ideas to ponder and practice
How to heal ourselves and the planet we live on
This may or may not be a familiar term to you. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines this as: "conveying thoughts or energy from a source believed to be outside the person's body or conscious mind; specifically: one who speaks for nonphysical beings or spirits"
Who is writing, the nature of who is writing this -- will be a question that you can explore for yourself. How important is it to know the answer before you engage in exploring the content, is something to reflect upon.
Context is important to all of us in different ways. Some will place great importance on the credentials of the writer. Yet many of us read books or listen to music, or view art by writers, musicians, artists whom we have never met or will ever meet. We determine the merit of the work based on our experience with it. The more we are in learning when we experience the work, the more possibilities emerge.
I am the scribe and the student of the Messages. Any insights I offer come from personal learning and applying the material contained in the Messages in my own life. This happens sometimes with success, sometimes with frustration, still other times I am overwhelmed by not measuring up to the possibilities of what is offered in the Messages.
For the past seven years I have recorded the Messages in the various forms: direct information, stories, examples, practices, learning exercises. I try to do this daily for at least an hour. Sometimes the flood of material is huge, sometimes a trickle. At times I may work for hours. All the work is handwritten in journals. This explains why it is taking time to type the writings and release them.
There is nothing special about me. I have a gift which takes the form of channeling. I wish I was an artist or musician and could express myself and this work in more experiential forms. Hopefully gifted artists will show up and help offer Messages in different mediums.
The Messages offer that we all have gifts, every one of us. The discovery and use of our gifts is an important part of continuing to grow.
My Personal Story
An Awakening at Age 19
My spiritual awakening occurred in the second week of December, 1972. I was a sophomore in college, living in New Jersey. My close friend and mentor George J. Franklin, (known to his friends as J) called me on my dormitory phone. He said I had to come to Santa Cruz, California right away, something amazing was going to happen and that it involved me. His excitement was contagious. Though I had never travelled anywhere, I went to the college ride board and saw that someone was leaving for California the next morning. Taking this as a good omen, despite the resistance of my parents, I headed west in a VW van, driving non-stop.
When I arrived in Santa Cruz, J. took me right over to meet Janice Cohen at her home. On the way he explained to me that Janice was a powerful psychic who channeled spirit. She had a message for me that I needed to hear.
The information she communicated over the next three days was powerful. Yet even stronger was the chemistry I felt with these two remarkable human beings. In that very moment, the simplest description of what occurred to me was that I opened up. I was either remembering or recognizing the familiar. Some people refer to this feeling as déjà vu, a moment of recognition that the past and the present are linked, that there are ties to each other that defy the limits of time. Janice and J. instantly felt like family and kindred spirits. This connection was the first important step in my spiritual journey.
I learned during my stay in Santa Cruz that I had the same ability as Janice to listen to spirit and to channel. “Channel” may or may not be a familiar term to you. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines this as: "conveying thoughts or energy from a source believed to be outside the person's body or conscious mind; specifically: one who speaks for nonphysical beings or spirits."
Raised as a devout catholic, attending catholic school from kindergarten through high school, I almost went into a high school seminary to study to become a priest. I share this because I grew up with a deep and rich education, which did not in any way support what I experienced in Santa Cruz. Looking back on this experience I marvel at my lack of resistance. My upbringing simply faded away in the light of what was happening.
Preparation, Practice and Failure
Over the next ten years with Janice’s help I would have many lessons in channeling which developed my ability to listen clearly, to know when my conscious mind was mimicking spirit, and to understand how to work with information from spirit. Most importantly I was encouraged in numerous ways to cultivate a deep respect for the importance of free will.
In my late twenties I began a period of channeling for others. People would come to me to talk to their spirit guides for information and guidance. During this time I did something, which ruined an important friendship. I became attached to my friend following the information she was receiving from spirit through me. Too late I realized how much I was judging her. With arrogance, I believed I knew her spiritual path, what was best for her, because of the information I was hearing. My behavior ran contrary to all I was taught about honoring others’ free will and to treat all the information I received as an offering, not a set of rules to be followed.
Realizing my ego was involved, I stopped channeling. I would not do anything publicly or of substance for thirty (30) years.
Normal Life - Marriage, Family and Corporate America
After I finished graduate school my work quickly moved into the traditional corporate world and my visits to Santa Cruz grew less frequent. Over the next two decades I would get married, buy a house, struggle with learning to be a good parent and become a work-alcoholic, putting in long hours and traveling. I settled into a very comfortable traditional life. Typically I visited Janice and J. once a year and we would play and work together, often channeling for one another.
I excelled in the corporate world. My area of focus was management consulting, specifically working on large-scale changes, such as, shifting the culture of an organization for stronger performance or creating customer focus. My work often included leadership coaching and training. I became the director of an internal consulting firm for a Fortune 50 corporation, working with business unit executives. Personally, I worked with the Chairman and his executive team. I found this work very satisfying. In 1996 I left to start my own external consulting practice with several other people.
Other than of a handful of people from my past, no one knew anything about my “spiritual life.” When I stepped into the business world, I learned quickly that you are expected to separate your personal life and business life. The currency for success is hard work, intellect, results and political acumen. Even the more common, traditional religious views that I grew up with are not relevant. So you can imagine that listening to disembodied voices, automatic writing, using energy for shielding and healing, cultivating wisdom were not accepted topics of conversation around the corporate lunch room.
This separation or compartmentalization was also true even in my personal life. Prior to marrying my wife, I told her this very story, which I am sharing with you now. She listened intently and never said a word. Finally I asked her, “So what do you think?” She said, “I believe that you believe everything you told me.” We would never talk about this again for twenty-five years.
A Waking Dream - Thirty Years Later
My life progressed much as any life progresses. By all accounts, it was “normal.” Until seven years ago, while driving my car, I had a powerful waking dream, which reactivated my past.
“I heard a voice inside my head say very loudly, “You are the Seventeenth Messenger.” This was repeated several times. I was then told, “I have seventeen messages that I want you to write down. The first ten messages will come quickly in the beginning. The other seven messages will come over a period of years and people will be waiting for them. There will be great anticipation for these later messages. You are the seventeenth messenger.” That was pretty much it a one way transmission. None of my questions were answered.
For months following this, I resisted what I had heard. A long time ago spirit had said that my professional career was always about building credentials, and these relationships would be essential to supporting my real purpose. However, I had long abandoned any curiosity or belief that my channeling would reemerge as a significant part of my lifework. My consulting work in private practice was going very well.
Yet the call to channel and record these messages was unrelenting. I could feel pressure building up inside and around me. This was similar to how you might feel when the barometer is increasing as the weather changes and the air seems to become thicker. Finally one morning I gave in. Without a plan or expectation I picked up a pen and opened a spiral loose-leaf binder. The first words I heard were: “And so it begin – The Book of the Seventeenth Message: How to Heal Ourselves and the Planet We are Part of.”
A Change in Direction
For the next five years my regular practice became to sit each morning, taking advantage of the natural stillness of my mind and the day around me. I would listen and write what I was hearing. Each morning session, I was given a topic and then there would be a flow of information. The process was not always linear, material could pick up where it was left off six months before.
People may wonder if this is all made up. Someone once asked me, “How do I actually know that what I am hearing isn’t my conscious mind?” My quick response to this is to respond, “How do you tell the voices of your two brothers or your two sisters apart?” They of course have different qualities. My more serious answer is that I trained for this and developed my ability to listen without distraction and to quiet my conscious mind. However, for me personally, the most compelling explanation is that for the past seven years I have been a student of this channeled material. I have learned an enormous amount and continue to do so. I can say without reservation that the information presented here is well beyond my ability to make up. I wish that I could be this wise!
As promised in the waking dream the first ten messages came quickly. After this I was told that the next period would be spent deepening the understanding of the ten messages now presented in this book. There are now more than two thousand (2,000) pages of hand written material, making up a rich and deep body of work, with teachings, practices, principles, examples, stories, all organized around ten of the seventeen messages.