Channeling

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I do not deny the existence of this phenomenon, or say that it is impossible. Some really thought-provoking material has come through some channelers. Like you, I was impressed by some of the early "Seth" material.

But using Occam's Razor, all the teachings appeared to have originated with Jane Roberts. Perhaps she was no "genius," but she was not so poor at expression that she had to give credit for her work to another being-- an extradimensional called "Seth." In all fairness, she probably did literally believe that she was "channeling" another being-- although many later "channelers" were simply bad actors. The woman who "channeled" Ramtha was a big fad in the metaphysical community, but defecting followers reveal that she used to make fun of her contributors and those who gave her thousands of dollars! She bought an Arabian racing horse and an expensive ranch with their money.

Every once in a while, a "channeler" will say something valuable. So, we need not reject them all. In fact, the Way of Love can be interpreted as a similar path; we are supposed to empty out the ego to make room for the Holy Spirit. And then, we are supposed to "channel" God or Love.

But every other person sought to jump on the "bandwagon" of "channeling."
And this is not healthy, for either the individual student or for the community. For example, some channelers were so confused that they said that "right" and "wrong," "good and evil," did not exist! They fell into a confused relativism that provided no guidelines whatsoever. This is, as noted, where a good spiritual teacher comes in handy.

She can help us sort through the thousands of channelers and their tens of thousands of ideas to produce a pure collection of valuable truths.
The situation is like a mountain of mud that contains a few real diamonds. Sometimes, you have to go through a lot of mud to find a diamond! A teacher can do you the favor of reading and sorting through all this material, and can aid and assist you to find ideas that are truly useful and valuable.

Beings from distant planets, or equally distant dimensions (universes) do not often say things that are practical, realistic, or useful. One of the great and real strengths of the truly spiritual is that it is practical; it is something that we can apply to better our minds, or our lives, this very morning!

Channelers lie upon a sliding-scale spectrum, ranging from those which are valuable and useful to those which are almost comedic in approach.
They vary from extraterrestrials and extradimensionals to dead people from Atlantis. I have read most of the channeled material, and have heard most of the tapes. Color me unimpressed!

I simply insist upon reason. What would it take for you to believe that an ordinary person was "really" an extraterrestrial, extradimensional, or Spirit of incredible enlightenment? For us, it would require more than a simple claim. For anyone, even a fool, or mentally-disturbed person, can make the claim. The claim to be "channeling" is itself worthless, and proves absolutely nothing!

Channelers need to be tested. Challenge them to do a math or chemistry problem from a high-school textbook, and see whether they are really supermental, superspiritual superbeings from some superplanet! In this case, a little skepticism can be handy and protective!

Many channelers jumped on the bandwagon, and native Americans joined extraterrestrials and many extradimensionals in predicting the "end of the world" in 1999. Now, many are also jumping on the 2012 bandwagon.
But I have put out a challenge: Anyone who believes that the "end of the world" is coming in 2012 is challenged to sign a legal document that gives all their worldly possessions to Love Ministries on January 1, 2013. So far, we have had no takers, and expect none! They refuse to "put their money where their mouth is"!

Only time will tell, of course. But the challenge still stands unmet, and is likely to remain so.

There is still much, much more that could, and perhaps should, be said.
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The End of the World in 2012?

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Ever since human beings have kept written records, someone somewhere has been predicting great catastrophes, including several thousand predictions of the "end of the world." Almost needless to say, each and every one has been a lie, a falsehood, a false prophecy.

But why do they keep predicting? Some embrace the belief because they are so hopeless: They feel that human beings are not smart enough to solve the real problems of the world, so God will bring the whole of civilization to an end.

Some believe because they think that Jesus taught this idea. But he did not. Jesus did speak about the "end of the aion," and the King James Bible of 1611 mistranslated this Greek word aion as "world." So, Matthew 24:3, where his disciples ask about the "end of the age," in the King James Version, it is mistranslated to make them ask about the "end of the world."

But this phrase, "end of the world," is not found a single time, anywhere in the whole Bible. It is not found a single time in even Revelation.

So, Jesus did not teach the end of the world.

Yet, have not many Christians, particularly the desperate fundamentalists, taught this? Yes, and many Christians have taught many other doctrines, ideas, and concepts never taught by Jesus! So, the claim is not being here made that no so-called "Christian" has ever taught the end of the world; many have. But neither Jesus nor his followers taught this idea in the Christian Bible.

What about the older, Jewish Bible? Many Jewish sects and cults have taught the end, but the Jewish Bible Itself does not teach it.

The idea has been resurrected and recycled among many new-agers. These people are likely still suffering from their fundamentalist backgrounds.

Many "channelers," over decades, have predicted the end-- and they have done so several times. In 1992, the followers of Elizabeth Prophet waited in the desert for the ufo's to pick them up, and for the world to end. In 1999, the end of the world was expected by probably the majority of people. For Edgar Cayce and Nostradamus, two of the most respected "prophets" of the New Age Community, specifically pointed this year as that of the end of the world.

Several hundred channelers also jumped on this shameful bandwagon, and had red faces in the year twenty hundred. Several native American prophecies were also interpreted to say that the end was coming in that "blessed" year, 1999. Hundreds of hucksters, frauds, phonies, mediums, gurus, and so-called "teachers" assured people, with great enthusiasm, that 1999 would be the last year of civilization as we know it, pointing nervously to the so-called "y2k" crisis (the breakdown of computers).

In fact, there has hardly been a single year in the history of the world that has not seen some guru, "prophet," priest, preacher, minister, rabbi, or imam predicting the end.

Everyone could argue forever about this subject.

But I have come up with a way that one can truly test her faith in this latest prophecy.

I do not believe that the end of this world is coming in 2012.

But if you do, or if you know anyone who claims to, please share the
following:

I challenge any true believer to do the following:

I will have a legal and formal document drawn up by a lawyer.

That document will state that anyone who is a true believer will, on January 1, 2013, sign over to Love Ministries, Inc., every material possession and all money that he/she owns.

I do not believe that anyone believes the prophecy enough to do this.
But if you know any teacher, prophet, guru, channeler, or anyone else who is teaching, as a dogma, that the world will end in the year 2012, please present this document, or a copy, to him/her.

I do not believe that anyone will sign! Why? Because, although people love soap-operas, and love to talk about the end of the world, I do not believe that anyone believes it enough to put everything on the line.
But if anyone does, I will be astonished! Not only that, but after 2013, I will share my enormous riches with the poor of the world!
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The End of the World: the Sound of Silence

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I am not among those fanatics and losers who are always screaming and ranting about the "end of the world." This phrase, in fact, is not found a single time in the entire original Bible! It is just bad, "science-fiction theology." I cannot believe that a sane, compassionate God inhabits the splendors and glories of nature simply to annihilate them!

So, I, and most other reasonable people, including most progressive Christians, have found hundreds of good, solid reasons to trash this nutty, dangerous, and bad idea. It is but a leftover from the Dark Ages, when people cancelled daily plans because of their certainty of "Armageddon.":)

The phrase, "end of the world," is not found a single time in the entire Book of Revelation, the "text-book" supposedly describing the "end-times," and the "end of the world." (Btw, the word "anti-Christ" also does not appear a single time in the entire book!) So, the Biblical foundation for the "end" is as flimsy and non-existent as is its foundation in the path of reason.

The idea that the earth is going to be destroyed, and the human race murdered, by a psychotic god who admits that the whole project was a "failure," is a bit of popular superstition. People love to be scared, as the popularity of horror-movies and-novels has always attested-- as long as they feel safe personally. They love the dramatic excitement of the earthquakes, storms, insanity on the streets, and other noisy horrors conjured by this myth.

But this is insanity, by any standards. God has kindly, wisely designed our planetary arrangements and biosystems to continue indefinitely. We can all be grateful for that. We can count on the sun's rising tomorrow, and on foods continuing to grow in our verdant fields. But are these "guarantees" forever? Maybe not!

Which leads to this morning's meditation: The donkey arose at 2:47 this morning to hear a horribly disturbing sound: It was the sound of silence.

Where there should have been the rambunctious sound of thousands of crickets and tree-frogs, only a few, very distant, crickets could be heard. This reminded that, in a ghastly way, the sound of the "end of the world" is the sound of silence. It is not ravaging storms and bomb-explosions, necessarily; it could be simply nature shutting down.

If we, or our governments, are foolish, and just plain stupid, enough to trade our miraculous and astounding natural riches for dollars, then we deserve the silence-- the "silent spring," as older activists called it. We do not deserve the rich orchestration of birds, crickets, and tree-frogs. For our greed has proved us unworthy.

And now, our bees are dying. A huge part of nature is dying, and yet, we human beings continue on our path of relentless greed. This silence of the bees is a signal, and only total ecological idiots will ignore and neglect a "sign" of these monstrous proportions!

This morning's silence probably has a natural and normal explanation. Perhaps it is atypically cool, or another parameter has gone astray. We can certainly, desperately hope so! But the haunting question remains: What if it is a "sign" of the "end of the world"?
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Please recycle, plant a tree, or demonstrate to the Goddess your genuine Love for nature. Please share this article, or at least, the discussion, with all your friends. Pass the word: If the "end of the world" comes, it will be a very subtle event, precipitated by human myopia and stupidity.
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