the two-part conference theme. You have this booklet to peruse for more examples.

So I'd like to share one of the ways I've come across our theme in my travels since the conference. If you are reading this introduction expecting mainly a preview of the post-conference booklet, you may find yourself a little perplexed. Of course I'll be highlighting some of the contents. But in planning the conference I was so immersed in the facts, that I hope you'll understand if now I'm more drawn to truths I'm finding in its wake. So please settle in for a little journey.

Not long ago, some friends made me a present of a small book of Persian poems. The writer is described on the book jacket as "perhaps the world's greatest spiritual poet." According to my Iranian friend Saed, this writer also happens to have been the founder of Sufism. The poems themselves I can only call soul-delights. I hope you'll agree that the few passages I'll share with you are special enough to justify a slight delay here. What really stirs me is the beautiful light some of these fragments shed on the Teaching Mission, SpiritFest in general, and SpiritFest 97 in particular. Take these lines:

Just because you can't drink all that falls

doesn't mean you give up taking sips

of rainwater.

When sometimes I reach too much for "results" in my stillness practice--often slowing my progress, of course, and hiding from me the very fruit I long for--I too grow quickly discouraged. These lines bring me in continuing to simply sip that water. And I bet I'm not the only stillness retreat participant who reads these lines with sweet memories of quiet times together in our "stillness room" behind the stage. In a moment we'll look at another passage from this poet--Welcome to Rumi, if you're new to him--and consider some even more provocative ties to our gathering. But in case all this speculation isn't for you, let me offer a way around it. If you'd prefer to find out right away about what's in this booklet, you can read ahead, just below the break in the page.

If, on the other hand, you'd like to let things unfold a bit, here are a few more lines I think offer us useful insights about who it is we spiritfesters are:

     But don't be satisfied with stories, how things

     have gone with others. Unfold

     your own myth, without complicated explanation,

     so everyone will understand the passage,

     We have opened you.

The more I look at these lines, the more I think I must have followed some teacher's beckoning finger to them. If you can take a few moments before you read on, contemplate what the lines might tell us about the experience we shared together at Los Osos last June, or any of the previous three Junes.

What first struck me is pretty simple. Those of us who have been drawn to the Teaching Mission have not been"satisfied with stories"--with the Bible, or other scriptures, art, literature, history, with our own autobiographies, or even the Urantia Book. Not content with texts alone, we've found something satisfying in how the teachers help us grow spiritually. "Stories" may provide me information and inspiration I need to challenge myself and potentially grow. Yet no story written or unwritten is a substitute for unfolding my "own myth (read 'story')"--in daily living. Couldn't Rumi--from another time and place--be speaking of the first business we are about in this Mission: with the help of teachers and celestials to go beyond texts, to get beyond talk, to actually unfold?

In our California gatherings, we have also been unwilling to rely on tradition. Not "satisfied" with replicating previous gatherings we've conceived each spiritfest a little differently. Organizers consult teachers and, surfacing from mystery at some point, a unique theme takes shape. In his keynote, Alerqwin takes you on a witty and illuminating tour of how our '97 theme came to light, often through thick brambles. At the end, he leaves you an awareness we hope you'll find useful in your life beyond the conference, urging you past brambles to express your uniqueness in a simple way. If you've had the chance to think over the last three

lines of Rumi's passage above, you may hear echoes in your mind of a favorite teacher. Perhaps, like me, you sense the teacher urging you to allow your soul to grow in its own unique way so that you can share God's love naturally--as Alerqwin and Rumi both suggest --"without complicated explanation." Like Rumi, we spiritfesters want our spiritual lives simple and natural.

Nor have we been "satisfied," year to year, with how we organize ourselves. After the pioneer gatherings in '94 and '95, the '96 planning team made a noble attempt to bring more interaction among participants. The '97 team, following in this spirit of innovation and more interaction among friends (visible and otherwise), felt led to introduce no fewer than 17 innovations. They ran from a meditative Day of Stillness to the communicative Soulshops; from a chatty Mandala art activity to the stillness room and TR center; from an online planning list, to on site service opportunities, to our first truly harmonious child and teen participation in the main program.

If our first business in the Mission is cultivating our souls, we might call our second business sharing the fruit. If I persist in unfolding myself in closeness with God, I may indeed find new freedom in the love and friendship I find there. Such freedom breeds confidence. This confidence helps me open myself and share with others. As I am able to share my soul, my teacher might say, others may see that (in Rumi's language) "We have opened you." Sensing my openness, some may inquire after the source of my opening. Seeing that I have chosen to open, some may also choose to allow themselves to befriend what Rumi often calls the inner companion, the Father whose love has come through me. By now you've probably glimpsed our conference theme-Sharing From Our Souls: Teaching Friendship with God--twinkling through this fragment of Rumi's 700 year old poem. Is that cool? I ask you. And so, tenderly and with great respect, I nominate Rumi as honorary spiritfest poet-laureate. Any seconds?

In this booklet you will see some of the ways we SpiritFest97 participants shared our growing souls and growing friendships with our Creator, and with another--and considered how to share these things with others. You will see transcripts of discourses by and discussions with celestial teachers. but you will see fewer transcripts than in the past. While we asked this year's experimental "soulshops" for group statements and brief transcripts, three of the five groups opted for statements only. But statements, probably more accurately than transcripts, reflect the human interaction that was the main feature of most soulshops, where teachers served mainly as guides and resources (see the conference "Soulshop Guide" booklet). Two groups used an interactive process, with teacher input, even to choose their topics. One of these groups, as you'll learn, decided to spend its three hours brainstorming how to share friendship with God in a situation that is too often a spiritual desert: driving in Southern California freeway traffic.

In a transcript left over from SpiritFest 96, you'll hear from one of our increasing numbers of friends who led mortal lives on other worlds and now devotedly teach us friendship with God: teacher Lester. He shares a cautionary tale, revealing personal details of his own former life. You'll also read spontaneous "sidewalk interviews," when participants were approached without warning during the weekend by the "media" in the person of Dona "Wa-WA" Brown (Arcadia TeaM).

During a long, lingering portion of our Sunday morning session, we said fond and, for some, tearful farewells to several early Teaching Mission pioneers who recently took leave of their earth lives. Each of them did much to build the foundation we stand on--John Wormeck (Jeremiah), Thern Blackburn (Joshua), Alfred Fornos (Sardinial), and Debbie Roberts (Rutha). Statements from the heart moved around the circle, filling us with the joy and sadness of remembrance.

In two transcripts from teacher Rayson, you'll read of a world on the brink of spiritual collapse: ours. In these brilliant, hotly controversial sessions, (echoed somewhat, I think, by Langfords's message), Rayson brings fresh  meaning to the term "provocative."  He continues and upsteps his warnings not to underestimate the power of the Lucifer legacy, an inextricable part of our beings, he says, a legacy that continues to lull us-- even those of us who have committed our beings to a massive universe effort to salvage our world--into indolence. Yet many object to the dire flavor of Rayson's warnings, urgency which seems at odds with the reassuring and patient tone of the messages coming from most teachers, and, worse, may distract us from our primary task, growing closer to the spirit within us. So, again departing from past practice, we have chosen in this post-conference booklet to include a statement critiquing Rayson's perspectives and teaching methods. In doing so, we seek not to abuse editorial privilege, or set either side up for ridicule, but to stimulate thoughtful, loving debate on the issues Rayson raises.[See the August/September 1997 issue for Rayson's transcript.-Ed] 

And so... we invite you and all Teaching Mission thinkers to share your viewpoints in a continuing conversation on this and other issues. It's good to think together. As we share and look hard at our own and each others' ideas in such a controversy, we are challenged. Each time I contribute to the conversation, I have a chance--in the moment I converse--to carry myself so that I and those I converse with will know God as a friend. This challenge I learn to meet with practice and--quite often--by making mistakes. In time, more of us will be called upon to carry the conversation outward to the world. So why not sharpen our skills in this loving community we are already building? It's an exciting time to enter this conversation.

Online, we now have at least two websites and several Teaching Mission email discussion lists along with several Urantia lists and sites. In print, we have the T/R News Network and several other newsletters and  publications. And, of course, there's good old Ma Bell, U.S.Mail, and just plain gab. We include instructions below if you wish to visit websites or subscribe to the tml and/or T/R News Network.

Conversation is not only for airing controversy. We are part of an astonishing universe campaign of redemption. We each are gifted with a personal coach and much more to help us play a unique role in this campaign. We are wise to communicate regularly about these experiences. For in the rush of material life we easily forget. These experiences can drift into the background static: Oh yeah. Been there, done that. So how can we prevent this? We can help each other remember the specialness of this Teaching Mission and of our desire to serve. These conversations need not be merely commentary. conversation about such experience is part of the experience. Rumi says:

    Human beings are discourse. That flowing               moves through you

    whether you say anything or not. Everything             that

     happens is filled with pleasure and warmth              because of

     the delight of the discourse that's always going           on. (my italics)

True, conversation is not solely dependent on language. You don't need to know 20th century theories of the communicative universe to sense the wisdom here. It's interesting: unlike the material world where talk is cheap, in the spiritual world talking, conversing (verbally or through prayer and other means) can actually be doing.

And so what have we done? We have held a conference within a larger conversation that seems to be unfolding across time and space. And in the folds we've found teacher Rumi.

Michael has said, "The hour which you may call yours has come as surely as my hour came for me some 2000 years ago" (Teaching Mission Calendar, 10/31/96). There is much we may and must continue to do... many acts of loving to unfold freely from our stillness, if we truly desire to contribute with effect in our two-pronged effort to salvage our world--growing our souls and sharing God's love.

So now we come to a final question, one Benjamin asked in one of our summer discussions online. Why do we gather together each year in our SpiritFests? Rumi has an answer:

     Stay with friends who support you....

     Talk with them about sacred texts,

     and how you're doing, and how they're doing,

     and keep your practices together. (my italics)

I hope you enjoy these memories of one season in Los Osos when we kept "our practices together." Thanks to all who so lovingly enhanced our coming together, especially Harold Guio for selfless soulful serving before, during and after the conference, Sal Turano for holding down the registration table despite everything, Susan Kimsey for magnificent efforts in bringing us together through art and artful transmitting, Byron Belitsos for pioneering the first Day of Stillness vision, equanimity and heart, Karen Roberts for too many contributions to count, Joan Levine for the courage, integrity, and compassion required to transmit often unpopular material, Gerry Baker for unshakable commitment and cookies good enough to touch off yet another default, Jack Baker for serving cheerfully under too real duress, Robert Burton for the gift of his talent in designing the beautiful conference log, Don Truman for the partnership, organizational chutzpah, and humor that made the planning effort go, Frank Jakubowsky for original thought and the enormous labor of Moilanen, and Elaine Rodrigues for bringing love and energy to the children, Caitie Kimsey for the light radiating from her cheekbones, Deborah Goaldman for an unforgettable remembrance, Hal and Lucille Ketell for sympathetic mentoring, Bob Slagle and Lily Fraser for putting the idea into our heads that we could actually do this thing, Allen and Juliana Rice for marvelous transmitting and fine friendship, Sonny Schneider for gentleness and risking for the Mission, Alan Slocum for wildman creative energy, wiseman vision, and furry friendship, Henry Zeringue for calm centered, fort-holding vision, Lisa Nelson for wholehearted singing and sharing, Michael Goodwin for love too sweet to verbalize so he took the pictures, Russ Gustafson for quiet, loving service in nourishing and connecting us, Duane and Lucille Faw for vision and dancing and being there, sweet Meilan for covering for me and being here, and --far from least--Jeff O'Dell for faith, enthusiasm, and the strength to take a snorting bull by the horns. Thanks too to each of you whose name I haven't mentioned. All of us unfolded and shared in a magnificent swirl. Speaking for all '97 planners, I thank each one of you spiritfesters for giving us the chance to serve you in the organizing of this conference. It was a delight for our souls. I will always be grateful for the growing you have enabled me to do.

But along with enjoying the memories, we urge you to participate, as you feel led, in the Fifth Epochal conversation. Let your soul help all our souls grow: give a loving piece of yours to the mix. Help our lamps keep trimmed and burning. Help these lights so shine, that.. . .one day. . .even teacher Rayson, as he is represented here, will honor our world with a light and life smile.

Love, John

If you'd like to explore joining the expanding Nebadon conversation:

Teaching Mission Website: www.spiritfest.com

TML EMAIL list: Send email to: majordomo@virtualbiz.com. Include in message: "info tml."

For back issues of Paradise Networker: http://www.ilhawaii.net:80/~sonny/

To subscribe to T/R News Network Newsletter: [Guess you all know how to do that - Ed]

Rumi was born in Balkh, Afghanistan in 1207, and died in Konya, Turkey in 1273. Quotations are from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, and published by HarperCollins, 1995

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                        LOVE IN ACTION

Aloha from WORLD OUTREACH FOR URANTIA NATIONS, Norman Ingram and company!

The year 1997 was an eventful one. A good portion of the world was traversed with one goal in mind: to disseminate the wonderful teachings of the Urantia Book to the many hungry souls seeking spiritual enlightenment.

Starting out in August of 1996 our group traveled via RV throughout Mexico, Central America and South America. My good companions were Pradhana (Alejandro) Fuchs of Santiago, Chile and Ernesto Maciel Ruize, of Leone, Mexico, who served as interpreters, but also as sharers of brotherhood.

In Latin America and Mexico we presented the Fifth Epochal Revelation to over 38 municipal and national libraries, 20 plus universities and fourteen prisons. We delivered over 184 books (thanks to al of you who gave donations!) and spoke to over five hundred people. We made many friends all along the way, and none of these encounters were accidental. We visited study groups, gave topical studies, and initiated some NEW study groups.

In Santiago, Chile, I had the good fortune and was let to meet Eduardo Guelfenbein, a Chilean artist who resides in Italy. His incredible paintings, sculptures and video animations reflect the epochal revelations portrayed in the Urantia Book. Eduardo's depictions of Christ Michael, Adam and Eve, Melchizedek and the Caligastia Rebellion are outstanding. Keep your eyes on this brother artist, his Expo Show "REVELACION" will travel. E-mail: eduardodog@working.it.

In November 1997 Don Roark and I embarked on a four-week tour of Asia. Our itinerary included seventeen cities encompassing, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China, and Macao. We visited eleven national and city libraries at least that many universities. Thanks to the Fellowship, we delivered 120 books. And our gratitude also goes to the Foundation for mailing over twenty-two hardbacks to the national libraries/universities officially registered for Asia. There seems to be renewed enthusiasm and interest in getting the 5th Epochal Revelation translated into Chinese, Japanese, and pleas are coming from India for translations. If anyone knows of work being done along these lines, please notify us, as we have eager and willing translators looking forward to assisting with this colossal work.

We recently received a thank-you letter from author Arthur C. Clarke for The Urantia Book we gave him while we were in Sri Lanka (he lives in Colombo and was celebrating his 80th birthday while we were there.)

Next project: - AFRICA - 54 NATIONS - September 1998 !!!

Who will be willing to accompany us in this attempt to enlighten the so-called dark Africa? As of today, two brothers have stepped forward to offer their services in the task of helping to disseminate the truths of light and life to Africa. They are Rev. Roger Goffeney, a Unity Minister from Costa Rica, who a few years ago traveled most of Africa in a 2-cylinder car and now has a valuable itinerary for doing this work on the African continent; and IUA coordinator Richard Strauss of Berne Switzerland, who has generously volunteered to assist us in the effort, and is bilingual talents will aid us in our dealings with the French-speaking African nations.

This is  a project in which we all can participate. We will need at least three hundred Urantia Books for this endeavor, including several in Dutch and French translations. The budget calls for $15,000 per person, and we are asking for your donations. Not only is your financial support needed, but also your prayers; by faith our Father's will shall be done. Donations, ear marked for use in financing the missionary journeys of Norman Ingram and company through WORLD OUTREACH FOR URANTIA NATIONS (WOUN) to countries outside North America, can be made to The School of Meanings and Values.

The School of Meanings and Values is a worthy organization that has long been in the forefront of disseminating the Urantia Book concepts, providing outstanding teachers and lectures through various seminars, retreats and FSLA programs [First Society of Los Angeles - formerly First Urantia Society of Los Angeles.]  SMV is a tax-exempt organization and your donations are tax deductible.

A video of our travels is being prepared. We will be available for presentations.

Prayerful regards,

WORLD OUTREACH FOR URANTIA NATIONS (WOUN)

Well, here is the perfect opportunity to reach out in brotherhood and put the lessons of the teachers in practice. I met Norman at the Arkansas Gathering in 1994 and I can't think of a better person to take on this huge task. We all thank you, Norman, for the courage and willingness to show us what "LOVE IN ACTION" can accomplish!!! Many of the groups have been interested in outreach programs to spread the Urantia Book and "the good news of the Kingdom." I hope you will all join in this effort and find ways to support Norman in this project. It is surely the desire of all our hearts to share with  our other brothers and sisters the opportunity to learn the truths of the Urantia Book that have so changed our lives. By answering Norman's call for help, we can all take an active part in bringing our beloved planet closer to Light and Life.

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                          FAMILY NEWS

It was good to hear from Joseph McNeil (formerly known as Rei) in Sedona. Joseph contacted me to let me know about FOLLOW YOUR HEART, the new CD by Barbara Hester, who some of you may remember from the Arkansas Conference. Mark Austin plays bass guitar on the CD, recorded and mixed it and co-produced it with Barbara. On this CD (also available on cassette tape) Barbara introduces her inspirational collection of original songs, including You Are The Way, Freedom, and Love Will Save Us All.

Joseph sent me a copy. In his words, "it is technically excellent and spiritually relevant." The music and words on this tape are wonderful. You  may want to check this out. FOLLOW YOUR HEART can be ordered from the Good Cheer Catalogue at P.O. Box 18764, Boulder, CO 80308 Phone 303-581-0456.

In talking with Joseph, he was telling me more about his activities in Sedona helping those who have become disillusioned with the Aquarian Concepts Community and "Gabriel." Those of you who saw Dateline's expose of the ACC may now have a better idea of the wonderful service that Joseph is providing to these disillusioned individuals and the Teaching Mission helping them to understand what the Urantia Book and Teaching Mission are truly about. This is important work as it is easy for them to confuse The Urantia Book and the Teaching Mission with their experiences at ACC. Joseph has also been contacted by several in the media investigating the ACC.  One of them asked him if he was the one running the "half way house" in Sedona for those leaving the ACC. Joseph really is our man on the front line in Sedona and we thank you, Joseph, the good work you are doing for all of us and Michael.

                                    * * *

Nolus (Pat Wormeck) is working on a compiling a history of the Teaching Mission that will include interviews with Thern Blackburn, Rebecca Bynum among others. Barbara Giles and Jesse Thompson  are helping her with this project. Nolus is hoping to have it ready by July and the Nashville Conference. [Sorry, Nolus, I can't find the notes I took when you called. Please let me know if I missed anything you wanted included. - Ed]

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If you enjoy hearing what others are doing, why not drop us a line and let us know what you are doing?

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                   UPCOMING ACTIVITIES

    NORTHWEST REGIONAL CONFERENCE

                           JULY 2-5, 1998

                          Bogus Basin, ID

Bogus Basin is a ski resort outside of Boise,ID.

                                    * * *

           1998 INTERNATIONAL TEACHING

                  MISSION CONFERENCE

                          July 15-19, 1998

                             Nashville, TN

See the enclosed packet for all the details..

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                          SPIRITFEST 98

                         June 19-21, 1998

                           El Chorro Park

                      San Luis Obispo, CA

The fifth annual SpiritFest 98 gathering will be preceded by a Stillness Retreat on June 18. Prior to the gathering on June 18 there will be a Stillness Retreat. See enclosed  information flyer..

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                     THE URANTIA BOOK

Even though the Paradise Father functions through his divine creators and his creature children, he also enjoys the most intimate inner contact with you, so sublime, so highly personal, that it is even beyond my comprehension - that mysterious communion of the Father fragment with the human soul and with the mortal mind of its actual indwelling. Knowing what you do of these gifts of God, you therefore know that the Father is in intimate touch, not only with his divine associates, but also with his evolutionary mortal children of time. The Father indeed abides on Paradise, but his divine presence also dwells in the minds of men.

Even though the spirit of a Son be poured out upon all flesh, even though a Son once dwelt with you in the likeness of mortal flesh, even though the seraphim personally guard and guide you, how can any of these divine beings of the Second and Third Centers ever hope to come as near to you or to understand you as fully as the Father, who has given a part of himself to be in you, to be your real and divine, even your eternal, self?

                                                               Page 139

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                              PURPOSE

The purpose of this monthly newsletter is to create a network for sharing information among all individuals and groups involved in the TR (Transmitter/Receiver) process with Celestial Teachers in the Teaching Mission during this Correcting Time. More information about the Celestial Teachers can be found in The Urantia Book.  All contributions for the newsletter; correspondence; and requests to be included on the mailing list should be sent to:

                              Allene Vick

The success of this network is dependent upon the help of all it is intended to serve - your interest and your sharing. Please let us hear from you. A suggested donation for the newsletter to cover printing and mailing costs is $20.00. Your support is appreciated.

When corresponding, please be sure to mark any information that you do not wish to be shared with "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY."  Otherwise, it will be assumed that what is received is for sharing in the T/R NEWS NETWORK. The right is reserved to use excerpts and make editorial changes.

                        TRUST  IN  GOD

                 FOLLOW  YOUR  HEART

                 STAY  IN  THE  MOMENT