[tmtranscripts] Michael 8.14.06

[JERRY LANE]

Michael—August 14, 2006

Marin TM Group—Mill Valley, California—U.S.A.

MICHAEL—T/R-JL

Dear Michael and Mother Spirit,    Well, along came a flu bug and wiped us 
out for a week, but: We’re back!   We thank You for Your very practical and 
down-to-earth suggestions on how we can orient ourselves so that the 
spiritual dimension of reality becomes more conscious and perceptible in our 
lives.  We’ve truly found this to be a wonderful, fabulous influx of value, 
day by day.  The feeling of Your presence, Michael; then becoming more and 
more aware how You influence our thinking, Mother Spirit; and the 
contributions made by our own Father Fragment helping us connect our moments 
and suggesting those bright ideas of the next step to take: for all of this 
we are truly thankful for Your helping us understand what spirit is, and 
being able to perceive it.  Amen.

MICHAEL:  Good evening, My dear children, this is Michael.  As Mother and I 
have so often said, it is such a delight to see you moving from your initial 
contact with Us to where you are now summoning quite a lot of nerve--to 
alter your lives, to entertain and try some of Our suggestions.  Now you are 
having glorious moments when this spiritual reality of human life becomes so 
much more obvious, when you see yourselves growing along this dimension of 
increased appreciation and value.

Here you are often face to face with somewhat of a puzzle of discovering 
values that are new to you and yet, in a way, were always there--the real 
spiritual dimension of human and extra-human reality--your whole Celestial 
Family.  But remember, My children, you are experiential beings.  Your 
experience of life is the basic reason why you are here, and it is this 
experience of life that, with the help of your Father Fragment--the presence 
of God in your mind--the two of you weave together your immortal soul.

So even though it seems you are often only discovering something that was 
already here, there is a great truth in this.  This should not in any way 
diminish the discovery itself, the joy of the discovery, the wonderful 
consciousness of a pre-existing reality.  In fact, it is only by keeping a 
real good, honest track of your experiences--how they happened, when they 
happened, why they happened, you avoid the curse of Monday Morning 
Quarterbacking We’ve talked about.  This is when you may be feel stricken 
with guilt because you didn’t discover something sooner, or you didn’t take 
certain critical considerations to heart before you actually discovered 
them.  So one more way of being truly kind to yourself is by keeping track 
of how you gained your experience, trying as best you can to keep in touch 
with your soul.  It helps to realize you are just beginning, just taking the 
first few hesitant steps on an eternal journey.

You--your unique personality, created by God--did not enjoy a previous human 
lifetime.  There in no way you can know certain things until you experience 
them, and every single one of you starts out as a newborn babe.  True, you 
inherit the entire story of evolution of your planet right in your little 
physical body, and this heredity will be playing a game of leapfrog with 
your environment in determining partly who you will become.  But with 
acquiring a fragment of the Father at a young age--the beginning of the 
soul, and especially if you were fortunate enough to be raised in a 
relatively open society that encouraged you to be a free-thinker, very early 
on you developed a sense of yourself and a strong desire to be your own 
person, to achieve a genuine freedom of thinking, of feeling, and 
perceiving.  This has been the focus of Our last several lessons, telling 
you this is not only a lifelong process, but an eternal process, of 
constantly giving up what you know for greater knowledge, forgetting 
yourself to be open to all these marvelous beings around you.

I too once had to totally relinquish Myself, as self-conscious Michael, to 
be a human baby, a youngster, a teenager, a young man.  Many schools of 
Oriental philosophy posit this as the Big Game--the Largest Event happening, 
where the One Being forgets Himself in order to become the multiplicity of 
the universe, all for the delight, after endless trillions and trillions of 
years, endless Kalpas of time, of rediscovering it is all One.  We simply 
say that this is the supreme paradox to human reasoning: that reality is 
truly One, yet infinitely Diverse at the same time.  Both are equally real.

So, to a very large degree, My children, you do recapitulate this Big Game.  
Your self-consciousness slowly emerges, generally with a great deal of 
anxiety and pain when, as a small child, your budding, immature mind first 
realizes that you are separate from your mother.  Small babies will often 
cry out not just from hunger or needing to be changed, but with a true 
existential anguish.  They are recapitulating the whole universe when it 
resounds with a cry: I am!  And thus ensue all the dozens of stages of this 
singularly unique individual relating to his or her world.

During your last lesson Mother Spirit mentioned a transformation within 
society of going from a very rigidly controlled, top-down autocracy, to one 
of true democracy including all the peoples there are.  From the point of 
view of one of the rulers, the growth of individual freedom among their 
followers appears as some kind of threatening chaos.  But this is 
unavoidable as more and more individual creativity begins to assert itself 
throughout the population.

Tonight I would like you to consider this transformation within the 
microcosm of your own self.  For most individual human beings go through the 
same stages that societies have gone through as they matured, all through 
history, within all the various countries of the world.  As social 
organization expanded from extended families, through tribal organizations, 
and confederations of tribes, to the beginning of city states, then large 
empires, on to some of the recognizable, more modern nations, so too your 
social consciousness expanded from your family and immediate neighborhood, 
to your city, state, and nation, hopefully on to the whole world.  There has 
been a parallel evolution of individual freedom and the right to determine 
your own governmental organizations that has also, just so very recently 
within the last few centuries, emerged within some of the more developed 
countries of the world.

What I’m suggesting tonight, My children, is that as individuals you go 
through a similar process of maturation, from necessarily accepting the 
mores and values of your immediate family, then your neighborhood and your 
local school.  As a young, immature person as yet lacking any extensive 
experience of life, you try to glean certain principles from what you do 
know, what you have experienced personally.  And sometimes the harsh 
necessities of life force you to be a bit of a fundamentalist yourself.  You 
feel a great imperative to believe in these hard earned early discoveries .

We mentioned a period of late-adolescent indifference you often go through 
when these fundamentalist beliefs of yours begin to be encounter a broader 
context--contrary beliefs in ways of looking at things.  Often many 
individuals will form a kind of totalitarian relationship right within their 
own mind and, with feelings of hatred and denial, struggle to maintain an 
assurance they don’t need to entertain other viewpoints, since other 
principles of reality will surely make only relative their own cherished, 
but isolated beliefs.

And so We encourage you to keep going.  It isn’t that you have to go through 
these various stages of your maturation that is the problem.  It is that 
many folks get stuck somewhere along the way and, tragically, settle for a 
few small scraps of reality compared to what they are capable of achieving.  
And so Mother mentioned that when you have an inner certainty you have 
reality all wrapped up and tied with a neat bow, it takes great courage to 
entertain other viewpoints  for the uncertainty this immediately causes.

You may have a feeling: Well, if I’m a democracy inside, full of all these 
different viewpoints and contending opinions, then what happens to “me.”  Am 
I going to disappear in some deluge of chaos?  I won’t know what’s right.  I 
won’t know what to think.  I might even have reoccurring overtones of those 
very first childish, existential fears of being alone and separate in a 
gigantic world.  Yet this, My children, is the profound difference between 
clinging to a simple-minded notion of reality, and someday finding true 
spiritual unity within a whole world of viewpoints.

Can you now see the necessity for letting go of yourself without fear, 
trusting you will pop up again to yourself?--but then in possession of a 
truer, much more enormously subtle comprehension of all these viewpoints 
you’ve come to understand?  So think about being a true democracy within 
yourself.  This is just another way of pointing you at the open-mindedness 
We’ve given so many lessons on; what it is, how to achieve it, how to 
maintain it and keep it growing.

True enough, it is a process that is never finished, but this is only to say 
the path towards truth is eternal, is without end.  No being can put a limit 
on the potential on your personality to grow, and this is how you become 
your own person.  There is nothing to fear.  Your awareness of yourself 
actually grows as well, only now it is much more broadly-based, much more 
curious, much more mature looking back at all the one-time certainties you 
had that simply proved finite.

We would point you at the Infinite as your true birthright.  It just takes 
some getting used to.  You might feel the ground falling out from underneath 
you, crumbling beneath your feet, a kind of initial shock as you open 
yourself to how big It All is.  And here I’m speaking of your day-to-day 
life, the great spiritual values that replace your feelings of mundane 
reality.

To be a true democracy within yourself, to be unafraid to consider any 
viewpoint that crosses your path, to be curious and actively seek to 
understand, especially those contrary viewpoints to what you may treasure; 
this is the constant stream of what is ever new in God’s creation.  It is 
ever there for you to discover—a constant, but always a unique experience 
each time you do.  So become one with the Big Game.  Lose yourself to 
reappear.  This is how you lose your fear. This is how you discover spirit, 
and embrace the adventure of finding it.

I’m always right by your side giving you My company.  I ask you to 
consciously welcome Me as your friend, and share your life with Me.  You are 
safe in Mother Spirits’ arms, My children.  You have a fragment of God 
himself right within you.  Bringing more spirit into your life is largely a 
matter of understanding what it is--so you can recognize it everywhere.

If you have any questions or comments this evening, I invite you to feel 
free to express what your heart longs to know.

Student:  Father Michael, a friend of mine has some unusual happenings going 
on in the house she just moved out of.  I’ve talked to her about there are 
no such things as ghosts, and there is no such thing as someone hanging 
around after they die.  But she’s wondering if there is some sort of energy 
manifestation that’s bothering her?  They glimpsed--they meaning the 
family--a son and daughter and herself, they’ve from time to time glimpsed 
something, but not actually seeing--like I see another human being.  I’m 
just wondering if You have any comment on that?

MICHAEL:  Yes, C, We’ve had many lessons before on the phenomenon of 
psychological projection, yet it’s sometimes hard for you to credit just how 
much this is a normal and persistent function of your mind, happening 
incessantly.  I just offered the example of how your understanding of what 
spirit is, and what it does, actually enables you to perceive it and its 
workings in your day to day life.

We’ve had some lessons on the nature of empirical method as a kind of 
perceptual discipline that certain cultures of the human race evolved many 
centuries ago as a way of settling, if you will, certain arguments about 
reality.  This is the self-discipline of accepting that any proposition you 
put forward, you have to be able to demonstrate.

Of course, this is most easily done with physical reality.  All the laws you 
learned as physics and chemistry can be reliably repeated and, indeed, most 
of you have had your laboratory classes, either in high school or college, 
that trained your mind along these lines.  Not accepting something as real 
unless it could be demonstrated, historically led to an apogee of 
materialistic thinking, of individuals so enamored with this method that 
they tended to disregard as some kind of squishy or nebulous reality what 
was merely psychological.

Indeed, there were great illusions in the Nineteenth Century--of some 
soon-to-be discovered utopia, simply because they were disregarding the 
whole mental or psychological dimension of human reality.  They thought that 
certain profound mental and spiritual realities to be demonstrated as easily 
as the laws of physics, or discounted.  This kind of materialistic 
fundamentalism—soulless materialism-- still rules many peoples’ lives.

But there is another kind of modern mentality that not only embraced this 
empirical discipline, but then went on to use it to accept and articulate 
the psychological dimensions too.  For scientific method did create, 
actually create in peoples’ minds, an understanding of natural law that has 
gotten you to standing on the moon, people living in outer space, or 
exchanging living body parts: all you know of as science.

So the psychological realm was also brought into ever sharper focus by the 
contradistinction.  Without a thorough understanding of these two realms of 
human experience, My son, individuals can credit a whole number of what We 
could call fringe phenomena of perception, and give them reality.  A little 
streak of light seen out of the corner of their eye, an inexplicable sense 
of energy, can become a person or a being.  I am in no way belittling this 
kind of mentality for if this is your orientation, if this is your starting 
point or point of departure, these fringe phenomena will be experienced as 
real.  This may seem like I’m going a long way around to explain why some 
folks truly believe they are experiencing ghosts or other beings,  but these 
were common experiences of people before the disciplines of science and the 
discoveries of psychology.

I’m only pointing out that in terms of projection, all your reality is 
colored by your own notions as to what is real.  A person who does not 
believe in ghosts will simply never perceive them.  Perhaps by understanding 
these different stages the human race has come through, and how each stage 
is necessary for both individual and social development, individuals can 
understand the need for these disciplines of thinking and perceiving.  Does 
this help, My son?

Student:  It seems to me that projection is a lot more powerful than I 
thought.  I understand that everything I see is a projection in my mind, but 
I hadn’t seen how powerful that was.  I just assumed that was the way things 
are; and what I’m getting at is: I’m not quite sure, until I read the 
transcript again, what the explanation is.

I think that You’re saying that people can believe these things as if they 
are real, and other people won’t even notice them, depending on their 
outlook on life.

MICHAEL:  Yes, My son, this is exactly what I meant.  As Urantia is rather 
unique because of its history, because it is far from being unified on a 
planetary scale, you have all these stages of mankind’s slow maturity still 
existing on the planet.  You still have ghost cults, and voodoo, and magic, 
ruling some peoples’ lives.  It took the scientific method to actually 
create, for you, a very precisely determined material realm, for before 
that, human physical reality was hopelessly mixed-up with psychological and 
spiritual effects.  Once you could clearly delineate what was the physical 
realm, only then could you fully appreciate the psychological, and now, 
their inter-relatedness.

Projection is nothing you escape; it is simply how you are interpreting 
reality.  Objectivity, the great prize of the clearly-thinking mind, is only 
relative.  It is only by becoming aware of your own subjectivity can you 
arrive at a greater objectivity.  It is only by understanding, and 
distancing yourself by that very understanding, can you avoid unconsciously 
identifying with the meanings and values you were raised with.  Instead 
these meanings and values become conscious choices, real personal events.  
By striving to be objective, striving to be a citizen of the world with all 
its many cultures and stages of civilization, you can appreciate that 
someday you will be called upon to become a cosmic citizen, and outgrow the 
parochial attitudes of your birth planet, Urantia.

Student:  This seems to me to be a very exciting time to be living.  The 
quest for objectivity is the quest for spiritual growth, I would think.  Is 
that correct?

MICHAEL:  Absolutely.  Mother Spirit said, be curious and entertain all 
viewpoints that your mass media and your relatively open, pluralistic 
society makes available.  Treasure and respect this freedom of your media, 
and do your best to see that it continues to grow.  This is the engine of 
the truly gigantic changes taking place in the world today.  This is the 
great challenge before all peoples everywhere, in every country and social 
organization—to be a true democracy within, delighting that God has made so 
many unique individuals.  For it is the essential fatherhood, the 
person-hood, the loving nature of God the father, that makes us all brothers 
and sisters.

Student:  Thank You, Father Michael for being here, with us, with the wisdom 
and the information You give us.   We truly appreciate it.

MICHAEL:  You are very welcome My son.  It is Our great task, Mother Spirit 
and I, as well as Our children’s—the Melchizedeks, the Voronodek and 
Lanondadek Sons, the Angels, the Material Sons and Daughters, the 
Midwayers—Our purpose to instill in you a profound hope, a really tough and 
resilient faith, that can enable you to perceive the enormous outworking of 
Spirit on Urantia, these days.  There is that wonderful Christmas carol, 
“The hopes and fears of all the years,” that were met in My birth.  And so 
it can be also your rebirth, day by day, as you grow in spirit and the value 
of this whole gigantic enterprise, paradoxes and all, coming to fill your 
soul.  (Yes)

We thank our Father for making it an adventure.  For even this necessity to 
let go and courageously loose ourselves, for awhile, in His sheer 
multiplicity, enables us to discover the meaning and value of being truly 
democratic within and without, starting within.  It starts with the inner 
delight in discovering the uniqueness of individuals, taking in a 
multiplicity of viewpoints, rejoicing in the plurality within society.  
Enjoy it well, My son.  It was made for you and you were made for it.

Student:  There are times I feel life is burdensome, but more times I think 
life is a joy.  The discovery is what life is all about, and that’s what I 
want to do.  So I thank You for the Correcting Time and the Teaching 
Mission, and all the help You‘ve given us in this world; and the Heavenly 
Father for putting all this together.

MICHAEL:  That, My son, is the truest worship—giving thanks that actively 
gives back in appreciation, does it not?  (Yes)  The greatest shame would be 
that all this is happening and no one appreciated it.  So feel the value in 
the dimension of spirit going forth.  See the masses of people giving way to 
this person, and then that one, and another.  Embrace all the strange, new 
ideas that can pop into your mind, for your enjoyment, and decisions.  Be 
unafraid.  Be unafraid to feel the burdens, My son.  Don’t let them scare 
you, for they are real.  It takes real effort to encounter them.  But this 
too is the very stuff of life.  It makes possible the ultimate triumph.  So 
we thank our Father too, not only for His spiritual value, but that through 
the Infinite Spirit’s Cosmic Mind, the Mind-Spirit Adjutants of Mother 
Nebadonia impinging upon your own personal mind; there is also meaning in 
your life to be discovered and cherished.

Student:  Thank You, Father  Michael.

MICHAEL:  It’s been a wonderful evening.  (Yes, I agree—{both laugh})  It is 
My joy to help you take the next step, to grow a little more free in your 
mind, a little more thankful/worshipful in your attitude, a little more 
delighted in your soul.  Be in My love, and peace.  Good evening.


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