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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Summerland

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Why would we even want to build a life in Summerland?

What’s not to like about, or who would need more than, a full schedule of sailing, hiking in the mountains, strolling on a pink-sand beach, going to parties with friends and relatives, horseback riding, maybe taking courses at a local university, attending concerts, space-travel adventure, entertaining close friends in your backyard to enjoy death-by-chocolate cheesecake – I mean, we could go on listing the activities for a long time.

Who needs to “build a life” when we can just go from one pleasant event to the next?

And, absolutely, we can do this, as much as we want, for as long as we want. No one will bother us, no one will say a word otherwise.

is this all there is

But, as we’ve discussed elsewhere, our lives in Summerland need to be more than something resembling a thrill-packed trip to DisneyWorld.

While we'll have indestructible bodies, with no need to calorie-count, sleep, or even slow down, we will remain creatures requiring meaning in our lives.

And therefore even the most inveterate pleasure seeker -- eventually cloyed and sated, like eating too much ice cream (Heath Bar ice cream is the devil's temptation to me) -- will begin to ponder, “Is this all there is?” – as we then fall into existential crisis. See the writing “Will you survive the terror of living forever?”

the reports from Summerland address those escaping from war-zone traumas on planet Earth

See the many channeled reports from Summerland. Oftentimes, there’s not much mention about building a life directed toward higher endeavors: such as, serving the disadvantaged, and being about the business of Mother-Father God.

hospitals in Summerland

This is not surprising because newly-transitioned ones, in many cases, virtually need hospital care. They need to recover from the anguish and injuries sustained in our world. The average new-arrival is in no shape to immediately engage in projects encompassing broader planes of thought.

What they need is recuperation, r & r, and this, very likely, in an uninterrupted manner, for a long time, until they can begin to feel good about themselves, and even to want to live productively.

can't even remember what it's like to feel good

As we've said, many of us will feel so bad from the Earth trip that we won't even remember what it's like to feel good. All this is natural and common.

Everyone is allowed to take as much time as needed – a year, ten years, a hundred years – to mentally situate oneself, to orient the self toward life in an eternal world where everything is good. We’re not used to this.

Editor’s note: I had a reading with a medium not long ago, and I shared a few ideas and plans about building a life in Summerland, and the message from the other side was this, to the effect, “Those ideas are fine, but almost no one comes over here thinking like that, almost everyone is pretty messed up for some time.”

many of us will want to take part in the ‘cooperative arts’

As people awaken to a need to contribute something to the greater good, some aspect of work and service, many initially attempt to continue with their Earth professions. For example, there are actually brick layers in Summerland, because that’s what they did in our world, that’s what they know, and so they continue to build things over there.

But eventually many of us tire of the old ways, and we want to do something meaningful.

A long time ago, Mortimer Adler had this to say about the ‘cooperative arts,’ which speak to an enlightened view of human nature.

works with nature

Cooperative Arts vs. Productive Arts: the products of the "cooperative arts" -- farming (plants), medicine (healing), and teaching (knowledge) -- are referred to as such because, in these efforts, man works with nature. In each of these areas -- all dealing with living things -- nature is able to bring about its ends without human aid but, if done alone, less is usually accomplished. The (merely) "productive arts" seek to create artificial things: shoes, houses, autos, baseball bats -- anything and everything that would not come into existence at all but for human skill and toil.

we cannot help people directly but only work with them to effect change

In “the 500 tape-recorded messages from the other side” writing, I offered much discussion concerning how we cannot help people directly regarding spiritual and mental issues. The “insane 500” over there, however, believe that they can directly change people. They have an exaggerated opinion of their own importance to the process. They think they can actually remold the human spirit, and so they believe that unless they're out there serving, God's work will be stymied; it all depends on them, as they see it, and they fret about this, about how people will not be saved unless they are working. For these dysfunctional ones, suffering from severe ego inflation, service is no "cooperative" effort but merely "productive" project.

bringing in God’s harvest is a cooperative art

The “harvest” is a New Testament metaphor relating to spiritual maturation of human beings.

This will not be accomplished according to common methods of churches: Bible-believing, accepting heaven-sent avatars, rituals and formularies, securing an august patron saint, joining the right group with the right doctrines -- all this will avail absolutely nothing. See quotations from the next world on the "WG Guide" page.

As we’ve learned from many reports from the other side, these errant religious concepts will need to be expunged with a kind of “cult-deprogramming” therapy in Summerland.

wake up, get up, it's time to go to work

Yes, I can still hear my dad calling to my teenage self at 6 AM.

There is a harvest to be brought in, and we can aspire to be laborers, farmers, in God's harvest fields -- as counselors, teachers, coaches, healers, guides, those who point the way.

Editor’s note: Despite this focus on service and work, there will always be plenty of time for recreation in Summerland.

To reference Chief Blackhawk's channeled testimony once more (see primary quotation below), he has seen that, in small steps, we are led to desire service-work in God’s harvest fields:

“And so, the mind of [a new arrival in Summerland] slowly, gradually turns toward loving, helping, useful work … and [will] not consider solely self… Those on lower levels need a helping hand to climb out.”

And yet he also wants to assure us that there’s an abundance of time for recreation:  

“But, it’s not all work [in Summerland]; plenty time play, plenty time enjoy, plenty time learn – so much all the time to learn.”

laborers in God's harvest fields are not just nameless drones in denim overalls

a laborer in God’s harvest field is not a brawnish strong-back performing general dogs-body tasks, but is endowed with a specific service project, particularly designed for that individual, according to unique strengths and talents

We will eventually understand that one of the very greatest blessings of life is to perceive that God has given each of us a particular work to do.

We cannot effect change in people directly, but, like a farmer, we can cooperatively work with nature, we can offer advice, help and aid to those amenable to being helped (and others we will help later, when they're ready).

mountain moving for immortals

Many years ago now, I wrote the article on Mark 11. Originally, I wanted to explain a verse there that seems to say “If you can try very hard to believe such-and-such, then it will be well for you.”

In the process of dealing with this error, I noticed a very great principle. Jesus speaks of “mountain moving,” and what he’s getting at is allowing God to show us some need or service work that should be addressed.

This service project might be very large, it might require a thousand years, or more, of labor – which is why Jesus called it “mountain moving,” an exceedingly large project. But this kind of super mega-work, designed for an immortal, we learn from the discourse of Mark11, is to be integral to the life of a maturing son or daughter of God.

In the Summerland articles I’ve commented that games and sports are still available to us over there. But, what is the real point in playing golf when we can sink a hole-in-one with every stroke? – pretty boring; our powers of mind and body will be that great. What we need is a brand new array of challenges, fit for an immortal. What we need will be projects at the skill level of “mountain moving.” This ups the ante a bit.

'too easy'

Editor’s note: On the “Summerland” page, there’s a transcribed tape-recorded message from Chief Blackhawk on the other side. He answered a question about how people live their daily lives in Summerland. In the case of his own people, he said that a new-arrival male might attempt to replicate traditional ways of hunting with bow-and-arrow. Augmented skills of the astral body allow him to hit his target every time. At first, this seems a good thing, but it doesn’t take long before it’s realized that it’s all “too easy.” The ensuing disillusionment, the Chief said, might open a portal to the higher levels of consciousness.

uniquely commissioned project managers

I have come to see that, as we mature, not only will we be given a certain unique vision concerning what we are to work on, but, to that end, we are to arrange and build our lives in Summerland -- creatively, forcibly, inventively, resourcefully, with full line-authority (not just staff-authority) -- to bring all this into reality; to become effective and consecrated project managers in God’s harvest field, with a particular service mission to accomplish. See more at the Mark 11 writing.

the poor, the maimed, the halt, the blind

When you build your life in Summerland – that is, if you’d rather not be filed under “part of the problem” – then, you must invite, to your life activities and larger mission, the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.

Now, everyone in Summerland has a healthy body, there are no halt and blind over there. But Jesus isn’t talking about the physically disabled.

Editor’s note: There is no such thing as “salvation” the way the churches teach it. See a full discussion, 100 articles, on the “Jesus” page.

And this is why we find Jesus socializing with so-called “sinners” and saying things like “I’m not here for the benefit of the righteous.”

He is speaking cryptically. There is no such thing as two separate groups, sinners and righteous. What he’s really saying is,

“If you think you’re elite, or better than the mass of humanity, if you think that you’re doing just fine, righteous, and the world’s problems are caused by ‘all those others,’ then I can’t help you. You’re too perverted in pride right now.”

meeting an old classmate in a sauna, heated discussion ensuing

Almost 50 years ago, I happened to meet an old grade-school classmate in a sauna. He was known to be from “the wrong side of the tracks.” He tended to be angry at life. Big and strong, built like a heavy-weight boxer, no one dared touch him. Later, psychologically isolated, he dropped out of high school.

We chatted a bit, but he directed the conversation to someone back then who had slighted him. And suddenly he’s becoming very animated, afflicted by images of the past, and now he’s verbally attacking, with great venom and violent words, the one who had made him feel less. I doubt that they had ever spoken, as they were from different worlds.

Very recently, a memory of this ancient and awkward encounter beset me. I found it distasteful, but, even so, I noticed some new things, today, in my old age. I could tell that he was actually a talented and capable person, a smart person but very rough. I knew that he'd purposefully sought for low grades, as this was his statement of defiance. Due to abusive family influence and early neglect, lack of encouragement and direction, he had grown up hard and bitter. However, I now felt myself, even in spite of myself, warming toward this old classmate. In another time and place, with other formative circumstances, we might have been friends. Maybe we still could be, I thought.

Father Benson and Roger

In Father Benson’s second book, he and Ruth invite a young Summerland new-arrival, Roger, to stay in their home. It seems that Roger had no extended family to welcome him, and so Benson and company said that he could be in their house for as long as he liked, until he might like to have his own house sometime.

This is a very good model for building a life, a life of service, in Summerland.

Let’s think about this. We learn from the Guides that 75% of those transitioning will spend at least some time in dark detention. Many of these are angry and messed up and will remain there for a very long time until someone extends a hand of brotherly love to help them out of their misery.

As Chief Blackhawk (above) stated, we should "not consider solely self… Those on lower levels need a helping hand to climb out.”

there are many ways to get involved with this, set it up according to your own preferences

My childhood classmate, I suspect, will send himself to a dark place when he crosses over. There are many full-time missionary Guides working in the Dark Realms to free the hapless, but there are many more who are caught in soul-numbing misery. It occurred to me recently that an old classmate, offering friendship, might be particularly conducive toward convincing a denizen of dark detention to make a change in his life.

Here’s how I intend to set things up (but you can do it differently). I’m going to have a large farm over there, with many animals, and a large pasture and a lake and nearby forest. And I’m going to provide accommodation in a natural setting, for new-arrivals or rescued individuals from dark detention, especially to those who have no family support network, or just need to be among friends for a while, or as long as they like. And I think the many animals on the farm, too, will be very therapeutic to psychologically damaged ones.

The “blind, halt, and poor” suffer under no illusion of “I am better than others, I am righteous, I need no physician.” They well perceive their own infirmity, and this becomes their doorway to wisdom.

This means that they are willing to be helped, willing to be taught God’s way of love. Not everyone over there (or here) is willing, and the laborers in God’s harvest fields are glad to find those who can be helped.

Winston Churchill: “I am always willing to learn, but not always willing to be taught.”

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