Talk:1998-02-20-Evil

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Rob wrote: Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 11:13 PM

Gerdean,


Would you be willing to share with everyone here on tml, many of whom may never have observed this phenomena referred to in this lesson as "candle experience"? If I am not mistaken, this is the same phenomena I witnessed at your home in Butler, PA only the candles were battery powered with the bulbs screwed in loosely enough to allow randomness in their emission of light. Do you remember? Anyway, I wanted to create a page devoted to this if you would be willing to write it up. It doesn't have to be anything long, but just enough to describe to folks what was transpiring in this manner of our unseen friends trying to compensate for our lack of material contact. What do you think?

Gratefully,

Rob

Gerdean wrote: Mon, Dec 24, 2012 at 11:31 AM

I'd be delighted. Just give me a few minutes. Or a couple of days. Kinda busy around here at the moment.

Rob wrote:Mon, Dec 24, 2012 at 3:28 PM

Great! I certainly understand how this season impacts our notions of "time".

Gerdean wrote: Wed, Dec 26, 2012 at 12:35 PM

Do I remember the candle phenomena? How could I forget?!

I was introduced to the candle phenomena by Jeremiah and Nolas who went everywhere with their candles, prepared to stop anywhere in their itinerary to respond to the lit candles. They learned it from Honore, a woman who was one of the original Woods Cross denizens. When I first heard of them, I was scandalized that they were finding footing in the Teaching Mission, for "the candle phenomena" was obviously for gullible people who were seekers of signs. But they were such fun, it seemed their good outweighed any bad they might have. I never heard of anyone becoming addicted to the candle experience.

Let me tell you what these candles are. You can get them in any hobby shop, especially at Christmas time and/or in the wedding decorations. They are called wedding candles or Christmas candles. They are a small tubelike candlestick enclosing two A-sized batteries end to end, at the bottom of which is the base and at the top of which is a decorative rim that screws on to hold the batteries in place. Into this decorative rim you insert a specialty 4-watt bulb (bulbs sold separately) and screw the bulb in tight. Once the batteries are correctly inserted into the tube, and the bulb is screwed in tight to the decorative rim, now comes the tricky part.

The top decorative rim is connected to the candlestick, yes, but it must be set at precisely that spot where contact is intangible. In other words, just short of connection. Close, but not quite. A hair's breadth. Then you set the entire candlestick gizmo on a designated spot, perhaps on a mantlepiece, or your bedside. You may elect to have a few of them in different parts of the house. If you opt to have more than one, you may dub the various candles as the entrance for various personalities. I.e., at our house in Butler, we had a mantlepiece in the livingroom upon which I set four candles: one for the midwayers; one for my personal teachers; one for the group teachers; and one for the big guys, Jesus and/or Machiventa.

It is said that the midwayers, who can tamper with the material world, use the candles to get our attention. Yes, of course, the UB's message on superstition, ghost cults and totems would indicate that such a thing is sheer poppycock. But even so, as Malvantra said, it has its benefits. The candle experience comes when you observe when they choose to come on. For some, a candle will come on when they are in the depths of despair and feeling desperately alone, giving rise to a new surge in faith. For some, to awaken in the night ... even in the dark night of the soul ... and see their candle glowing strong, out of the blue, is a sign that God is with them, deriving great comfort. Sometimes they feel that is an invitation to Stillness, wherein they find the answer to what they had been stuggling with or looking for. For those who pose a question at large, a specific candle may light to indicate which is the level of teacher would appropriately replywant to talk with.

The Butler TeaM used them extensively as social lubricants and cultural stimuli; we used them to help direct the agenda. It was not uncommon for the candles to bring us to order and light up or extinguish as the evening went on, orchestrating the Teachers as they came and went throughout the evening. The only setback I ever found with it is the batteries and the lightbulbs are quick to burn out and it is often difficult to find those special 4-watt bulbs off-season.

In the Butler transcripts (Volume IV, Part 3, January 14, 1998) Tomas discusses "the candle phenomenon." https://www.odellbowen.com/cc/VolIVPart3.pdf (excerpted below)

Rob wrote:Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 12:24 PM

Thank you Gerdean!

I have inserted this and the pertinent excerpt from your edited edition in the discussion page and as soon as I compose the article on The Candle Experience, I will let you know so that you might review it and make any editorial adjustments.

Gratefully,

Rob

Gerdean

Rob wrote: Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 1:02 PM

Gerdean-Here is the 'article' on The Candle Experience derived from your description. Let me know if any adjustments are needed. My only qualm arises from the fact that the lesson in which this practice if first mentioned is entitled Evil e.g. 1998-02-20-Evil - Rob

Ron Cohen wrote:Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 1:40 PM

Thanks, Gerdean for the explanation. Last night I turned all nine candles on my Hanukkah Menorah to within a hair of “on”, and during the evening two of the candles lit up. I pulled the plug on the electrical outlet and went to bed, re-plugged it in this morning and all the lights were still out. I will try it again tonight to see if anyone is “prompting” or visiting me.

Happy Holidays!

Ron C

Gerdean wrote:Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 3:22 PM

Hi Rob,

The lesson was titled "Evil" by the good folks at the Pocatello group who did the transcripts. I'm certainly not going to argue with it. Evil is merely imperfection. Not intentional ill will. It can go either way. Same with such as the candle experience. It can go either way, if it is taken too seriously.

Gerdean wrote: Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 3:24 PM

Nine candles! Have you designated them? Sounds like more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Enjoy!

The Candles

  • Date: January 14, 1998
  • Location: Butler, PA, USA
  • T/R’s: Gerdean and Hunnah
  • TEACHERS: TOMAS, MERIUM, MIDWAYER, PRESENCE, TEACHER, TRIESTE, JAY-ORZH, MALVANTRA MELCHIZEDEK
SPECIAL SESSION
The Candles

After noticing the candle [designated (1) midwayers and other celestial helpers] lit, Leah picked up and squarely set down each of the other three candles [designated (2) personal teachers, (3) group teachers, and (4) Michael and the Melchizedeks] which all stayed lit. With all four candles lit, Leah sat down to ponder.

Leah: I guess they know why I'm inquiring about this. TOMAS: You are asking me to be a crystal ball gazer.

Leah: No. I know that if they're here all the time that they must have observed the reason I'm asking this question, particularly because of some statements that were made in this room.

MIDWAYER: We're responsive to your need and indeed all of us are here in response to your need. Always. Have we not said so? "If it were not so, I would have told you."

Gerdean [On-line]: It's like the full symphony orchestra, tuned up. Leah: So are you saying that I prompted the candles? Are you talking about a mechanistic thing or a desire thing? PRESENCE: It is a desire thing and it is an affirmation, short of a demand, for if you had been trying to prove the non-existence of this method, your technique would not have resulted in illumination but darkness, in order to prove your point of darkness.

It is very much like your ability to turn the switch on your own spirit reality. You are the one who turns the switch off and on. When you discover that you are in the darkness, you have the capacity to turn the switch and become empowered by the Light. By the same token, when you are in the Light, your free will can cut off the power and you can fall into darkness. You know this already and you know this from the Course. Leah: Yeah. PRESENCE: You know this also from your teachers, from your own experience as well. And so it is a truth that has been confirmed and reaffirmed. The truth being that it is your will that determines your status and so do you choose life or death, reality or unreality, joy or sorrow. You are master of your fate when you choose self-mastery, a condition we admire since it enables you to use your intelligence, your consciousness, super-consciousness even, to contribute to greater light, greater reality, rather than passively, non-resistently flowing, even mindlessly, unconsciously, along with the inanimate and immaterial substances. Leah: "Inanimate and immaterial substances"? TEACHER: Immaterial meaning irrelevant. We are not referencing materiality or density here. Leah: Oh. TEACHER: We again encounter a difficulty in semantics. It is a full house; it is a full voice which greets you. An abstract aspect of spirituality, indeed you may refer to an aspect of the Supreme -- a shard, a sliver of evolving deity. Immaterial. Have you inquiry? Curiosity? Or commentary? Leah: All of the above. Sometimes I doubt my faith. An idea was introduced to me in regard to the candles. TEACHER: Yes.

Leah: And I dismissed it, but when I put the candle down and it went off, that's why I was asking if it was a mechanistic thing or that it lit up in response to desire, and I feel that you responded to me, but ... this is so silly because I don't know if you can read my mind or ... I feel like I want to say something and I feel like I want to take an intermission ... and that's kind of silly because I know you can hear me anyway in intermission, so the whole situation is so ... I can't really get out what's on my mind, but I ... I'm not asking you to be a crystal ball gazer, but ... I feel like you know what's on my mind...

TEACHER: I'd like to ask you a question. Leah: Yes.

TEACHER: When you say you have problems with your faith, trouble with your faith, when you say you have little faith, are you looking to your relationship and your understanding of the candle as a proof of your faith?

Leah: Actually, it's more like a disproof of my faith. I'm not sure. It's certainly not the be-all and end-all of my faith. It's like a portion of my faith seemed to be shattered.

TEACHER: With this idea that the candles are mechanistic? Leah: That it might have something to do with barometric pressure. TEACHER: Or temperature.

Leah: Yes. But it doesn't seem to me that they could ... that they could alternately just come on and off or ... I mean, it's not impossible. I wish the idea hadn't been introduced to me.

TEACHER: It is alright for you to doubt in terms of this device of candles; it is indeed foolish of you to determine your own personal eternal faith-path based on anything as material as a plastic, battery-operated candle. It is alright to not want to base your faith on such a flimsy aspect of potential reality. You are not alone in your incredulity. You are not alone.

You are not the only one who has studied barometric pressure, temperature, moisture, elevation, blunt impact, and so forth; you are not the only one who has tested your faith against the candles. It would be foolish, it would be foolish indeed, of those of us in the spirit realm to testify to the truth or the untruth of the spiritual contact based upon any material manifestation and ask you to regard it as religious truth.

Our efforts with you are far more meaningful and more long-lasting than that which will return to dust, which your candles will. We are not so little; we ask you to not be so little as to test our reality by way of your scientific devices, real or imagined. And yet at the same time it is understood that you as human beings will grasp at straws to make literal that which you cannot understand.

We sympathize with your grasp at understanding that which you can¬not understand. We are amused at your bemusement.

Leah: Well, I'm not. I want to delight in designating those candles and having them be indicative of certain personalities. I desired that. I wanted that.

TEACHER: Then I will return you to the original comment, having to do with your mind arena of choice that turns on the light switch of your own spirit room that sees the candle go on and says, "Aha! There is Tomas." "Oh, good, it's my personal teacher." "Look! A midwayer has come to call." Or "Oh, my God, Michael has come to see me." These attitudes bespeak a yearning, eager child, anxious to communicate with its friend. It's like your telephone devices that indicate, by way of the telephone number, "Oh, look, Aunt Margaret is calling me." "Georgie, from down the street, wants me to come and play."

Leah: Well,...

TEACHER: When I say "amusement and bemusement" it is not to belittle your human concerns, but to share with you your childlike nature which seeks to understand those concepts that the little young mind cannot yet grasp. It is in loving kindness of your capacities that we are amused, not out of any sense of superiority or lording it over you in your ignorance. This is a nuance.

Leah: I understand that. Call it curiosity or bemusement or ... what is it Gerdean was just telling me?., sometimes she uses these devices indicative in the same way I just spoke of, indicating a certain personality come to speak with her and she will have a discourse and the light will remain on. Why would that be? Can you offer me any . . . ?

TEACHER: Often the light is used as reassurance. It is a custom in your lifestyle as a mortal being at this juncture in time and space, that contact generally means you want or need something. Remember you are accustomed to being a human doing ...

Leah: True.

TEACHER: ... rather than a human being. We are happy to be being here. It is enough to greet you. It is not necessary that you expend yourself incessantly and we do not require it, and so, yes, sometimes we are eager to converse with you, or to counsel you, companion you or console you, to reinforce you or reassure you, but sometimes it is just to be with you. And sometimes, just because you have finished saying what you want to say and we have finished saying what we want to say, does not mean that our being together does not continue to provide great value to your reality, and to ours .

Leah: I appreciate that and I appreciate the fact that those lights did go on. I hate to admit this, but I don't really think about your presence all the time or significant amount of the time until I see the light or come to transmitting or some other little light bulb goes off in my mind in reference to something I heard.

TEACHER: Indeed it is a reflection of your own illumination, your own Pilot Light identities. We are delighted that you are delighted. It was a clever little device that the midwayers thought up and it seems to be becoming a fad, but it is a rather esoteric fad at this point, for you see we are not inclined to remove the value lesson of the Master about sign seekers and miracle workers.

Leah: Well, somehow or other I don't quite equate it with a miracle, that these lights go on, but [Laughter] .... Another light just came on, after they'd been turned off. The second one. Which one is that, Gerdean?

Gerdean: Trieste and Adrian. And perhaps Alkanon and Jay-Orzh. Any one of the personal teachers. Jasmine.

Leah: I just want to say that this discourse that we've had so far certainly ... I don't ... the idea of testing my faith in reference to the light had not occurred to me until this other individual, other idea was introduced to me, and I didn't really think of it as testing my faith until this evening when I discussed it, that maybe I was lacking in faith, and I would certainly not base my entire…

Gerdean: Foundation.

Leah: ... on a candlelight going on and off, but I just found it disturbing to myself that I have had such delight in this and then the idea that it was probably just some barometric phenomenon that occurs with the heat coming on and off or something, was very disappointing to me and a consideration I hadn't in my own mind, but maybe wondered if I was doubting with myself.

TEACHER: Are you happy with your experiment?

Leah: I don't know. I really don't know. I have to listen to the tape. I'm just confused, but I just want them to come on, whether they come from barometric pressure or whatever. I don't really care. I'm just happy to see them come on. And I'd like to still think that they are indicative of the personalities that they were designated.

TEACHER: You may consider that they are symbols.

Leah: Well, I like that. I like that a lot. And I'd like to ask, if Gerdean is willing, if the second candle is lit, if it's indicative of someone wishing to say something. If she's willing to transmit that or whatever, if she will.

Gerdean: I did feel Trieste arrive right here about that time. It's not like Trieste is gone, but I did feel her presence about that time. I am willing to look around and see who else might be here, but I definitely felt the prompt of Trieste.

Leah: Perhaps Trieste wants to say something to Gerdean. She doesn't get that much opportunity to ask questions when she's facilitating like this.

Gerdean: I don't feel any questions coming up from me to her. Let me see if she wants to say something.

TRIESTE: Greetings, children and friends. We are having fun with you this evening. We are having fun with the attendance. Indeed, the command performance. We rather like it when you are so asser¬tive in your relationship with us. None of you are as affirmative as it could be. You do not take advantage of us like you could. We are quite resilient and able to assimilate your awkward essays /attempts at making contact. We are understanding of your inexperience. If you are obnoxious, I assure you we will work that through. We are not afraid of you.

We will look forward to your developing the ability to forthrightly assert yourself on behalf of your spirit life. You are not experienced enough, perhaps, to make demands or have expectations regarding others. You may not yet have wisdom sufficient to know what to demand or request, but you could assume more from us, you could accept our friendship more readily. You do not, in part, because you do not fully appreciate how it is to be a human friend. You do not presume upon each other, out of respect, but you do not need each other as fully as you might.

You, who are so (you Gerdean and you Leah) who are so cognizant of the concept of co-dependence are, as you know, have read, overly independent -- you, especially, Gerdean; and you are very sensitive, Leah, in not wanting to be a bother; but your friendships are able to go much deeper, much farther. Each of you -- and I speak to each of you because you are here -- each of you are capable of much deeper feeling, much more giving of yourselves. You deprive yourself and your friend of the joy of giving when you do not ask them to give of themselves.

And this is true also of us. You act as though you don't want to bother anyone. I assure you, you are no bother. You are loved. You are important. You are The Father's child. We are sent to befriend you and to enable you to grow up. And to also enjoy your childhood. To teach you how to be friends with God and with yourself and with each other. And your education in friendship has been undeveloped. You are fearful of rejection. You are fearful of being denied. And so your needs are not met and you have become tough or callused or accustomed to going around having your needs unmet. In many ways you don't even know what your needs are.

You have this vague unsettled feeling that something is amiss but have no idea what it is. You know how it is when you have a hunger for something and don't know what it is, or when you have a craving that cannot be filled. These are your needs, daughters, children. Needs you are yet not recognizing. You will grow. You will begin to trust. But you must courageously face the fact that you are not self-sufficient. You are not meant to be self-sufficient. You are a part of a living organism.

It is necessary to flow and give and take and it is also important that when you recognize that you have a need, and that when others have need, a genuine need, that you make a point of it. Come to us with it. Come to Michael. Come to Michael and say, "Michael, I can see that there is a need in my brother, in my sister. They hunger. They thirst. Can we not fill their desire? Can we not prevail upon the angels to arrange a counsel? An understanding?"

All of us are in abeyance of service to the universe, even your¬selves. This is a supreme joy. It is a supreme gift to be of service, for service is love. It is the gift of giving and it is, as He says, "more blessed to give than to receive".

It requires devotion. Devotion is a need. You have a need to know and experience and honor your devotion. Yet it is denied. Your world does not give you time to know devotion.

You are also visited this evening by a Morontia Companion. There are many who have seen this light glowing. I will not "bogart" the channel. Jay-Orzh would like to speak for a while also.

Leah: I'd love to hear from her.

JAY-ORZH: I am here. I am here. I will rather take up where my companion left off, for we are merrily rolling along. Yes, I agree with Trieste, I agree fully, and appreciate the example she set, that you need devotion. There are many things that you are in need of that you are unaware of.

Reverence is a need. And not only are you in need of reverence in your own private life and in your sacred relationship with Father, but in your sacred relationships with Father in and through his many other creatures.

Again, you are trained in your realm, in your material life, to overlook reverence, for what in this earth life is worthy of being revered?

Leah: What is being revered?

JAY-ORZH: What in this life is worthy of your reverence? And so your need of reverence is undeveloped.

Leah: This evening we were having some absurd fun, making some very human comments and a reference to our irreverence in that realm, that material realm.

JAY-ORZH: Irreverence is a form of humor. It is not without merit. Irreverence in a fun sense is no problem. Indeed, it is a desirable aspect of humor. It is sophisticated, in a way. It elevates you up and out of the ponderous, overly serious, weighty cloud of tradition. A certain irreverence is refreshing in that regard, and so, no, we have not found your discourses this evening disrespectful. There are, of course, irreverent comments made that are disgusting and repulsive to the spirit, but we will not be so banal in our considerations.

Your needs are not, in many cases, what you believe them to be. You are not expansive in your appreciation of your true needs, your deep needs, for you continue to regard your needs as an animal and without regard to your divine needs, the needs of the entire being, person. You think in terms of your material needs often, almost exclusively. You think in terms of your emotional needs somewhat, only if they are not disruptive. You actually think very little in terms of your sexual needs or your social needs either.

Leah: Well, if I think a lot about my animal needs, aren't they those things?

JAY-ORZH: Many of these are habit. Leah: Oh.

JAY-ORZH: For you know not what else to do with your urgency, with your sense of not being complete, of your many interior and advanced needs not being met. It is lazy but true, but until such time as you are aware that you have deeper needs, higher needs, greater needs, in different realms, you will continually entertain your fundamental needs -- these needs having to do with survival, the elemental needs.

It is and has been a study of the animal, the human animal, in terms of its needs. Maslov study is foremost. Inferring that unless your animal needs are taken care of, you cannot then invest in more sophisticated development.

Leah: Is that in error?

JAY-ORZH: It is evolutionary. Remember that your mind rebels against growth. The animal mind rebels against its slothful habits of pleasure-seeking, self-seeking ease [being curtailed]. If you can be convinced by your animal nature that your physical needs have not yet been met, then you can incessantly stay in the animal realm, convinced that it is justified. And yet you have yet other developmental levels and realms you have not touched, you have deprived yourself of emotionally and esthetically, ethically and mentally, not to mention spiritually, morontially, because you are so primarily indoctrinated by your own animal nature to continue to stay there and satisfy it.

Leah: When you are saying "you," are you speaking to me individually or "you"…

JAY-ORZH: "You" as a member of the species, and so yes, you individually, also. It is a pep talk we bring. It is a new chapter in your growth that we bring, to present to you this evening. It began by suggesting that you do not ask for help. How can you ask for help in the spiritual realms when you have to entertain yourself constantly in terms of your basic animal needs?

Leah: I'm confused. I thought we were always supposed to ask for help in the spiritual realm, or tune in to that.

JAY-ORZH: Oh, yes. And you do. You do. And you are commended and encouraged and you have already grown. Remember, you were taught recently, Tomas spoke to you recently, regarding your great accomplishments. The last few years have accelerated your personal spiritual growth tremendously. You are indeed to consider your accomplishments. It is not to be said here, to be understood here, that we are discounting your efforts or your accomplishments. You are doing fine.

But we are encouraging you here in this conversation to stand up and say, "I need some more help here." I am saying you need to assert yourself in the spirit. It is like a prodigal son. It is like a birthright. You have been treated like an orphan. You have not given yourself the full bearing of sonship that you are entitled to as a son of God. You can say to Father, "Father, something must be done here! We must do something here! Can we not ask the angels to step in?" and assert yourself, rather than always being a supplicant or powerless or indifferent to the welfare of the universe. In particular, the universe of your own realm. Do you see what I'm saying? What we are saying this evening?

Leah: When you say, "In my own realm" are you speaking to me individually here?

JAY-ORZH: I am speaking to you, Leah, yes; and I am speaking to you, Gerdean; and I am speaking to anyone who hears this value lesson, this truth, this growth step, this potential-yet-to-become-actual, this would-be reality-izing of our efforts in this Teaching Mission, in this ministry to you, to you personally, and to you as a group.

Leah: Okay, I ... maybe I'm not understanding, but I'm feeling a sense of admonishment about, something about my animal nature that I am too involved in it, and that I'm not, like, too ... I'm aware that I'm not ...

JAY-ORZH: You are not being chastised. Is that helpful? Leah: That's helpful. JAY-ORZH: You are not being belittled for . . . Leah: No. I understand. JAY-ORZH: . . . your animal needs.

Leah: I understand. But if I'm understanding ... all I can think of is -- it's sort of a lesson out of "God Calling" that says that something along the lines that you are like a child in a wealthy home who is afraid to write a check or something.

JAY-ORZH: Yes.

Leah: But, I'm also hearing, somehow or other I've asked about this for a long time and in the group it always felt as if we were preparing for the next step, but there never seemed to be any indication what the next step was, but I'm also hearing that we're not -- my words are poor -- cleaned up enough to be involved in the next step or something.

JAY-ORZH: You misunderstand, for you have already taken many, many, many, many steps. Individually you have each grown and as a group you have grown. As a community you have grown. As a light you have grown. And yet there is more growth.

Leah: Oh, I'm certain of that. And, is this what you're saying? Is that we're not asking?

JAY-ORZH: This is a new growth step for you, that, you rise up to your full heritage and, yes, in a sense, write the check. Now don't revert that into materialism, but rather take it symbolically and recognize your heritage. There is more to this lesson. There is more to this discourse than your right to ask for help. It speaks to your need to recognize what you need in order that you know what to ask for.

Leah: I can hear your words very plainly. I just don't understand it.

JAY-ORZH: Then let me say that it is only an egg. And in due course this egg will hatch in you as life, an idea.

Leah: Well, I'd like to be assertive enough to ask that if there is any possibility of acceleration of my comprehending this, that I would appreciate any help.

JAY-ORZH: I will refer you again to Our Father and ask Him in your meditations to reveal to you that which you need, that you might ask, then, for help in acquiring what you need, that you will then recognize the need in others and that you will then be able to provide for that need, as a rightful heir of Our Father.

You have strained sufficiently, Leah, this evening. We will release your application here and revert to spontaneity and dancing. When we came on-line this evening, Merium was making wine from grapes. Indeed, she is stained up to her buttocks in purple. I will step aside with deep affection, for now, for our sister and friend Merium to come in and splash you with some of her homemade wine. One moment.

Leah: Thank you so much for coming. I should say "revealing yourself."

MERIUM: Have we not had a real bacchanal this evening? Have we not just had a jolly time? Drink up. Here's to you. Here's to the evening and the productivity of it.

I might also say we enjoyed your artistry earlier, your entertainment with culture was most delightful. It was observed that you were engaged in art appreciation, music appreciation, and the art of communication all at once! We were giddy with happiness. Is it any wonder that when we settled down and stabilized that the light flickered, indicating that we had come by to say hello. Well, we have certainly done that. We have said hello. I am going to take this opportunity to thank your personal teachers Trieste and Jay-Orzh for their superlative guidance and teaching practice this evening. It is not often that we get to hear personal teachers apply themselves to their charges in such advanced and intimate fashion. Bravo, girls. Bravo! Well ...

I am going to back off and offer my companion Tomas a bit of the grape. We will see you soon, but I do believe your initial guest, our host the midwayer, would like to speak to you for a moment before we all disengage for the evening. Ta-ta, gals!

MIDWAYER: Secondary midwayer here, signing in. Haven't we had fun! It has been a real joyous occasion. Yes, we enjoy the communication that comes about when our musical chairs, musical candles, are activated. It doesn't work for everyone, I hope you know that, and there is no accounting for our taste in who we work with. There are different strokes for different folks, and that is just the way it is. And so, just consider yourself blessed in more ways than one, and when you talk about your faith, you might, in the back of your mind, remember the candles, but in terms of your teaching and preaching, it is not candles that will make men fishers of men. We are not here to collect miracles.

That reference is to the story in the Book about the multitude that wanted to make the Master king. Their values were not screwed on straight. We want to make sure that when the candles are screwed on straight, they don't reflect immateriality to the multitudes. You get my drift.

Leah: Almost. MIDWAYER: Rest well, kids. See you soon. Good night. Leah: Is there someone else? (Long pause)

MALVANTRA MELCHIZEDEK: I am Malvantra Melchizedek. Good evening, students and friends. We are glad to be with you and to observe your progress, your diligence, and your curiosity. You are refreshing. I will look forward to our continued work together with you in your community here. Your community is advancing. It is growing in numbers and quantity is certainly an aspect of the Mission that we are interested in. But, I remind you of the value of qualitative application to truth.

Your growth is and continues to be insignificant to its potential, and always will you find this to be true. What you have learned already is manageable and so where is the next challenge? This is one of the truths of you that we look to for help in our efforts in working with you to advance Urantia. And I speak to you here as individuals having Adamic stock adequate to give you a composition ample with adventure and curiosity and this is helpful to us.

You would say, "Now I'm very confused, for the range of your conversations this evening have talked about how it is that we have needs we don't know we have, we have too much focus on the animal, we have grown a lot, and yet our growth has been insignificant. And what do you want from us next?" Well, children, we want you to continue to pursue the path and to find it intriguing.

We have great ambition for you and for your capacities. You under¬value your capacities and capabilities. You have heard, you well know, you can be made more and greater by your work with and through and in the spirit. And we await that time when you grow in your intensity, your zeal. We are not pushing. Fear not. We find you a delicate balance. We have studied you as mortal beings, generally, you generally, for a long time, and have some indication of how fragile you are on one hand and how resilient and tough you are on the other, and yet it is a constant balance, balancing act in your minds, and in the course of time we are making progress. We see progress. We will make more progress, for as you are stabilized, as you are balanced, you become truly great, and reliable and dependable. And this is an inevitability as you pursue your worthy goals, but it does take time, and we are aware that it takes time, and we are not impatient.

We regret any inconvenience this has caused you, for your free will is supreme in your life. We honor your free will and the right to make mistakes as well as to advance the cause of the Kingdom in your life and the lives of others. Good evening.

Leah: Good evening. Thank you. How could it be any inconvenience to us? It's our free will to be here.

Gerdean: That was different! Leah: My goodness, yes.

Gerdean: That was a whole orchestra, wasn't it? Dang, girl, there's the teachers, and what is it? The teachers are here ...

Leah: They've [the candles] been on and off and on and off all evening. Gerdean: All of them? Leah: Just the personal teachers. Gerdean: Did they all go off by themselves? Leah: No, I had turned them off. That one, too, but it came back on. Gerdean: Well, isn't that the one that said sometimes they just hang with us?

Leah: Yeah, that's-- I'm glad that Malvantra said, "Well, now you're sufficiently confused because we said this and that," and I thought, "Yeah! This guy is a crystal ball gazer."

Gerdean: They all speak to different levels of us. They do. They work on different facets of us.

Leah: Yeah, but it is striking me that ... there were a couple of things going on. One of them is, uh, we are, well, like Jesus said when he was at the temple for his last discourse and his first discourse, when he was six years old, he talked about, he read from Isaiah and he read about ... releasing the bond servants, or . . . you know what I'm talking about, and obviously if we're not living up to our potentials, we're not ...

Gerdean: We're just not being as effective as we could be.

Leah: Right. And I mean, I almost feel as if we're never going to live up to our potential, for a long, long, time. I mean ....

Gerdean: Well, what I got from the Melchizedek is that they have patience. They see it happening. They're sorry for any inconvenience,...

Leah: I didn't understand that. Gerdean: . . . but that as it is happening, it is happening solidly.

Leah: I didn't understand the inconvenience remark at all. How could it be inconvenient if it's our will to be here doing this?

Gerdean: Oh, to the extent that our free will balks at it. I mean, since they honor our right to say yes or no, the part that says "yes" is cooperative, but the part that says "no, I don't want to," is also part of our free will that is inconvenienced. I mean, it's an extremely gracious remark. It's like, we honor your right to make mistakes. We honor your right to do foolish things and are sorry when you feel the sting of your mistakes. Sort of. Or ...

Leah: The learning processes.

Gerdean: Yeah! Sorry you have to go through some ... Sorry that it's sometimes hard on you.

Leah: Then the other thing, when they were talking about the media. Gerdean: Others, that we love. Leah: Like she can't stop it. Gerdean: Very interesting. Okay. What was the counsel there? Leah: It was whether you can call the angels or not. Ask for help. Gerdean: Need. Okay, but wait. The key in here is our need.