<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML xmlns:st1 = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns:o =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content=text/html;charset=iso-8859-1>
<STYLE></STYLE>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16757" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=MailContainerBody
style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; PADDING-TOP: 15px; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; TEXT-DECORATION: none; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none"
leftMargin=0 topMargin=0 acc_role="text" CanvasTabStop="true"
name="Compose message area"><!--[gte IE 5]><?xml:namespace prefix="v" /><?xml:namespace prefix="o" /><![endif]-->
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Michael--</SPAN><st1:date Year="2008" Day="3"
Month="11"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">November 3,
2008</SPAN></st1:date><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Marin T/M Group--Mill Valley,
</SPAN><st1:State><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">California</SPAN></st1:place></st1:State><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">--</SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">U.S.A.</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT
size=3>MICHAEL--T/R-JL<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Living for each other: social
reality)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Living and loving to
learn)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">(</SPAN><st1:City><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Independence</SPAN></st1:place></st1:City><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">, co-dependence,
dependence)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT
size=3>(Martyrdom)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(The Crucifixion)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Evaluating another’s spiritual
freedom)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Stating what you truly
believe)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Truth does ultimately
prevail)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Dear Michael and Mother Spirit,<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Greetings and salutations
from Urantia. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We extend an
invitation to you tonight on this Election Day eve.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Although it’s not Christmas Eve--the way
that Christmas holds a special place in our hearts for cultural and spiritual
reasons, celebrating your birthday--Election Day does have a special place from
a civic point of view.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It reminds
us of that ideal that we at least try for--that President Lincoln spoke of and
you have included in the Urantia book--aiming for a government of the people, by
the people, for the people; and how, if it’s going to be by the people, we need
to get out there and cast our votes and be a part of it.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>We wish to thank you again, during
these tumultuous financial and political times, that you point us back to
ourselves and that great peace and assurance we can find within, with ourselves
and your presence inside us. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s
that wonderful, safe harbor we can find when all the winds of circumstance
threaten to be hurricanes about our poor tossed souls.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We can return to your presence and be
renewed to enter the fray once again.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>For these your gentle reminders we thank you very much.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amen. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening, this is Michael. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mother Spirit and I are happy to
acknowledge your warm welcome and invitation to be with you. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Though our spirits hover about you,
keeping company with your Father Fragment, we do enjoy it so much when you turn
your faces reflectively back toward us. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Reach out your arms to feel our loving
embrace. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are very dear to our
hearts and, like parents everywhere, though we have our own independent
existence, and we too--Mother Spirit and I--live for ourselves and are complete
in ourselves, still you add so much to us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>We are delighted to reflect back to you the fact you are spiritual,
creative beings and each of you has your own unique center from which you extend
yourselves out into this time and space realm of ours--and do things. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s in that doing that you are most
truly the sons and daughters of the Supreme Being, the God of time and
space.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Living for each other: social
reality)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>For just as you too live your own lives
for yourselves, my children, you also live your lives for each other. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your souls are filled with your
experiences of each other and this is what you most fondly carry on into
eternity, the friends and associates you have known. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All the other initially very strange
beings you will encounter out in the Morontia realms--all the friends and
acquaintances you will make from all the other worlds of our Local
Universe--millions of worlds each with its own unique history, its own unique
peoples; all these personal beings will fill your souls to overflowing. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So if not yet, you will certainly come to
treasure the social potential--the social life that is so much a part of God’s
plans.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>It is fitting that on this eve of your
general elections you feel a sense of civic duty, a sense of social
responsibility to play your part to bring all your accumulative soul-wisdom to
bear on that moment when you express your wisdom in choices. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mother Spirit and I are delighted in this
particular general election of yours, you have such a record turnout, such a
larger percentage of all of you feeling not only a sense of duty but also a
profound interest and curiosity about: what is this thing called government?
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What are these institutions
established among peoples--as your own Declaration of Independence and
Constitution state?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s wonderful
when you can approach these institutions you were born and raised with, with a
fresh curiosity and see them anew as if for the first time.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>It’s in times like these when so many
old, ingrained political habits can fall away and make room for those fresh,
creative ideals that are so desperately needed to cope with the evermore
accelerated changes on your planet.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This larger turnout of interested voters is a direct representation of a
new flexibility, not only in the most practical sense of getting out there and
voting, but a willingness to look at things in a new light, a more present-day
light.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mother Spirit spoke last
time of being adaptable to changing circumstances, and all those who are unable
to do this. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One of these tragic
ironies is not being able to keep up and adapt to the very success you enjoy on
so many levels. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Certain historical truisms of the
impossibility of people knowing what government is doing because of the
distances involved, or because of very rigid social hierarchies, your modern
media now can cut through all of that and achieve the ideal you’ve only recently
articulated--the ideal of transparency.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This is the sheer ability of the electorate to know what’s happening so
that they can hold their representatives responsible. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For it has been ever the case, my
children, right from the earliest stages of tribal elders, that there is a
certain arrogance of power, a certain noblesse-oblige, a certain deliberate
obfuscation, to hide what is essentially the personal greed that has always been
with so many of your leaders.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If
you think about it, this has been a natural state of affairs when you consider
what primitive origins you have.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Yet as we’ve said before, never regret
that the human race has had to come up through these stages of social
immaturity. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The ideal is to learn
from them and keep going, keep maturing, keep developing these principles of
transparency and responsibility.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>And you are. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In your country
you only have to look back a few decades ago to when all the decisions were made
in the so-called smoke-filled back rooms behind the great circus shows out
front.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Now just the need to fill
the time of all the new cable television stations, and the internet and other
sources, with news, means by comparison to any time in the past you are
literally inundated with political rhetoric. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But this is good. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can get your candidates out there in
public and run them through their paces.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>You can have at least some small opportunity to probe their deeper
feelings and understandings, even record their promises to play back at a later
date to remind them just what it was they announced they could
do.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Living and loving to
learn)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Welmek gave a wonderful series of
lessons one time on learning and loving and living, and all their six
combinations: learning to love; loving to learn; living to love; etc.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Chalk this election up to the learning
part of that invitation, the larger possibility you have now to learn about your
candidates, and the form of government you have, and especially how it really
works. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For ultimately you are
learning about yourselves and where as a society you stand along a whole
continuum of cultural evolution. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Read that chapter in your Urantia book
about Life on a Neighboring Planet that is a little more advanced socially and
politically than yourselves.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Come
up with your own ideas of where you would like to see the world’s political
processes go next. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Are you truly
willing to see a genuine planetary democracy where all points of view have the
ability to be expressed? <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>We do congratulate you, my children,
for making leaps and bounds along this social/political dimension, especially on
the rather free-wheeling internet. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It wasn’t too long ago no one knew what
it was to have a small TV-and-typewriter sitting on a desk in their house where,
for a few cents of electricity, they could bring in the world and literally
thousands of points of view. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In
fact you can be so buffeted about by so much raw information that we like to
remind you from time to time where to find peace and unification within
yourselves, in stillness.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Here you
find not only your Father Fragment and the presences of Mother Spirit and
myself, but even a sense of who you are purely in yourselves.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>With the great super-conscious mind you
have comes the profound desire and ability of your transcendent personality to
unite and make sense out of this sheer deluge of information.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>You are learning how to be open and
take things in fearlessly and let them settle where they will with a profound,
new-found objectivity. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Pray and
call upon my Spirit of Truth to help orient your own spirit towards truth, and
the courage to follow where it leads, even if counter to your most cherished and
long-held prejudices and opinions. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Stay loose, be flexible. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be open to an evermore closely
integrated, and therefore evermore delicately balanced, association of the major
nation/state societies of the planet.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Your recent financial difficulties have
been an enormous lesson for you to learn just how integrated and co-dependent
the peoples of the world are becoming.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>You are fulfilling an ages-old dream of an emerging planetary
consciousness. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As we have said, the
world soul has always been here. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Also, the extra-human spiritual family of
Urantia has been here for thousands of years doing their part to help you evolve
your civilizations. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But just so
recently--in large part due to the Second World War and its immediate aftermath
when the human race faced for the first time the possibility of annihilating
large numbers of itself with your new-found atomic energy, these same
circumstances and the need to meet them brought about the beginnings of a true
world-wide communication system that keeps getting faster and more integrated.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>These are amazing, marvelous times in
any planet’s development, and if it is any comfort to you, my children, know
that all planets do come through similar stages even with loyal Planetary
Princes and staff, loyal Material Sons and Daughters.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In the day to day lives of their
citizens there is and always will be those moral decisions to make to fulfill
their social and civic responsibilities and duties. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So go forward with light hearts and enjoy
casting your votes; and keep a sharp eye on the continuing outcome.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>As we tease and remind you from time to
time, for human beings life is much a great experiment.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is so much you can’t know until
you try, and the bigger part of that is: always, when the dust has settled, stay
open to the results. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Stay loose; be
flexible; be open. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Meet tomorrow
with cheerful souls, welcoming what the new day brings. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’re tickled to be sharing this
adventure with you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We offer all
the love and the support you can open your hearts to receive. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Go forward with our blessings, my dear
children.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>If you have any questions or comments
this evening, here I am. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Just a comment this evening, Father
Michael.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you for all your
support, and your love, and understanding and
guidance.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">(</SPAN><st1:City><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Independence</SPAN></st1:place></st1:City><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">, co-dependence,
dependence)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are very welcome, my son. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You do our hearts good when you respond
to us. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So keep in mind what I said
tonight about all these social dimensions you can enjoy of independence, and
co-dependence, and even the sheer dependence that we all know and share--in our
Father.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s a wonderful humility
to be both aware of, and to feel at home in, such an enormous creation of
personal beings, and I enjoyed tonight touching upon a few of those social/civic
aspects that even Mother Spirit and I share with you in kind. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We too have our own society, if you will,
of Michael Creator Sons, and Mother Spirits, spread out across these galaxies of
ours. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We too have our duties and
responsibilities, and we do enjoy them so.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Keep realizing you are in my peace.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(Thank you)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Hello, Father/Brother Michael. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have at least one question. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I got into a discussion with an old
friend about Christianity, and in particular about martyrdom--the meaning of the
phenomena of martyrs and people with martyr-complexes.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He’s kind-of a psychologist who thinks
that anything having to do with martyrdom is obviously pathological and needs to
be analyzed and fixed.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But I’m of
the view that martyrdom has a double meaning, or maybe
more.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>I agreed there is a kind of a
pathological version--somebody who is sacrificing way too much, in too much a
co-dependent way--as we say; and you mentioned that relationship tonight. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I agreed that could be the case.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But in the Christian tradition martyrs
are also saints, and that has a positive connotation as well in that you’re
laying down your life for your friends and for humanity.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As you said, there can be no greater
love than to give your life for others, and that indeed, in fact, is
martyrdom--is it not? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And your life
was concluded with what I believe could be properly considered martyrdom--in the
positive sense.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So I wonder if you
have any comments about that word and how today, in modern times, we should
regard martyrs, and martyrdom, and the psychology of that? <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thanks.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT
size=3>(Martyrdom)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my son, I congratulate you on your
ability to see such a wide spectrum of usage with that word. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I remember those times Mother Spirit and
I have called such usage galloping generalities because they seek to cover so
much ground and, as you are intimating, all the situations they seek to cover
are sometimes at polar opposites to each other in essence. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Also, there is the greatest difficulty
for human beings to assess these distinctions in each other for it is literally
impossible for you to see the complete, developing material, mental, and
spiritual circumstances, let alone the souls of those who either call
themselves, or are referred to by others, as martyrs.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>But let me point out one way, anyway,
to assess these acts, and that is along the lines of your being what we call
creatures of freewill dignity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So
when you try to assess any particular act of martyrdom, use this as a tool.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Yes…)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Try to determine as best you can how
much of this action was the freewill choice of that individual, even though this
opens up the psychological question of: can this giving up of one’s life for
what one believes in, can this be a freewill choice; or is it always determined
solely by the pressure of unavoidable circumstances along with varying degrees
of mental pathology.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>You may have to deny true martyrdom to
those who are forced or coerced into their acts with no choice whatsoever. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They are more like sacrificial lambs who
are led to the slaughter for someone else’s purposes they perhaps neither
understand nor feel they have any choice in the matter.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Here I am pointing at the enormous
psychological and cultural pressures that are brought upon individuals to become
so-called martyrs for one cause or another.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In this you would have to include all
those who have given up their lives for their tribe, or city-state, or country,
in all the wars that mankind has ever fought.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Right)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You would have to include those who are
still living who had to kill or horribly maim others, for that also has always
been an intrinsic part of warfare, and leaves its own deep scars in the minds of
the survivors.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>On the other end of this spectrum from
those so coerced and blindly being led to the slaughter are those individuals
who, in full consciousness and however terrified devotion, in spite of trembling
hands and minds and spirits, do commit themselves to what they feel in their
deepest heart is some betterment, some advancement for their fellows.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Here you are confronted with a question
of judgment, for sometimes it is much more difficult or even painful to live for
a cause than to die for one.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This
is a kind of commitment that is not often considered--the devotion and the
giving of ones continuing living for a cause, because it calls not for one
supreme act but for continuing, day by day acts upon awakening every
morning.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>This is similar to what I faced in my
life as Jesus--what to do every morning, especially when I--you might say--got
the ball rolling, and would awaken to look out upon those crowds come for no
other reason than to be with me and hear what I had to say, see what I would
do.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I can only say for myself that
I never considered myself a martyr.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>But then I had--in my later stages after my baptism, and even before with
my Thought Adjuster--a very rare and almost humanly inconceivable relationship
with my Father.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So that word martyrdom is, like many
others, a large generality and it is used to cover the full spectrum from
persons who acted with no freedom whatsoever--what you might call a cowardly
acquiescence to social forces brought upon him or her.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The other extreme are the clear-eyed and
highly rational, devoted souls who willingly gave their lives to the betterment
of their fellows--and all that implies--by either dying or continuing to live
for others.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Although, again only
generally, those who chose to devote their lives and continue to live for
others, you call saints.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That does
help clarify these different situations and choices?
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, it does, especially that you did
not consider yourself a martyr.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But
is there a sense in which martyrdom is considered a healthy thing--from the
position of modern psychology?--if one is really choosing it?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Definitely yes, going by the definition
of a martyr as a truly free-willed person who is willing to die for a perceived
good.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In that sense, every culture
which has ever existed on Urantia has called these people heroes, especially in
warfare or life-and-death situations.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>That should be definition enough.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Yes, it is possible for an individual to choose to go into a situation
where death is almost assured.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Whether or not that sacrifice is truly beneficial is, again, so difficult
for another human being to assess in terms of the full causes and total
consequences.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is left to
higher spiritual beings to adjudge.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Even in the beginning Morontia life it may still be difficult for that
individual to realize for himself or herself the complete nature of their
sacrifice, and whether it did any good or not.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m sorry if that leaves the question so
much up in the air, but that is where it is with each individual act. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We can leave it there.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One more question: why, in your own life
as Jesus, did you feel it was the Father’s will that you drink the cup--so to
speak--to allow the Crucifixion to occur?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Doesn’t that also mean--by your own definition of someone willing to give
up their life--that you were a martyr at the end of your
life?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(The Crucifixion)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My son, I was a very unique case.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There have been few human beings who had
the power of choice I had--actually none as a self-conscious Creator Son of
God.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As I announced beforehand, I
knew I had the power to lay down my life and pick it up again.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My choice in following my Father’s will
was so complete and unequivocal within myself that I didn’t consider myself a
martyr.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Also, consider how my death
by crucifixion is so unusual among all my fellow Master Creator Sons, who
finished their human type incarnations peacefully.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In other words, it was not some
universal requirement.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It was my
choice insofar as I had the power to do otherwise.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>In that choice I was going along with
what my Father and I together determined was the best response to a
unique and highly complex situation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It was a responsibility of mine to fulfill prophesy, to be--able--to
choose to end my life in that way, and yet there was nothing for me of what you
might call ordinary human vain-glory in martyrdom.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I was truly humbled by the experience,
and so it also demonstrated how humility is such a spiritual blessing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It was for me, and is for those who
understand it, the final hallmark of my fully human nature then, and that within
that nature I could still choose to do what I did.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It became a living truth, for all our
human children on all of our millions of worlds, that what you experience as a
human being, as an experiential being, has no substitute in all reality.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>There is nothing you are required to
do--even experience death--that is not--in some truly Supreme/Ultimate
sense--necessary.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We can trust that
our Father is not playing games with us. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is nothing required of us--that is,
in our response to a situation, if not the situation itself--that is not His
will.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Our own devotion to Him can
only begin to match His devotion to us; and yet that is our true devotion.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I was, in a very humble sense, proud and
fulfilled myself I could experience our devotion for each other.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This eternal experience is fully equal
to the price, my son, we pay for it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This is God’s greatest gift to us, that we can have such a freedom; we
can have such a dignity of will and dedication.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So be in my
peace.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Wow!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I will ponder your
words.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening, Michael.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As we discussed before, I wonder what to
do when I bring the concepts of the Urantia book--your teachings and your
life--to people, to help them escape spiritual bondage.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I really like to give them the idea
they’re spiritually free, they have freewill dignity.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That seems to be the reality they don’t
understand.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Maybe I don’t
understand it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In addition: not
only that God creates our personality, but actually indwells us.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It makes it so much more an exciting
adventure--all the social interactions I’ve been having.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There’s such a need to learn all I can
about their spiritual ideas and concepts, and what part keeps them in spiritual
bondage, what part lets them know they’re children of a loving God.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Evaluating another’s spiritual
freedom)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My daughter, the key word is
action.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your relationship to the
Supreme Being of time and space out here is one of doing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As your Urantia book puts it: religion
acts.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It may not always act wisely,
but it acts.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Religion--the
fundamental relationship of you with the Supreme Being, and the dignity you have
as a creation of His--only exists in freewill action.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So even though thought is action, you
need to be careful about getting too abstract in these things, and keep that
relationship direct.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When you are
most humbly aware of your own inability to finally assess anyone, even yourself,
keep in mind while you try to evaluate someone else’s free will, their spiritual
freedom, it is more or less how they are acting, how they are manifesting
themselves.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>From a purely spiritual point of view,
just looking at their spirit and soul--both of which are somewhat unconditioned
by time and space--you could say every person’s dignity is nearly certain.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But in a social context of how you
relate to each other, your dignity is very dependant upon how freely or
personally-creative you can act and manifest your spirit-quality with them.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And so it appears in many social
situations you have a lot of very undignified behavior, to say the least.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>An extreme example of this is the
willful criminal preying upon others stemming from a pure laziness and
indifference of spirit.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is
part and parcel of your societies and what you have to contend with, with your
massive legal systems, prisons and jails.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The only solution to all this criminality is indeed the more genuine
spiritual dignity of a highly energetic and fully committed responsibility.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Does this help answer your question, my
daughter?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I caught this in your
wondering how to interpret these rather foreign ways--to you--in which other
folks are expressing themselves.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I guess it’s--on my part--a recognition
of how people, myself included, don’t have free will, and self-awareness of
spirit, and the ability to act.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It’s all covered over and crusted over with all kinds of different
self-conceptions and ideas, and that just keeps so many of us living a life that
isn’t free.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They constrict our
ability to act creatively in cooperation with God.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Exactly.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s the conditioning we’ve talked so
much about; and how to get out of it, how to get beyond it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’re doing well, my daughter, in
keeping open and taking these new folks in.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’re feeling the difference between
being judgmental in some kind of total sense, and yet needing to make these
spiritual evaluations as you go along.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Be in my peace.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, Michael, I’ve been trying to
impress upon my daughter that I do support her, if not in the way she
wants.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I support her growth, her
soul, but I guess we see that differently at times.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She’s all involved in getting married
and moving into a new home, and I’d like to see them living for a while
together--without me around to lean on--before they made the big decision.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Because she does keep leaning more and
more on me financially.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I trying to
rest and be still with all of this, and not be self-righteous, but be truly
supportive.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I say things but
they’re not really heard.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>I hope I’m wrong about her and her
boyfriend’s fundamental relationship, which doesn’t seem that healthy, but I’ve
been seeing it for two years now.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Regardless of this, I want to be in a place of peace and genuine
helpfulness so they can experience the benefit of that too for themselves.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I don’t want to be a martyr.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(much
laughter)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Stating what you truly
believe)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Well, that’s very healthy.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’d be that kind of martyrdom forced
upon you by circumstances.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I
applaud your willingness to talk these things out because life often presents
you with a situation, with those you love, where there is some disagreement of
ways and means, and even ends; and where, in addition, you are required to avoid
all kinds of co-dependence or coercion.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It may require you to state what you truly believe--your values, and that
you cannot support that which goes totally against your own moral sense of what
is right and wrong.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think it’s
good you make this clear, and be open to hear her side of things as well.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>It’s really nice if the other person
can realize you are being so honest and forthright out of a sense of love and a
desire to keep the connection alive, even if you cannot support them as they
would like.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But this may not
happen. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You still need the courage
to state you own case and be open to the other’s, and then be content to let
them be.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You help this way by being
the good example of what is possible, even what is best in the situation.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This holds the future open for two
individuals--two unique beings to relate to each other very honestly and
directly with a lot of respect and love.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It seems you are achieving a large degree of this, even though there is
some difference of maturity involved. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The thing I question for myself is, is
there something else going on that I’m not discerning?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’ve prayed upon this but I can’t find
anything.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I really do wish for them
the best, and there is my little grand-daughter to consider.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And I do see the wisdom of them being on
their own.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But it’s all these
wedding plans that keep getting larger and larger, and all the expense--but she
doesn’t want to hear about that.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Again, it calls for what you call being
up-front, and just, sometimes, saying No!--the money’s simply not there; or
maybe, keep in mind that marriage is not so much about the ceremony and some
huge, lavish party, but more about the spiritual bonding between two
people.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So many of these human
ceremonies can get swamped in materialism.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Well, I’ve already brought all of that
up.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(much laughter)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I tried to impress upon her…but it’s
like the wedding day is the only thing in her life, the most important day in
her life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It seems like there‘s so
much ego involved.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And it’s only
one day.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I thought having a baby
would be the most important day.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>But she has this whole fantasy of how her wedding should be--I sometimes
think regardless of who she’s marrying!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I don’t want to dampen her enthusiasm but…<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This was what I meant about having to
declare there are things you simply cannot support due to your sense of values
of what means what, what is worth what.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Sometimes you almost have to demand respect.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(My exact words…{more laughter})<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then I can only encourage you to keep up
your positive attitude and your orientation of being open and reaching for that
which you may not yet be aware of.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>That’s a good orientation. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Have you ever had the Chinese
water-torture of a relentless daughter?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(now everyone broke up)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s
like on and on and on, from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to
sleep.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I am grateful that I can
sense my own core, my own sense of who I am, and not allow myself--tempting as
it is--to get caught up in her distractions.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mother Spirit and I do enjoy it when you
come to visit us and take a deep rest in our presence.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s why we’re here for you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I wish I could do that for my daughter;
and for her boyfriend too.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There’s the differential of maturity I
mentioned.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep in mind you’ve
earned this deep soul-sanctuary within yourself, we once called Home Base, where
you can be aware of our, and our Father’s presence, and your own soul. And so
must they in their own lives.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They
too must earn this through living experience for which, as I said, there is no
substitute.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometimes people have
to try to build their whole lives upon one day, and use that as a point upon
which to pivot their entire world and future, to discover by its utter failure
what an illusion it was.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(Yep!...{and again--actually there was a lot of breaking up all through
this section})<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Carry on, and keep
reaching for and finding my peace.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>We are here for you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you; and let the truth prevail in
all of this--please!<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Truth does ultimately
prevail)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL: <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It really does.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is what prevails.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But as we realize on our level, and you
come to learn on your level, that while God’s will does prevail on the Supreme
and Ultimate levels of cosmic reality--as well as the Absolute and Infinite--it
does not always on the finite and material.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is the nitty-gritty at its
grittiest; but that is the very essence of your free will, of the finite
creature’s ability to--in the extreme--even choose to cease to exist.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So God’s will does not always obtain in
your finite, personal experience of life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>That too is part of the necessity I talked about, the necessity on your
part, my children, to realize this and hopefully, with all your heart and soul
and will, and even joyful acceptance, glory in what might seem to be the hardest
gift of our Father to you all.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Call
it: being human.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This was something
I too had to experience as the Supreme/Ultimate price to pay for my very status
as a Master Creator Son of God.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It
became a bottomless font of appreciation for me.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And both Mother Spirit and I are
fulfilled that so many of our children--almost without exception--do earn on
their own that selfsame realization and appreciation of--all--they’ve had to
undergo.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>My peace be with you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>