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<P><FONT size=4>DATE:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> November 16,
2008<BR><B>LOCATION:</B> Albuquerque, NM<BR><B>T/R:
</B>Gerdean<BR><B>TEACHER:</B> Merium<BR><B>TOPIC:</B> The Religious
Hangover</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>MERIUM:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Good afternoon, friends of mine,
this is Merium, friend of yours. </FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Group: </FONT></B><FONT size=4>Hi, Merium. Welcome.
</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>MERIUM:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Hi and welcome. It's good to be
in your company once more. "Glory, glory hallelujah!" Would that I could sing! I
would entertain you with music which you so enjoy. As it is, our musical
accompaniment today will have to be one of our imaginations. We could, however,
say a prayer. Would you like to say a prayer for the record?</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Men-O-Pah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Yes. "Our Father, we thank
you for this beautiful day that you have made. We rejoice in it and we praise
your holy name. And we thank you, Father, that we are here together and your
promise to us that where two or three are gathered together, there shall you be.
And so we ask you to guide our thoughts and give our mentors the words that we
need to hear. We ask these things in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen."</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Group:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Amen!</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>MERIUM:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Due to the intimate nature of
today's group, I thought perhaps we could enjoy some more interaction, a little
less lecturing on my part and a little more contribution on your part. Teacher
Aaron is very adept at drawing people out by asking questions, finding themes
that elicit generous responses. I'll follow his lead.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>I'll begin by introducing an idea, the idea being the Religious
Hangover. "The religious hangover?" You might inquire. "Whatever does that
mean?" Well, it's a reference to the lessons we've been receiving from
Andromadeus on the sundry kinds of angels, and most recently "the angels of the
churches," the religious guardians, speaking to that quality of cultural
conditioning that you have received through your exposure to organized
religion.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>I know all of you here present have and continue to have some
degree of association with organized religion and/or residue conditioning, marks
on your soul and psyche. Most of them, of course, are to the good and
advantageous, for the very nature of gathering together in His name seeking
guidance and inspiration from On High is a positive action, one which is
stimulated by your own indwelling God Fragment, which yearns to become all that
it can be and share its reality with others of similar temperament, and so it is
that religionists all enjoy the prospect of coming together with other
religionists to share in the spirit.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>As the experience of association with evolved religions becomes
a part of your consciousness, and as you seek for edification and further
insight into your spiritual nature, you are able to let go of those things which
no longer serve, and that is what I would like to focus on today if you will
indulge me. Let me point out that it is not expected for these to disappear in
the blinking of any eye, but they will become less prominent as you consciously
unleash your hold on those practices which once held humanity in its grasp that
are no longer appropriate. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>By now your minds should be teeming with examples from your own
experience, perhaps, or from the general knowledge of advancing mores. And so I
am going to open the floor to you now to cite some of these examples to
contribute to the theme, if you are so inclined. [Pause]</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Men-O-Pah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> When I was a small boy, my
family were staunch Southern Baptist, and they held to a few things that I've
since -- and they, too, I think -- have decided they're not appropriate any
longer. One of things was the closed communion, which they practiced in the
taking of the Lord's Supper only by the members of that particular congregation.
If you were an outsider in that congregation at the time that meal was served,
they excluded you. You were not allowed to take communion. I believe that the
Lord's table is huge and is meant to encompass everyone. "Whosoever will."
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Also, in our own church, the one we are in now, the Church of
the Good Shepherd, the United Church of Christ, we have at least a half a dozen
gay couples in that church, men and women. And we have a few Indians, like
myself. And we have one black couple and I wish there were more like those two
people; they're really loving people. That would not have been allowed in the
old Southern Baptist Church. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>If I remember, when I was a teenager that old church burned and
we went together and we built it back, and when the church was finally built
back we had another pastor, and there was an old colored minister who came down
from Carbondale, Illinois, which is the home of Southern Illinois University, my
alma mater. And he came down and offered to preach us a sermon and they wouldn't
let him do it. They wouldn't allow him to preach. And I think, you know, when
that service was over, he stood out in the north exit of that old church and he
shook hands with everybody that came by, and I think, you know, there is a
scripture, in Mark, that all of us have a burning coal on the top of our head.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Those are a few of the things that … I'm not sure about the
Southern Baptists anymore. I haven't been in a Southern Baptist Church in a good
many years now, but I think that they have probably waived at least some of
those concepts that they had before -- the closed communion, at least. I don't
know whether they would allow gay people to be members of their church, or a
black man to preach. I don't know. I certainly hope they would. </FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>MERIUM:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> And so you have
recovered.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Men-O-Pah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Somewhat. I feel like I'm on
the path.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>MERIUM:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> How about you, Thoroah, have you
an example that comes to mind?</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Thoroah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Oh, yeah. And I can say that
I'm pretty much through my religious hangover. There was a large cloud that
shrouded my experience, my religious experience that I pursued most of my life
-- got contorted, appropriately so when I got involved with organized religion.
The whole realizing of the concept of the original sin, when I was old enough to
understand what they were talking about, and the idea that we were still paying
for the "original sin." </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>I was thinking about that the other day and it's the same
situation. It's like the issue in this country of slavery, that blaming
contemporary people for the advent of slavery into this country is just about as
big a stretch as blaming you and me and all our contemporaries for the original
sin. It doesn't make any sense. Now, as far as what the "original sin" might
represent and people who represent the error of those ways, now that still
exists, but living under that shroud of Original Sin is no longer an issue and
that's just one of many parts of the hangover that gone for me.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>MERIUM:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Yes, that's a big one. It keeps
you subservient and submissive to the point where it is impossible to lift
yourself up to the noble heights of sonship. Gerdean, what about you? Do you
have a religious hangover?</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Gerdean:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Well, yes! I can't imagine
anyone not being indoctrinated in a way of life from which you have emerged
without having some experiential wisdom, but mine would be perhaps social in
nature, rather than religious, and it has to do with counting noses. I remember
in church everybody -- well, not everybody -- <I>the women</I> would inquire,
"Well, where's Grace today?" "Where's George?" "Did you talk to Jenny?" or "Did
you ask Mabel if she's coming?" as if to say we needed to keep an eye on
everyone out of concern for them, but it seemed like meddling. And so I never
liked that practice. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>And even today, like with our group, I don't like to meddle in
why people don't come or -- I don't want to call to find if they are coming.
It's a throw back to those early days of</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>conditioning from the church. It's awkward because part of me
certainly does want to know and certainly does want them to be there, and yet
that "hangover" still exists, and it's like … "I'm not going to call them. I am
not going to ask them. I am not going to care whether they are there or not,"
although, of course, I do. And so I guess you could say I still suffer from that
hangover. If that's the kind of thing you're talking about, or if that
counts.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>I think, when you were talking earlier, I was thinking more
about the hangover that Abraham must have had, having to do with sacrifice,
because he was told by Machiventa that sacrifice was not necessary, that our
Father did not require sacrifice, and yet he continued to sacrifice for years,
"just in case." What I find interesting is that these things have such
long-range effects because it was a long, long time ago that I heard Grace and
Mabel talking about who was and who was not at church and even longer when
Abraham was sacrificing, but we still are affected by those things, like eating
meat on Friday. That was a restraint the Catholics were under until they decided
it was okay to eat meat on Friday.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Paula:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> I didn't know they
did.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Gerdean:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Well, I'm not Catholic, so I
don't really know for sure but I think I've heard something to that
effect.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Thoroah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> George Carlin wanted to know if
that was retroactive. (Chuckles)</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Gerdean:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> That's my contribution. Thank
you.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Men-O-Pah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> In addition to the concept
that Thoroah was speaking of, the doctrine of original sin, to tag a newborn
babe who has just popped from his mother's womb and right away you take and
baptize that baby who has committed no sin whatever, and the notion that the sin
of Adam and Eve can be passed onto that baby is absolutely ludicrous. I think
God is a lot smarter than that. But for a long time, you know, I thought that
sin came down to me. I really did. And I comported myself accordingly. But I
like to think that I have learned better.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Thoroah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> And the irony of that is that
when you're tired of feeling guilty about something, there are those that are
going to be there in organized fashion to make you feel guilty about not feeling
guilty.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Men-O-Pah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Yeah. I think I told you
about the old principle Cherokee Chief "Charlie" [Tsa-li], back in the 1700s,
perhaps even before then, when the Christian missionaries started branching out
in the colonies and taking the message to the native people, the Indians, and
they remarked to Charlie that, you know, the sin of Adam and Eve was passed on
to him and he thought that because of that the people crucified Christ, that it
was absolutely necessary that he be a sacrifice to remove that original sin from
us. And Charlie said, "No, no, no." He said, "We never would do such a thing as
that." He said, "If Jesus came to us, we would invite him in and sit him down
and we'd have a feast together. We would never do such a thing." And so even
back all those years, at the time of Charlie, there are a few people that knew
better and so, progress is sort of slow.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Thoroah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Well, consider that we are all
-- in one form or another -- pretty much a product, at least in part, of
Europeans. (Yeah) And so all of the European traditions, and we know from our
history books that there has been a lot of volatility somewhere between
Jerusalem and Scotland there has been a lot of volatility in religion, and it
has been basically oppressive and divisive, and all of those traditions -- our
family's family and their family's family and so on and so on -- they come with
us, and we have to shed those things as we-- and, you know, it's difficult
because you feel very much isolated sometimes, but when the facts stare you in
the face and you have enough conviction of your own belief, your own personal
knowledge and awareness and wisdom, you know, when you get to that point then
you are not intimidated by the churches … dogma, and so on. It's a great
freedom.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Men-O-Pah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Absolutely it is. Hallelujah.
</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Thoroah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Yes. Glory.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>MERIUM:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Paula, do you have an example to
cite?</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Paula:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> I was just thinking about when I
was a kid. My Aunt Stella lived across the street from us and she was a staunch
Catholic and she married Uncle Bill who was a wishy-washy Protestant who
probably saw the church once a year, if that often, and the kids, they didn't
know how to stop having kids, they just kept having them. She had six children;
she had two boys and four girls, and the youngest boy was a year younger than me
and Buddy was determined to see if he couldn't get me in a position where I
would get spanked if I did something I wasn't supposed to do and he was always
hoping that he could catch me in something and then he would run and he'd tell
Daddy, and he would say, "Uncle Charlie! She did this, she did that" to see if I
could get punished and he hoped I would, and my father wasn't averse to
spanking. He thought that was good for kids, and I can remember some good hot
spankings where I got really, really mad afterwards, mad at my father because he
could spank real hard, and-- I got em because I was an only child, they didn't
want me to think that I could get away with murder, and so when I did something
bad, I got it, just like any other kid. And I used to just hate my father when
that happened, and it took me a long time after he had spanked me good and hard
to get to the point where I could even tolerate him around me, and yet as the
years went by and I got over all that stupid stuff, I realized what a really
great person my father was.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>And then he got killed in an accident. When he and mother had
been on vacation up in New England, they had a wonderful time, and they were on
the last lap going home and this woman and her … I don't know, her husband, I
guess, was with her -- they came out of the side road that was on the main
highway and they were driving in a car that should not have been on the road
because the brakes didn't work, so she came barreling out the side, hit the car,
Dad went through the front windshield and landed on the pavement ahead. He lived
for something like eleven hours. Never came to. And to this day, I hate that
woman and I will always hate her and that's a terrible thing to carry with you,
but she caused my father to die when he was only in his 50's and he was a
wonderful person and I just adored the ground the man walked on, even though I
was like all kids, I defied him every so often and then I got a good swift thing
right on the seat of my pants where it needed to be, but I have never been able
to forgive that woman. She was driving a car that should not have been on the
road. She had no way to stop. He had the right of way and she went Ka-boing! And
he went through the windshield. That was so terrible.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>MERIUM: </FONT></B><FONT size=4>Yes, that was a hangover that
has left you with a throbbing headache. I have talked with you about that
situation before and it's just something you will have to live with, as many
choose to live with f acts of life that are unacceptable. However, you do point
out an interesting thing, that relating to your cousin.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Paula:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> What?</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>MERUM:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Children today -- adult children
-- are very much the same. They seem to want to get others in trouble for their
beliefs. You have told the story -- I believe it was that cousin who had
derogatory remarks to make about your being Protestant, as being outside the
loop, outside the favored few, outside that which is acceptable, and that is a
practice that is still quite popular today - each religion enjoying a certain
sanctimonious preferment. This is certainly a religious hangover. It was in
existence in the days of Christ. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Remember the story of James and John's mother who came to Jesus
and asked that her sons be given preferment in the kingdom. She obviously did
not understand the true nature of the kingdom. She perceived it as a finite
kingdom, a temporal kingdom, and in fact it is a spiritual kingdom. Similar to,
perhaps, in politics people will ask for the plum positions on a cabinet or a
committee. This is simply a part of the process of evolution, and rather than
causing consternation, rejoice that you have the ability to understand why it is
that people segregate themselves from each other, alienate themselves from those
with whom they do not agree, do not want to be aligned. As the centuries go by,
these differences subside because the oneness of humanity and the harmony of
your differences begin to take precedence over the wearying effects of petty
rivalries and petty politics. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Congratulations to those of you who have drunk deep of the
living waters such that you have been able to see how your mind had been
befogged. Be compassionate now as you look around and see the suffering that
goes on among those who retain their pain, who loyally subscribe to that which
serves only to discomfort them. Glory indeed, glory to that spirit that allows
you the liberty that Jesus meant to convey when he came here to set the captives
free. Setting the captives free is an intricate task, one that requires
conscientious and painstaking application. There are some who would hate you for
trying to ease their pain. And so you must know when to act. You must know when
to inquire after someone's attendance and not merely make a nuisance of yourself
or meddle with the souls of others. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Well, I have certainly enjoyed our conversation this afternoon.
I'm open to other conversations or further aspects of this one. I will let you
decide. </FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Thoroah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Gerdean had an interesting
query yesterday, and it is that, just a query and not all that serious in nature
but we were curious about Andromadeus and his relationship with Andromeda.
</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>MERIUM:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> Yes, there is a connection,
similar to how heaven and Havona are connected. It has to do with context of
galactic positioning. Andromeda is more of a place; Andromadeus is not
necessarily from Andromeda, nor of the Andromeda strain. The Andromadeus
[Andromeda deus] "deus" leaves it more toward spirit energy and reality, and
also the term Andromadeus alludes to music, the music of the spheres.
</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Thoroah:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> That would be something to get
our mind around right there - the music of the spheres.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>MERIUM:</FONT></B><FONT size=4> It would indeed, and it is
difficult for me to convey certain concepts to your ears, concepts that your
mind is incapable of grasping from your finite state. Galaxies are fixed in
space but music can traverse the spheres and harmony reaches all the way to
Paradise. It would be an interesting study for those of you sci-fi buffs and
cosmology buffs. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>There is also a word forming here in the mind, Amadeus, that
might add some flavor to your studies should you be so inclined. It is this
stimulation of the imagination that endears you to me and to each other. It
lifts you up out of the basic maintenance mode of living and launches you into
the -- (Would you please check the tape? [Tape turned]) -- launches you into the
kind of thought that liberates you from the confines of the mortal estate.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>And, like we discussed today, venturing into new realms of
thinking and perceiving is how we break away from those old constraints that
held us bound by ignorance and prejudice into the freedom of light and life.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>I will bid you a fond adieu with my thanks and our thanks for
your attendance this afternoon and our undying affection for all that you are,
all that you have been and all that you will be. Good afternoon.
Bye-bye.</FONT></P><B>
<P><FONT size=4>Group: </FONT></B><FONT size=4>Thank you.
</FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>