home | what's new | other sites | contact | about

Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Summerland

return to 'Summerland 1-minute' page

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?”

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

See the many channeled reports from Summerland. There’s not much mention there 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 and 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, so 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 the way it works for millions.

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 “do” something, 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. We can do what we want.

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 of the Earth: Bible-believing, accepting heaven-sent avatars, rituals and formularies, securing an august patron saint, joining the right group with the right doctrines, 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 me at 6 AM (or was it 5:30?).

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.

There will always be plenty of time for recreation in Summerland, no worries there, but 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 those amenable to being helped (and others we will help later, when they're ready).

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

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

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 in this chapter of Mark. Jesus speaks of “mountain moving,” and what he’s getting at is allowing God to show us some need or some service work that should be addressed.

mountain moving for immortals

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.

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.

THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION