Author: Don Butler

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Introducing Your Friend For Life

Chi – Universal Life Force

Chi, also written as Qi or Ki, is the Chinese word for the life force energy that flows through you. The ancient Taoist masters described Chi as the “energy glue” unifying your mind, your body and your spirit. It is the link between your inner and outer self.

I love acronyms. I frequently concoct them when I am attempting to remember a series of words or concepts. Along the way in my life, I came up with an acronym to describe the five basic areas of desire in my life. The irony was not lost when I observed that the first letter of each of these areas of desire spelled out the acronym “Mr. Chi”. Thus began my lifetime friendship with this gentleman of guidance.

Meet Your New Friend For Life

Have you ever heard someone say, “I really don’t know what I want”. Perhaps you have even said it yourself pertaining to a certain situation. In any case, Universal Law always acts on your belief in whatever your inner vision is (your desire). If your vision is blurred or conflicting, you experience blurriness or conflicting results in your life’s circumstances.

Without clear vision, your circumstances are sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes neither. They go up and down like the jagged lines on a company sales chart. In order for you to receive what you want, you need to know with clarity what it is that you desire to experience.

Allow me to introduce you to a loyal friend who goes by the name of Mr. Chi. He can be one of the best friends that you will ever have. Mr. Chi is an acronym for the following five basic areas of desire in life. These areas are: (1) money (M), (2) relationships (R), (3) career (C), (4) health (H), and (5) intercession (I). Take a few minutes. Examine each one of those five areas of desire from several different angles. Upon reflection, you will see that they encompass everything that you could desire in your lifetime.

Without Vision, The People Perish

The book of Proverbs states the following: “Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he”. Your happiness in life hinges on your choice to follow or not follow Universal Law. A man who overcame much in order to achieve much was George Washington Carver. He stated in his writings: “Where there is no vision, there is no hope”.

In life, you are aimlessly driving in circles, unless you know where you want to go. Create your vision of where you want to go. Then, apply Universal Law in order to get there. Vision. Belief. Fulfillment. Believe, with all the inner energy that you can muster, that you now stand at your destination.

No matter where you feet happen to be standing currently, you must somehow find a way to believe that you are, in fact, there right now. Do this, free of doubt, on a sustained basis. Do this, free of doubt, and Universal Law will impartially respond and get you there. If you can hold it in your mind, you will hold it in your hand.

Money

The first primal area of desire is in the realm of earning money. Money is merely a useful tool created by society in order to allow you to procure items that you require or desire. Money is used to satisfy both your needs and your wants. Most human beings need to engage in weekly activity in order to obtain money.

Those who inherit money or depend on money earned by others still are not exempt from work activity. The individual who inherits money must do whatever is necessary to remain in the good graces of the one who will be leaving them the money. A tragic example of this is illustrated by the Twilight Zone episode, “The Masks”. The person who is dependent on another’s earnings runs the risk that they will have to cowtow to the will of the person possessing the money or risk losing access to that money.

Numero Uno

I do not believe that I would be incorrect in stating that having more money is probably the number one desire of a large majority of people in the world today. In poverty-stricken countries, the desire for more money would be merely to better ensure basic survival. In countries of middle or high income, the desire would be for upgrading those things that they currently possess.

Things that money is used for includes such things as housing, transportation, food, water, clothing, shoes, heating, cooling, healthcare, cellphones, internet, higher education, charitable contributions, tools of various sorts, household furniture, and childcare. In addition to needs, money is also used for wants, including, jewelry, high-end vehicles and appliances, vacations, travel, all manner of hobbies and avocations, collectibles, cosmetic surgery, hair restoration, liquor, lodging renovations and upgrades, pets, entertainment and all manner of miscellany.

Further things that humans use money for is to feed various addictions (tobacco, drugs, prostitutes, etc.), ego satisfaction (lording it over others the amount of money that they have) and the use of money to exercise control over other human beings.

Can You See It?

Regardless of how you decide to use money, you need a vision. By this I mean a vision of what you want and why you want it. Next create a vision of the amount of money required to satisfy your desires. For instance, if you say that you want more money, this may bring about the results of you finding a penny on the street unless you make your vision clear.

Create in your mind a picture, a clear vision. Then, with a ferocious intent, act on your vision by steadily increasing your faith. Come to believe that your vision is, in fact, your true reality. Consequently, the money, or the things that you would buy with money, will come.

Relationships

The first thing many people think of when they hear the word relationship is the one which a person has with a romantic partner. In addition to this relationship however, the area of relationships covers a great many other types as well. Human beings engage in many types of relationships. First, and the most important of all, is your relationship with God. You are a sentient being created to be an expression of Universal Mind. Explore this relationship fully.

Next there comes a plethora of additional relationships. Each one contains a desire on your part. You desire each relationship to conform to your vision. In addition to your spiritual connection to Universal Subconscious Mind, you have these other relationships: with your spouse or romantic partner, with your parents, with your relatives, with your children, with your friends, with your neighbors, with your employer, with your co-workers, with your teachers, with your fellow students, with casual acquaintances, with strangers, with people you would rather avoid and with Mother Nature. Finally, you have that relationship second only to your relationship to your Creator, the relationship you have with yourself.

How do you desire each of these relationships to be? The word “good” does not qualify as an appropriate response. Do you visualize in your mind what you desire out of each of these relationships? Or do you allow stored memories and circumstances to run the show? Likewise, if any of these relationships are troublesome, create a vision of what you desire instead. Then proceed to believe your vision above everything else.

Career

People usually associate the word “career” with going to college or trade school, getting a degree or certification, then getting an appropriate job in that field. Your ongoing career may involve a number of employers. Likewise, it may involve more than one field of employment. Then you retire, grab as many years as you can in post-employment mode, then you get sick and die. Almost everyone has to spend a certain amount of time each week in order to earn money. Some love their job. Some look at their career as their identity.

There are many others that look at career simply as a suitable means of earning money so that the rent, mortgage, and bills can get paid. In these cases, it is a means to an end. This person may make the statement, “I’d rather be playing golf but if I didn’t go to work, I would be sitting on a street corner asking for donations”.

Still others come to hate their careers. These people go to work with a knot in their stomach. They feel great frustration as they leave their house for work each day. Every day they go to work, they feel trapped.

Mr. Chi would ask all of these people a question. What vision are you taking the time to create with regard to how you spend your life? Career can be defined as how you spend every waking moment of your life. If you are skilled in lucid dreaming, it includes your sleeping time as well. If you have no clear vision, then that is precisely what you are going to receive. Circumstances will push you this way, then that way.

Health

In creating a vision of good health, the same thing as is true as in the other areas of desire. Dwell in the Kingdom of God. Focus your thoughts on Universal Mind. Refuse to dwell on whatever infirmity you have. Mr. Pain has a way of slapping you around so that you only think of him. Your goal is to remediate the pain. Until you are able to do that, you may have to take his slapping you around. However, refuse to allow him to take your thoughts as well. Even if, in your pain, you can only summon up the word “God” over and over again in your mind, then so be it. Do it.

If you are currently in good health, refuse to entertain the unwelcome visitors of doubt and worry. Refuse to even crack open the door when they come knocking. Tell them that you are busy and do not have time for them today. Tell them the same when they return tomorrow. Let them know that you are busy dwelling on God so you do not have any time to spare for them. The undynamic duo of doubt and worry never bring you anything that you want. Spend the time they would have taken up by creating a vision of yourself in good health. That will always bring you better results than spending time with the gruesome twosome.

Intercession

This area of desire includes every possible avenue of helping someone that you desire to help. This includes the use of: your time, your money, your possessions, your skills, your connections, your prayer, and your vision that you create of them. If they are poor, envision them prosperous. If they are sick or injured, envision them well. Are they without a job? Envision them gainfully employed. Regarding the person who is down, envision them living in a place of love.

Your created image of them does have an effect on Universal Mind. Use utmost care regarding how you envision a person that you desire to help. See them, not in their current adverse circumstances, but in circumstances where they are experiencing fulfillment in all five facets of their lives (Mr. Chi). If you are versed in the art of scientific mind treatments, then by all means, do so on their behalf. Then, just as you would do for yourself, believe and walk in faith.

Vision And Belief Result In Your Life’s Circumstances

I treasure my daily visit with Mr. Chi. As I set about writing my plan for the day and week, he is always there, reminding me of my vision for every facet of my life. Call time out. Sit for a period of time in silence each day. Remove yourself from distractions. Close your eyes. Form your vision for all five facets of Mr. Chi. Believe that your vision represents truth. Persist. A lurking villian in manifesting failures is lack of persistence. Refuse to give up to anything or anyone except Universal Mind.

In this life of yours, you have only two things that you can actually do for yourself. They are conceive (your thoughts creating the vision) and believe (faith in that vision as real). All the details are handled via the devices of Universal Mind.

Conceive. Believe. Receive.

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8 Billion Opportunities To Express Universal Mind

Population Of The World 2022

In a United Nations report released this year on World Population Day, the population of the world is projected to reach 8 billion by the end of 2022. The report stated that the population of 61 countries is projected to decrease by 1 % or more between 2022 and 2050. Despite this however, population surges in Africa and the Indian sub-continent will push the world to that 8 billion mark.

John Wilmoth, director of the United Nations Population Department, stated that the current global average life expectancy has increased to 72.8 years. That is a nine year increase from a similar report issued in 1990. I am an average guy. I guess that gives me about three more years or so. As you may have guessed, the percent share of the total global population of old people (over 65) is growing. The oldsters, now one tenth of the world’s humans, will be almost one sixth of all humans by 2050.

Good News, Bad News

One problem with the relentless growth of older people as a percentage of the global population is healthcare. The elderly is the segment of the population statistically needing it the most. Let’s face it, the older you get, the more your body breaks down. When it breaks down enough, you die.

There is however a major benefit of the increased longevity of human beings. Living longer means that every additional year of life that a person gets means that they have additional time to discover their true power as a unique expression of the Divine.

Every Person Is An Expression

There is one Universal Mind – God. Through this Universal Mind you live, and move, and have your being. This year, on planet earth, there will be 8 billion individualizations of Universal Mind. Each of these individualizations have conscious minds. Almost every one of these conscious minds has the ability and freedom to direct thoughts and feelings into the Universal Subconscious Mind. The Subconscious Mind then acts to bring to reality those thoughts and feelings held in absolute belief.

Universal Mind, from which we have all originated and exist, creates whatever you think and believe as true. Universal Mind creates what you think and feel about your neighbor. Likewise, Universal Mind creates what your neighbor thinks and feels about you. God is impartial. Universal Law is impartial. It inexorably acts upon human thought and feeling. Humans are an expression of the Divine.

Look at the second most important commandment of Jesus: “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. As you regard your neighbor, so shall it be done to him. In conjunction with that, as your neighbor regards you, so shall it be done to you. You may say, “Well my neighbor hates me but I am still successful. What about that”? Where there are conflicting thoughts, Universal Subconscious Mind always acts on the thoughts and feelings where there is the greatest faith and belief.

So What Are You Expressing These Days?

Almost everyone has heard the saying, “As you sow, so shall you reap”. It is widely known as a universal law of life. It is also one of the world’s most misunderstood maxims. Religious “authorities” have for centuries put forth the idea that this saying refers primarily to our existence in the hereafter. That is a basic misunderstanding of the content of that law. The sowing (or planting) and reaping (or harvesting) speaks strictly of the spiritual law of cause and effect.

The thoughts and feelings that you plant in the garden of Subconscious Mind will ultimately yield a harvest. It will be either weeds, stunted plants or beautiful fruit and blossoms. It all depends on what you believe as true.

You Are Free

Every minute of your lifetime, you are free. This is a wonderful miracle. It is also an enduring mystery. While you are in fact a infinitesimal part of Universal Mind, you are also free to choose your thoughts and feelings. Otherwise you would merely be a mindless marionette with no manner or means of expressing the Divine. When you use your freedom to express love and all of its derivative permutations, you are expressing the Divine. When you use your freedom to express fear and all of its derivative permutations, you are expressing error.

One avenue of expression leads you to growth and expansion of your consciousness. The other avenue of expression stunts your growth and leads to regression. What exactly are you expressing these days? What do you desire to express? The choice is yours. It always has been, You were created in that manner. Unless you agree to let the controllers microchip you and gain control over your brain’s neurons, the choice will always be yours.

Through A Glass Darkly

In the famous chapter 13 of the book of First Corinthians, there is a phrase uttered by the apostle Paul, “For now we see through a glass, darkly”. The glass that is referred to is a looking glass or mirror. The word darkly means without full understanding. Young’s Literal Translation of this verse is “we see through a mirror obscurely”. This phrase comes from the Greek (blepomen gar arti di esoptrou en ainigmati). The New International Version translation states, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror”. The Good News Bible has it “what we see now is a dim image in a mirror”.

Mirrors in the days of Paul were actually made of polished metal, not glass. Mirrors of the time contained imperfections and distortions. Some things were clearly reflected. Some portions of the reflection had distortions somewhat like a fun house mirror. The more that we dedicate our lives to expressing Divine Law in truth, the more that we will see the reflection of our self with clarity. Ultimately, with complete faith in the goodness of Eternal Mind, we will see everything clearly. For the time being however, human beliefs in error abound all over the world because “we see through a glass, darkly”.

Yes, He Definitely Said “Whatsoever”

Take the “Mr. Chi” template of the five basic human desires: money, relationships, career, health and intercession (ability to help others). It is a safe assumption that the overwhelming majority of human beings throughout the world lack something that they truly desire. Read carefully the words of Jesus – “Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and ye shall have them”.

That sounds about as clear as one can get using words to communicate. There is no shillyshally or waffling in that statement. It is definite and it is truth. If you, made in the image of the Most High, think a desire and then believe that you have already received it, it will be yours. This will come about through the natural means of the society in which you reside.

Faith (belief) is the key. If you are holding on to subtle or secret doubts, you place a blockage between you and your desire. You simply must find a way to get yourself to the point where you believe that you have received your desire even though your physical eyes do not see it. Universal Mind knows everything about you. Eternal Subconscious can plainly see every secret thought and every hidden doubt. Universal Law is impartial. If you harbor doubt, Universal Law will substantiate that doubt in your reality. Your doubt will culminate in continuing to fall short of receiving your desire. When Jesus said “whatsoever”, he meant it, for he was Truth.

Error Of Belief Expresses Evil

When I was a kid, I remember seeing some large graffiti painted on to the side of an underpass wall. It was on the way to Trenton to visit my paternal grandparents. The graffiti said “God created disease”. I asked Mom about it. She answered that there are all types of people in the world. Whoever put that there was just bitter at something.

It got me to thinking however about all sorts of evil in the world. In Sunday School they taught that God created everything. If that was true, then how could disease and poverty and evil exist. The Sunday School teacher said it was all because of the devil. I asked whether God created the devil. The answer was yes, but the devil decided to go against God. The teacher stated that God will win in the end though. After that Sunday School lesson, it was like when you are hungry and you eat a small portion of food. Your stomach is still not satisfied.

God Is All Wisdom

God is all wisdom and all knowledge. No questions to answer. No goals to achieve. God knows all there is to know and sees everything there is to see. God creates from a place of ultimate love without any knowledge of good or evil. Man’s errors of thought and belief create the suffering in the world and every type of evil. God made man with a free will. Man freely chooses what to think and what to believe. Man chooses to believe in evil. This evil then becomes real.

Man accepts the illusion of evil in his thoughts. Man has faith (belief) in the illusion of evil. Thus evil becomes a reality. As an individualization of the Divine, you think and believe in freedom as you choose. You can choose to think and believe in truth. Or you can choose to think and believe in error. Every day of your life, you make the choice.

“Resist Not Evil” Finally Understood

Another bible verse that gave me trouble was “Resist Not Evil”. Most people would grapple with this one. Should you just stand there and let evil push you around? The Sunday School teacher replied that as Christians we are always to practice the peace and presence of Christ. We must trust God and not fall into the devil’s trap of fighting evil with evil. I heard his answer but still left the table hungry.

If you look at the reality of evil being a construct of man’s error of thought, you can see more clearly what Jesus was getting at. When you resist evil, you feed the monster and increase it’s power. When you accept only the truth of the Kingdom of God within you, you starve the monster.

In his famous essay, The Golden Key, Emmet Fox touched upon this situation. He said when encountering any type of adverse circumstances, just dwell on God. Let the truth of the Most High fill up every space of your mind. In your thoughts, choose to acknowledge only God.

You always have the right to protect yourself or a loved one from harm. What “resist not evil” means is this – drawn to its logical conclusion, if every human being refused to accept the illusion of evil, it would disappear. Jesus gives you the key to dealing with evil. Use the key.

Well Yeah, Of Course It’s Hard At First

Regarding “resist not evil” you may say, “OMG, do you even realize how hard that is to do in the real world”? At first, yes. It is very hard. It is hard because it is a new and strange way of thinking. When you think about it however, it really makes perfect sense. Think of God, dwell on God and believe only in God, and you will grow in power and peace in the Kingdom of God. Think of evil, dwell on evil, believe in evil and you mistakenly give evil ever more power.

Anything new and unfamiliar is difficult at first. It is similar to learning a new skill or strengthening your body or mastering a second language. And so on. Commit yourself to dwelling only on God with consistency and persistency. It becomes easier and easier. Thus it is with “resist not evil”. You learn to express the Divine instead of error. You will find yourself dwelling in the Kingdom of God.

The Alarm Clock Is Ringing

With the exponential explosion of knowledge and technology, things could get kind of crazy in the years to come. The fat controllers of the world can perceive that more and more people are waking up. Every day more people come to understand that they are children of God, made in the image of the Almighty. They are inwardly rebelling against the controllers and discovering the truth about themselves.

People like you and me are learning that all we need to do are the only two things we can do for ourselves – conceive and believe. Conceive your desires fulfilled through your thoughts and beliefs. Believe that your desire is already fulfilled through your steadfast faith. All the details are then handled by Universal Mind. Your only responsibility is thought and belief. Through countless centuries, the bulk of humanity has been lulled to sleep by the controllers. The alarm clock is ringing. It is time to wake up now.

What The Human Mind Believes, Humankind Receives

During the course of one of his many military campaigns, one of Napoleon’s generals told him that the current circumstances were causing a lack of success. Napoleon, who was looking at a battlefield map, looked up at him and said “Circumstances? What are circumstances? I make circumstances”. And so it is with all of mankind.

“If you can believe, you will receive” is the statement of Jesus Christ. That is what the entire universe is based upon. First, use your ability to think so as to image what you desire. Second, believe with all that you are, that you have received it. That’s it. Divine Intelligence handles the rest. You create nothing. Universal Mind does everything. Be alert when Divine Intelligence presents you with something to follow up on. Universal Mind has endless ways to manifest your desire.

Listen for and watch for guidance. You cannot will something to happen on your own accord. When you have thought of and believed in your desire as fulfilled, everything you need to do will be communicated to you. Divine Mind will provide you with guidance. Once you are convinced of the reality of your manifestation, then just let it go. Your desire will manifest from Universal Mind as a result of your faith, not through any ferocious display of will on your part. What the human mind believes, humankind will receive.

Believe. Receive.

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There’s Something Strange About Time

There’s Something Strange About Time

Time – seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries. Time seems fairly simple to us humans. It moves in a forward manner, one tick of the clock at a time. It keeps going in that manner throughout all of eternity. Right? Well I’m not so sure about that. There is something strange about time. I don’t think anyone has really figured it out yet. There is more to this tick-tock character than we are able to perceive.

Einstein Sez

According to Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity, time actually slows down or speeds up depending on how fast something is moving. Nothing can move faster than the speed of light. Space and time are interconnected. By extension of this theory, a second of time is not always a second. It can be faster or it can be slower. In his writings, Einstein stated “People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion”.

Your Brain Is A Fickle Thing

Your brain, the so-called paragon of logical thinking, is as fickle as the latest trends in fashion. At one time or another, probably everyone has experienced the variability of time perception. Using a purely “Mr. Spock” type of logic, all humans should experience one minute of time the same way each and every time. It should never change. It does change however.

When you are engaged in something that you hate doing, time slows down to a crawl. Every five minutes you look at your watch and think “Is this thing broken or what”? Your brain’s perception of how time moves is causing these minutes to seem like hours. Conversely, when you are engaged in something that you enjoy doing, time moves by like a thoroughbred coming down the home stretch in the Kentucky Derby. Hours then seem like minutes. Logically, the minutes for each activity consist of the same sixty seconds. Your brain’s perception however senses time differently in each situation.

So what does this mean? It means that whatever your “now” is, whatever your “present” is, becomes all that is. The past exists only as stored memory in your brain. It is not a place in the time-space continuum that you can go to. The future is only a universe of multiple possibilities based on your actions as a result of your stored memories and your present thoughts, words, actions, feelings and beliefs.

Time Is Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock……….Not

In his famous book, The Unreality of Time, early twentieth century Cambridge philosopher, J.M. McTaggert proposed that time was unreal because our descriptions of time are either contradictory, circular or insufficient.

In current times, in his book The Order of Time, theoretical physicist Carlo Ravelli has stated that time is merely an illusion. He contends that Isaac Newton’s image of a universal ticking clock is invalid due to humankind’s inability to perceive all the microscopic details of the physical world.

Abhijit Naskar, author of Love, God and Neurons, puts forth the following about time – “Time is basically an illusion created by the mind to aid in our sense of temporal presence in the vast ocean of space. Without the neurons to create a virtual perception of the past and the future based on all of our experiences, there is no existence of the past and the future. All there is , is the present”.

So Two Muons Are Sitting At A Bar

Pursuant to the study of cosmic-ray phenomena, scientists have discovered elementary particles called muons. Muons, produced as a result of cosmic-ray showers, disintegrate spontaneously. The muon’s average existence lasts for approximately two microseconds. That is equivalent to two millionths of a second. At that point, its existence is over.

In the vast eternal scheme of things, you and I are muons, but with an eternal spirit in the image of the Most High. A human’s existence on planet earth is but a few microseconds when looked at in the context of infinite eternity. Your life, my life, all lives flash by and are then gone. Pooof. Yet we blindly putter around at this and that for most of it. We make the choice of our use of time. Then we have to live with our choice.

The book of Matthew states that wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to death. The way of life is experienced by the few who enter via the strait gate and the narrow way. Every day is a new lifetime. A precious gift to express the Most High. Treat each day as such. You will experience fulfillment that you never dreamed was possible.

So two muons are sitting at a bar nursing their mugs of craft beer and nibbling on sourdough pretzels. One says to the other, “You know, we really should get going. We got a lotta stuff to do”. The other muon says, Chill bro’, we got plenty of time”. He looks at his watch then continues, “We still got a full millionth of a second before we disintegrate”. Then turning to the bartender, says, “Another round over here Joe”.

Ultimate Day Trading

In the world of creating monetary profits from trading, there has evolved the practice of day trading. This involves the buying and selling of stocks, commodities and currencies in a very short time period. It is the opposite of the buy and hold approach. Usually the buy and sell takes place the same day. Sometimes it is all consummated within an hour’s time. The goal of the day trader is to make a multitude of trades and make a small profit on each one.

The word ultimate is defined as “the best achievable of its kind”. Forget about stocks, commodities and currencies. In order to hit the true jackpot in life you must engage in “ultimate day trading”. Ultimate day trading involves taking that twenty-fours hours of life placed into your trading account each day and investing it with the utmost wisdom.

You are here in this physical world to be a physical expression of Divine Mind. You were instilled with free will to choose. This free will explains the vast multitude of “traders” who crash and burn. Have you loved? Productively used your intelligence? Expressed truth? Abundance? Power? Compassion? Peace? Imagination? Joy? All of which are derivatives from love. Or have you chosen errors of belief resulting in the expression of qualities of a dark nature? Both are there for the taking. The choice is always yours. The results of your choices are always yours. How you spend your time brings about the circumstances that you experience in this lifetime.

Time Was Created To Measure Your Life

When you step on a scale, you measure your body weight. When you use a ruler, you measure the length of something. Time measures the fruitfulness of your lifetime. Every hour of time measures your thoughts, words, actions, feelings, beliefs. Time gives you a reference point. If everything on this plane of existence happened all at once, your brain could not handle it.

The bottom line is this: what the fuck do you really want to manifest in your life?! Whatever it is, stop procrastinating and wasting your time on stuff that does not do anything to make it happen. The construct of time is without a doubt the most precious commodity you will ever have. Spend it with wisdom. Use it in faith. Understand this – the very substance of your existence depends on it.

Believe. Receive.

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How Do You Stack Up On The 80/20 Scale

The History Of Pareto Scale

Have you ever heard of a concept called the Pareto Principle? If not, it is possible that you may have heard about it under another name- The 80/20 Rule. Management consultant Joseph Juran developed the concept of the Pareto Principle. He developed it for the purposes of organizational quality control and improvement. He picked up on the concept after reading from the works of Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. Pareto noted that 80% of the land in Italy is owned by 20% of the population.

In simple terms, the 80/20 Rule means that 80% of your beneficial results comes about from just 20% of available time resources. You get a lot of stuff accomplished in 20% of your time. You get a little bit of stuff done with 80% of your time.

Some Examples of the Pareto Principle

Let’s look at some examples of the Pareto Principle in the world today.

In the business world, there is the axiom that 80% of sales are generated by 20% of clients.

A United Nations report revealed that 80% of the world’s wealth is held by 20% of the population.

In computer science, 80% of software errors and crashes come from 20% of reported bugs.

Software developers have found that 80% of the time people use 20% of a program’s functions.

In baseball, there is a statistic that is kept called “wins above replacement”. This stat basically shows how many wins a team has with a certain player in the lineup as opposed to that player not being in the lineup. Roughly 80% of a team’s wins are achieved with 20% of the roster in the lineup.

In workplace safety, studies via the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, show that 20% of workplace hazards account for 80% of workplace injuries.

In healthcare, 20% of patients use approximately 80% of healthcare resources.

Criminal justice statistics reveals that 80% of the crimes that are committed are committed by 20% of the criminal population.

A 1988 report regarding video rental stores (remember them?) disclosed 80% of sales come from 20% of videotapes.

In my own career experience as a union representative, I definitely can attest that 80% of grievance litigation work came from 20% of the union members (who we used to refer to as “the usual suspects”).

Why Should It Even Matter To You

OK, if you were not familiar with the Pareto Principle, now you have an idea of what it is. If you already had heard of it, this was a super condensed refresher. It is possible your response may be – “So what, who cares? How does all this jazz affect me and my life”? That is a valid question.

Being continually aware of the 80/20 Rule is important to you because it can be applied to a person’s lifetime as well. Almost everybody has “stuff” that they want to accomplish in this lifetime. It matters not what the “stuff” is. You know what it is. It could be money, relationships, career, health or intercession ability or any combination thereof. Even the guy who just wants to get laid. That would fall under the category of relationships (and after he gets an STD, regaining good health).

Permit me to extrapolate the 80/20 Rule. The average person spends approximately 20% of their non-sleeping, non-working, non-eating, non-showering, non-shitting (well, you get the idea) time achieving 80% of the “stuff” that they want to achieve. The grim reaper is a particularly uncompromising fellow. You do not know when he is going to come for you. You do know that there is a limit on the amount of time that you have here in this world.

Now, applying this to the 80/20 Rule, if you get an achievement rate of 80% of what you were going for by using only 20% of your available time, what do you think would happen if, during your entire lifetime, you just as productively used 25%, 30%, even 35% of your available time over your lifetime. You more than likely would surpass what you ever imagined was possible.

Yeah, But…….

“Yeah but” you say, “I need some down time, some goofing off time in my life. I’m not a robot or something”. Even if you pushed up effective usage of your available time to 35%, that would still give you almost two thirds of all the available time in your life to goof off. The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said many moons ago, “To say I don’t have time is to say I don’t want to”.

Time Use Defines Who You Are

Which type are you? Are you the one who says, “God did not give me a spirit of fear, but of love, of power and of discipline”. Or are you the one who says, “I wonder what’s new on Tik Tok?” Are you fully engaged in the disciplined process of clarifying your desires and creating an inner crystal clear image of them? If so, you must prioritize your spending of time in the direction of your heart’s desires rather than the thousand and one distractions that the world throws at you. Ultimately, the way in which you use your available time defines who you are.

For every decade that you live in this earth dimension, your perspective on time changes. In your youth you go through the “I’m going to live forever” stage. In middle-age, you notice time moving faster and say to yourself, “Seems like only yesterday that I was 20, but I still have time to work with”. In your old age, you say to time, “Damnit, slow down, you’re driving too fast”!

The thing about time is this – It is completely free, but at the same time it is beyond putting a value on it. You can spend every “penny” of time that you get but you can’t store any of it away. Once you have spent your hour, your day, your year, your decade, you can never get it back, it’s gone.

Alright let’s say that you have lived your designated amount of years. The grim reaper is walking up the sidewalk to your front door. You did achieve some stuff but other stuff was left undone or you screwed up. You had successes. You had failures. How much of your life conformed to the 80/20 Rule? How much could you have done that was left undone through a misuse of time? Start today to really look at how you are spending your available time. The substance of your life depends on it.

Dammit, Can I get a Re-Do?

When your body stops functioning and your spirit moves on to the next realm, you will have an opportunity to review your life here on earth from start to finish. Everything in your life will be reviewed from several different perspectives. You will not only see happenings and events from your viewpoint. You will also see and feel how your thoughts, words and actions affected all the primary people in your life. You will see how careless words negatively affected a human soul. You will see how a seemingly insignificant kind action on your part positively affected a human soul. You will see and feel – everything. The entire process will be monitored by higher evolved spirits (No, they won’t be piping in and saying, “You jerk, why did you do that”.).

After a certain point in my own life review, I can imagine myself blurting out, “Dammit, can I get a re-do or something”? Whereupon the monitor smacks my hand with a ruler saying, “We don’t swear around here”. That image reminds me of that scene in the movie, The Blues Brothers when Belushi and Ackroyd are visiting the nun. She explains that the orphanage is in a bind and needs help in the form of money. The Belushi character offers to help and his offer is rejected by the nun. Belushi then says, ” Well, I guess your up shit creek”. She promptly smacks him on the hand with a ruler. This causes him to curse again in pain which then causes the nun to continue smacking him. This goes on hilariously until while attempting to retreat back to his car, he tumbles down the stairs while still seated in a way too small for him school desk. She tells both of them not to return until they have redeemed themselves. Thereupon is the basis for his and Ackroyd’s further adventures.

Strait Is The Gate

Have you ever heard someone use the expression, “From now on I’m going to stay on the strait and narrow”. You may see it spelled “straight and narrow” but strait is the correct word. Strait means narrow or constricted. It is where we get the words straitjacket and straitlaced.

What this phrase means is that when someone follows the strait and narrow, they are making every effort to conduct their life according to Universal Law. Universal Law which has been set into action by God.

The actual phrase is taken from the biblical text in the book of Matthew – “Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”.

In consciously manifesting into this physical world your dreams and desires, be aware of this: that the majority of the world’s population productively uses but 20% of their available precious time to bring about most of what they want to accomplish. The other 80% of available time is by and large wasted. Is just observing and appreciating a bird or a flower or a cloud wasting your time? No. Is gossip and backbiting and jealousy and worry and violence and spite wasting your time? Yes.

Each day requires you to go to work, to school, to attend to family needs, to attend to personal needs, to eat, to sleep. After all the necessaries are done however, comes your available time. In the next twelve months, endeavor to take that 20% effective usage of your time and bump it up to 25% or even 30%. Take that additional time and devote it totally to thoughts, words and actions which will lead you to consciously manifest your inner greatness. Within you is the Kingdom of God which patiently awaits your arrival.

Who knows? If you devote enough of your allotment of time to aligning yourself with Universal Intelligence, the I AM, you may not even be required to have to do a re-do like me.

Believe. Receive.

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A New Declaration Of Independence

Independence Day – July 4, 1776

July 4, 1776, is a monumental date in the history of the United States of America. It was on that date that representatives from all thirteen colonies approved the final wording of a formal and irrevocable severing of all ties to the kingdom of Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence, signed by fifty six representatives, was the document that officially changed the thirteen colonies into a new, independent country, the thirteen United States of America.

The United States Declaration of Independence subsequently became a model for similar documents all over the world. President Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his policies during the Civil War. One particular sentence in the document became one of the world’s most well-known statements of human rights. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. The word unalienable means “that which cannot be given away or taken away”.

What Happened Next?

The representatives of the thirteen colonies, now referred to as the Founding Fathers, then had the document published and distributed all throughout the thirteen colonies. Any remaining colonial legislatures still operating with nominal loyalty to Great Britain were declared null and void. New representative legislatures were established in their place.

The body of the representatives, the Second Continental Congress, sent the Declaration to King George III of Great Britain. Both he and Parliament immediately denounced it as invalid. He proceeded with mobilizing British troops as well as hiring German mercenaries to crush the rebellion. A state of war commenced. It took until 1783 for Great Britain to finally call it quits and put an end to the war. They recognized the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

John Adams, the second president of the United States and one of the leaders of the independence movement, stated, in a letter to his wife, Abigail: “I am apt to believe that (Independence Day) will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more”. And so it has.

Every year, throughout the United States, on the national holiday of the Fourth of July, there are parades, special events and games, picnics, barbeques, and especially fireworks displays (or illuminations as John Adams referred to them). As a child, I clearly remember that the crowning highlight of Independence Day was attending the fireworks display in the evening.

Your Own Declaration Of Independence

If you have not already done so, the time is now for you to put forth your own declaration of independence. I speak of a declaration of your own personal independence. Independence from the thoughts, the words, the emotions, the beliefs of other people affecting your thoughts, your feelings, your beliefs. It is time to fully claim your inalienable right to live as a sovereign human being.

The American people, by and large, have become dependent on other people, places, and “powers that be” to inform, control and direct how they choose to think and live their lives. You look at the obscene cost of housing, the obscene cost of health care, the obscene cost of a college education. You then turn to politicians and bureaucrats who are incapable of doing much of anything except receive large campaign donations and large fees from giving speeches. All they do is borrow more money from China to shore up the economy. Ignorance, violence and greed are in the process of manhandling America. In the meantime you await the next football game kickoff or the next clearance sale. You do this in between mindless drudgery at the workplace while you continue pedaling faster and faster just to remain in place. All the while there is a little tickle in the very recesses of your mind that pleadingly says “there just has to be some way out of this effing quagmire, there just has to be”.

Well friend, I bear good news. There is most assuredly a way out. It all starts by declaring within yourself your own personal declaration of independence. A glorious and fulfilling independence from the controllers of this world. I tell you this most earnestly from my own life that I have experienced brief tastes and sips of true freedom from the controllers of the world. It is a feeling of ultimate pleasure that cannot be described and should be felt by every human being on the face of the earth. It is life.

Why only sips and tastes? The answer to that is easy. I am a flawed individual who gets swayed by fears and illusions just like everyone else. It is something that I humbly work on each and every day. God has graciously given me the power to manifest despite those flaws. It is something that I will be continually working on until my last breath.

The Mystery Of Independence Thru Dependence

You can do nothing better than to rest each day in the Kingdom of God within. The more you relent and simply dwell on He Who Is All, the more free you will feel. The more that you release your grasp on using your own devices to solve problems, the greater will be your ability to find solutions. The more dependent on Universal Mind that you allow yourself to be, the more independent of a person you become – independent of the controllers of this world. It is an enigma, wrapped in a puzzle, wrapped in a mystery. The greater the dependence, the greater the independence.

From the biblical book of Proverbs in the Old Testament comes this statement: Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge God and He shall direct your paths.

Who is this Lord that you are supposed to put all your trust in? Who is this God that you are directed to acknowledge in all of your ways? It sure as hell is not the hundred and one limited false gods put forth by the world. God is unknowable and transcendent over all. God is Ultimate Intelligence, Ultimate Wisdom, Ultimate Power – the I AM that I AM.

You Can Do Nothing —– You Can Do Anything

So now July 4, 2022 approaches, the two hundred and forty-sixth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the thirteen colonies from the authority of Great Britain. Whoever you are, wherever you stand in life, whatever your circumstances are, it is time. It is time for you to unequivocally declare your own declaration of independence. “Independence from who? Independence from what?” you say. Declare your independence from the control of any person, any group, any entity whatsoever that would block the doorway to your entrance to the Kingdom of God within. Declare your independence and then proceed to gain it by dwelling each day within the Kingdom.

OK, why should you? What’s in it for you? Anything and everything. Money. Relationships. Career, Health. Intercession. Peace. Abundance. Joy. Whenever you choose to follow Universal Law to consciously manifest your reality, it is not you manifesting it, it is Universal Mind. You are merely the conduit for expressing God. That is your purpose in life, to express the Divine. We are created with free will but only when we lose our life will we gain it. Yet another enigma. In the book of Matthew, Jesus Christ stated, ” with God all things are possible”. And so it is.

Through belief, faith in that which the eyes cannot see, you can receive anything that you believe as already received, from your dwelling place within the Kingdom of God.

Believe. Receive.

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Grigori Rasputin – Reflections On The Mad Monk

Gregori Yefimovich Rasputin – The Mad Monk

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who lived from 1869 to 1916. He was born in Siberia and lived there as a “muzhik” or peasant until the age of twenty-eight. During a visit to a monastery, he claimed that he underwent a spiritual transformation experience. He subsequently proclaimed himself a healer with the ability to see the future. He became what is referred to as a “strannik” or wandering pilgrim. All of his activities after his spiritual experience were on his own. He never had any official position with the Russian Orthodox Church.

He subsequently found his way to St. Petersburg. Through introductions from respected clerics, he ultimately gained a following among aristocratic circles. Through these contacts he was eventually introduced to Czar Nicholas and his wife, the Czarina, Alexandra. Their son Czarovich Alexei, heir to the Russian throne, was born with the affliction of hemophilia, a disease where the blood of a person does not clot properly. Hemophilia can cause spontaneous bleeding as well as uncontrolled bleeding after a cut or an injury. In 1906, Rasputin won the favor and friendship of Nicholas and Alexandra through his ability to stop the bleeding of their son Alexei.

Rasputin’s influence continued to grow ever stronger with regard to Nicholas and Alexandra. His influence over Alexandra was particularly strong. The upper aristocratic order and church hierarchy began to hate Rasputin as time went on and he gained many enemies. When Nicholas went off to lead Russian forces during World War I, it has been claimed that Rasputin became the controller of Russian state affairs through his influence over the Czarina.

Fearful of the ever-increasing disorder and chaos in Russia as well as Rasputin’s high level of involvement in the affairs of state, a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov conspired to assassinate Rasputin in December of 1916.

Dynamic Energy

So what was it about Rasputin that enthralled his followers, from aristocrats to peasants? It is said when his followers learned his body was found in the river, they got buckets of water from the river and treated it as holy water. There were always references to his “mesmerizing eyes”, which would cause those who met him to feel like he was penetrating straight through to their mind.

There was also the display of Rasputin at prayer. His entire body would vibrate as he turned his face toward heaven, bowing and crossing himself with great speed.

He was the personification of dynamic energy. At parties he could be unpredictable and even frightening. He could be talking eloquently for hours when all of a sudden he would turn to someone standing on the fringe, as though he had read their mind, and chastise them for their sinful thoughts.

He had a propensity for engaging in sex with the many women who visited with him to hear him talk. Rasputin claimed that the sexual activity was a manner of helping his female followers relieve themselves of their carnal passions.

It was said that Rasputin was a practitioner of magnetism, a kind of offshoot of hypnotism. When the hemophiliac son of the Czar and Czarina would have bleeding spells, Rasputin would be summoned. Rasputin would go into a trance-like state with accompanying gesticulations. When the child responded favorably, it served to increase his influence with Nicholas and Alexandra. The Czarina, who suffered from bad nerves and headaches, said she always felt relaxed and at peace in the presence of Rasputin.

Rasputin’s voracious sexual appetite and heavy drinking led him astray from the Orthodox Church bishops who had initially introduced him to the royal family. Those same bishops are said to have confronted Rasputin about his sinful ways. During the confrontation, the bishops grabbed Rasputin’s penis and started pounding him with a very large metal crucifix. They shouted at him that his libido was ruling over him, not God. When Rasputin reported to the Czarina that the bishops had tried to kill him, she had them banished from the city.

He Drank The Wine And He Felt Fine

During 1916, a group of high ranking nobles decided once and for all to get rid of Rasputin. Prince Felix Yusupov invited Rasputin to his castle to meet his beautiful wife. It was an invitation that the lascivious monk could not refuse. Yusupov had a driver pick up Rasputin and take him to the palace. Once they got there, Yusupov led him to the basement dining room. The room had been staged as if people had been having a late dinner.

While Rasputin waited to meet the prince’s wife, he was given cakes and wine that had been laced with massive amounts of poison. After waiting awhile and he saw the poison was having no effect on Rasputin. A panicked Yusupov excused himself in order to get more wine and ran upstairs to the other conspirators. He advised them that the poison was not working. He grabbed a revolver and headed back downstairs. Once there, he confronted Rasputin and shot him in the chest, who fell to the floor. He waited there a short time. After seeing no movement from Rasputin, he went back upstairs where he and the other co-conspirators celebrated.

Yusupov went back downstairs to check the body. As he stood over the body, Rasputin suddenly opened his eyes, jumped up and began strangling Yusupov (shades of the “Why Won’t You Die?” scene from the movie, V For Vendetta). Screaming and managing to escape Rasputin’s grasp, Yusupov ran back upstairs. When he informed the other conspirators of the situation, the doctor who supplied the poison, fainted.

Yusupov ran back downstairs with a revolver. He almost fainted when he saw that Rasputin was not there. Following a trail of blood, he saw Rasputin outside in the courtyard, screaming that the Czarina would hear about this. A nerve-wracked Yusupov caught up to him and fired twice at point blank range. The rest of the conspirators arrived and one of them shot Rasputin two more times, once in the back and once in the head. Another conspirator started hitting Rasputin all over with an iron fireplace poker.

When they bundled up the body to dispose of it, he was still breathing. They decided to take him by sleigh to a river bridge on the outskirts of the city. The river was frozen so they had to make a hole in the ice and stuff Rasputin’s body through, hoping that the river current would properly dispose of the body. Two days later Rasputin’s body was found. His arms had worked free from the ropes that the conspirators had bound him with and were in an outstretched position. An autopsy found a large amount of water in his lungs indicating that he was still alive when thrown into the river.

Rasputin And Conscious Manifesting

Rasputin definitely had some type of spiritual experience in his twenties when he visited that Siberian monastery. Exactly what happened, nobody really knows. Afterward however, he had possession of an energy which ultimately propelled him from a lowly Siberian peasant to intimate contact with the very pinnacle of Russian power. Like Balaam the prophet in the Old Testament book of Numbers, Rasputin definitely had a gift of prophecy, but with a disposition ill-suited to resist temptation. And just like Balaam, he ultimately paid the price with his life.

So what does the mad monk Rasputin have to do with the art of consciously manifesting your reality? What we know is that Rasputin was able to use his magnetic energy to bring the Czarovich and Czarina to a state of peaceful relaxation. Perhaps through his demeanor, perhaps through a form of hypnosis, perhaps through the dissemination of his inner energy, perhaps a combination of all three – he discovered the healing power of relaxation of an individual, inside and out. He used that knowledge of relaxation to bring about positive results in the health of both the Czarina and her son. Rasputin also used that knowledge to manipulate other human beings for his personal benefit.

Rasputin was also aware of the remarkable power of relaxation in self healing. When the body and mind are in a state of relaxation, without worries or anxieties, it helps to supercharge the immune system to do its thing. There is the story of the Czarovich having a serious bleeding episode as a result of his hemophilia. The Czarina telegrammed Rasputin who was away from the city. He contacted her back to assure her that the boy would not die. This put her at peace and eliminated fear from the situation. Just as the mind responds negatively to fear, so also does the human body. It is interesting to note that he also told her not to let the doctors give the boy aspirin. At that time aspirin was routinely given for pain. It was not until the 1950’s that its blood thinning properties were discovered. Blood thinners can be deadly to a person afflicted with hemophilia.

Relaxation Opens The Portal

Somewhere along the line, Rasputin discovered the secret of how potent that the relaxation of mind and body was to a person’s overall state of consciousness. How potent is it? It is the ultimate state. Ironically, if you are relaxed, you are in control. A state of relaxation will override fear derivative states such as anxiety and desperation. It is crucial in all aspects of the manifesting process. When you are relaxed, by whatever method that you choose, your mind and body are interconnected.

After you are relaxed and you view in your mind’s eye the end result of your desire fulfilled, if you choose to drag along anxiety, your subsequent imaginal image will be tainted. The anxiety that you refuse to let go of, will be the precipitator of yet more anxiety, causing you an endless cycle of frustration.

One way to describe the state of relaxation that you are going for is this scenario: You only got a few hours of sleep the night before. You wake up at your regular time. You go about your normal daily activities. At some point during the afternoon, you take a short break from your activities. You close your eyes for a few minutes and relax. After a minute or so, you are still awake and fully conscious but you are not far from dozing off. You are in a “betwixt and between” state known as SATS, state akin to sleep.

While you are conscious, but totally relaxed, that is when you want to create an image in your mind of your chosen desire already being fulfilled. Money. Relationships. Career. Health. Intercession. Whatever it is. That special time of relaxation creates a portal to your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind perceives your belief of your desire already being fulfilled. It then goes to work at once bringing about the conditions to make real in the physical world your desire fulfilled.

Believe, Receive.

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Robert B. Butler, 1950-1974 — A True Man Of Substance

My Much Loved Brother

It has been forty eight years now since my brother left this realm. He died suddenly and unexpectedly from a cerebral hemorrhage in June of 1974. My memories of him are still so fresh and clear that it is difficult to grasp that forty eight years, over seventeen thousand days, have passed by since his death. Even though his body ceased to function, his spirit, his energy, his essence, lives on in another realm of existence. It will be a time of true, unshackled joy when, after my body stops working, we are reunited again in that next realm.

I felt, at the time of his death, that there had to be some colossal celestial blunder regarding his death. He possessed so much good to offer this oft-times crappy world. They say that we all have “a number” and when your number is called, it’s “game over”. In my mind, I thought some careless cosmic clerk must have called out the wrong damn number. At the time I would have gladly traded my life for his if I was given that option.

About fifteen, twenty years ago I had a random conversation with a shop owner. The conversation veered briefly to what happens to us after we die. The shop owner looked at me with eyes that had seen suffering and said, “All I want when I get there is some answers.” Amen brother, amen.

Growing Up Together

My brother and I were three years apart in age. He was born in 1950 while I came along three years later. We grew up together in the era of the 1950’s and 1960’s. We experienced many things together and shared a lot, even sharing a bed (“move over, you’re on my side”) until the early 60’s. My sister was born in October of ’59. When she outgrew her crib in my parents bedroom, she moved into our bedroom. Separate bedrooms for my brother and I were cobbled together upstairs in the attic.

As the years progressed, we both developed our individual skills and personalities, our own strengths and our own weaknesses. We had our little squabbles as do all brothers, but we always remained close and loyal to each other. When he got involved in high school activities and later went away to college, I saw less of him but the brotherly bonds of affection were never in jeopardy.

Demonstrating The Presence Of God

As human beings, created in the image of the Almighty, we are privileged in this lifetime to get the opportunity to demonstrate the presence of God within us (the Kingdom of God within, Luke 17:21, KJV). We demonstrate by expressing different high frequency energy sequences emanating from the Divine – love, peace, light, intelligence, truth, abundance, power, compassion, imagination, creativity, impartiality, inner joy. Throughout his life, at one time or another, he demonstrated all of these. My brother had flaws as does every other human being. That he was a person of substance is not a hagiographic statement but merely a statement of fact based on my first hand observations. He was not just loved by his family members. His funeral brought out a multitude of souls who held him in esteem.

Riding In The Same Car As Job

The book of Job is a fascinating study in human emotions. I have always thought that there was more to it than meets the eye, namely a deeper meaning below the surface meaning. There is scarcely any suffering that a human can experience that the principal human in that book, Job, did not experience. Job pleads his case with raw honesty about the gross injustice of it all but refuses to curse God.

In chapter 28 Job states, ” Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? ……. it is hid from the eyes of all living”. There it is in a nutshell. Until I proceed to the next realm, I will never know the why of the timing of his death. With that said, the rebellious part of me still feels that there should be some type of cosmic option whereby we are forewarned when someone we love is going to die to allow us the opportunity to make the offer to the grim reaper to substitute our life for theirs.

A Person Of Substance

What does it mean to be a person of substance. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the wealth you possess, the possessions you own, or the level of control you exert over others. If you take a look at our current crop of politicians, you can see what being a person of substance is not. A person of substance is defined by a series of lifelong choices, followed by actions to implement those choices. These are choices that add value to the world rather than subtract or merely present a neutral presence. Choices and actions, done either consciously or unconsciously, that demonstrate the presence and glory of Divine Love and Ultimate Intelligence. Deciding what must be done now versus what can wait. Deciding whether to err on the side of caution or to take a risk and potentially opening the door to failure. Conforming yourself harmoniously to the dictates of the culture in which you live versus being true to your inner self regardless of possible repercussions. Being the center of your universe versus being a part of the big picture of universal greater good. To know a person of substance is a delight to the soul.

Carl Jung

Carl Jung is recognized as one of the most influential psychiatrists of all time. He founded analytical psychology and was among the first experts in his field to explore the religious nature behind human psychology.

Let’s take a look at this statement from Jung: “In this overpoweringly humdrum existence, alas, there is little out of the ordinary that is healthy, and not much room for conspicuous heroism. Not that heroic demands are never put to us, on the contrary – and this is just so irritating and irksome – the banal everyday makes banal demands upon our patience, our devotion, our perseverance, our self-sacrifice, and for us to fulfill these demands (as we must) humbly and without courting applause through heroic gestures, a heroism is needed that cannot be seen from the outside. It does not glitter. It is not belauded, it always seeks concealment in everyday attire”.

If you take a close look at those who outwardly appear to be people of substance, oftentimes times what you find is a self-seeking egotist. Read that statement again from Carl Jung. True men and women of substance are often much closer than you think.

The Right Choices

In my brother’s life, I believe that he substantially made the right choices. He was a true man of substance. I was privileged to be his brother for the twenty-three plus years that he was on this earth. The bottom line of your lifetime when you reach the end of it comes down to this – Did you enhance life rather than subtract? – Did you fully use what you had to work with rather than waste what you had? – Did you give more than you received?

Wherever you are on your life journey, you have a choice. You can either be a human being of substance or a human being of smoke and mirrors, masks and shadows, illusions and facades. Whether or not you believe in an afterlife, making the choice to be a person of substance while you proceed with the remainder of your lifetime on this planet, will greatly enrich and enhance your life experience. The choice is yours. It always has been. Which do you choose?

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In Case You Didn’t Hear — Tomorrow Is Here Now

What Is Time?

Eckhart Von Hochheim, commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic. He lived, taught and preached in the late thirteenth century, early fourteenth century At the time of his death, his teachings were attacked as a result of internecine intra-church intrigue.

While Meister Eckhart himself was never branded a heretic, the Avignon Vatican pronounced certain of his teachings as heretical. It was just another chapter in the never-ending human drama of one group of humans fearful of losing control over another group of humans. Recent efforts by Eckhart’s Dominican Order to confirm his theological orthodoxy resulted in a letter from the Vatican in 1992 to the Master of the Dominicans stating, “we are perfectly free to say that he is a good and orthodox theologian”.

Eckhart taught that God is a totally transcendent Being, beyond all words, beyond all understanding. From his writings, he stated that “Time is what keeps the Light from reaching us”. With regard to our reality and the “now” of it, he also wrote, “There exists only the present instant…….a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday, nor is there any tomorrow but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence”.

Urgent Care Centers

A relatively recent occurrence in the field of healthcare is the proliferation of neighborhood clinics known as “urgent care centers”. When I was very young, the family doctor still made housecalls for urgent care situations. Then, as that era came to a close, the hospital emergency room became the option for immediate medical attention.

In today’s world, the urgent care center, open seven days a week, twelve hours a day, and has emerged as a viable treatment option when you need to do something now about a health related problem. There are even specialized urgent care centers now such as pediatric urgent care, orthopedic urgent care and mental health urgent care.

Awareness Of Being

In your life today, right now, you are in a situation that requires urgent care on your part. So many human beings, the overwhelming majority of inhabitants of planet earth, defer their awareness of being to tomorrow (or some later date). For example, if you do this, then tomorrow you will get that. If you go to work, you will get pay on payday to pay for your food, your lodging, your car, your clothes, your child’s braces, and so on.

All activity is geared to doing something today in order to get something or be something tomorrow (or some later date). It is a true blessing to be able to earn enough money to pay for your needs. The urgent care that you must attend to however, is the endless deferring of your Now awareness of being.

For just a few minutes, cut away all the layers of crap and focus in on exactly what you are aware of being right now. Not what you will be five minutes from now. Not what you will be tomorrow or next week or next year or five years from now, but what you are aware of being right now. This awareness of being, moment by moment by moment, is the very essence of your life and of your existence in this dimension. It is urgent that you realize this because everything that occurs in your life flows outward from your now awareness of being.

Smothers Brothers

Back in the 1960’s, the Smothers Brothers (Tom and Dick) were a very successful pair of folk musicians who specialized in comedy. At home we had one of their comedy LP albums and thoroughly enjoyed it. The brothers went on to have an hour long television variety/comedy show on CBS. While the show proved very successful, it was ultimately cancelled by the network in 1969 due to content that was considered too controversial.

On one of their shows, they had a short film segment that was brilliant. This film was entitled “American Time Capsule”. It was a film that consisted of a multitude of still photos presented in kaleidoscopic fashion and set to a vibrant, yet subtle drumbeat solo. It is actually available to watch on the internet if you choose to do so. It portrayed two hundred years of American history in three minutes.

A Lasting Impression

This short film made a lasting impression on me. From time to time, I reflect upon it as sort of a microcosm of how time flows in the life of a human being. The film commences with the events of the American Revolutionary War in 1776. It proceeds to display in brief but recognizable image flashes, thirteen hundred different images of American history in a chronological fashion until reaching the current date at that time, 1968.

One of the things fascinating about this short film was the subtly changing speed of the display of the images. If you take one hundred and eighty seconds (three minutes) and divide it equally by thirteen hundred (images), it would come to about thirteen hundredths of a second each. The film however did not display each image in equal time amounts. As the film progressed to the latter half of the nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century, it moved ever faster as the amount of time allotted for each image was shortened. It is a remarkable piece of cinematography.

The sands of time of your life move past you in approximately the same manner as the images of the film American Time Capsule. As you get older, the time, the events, the circumstances of your life, move by with ever increasing speed. Time is the ultimate trickster in this regard. It moves turtle-like when you want it to speed up and then it becomes Speed Racer when you would appreciate it slowing down just a tad.

Time Is What Keeps The Light From Reaching You

So how exactly do you deal with this mischievous imp called time? There is only one best way. Focus. Make the irrevocable free will choice to focus. Focus on the present instant. Leave all temporalities behind. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is merely an illusion. There is only Now, your current awareness of being.

You say that you can’t. You have tried and you keep thinking about stuff that is “coming up” tomorrow, next week, next month. Try as you might, you keep ruminating over past events, past grievances, past mistakes. If that is the case, you need to go to your own personal urgent care center. You must generate a desire to “live in the end” right now with as much urgency, with as much feeling, as you are humanly capable of. If you do this, it will assuredly be to your benefit.

Discard Your Concept Of Time

When my youngest boy was around four years old, he became ill one day with a high fever caused by a childhood flu bug of some sort. All of a sudden his temperature spiked with such an intensity that he suffered a grand mal febrile seizure. I was in another portion of the house and immediately heard my wife shout in distress. I did not wait for an ambulance. I scooped him up, ran out to the car and drove at once to the local hospital emergency room which was fortunately only two minutes away.

Pulling up to the ER entrance, I jumped out of the car and carried him inside, imploring the nearest nurse to help my boy. They quickly took him and employed immediate measures to hydrate him and successfully reduce his temperature. He recovered nicely. During that entire urgent situation, there was no yesterday, there was no tomorrow. The entire focus of my life at that time was totally centered on one thing – getting my son help in that Now instant. I had no concept of time.

What Do You Desire To Be?

I now pose a question to you – What do you desire to be, to have, to achieve, to experience? In your Now awareness of being, be that – now; have that – now; achieve that – now; experience that – now. Commit yourself, once and for all, to choose your ever present Dwelling Place to be the Kingdom of God within. Humbly allow the Divine Presence to fill every part of you. Heed your intuition and pay attention to Divine inspiration. Do this with a peaceful urgency and every other thing in your life will subsequently fall into place naturally for you.

Believe. Receive.

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Memorial Day 2022 — Thinking of The Dead From War

Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States. It is a day designated for honoring and remembering every U.S. military member who sacrificed their life in service to the nation. In 1971, Congress standardized the date of the holiday to the last Monday in May.

Some choose to observe Memorial Day by visiting the gravesite of family members lost in war. Many communities hold parades and special events. In my area of southern New Jersey it is customary for families to use the long weekend to head for the seashore or have family barbeques. In 2000, The National Moment Of Remembrance Act was signed into law. This law encourages all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3:00 pm local time for one minute of silence to remember and honor the sacrifice of the fallen military members.

The War To End All War…….Not

One of the most preventable, most pointless and most savage wars in history was World War I. Indeed, a case can be made that World War II was merely a continuation of the first world war. Even though the fighting in World War I had stopped in November of 1918, the war officially ended in June of 1919 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Originally World War I was called “The World War”. It was also termed “The War To End All War”. It was thought the utter magnitude of the slaughter and destruction would keep mankind from ever repeating it. How wrong they were! Just twenty years later world war would again erupt even more violently and destructive than its predecessor.

In World War I, there were an estimated twenty-four million deaths and twenty-one million wounded. Of the deaths, eleven million were of military personnel and thirteen million were civilians. World War II saw a marked increase in the killing and maiming. An estimated seventy to eighty-five million people died during this war. This represented three percent of the world’s population. Deaths caused directly by the war, including both military and civilian, are estimated at fifty to sixty million with an additional twenty to twenty-five million dying from war related disease and famine. Until this war, the record was held by Genghis Khan who was said to be responsible for the death of forty million people.

One April Morning

There have been countless movies made portraying the events of war. War movies showing the raw horror of war. War movies displaying incredible courage and bravery in the face of death. War movies as subtle or blatant propaganda for supporting the perspective of one side or the other. War movies from the perspective of poobahs, privates, and politicians. War movies from the perspective of non-combatant civilians. Many of these movies are engrossing in the story that they tell about the soldiers and various events of war. Two of these movies that I would like to comment on are: “One April Morning” and “Saving Private Ryan”.

The first movie is a relatively little-known film about the first military engagement of the American Revolutionary War. It took place in Lexington, Massachusetts and marked the beginning of war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the thirteen colonies in America, later to be known as the United States. The movie centers itself around one specific family household, the Cooper family, that was headed by Moses Cooper, portrayed by the actor Tommie Lee Jones. Also in the family were wife Sarah and sons Levi and Adam and Granny Cooper.

There is one scene in the movie that stands out in my mind. The British army regulars are marching through Lexington to Concord in order to capture and destroy Colonial militia military supplies reportedly stored at Concord. In Lexington, a small force of local farmers, merchants and backwoodsmen had formed an armed volunteer militia. They stood in the center of the Lexington green awaiting the British with the intent of displaying the colonial resolve against the show of force by the British. The militia was in place in three lines of of about twenty-five men per line. Moses Cooper was in the first line while his son Adam was in the last line.

The suspense and and intensity of the scene grows as the British professional soldiers slowly approach. At first they are out of sight, but the sounds of the drums as they march can be heard by the militia men. As the sounds of the drums get progressively louder as the British got nearer, the resolved yet anxious looks on the faces of many of the militia displays the seriousness of the situation. The British arrive at the green and the commanding officer imperiously demands that the militia disarm and go home. Suddenly, a shot rings out from somewhere. It is the famous “shot heard around the world”. The British regulars charge the militia men. Then Moses Cooper is shot and drops to the ground, dead. The look of abject horror on his son’s face as he looks at the dead body of his father reveals the grim reality of war.

Saving Private Ryan

To observe the horror of war, all you need to do is view the twenty-four minute sequence of the landings on Omaha Beach in the war movie masterpiece, “Saving Private Ryan”. It is the quintessential war movie, beautifully acted and breathtakingly shot. It is probably the most realistic battle scene of all time.

The basic premise of the movie is that three out of four brothers of an Iowa family named Ryan have been killed in the line of duty. One brother is known to be still surviving. He is somewhere in Normandy, France. Platoon leader Captain Miller is ordered to find the surviving brother and get him to safety so he can be sent home to his family.

The Omaha Beach sequence in the movie is hard to watch but necessary in order to get an approximation of what our soldiers had to experience in that landing. The evil that Hitler and Tojo had unleashed had to be countered. The slaughter and carnage on that beach was hellish. Behind every dead soldier is a heartbroken mother and father, decades of future life experiences lost, an opportunity to manifest attributes of God (love, truth, etc.) through a human body, tragically snatched away.

William Tecumseh Sherman, famed Civil War general, once said “War is hell”. I think even more appropriate would be “War is horror”. In war, attributes of courage, valor, sacrifice and bravery come forth from men and these are qualities that are not found in hell. War is horror. Utmost horror. Pure horror. The Omaha Beach scene in Saving Private Ryan is a realistic and heart wrenching portrayal of that horror.

Will War Ever Disappear?

If you look at recorded human history, from the Sumerians up to the present day, it sure looks like the one thing that human beings seem to do best is kill each other in wars. In our current era, there is the possibility that the use of nuclear weapons or biological warfare could potentially wipe out ninety percent or more of the earth’s population. And who among you do not believe that the remaining ten percent would wind up resuming wars “after the dust clears”, using swords and spears, if need be.

Within man is an implanted need to grow, to be more tomorrow than he is today. This urge has somehow been corrupted in that war is used to achieve said ends. The powers that be all over the world are masters at manipulating the minds of the masses to support the horrors of war. Those humans that they cannot manipulate, they coerce. I recall a scene in Saving Private Ryan where a small group of German soldiers stand up within a trench with their arms up. One of them shouts something that none of the Americans understand. One is shot and the others are taken prisoner. It turns out that the one who was shouting was speaking Czech and saying, “We are not nazis. We don’t want to be here. We were forced to be here”.

Wars will continue throughout human existence until one of two things happen. The first option is that the entire human species is eliminated and a new species subsequently takes over the earth. The second option is if mankind decides to surrender whole heartedly to the guidance and direction of Ultimate Love and Intelligence, the eternal I AM, God.

In Invitation To You

On this Memorial Day, Monday, at 3:00 pm, I invite you to join me in one minute of silent prayer for all of our soldiers killed in wars. Ask God to bless them wherever their spirits may currently be. I will, in the silence of my Dwelling Place, reflect on their suffering and sacrifice. When that minute is over, I will focus my attention, with all the energy I can muster, to live, to breathe, to have my being within the peace and power of the Kingdom of God within. The way to be victorious in the “War of Chaos” in the world today is to surrender to Original Source and follow where Universal Wisdom leads you.

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A Beautiful Mystical Dwelling Place

Your Power To See The Unseen

Faith is the solid reality of what you hope for.

Faith is the solid proof of what is unseen.

What is hope? The dictionary defines hope as: “a feeling of confident expectation for a certain thing to happen”. Faith is your power to see the unseen. Faith is available to every single human being on the face of the earth. You do need to activate your faith however. You do this by going to a beautiful mystical Dwelling Place every day. This Dwelling Place is the Kingdom of God within.

For any problem, for any situation, for any decision, for any manifestation – dwell on the only true power – God, the universal I AM. Dwelling on God is dwelling within your place of power – the Kingdom of God within. Do not search for God up on Mt. Olympus nor do you have to travel to the peaks of the Himalayas. It is not mandatory to travel to an ecclesiastical building of some type. God is not some Jack and the Beanstalk giant with a long white beard peeking at you from behind the clouds or up on the planet Mars. The Kingdom of God is within you, right now, The price of admission is to focus your mind and your heart on what you are able to perceive about God.

Visiting the Kingdom of God within is about seeing only God if even for only a few minutes a day. Go beyond your problem or situation, whatever it is. Keep going until you arrive at the feeling that the problem does not even exist, you know nothing about it. “How can I do this”?, you ask, “I can’t stop worrying. I’ve tried”. You not only can stop worrying but you must stop worrying. Focus your mind on God. Dwell on God. Dwell in God. You were not created by Original Source in order to demonstrate worry and fear. You were created by Universal Intelligence so that you can bring to fruition in the 3D world the majesty and glory and attributes of the energy of Original Source. Fear and worry do not demonstrate the glory of God Almighty. All humans experience some degree of worry at times. To stubbornly continue however in a state of worry and fear about a problem is sin. It is a falling short of what God created you for. Valid concern is one thing. Prolonged worry is quite another. It is a “holding on” to your lack of faith.

The Photo Shoot

I am grateful over this lifetime to be the father of three precious children, two males, one female. Back when the youngest one, the daughter, was about three or four years old, we decided to take advantage of a big box store “photo shoot special” for all three children. The store had a small room that served as a photo studio. A professional photographer took a photo that was subsequently enlarged and suitable for framing.

In order to keep small children occupied while others were getting their photo taken, there were a few toys and what not there. Included was a lightweight, colorful ball, about the size of a basketball. While waiting, my daughter became enthralled with this ball. When it was her turn to get her photo taken, she steadfastly refused to let go of the ball. The photographer said that it would interfere with the quality of the photo. When we went to take the ball out of her hands, she started crying. Well, we did not want to pay a photographer for a photograph of a crying child so we let her have the ball and the photo was taken.

So it is with free will, faith and choosing to dwell on God. We can choose to just let go (for our benefit) and place our focus on God or we can stubbornly hold onto worry and fear (to our detriment). God allows us the total freedom to make either choice.

OK, So How Do You Get There?

The route to take in order to get to your mystical Dwelling Place is also the simplest route. Whatever your problem, whatever your frustrated desire, refrain from dwelling on it. Refrain from hanging around in that thought neighborhood. Instead, dwell on God. Whatever it is that you are desirous of manifesting, you place roadblocks in your path when you fret and fuss over how in the world you are going to satisfy that desire. Leave the details to God. Be sure that you are paying attention when Universal Intelligence subsequently provides you with the details.

One road that you can use to get to your Dwelling Place is this: once a day, or more if you choose, say to yourself, “I am turning this whole thing (name the specific problem or desire) over to God. Then for at least a few minutes, think of God and only of God. You can do this by making some statement of absolute fact over and over again with the utmost of earnestness.

Some examples of statements of fact that you can use are: “There is only one true power. It is God”; “God is with me, now and always”; “God is guiding me and directing me with love”; “I am grateful that God is with me now”; “Thank you Father, I thank you with all that I am”, “I am a child of the Most High God”; “The peace and presence of God fills me now”. No matter how mechanical it seems at first, keep at it. Commit fully, heart and soul, to the process. It will work, if you work at it. Refrain from struggling. If a fear or worry enters your mind, acknowledge it, then with quiet but firm insistence, substitute that thought with your thought of God. There is not room enough there for both of them. Whenever your mind starts wandering, just gently guide it back to the Dwelling Place.

Another Road You Can Use To Get There

Sometimes, the urge to think about the problem or frustrated desire can be quite powerful. The urge can be so bullying that you cannot even come up with the words of your chosen statement of fact. If you find this to be the case, here is another road that you can take to get to your Dwelling Place. Just say the word “God” and follow that up immediately with a word that describes an attribute of God. Since you are a child of God, created to manifest the I AM in 3D reality, they become your attributes as well by channeling through God. God is demonstrated through your faith.

A favorite acronym that I use to instantly recall a dozen of attributes that I can demonstrate through God and by God is “LILT*BAPC*ICIJ”. The acronym stands for “Love. Intelligence. Light. Truth. Beauty. Abundance. Power. Compassion. Imagination. Creativity. Impartiality. Joy”. When your mind just does not want to let up in conjuring up the problem or frustration, just say loudly in your mind (or out loud if you prefer), “God, Love”; “God, Intelligence”; “God, Light”; “God, Truth”, and so on for all of the attributes. If you have “let go” and allowed God to fill up your thoughts, you are allowing God to channel those attributes through you. In effect, you are those attributes as long as you dwell on God.

Some Further Details

How long per session should I actively use the Dwelling Place technique? A few consecutive minutes are sufficient as long as you are focused and not dealing with distractions.

How many times a day should I practice this form of scientific prayer? When you get to the point where you can go a few consecutive minutes very quickly, feel free to repeat the prayer several times a day with a period of time separating each session. It is important however, that after you have prayed in this manner, that you completely drop all thought of the matter until the next session. This is important to remember as this “in-between respite” gives your manifestation a chance to grow.

How many days should I continue with this technique with regard to a specific desire? Until its materialization is complete. This can range from a few days to a few years depending on the size of the manifestation and the fullness of your faith. Be alert and pay attention to what is going on around you. Be prepared to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. Be thankful when you receive encouraging signs and signals. Refrain from thinking of the probable means of achieving your desired end. Ironically, this will slow things down. Just consistently go to your Dwelling Place and when things present themselves, follow through appropriately on your end.

Can I use this technique to manifest more than one pressing need at the same time? While there is nothing per se to prevent you from doing so, if you can, focus on one thing at a time. Try to come up with one manifestation that will solve both problems at once. The greater the manifestation, the more elongated the time factor. That time lag is what really puts your faith to the test. The more elongated the time factor, the greater the temptation to lose faith. If you never used this manner of scientific prayer before, start small. Then as your results yield success, it will strengthen your faith, which is the fuel to your “rocket ship”. If you have two equal and critical desires, then go ahead but just name one desire at the outset of each Dwelling Place session.

You Are A Scientist

Put on your imaginary white lab coat, get your imaginary clipboard and run your own scientific laboratory experiment. Every day, like clockwork, for the next six months, spend some of your daily allotment of time going to your mystical Dwelling Place. Whatever your religious beliefs, from the very start, just check your doubt at the door. Better yet, throw it in the large trash can outside the door. Dragging around a duffel bag of doubt for this experiment will just be a self fulfilling prophecy for negative results.

In my personal experience in praying in this manner, the time frame for manifestation was longer than I originally anticipated but the manifestations were indeed created. I think my “backsliding” into subtle episodes of doubt served to delay the receiving of my order. In any case, this technique will not cost you anything but some moments of your daily time. As you faithfully await answer to your prayer, how can it possibly hurt you to spend time each day dwelling on God?

Believe. Receive.