NEC #11 - Charles, A Mighty Messenger, Ad-Hoc Manager of the Magisterial Mission - Thanksgiving Day Greeting - Nov 15, 2013 - Daniel Raphael, Colorado
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New Era Conversations #11 – Working Co-Creatively with Spirit – Nov. 15, 2013
Teacher: Charles
Topics:
TR: Daniel Raphael
Moderator: Michael McCray
November 15, 2013
Prayer: Holy Father, Michael, Nebadonia, Monjoronson, Machiventa, and all those others who are standing close to us now. We come to you for another session of learning and we thank you for the truth that you will teach us today. Amen.
CHARLES: Good morning! This is Charles; it is good to be with you once again and thank you for your greeting.
Thanksgiving Day greeting
We have already passed the day when Canada has celebrated its Thanksgiving Day, and we are soon to approach the Thanksgiving Day of this country and there is much to be grateful for. The position, the mindset of gratitude is immensely beneficial to the receptivity of God’s word from your Thought Adjuster, your Guardian and other celestial beings. Though your world is experiencing some of the most devastating cataclysms that weather can provide, there is much to be thankful for, for being safe, having enough to eat, having the lights on and [being] able to communicate regularly. There is a great forgetfulness from those who have had so much, so many services taken for granted for so long, and it will not always be that way.
Some of you may know, or have thought about it, that these two continents, North and South America, are continents of destiny. They are not specially favored, but they provide a wonderful venue for new thought, for new ideas, new concepts and new revitalized societies, compared to the older staid and traditional nations. Though your political systems seem to be in disarray, it will be much different in the future. Though this nation and these two continents may become wracked with cataclysms eventually, they will, in comparison to other continents and large land mass areas, be more beneficially able to create new societies and new paradigms of social living. The energy that is invested and enhanced is innate in these two continents is one of newness—being new, of rejuvenation, of springing forth into new concepts.
It is from these two continents that the healing paradigms of social, political and economic concepts will be generated and provided to the rest of the world. If you were a businessperson and you had several warehouses with stocks and goods in them, you would protect the one that would provide you the most return after a serious storm, would you not? Of course you would, and so, these two continents have the greatest potential for assisting the rest of the world to recover. These two continents will not be spared from those cataclysms, but you have the resilience and capability and immense resources to reconstruct and recreate your societies more rapidly than others. There is something about the North American continent which allows itself to recreate itself more rapidly, even though it has a tremendous landmass. North America has states [and provinces], where South America has countries, and so the sovereign lines between the countries make it more difficult for them to recover. These resistances to oneness will eventually be resolved, while still retaining the uniqueness of each state, in each nation’s identity. Business practices have already shown that to be true.
Thank you for allowing me to provide this introduction to today’s session. Do you have questions that you would like to ask at this time?
The difficulty of acting on beliefs
MMc: Thank you, Charles. Yes. My awareness of reality is so poor, you tell me things and I believe them, but I find it difficult to act on that belief on a consistent basis. You have told us that you wish to be intimately involved in the day-to-day co-creative work that we do together. Would you like to expand on what you have told us about this previously?
CHARLES: Only in the regard that it is still very early in this development, and that it will not be clear to you until months from now.
Asking for help on writing tasks
MMc: You’ve asked me to write a paper on asking questions for design teams. I’ve done some research for that paper and I am currently going over my notes and the pieces I’ve written, getting ready to put it all together. Who should I call upon to help me with the actual writing of the paper?
CHARLES: The “who” is not important, it is simply that you ask. The resources will be provided and have been already; it is for you to accept this and begin writing, knowing that you have assistance. Sit before your keyboard and your monitor and begin to write and put it together. You do not have to be so structured in your approach to these different segments, but let your mind embrace these and let your spiritual assistant help your mind to have the words flow onto your screen. Do not worry about it being consistent or that all pieces fit together complementarily in the beginning, but that you have ideas and concepts that are developed thoroughly and capably, and then later on, you and your assistant can put it together in a flowing piece of work.
MMc: Thank you.
Susan’s updates on her co-creative endeavors
Susan: Michael, I have a question, if I may, but I need to share something first. I need to give thanks and share my joy with you, Charles, and our readers.
I’ve been witness to the co-creative experience. I’ve been witness to spirit movement not just in my life, but in my community and in the lives of those within it. Two things I want to share. First, our design team: We spoke last session about the importance of the initial process of bonding, that it takes time and intention. There was an incredible surge of energy and light in my team at our last meeting. A spark was ignited during the meeting that felt like the life-force of the group that had initially been provided by me, got ignited within each person that was there. I saw it in their eyes; I experienced it in their enthusiasm for the topics we worked through, and the flow of the discussion, that so easily led to the values that underlie our work together. And for the first time, I watched them initiate as a group, without me pushing an agenda. It was something that was really simple, but it was unusual and worth noting. I’m usually the one that works to find the time so we can all meet, and that’s no easy task with busy people, yet that night when I suggested that we not meet again until January, after the holidays, as “one” they all said, “No.” They pulled out their calendars and went to work finding a time we could meet again within the month. They said they didn’t want to lose the momentum that had been generated that night. I sat back and almost cried with joy. I just want to say thank you. I felt the presence of spirit.
CHARLES: Thank you so much for your statements of joy and authenticity concerning your group, and yes, you are witnessing how this connection can be among strangers who begin the process, consciously and intentionally and who understand the steps to move forward into oneness.
Susan: I want to also share the community tree that I told you about, and how much thanks I have to give there—that WE have to give—it’s enormous and quite beautiful. That spirit was behind this event and walking us through it each step of the way is an understatement. I almost think it was God’s project, not ours.
We, or I, asked for assistance—I literally asked for assistance—I asked that spirit go before us and prepare the way. I asked that spirit assist in bringing volunteers and funding together to make this happen. And then I asked that people be gathered to actually experience it, take part in it and be enlivened by it. It worked! They came, you were all there, the people that came together were touched by something so much larger than themselves, and it continues to be so six days later. People are coming forward wanting to keep the wave of this special feeling that they had alive; they want to keep it alive. They are coming up with their own ideas and volunteering their own time and energy to additional similar projects.
So, again, there was no question here; I just wanted to share these amazing experiences with all of you. Thanking you just doesn’t do it justice to the welling of gratitude that I feel, and the deepening of the trust in this mission that I’m experiencing.
How to recover from being totally depleted
But, I have a follow-up: I’m depleted; I’m just totally depleted! Every bit of personal energy I had was used up in these two projects, plus another that happened in tandem with these. I am at low ebb. The energy that I relied on to push me through the physical and emotional tasks of pulling the projects together, even though with spirit, used up a lot of me; but it’s an interesting feeling because I am not riding high on our success, I don’t have the adrenalin surges that I experienced in my youth with success. There’s no “high,” there’s just satisfaction and great fatigue. I’m tired and satisfied, and there’s this deep thankfulness inside like I’m smiling all the time on the inside, but on the outside, I just want to hide, sleep and do nothing. . . but I can’t. Would you talk to me about the personal issues of working with spirit and the cautions and get some advice?
CHARLES: Thank you for your report, and thank you for your question. You are experiencing what each new individual experiences to the intimate work of letting the rush of spiritual energy flow through you. We have used the analogy before of a jet engine that is so hot, that the velocity and temperature of the particles rushing past the insides of the jet engine tend to erode those surfaces, which need to be replaced after many hours of use. You, too, are experiencing the rush and thrill of morontial energy through your body system, which is not used to this. You relied upon the mortal, material surfaces of your body to hold and direct this energy and it is a caution to you to now go into repose and into reflection and to address the needs of your body. Yes, extended sleep is not only warranted or justified, but necessary.
In order to continue this work at such an evolved state and energy flow, you must protect your body from this tremendous new experience. You will become used to this in time, but in the beginning it is extremely tiring and it uses your body reserves, your mental reserves and physical reserves in a way that they have not been used before. It is like asking you to perform some sport that you have never done before. You must rest and sleep and honor those needs of your body and your mind. You can ask your celestial assistant friends to assist in this process. It is important that you recognize what is going on and what is necessary to remedy it. You will find that if you strive to push ahead in your normal personal and social activities and your spiritual activities, that you will not be performing at your best and you will have flagging results. If you go within and evaluate your mental condition, you will see that you have experienced something in your mind performance that you have not had before, and which must be protected. It is much like using a new muscle that has never been used before that you must flex it and protect it over time.
Now, concerning the difference of the adrenaline rush of your youth, now you are feeling the satisfactions and joy of the results of performance that is in alignment and agreement with God’s Will. You are seeing your co-creative partnership pay off, or provide results that you had not anticipated in your youthful activities. You are passing from the era of youthful excitement and joy and adrenalin to one of satisfaction, fulfillment and completion. These will result in great soul growth for yourself and in your ascendant career in this time of your life.
Susan: Thank you. That was most helpful, and what I heard that I hadn’t thought of was to simply ask for celestial help in healing and in being able to back off for a while. Thank you.
CHARLES: You are welcome.
[Daniel: Susan, what you are experiencing is very similar to what I experienced after my traumatic closed-head brain injury. Quite literally, you are being rewired. It just wears you out!
Susan: It’s a different kind of fatigue.
Daniel: Yeah, it’s a different kind of fatigue than most people experience and the best remedy is lots of sleep.
Susan: Thank you; I’m going to tell Tim that. (Laughter.)
Daniel: When I came back from my trip to Lake Almanor, and then up to Oregon and then up to British Columbia, I came back here and I slept—I was getting anywhere from 8-14 hours of sleep a night to recover. It’s like a tank—you eventually get filled up.
Susan: That’s good to know!
Daniel: It’s kind of like you can put a little mark on the wall, saying, “Yup, there it is: I’m growing.” It’s real evidence of morontial growth, wiring in your brain, because we are wired for morontial something or other. I don’t know what to call it.]
The modern trend toward specialization of skills
Susan: I have one other question. My question is about the modern trend toward specialization of skills and the need to pull those people, businesses and industries together who have become very specialized. The Urantia Book speaks to the advantages and the eventual dangers of specialization.
I was reading this recently, regarding my community. It’s easy to see the advantages of specialization and how it has advanced areas of our civilization, science, technology, medicine—even business services—yet from the perspective of my small community, I’ve also been able to see how specialization eventually weakens culture and civilization if coordination and cooperation isn’t developed. I think I’ve likened it to the human body, which is so intricate and finely run by the organs and tissues within it, with all these specialized functions—the heart pumps, the liver functions, the lungs expand and contract—and yet they do it under a unifying force. Without each other they wouldn’t work, they wouldn’t exist. And without the unifying force, they wouldn’t exist. So, I could play with this analogy and take it further and speculate on the unifying force that needs to happen within these specializations, and try to liken it to the brain and the mind, but then the analogy breaks down for me, because I can’t apply it to my community and the need to coordinate the areas of specialization.
I’m envisioning a group coming together, representing these specializations within my community—government is an example, education, health and wellness, industry, lodging and restaurants and services—things like that, so they come together for the purpose of communication and perhaps coordination of shared goals, but what I cannot envision is this group functioning without a unifying force. It’s a secular group; I can see the unifying force initially needs to be a leader—or two or three—who serve as the driving force, the life-force of the coordinating effort, but then later, maybe they simply represent or are a reminder to the parts of the group of why they are there, what their function is and what their purpose is.
My concern and my question comes from relying on one person or a couple of people for this vital function within the group. My concern lies in the pitfalls of relying on humans, in a secular world, to lead. There’s inherent danger in the giving of so much power to one or a few people. I probably don’t need to elaborate, we’ve seen it across history, in our governments, our political systems, our religious organizations, so my question is: In designing new approaches to this important function of coordination of specializations, how do we plan for and remove this flaw that has taken us down troubled paths in the past? Is that clear?
CHARLES: Yes, thank you. Your analogy of the body and a community are very good; what separates the body from the community is the selfhood, the ego, and in some cases, the almost extreme individualism that is typical in your society. Specialization leads to separation, leads to isolation, leads to elitism, and so these must be worked against by understanding the commonality of the community. In a secular community you can use the sense of esprit, literally the spirit of the community. This has no religious connotation to it at all, does it? Of course not. So, you must share with the community that it is the esprit of oneness and wholeness. This is what makes the physical body work, that all parts are integrated, all parts work together, all parts are dependent and also independent of organs, but that all together they survive.
What you want to do in your community, in one of your projects is to bring about this wholeness, this oneness, by setting a clear intention that people would want to participate in fulfilling. Your community, as you have said in the past, is economically in difficulty at this time because your main industry has left, so there is a need to coalesce or bring together their efforts and energies so that all of you can survive and thrive. There must be an intention for this project, and this sounds like a separate project from others, in that you have an intention, and that you want to bring this together with an intention to bring about the oneness. It is important that everyone understand that you are all in this together. Let’s say you have too many doctors; all the doctors would have too much spare time and too little income and not enough patients to support their practices. The same thing can be said for realtors, or for hardware stores, or restaurants, or any other service, or any other business. That there must be recognition in this development of this project that you are interdependent and that you create a wholeness and oneness that prospers when there is not too many of one business or too few.
Those, of course, who take exception to this will demonstrate their egos and the necessity within themselves for dominance and control of taking the increased market share, for example, that they would advertise their restaurant more than other restaurants, for instance, and so on. There is a process that goes on in every economic community that sorts those things out automatically, that if there are too many hardware stores, then the one with the most debt load would, of course, go out of business first. Those who remain will prosper, and so there must be a recognition that in this project that you are a whole community, that there is a wholeness there. This is quite atypical of most economic models that you see throughout most western capitalist nations, so you would bring this new idea forward. It is not that one business would automatically capitulate to another, but that there is a recognition of the forces in the economy, even in the local economy that can be very visible very quickly.
I feel I may have gone astray from your question. Could you assist me further if you have further questions?
Inspiring trust in leaders
Susan: You haven’t gone astray at all; you went into depth about the intentions that we need in coming together in this group. That was wonderful. The additional part of the question is my concern about leadership, especially in the beginning stages, because none of us really trust leaders very much. I mean we do; in some cases there are certain leaders that are actually inspiring. I guess I need you to talk about that.
CHARLES: I would be glad to. To answer your question in the simplest terms is that you must prepare every individual to be a leader, that somehow when you come together with your agreed upon intention that you then have a bonding process that recognizes this, where you talk about your businesses and share and commiserate with each other with your difficulties and you share your joys as well, and you then proceed to teach everyone how to become a facilitator. You will not do well with leadership models or roles, other than becoming an initiator or organizer.
Teaching facilitation skills
What you are proposing is very, very similar to the initiation of a design team. Someone must be the initiator/organizer and call people together concerning an agreed upon problem or situation, and then choose roles for doing the work ahead. By doing this, by teaching facilitation, this will be a tremendous assist to every business leader, every businessperson there, as there will be situations immediately and far into the distance where leadership may rankle others, but where facilitation is very agreeable. What is difficult with leadership is that it is an old paradigm that is very workable when there is a very focused need that is external to the community, so to speak, external to the leadership community; everybody recognizes that. For instance, you have too many rats in the community and that you need to do something, and so you hire or buy animals that would be predators to these rodents and take care of the problem.
But with a community, where many people have tremendous capability and intelligence and social and cultural prowess, you cannot lead them; you must teach them to facilitate. And so, when someone steps forward, or several step forward and say that they would be glad to facilitate, then they would also be transparent enough to state what their skills are. There then would be, for instance, a class on teaching facilitation, which is much different than leading, or having a director, or a president. Facilitators literally facilitate the resources that are available to help the orchestration of those elements that are strong to assist those that are weak, and to facilitate the weak to receive this in gratitude, rather than in resentment. And so, it requires a much greater authenticity on the part of everyone, a personal and social transparency which may seem strange, but which is necessary for the survivorship of the community.
You will find that this whole process of building one or several teams will lend itself to future solutions of problems. Social, business solution problems will always arise and so it is wonderful to have people who are prepared and trained ahead of time to jump into those roles. The same can be said for the recorder and the consultant, and for the inquiring members. You will find that if you teach these as classes to your whole community, that there will be learned skills that everyone can use, or is receptive to having others practice. The very key to excellent facilitation is [that] those with skills step forward; those who do not have the skills are willing to receive the facilitative assistance of those who do, and so there is a reciprocity that goes on within the team, and everyone becomes a leader; everybody becomes a follower, and so it is like hand washing; it is like a good, intimate coupled relationship that is complemental, rather than competitive.
Susan: Oh, wow! Thank you. This is great; a new paradigm—that’s what I was missing.
CHARLES: I would like to add that you have resources already. You see the need; you in some ways are a leader, and so you see a need that needs to be addressed. We feel quite surely that if you cast around and inquire, you will find the resources available for someone who is a facilitator, either at a community college or university, or a professional who would be willing to come forward and assist you on a gratis basis, simply to be able to advertise their presence in your community. These are just simply suggestions for you to contemplate.
Susan: I was going to ask you if you thought we were ready for this, or if our community was ripe for this, and you were saying, yes, that the resources are there and I’m assuming that the times are ripe?
CHARLES: Yes, the times are right. You have, once you begin this esprit and this feeling of oneness as your team felt in the last meeting, then you can capitalize on that and to continue the groundswells, so to speak.
Susan: I see. Thank you, Charles.
CHARLES: You are most welcome.
Asking for clarification on a personal assignment
MMc: Charles, I have an additional question. I want to return to an earlier line of questioning, about the project that I was asked to do—this plan by you—and I can understand your wish to be involved throughout the course of its production. The significance of this paper and its potential scope has grown in my mind, since you first suggested it. And I’m not sure how far my views have strayed from yours. What was, or is, your intention and vision for this paper?
CHARLES: The intention of the paper, or the article, or book—whatever you want to call it—the “art of inquiry,” is to help those who are curious to form more correctly stated questions, so that they are more effective to generate more effective answers. This is a training device principally for the design teams, but is also a cultural training tool for the masses of your societies. You have too many sheep in your culture; those who are followers do not have the trained capacity to ask meaningful questions when there is a necessity of doing so, even in the terms of their own survival. Asking meaningful questions is important to assist the survival and existence and to fulfill the three core values of social sustainability. Does this help clarify for you?
MMc: Yes, it does. Have I done enough research to write a good paper?
CHARLES: As you write out the different sections, you will find that when you find associations between the sections that they will all flow together in larger sections and that soon you will have parts and sections of a book that relate together, and that soon you will have the whole treatise complete. You are making decisions now as to this process; we do not want to interfere in this co-creative process at this time. We do not want you to second-guess what to do by telling you what to do. You will skew the whole process away from co-creativity into a one-sided dialog from us, which would not be helpful to your readers. Go ahead and experiment and to try things out with the risk that you may have to redo them. This is simply the creative writing process.
MMc: Thank you.
MMc: Do you have any more questions, ladies?
A reader’s question on zero-point energy
Roxie: Yes, I have some. Charles, a couple of our readers were not happy with your answer about why we are “not ready to be given information so that we can use zero-point energy.” Do you have any further comments about that?
CHARLES: No, we do not. It is the decision of the Administrators of this planet and those who understand the use of energy in its broadest forms that this is a sufficient answer at this time.
Reader’s comments on using the Rothschilds as an example
Roxie: We also received considerable negative comments from our readers over the use of the Rothschild’s example of longevity. They felt that the negatives far outweigh the positives. Do you have any further comments on that?
CHARLES: No.
What is different about the New Era?
Roxie: My last question: We have been anticipating the beginning of the New Era since the end of our summer hiatus. How will the New Era be differentiated from the past era that we’ve gone through?
CHARLES: As we have said before, it will be more “hands-on.” It will be much more direct in relationship between an individual and us. For instance, let us say that you have a community leader or some citizen in the community who sees a need for something in their community that would assist everyone, and that it would improve the quality of life of everyone, and that it would help people and their community to grow, and that it would be useful to everyone equally, regardless of their social, or their economic, or political status. And so, they would write this up as a proposal—literally write up a proposal to spirit, and to ask spirit for the opportunity to improve the proposal, to be acceptable, and then to open opportunities to them that would provide the means to begin fulfilling that proposal. It is as though the individual is writing a grant proposal to God; you have seen this many times before from people who write letters to God through their own automatic writing, or similar process, but this is a diligent, conscientious process of intention that is initiated by mortals to propose to spirit to make an improvement in the social life of their community. This is a very graphic hands-on approach of faith.
Many people believe in God, but very few people have faith that God will provide what is necessary. This New Era is that which will assist individuals to grow in their working faith. Just as the Quakers have had a motto, “You must believe and have faith, but you must walk your faith with your feet,” meaning that you use your faith in your everyday life in the development of yourself, and in this regard, we are particularly interested in the evolution of your societies, so that the projects and proposals we are particularly interested in would be social proposals to bring about social sustainability. It could be as small as assisting you to develop your own local team, and so you would ask for assistance to do this, write out your proposal and then ask for opportunities to come to you to share this with others who would be receptive. This would be a very nominal, a very marginal beginning, but one that is also very significant. This process is a walking faith; this is no longer the faith of sheer belief, but of working faith in your everyday life. Very few people really, truly live their lives as God participates in their life to direct the course of their life.
Roxie: Thank you, Charles. That’s all the questions I have.
Susan: Yes, thank you very much.
MMc: Charles, do you have anything in closing?
Closing statements on mortal responsibilities
CHARLES: One moment. The New Era represents a new paradigm of belief, faith, trust and knowing in God. It begins with something new coming about. Many people have prayer for this and now it is here. How you approach it is a responsibility that you have that we have given you. We have given you an opportunity to take responsibility for assisting your communities, your social genre in developing, in evolving. Only in this way will your societies become healed and that you will eventually have social stability, which is the foundation for peace among yourselves and with other nations and your world. This is giving you more responsibility in the management of your world. This is unique to Urantia; it has not been used on other worlds to the degree and to the extent as it is being applied here.
You have so much to lose—literally “lose,” including your lives if you do not participate in this—but so much to gain in your ascendant career when you do. You will experience soul growth of tremendous depth; you will see a social growth that is necessary on your part to engage your fellow brothers and sisters in this work. You will evolve as an individual, you will be able to express the personality that is so unique to you, and which your Thought Adjuster is a wonderful companion to assist you to this eventual fusion between you two. You begin to express that God part of your personality through these ascendant programs, how much responsibility you take on, how you strive depends on your intention, and remember that your worthy intentions are those the Ancient of Days will identify in you and how well you choose and will to do the Father’s Will. Thank you.
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