Arche Zwei - Wiederaufbau der Gesellschaft nach Grosser Katastrophe: Prophecy

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Introduction to One Bahá'í's Concept

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Introduction
One Bahá'í's Concept Archetypes One of the central concepts required for the comprehension of the Book of Revelation is that it is made up of archetypes. It is failure to comprehend this concept that causes confusion for most people trying to understand The Book of Revelation.
What then is an archetype? The dictionary definition is -

Archetype:

The whole of the Book of Revelation is an archetype and we see that theme recursively (repeatedly) throughout it. One recursive (repeating) example is that of the Seven Angels. That which is recursive is that which repeats - building upon itself.

Recursive:

The Seven Angels first appear in Chapters Two and Three as the Manifestations of the seven major religions of the world as they appeared in their historical order. Later in Chapter Six the seals of the seven religions are opened.
And then again is Chapters eight and nine there is told what happens with the Seven Angels (the Seven Churches) at the 'time of the end'.
Still again in Chapters Eleven through Thirteen, and still again in Chapter Sixteen, the same theme of the Seven Angels is repeated regarding the events in Islám, represented there as seven plagues which we again see applied in Chapter Eighteen in the fall of Babylon the Great.
Some may wonder if just one event is being described repeatedly or whether these are different events being described and the answer is that both concepts are true - which is sometimes difficult for a limited mind to comprehend. But let us look at some analogies.
Events happen in cycles. They repeat themselves. Spring, summer, fall, winter come year after year. To describe any one season is to describe something that will repeat itself. To describe any one year is to describe seasons that have occurred before and that will occur again.
We often observe a recursive theme in a musical composition. The melody reappears, although in variations, throughout a sonata. A very modern example is that of a hologram. One can look at a hologram from many sides and most amazing of all, if one breaks off a piece of a holographic crystal they will still see in that piece, although not so distinctly, the whole image.
This is the nature of the Book of Revelation. The whole image is about 'the time of the end' - the fulfillment of all the religions of God, but if one is to look at any one of the religions individually one sees that each have gone through their seasons - spring, summer, fall and winter and that each has a part of the image of the whole in that each has had to attend with the vials of plagues that have attacked the others.
Each of our lives, and the lives of religions, are different, but each of us goes through birth, childhood, puberty, adulthood, and perhaps parenthood and old age before we pass on. So, in the Book of Revelation we see the seven stages applied to each of the seven major religions of the world. Because of the time at which it was written, (prior to Islám which would be next religion to appear - and in preparation of the 'end of the age' which would then follow that) the Book of Revelation deals in large part with Islám and the end of the age.
Five Major Parts to the Divine Melody of the Book of Revelation.
The first part is in Chapters 1-3 with the history of the Worlds Seven Major Religions and then chapters 4-5 introduces how they will be unified into one religion and the announcement of two religions for the Time of the End which will make up the Nine United Religions.
The second part in Chapter 6 and 7 describes the spiritual challenges that occur for each religion and how these must be resolved while Chapters 8 and 9 explains how these will apply in particular to the first six of the Seven Prophetic Religions at the Time of the End.
The third part describes the special spiritual challenges of Islám beginning with recognition of the Bábí in Chapter 10 and in Chapters 11-13 particularly applies the vials of the Seven Angels to Islám presenting Muhammad and Ali as an archetype for the Bábí and Bahá'í religions of fulfillment. This latter concept is further explored in the appendix on "The Most Conclusive Proof".
The fourth part in Chapters 14-19 deals with the catastrophic events of 'the time of the end'. Chapters fourteen and fifteen present both the problems and the solutions (one world religion and the unification of mankind). Chapter 16 focuses on the role that Islám plays once again using Islám as archetype for the vials and plagues that will befall Babylon and the whole of mankind in Chapters Seventeen and Chapter Eighteen.
The fifth part, Chapters 19-22, is then about the concluding fulfillment of the Promised Eighth and Ninth Religions to unite all the religions in one universal religion for mankind and to establish peace and harmony on the earth for One Thousand Years.
Prophecy
As with all classical ideas, prophecies can be repeatedly re-examined at different stages in life as one's own spiritual understanding, spiritual maturity, and experience develops and they come to have a broader view of history and other religious cultures. Deeper and additional understandings do not necessarily discount those of others who are at a different stage or are coming to the subject from a different perspective. What is offered here is one perspective within the framework of the world's religions and the spiritual destiny of humankind.

Consider the past, so that thou mayest become informed of the mysteries which shall be disclosed in the future.

('Abdu'l-Bahá,
Bahá'í World Faith,
p. 394)

Indeed to God belongs power in the past and in the future! And verily God is powerful over all things!

('Abdu'l-Bahá,
Bahá'í World Faith,
p. 420)

At some point in examining prophecies one begins to think about the nature of prophecy itself. Does it mean that future is determined and that man has no control over his destiny? This subject has a very deep and often very mystical content. While the subject itself will not be examined here due to the fact that this explanation about the Book of Revelation is addressed to a readership with such a wide spread spectrum of spiritual understanding and attainment - nevertheless, there are presented here a number of quotes for your consideration.

As for the reference in The Hidden Words regarding the Covenant entered into on Mount Paran, this signifieth that in the sight of God the past, the present and the future are all one and the same -- whereas, relative to man, the past is gone and forgotten, the present is fleeting, and the future is within the realm of hope. And it is a basic principle of the Law of God that in every Prophetic Mission, He entereth into a Covenant with all believers -- a Covenant that endureth until the end of that Mission, until the promised day when the Personage stipulated at the outset of the Mission is made manifest.

('Abdu'l-Bahá,
Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá,
p. 207)

The second sort of preexistence is the preexistence of time, and that has no beginning. The Word of God is sanctified from time. The past, the present, the future, all, in relation to God, are equal. Yesterday, today, tomorrow do not exist in the sun.

('Abdu'l-Bahá,
Some Answered Questions,
p. 116)

Therefore, the knowledge of God in the realm of contingency does not produce the forms of the things. On the contrary, it is purified from the past, present and future. It is identical with the reality of the things; it is not the cause of their occurrence.

In the same way, the record and the mention of a thing in the Book does not become the cause of its existence. The Prophets, through the divine inspiration, knew what would come to pass. For instance, through the divine inspiration They knew that Christ would be martyred, and They announced it. Now, was Their knowledge and information the cause of the martyrdom of Christ? No; this knowledge is a perfection of the Prophets and did not cause the martyrdom.

('Abdu'l-Bahá,
Some Answered Questions,
p. 138)

In the world of God there is no past, no future and no present; all are one. So when Christ said, "In the beginning was the Word" -- that means it was, is and shall be; for in the world of God there is no time. Time has sway over creatures but not over God. For example, in the prayer He says, "Hallowed be Thy name"; the meaning is that Thy name was, is and shall be hallowed. Morning, noon and evening are related to this earth, but in the sun there is neither morning, noon nor evening.

('Abdu'l-Bahá,
Some Answered Questions,
p. 156)

The Writings of the Bahá'í Faith contain far more detailed prophecies about the future than have any of the previous religions. Our purpose in examining the prophecies of the past is to help us recognize the Prophet of this Day and Age. Once we have recognized the present Manifestation then it is to His Writings that we will turn for guidance in this Day.

This is one of the characteristics of Bahá'u'lláh's message and teachings. Can you find events and happenings of this kind in any other prophetic dispensation? If so, in what cycle have similar things taken place? Do you find such specific prophecies and explicit statements concerning the future in the Holy Books of the past?

('Abdu'l-Bahá,
The Promulgation of Universal Peace,
p. 433)

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Problems and Power of Prophecy

Essays on the
Problems and Power of Prophecy
by Bruce Beach In these essays I describe some of my own experiences in seeking true prophetic sources. These essays and experiences were a series of an email newsletter and if you wish to get right to point that I was driving at - you can just skip to the last one, or even go on to the next series regarding the Four Paths to Truth.
If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at:

DawnSayer@webpal.org If you wish to enter into a discussion with me regarding religion - I highly welcome that. I have some religious premises that I would like you to review first, and let me know regarding any about which you disagree to help me better understand any points that you are making.

The Essays

The Soul of Spirit

Four Souls Directory
POP12 - The Soul of Spirit If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

The fourth of the four types of souls may be called the Mystical Soul or the Soul of Spirit. Those of the Mystical Soul, walk the Path of Intuition, and are potentially of the highest and most enlightened type. This type of Soul seeks God through Intuition, and God informs it of its relationship to God.
But the danger of this soul is that it can also most readily fall most deeply into the abyss of vain imaginings.
Substantial numbers of them used to inhabit our mental institutions, until the recent open door policy, and now they often wander the streets.
Among some I have as personal friends, is one who claims to be Jesus, another Sarah the Wife of Abraham. One believes that he is from Venus, (how many Venetians do you count among your friends?), and numerous ones have been UFO abductees and so forth.
The Mystical Soul is a Beautiful Gift, but oftentimes, I feel not one to be envied. Nevertheless, among strange, and even the irrational ones they often have insights that have often astounded me. For this reason alone, I count them as dear friends.
As a percentage of present day society, about 60% are souls of self, 20% souls of love, and 20% souls of reason. I recognize that adds up to 100%, and it is the "abouts" that make the difference, because they leave some small percentage that are the souls of spirit.
I myself am a soul of reason. It makes no difference. Each of us are what we are. In a sense we are all born equal - just different. It does no good for one who is a male to wish that they were female, or vice versa. Nor one who is of one race to wish that they were of another. We are what we are, but all loved by God. None of us will rise to the full potential and opportunity that God has provided for us no matter what state that we are in.
The soul of spirit, must travel the same paths to Truth, as anyone else. Those Paths are also Four, and I shall describe them in the following four emails.
The souls of spirit have their particular gifts and their particular hazards like every other type of soul.
This is a particularly difficult and dangerous time for them, if they are living in the present day because the darkness of the age can easily mislead them.
They should properly be the light unto the world, but when they themselves are dark then it is darkness upon darkness.
In their occupations, they are often poets, and some of the more successful, (although they do not seem to often be successful, by the world's monetary definitions), have been in occupations like psychologists.
But, for the most part, in the terms of this world, they appear to be among the alienated. Most of the alienated, come from other types, particularly the first type, but nevertheless I have most usually, found the Mystical Souls among them as bag ladies, mental patients, hobos and transients, sometimes living as hermits, other times in communes, monasteries, and ashrams.
Likewise, Be assured that most of the individuals, in those situations and locales are not among the Enlightened, or even of this type of soul, but we must be careful not to judge them by the eyes of the world, because God says that He leads them on their way, and sees them with different eyes than we do.
There is of course much more that I could say about these souls, and there are many other things that I might discuss with you about the different types of souls and about the nature of soul itself. Many questions that people have about the purpose of life and life after death. Indeed the questions would become endless.
However, as I have stated many times, the purpose of this series is none of that, but rather its purpose is to show you the Path to the True Prophet so that you may discover all those things for yourself.
In another POP series on the Four Paths to Truth, I discuss how each of the Four Types of Souls seeks to find Truth.
Four Souls Directory

The Soul of Reason

Four Souls Directory
POP11 - The Soul of Reason If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

The third type of the four types of souls that I shall discuss is the Soul of Reason. This type of Soul seeks God through Reason, and God showers great bounties upon it.
All men of course possess a rational soul, as well as a soul with the capacity for love and obedience. What determines the type of one's soul is the predominance of one quality.
Society as a whole possesses a collective soul. I don't want to make a major philosophical point of this, because I don't have a major philosophical point, but we do appear to have a collective consciousness, and a collective conscience.
Society as a whole goes through stages and cycles. Maturing or retrograding spiritually. Most people recognize that we are at the perigee or low ebb in our present cycle.
But the stage of the maturation of present day society as a whole is approximately that of adolescence.
It is interesting to observe how ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny (that is to say how the individuals history recapitulates that of the human race).
Yes, there is evolution, but it is also true that man is a special and unique creation. The purpose here is not to get into the theological battles that so greatly stir the emotions of some souls but rather to make some observations.
Man (yes man - not some other creature) began as a single cell in the sea, and progressed through stages of multiple cell division.
So also does each individual in his ontogeny that recapitulates that phylogeny. First as a single cell then as a multiple cell, in a private sea, that has the same saline content as the oceans. And so shall we continue to ever find it in our blood and our sweat and our tears.
Through progressive stages in the womb, having states similar to that of the tadpole, salamander, and other creatures, the embryo travels the path of nature, to obtain the human form. At one time having this appendage, and at another time that, but growing on to what we are today.
In some percentage of births today, the child is still born with a tail, but the obstetrician simply separates it from the tailbone, before sending the infant home. But, what the physician sends home is a human child, and such it was from the moment of its conception. It was never going to grow into a rose or a tiger, but always into that which it was conceived to be. Thus it is that the argument between the Creationists and the Evolutionists is irrelevant, because while we evolve we always are, always were, and always will be what we were created to be.
And the race has continued to progress outside of the womb. Color blindness has decreased but centuries ago it was quite common and in the time of the early Greeks almost universal. We can tell this from their poetry that under the bluest skies of the Mediterranean that in their poetry they took no notice of the azure blue of the skies in distinction to the green verdure of the fields.
We know also that the knights of old were relatively short to the warriors of the present day. This is visible in the small suits of armor still displayed in the castles of Europe.
Indeed, induction statistics, from the First World War, to the Second and later conflicts, tell us the same, about both these examples. The race has been, and is, changing (evolving) physically. But these are not the matters of import to us. What we are examining here is the spiritual evolution of man.
The race as a whole, and each individual also, (through the rules of ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny) follows certain paths of development.
And so it that an individual child, first develops the qualities of the Soul of Self. Seeks gratification in the physical senses, and the obedience to authority, the first word it probably making real use of being the word "No".
The child soon becomes sensitive to emotions, music and love. How sensitive a child can be! And then there begins to develop reason, the prime facet of this third type of soul. Psychologists have observed and mapped the development of the reasoning faculty. The degrees or relationship and abstractness, that will be apparent in the child at mental progressive ages of development and in what order and stages.
Such is the development of every soul, from the point of conception and its coming into existence, on through to its maturity at around the age of fifteen. Once mature, the soul continues to spiritually develop, or not, through Seven Stages - through the choice of its will, and the guidance of its teachers.
These seven stages of spiritual development, recognized or unrecognized, take place regardless of the religion to which one belongs or the church of which one is a member. But the Seven Stages are another subject, and one that I shall not cover in this series, for our purpose here is simply to discover the True Path and the Source of the True Prophet so that each one can unravel and discover the Mysteries of Life for their self.
In this particular letter it has been my purpose to describe the third type of soul. The possessors of this type of soul provide guidance and reason to society. While they are not so much its conscience as those of the second type they nevertheless are the providers of order for all.
But as with all types of souls their strengths can become their weaknesses if they are misused.
And as with all types of souls they have their preference as to type of religion, type of employment, type of enjoyment and association.
These souls delight in reason and logic, and when properly trained and educated help direct society in the paths of science, and discipline.
These souls can become engineers, lawyers, philosophers and theologians. They are also a proper source for doctors, teachers, lawyers, scientists of every sort, both in the social and physical fields.
In misdirected pursuits they lead humanity into materialism, and greed and inharmony. They can be the source of great benefit or great evil, for they bear the authority of control in society.
In the next and final essay on the four types of souls, I shall describe the fourth type of soul and then go on in later essays to some matters about the nature of the soul itself and how it finds Truth.

Four Souls Directory

The Soul of Love

Four Souls Directory
POP10 - The Soul of Love If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

The second type of the four types of souls that I shall discuss is the Soul of Love This type of Soul loves God well, and God well receives that love.
The possessors of this type of soul breath the very spirit of life into society.
As with all types of souls their strengths can become their weaknesses if they are misused.
As with all types of souls they have their preference as to type of religion, type of employment, type of enjoyment and association.
These souls delight in beauty, and when properly trained and educated help direct society in the path of compassion, mercy, and justice.
These souls need to be trained with particular tenderness and sensitivity. As they mature they must be guided in experiences that give them appreciation of the qualities of the other types of souls.
These souls can become musicians, poets and artists. They are also a proper source for healers, teachers, social workers, and a wide variety of other occupations.
In misdirected pursuits they create decadent music and art, associate themselves with others of weak moral discipline, and misdirect society as strongly as they might have morally directed it. In future discussion of other types of souls, I shall make some comparative references to the nature of this soul in regards to its search for Truth and also to some further requirements for the spiritual training of this type of soul. But, enough for now. In the next essay, on to the third type of soul.

Four Souls Directory

The Soul of Self

Four Souls Directory
POP09 - The Soul of Self If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

The first of the four types of souls that I shall discuss is the type that there are the most of.. This is the Soul of Self. This type of Soul well loves God, and is well beloved of God.
The possessors of this type of soul are the very backbone and foundation of society.
As with all types of souls their strengths can become their weaknesses if they are misused.
As with all types of souls they have their preference as to type of religion, type of employment, type of enjoyment and association.
These souls delight in order, and when properly trained and educated are highly respectful of authority.
Every religion whether Christian, Moslem, Jewish, or any other, has branches (sects) that provides a haven for these souls, just as they have branches that provide havens for other types.
Some may consider the Catholic church to be a monolithic sect but it is not and that is why there are many different Orders within it so as to provide havens for the different types of souls.
The same is true of every religious system and since things are never black and white but rather a continuum and spectrum from the brightness of the noon day sun to the darkness of night - a spectrum that includes dawn and dusk, sunrise and sunset, there is naught that one can speak on but that some will eagerly point out the exceptions.
Birds fly,

but then so does the bat which is a mammal.
Fish swim, and live in the water
but then so does the whale which is a mammal.
Those who would be argumentative can always find some evidence to bolster their position. Nothing is pure in this world. All is relative. All men contain some feminine characteristics, and all women some masculine characteristics. The brightest among us will have some intellectual blind spots, the dullest will occasionally have a brilliant insight whether they will recognize it or not.
Still we can distinguish noon from midnight, and the cold of winter from the heat of summer. And in like manner we can make the distinction between the types of souls.
Although many organizations attract several types of souls Within those organizations that attract a single type there is often a division of activities that still further singles out those with some degree of the qualities found predominately in the other types.
By this latter, I mean, that in organizations that serve those of the Soul of Self, there will be some individuals who will still fill administrative or creative functions although these are not primary qualities of this type of soul, but those individuals will have those qualities (in a mixed degree) more than others in the organization.
In discussing this first type of soul, I am also discussing some generalities that apply to all types. One thing that should be noted is that soul characteristics do not appear to be inherited, like blood type or skin color. Any couple may have offspring of any soul type. (Among my half dozen children and dozen grandchildren, I have had every type that there is).
Thus comes the danger of trying to force children into your own paths. Though you may be musically inclined a child may not be at all, or vice versa - very inclined in that way where you are not at all.
The examples that I could give in this regard are so numerous, but also so obvious, that I will not even begin to list them. Nevertheless, so very, very often, children are directed into paths that do not really suit them, and consequently they neither find the joy in life that they might, nor do they begin to fulfill the potential that they might in another field.
The nature of a child needs to be recognized at a very young age, because the training to gain full potential needs to begun very early. Once the child has been forced into a path unnatural to its proclivity it has no choice but to mature in that path the best that it can because a full turn around cannot be accomplished. But that is the nature of our present world.
So much for generalities. Back to the soul of self. This soul, in its search for order, seeks that order in its family, its government, its schools and education, and its employment.
These souls can become skilled technicians. Learning, knowing, applying in great depth the rules, regulations, formulas and details of their disciplines and professions.
They also can find fulfillment as craftsmen, merchants, tradesmen. Our society, and all societies, are very dependent upon their contributions. Their employment is often as electricians, and plumbers, carpenters, and mechanics. Farmers and soldiers. Indeed they are the backbone of the military, filling the ranks and the roles of the non-commissioned officers.
Unfortunately, souls of other types can also be found in those positions. They often do a satisfactory job, but they themselves are never truly satisfied, because the positions do not match and fulfill their needs.
Community service clubs, and veteran's organizations have great numbers of members of souls of this type. They most often have a very similar social and political outlook. They would prefer to see more order in society, and are often distressed (and angry) at the disorder that they see, at the lack of obedience to established rules, and the lack of conformity to the standards that they admire and appreciate.
As I have stated before, each soul can turn its capacities for good in the opposite direction and thus it is that we also find the major occupants of our prisons to be souls of this type.
In their misdirected pursuits they often fill the lower types of bars involve themselves as participants or observers in the more violent sports. Indeed their interests in every activity from work, to entertainment, to sex, to diet, can become oriented towards the most base and physical. They make up the class of petty criminals, and are the main statistic behind violent crime.
Every type of soul likes

music

food

sex

and participates in

family

work

employment

religion

and becomes a part of

society,

government,

war

but the distinction can be seen in the varieties and types of responses between the various types of souls. For each type of soul, there are types of music, food, entertainment, participation in government, religion, work and family, that are beneficial and specific to that type of soul, and there also other types of music, food, entertainment and so forth that are not beneficial.
In future discussion of other types of souls, I shall make some comparative references to the nature of this soul in regards to its search for Truth and also to some of the requirements for the spiritual training of this type of soul. But, enough for now. In the next essay, on to the second type of soul.
Four Souls Directory

The Four Types of Souls

Four Souls Directory
POP08 - The Four Types of Souls If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

Oh, Seekers of the True One! Now that you have stepped upon the Path of Search for the True Prophet it is important to know first the Seeker.
Who are YOU? Well I can tell you that you are a soul, but as a teacher and traveler we need to know what kind of soul.
There are only four kinds of souls. I know that this may surprise you. Some people think that there may be only one kind of soul. Others think that every soul is different and that there are therefore infinite kinds of souls. But no, there are only four kinds.
Recognition of this fact is to be found in Aristotle, Shakespeare, and many other classical thinkers down through the ages. It was acknowledged in the work of William James, Americas greatest psychologist and intimated in that of Pavlov, which was Russia's. Many thinkers and teachers, of the East were also aware and today there is a large body of study on the subject. But still it is not common knowledge and most people are not aware that there are only four types of souls.
My source for this information is of course the True Prophet, but I have mentioned the above because Truth is Universal and can be universally found. 2+2=4 in both Russia and the US or anywhere else one may go no matter by what name the numbers are called. So it is with other Truth such as religious truth.
Types of things come in limited numbers. Water can be seen as a

Liquid

Vapor (clouds, fog, steam)

Solid (sleet, hail, ice, snow)

and while every snow flake may be unique it is still one of the three states of water. Each person has blood of some particular type. You may know yours. While there are variations within the types, we still say that there are only so many types.
As one last example - Suppose that we said that there were only four kinds of animals.

Insects

Birds

Fish

Mammals

Among the insects there would still be great variety -
from the tiniest ants to the giant beetles, and from scorpions to the butterflies.

And among the birds
from the humming birds to the ostriches and the eagle to the parrot.

In the fish
from the gold fish to the Great Blue Marlin,

and among animals
from the tiny shrew to the elephant.

With great, great numbers of varieties among all the species, but still for our convenience we listed them as four categories. And no matter how great the variety,

and the fact that every individual specimen is unique just as each snow flake is unique

there remain a limited number of categories. And so it is with the soul - there are but four types. Not to say that there is not great variety in the types, or that you are not individual and unique, because both of those things are true. But it is still true that you have one of the four types of soul.
It is important to know the type of soul. Otherwise we will end up putting the canary in the aquarium and the goldfish in the bird cage. Yet the world as a whole remains blind to this fact.
When you take your child to the kindergarten, to enroll them in their first day of school they may ask you a hundred questions regarding

sex

age

height

weight

even blood type

and IQ

but never on the form will you find the most important of all questions for a teacher -

what kind of soul will I be teaching?

In my next four letters I will be discussing the four types of souls. It is important to identify and understand your own type of soul, but it is also useful to know and understand the other types. It will much help you

in teaching your children -

understanding your spouse

getting along with co-workers,

and the dozens of other situations that you meet in life. It is well to understand others, even if they do not understand themselves. For a teacher it is essential to understand the kind of soul that they are attempting to teach. And in this I have a problem, because I cannot know each of you individually.
I have taught before through email on a one to one basis but I have never tried to do mass teaching through email and I know of no other teacher who has tried to do it either. So perhaps it can't be done. But perhaps it can. So it appears that you are a part of an experiment.
Somethings can be learned out of a book. But for other things a teacher appears to be necessary. Probably no great musician or mathematician has ever been self taught.
In the past I have seen attempts to teach mathematics by computer. In fact I was VERY enthused about the idea and was involved in some very substantial programs to do so. Didn't work out.
Turns out that you can give printed example after printed example with a computer but successful teaching requires interaction between a pupil and the teacher.
The teacher stands at the blackboard and explains but needs to watch the eyes of the students, and when they start to glaze over, the teacher must slow down and wait for them to catch up.
At some point the pupils may just not get it and the teacher will stand at the blackboard and tap with the chalk at some particular point in the formula. And then the gleam of recognition will appear in the pupil's eyes and the teacher can proceed on.

Readiness to read,
readiness to learn,
readiness to comprehend,

is something comprehended among all primary teachers, consciously or unconsciously. Many are the stories of the Zen Teaching Masters, or of the Abbots in the Catholic Monasteries, who suddenly performed some action like reaching over and tweaking the pupil's nose, grasping their ear and not letting go, or thumping them on the head, at the moment that they called satorie, and that the pupil suddenly saw the light.
Yes, every student is unique, and every step along the path is unique, and every student must make every step for their self. And therein is the problem, because I must address a general need, speaking at one moment to one type of soul and at another moment to another. Addressing some with a particular level of concern or comprehension at one moment, and those with another at the next. We shall have to see if this will work.
In all communication there are three elements. There is

the SOURCE
the MEDIUM
the RECEIVER.

It makes little difference what we are talking about. It could be light.
The source (a bulb, the sun, or a fire) The medium (light waves - I won't get into the subject of aether.) The receiver (a mirror or any matter).

It could be sound.
The source (a drum or other instrument) The medium (a gas or liquid such as air or water) The receiver (an ear or transducer).

It could be radio.
The source (a transmitter or star) The medium (radio waves) The receiver (a walkman or a radio telescope)

The principle remains the same. In this case we have:
The source (the teacher) The medium (email) The receiver (the pupil)

In each case there is also the MESSAGE. The MESSAGE is quite separate from the signal or datum. The Message should contain Information. Otherwise, as in writing it is just empty marks, scribbling on paper. Many people can see the signal but not get the Message.
They can see the notes written on the musical score, but not hear the Music. They can even hear the sounds of the orchestra but not hear the Music. The Message and the Music are something separate from the Signal. The Message and the Music are something heard in the soul, not in the ear or in the instrument.
For this reason some can pick up the Bible or Koran or other Book of Revelation and just have the words sing off the pages to them while someone else will just see the smudges of words on paper.
The problem of lack of communication rests in either

the Transmitter
the Medium
or the Receiver

In this case the MESSAGE comes from a perfect source. If you do not GET IT then the problem rests in
the Transmitter (the teacher)
the Medium (email)
or the Receiver (the pupil - YOU).

I shall do my best to communicate it to you, but I assure you the problem is not in the Message. Four Souls Directory

The Seeker

POP07 - The Seeker If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

This essay in the POP series is the last one in which I will be talking about my own experiences. There is another series of POP essays that should be much more interesting to you, because they talk about YOU. They talk about the Four Types of Souls, and help you to discover what type you are. My purpose in talking about my own experiences has been two fold. So, that you could know something about me, but,

While it is good to know the teacher,
It is better to know thyself.
Secondly, I wanted you to know that I have examined many, many paths to Truth and while I won't say that there are any false paths some of them are very, very circuitous. I am hoping to show to you what I have found to be The True Path. Many people send me all sorts of information today. And I am very appreciative to receive it. Information about all sorts of dreams visions prophets predictions and many other interesting things.
I have a very Fast Filter so I can deal with all of these very rapidly. But the problem is that other people have fast filters also.
They say to me -

"Beach, do you believe X about _______ ?"
"And if you don't then you are wrong, wrong, wrong."

You can fill in your own words for the blank, but just yesterday some them would have been the Rapture the NWO Christ Resurrection Reincarnation and twice about the White Buffalo and twice about the Environment and one of the fellows wanted to be removed from the list because my answer was not the right one about the environment. Many times too, the blank is about which church and this can be Catholic Mormon (LDS) or just Christianity itself. Millions of people out there have such fast filters that they would not even be on this list in the first place.
The real issue is not how FAST one's filter is, but how ACCURATE it is. Better accurate than fast, but we get so much information today that you need to be able to sort out what you are going to examine.
Here is a good test. You have a lot of experience in your life and have hopefully already sorted out lots of baloney. As a result you have developed a system of thought, perhaps even a philosophy that you trust.
When someone comes with something new, then your natural and proper response is,

"How does this fit in
with what I already know".

If the person has no idea of what you believe, then they can't explain their belief from your perspective. It just boils down to:

"I believe this - you believe that",

about superficial matters with no understanding of why. Okay, so they have a great and complicated system, about physics or whatever, but they need to be able to put it in terms that you can understand.
It is a long journey to understand a complicated system but every journey must begin from where you are and in terms that you understand. That is the teacher's responsibility to meet you on the path at the point where you are. It is then your responsibility to take the next step on the path in which the teacher points.
If someone shows up at my door in the next few minutes and says:

"Beach, you are full of baloney,
and I can prove it to you."

I will say,

"Welcome, welcome in.
I have been waiting for you. What took you so long to come?"

Now, this person, to know that I am wrong, "full of baloney" is going to have to know what I believe. Otherwise, it is as if he says,

"Beach I have something WONDERFUL in this box
that you should have."

and I look in the box and I say -

"Oh, THAT is wonderful,
but I have something even more WONDERFUL in my box."

and he replies,

"No, no, no, this is the MOST wonderful thing
that there is. There can't be anything more wonderful."

and I say,

"Yes, that which you have IS wonderful,
but I have looked in both boxes,
and I know that what is in my box is MORE wonderful."

still he replies,

"No, no, no, I have a lot of experience with what is in my box
and there just can't be anything more wonderful."

At this point, we can't go forward. If the person is a Christian I tell them,

"Yes, Christ is WONDERFUL,
and I would not have you to have Christ any less,
but I want you to have Christ more,
because God is Infinite and there is always more."

But, it is often the case that people can only look in their box, or if they will even glance in another box it is not really to see what is in it but just so that they can "prove" that what is in their box is better. All this will never do. One must lay aside their prejudices no matter what they are to step forward on the True Path. People are born into all sorts of prejudices. You are whatever color skin you are - because your parents were that color skin. You speak whatever language you speak - because your parents spoke that language. You are probably whatever nationality your parents were, and a member of whatever religion (Christian, Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu) that your parents were. You are in the box that you were born in.
Oh, we make small changes, from one denomination to another. Learning a "foreign" language, changing from one political party to another, but all within the culture of which we are a part.
If you were born in America it is very unlikely that you will end up as a Buddhist in Japan speaking Japanese or as a Hindu in India speaking Punjabi. And why would you want to. You know that what you have is good. But it is just that a dramatic change that I am inviting you to, because it is to something BETTER. MUCH BETTER.
There is really no need for you to read further in this particular email. If you are committed to the journey, then I have had said enough. The rest is too much, because it is again just about my personal experiences.
Many the tale that I would like to share with you - about a number of mystical experiences in the Arctic, about my UFO encounters - (that alone takes over an hour to relate verbally), but briefly I was a control tower operator at one of the five experimental Air Force Bases in the U.S., and actually sent planes in pursuit.
I would like to tell you about my publishing (for another writer) lengthy books on Pyramidology (I was a publisher for some years).
I would like to tell you about many strange astronomical phenomena that I have studied (I set up a professional observatory at one college) and you might like to look at my millenium star.
I would like to tell you about studies on the Bible Code (a way of counting and arranging the letters in the original Bible Texts so as to create prophecies). Or about a study that a friend of mine did on the Celestine Prophecies, that really impressed me.
I would like to talk further about Bibliomancy, the various methods of turning randomly to Scriptures for guidance. (One method that I am considerably more inclined towards).
I could tell you about experiences in many different Ashrams, with the Moonies, and the Hari Krishnas, with Dianetics and the E-meter -yep, read the whole book - did the tests.
Yes, I took the courses, received the secrets, of most every Guru that you can name - from TM (the Beatles favorite) to the (young at the time) Guru Maharaji (just checked that he is still around). All very interesting.
Met all sorts of interesting people. Weekly luncheons with one group that had several UFO abductees (so they claimed or believed). Most of them realized that they were schizophrenic, having at sometime been hospitalized, but one may have been one of the few real charlatans that I have ever met. He made, and I guess still makes, a substantial living from his books which are particularly popular in Japan. Most of these people are simply self deluded. Doesn't mean that I don't still like them, and also that they don't sometimes (mixed in) have amazing insights - because they often do.
Just like drug and alcohol addicts. Often amazing insights about everything except their own problems. Too often we are quick to call groups cults. They are just people who have gotten off the path of reality more commonly accepted. Usually the paths have many erroneous elements, but so then is the path followed by most "normal" people. That of knowing all the latest sports scores, what the popular brand names are for clothing, knowing who the stars are in the latest movies , and all the materialistic hype of modern CULTure, is another path equally divorced from reality, as is all the dogmatic conformance to churchianity, patriotism, or for that matter any other fanaticism of the current "CULTural revolutions".
We should not envy the powerful or rich (I have been in the same room with a number of U.S. presidents), nor despise the poor and downtrodden, for God leads each on their own way. I have taught volunteer college courses to lifers in prison, and have served as a psychiatric social worker, in several institutions, and I know that many of these people are more sincere in their struggle to find reality, than are masses of people that freely wander the earth. I at one time lived a block and a half from the corner of Haight and Ashbury. You have to be ooollld to understand the significance of that.
My purpose in reciting all this to you, is that you may know that I have examined every avenue, in the search for Truth. And as lengthy as is this accounting it does not begin to exhaust all that I have done. Strange Rosicrucian experiences. Serving as Chauffeur and Guard for Ezra Taft Benson, then Secretary of Agriculture of the United States, and later Prophet of the Mormon Church (I put this in for my LDS friends), and still the list goes on and on. Who else among you has had your life threatened in Philadelphia Mississippi (where three voting workers bodies were found buried in the dam), or have lain on the floor with your family as the gun battles went on in the street one floor below and a block and a half from the Black Panther Headquarters.
But enough of this. Too much already, although I could go on and on. I receive many emails each day (all of which I try to answer) from people with a great variety of different belief systems.
The purpose of the previous emails was to show the spirit of search with which one must seek. But, as Jonathan Livingston Seagull once said, "It is good to be a seeker, but it is better to be a finder."
And in my searching- I did find. I found not only how to identify the True Prophet, but I also found the True Prophet. The time is now too short to continue with tales. The time has come for the Truth to be Told, and I shall tell you how to find it for yourself. But, you must be willing to make the journey yourself. No one else can make it for you. Just as every student of mathematics must work the mathematics out for themselves, because no one else can do it for them. Oh' we can show the formula, go through the exercise, but in the end each one must think it out for their self.
Because we live in a Christian Culture, the proofs that I am going to present are Christian proofs. If we lived in a Buddhist, Moslem, Hindu, or other culture, then I would use proofs from those cultures.
It makes no difference if you consider yourself a Christian or not, because you live in a Christian culture, you will be able to understand the proofs from a Christian perspective. Yes, we will look in the Bible, and if you do not currently believe in the Bible, then afterwards, if you follow the presentation, you will come to a new appreciation of its significance.
So now, our search for the True Prophet, and the True Prophecies, has taken this turn. Bear with me if you will, or depart in peace. If you wish to see the Proof of the True Prophet, then you should go to The Most Conclusive Proof

My Declaration

POP 07a - My Declaration If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

Baha'i's use the term "declaration" regarding their belief in and commitment to Baha'u'llah. Here I will tell you about the event that led to my declaration.
I had been aware of the Baha'i Faith for many years and had visited the Temple in Chicago a number of times.
Then, back in my native Kansas I saw an ad in the Sunday paper with a picture of the Temple and called out of curiosity that there were Baha'i's there.
At the local Baha'i's insistence I visited with the group that morning but told them I had no time to read a book. Their reply was:

"God will give you time."
During next week a major Evangelical Crusade was planned for the City of Wichita. Everywhere one looked one saw banners that proclaimed -
"Hear Haggai"
the evangelist. The banners were in store windows, on car bumpers, on telephone poles, and on two big banners strung across the main street at both ends.

"Hear Haggai"
On the radio, in the newspapers, everywhere one looked or heard - it was:
"Hear Haggai"
The newspapers reported the week long event. Many thousands in attendance - the gigantic choir - the moving sermons. Each evening a Baptist friend would come and ask me to go but I was too busy.
The final evening he came and insisted and insisted telling me that the night before over a hundred and fifty people and gone forward to be baptized, and that this was my last chance to -

"Hear Haggai"
In consideration for my friend - I finally went with him. The coliseum was packed. The main floor which was the city basket ball court was filled with chairs. At one end of the court was a stage with 150 robed members of the choir comprised of the joint choirs of a number of the cities churches.
Three of the four balconies surrounding three sides of the basket ball court were also filled with only some vacant seats in the fourth balcony. Thousands in attendance.
It looked something like a political convention with lettered signs held up on tall poles showing the seating location of each of the city's many churches.

East Side Baptist, Rosedale Alliance, Central Bible Church, Broadway Church of God, "Hear Haggai"
The church with the largest percentage attendance was being given new hymnals for the church. The winning church had 300% in attendance. It was a large meeting. The choir and congregation concluded a hymn and all sat down and Haggai rose to speak. Indeed a powerful sermon.
I still remember from the sermon how he pointed out the number of beneficial institutions of mankind that have been started because of the teaching of Christ.
There are hospitals, and schools, orphanages and relief organizations of all sorts. The list goes on into the tens - as he gave it, and the numbers of each in the tens of thousands or more.
What man, he asked, has ever done more to benefit mankind? One can look at all sorts of political organizations and political philosophies. Personal organizations, and personal philosophies but what has done more than the teaching of Christ to benefit mankind?
Then he pointed out. One is either for or against this movement that has so benefited mankind. One cannot say that they are neutral or indifferent - because they are either part of the solution or part of the problem. Many were the points that Haggai made of this sort.
I concluded that well it doesn't really do any harm in supporting Christ - and better this source of good than none.
When the altar call was given - no one went up although over a hundred and fifty had gone the night before. Even more were expected this night - but I guess the crowd had thought to beat the rush.
Several times Haggai paused the choir - and urged sinners to come forward. One time he gave an exhortation that those there would be standing on one side of the Pearly Gates and that husband, brother, sister, friend next to them would not be because they had not turned to them and offered to go forward with them.
My friend stood next to me like a statue of rock, but I must have dropped a shoulder or something because an usher came up from behind and asked if I would like to go forward.

"Well, yes."
At the front I found myself and one other fellow who eventually came forward standing there looking up at the choir. Haggai finally stopped the music and looking down at this poor catch said -
"Well, the Lord is looking for quality - not quantity".
He assigned to each of us two deacons (or guards as I called them) and told them to take us to an upper room where he would come shortly. And so we marched out - I and my two guards leading, and the other fellow and his two guards trailing.
Up the broad cement and steel stairways behind the auditorium and into a team dressing room.
Red brick walls and wooden floors with windows two feet above one's head. Fold-down windows with opaque chicken wire-embedded glass. Hanging from the 15 ft ceiling down the middle of the 50 ft room five single light fixtures on stranded cord with green shades and 150 watt bulbs.
Except for one table - the otherwise unfurnished room had lining down the walls on each side a half dozen 7 ft benches with patches of white showing through peeling green paint worn out from a generation of showered athletes having been sitting upon them.
Being first through the door - my guards and I proceeded forward several benches and sat down with one guard on each side.
With a couple of benches in between my companion captive was also similarly seated. And thus we sat - in total silence none of our guards having every spoken a single word to either of us.
Through the thick walls of the fortress and away in the distance we could dimly hear the voices of thousands raised in praise to the Lord of the Ages.
And then - total silence as there must have been being offered upon them a final blessing.
And suddenly - a loud clamor and commotion as thousands rose from their seats and moved towards the exit.
Bit by bit, the clamor died away until again there was total silence. Wait. Wait. And then from the distance - thump, thump, thump growing louder - thuMP, tHUMP, THUMP, and the door burst open and in marched Haggai with twenty or more ministers behind him.
He stopped in front of the other prisoner, whose guards IMMEDIATELY split away from him and departed as the ministers formed a semi-circle around behind Haggai, who said -

"Have you made your decision for Christ?"

"Well, I was b..b..b.. baptized before - but it d..d..didn't take."
"Having you been attending church?"
At this point one of the ministers said that the conversant had been attending his and stepped forward and put his hand on his shoulder and then with a glance over towards me - seeing that he did not know me, led the petitioner from the room. Haggai then turned towards me. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, and the semi-circle formed behind him. SUDDENLY my guards were GONE!

"Have you made your decision for Christ?" "Well, I have one question that concerns me. May I ask it?"
"Yes?"
"Well, you see I have been attending this Buddhist Church in Chicago - and what I want to know is - 'Are my Buddhist friends ALL really going to go to hell?'"
At this point Haggai glances back over his shoulder and about a fourth of the ministers
are standing there shaking there heads up and down -
and about a fourth of the ministers
are standing there shaking there heads side to side-
and about a fourth of the ministers
are standing there sort of shrugging-
and about a fourth of the ministers
are standing there with blank expressions on their faces.
And Haggai says,
"I tell you what I want you to do -" and he tells one of ministers to hand him from the table in the corner a copy of a pamphlet of the Gospel of St. John - (which I have to this day - over forty years afterwards,) and he says to me -
"I want you to take this home,
and each night and each morning
read a chapter of it
and get down on your knees
and pray to God to show you His Will."
And then he says,
"And I want you to call me tomorrow at my motel
and I will meet with you."

So, I did as he said. And the next morning, I called at his motel, and the operator said he had gone for breakfast - and when I called again - a little later she said that he had left - and so I never got to talk to him. But, I did exactly as he said, and I want to testify to the efficacy of Christian prayer. Each evening and morning I read a chapter of the Gospel of St. John and each morning and evening I got down on my knees and I prayed to God to show me His Will.
A few nights later - I was asleep in my room - when a figure appeared through the darkened doorway.

"Arise - and dress!" "Wha, wha, what?
Who is that??"
"Never mind!
Arise and dress!"
I fumbled over and turned on the night stand lamp. There in the room stood another friend - from the Christian Science Church.

"Uh, what's up doc? -
It is after midnight!" "Get up and get dressed."
"Why?"
"Never mind - do it."
"What should I wear?"
"Those pants, that jersey,
and a warm jacket."
Thus it was that I descended the stairs - in my good suit pants and non-matching garb, to find his new motorbike parked at the curb.

"Come on -we'll go for a ride." "Neat. But no thanks,
I have been on a motorcycle before
and we had an accident."
(Same happened with my father, and one of my sons was nearly killed on one, and a friend's son is paralyzed - I do not care for them.) But my friend insisted.

"Okay, but just around to the all night restaurant
on the other side of the block." "Well, okay."
We didn't make it. We were on a one way street. Putt, putt, putt, slowly up to the stop-light at the corner, waiting for it to turn green, which it does and a car on the four lane road ahead pulls up on the center lane and stops to wait at their now red light and we speed up to go across in front of it and turn - when a car load of drunks comes through on the curb lane and hits us. I sail completely across the street -

"Take this one first,"
someone is saying to the ambulance driver. A phrase which is repeated at the hospital. I ask that a call be placed to my Christian Science Teacher, (I am what they call a class taught student) as they take me down to X-ray, for 14 breaks where the car had hit me -

"Wrap it up - and I will take it home with me."
I tell the attendant. (The other fellow only had a broken shoulder bone.) And so I ended back at my office - when my father shows up from our home 30 miles south - having heard about it on the radio. He arrived at the same time as one of the Baha'i's I had met.
My father and the Baha'i insisted that I accompany my father home, where my father summoned a local physician. Although there were three hospitals in the town the physician decided I should be sent back by ambulance to the city, where I was confined to a bed although I still declined surgery.
The next day the Baha'i came with a book.

"See, I told you God would give you time to read."
I had never felt pain from the moment my CS Teacher was called, and all the bones set themselves and healed without surgery, although I was released a week later with a leg cast but the fellow in the next bed was REALLY sick - and there I was reading the Baha'i Book and in exaltation -
"I Found It!" "At Last I Have Found IT!"
That alone could have killed him. My favorite song became, Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy singing -

"Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life -
at last I have found you!"
I played it over and over and over. Each person's experience in their religion is a mystery. Each person finds the mystery of life and love in their own experiences. For some my experience may seem more story teller than story - but we all seek the mystery of life.
There are always deeper Truths and we can always grow deeper to God. Many are the paths and some may wonder how one can say that one path is better than another.
One never has the FINAL answer and all that one can do is compare what they have with what they are given the opportunity to examine. You have a box -- and I have a box. You KNOW that what is in your box is beautiful and wonderful. You just can't imagine that there can be anything better.
You say to me -

"Look in my beautiful box."
And I LOOK and say,
"Yes, that is WONDERFUL! -
but what I have in my box, is more wonderful."
Unless you look in my box - you will never know. God is Infinite and His Creation is Infinite. If you live 10 million years - (and you will and many times that more) you will never begin to exhaust what you can learn about God and His Creation. But, those who are haughty before God - and refuse to look in another box, will never know. They can progress but only within their box and as wonderful as that may be it is still confining and that is all that they will have from Eternity unto Eternity - while there is Infinitely more to God and His Creation.
What we are meant to gain and set in this life is our attitude of openness to the Holy Spirit - and not some limited amount of finite knowledge or dogma.
If there is good in all religions, one may ask - then what difference does it make which religion one chooses. The difference is that one must choose to do the Will of God - and they must always be open to making comparisons and choices as He leads us on the path.
Many a Christian, many a Mormon, has borne me their testimony. Because I lived in Provo, Utah and would always welcome the practicing Mormon Missionaries I am sure that I have had more Mormon Testimonies borne unto me than any other single individual on earth.

"Before I leave - I want to bear you my testimony." "Oh, no, no -
not that again -
please!"
"Nope, I am going to do it."
"No, really, you don't have to do it."
"Yes, I do."
"Well, okay, I suppose so,
if you have to."
And I am glad that they - and the many hundreds of other truly devout Christians that I have met - have a Testimony. But I do wish - that they could also look into my box, and see then which they think it is the Will of God that they should choose.

The I-Ching

POP06 - The Iching If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

Through the decades I have conducted many classes on the subject of meditation. At one time traveling a circuit on weekends week after week through small communities where I had placed newspaper ads in Northern Ontario. Never have I charged a dime (nor taken a donation) for these courses. At another time I had large classes in what was the then popular "free college movement" at a large university. There came to these classes week after week an individual who repeatedly pleaded with me to allow him to cast the I-Ching for me. I declined.
But, finally I agreed, on one condition - that it be cast in the dark. If you are not familiar with this method, it is similar to that related in the Book of Daniel where the king called in his astrologers and soothsayers and asked them to interpret his dream without his telling them what the dream was.
My fortune teller, was equally well astounded at my suggestion (you must read Daniel to see the king's fortune tellers' response) but at last he agreed to proceed. What we did in this method, is that I wrote the question on a piece of paper, folded the paper so the question could not be seen or changed and placed it in the middle of the mat on which we were about to cast the I-Ching.
Assuming the traditional positions, and offering the traditional prayers, we began the process. If you are not aware of how the I-Ching is cast I shall briefly explain the process. A die is cast, and a marker is positioned. There are something like ten groupings of five each (as I remember).
The arrangement would look something like this:

10100___11000___00110___01101___11101 11011___01100___01011___00110___10111

The actually arrangment of the ones and zeroes in the above example is coincidental. I just picked them randomly as an example. The thing to notice here is that there are two rows The top row represents HEAVEN and the bottom row represents EARTH. Each of the groupings has an interpretative meaning, and the interpretations are given according to long tradition as found in Interpretative Books written about the I-Ching. The actual position of the ones and zeroes, is determined in a ritualistically prescribed order by casting the die. It takes a while to go through the whole process, but in the end here was our ACTUAL result.

11111___11111___11111___11111___11111 00000___00000___00000___00000___00000

The getting of all the ones in a line and all the zeroes in another is the equivalent of flipping a coin and first getting fifty heads, and then getting fifty tails all in a row. I was teaching statistics in the college and I can tell you that the probability of this happening is much, much less than than of picking all seven numbers in the lottery.
Now the real significance of this comes in regards to the question. Sort of like that quiz show on TV called Jeporady where they give you the answer and you formulate the question. This was the answer. What was the question?
First to examine the meaning of the answer. In this answer all the ones in heaven means that heaven is ruling over all the zeroes on earth. I won't go into all the mystical significances.
But now we opened the paper so my fortune teller friend could see the question - It was -

"Is the Prophet that I am trying to teach you about the True Prophet?"
He never returned.

Straight Arrow

POP05 - Straight Arrow If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

This is a continuation of the POP series (Power of Prophecy or Problems of Prophecy) that I am presenting, in which I am sharing some of my own experiences in that field of search. For a number of years after I left Christian Science (actually, I was excomunicated, when my former wife informed them that I had become a nudist - in my volley ball and sunshine days), anyway in those years following - I became a Buddhist.
Attended a Buddhist Church for about a year, and then got into Zen. (Traveled to temples in China, and all that sort of thing). Was much attracted to the teachings in a book called - "Zen and the Art of Archery". (Was also very much into Sufi, and other teachings - but I have never been that much of a purist - about anything).
For years, after moving beyond Buddhism, I continued to practice "Zen and the Art of Archery". Also taught my children. Rented a corner lot cat-a-corner across from the house, on the main corner of our village, and set up an archery range with 4 target butts, of various distances, so 3 children and I could shoot at the same time.
Each of their special bows, sized as to weight, left or right hand, and so forth, still hang on our wall after years of usage. We sometimes attracted quite a crowd of onlookers, but I was never much of an archer. Wrong type muscles to properly pull a bow, and not really physically adept or coordinated at anything
But the idea of Zen, is not so much one of physical adeptness, as that of mental (actually spiritual) mastery. The question is - what guides your arrow?
The stories are numerous such as the old Zen Master, who sent the accolyte out to the garden to pin the target on a tree, and then shot the arrow through the Japanese papered wall of the house and the accolyte then goes back to the garden to find it implanted in the bulls eye.
Indeed, what is it that guides our arrow? After years of practice, I too felt that I was becoming somewhat adept. The arrows continuously landed in the bullseye. Finally I summoned wife to come and watch a demonstration.
I placed my arrow in the bow. Raised it to my chin and let it fly. It did something that it had never done before. It flipped out of the bow, tumbled forward and high into the air above the hill behind the target and to one side to come down on our dog who was lying peacefully there. Of all the places to land.
The dog was shocked. So was I. Fortunately it was a spent arrow and the dog wasn't hurt, but what had guided my arrow? A lack of humility.
There are two great tests for each of us in this life. Self and passion. Self is the greater test. Trying to serve God - without self.

"Oh, God, if I do this - how great I will be in Thy sight."
The Walter Mitty dreams always plague us,

"How great I will be". "How people will be astounded with me". "What great things I will have accomplished".
Getting beyond this is very, very difficult. We must learn to serve God -

Neither in hope of heaven Nor in fear of hell.
How willing are we to serve God? I have a test that I often give people. Look at the following choices - a. Would you like to be rich and famous for serving God?
b. But what if you were given the choice, that you could provide some great benefit to humanity, and that while it would make you rich still, humanity would not recognize you for the benefit.
c. Or that you could provide some great benefit for humanity but that you would always be in great poverty.
d. Or that you would provide some great benefit to humanity but not only would you be in poverty and not recognized for the benefit but that people would revile and despise you because they did not recognize the benefit or that you were the source.
e. Or even that you came to understand that while what you suffered to do and for which you were reviled while it was a benefit to humanity while it was God's wish that you perform it that you would still go to hell.
At which level would you be willing to provide the benefit to humanity? If you think the latter case strange, you must remember that the Book says, "Even in hell will I set my angels to look over them", so some angels have to serve in hell. If that is where God wanted you to serve, is that where you would be willing, even want to go, if it were God's will? You say,

"You would want to go to hell?"
Indeed, I look at some of the hells on this earth, and there I find angels and saints looking after the inhabitants. Not my bit, I tell myself.

"Oh, Lord", I say, "deliver me from that!"
And probably he finds me unworthy (I hope) (that old self will) of that. But we never know. We will have to do that which we will have to do. But, what does all this have to do with POP (the Path of Prophecy)?

Oh, my brother, Oh, my sister, if thou woulds't step upon the Path thou must first purify thy soul, so that not the least trace of self or passion remains.
And thus it is that I am but an observer - and not a prophet.

Plants

POP03 - Plants One If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

This is a continuation of the POP (Power of Prophecy or Problems of Prophecy) series that I am presenting, in which I am sharing some of my own experiences in that field of search. This time I am going to write about something a little different. A scientific experiment, but at the end I hope you will see the relevance. I actually conducted three series in this area, the last with government funding but at this time I will tell you only about the first two series.
They are with a growth inducer and a growth retardant. I hope that you will carefully read the description of the method and see that it was a carefully controlled experiment. I, and many other hundreds of researchers, have done the same experiment and you are welcome to repeat it yourself.
First came the preparation of the subjects. We bought a dozen brand new aluminum pie pans taking them out of their original plastic wrapping so that we could be sure that none of them had been contaminated.
We then took bags of sterilized soil, purchased from the store, and put the soil in the pans, leveling it off at the top with the blade of a ruler so that we could be sure that every pan had the same amount of soil.
Next we drew a line through the middle of the soil in each pan and took red fingernail polish and painted the edge of the pan one-half way around on one side. We used the fingernail polish so that it could not be erased or moved, and so that we could always tell which half was which half of the pan.
Next, in each pan, we put from the same seed packages, of non-hybrid seeds, two types of seeds - corn and bean, about two inches apart and two inches from the rim of the pan. Because the pan was round and we measured the distance between each seed there were two longer rows toward the center with 5 seeds two inches apart then progressing outwards in each direction two other rows with 3 seeds and 2 seeds, for a total of 10 seeds on each side of the pan. If you have the picture in your mind there were six rows in the pan with a total of 20 seeds and an imaginary line down the middle between the two longest rows. This was done exactly the same with each of the 12 pans.
Now we took a water sprayer and gave each of the pans the same number of squirts of water. And then we took the fingernail polish and numbered each of the twelve pans. So far as we could tell, everything was now identical.
We then wrote the 12 numbers on separate identical pieces of paper, turned the papers upside down on a table and shuffled them as randomly as we could. Then we called another person into the room and asked them to randomly select 6 of the pieces of paper, and the numbers of the pans on those pieces of paper we put in the control group.
Next we took two chess pawns, one black and one white, shook them behind and held out two hands, each one containing a pawn and saying which ever one the person selected that is the one that would receive the growth retardant. (They happened to select the dark one and so the red side of the pans with the fingernail polish received the retardant and the other side received the inducer).
The pans were then set on the table in front of the window, and each day they each pan received the same number of squirts of water all from the same water container and each day the pan on one end was removed and taken to the other end and all the pans were moved down one place in the row so that each would receive approximately the same angle of light throughout the experiment.
The only difference was that twice each day, once in the morning and once in the evening the plants in the experiment received growth inducer on the plain side and growth retardant on the red fingernail polish painted side. The pans in the control group received nothing else than the measured squirts of water.
I hope that you will agree that this was a thoroughly controlled experiment. Now let me tell you the results. Two weeks later, the 120 plants in the control group (6 pans with 20 plants) were all up one and a half to two inches tall. All healthy green looking - all very nice and even looking like a good farmer's field.
The plants that had received the growth inducer were however very sickly. Only about half had come up at all. Some of these had actually turned down and grown back down into the soil.
The plants that had received the growth retardant were, however, all there. Tall gangly and strange looking. Some over four inches tall - much taller than the control group.
What can we conclude from this experiment? Think about it. That the growth inducer and the growth retardant had become mixed up? That each side had received the opposite of what we intended?
This may all seem very off topic, but let me assure you that it isn't. The reason will be given in my next essay. I would just like you to take a moment first to think about the experiment.
Remember, our goal is to find, if we can, a true source of prophecy, and we have yet, many things to examine.

POP04 - Plants Two If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

This is a continuation of the POP (Power of Prophecy or Problems of Prophecy) series that I am presenting, in which I am sharing some of my own experiences in that field of search. Now, to explain what the growth inducer and the growth retardent were (in the previous email). They were prayer. Yes, that is correct - PRAYER. The plain side had received nothing else except prayer for its growth and the red side nothing else except prayer that it would not grow.
If you find this latter strange, please do remember that Jesus cursed the fig tree and that it withered. And that such a prayer could be very effective against cancer, plagues of locusts and such. But no matter, the experiment did go strangely, (the side receiving the prayer for growth - withering, and the side receiving the opposite - growing astoundingly strange). and later I shall explain to you why.
As I have said, these experiments, of the Power of Prayer on Plants, (there is a book by that name) have been conducted at Red Stone University, and elsewhere (I think perhaps Duke) and I know at the University of Wichita, because I later did them there myself.
The experiments have been thoroughly controlled and there is no statistical possibility that the results are attributable soley to chance.
POP this time stood for the Power of Prayer on plants, but we shall get around to the relationship between prayer and prophecy.
My interest in prayer had been long standing. I am a class taught student of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College which is the training received by Christian Science Practitioners. I had already served as a volunteer War Time Minister, and although I am no longer a Christian Scientist I still have a deep respect for its teachings and can give many testimonies to its effects.
Thus it was, at that time, I approached the Botany Department at the University of Wichita and asked permission to repeat my experiments there. I was granted use of the entire green house, and with the aid of the Department Chairman undertook the experiments on a much grander scale.
We emptied and scrubbed the green house. New flats were obtained along with wheel barrows of sterilized soil. The Chairman insisted that we use hybrid seeds known for their consistent response and even growth. A planting device was devised to assure that all were planted at the exact same depth. A more accurate watering method was stipulated, and so forth.
I won't go into the details, but the end result was that we had rows and rows and rows of the most evenly grown plants that one might imagine.
To my mind the outcome was the result of the exact same cause that had contributed to the reversed results in the first experiment. What in Christian Science is called mental malpractice.
I won't go into all the philosophical details, but there is good reason that Jesus said, "That whatsoever ye ask for secretly will be awarded to you openly."
Similar results had been reported in the Redstone experiments. What I think happened in the first case was that my former wife, who was quite distraught with me at the time, was present with the plants on the table all day long, and she was quite aggravated with me, them, and the experiment, and consequently the inverted result, as with much else in my life at that time.
In the University green house, many people made the trip down to the green house, having heard about the experiment, to laugh about it. Their cumulative mental influence and trust in the power of hybrid seeds far exceeded mine. Probably the world's most even crop ever.
Miracles are only miracles to the person for whom they occur. If by a miracle we mean the repudiation of natural law, there is no such thing, but rather there is application of supranatural (not supernatural) law.
Jesus said that if you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains, but if one claimed this faith to a non-believer and they asked you to prove it, and you pointed at a mountain and prayed and it jumped into the sea they would simply say,

"You were just lucky that an earthquake came along right then."
From years of experience I know the power of prayer. I am no longer a Christian Scientist but it doesn't make any difference who prays. The sun shines on all, and God loves all. Many do not know how to pray effectively. Myself included. It has been said that God punishes us in two ways. Either by not answering our prayers, or by answering them. I really don't have the wisdom to know what is good. Jesus plead to be delivered from the cross, but in the end He said, "Thy will be done". And that is where I always end up at, because I never know that what I wish is necessarily what God wishes.
Even my grandchildren pray with more direct desire than I do. And I think that is well. When I have gone to Christian Science practitioners for help it has been immediately forthcoming for health problems and all sorts of other problems.
On two occasions I was so broke that I had not eaten for 3 days. Both times I immediately received more affluence than I had previously had in my life. On the one occasion the next morning. A very dramatic story, but I won't tell it and on the other some the next day but within two weeks I had in my pocket over fifty million dollars. Literally. A cashier's check for $50 million dollars, plus a one hundred dollar bill that I took and placed with it, so that I could say that I had over $50 million dollars in my pocket at one time.
There are MANY other things that I could tell you about, but once again miracles are only miracles to those to whom they happen. And I don't like relying upon Christian Science practitioners. It is sort of like relying upon the Ouiji Board. It works. But we don't need it. We are supposed to walk these journey's on our own. Not that I am saying it is not good to pray with others, and to ask others for help with prayer when you need it, because that is a very good thing to do. But what I am saying is that I don't have it anywhere nearly all figured out as yet.
More to come. And it all does tie into the subject of prophecy - eventually.

Ouiji

POP02 - Ouiji If you have some suggestions or comments you would like to pass on to me about these pages you may do so at: DawnSayer@webpal.org

This is a continuation of the POP (Power of Prophecy or Problems of Prophecy) series that I am presenting, in which I am sharing some of my own experiences in that field of search. I had long researched in this area when my wife and I had occasion to stay overnight with friends on our way to Hollywood where I was to see my book agent.
While our hostess was preparing supper I took down one of a large number of 3 ring binder volumes that were on a shelf above the sofa on which we were sitting. There were numerous typed accounts with dates and names of great numbers of sessions with individuals.
Therein I read a dialog with a particular individual, in which it was foretold that he would die in an airplane accident. Hmmm, said I, to myself. Taking the volume I went out to the kitchen and addressed my hostess.

"What are these?", said I. "Oh, those are Ouiji Board readings", said she. "But we don't do them anymore", she continued.
(Knowing that I would know that it was dis-recommended by her current religion.)
"Hmmm", said I, "Would you happen to remember whatever happened to this particular individual?" "Oh, he was killed in an airplane accident", said she.
I continued ---
"Really? That is what it says here will happen to him! I have often heard of Ouiji Boards but I have never seen one. Do you still have one?"

"Yes", she replied, "But we don't use it anymore".
"Well, I would like to see how it is done."

"Okay, I can show you after supper, but we won't do it ourselves, because like I said, we don't do it anymore."

(More philosophical discussion about its use and accuracy and then after supper my wife and I sit down with the Board between us, and direction from our host and hostess from across the room.)

"Put you hands on the device. Have your wife put her hands on yours. Say a prayer and call on the name of a Spirit Guide".
(I called upon the name of a well known Spiritual Leader, I might say a prophet (with a small p) that had ascended into the next world.)

"Now, start asking questions".

"Where are we going?"
(To my surprise the device began to spell out a word).
SALEM.

(Now that was ridiculous. I knew there was a Salem Massachusetts and a Salem in the Carolinas where they had burned the witches, but we were in Utah and headed West. The OPPOSITE direction. So, how in the world was I going to end up in Salem? I asked.)

"How are we going to get there?"

BY THE NORTHERN ROUTE.

(More ridiculous still. So it thought we were going to Massachusetts, but we were heading for Hollywood by the Southern route. I was now ready to reject this non-sense, so I asked a sarcastic question.

"Does this thing really work?"

YES, BUT YOU DON'T NEED IT.

(And so we had a good laugh about it and put the silly thing away). Less than two weeks later, through a very odd set of events, we ended up without any choice in Salem, Oregon that I didn't even previously know to exist.
I took the VERY GOOD ADVICE (knowing the Source) and never used such a thing again.
In previous years, I had read books about phrenology, palm reading, tea leaf reading, crystal ball gazing and so forth, but this was my only personal experience or experimentation.
The problem with these things (and other things like drugs and channeling) is that they work - in the beginning. But eventually they lead you down a wrong path of dependence and ineffectuality.
I could go into much more detail about these matters, along with other subjects such as Brain Washing Deprogramming and a variety of other phenomena but that is not the purpose of this presentation.
Common sense will tell you, if you look upon abusers of these phenomena (any use is abuse) that their practitioners benefit no more than alcoholics do from alcohol.
Practicing alcoholics BELIEVE they benefit from alcohol, as fortune tellers believe they benefit from fortune telling, but you only need to look at the quality of their lives. If they could really derive such benefits as they claim, they would pick the winning lottery tickets, or at least good investments in the stock market, and would live a much different lifestyle from than that in which one usually finds them in.
I only report this incident to you that you may know that I have traveled all these avenues.
Today I know many people, personally, who are dependent on astrology, channeling and such. I now have a large accumulation of evidence that it is not beneficial.
It is like trying alcohol or drugs. If you never take the first drink you will never become addicted. But like with smoking, it may be hard to get started, but it is a lot harder to stop. So, just don't do it.

Arche Zwei - Wiederaufbau der Gesellschaft nach Grosser Katastrophe

Introduction to One Bahá'í's Concept

Problems and Power of Prophecy

The Soul of Spirit

The Soul of Reason

The Soul of Love

The Soul of Self

The Four Types of Souls

The Seeker

My Declaration

The I-Ching

Straight Arrow

Plants

Ouiji

The countdown is winding down

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