LOVELIGHT

Magazine

*****

Managing editors: Richard Shining Thunder Francis and Adamaria Francis

*****

Contributors to this issue: Ramona Abella, Nick Ardizzone, Jim Dwyer, Pat Fields, Chris Finer, Mick Gallagher, Pat Goodman, Steven McDaniel, Ty Scharrer, Karleen Sell, Geoffrey Stoermer

*****+

LOVELIGHT MAGAZINE: WHAT WE'RE ALL ABOUT

Lovelight magazine is free, coming directly to your inboxscreen once a month, to bring a little sunshine, and at least a few laughs. So, if you discover any jokes that make you roar with laughter, please send them along.

But life is not all laughs. So, we hope also to share with you some pleasant and sweet thoughts, and life-lessons.

Lovelight wants to promote peace and harmony, and to aid you personally to overcome any problems. If you are working on any religious, psychological, or spiritual challenges, we encourage you to write to us at: rmfrancis@juno.com[Red, 14 pt]

We also want to present "miniparables" to help you grow. So, if you come across any wise or touching pieces, not copyrighted, fairly short, please share them with the efamily. Please send them to the magazine, at the same address. Also welcome are practical tips that can make life easier or safer. We also welcome short pieces on personal philosophies, interesting facts, wordplays, and spirituality, especially those that emphasize the value of compassion and other forms of Love. We reserve the right to make whatever changes that we deem necessary or desirable before inclusion in Lovelight magazine.

As a subscriber, your email name/address will not be shared. Please share, send, or copy, this magazine, or any parts of it. Share it with all your friends, and all others. Please use it on your websites. Also, if your friends are inclined, please have them send us their emailaddress and request a personal subscription. All subscriptions are always free.

This is published as a "light" introduction to spirituality. It is designed especially for those who have little or no interest in the "heavier" aspects. And it is also great, fun reading. A collection of magazines is produced once a year, and would make a sweet gift for a loved one. Happy reading!:)

*****

*****

LOVELETTERS FROM OUR BUDS, PALS, AND FRIENDS

From Ty Scharrer

Dear Shi, From Ty:

To keep warm,… I turn off my furnace, which heats my entire house. I close the bedroom door and close the bathroom door…, before turning on an electric oil filled radiator heater… on a timer, setting the heater to 600 watts. The heater comes on only for a half hour, three times a night, keeping the bedroom in the low sixties…. In the morning,… I open our curtains, exposing our patio door which allows the sun to shine in, warming up the house. There is no reason to heat an entire house when energy is needed in only one room. I think it is obscene how Americans waste energy. Shopping centers are cold enough to wear coats in the summertime, when they could be set at 78 degrees with air conditioning. In the winter months, shopping centers are warm enough to run naked through the stores and not even raise a chill bump… Yes, lets tout the merits of saving energy!

I still believe the electric generation companies don't want everyone to use those bulbs, content to keep rolling in the money for high power uses by customers….Last year, I replaced every bulb in our… homes with the low wattage small fluorescents. I don't know why environmentalists haven't been shouting the merits of the small fluorescents from the housetops to everyone who owns a home or business. The replacement bulbs use only 13 watts of power verses 60 watts from the old bulbs.

…Sure, you have permission to print my letter in Lovelight magazine!

Ty

***

Letter to Ty:

Just replaced all our "normal" light bulbs with small fluorescents. Have you seen them? They are thin tubes that have a socket screw-in area that fits the outlet for normal incandescent bulbs. Use much less energy, last ten times as long, and can save you $46 on a single lamp.…With a few more aquarians, always elevated in consciousness, we could even manage to save poor Mother Earth!:) (At least, that is our hope!:)

Love,

*****

*****

CHUCKLES AND SNORTS, WITH MILK OUT THE NOSE: HUMORTHERAPY

SOME STUPID BUT THOUGHTPROVOKING QUESTIONS, sent in by Ramona Abella

Can you cry under water?***What disease did cured ham actually have?***How is it that we put humans on the moon before we figured out to put wheels on luggage?***Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like

every two hours?***Why are you "in" a movie, but "on" tv?***Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?***Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you

naked anyway.***Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural?***Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?***If the professor on "Gilligan's Island" can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat?***If Wiley E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME junk, why didn't he just buy dinner?

***

NOTHING TO BRAG ABOUT, sent in by Mick Gallagher

Three Texas surgeons were playing golf and discussing surgeries. One said, "I'm the best surgeon. A concert pianist lost 7 fingers, I re-attached them, and eight months later, he performed a concert."

Another said, "That's nothing. A young man lost both arms and legs in an accident, I re-attached them, and 2 years later he won a gold medal in the Olympics."

The third said, "Several years ago a cowboy who was high on cocaine and alcohol rode a horse head-on into a train traveling 80 miles an hour. All I had left to work with was the horse's ass and a cowboy hat. Now he's president of the United States."

***

YOU MIGHT NEED A NEW PSYCHIC IF…sent in by Ty Scharrer

He keeps shaking a black crystal ball, and says, "Ask again later."***Every time you draw the Death card, she yells "Go Fish!"***Looks suspiciously like that guy who fixed your muffler last week.***His idea of an "out of body experience" involves whipped cream and women's clothing.***His spoon bending requires two pliers.***Sign in window: "As Seen on '60 Minutes."***During card-reading, asks if you want to "hit" or "stand."***Insists that your astrological sign is "The Armadillo."***Psychics Magazine rates her just below fortune cookies, just above your mom.***Repeatedly attempts to read your palm with his genitalia.***Shakes her crystal ball, then predicts a large snowstorm.

***

SOME LAWS OF THE NATURAL UNIVERSE, sent in by Pat Goodman

1. Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch.***2. Law of the Workshop: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.***3. Bath Theorem: When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.***4. Law of the Result: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.***5. Law of Coffee: As soon as you sit down to a cup

of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.***6. Law of Dirty Rugs/Carpets: The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor covering are directly correlated to the newness, color and cost of the carpet.***7. Law of Logical Argument: Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.***8. Brown's Law: If the shoe fits, it's ugly.***9. Wilson's Law: As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.

***

FROG AND PSYCHIC, sent in by Ty Scharrer

Recently, the Psychic Hotline and Psychic Friends Network have

launched hotlines for frogs. Here is the story of one frog and his

discussion with his psychic:

A frog telephones the Psychic Hotline and is told, "You are going to

meet a beautiful young girl who will want to know everything about you."

The frog says, "This is great! Will I meet her at a party, or what?"

"No," says the psychic. "Next semester in her biology class."

***

HEALERS, sent in by Ty Scharrer

Two psychic healers meet in the street . One says, "You're fine; how am I?"

***

READING TREES, sent in by Ty Scharrer

What trees do fortune tellers look at? Palms

***

STRESS-MANAGEMENT, sent in by Geoffrey Stoermer

Just in case you've had a rough day, here's a stress management technique recommended in all the latest psychological texts. The funny thing is that it really works. Only eight quick steps:

1. Picture yourself near a stream.***2. Birds are softly chirping in the cool mountain air.***3. No one but you knows your secret place.***4. You are in total seclusion from the hectic place called "the world."***5. The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity.***6. The water is crystal clear.***7. You can easily make out the face of the right wing Republican you're holding underwater.***8. See, you're smiling already!

***

THE AMAZING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN, sent in by Jim Dwyer

1.NAMES: If Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara go out for lunch, they will call each other Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara. If Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Peanut-Head and Scrappy.

2.EATING OUT: When the bill arrives, Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom will each throw in a $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back. When the women get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

3.MONEY: A man will pay $2 for a $1 item that he needs. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need, but it's on sale.

4.BATHROOMS: A man has five items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from the Marriott. The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify most of these items.

5.ARGUMENTS: A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

6.OFFSPRING: Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams. A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

7.THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Any married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two people remembering the same thing.

***

WHAT A RICH LIFE! sent in by Karleen Sell

Several men were in the locker room. A cell phone on a  bench rang and a man engaged the handsfreespeaker function and began to talk. Everyone else in the room stopped to listen.
MAN:"Hello"
WOMAN: "Honey, it's me. Are you at the club?"
MAN: "Yes"
WOMAN: "I am at the mall now and found this beautiful leather coat. It's only $1,000. Is it OK if I buy it?"
MAN: "Sure, go ahead if you like it that much."
WOMAN: "I also stopped by the Mercedes dealership and saw the new 2007 models. I saw one I really liked."
MAN: "How much?"
WOMAN: "$90,000"
MAN: "OK, but for that price I want it with all the options."
WOMAN: "Great! Oh, and one more thing: The house that I wanted last year is back on the market. They're asking $950,000"
MAN: "Well, then go ahead and give them an offer of $900,000. They will probably take it. If not, we can go the extra 50 thousand if it's really a pretty good price."
WOMAN: "OK. I'll see you later! I love you so much!"
MAN: "Bye! I love you, too."
The man hung up. The others were staring at him in astonishment, mouths agape.
He turned and asked: "Anyone know who this phone belongs to?" [Is it worth the punchline?]
*****

*****

BLESSED ARE THEY WHO ARE IN LOVE, FOR LOVE IS IN THEM, sent in by Pat Fields

A woman stops to pet a stray dog , and ends up taking him home ; a teacher shows a little girl how to read ; a nurse attends to a patient . These people, in common , everyday situations , are actually quite extraordinary . They are fulfilling the human reason for being . They are loving . They might be more loving than the monk who prays all day, or the minister who gives sermons on Love, but feels empty in the heart . Love is the food of being, and every act of Love nourishes us at a level so fulfilling and profound…Love is also the gift of friendship . But, supremely, it is the one bond that is induplicable and immeasurable, approaching the Love of the romantic, the idealist, the singer . Supremely, it can be the major commitment of the heart . It is Life's celebration....This melding with one other person approaches the Christian ideal of perfect monogamous Love. But how does one learn to trust ?...It is no easy task ; this is the challenge of Love . To Love fully, one must be willing to be hurt deeply ….We must be willing to march into hell… before we can discover the glory of Love . We must be willing to be betrayed and lost… before we can give another the immense power of Love . In the holding back, there is no safety or fulfillment…. That is why Love is selfless; for as long as we cling to even an iota of the self,… Love will not spring forth and flow . We take the ultimate gamble… when we dare to open to Love. For the annihilation of the self is in fact Love's highest glory . In deepest, supreme Love, the Lover disappears into the Object of the Love . All is absorbed in Love, all given, all received …. It is becoming a fool, and laughing about it …. Yet it is only in this daring gamble, when all is lost, that everything is found . Nothing must be more important than Love . Our hearts must be consumed by it as by a great fire , leaving behind only ashes and smoke . Yet through its brightness and warmth, we are forever illuminated, no longer beings of blood and bone, but of Light …. Love is the springtime of the heart, the eternal bubbling up of the brightness and purity of the inner soul . In its excellence, it leaves behind the tawdriness of the world, for in its light are no shadows . Yet this Love is not yet another thing that we must "do" . Instead, it happens to us, through us . We are vessels of the divine and infinite elixir, when we dare to open to Love . We drink deeply of the sweetness of no-self, of no-mind, and become all heart, all agony and ecstasy.

--Richard Francis

November 1991 [Frankly, we were mildly surprised when we saw the by-line of this article, it had been written so long ago.:)]

*****

*****

WORDS BUY WHICH TO LIVE: QUOTATIONS

Buddha said: It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It can not be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.-- sent in by Nick Ardizzone

***

Plato said: "The first and best victory is to conquer self."-- sent in by Nick Ardizzone

***

Rob Gilbert said : "First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you."-- sent in by Nick Ardizzone

***

Sent in by Chris Finer:

"Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail."-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

 ***

"The best effort of a fine person is felt after we have left her presence."-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

***

From Nick Ardizzone Aristotle said: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

*****

*****

IMAGINE WORLD-PEACE, sent in by Chris Finer

I imagine…

A world where actual peace exists. A world where nuclear weapons are dismantled and taken apart, so no nation can use them as a threat or to actually launch them. A world where leaders carefully consider all sides to an issue thoughtfully. A world where nuclear power is replaced by solar panels and wind generators, where renewable energy sources are the main source of energy, where oil is no longer considered a necessity, where combustion engine cars are replaced with electric vehicles or other zero emission vehicles. A world where the leaders of all governments think about their actions and resolutions on every item and what the long-term effect might be. And when they think about the long term, they think beyond their own lives, or the life spans of their children. A world where the goals of the world are considered, instead of the goals of a particular company. And I even imagine a time when those talks [against racism] end because there is no longer any need for them. A world where women are treated as equal human beings in every country. A world where no individual needs to work more than 20 hours per week to live a good life. A world where every child is wanted, where there isn't a need to have more than 2 children and the population growth as a whole slows to a halt. A world where the environment is given top priority over a company's profits, where ancient trees are never considered for clear-cutting, where all forest lands are increasing instead of decreasing, where virgin paper costs twice as much as recycled. A world where guns get rusted from lack of use, where gun manufactures go bankrupt and gun control laws are no longer even needed. A world where defense departments are turned into rescue departments to save those who are effected by natural disasters, instead of human-made wars. A world where no one goes to bed hungry because there isn't enough food, where every single person has a warm place to sleep at night.

These are some of my goals. What are yours? How does bombing help to achieve these ends? Isn't there another way--a more peaceful way? I think that there is. We just haven't given it a chance. More often we need to stop and look at the big picture - where are we today and where are we heading as the human race?

--Pamela Gordon

*****

*****

BENEFICIAL AND NATURAL HEALING EFFECTS OF FOODS, sent in by Chris Finer

Apples--	Protects your heart.	Prevents constipation.	Blocks diarrhea.	Improves lung capacity.	Cushions joints
apricots	Combats cancer.	Controls blood pressure.	Saves your eyesight.	Shields against Alzheimer's.	Slows aging process.
artichokes	Aids digestion	Lowers cholesterol	Protects your heart	Stabilizes blood sugar	Guards against liver disease
avocados	Battles diabetes	Lowers cholesterol	Helps stops strokes	Controls blood pressure	Smoothes skin
bananas	Protects your heart	Quiets a cough	Strengthens bones	Controls blood pressure	Blocks diarrhea
beans	Prevents constipation	Helps hemorrhoids	Lowers cholesterol	Combats cancer	Stabilizes blood sugar
beets	Controls blood pressure	Combats cancer	Strengthens bones	Protects your heart	Aids weight loss
blueberries	Combats cancer	Protects your heart	Stabilizes blood sugar	Boosts memory	Prevents constipation
broccoli	Strengthens bones	Saves eyesight	Combats cancer	Protects your heart	Controls blood pressure
cabbage	Combats cancer	Prevents constipation	Promotes weight loss	Protects your heart	Helps hemorrhoids
cantaloupe	Saves eyesight	Controls blood pressure	Lowers cholesterol	Combats cancer	Supports immune system
carrots	Saves eyesight	Protects your heart	Prevents constipation	Combats cancer	Promotes weight loss
cauliflower	Protects against Prostate Cancer	Combats Breast Cancer	Strengthens bones	Banishes bruises	Guards against heart disease
cherries	Protects your heart	Combats Cancer	Ends insomnia	Slows aging process	Shields against Alzheimer's
chestnuts	Promotes weight loss	Protects your heart	Lowers cholesterol	Combats Cancer	Controls blood pressure
chili peppers	Aids digestion	Soothes sore throat	Clears sinuses	Combats Cancer	Boosts immune system
figs	Promotes weight loss	Helps stops strokes	Lowers cholesterol	Combats Cancer	Controls blood pressure
fish	Protects your heart	Boosts memory	Protects your heart	Combats Cancer	Supports immune system
flax	Aids digestion	Battles diabetes	Protects your heart	Improves mental health	Boosts immune system
garlic	Lowers cholesterol	Controls blood pressure	Combats cancer	kills bacteria	Fights fungus
grapefruit	Protects against heart attacks	Promotes Weight loss	Helps stops strokes	Combats Prostate Cancer	Lowers cholesterol
grapes	saves eyesight	Conquers kidney stones	Combats cancer	Enhances blood flow	Protects your heart
green tea	Combats cancer	Protects your heart	Helps stops strokes	Promotes Weight loss	Kills bacteria
honey	Heals wounds	Aids digestion	Guards against ulcers	Increases energy	Fights allergies
lemons	Combats cancer	Protects your heart	Controls blood pressure	Smoothes skin	Stops scurvy
limes	Combats cancer	Protects your heart	Controls blood pressure	Smoothes skin	Stops scurvy
mangoes	Combats cancer	Boosts memory	Regulates thyroid	aids digestion	Shields against Alzheimer's
mushrooms	Controls blood pressure	Lowers cholesterol	Kills bacteria	Combats cancer	Strengthens bones
oats	Lowers cholesterol	Combats cancer	Battles diabetes	prevents constipation	Smoothes skin
olive oil	Protects your heart	Promotes Weight loss	Combats cancer	Battles diabetes	Smoothes skin
onions	Reduce risk of heart attack	Combats cancer	Kills bacteria	Lowers cholesterol	Fights fungus
oranges	Supports immune systems	Combats cancer	Protects your heart	Straightens respiration
peaches	prevents constipation	Combats cancer	Helps stops strokes	aids digestion	Helps hemorrhoids
peanuts	Protects against heart disease	Promotes Weight loss	Combats Prostate Cancer	Lowers cholesterol	Aggravates diverticulitis
pineapple	Strengthens bones	Relieves colds	Aids digestion	Dissolves warts	Blocks diarrhea
prunes	Slows aging process	prevents constipation	boosts memory	Lowers cholesterol	Protects against heart disease
rice	Protects your heart	Battles diabetes	Conquers kidney stones	Combats cancer	Helps stops strokes
strawberries	Combats cancer	Protects your heart	boosts memory	Calms stress
sweet potatoes	Saves your eyesight	Lifts mood	Combats cancer	Strengthens bones
tomatoes	Protects prostate	Combats cancer	Lowers cholesterol	Protects your heart
walnuts	Lowers cholesterol	Combats cancer	boosts memory	Lifts mood	Protects against heart disease
water	Promotes Weight loss	Combats cancer	Conquers kidney stones	Smoothes skin
watermelon	Protects prostate	Promotes Weight loss	Lowers cholesterol	Helps stops strokes	Controls blood pressure
wheat germ	Combats Colon Cancer	prevents constipation	Lowers cholesterol	Helps stops strokes	improves digestion
wheat bran	Combats Colon Cancer	prevents constipation	Lowers cholesterol	Helps stops strokes	improves digestion
yogurt	Guards against ulcers	Strengthens bones	Lowers cholesterol	Supports immune systems	Aids digestion

*****

***** 

THE ABRAHAM MATERIAL, PART III

"Channeled material is often overflowing with silly generalizations. They lead to absurdities such as the following, spoken by Esther/Abraham: “If you are feeling fat, you cannot attract thin.” Insisting that the conscious mind is all-powerful, the superbeing “Esther/Abraham” also talks like an American woman, saying, ”No matter how fat a body is, if it is wanting to be thinner, it can be.” This stuff sounds more like a bad commercial for a weight-loss program than any divine extradimensional wisdom. Very suspiciously American, and very suspiciously twenty-first century, unless an omniscient superbeing is worried about her weight!

“Esther/Abraham” also sounds suspiciously like a house-wife when, while discussing relationships, she speaks about having enough closets! And, speaking of relationships, if it is dysfunctional, it’s all your fault, for improper thinking! Also, she believes that it goes contrary to cosmic principles for parents to tell their children what to do!

The whole worldview is almost amusingly, childishly naive. The unsophisticated, uneducated system works something like this:

There are still more gems: The cause of poverty is “feeling poor.” The cause of being alone is “feeling unloved.” The cause of overweight is “feeling fat.” Perhaps the cause of channeling is “feeling inadequate.” Anyway, no professional system embraces these strange and naive ideas; no sociology or psychology teaches them. They are not scientific, or even reasonable.

For they appeal not to reason, but to desperation. They appeal to those who feel that they have run out of realistic options. Last but not least, they appeal to the “inner brat,” the spoiled child who wants and demands everything, without giving anything.

Parts of the message are clearly more designed to appeal to a person in our culture than to reflect the hidden, secret, arcane wisdom of the ages! Esther says exactly what she knows that her audience wants to hear, and she says it again and again, ad nauseum: “You are the creator of your experience.”

And there is truth to that; you do create the ways in which you interpret, and respond to, your world, and thus, experience it. But this does not mean that you consciously create your world. Yet this "magical thinking" is the simplism that true believers are seeking; the "inner child" wants, demands, to hear that "You can have or be anything, just by wishing for it." So, Esther makes a serious spiritual error when she says, “You attract unto you through your thought.” Thought is thought to be “magnetic,” as in some disreputable nineteenth-century theories of “biomagnetism.”

How can this be harmful, even anticompassionate? It can be an obscene mockery of Love when a person is blamed for being raped or for getting cancer. Many who embrace this idea are callous and cruel enough to do that! This erases every scintilla of compassion. For if a person is fully, consciously responsible for everything in her world, it makes sense to blame her, harshly, instead of showing compassion. Everybody gets what she deserves, and deserves everything that she gets.

This simpering simplism actually passes for spirituality, in some circles of the gullible and ignorant. This very naive approach to a complex world demands reality-denial. But the truth (reality) makes more sense: The conscious mind, conscious thought, simply does not have the power to alter the universe. And the next time someone tells you that the conscious mind can do anything, if properly trained, give her this test: Ask her to change the color of one single hair on her own head! You will soon discover that all this talk about the omnipotent conscious mind is just talk.

People are desperate to believe that they can deliberately, voluntarily, consciously control the world! Why? Because they are terrified of life! They are letting fear control their lives. They want to hear nothing more desperately than that they are in control of everything. (But this is God's job. And this is the antimystical concept.) These people are so scared of reality that they suffer from “cosmophobia”-- fear of the whole universe. So, they have turned away from the real world and have retreated into their minds where they can play with dreams and fantasies. In their inner looking-glass world, they are all-powerful, and can have anything that they want! They don't even need God; for they are pretending that their conscious minds are God!

Even God has become their “servant.” The whole cosmos exists to serve them! This is hyperegotism-- the ego radically and mystically out of control! So, they dress up and disguise fairy-tales of wishful thinking as “metaphysics,” or even “spirituality.” Then they squeeze their eyes shut and wish like crazy that it is so!

But the actual experience of billions of people, for thousands of years, proves that these magical systems fail to work. Esther supports these dream-visions by saying, “That which you really, really want comes to you very quickly.” But what does she say when it does not come quickly? What does she say when it does not come at all? Ask any successful lottery player, or aspiring actor, or corporate wannabe, and she will give you a realistic perspective: Success requires focus and passion, yes, but it also requires hard and practical work! You must believe, and invest, in yourself. You must go after the appropriate training. You must learn, prepare, study, and create discipline. You have to act smartly, cautiously.

Also, some people who have never had a positive thought in their lives are huge “successes,” at least, socially and economically. They did not get where they are by positive thinking, but by smart action. Conversely, people who affirm success every day can be utter failures. Why? Because success is a matter of attitude plus action, and, of the two, action is the more important!

And although this idea that the world can be magically and consciously controlled has appeared in literally hundreds of systems, many “channelers,” including Esther, present it as if it were something new! Apparently, they need more study and training, to find out what has already been presented, often by rival "extraterrestrials" or "extradimensionals"!

Esther and husband (cheerleader) Jerry will show you how to get rich-- if you make them rich! They get rich by charging people a lot of money for their materials-- using a high profit-margin-- for their seminars, tapes, and books! Even they did not get rich through the mysterious “power of mind,” but by hustling and selling their metaphysical mumbo-jumbo.

People, in their sad desperation, have paid good money-- and wheel-barrels of it-- to hear this message from enthusiastic but deluded “motivational” speakers or otherworldly multidimensionals. But there is nothing new here. It is the same old mishmash, the same old blah-blah that has been around, and around, since the 1950’s.

Esther has a looney idea that “expecting” is the same as “receiving.” But anyone who has expected to win the lottery can tell you that there is a galaxy between the two! She mistakes expecting for a kind of “creation.” Then, she mistakes “creation” as the whole goal of life; she does not even mention Love here. Since you can control what you expect, this is a very alluring and seductive idea, but, no matter how many times you whip yourself into a frenzy of expectation that you will win the lottery, the odds of your actually doing so are nanoscopic! She is very materialistic, and believes in wealth by affirmation; but if she could actually win the lottery, she would not have to con so many followers.

When she talks about actual work, she tells people that they really do not have to work very hard for what they want, since the real work is all done with the mind. And this, of course, is precisely what irresponsible people love to hear! She knows that many middle-class people are sick of their jobs, and would like to do something-- anything-- else! She takes full advantage of this demographic, and, for a price, will show them the way to freedom!

The sweet implication is that you don’t even have to change your behavior. You have to change just the way that you think! This appeals not only to the burnt-out, but also to the lazy and umproductive.

Again, illness is not said to be just created “mentally.” We all know that the mind can have a powerful effect on illness/wellness. No, she falls into the dangerous illusion that illness is created by “thought.” (By definition, this is conscious.) But if illness is caused by thought, then people should become instantly well when they enter a coma. They have zero conscious input. But this is a pipe-dream! Still, it appeals powerfully to everyone who has ever been ill, but is especially impelling to those who live in terror of illness, the pathophobic.

If Esther and others are right about thoughts, the effect should also act in reverse: The hypochondriac, who affirms for many years that she has cancer, reads everything that she can get about cancer, fills her mind day and night with this powerful suggestion, is very often found, by medical examination, to be cancer-free. So, all that terribly negative conscious thinking has had no discernable effect on even her own body!

Stress and anxiety do contribute to illness, Love and serenity to wellness. But this is not to say that the conscious mind is fully responsible for illness. Much is created by the unconscious Mind. Other conditions arise from still deeper in the Unconscious, from your soulmind, to test you.

Esther's wording is often confused and confusing, too wordy. Sometimes, she points out the obvious:

Actions not out of joy will not lead to happy endings. Or," Some relationships have been created out of a wanting for companionship.” Or, for most people, life is not a life of joy. Or, “There is that which you like, and that which you don’t like.” Or, If you are having bad feelings, it is because of bad thoughts. “The better it gets, the better it gets, and the worse it gets, the worse it gets.” (And I paid fifty bucks to hear this?) This is taken out of a psychological primer written for seven-year-olds, and is hardly great wisdom.

This is followed by the most unrealistic and fantasy-based advice ever given: When you want things, “think them into being.” This is compellingly attractive to the lower nature of mind, the greed-nature. But it is nothing more than the dusty old visualization game, the “name it and claim it” idea dressed up as something new.

To believe that the world can be controlled by your conscious mind is a tissue of speculations held tenuously together by suppositions, assumptions, and gigapsychons of wishful thinking! Still, if you are determined to believe it, you will believe it, until the universe proves it wrong. Many, many people who affirm all day come down with serious diseases, or suffer tremendous economic losses. Many are phobic about "negative thoughts," assiduously avoiding them at all times; but these people still get colds. That is when they are forced to awaken to the higher reality. And that is this: The conscious (aware) mind was never designed by Mind to control the world. It only responds to it, as a test of Love.

Do disasters occur because victims are “thinking incorrectly”? No, catastrophes occur because their thinking is not causally connected with their lives. The world is created and maintained by a greater mind than your conscious mind. Jerry is always assuring Esther that even her most obscure messages are “very, very clear.” (He is obviously her cheerleader. For Esther is a study in obscurity.)

The “law of allowing” starts with a statement that is completely meaningless: “I am that which I am...and you are that which you are.” How does this sheer nonsense ever pass for wisdom, or even intelligence?

Like its psychological and metaphysical forebears, this message actually encourages limitless greed and selfishness. So, it also appeals to another demographic: Those who are rich, and feeling unconsciously guilty for it.

Esther speaks again condescendingly of “this species of this planet of this universe, you see...” She says “of” as “auv,” mimicking an indeterminate "accent" to make her sound exotic.

“Nothing will come into your experience unless you invite it through thought.” There is no mercy for those who have just lost beloved friends in death, or to those who have lost their homes in flood or fire, or have lost their jobs or their health. Esther and followers think that victims should be blamed and criticized, not comforted, as Love suggests. So, this philosophy is antiagapic.

It is wrong to “contain or control the others,” even through police. If Esther’s teachings were followed by society, the police would be disbanded, and everyone would just “think” the criminals away from their homes! (The TM cult has tried this, and has been unable to clear all crime from its tiny home-community of Fairfield, Iowa.)

Then, with another brilliant flash of otherworldly insight, Esther notes, ungramatically, “There are those things that you are in absolute harmony with, and there are things that you are in absolute disharmony with.” To “contain,” even the violent rapist or murderer in prison, goes against the universe, she claims!

The circularity and clumsiness of expression is found in the statement, “You are wanting more and more to identify what it is you are wanting.”

Then, in a virtual monument to obscurity, Esther says, “There is very little that you are actually living in this day. It is only as a result of that which you are thinking in this day.” This statement has no meaning; its content is zero. Superficially, it might sound inscrutable enough to pass for a fortune-cookie, but it actually says nothing. So many statements, in so many “channeled” works, are exactly like this. They make you do a double-take, and, upon analysis, vaporize into the meaningless. But loyal followers would never do the double-take, and analysis is completely out of the question! These "channeled statements" are verbal illusions, hollow and empty inside.

Entire books have been filled with such verbal fluff. Many times, entire books written by “channelers” could be reduced to ten pages of actual content. But this blah-blah, using many words, but saying little or nothing, does impress the ignorant. They can also mislead neophytes on the path. That is why it is good and spiritually profitable to expose them.

Esther becomes even bolder: She claims that even lack of safety is the result of “wrong thinking.” But I’ll bet that her house has locks on the exterior doors. I will also bet that she keeps her considerable money in a bank, and does not leave it lying on a coffee-table surrounded by a white light!

This also supports the idea that it is justifiable to blame a woman who has been raped, or people mangled in accidents in which they were not at fault. Esther also implies that we should cruelly "blame" a person for any serious problem or disease from which she is suffering. Esther also blames those who are victims of murderers. It is because it is so anti-compassionate that this idea is especially despicable. From the larger view, of karma and the Enlightenment Tradition, this is nonsense!

But of course, this impractical system never works. And Esther is unruffled by the facts; she “explains” that this does not really work, by ascribing bad events in life to “momentum” from past thoughts. She is right that negative thoughts tend to attract and create negative conversations, attitudes, and even moods. Thoughts can make you anxious, depressed, and inefficient. They can lead to failure. They can make you effective or defective. They can worsen almost any biological condition.

But there is nothing metaphysical or magic about any of this. For this does nothing to reinforce or support her theory that the conscious mind negatively affects the structure of matter.

The achievement of the goal is promised “in time.” This is just a major cop-out. If you do get raped, mugged, or permanently injured in a car, you just haven’t "arrived" at full "enlightenment"! You’re on the right path; you just haven’t got there yet! How long will it take until you can create perfect safety with your mind? Esther is vague and unresponsive on this point: Maybe ten, maybe a thousand, years.

Here’s the bottom line: If you do not get everything that you want in your life, and live always in total safety, you are doing something “wrong.” It’s your own damn’ fault! You are to blame!

It is all because you are not “thinking properly,” which means, thinking like Esther! This whole attitude produces gigantic, immense pride and enormous ego. In this view, those who know the secret, those who are thinking properly, are lightyears beyond the masses, the unwashed, inferior, and ignorant. This view leads here, in the Abraham-cult, as in every other, to spiritual snobbery!

The cult attracts people who feel shaky, insecure, and nervous. They want to grab control of life, rather than learning the gentle art of trusting (faith). Since they do not believe that a great Power is in charge of the cosmos, or else, do not trust it, they must convince themselves of the incredible premise that they are omnipotent, all-powerful! This is the ego at its worst, trying literally to “play God.” But it hasn’t nearly enough power! Light a single candle; it is not day until the sun rises. The ego is but a tiny candle; the sun is the inner Power of God.

Esther does state the great mystical truth that we are more-- much more-- than meets the eye. But she then tries to twist this inner Power to the service of greed, ego, and materialism rather than to the service of Love (God), through goodness, kindness, and compassion. The assignment or mission of the higher Self (Soul) is not to serve the ego (with grasping, clinging, attaching, and craving), but to master the art of serving Love. We are not here to take over the cosmos, like some mad scientist in a b-movie. Instead, we are here to learn to trust, and cooperate with, the great Power (Tao) that already does control or regulate everything. The lesson is not control, but to live in a cosmos which you do not control, and to relax in the midst of the hurricane.

That is why ego-desire, selfish grasping-- the very crux of Esther’s system-- must perish in order to allow us conscious access to a greater Mind within. So, Esther has missed the point of all existence, and missed it badly, seriously. Her method and message drive people ever more deeply into illusion.

*****

*****

POETRY OF BEAUTY: MORE ON RILKE, by Steven McDaniel

[The poet] Rilke astonishes us with his insights, “ For our own heart always exceeds us…and when we can no longer follow it, gazing into the images that soothe it,… it achieves a greater repose.”  Rilke tells us clearly that our hearts are of a peace much bigger than us, and he guides us to think deeply but, more importantly, he wants us to feel the traversed distances of God at peace inside us.  Ah, deeper than the oceans or the vast voids of space, he grows you round the very depths of your own longing heart.  He plunges you into yourself, and warns of the false self deluded with judgment, and of the habitual, thinking mind.  His dissection of love and lovers with their spiritual and perilous ramifications is explored in the Third Elegy, as Rilke, again, moves toward his beauty and terror as one.  “Oh, gently, gently, let him see you performing, with love, some confident daily task, lead him out close to the garden, give him what outweighs the heaviest night … Restrain him…” Rilke’s very words explain his own moving passion for the seas of truth, “But inside: who could ward off, who could divert, the floods of origin inside him?"

In the Fourth Elegy, Rilke delves further into powerful metaphor.  “We are not in harmony, our blood does not forewarn us like migratory birds.”  He compels us to take a thorough look at our human condition.  “Conflict is second nature to us.  Aren’t lovers always arriving at each other’s boundaries? …They promise vastness,…"  Again, he asks the questions rapt in answers.  He takes us to the depths of our pain, [where we are] always longing for love and truth. “We never know the actual, vital contour of our own emotions” only to pivot his stance with certainty: “I won’t endure these half-filled human masks; better the puppet."

Rilke challenges our so-called reality, the shallowness of our living, and he gives spiritual credence to the insights of the dying process. “The dying must notice how unreal, how full of pretense, is all that we accomplish here, where nothing is allowed to be itself.”  He laments the loss of childhood, its meaning, and he questions deeply what has been done to murder the innocence of the world-- where, now, "only angels sing." “Who shows a child as he really is?  Who sets him in his constellation and puts the measuring-rod of distance in his hand?” And from the Fifth Elegy he writes further about the process of lost innocence and how we build our defenses even with a common smile.

“You little boy, who falls down a hundred times daily, with the thud that only unripe fruits know . . . a loving look toward your seldom-affectionate mother tries to be born in your expression; but it gets lost along the way, your body consumes it . . . and nevertheless, blindly, the smile.”  Rilke drives home how love denied sets us up for the longing of our roots, and how our bodies act as the consumers of our pain to bear the awful toll of separation.  Further, in the Fifth Elegy, he dissects the "sleeping and awaking to abruptly hover,… And suddenly in the laborious nowhere, suddenly the unsayable spot where the pure too little is transformed incomprehensibly…”  always invoking the angels to listen to his pleas.

In the Sixth Elegy, Rilke considers a simple fig tree and how, “Almost without awaking, it bursts out of sleep into its sweetest achievement.  Like the god stepping into the swan.” He laments the terrible hesitations of humanity in comparison.  “We linger, alas, we, whose pride is in blossoming, we enter the overdue interior of our final fruit, and are already betrayed.”  Again and again, Rilke shows us [how] simply to look around and see what nature has to teach us.  He returns, continuously, to his woven themes of those who died young, and likens them to heroes who, “Plunge ahead in advance of their own smile,” as if they are the brave ones trying to speak to us a truth from the other side.  The heroes of those who die young are united, in Rilke’s understanding; and they move in “continual ascent’ not inspired by permanence."  And he writes, “Fate… grows inspired and sings him into the storm of his onrushing world.”  Eloquently, Rilke has merged the dying young, archetype hero, and God into one.  “I hear no one like him.  All at once I am pierced by his darkened voice, carried on the streaming air.  Then how gladly I would hide from the longing to be once again.” Rilke ends the Sixth Elegy with how mothers are the “Sources of ravaging floods . . . from the highest rim of the heart: sacrifices to the son . . . for whenever the hero stormed through the stations of love, each heartbeat intended for him lifted him up, beyond it: And, turning away, he stood there, at the end of all smiles, -transfigured.” Rilke is relentless, in his deep surgery, to uncover our pretense, and inflect the god in us all-- that ultimate hero in which humanity births from the very freedom we long for. [We] choose ultimately to ascend beyond the doubting mire, and into the revelation of waking sleeps.

Now, remember that the Sixth thru the Tenth Elegies along with the entire Sonnets To Orpheus were written in an incredible burst of insight over a period of just a few weeks.  We see in the Seventh Elegy a passionate intensity rising like a full moon over a dark forest.  Once more, Rilke uses the metaphor of a bird’s cry, and beckons us to hear our own voice: “Be the nature of your cry…cry out as purely as a bird . . . that he is a suffering creature, and not just a single heart being flung into brightness, into the intimate skies.”  Rilke writes to embrace pain and all that happens as a result [of] the process:  “Oh to be dead at last and know them endlessly, all the stars: for how could we ever forget them?”  He speaks clearly that the very stars and their immense illumination [are] the simple truth of who we actually are, behind the backdrop of our longing.  He begins to rejoice in his own vision, and of being in that vision of clear insight: “Children, one earthly thing truly experienced even once, is enough for a lifetime…truly being here is glorious.” And, with great mystical understanding, Rilke teaches us to beware of this incredible joy of being without doing; the important work [is] of transforming it into meaning.  “We want to display it, to make it visible, though even the most visible happiness can’t reveal itself to us until we transform it, within.”  He is speaking to his own listening, and to God, as if in a deep spiritual prayer: “Nowhere, Beloved, will world be but within us. Our life passes in transformation.  And the external shrinks into less and less.”  Here, Rilke speaks of another profound truth: The world, alas, the universe, is within us; and slowly, as we age with wisdom, the external shrinks back into its original place within!  And that all, “Passes into the invisible world,” inside us.  He aptly warns, “Many no longer perceive it, yet miss the chance to build it inside themselves now, with pillars and statues;"  Rilke, like Jesus and others, is telling us that the kingdom of all is not "out there"-- but inside us all; and we must do the work to find it, to build upon it, and claim it again as our towering home.  The Seventh Elegy concludes with Rilke “wooing” the angel as if beckoning for even more understanding and light.

The Eighth and Ninth Elegies are the most profound.  In the Eight, Rilke writes about how we cage ourselves with thought and object unlike nature (and our true nature): “With all its eyes, the natural world looks out into the open.  Only our eyes turned backward, surround plant, animal, childlike traps, as they emerge into their freedom.”  He explains how we take the very young child, “And force it around, so that it sees objects-- not the open, which is so deep in animals’ faces.  Free from death.  We, only, can see death: The free animal has its decline in back of it, forever, and God in front; and when it moves, it moves already in eternity, like a fountain.” Rilke again laments the loss of true nature and the child in us all-- the child in the natural, heavenly state of pure consciousness without the concept of time past.  He laments how we long for the child who, “Without is desire and endlessly knows,” and how lovers get close to this truth. “But neither can move past the other, and it (love) changes back to world.  Forever turned toward objects . . .,” He continuously teaches us what the animals innately know; whereas we gain and lose this truth, projecting our presence to past and future, continuously.  Yet, he foretells a certain sadness in animals, as well.  “For it too feels the presence of what often overwhelms us; a memory…”But Rilke quickly shifts back into the greater light: “Oh, bliss of the tiny creature which forever remains inside the womb that was its shelter, joy of the gnat which, still within, leaps up even at its marriage: For everything is womb.  And look at the half-assurance of the bird, which knows both inner and outer, from its source…” Rilke concludes the Eighth Elegy with this question: “Who has twisted us around like this; so that, no matter what we do, we are in the posture of someone going away?... so we live here, forever taking leave."

In the Ninth Elegy, all mystical doors fly open.  Rilke delves, at last, into why we are really here. “Why be human?” Rilke asks.  “Oh, not because happiness exists . . . but because truly being here is so much; because everything here apparently needs us, this fleeting world, which in some strange way keeps calling to us. Us, the most fleeting of all.” Rilke cries out for us to be “at one with the earth, if only once,” and that our deepest meaning is entwined with our, “Long experience of love-- just what is wholly unsayable." But later, "among the stars…” He brings it home that we must find the true voice behind all words, that the objects and, indeed, our very experiences, are but metaphors and symbols to be unraveled in a supreme act of realization.  He disentangles the process, “Isn’t the secret intent of this taciturn earth, when it forces lovers together, that, inside their boundless emotion, all things may shudder with joy?”  Love, the utmost character of God, is inherent in the simple acts of being human.  “Here is the time for the sayable, here is its homeland. Speak and bear witness.  More than ever the things that we might experience are vanishing; for what crowds them out and replaces them is an imageless act.”  Profound, in that Rilke is stating that our own acts of love are what replace the seemingly vanished objects and world as the pronounced Being of ultimate reality.  He moves on to praise the “world to angel” of this divine, transcendent understanding, but that God is mostly impressed with our truth of the simple things.  “Tell him of things.  He will stand astonished…the unsayable One.”  And in, perhaps, the most startling stanza of the entire Duino Elegies, Rilke addresses the very Earth:

“Earth, isn’t this what you want: to arise within us, invisible? Isn’t it your dream to be wholly invisible someday?  O Earth: invisible!  What if not transformation, is your urgent command?   Earth my dearest, I will.  Oh, believe me, you no longer need your springtimes to win me over-- one of them,   ah, even one, is already too much for my blood. Unspeakably I have belonged to you, from the first. You were always right, and your holiest inspiration  is our intimate companion.  Death.

Look, I am living. On what?  Neither childhood nor future grows any smaller . . . Superabundant being  wells up in my heart."

This incredible passage unravels a great mystical truth: that the true nature of the world (all perceived objects) is Invisible, and present.  Reality is falsely ‘seen’ as separate objects in time; [its] truth is in transformation back to the vast sea of the Unseen Presence within.  Further, it is our work to find this amazing truth and to carry it inside like a blossoming rose in a newfound voice of beauty.  Rilke parallels the metaphor of the earthen springtime to show us we are here, not to remain comfortable and stagnant, but to transform ourselves like Nature and her ultimate movement…  It is no mistake that Rilke speaks of death as our holy companion only to allude quickly to the (childhood) past, and then the future; and they are the very twins of death. Yet, united, they grow into a super abundant being of the heart.

In the Tenth, and last, Elegy, Rilke relaxes and reflects in bliss and tears, “Let my joyfully streaming face make me more radiant, let my hidden weeping arise and blossom.”  He praises suffering as God’s great teacher; our shit, the fertilizer, that grows green the fields of life.  “How we squander our hours of pain.  How we gaze beyond them into the bitter duration to see [whether] they have an end. Though they are really our winter-enduring foliage… place and settlement, foundation and soil and home.” He sees the beauty in all things: the dogs, the children, and the lovers. He reflects again, with a new light, on those who died young, and who follow the beauty of sorrow and lament, “The vast landscape of Lament,” a land of, “The tall trees of tears and the fields of blossoming grief (the living know it just as a mild green shrub).”  Here, Rilke tells us like Emerson once said, “A fool and wise man do not see the same tree.” More and more, the remaining passages become magical, “In the twilight, she (the angel of Lament) leads him out to the graves of the elders who gave warning to the race of Laments.” This is the earth, in deep sorrow and mourning that beckon to be transcended to light.  But finally, “They look in wonder at the regal head that has silently lifted the human face to the scale of the stars, forever…Where shimmering in the moonlight, is the fountainhead of joy, with reverence, she names it and says: Among men it is a mighty stream…alone, he climbs on, up the mountains of primal grief…and we, who have always thought of happiness as rising, would feel the emotion that almost overwhelms us whenever a happy thing falls."

Alas, Rilke connects all the symbols and metaphors into the simple act of raindrops weeping into the earth in springtime-- all in the name of growth.  In the growth-grief of our longing is the mountain to be traversed to our ultimate origin-- born out of the graves of all who have lived and died.  There, in the silence of our true being, the human condition is transcended into the stars.  This transcendence, the source of all joy, is, in the final analysis, no greater than the pain and power of our emotion, “Whenever a happy thing falls.” All is, ultimately, the oneness of God, as we stand breathless in our divine beauty of being here.

*****

Any questions, comments, or sharings? Please send them to: rmfrancis@juno.com