Introduction

Why "Like Sand to Pearl "...?

“Like Sand to Pearl” is a metaphor for the journey of the soul.

From the Spirit plane and all over the Universe, Light Beings answered a Divine Call to take part in a unique experiment in polarity. Lowering their frequency and having their memories erased for the duration, they descended into dense
physicality, integrating with the human body that would become their vehicle for experiencing life on Earth.

Life as Human would not be easy, but the reward is acceleration in consciousness that I can best describe as “light-years at warp speed”. The sojourn can last seventy-five thousand years or more in Earth time – but from the Spirit’s perspective, it’s a crash course! Had we chosen to pass on this opportunity, it would have taken us eons to achieve the frequency of vibration (wisdom, knowledge, compassion, and a closer connection to the Source, aka God) that we, as humans, will attain in what, on the spirit side, is a veritable blink of the eye.

Some refer to humans as “The Explorer Race”, and consider us very courageous souls. Virtually every other world and realm in every universe and dimension is less dense and much more positive (and significantly easier!) than ours. Here on our most formidable, obstacle-course of a planet, we face many physical and emotional challenges, lifetime after lifetime.

Consider the proverbial grain of sand that finds its way into an oyster shell. The oyster, in order to deal with the irritant, continually covers it with layer after layer of an irridescent secretion comprised of light-reflecting crystals which, over the course of the oyster’s lifetime, transforms the simple speck of sand into a magnificent pearl. That transformative process is a fitting metaphor for our soul’s journey, where one starts out as:

The Intermediate Soul

© by Kat 2017

The Young Soul

Souls are not literally young or old, but when we use age to describe them we are referring to the amount of experience that a soul has had in earthly incarnations. We begin with a few primitive tribal lifetimes, getting used to living in a corporeal body in a physical world, and developing social skills. The newbie is a fearful being, finding comfort in numbers. There isn't much in the way of individuality here – everything centers around group activities within a framework of what can almost be termed a "group mind". Consider him akin to "a grain of sand". Life in this world slowly begins to transform him as many obstacles, disappointments, hardships and emotional pain constantly work to sand down his rough edges. Back in Spirit, we had no pain. We spent a long, long time just "being". But entering into a world such as this... we have to make decisions, use our wits, learn survival skills, learn how to get along with others, to love, and to forgive.

After many simple lifetimes, from tribal to peasant, for example, the newbie soul begins to gain more experience, more wisdom, and more personality. A young soul still clings to group thought, lacking the courage to dissent, or to step out of the box. (Picture the torch-bearing mob in the movie Frankenstein, a Sharia crowd stoning a girl for the "crime" of leaving an abusive husband, or the Salemite accusing a neighbor of being a witch). The young soul is very judgmental and not big on compassion. They are like children, concerned with ego gratification and needing peer approval. New souls start racking up karma, making a lot of mistakes in relationships, in the community, and internally. But that is to be expected; it's why we're here. Only through our wrong decisions do we learn to make the right ones.

The intermediate soul can be likened to a young adult. He has a lot of energy and ambition... a real go-getter! Many politicians and rulers are in intermediate lives. They not only crave power, but they have the fuel and stamina to go after it. Each stage covers (oh, 50 to 100) lifetimes, so one description of a stage isn't going to cover it all. In some lifetimes the intermediate may fudge it up, such as when they are given power and end up as an evil dictator instead of a benevolent ruler. Or maybe they were a slave owner or an abusive spouse or a pedophile. They will balance those less than stellar incarnations with lifetimes where they are artists or fishermen with a happy family life, or loving caretakers, for example. There will be some very difficult lifetimes of poverty, imprisonment, or as genocide victims, where their soul will grow leaps and bounds in wisdom and compassion.

The Old Soul

An old soul is still burning off karma from having sown it's wild oats in previous lifetimes. She begins to tire of it all, and can be very apathetic, which really sucks because it's the old soul who is supposed to be the way-shower for the younger souls. The old soul may be a folksinger, a talk show host, an activist, a writer, a counselor, a Presidential advisor, a camp director, or the friend that everyone goes to for advice. There are a lot of old souls who come into body with the intention of doing something great for humanity, only to find themselves in therapy and hiding out because they finally realized that this is one crazy world and they just can't handle it. But thank God for the old souls who fulfill their mission! These souls write the inspirational books and songs. They stand up to fascists. They work tirelessly to make reforms in the prison system, politics, and corporate world. They champion for equal rights, for humane conditions for humans and animals, for freedom, for the environment... Old souls have suffered, fought, and died in many wars.. When they protest against war it's because they know how insane, destructive, and useless war is. (The exception being when war is the only way to stop for example, a genocidal dictator).
Old souls believe in the intrinsic right of all people to have food, shelter, medical care, education, and freedom. Old souls understand that animals are not here to be abused, or to stick in a cage or at the end of a chain. Old souls are vehemently opposed to human trafficking and other crimes against humanity. Old souls' motto is "Live and Let Live". They have no desire to hurt anyone. All they want is to live in a sane, happy, safe world where everyone – including animals – live in peace. But how can we ever achieve that while there are destructive young and intermediate souls on the planet who are left to go about their selfish agendas, unopposed by the older, wiser souls? This is why humanity continues to have war and poverty instead of peace and prosperity!

And there you have it – from the proverbial "grain of sand" to a lustrous gem... from oblivious toddler to seasoned sage – we are very much Like Sand to Pearl!

“Cult” Is a Word Cults Never Use

What Kind of People Are Attracted to Cults?

If anyone had ever suggested that I would someday be a card-carrying member of a cult, I would have burst out laughing! I’m too intelligent and free spirited to hand over the reins of my existence to some lunatic fringe group (I thought). But those “lunatic fringe groups” rarely present themselves as insane or controlling at the onset.

You may be more or less familiar with some of the popular cults of the 20th century: Scientology, Branch Davidians, The People’s Temple, Heaven’s Gate, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Raelism, and Restoration of the Ten Commandments, Unification Church (aka, “Moonies”), and the Manson Family – just to name a few.

Note that the word “cult” has never been included in the title of any cult.

Cults never advertise their cult-ness: “Gullible People Wanted for Cult Membership” is a header you will never see.

Cult demographics do not read like a directory of the illiterate or IQ-deficient. Think about it – if you were a cult leader, wouldn't you want followers that would be of value to you? (Controllable – but valuable). Cult recruits are typically well-educated, intelligent adults who consider themselves nothing if not open-minded and discerning. But people are selective in their discernment ... an award winning journalist may be broad-minded and logical when it comes to investigating a cover-up, yet not so discerning when it comes to choosing a husband. A brilliant diplomat might be able to convince head-butting international leaders of the validity of each others’ points of view, yet not be able to keep peace in his own home. A successful prosecutor can teach his Harvard Law class the importance of being wary and objective, yet fall prey to an internet con artist. It is not possible to make all the right choices and see through every illusion in every aspect of your life, consistently and without fail. We are a fallable species, after all.

The typical cult member is curious and more open to new ideas than their less educated counterpart who outright rejects anything that threatens their belief system, especially their fundamentalist religion. In fact, you may be drawn to a cult initially because of its irreverent attitude towards religion or the establishment.

More than a few who fall into a cult are lonely souls who simply long for a place in the world where they can feel like they belong. They grew up feeling like outsiders looking in. Recruiters recognize a lonely soul and use this to their advantage, assuring the new recruit that he is welcome and wanted... they are, after all, kindred spirits! The newbie is thrilled to have found friendship (or “family”) and acceptance, and the longer he stays with this group, the more reticent he will be to give it up.

If, down the road, you begin to feel ill at ease with the leaders or with the tenets of the group, you will readily accept their explanations about the issue that is causing you discomfort because you have become invested in your identity in the group and in the relationships you have formed within that group. Humans are a lonely lot, so when we bond with others in an almost family-like way, having supped with them, traveled with them, worked with them, and planned future events with them – we are loathe to give them up, even if that means compromising our natural inclination to employ reason and logic.

So, the question is, how does one distinguish between an ordinary group of people who share a common interest or cause – and a cult?

Signs That You May Be in a Cult

For starters, a cult discourages questions and suggestions. If you stop asking questions because you are afraid of the repercussions of asking questions – you may be in a cult!

A cult imposes on your personal life. A cult threatens and shuns. A cult forces you to decide between the group – or your friends & family. A cult may spy on you, such as by way of social media, and often encourages members to spy or tattle on other members. They will tell you that it’s for the “safety” of the group or the good of the cause.

A cult pressures you to give up other groups or interests, and may even dictate your means of livelihood. Cult leaders often humiliate members who dare to question, or who take initiative to think outside the box, or to offer suggestions – as a means of controlling the questioner’s peers, who fear being put on the hot seat themselves. A cult may insist that you spend your time or your money on matters that they deem important. A cult causes you to do or think something you never would have considered doing or thinking prior to joining them – and even though it causes you some angst, you accept their reasons and rationalize that they must be right, after all, because they are so wise, or intelligent, or exalted.

From Holy Communion to Holey Hades

Several years ago I was invited to join a secret organization whose membership was by personal invitation only. The basis of that group will be a stretch for most of you, but we are welcome to enjoy our own realities, even those that are worlds apart from the norm. Consider the possibility that mine is valid (because nobody on this planet knows everything – not even you!) ... Moving on...

First, a little bio to set the background: When I was 3 or 4 years old (circa 1950’s) my parents had a meeting with a priest at our neighborhood church, and brought me and my younger sister along. Besides the priest, we were the only ones in this humongous, cathedral-like church. I remember running up and down the aisles and along the red strip of carpet in front of the solid marble eucharist gate. It was one of my earliest memories of childhood in Chicago.

I loved that church – St. Vincent De Paul – it was utterly magnificent! This was before the Catholic Church decided to lessen the abyss between the clergy and the people by eliminating the pulpit, the Communion rail, the luxurious appointments, and the Latin Mass. The rail was solid white marble, the altar was intricately ornate – like an Old World European cathedral – with genuine gold trim and gold and jeweled chalice and instruments. The domed ceiling was miles high and adorned with elaborate paintings and stained glass windows of saints and angels. There were fabulous statues and recessed alcoves bedecked with fresh flowers and colorful glass votives. The ginormous carved mahogany pulpit extended well above and beyond the Communion rail, almost to the first pew. Yea, though I hated being dragged out of bed to go to church on Sundays, I nevertheless felt duly awed by the majestic architecture and esoteric sensation of Divine presence! No one had to teach me how to love and respect Jesus, God, the angels and saints... it was already there, in my core. The sermons, on the other hand, bored the crap out of me, and the

Latin mass was Greek to me (haha, "Greek" .. get it?), so I spent the whole interminable hour gazing at the sacred scenes on the walls and ceilings, and daydreaming myself into them, imagining interactions with Jesus and the saints.

I attended Catholic school through the fifth grade. I bought into most of the teachings and Biblical stories, but some of them just didn’t sit right with me. For one thing, the idea of a loving God – our Father, in fact – casting His own children into fires for all eternity just because they made mistakes... say what?!! Nobody could explain that to my satisfaction. Even at such a tender age logic told me that God can’t be a “loving father” if he’s torturing His kids – let alone for ALL ETERNITY! When I was “bad”, my father spanked or yelled at me. He would NEVER burn me in fire and torture me for all time! (How sick is that?!) Another problem I had with my religion was the very idea that animals do not have souls! I begged to differ. I recall telling the priest in the confessional that animals do have souls! He was very nice about it and agreed that it is possible that animals have souls.

For as long as I can remember, I had this unshakable feeling that I knew Jesus in his monumentally historic life as the Messiah... that I walked with him... that I knew him personally, and that I loved him. It was never an obligatory, impersonal love, as in “love your neighbor”, “love God”, “love Jesus”, or “love humanity”... it always felt personal... more like the love you would have for close friends or family – not like you would for a celebrity or the Pope, for example. I knew nothing of reincarnation – only that people would joke about coming back as a dog or a bug or something – and yet, there was this sense of having known Yeshua in the flesh, just as surely as I knew my friends and neighbors in 20th Century Chicago.

New Reunion of Old Souls

Fast forward now to 2010... At a spiritual/paranormal meetup that I had recently attended, I came upon a small group discussion about hypnosis taking place, so I joined them, anxious to share an experience I’d had decades earlier while undergoing a past life regression.

“The very first thing I saw when I went under was the Apostle Paul walking along a beach, next to a cliff...”, I recounted. (Note: under hypnosis, when you are truly deep under, you no longer see the inside of your closed eyelids – it’s as if a curtain parts and suddenly you see vivid scenes that are quite lucid, as if you are actually there)

One of the discussion participants, a tall, blonde woman that looked to be in her 50’s, seemed particularly curious about my account, and later asked me privately, “Why do you suppose it was Paul that you saw in your session?”

“Probably because knew him”, I replied. “I have long had this gut feeling that I lived in Biblical times and that I knew Jesus personally.”

Upon hearing this, the woman (let's call her "Sarah") discreetly informed me of a private group that formed when a very conservative, career-military man spontaneously began channeling Jesus several years prior, where he was told that he (Jesus) was in the process of gathering his soul group together at this time. This soul group (actually, a cluster of about 4 companion soul groups) had accompanied him at various times, in various roles, during his sojourn of earthly lifetimes – but were definitely all together during his crucial life as Jesus – his final physical incarnation (33rd, to be exact) before his Ascension.

Sarah extended an invitation to me, to contact the couple who heads the Ohio chapter of this secret group that has members in many states, as well as in foreign countries, and which includes some celebrities (whose names most people would recognize), plus some fairly well known authors, a U.N. diplomat, a wealthy philanthropist, New Age personalities, and more.

So I joined ... and it was wonderful! Our local chapter of 15-20 members met at a spiritual center once a month. We enjoyed a potluck dinner followed by a brief meditation, and then engaged in an invigorating informal discussion for 3-4 hours. We loved being a soul group that came together in this lifetime for the purpose of raising the Mass Consciousness of the planet. We loved hearing from Jesus, who prefers Yeshua (the name that always felt right to me, as the name “Jesus” never did) and other discarnate entities that the conduit channeled. We especially loved receiving past life identifications.

The identifications were extremely complex, as they spanned multiple lifetimes going back to Ancient Egypt and even the Old Testament, PLUS, the family connections and relationships of all these people amongst themselves... But it didn’t end there, as it became exponentially more complicated upon learning that we have multiple split selves, and soul mates of split selves, and all of their lifetimes and interconnected lifetimes and family connections in those lifetimes & current lifetime, and ...whew! Frankly, no human being that I know of could even remotely be able to keep this straight... nobody! Imagine trying to memorize a family tree. Now imagine trying to memorize a hundred family trees. Imagine memorizing several lifetimes of the people in the family trees, plus their connections with one another in the several lifetimes, plus their split selves, former names, dates, and places, and the stories of their relationships and karmic threads. To say that these IDs were complex is putting it mildly!

Our group, which I will henceforth refer to as “CAM”, for “Channeled Ascended Masters” (not the real name), was incredibly exciting, and fulfilled our spiritual and social needs. We felt special and privileged. We formed close bonds with our local members and also developed friendships with members in other states and countries, whom we came to know through frequent conferences around the U.S. and the world, as well as thru our private social media messaging group. We were strongly encouraged to attend the conferences, and those who did not attend were given little or no past life identifications. This was one of my first “Uh-oh" moments.

How could a group comprised of the reincarnated family, friends, Apostles, and disciples of Jesus, no less, have no tolerance or compassion for those who are economically disadvantaged? I, for one, had little or no income, and thus could not attend the conferences in Hawaii, Ireland, England, the Holy Land, Mexico, Prague, Egypt, etc,... so I only attended the one held in my city, and the one in LA (compliments of a couple of friends who paid my way).

Someone came up with the idea of having a big garage sale in order to raise money for members who could not afford to travel. The manager of the CAM, who was also the wife of the man who channels, put her foot down and would not ALLOW us to have a garage sale! We assured her that there would be no mention of the CAM in any way, but it didn’t matter. (Another “Uh-oh" moment).

Rebel that I am, I would have ignored her command and gone ahead with the garage sale, but the woman who heads our local chapter is very obedient and loyal to this administrative head who rules with an iron fist. Of course, I would not want to flout the wishes of Jesus and the other Ascended Masters, but in my heart I know that Jesus would not be opposed to people having a garage sale to raise money for travel for the very important conferences that we were strongly urged to attend. This had to be the insanity, or paranoia, of Madame Administrator!

I know that you are wondering how on earth anyone could possibly believe that Jesus would gather up a few hundred souls on Earth and speak to them through the voicebox of a human being. To most folks, that is “out there” to the max! But I’m not most folks. I am well aware that there is more to this world than meets the eye. I have experienced much phenomena in my life that is not explained by science or the 5-senses, and this one is relatively mild by comparison.

Stop and think about the fact that all we are is consciousness experiencing this world through a fleshy vehicle of stardust and bacteria, on a little planet that is smaller than a pinpoint on a pinpoint in the vast universe... why should it be so hard to consider the concept of bodily-bereft consciousness influencing a human mind and downloading information to it? Our scientists are already performing similar “magic” with brain research and artificial intelligence! Are you aware that many of the news articles you read are written by robots?! I don’t mean via dictation either – I mean composed by robots from start to finish! (No, this isn’t one of them. ... or is it? ;). Humanity is so new to the Universe as to have been here for the equivalent of less than a nanosecond of time. If you think you know everything there is to know about reality or consciousness, or your mind is closed because you can only allow yourself to “believe” what a book or authoritative figure tells you to believe – then you are a fool of the highest order!

Most of the people on this planet subscribe to a religion. Most of them believe some incredibly outlandish stories. A woman conceived a child without having had sexual relations. Her son cured lepers and brought a dead man back to life. He walked on water. Another man was swallowed up by a whale and lived to tell about it. The first woman on earth had a conversation with a snake, ate an apple, and then all of humanity suffered forever after as a result. If you are true to your God by killing infidels, then you will go to Heaven and have a harem of 72 virgins, billions of alien souls blew up in a volcano and took possession of human minds... yada yada yada. The acolytes buy into it, lock, stock & barrel, without question (because their texts and prophets tell them so)... and yet.. reincarnation is “crazy”? Seriously?! Your consciousness is housed in a complicated machine of clay that thinks and dreams, in a world and universe so marvelous and finely tuned as to be beyond comprehension.. but your spirit couldn’t possibly come back into another body?... How do you think it got here in the first place!

The way I look at it, since we are all intelligent energy animating vehicles of flesh, I have no problem with high level discarnate consciousness being able to meld with a human consciousness, enabling the human voice to act as translator for the discarnate. At the pace our technology is progressing, I fully expect that in the very near future our scientists will learn how to commandeer or hijack a person’s brain, with or without their permission. And this for a species that is socially un-evolved!

WWJD?

The personality that claimed to be Yeshua was a very gentle, intelligent, and funny guy. When I watched him, I felt so strongly that this was the spirit of Jesus/Yeshua, that in my mind’s eye I never saw the man who channeled him, I only “saw” Yeshua. When I asked him how it was that I knew him when he was incarnate as Jesus, he replied that I was a young girl in his inner circle of 70, who used to come to hear him speak. To me, it very much felt like “Him”. There was a warmth and a brilliance

that was distinctly different from the man that I shall call “the Conduit”. The Conduit is uncomfortable around people. He is very conservative. He is socially awkward to the point where I would not rule him out as being a high-functioning individual on the Asperger spectrum. That is NOT, however, the way that “J” came across!

The entity claiming to have walked the earth as Jesus, was very comfortable, socially adept, witty, and charismatic. He had what Simon Cowell would call “The X-Factor”, albeit without ego. On a platform in front of hundreds of people, he was calm, he was sweet, and he made us laugh – a lot! He never lost his cool even with the occasional members who were rather frustrating and annoying. Think about it.. Jesus purportedly said he would return, right? Well, He never said how he would return, did he?! The possibility that he has returned by way of channeling, not just to the CAM, but around the world via many “conduits” – should not be ruled out. He knows this world is royally fucked up, and that his Jesus incarnation didn’t set us on the trajectory that he hoped it would. This is a highly evolved soul who has ascended his way out of the physical realm, so the last thing he would be interested in doing is to come back in a body suit and live in crazy town amongst what is probably the most insane species on any planet in the galaxy (imo)!

Drawing of Jesus and baby, by Jared Barnes

If I were Jesus, I think I would prefer to channel my messages to those who would hear. I would not materialize on the White House lawn or St. Peter's Square and say “Hey, here I am Folks! Let’s talk about the Bible and how special Christians are!” Nor would I care to be reborn into a baby body, grow up in the insanity of this reality, and do the “prophet” trip again, especially since it failed the first time. Yes, I’m sorry to say, it failed. That which culminates in a high body count, exclusivity, wars, fear, and myth... is an Epic Fail! And this is precisely what he told us in the Messages. He said his Message to Mankind got turned into a religion in the wake of his transition, by disciples who misunderstood what he had been trying to teach them. He said that as they spread out and preached to the crowds, they not only twisted some of the content, but filtered it through their own egos and social biases (for example, the perception of women as inferior to men). His real Message was that life goes on after death, that Love is the way to God and the way out of the earthly cycle (Wheel of Karma), and that Forgiveness (capitalized for emphasis) is paramount because we are all connected, and that no one is better or more loved by the Creator than anyone else. We are one and the same.

I have been keeping dream diaries since about the age of 13, and periodically I pick one up at random and start reading. I have found amazing answers and even precognitive dreams in those journals. Imagine my excitement when I picked one up at random (because my young niece thought it would be fun for us to read them one day when we were hanging out in my room talking about dream interpretation) from a stack of dream journals, and came across a dream that I had recorded several years prior to my membership in the CAM – and the dream entry that I just happened to come across randomly, read “...I was asked if I remembered a lifetime where I knew Jesus, and I answered ‘Yes, I was a baby that knew his mother, Mary”. That totally jibed with what “He” told me at the conference. My gut feeling is that I was a member of his Essene group, and possibly even related to him in some way, such as a second cousin or something. (The Essenes were a relatively small, tight-knit community).

I have a lot of questions about channeling. I don’t think anyone can know for sure just who or what the entities are (and by this I mean when it actually is discarnate entities and not fraudulent mediums or some form of mind control). Are the entities of a higher nature or are they negative entities from the lower astral realms? And while the general assumption is that channeled sources are of a spiritual nature, there are other possibilities as well. There exists technology that contains some elements of mind-control – perhaps as chip implants or nano-tech mechanisms that can be inserted into a person’s brain. The voices that one hears could be human voices projected by hi-tech means. In some cases, the voices one hears are imaginary, such as when the person is schizophrenic. In the case of the CAM, I believe to this day that “The Conduit” was not a fraud. It is our consensus, even of those of us who left the group, that the man legitimately was a channel for a consciousness outside of his own.

But as I stated earlier, in the beginning, the CAM was a spiritually oriented, noble group of many amazing souls who were happy to come together to make the world a better place. Purportedly, we were Yeshua’s soul group family, who, after his ascension, inadvertently turned his teachings – his messages of love, tolerance, compassion, and forgiveness – into a religion, and it backfired into Holy Wars, intolerance, self-righteousness, guilt, and a deep schism where there should have been unity, love, and support for all living beings. He wanted us to work to correct our mistake.

In the first years of bonding with one another and of the joys of receiving messages of “Biblical” proportions, and in anticipation of whatever we were supposed to ultimately do to “Save the World”, we bandied about various ideas for making changes in our society.

One day, our regional leader eagerly shared the “download” he’d received in meditation, where he’d envisioned our group setting up a Commons enterprise whereby the homeless would manufacture implements for people in third world countries, enabling them to farm or manufacture with the tools. (I'm fuzzy on the details). They would remit a small percentage of their profits back to us, which we would use to house and feed the people making the products. It sounded like a brilliant self-sustaining circle where everyone involved would benefit, and most importantly, it was a viable solution for some of this country’s homelessness problem. We all thought it was a superb idea, and I was very excited about it!

We had all kinds of great ideas. Once, we individually researched local non-profit groups, then shared our findings at the next meeting. We narrowed it down to several that were most popular with the group. One group involved reading to sick children in hospitals. One organization painted walls and performed other tasks for women's shelters. Another idea was to launch a local chapter of Stand Up For Kids. My friend and I decided to go ahead with that one, as she had experience with similar Outreach programs in another state.

Our meetings with a couple of the local homeless outreach founders was off to a great start. We were hoping to do a big bake-sale on the grounds of the University campus. It all fizzled though when the outreach women backed out. I’m pretty sure I can pinpoint the exact moment it all went south: that would be when my friend, caught up in the excitement of the energy the four of us were exchanging, blurted out that we were members of a private organization that channels Jesus Christ. (oops!)

When The Ship Goes Off Course

Ever the cynic, I kept a document on my desktop of “Uh-oh” CAM moments. Understand, most of what was relayed to us in the Messages was sound, noble, enlightening, and reasonable (especially in the early years). It may well be that the source of our information was the real deal at that time, but unbeknownst to any of us, switched tracks midstream.

The point of this article is not whether or not an Ascended Light Being known as Jesus actually spoke to certain human beings 2,000 years after his death through a human conduit. The reason that I am sharing this highly personal (and potentially embarrassing) experience is to illustrate how easy it is for an interest group – especially one of a spiritual or religious nature – to morph into a cult without its members noticing the trademark red flags. "That’s how it works", to use an oft-repeated phrase in the CAM Messages. Dark forces (or twisted humans, as the case may be), know that they are not going to have any adherents if there is a preponderance of negativity, so they try to maintain content of , say, 90% “good stuff” (let’s call it “salt”) and only a pinch of “pepper”, or negative content. You stay for the salt, but you protect yourself from the pepper by buying into the rationalizations for it, and thus denying that the pepper even exists.

"We tried to be nice but it didn't work!"

Case in Point: When the voices in our messages (which started out as Yeshua, or “J”, but gradually segued to other discarnates and“Ascended Masters”) began to take on a darker tone, calling ex-members names like “Mr. Fuzzy” and “Bumblefucks”, using profanities, and humiliating people – it was explained by the “Ascended Masters” that “We tried to be nice but it didn’t work! You didn’t take us seriously, so we had to get tough. Humans become complacent and they sit on their asses.. well, we have work to do! You can sit around and let the world go to hell-in-a-handbasket if that’s what you want, or you can step up to the plate and get to work!” Of course we felt duly chastized and from then on it was “understood” why the “Masters” had to come across so harshly – it was our fault! They were dealing with human animals and thus had to come down to our level. And yes, they actually referred to us as animals in one instance when they were giving the conduit a hard time for asking a simple question!

They (the Masters) began to spotlight certain members for humiliation, for example, a wonderful woman who is a well-known philanthropist. They raked her through the coals in message after message. First, they built up the egos of all of the “important” people in the group, such as the regional leaders and the political, New Age, and entertainment celebrities. They were given identifications of lifetimes of influence: kings, pharaohs, Biblical movers and shakers, queens, presidents, Popes, and even saints!

A couple of years later, they began to highlight the negative lifetimes, telling members that they used to be Judas, Hitler, Christopher Columbus, Pontius Pilate, Constantine, etc. The reasoning behind this is that they (the Masters) were using past lifetimes as a teaching tool. I get that. Reincarnation is an awesome teaching tool. But there are better ways to handle it, and using someone’s past evil deeds – and even current day mistakes or inertia – as a means for teaching, making them feel like crap, telling them that the DEATH OF THEIR CHILD OR THEIR DOG is the result of bad karma... well, that is just reprehensible! Higher spiritual entities do NOT tell someone that the child they lost in the current lifetime had to die because of a past life transgression or a current life mistake that the parent made! Higher entities gently guide. They hint at, or pose questions that help us to arrive at our own conclusions. They do not put people in the proverbial stocks and send them into a state of depression and guilt! Higher entities utilize love and wisdom in teaching... but the CAM “Masters” are like 19th century school teachers whose teaching methods involve the use of rods and dunce caps! (But I digress) ...

The CAM is a unique congregation of folks who have a soft spot for Jesus, but not for Christianity or organized religion. They eschew religion because of its intolerance and contradictions... and yet... they allowed this ship to veer off course from their original reasons for joining, and from their ideals and idealism. These are (or were, I should say) independent people who pride themselves on their open-mindedness and rebellious ideals. They are activists by nature, whose causes used to be “apples”, that the CAM messages forbade – that were mandated to be replaced by “oranges”, that the CAM sanctioned. These were several hundred Lightworkers whose mission in life was to raise others’ consciousness and to make the world a better place –now being ordered (and required to sign a contract stating thus) to drop their spiritual causes and devote themselves instead, to CAM-mandated political causes!

The 4 of us who left the local chapter have amongst us a friend who is one of the area’s foremost intuitive readers. Until now he’s said very little about the CAM. He only imparts the information that is shown to him. If there is not a viable reason for a question being answered, the Guides (his and/or ours) won’t directly answer it.

You may be thinking “How is consulting a psychic any different from joining a group that revolves around channeling? How gullible is this person?”. Well, that would be a logical assumption. It’s true that there are some frauds out there, but there are also talented psychic readers who have a special ability to tap into higher frequencies and access information. Unfortunately, psychics and mediums are sometimes unwittingly influenced by negative entities or energies. Aware of that, I am cautious.. moreso now than before. I vet the person that does the readings. Is he a positive kind of person? Is he known by his friends and peers as reliable and truthful, living a spiritual path.. a person of integrity? Are her messages of a positive nature? Is she overly motivated by money? And even if the reader passes all of those tests, I still welcome the reading, but I take only the parts that resonate with me and set aside the rest.

I finally asked our psychic friend, point blank, “Did (the Conduit) EVER channel Jesus?” The answer that his spiritual source transmitted to him was, “Yes. In the beginning. But (negativity infected the conduit) and Yeshua stepped aside.” (Some of us think that the "negativity" was brought on by his power hungry, egotistical wife). That is what I suspected, and it puts the enigmatic experience into perspective. Towards the end, I read the Message Archives on the group’s website, and I was surprised at how starkly the tone of the earliest messages differed from the later messages. The entity claiming to be Jesus was gentle, and his messages stated that we were being brought together to “Create a new Consciousness”. He spoke of spirituality, and of raising our own consciousness so that we would help to raise the vibration of the world. It was all good. Compare that to the later tone...

Even if one claims to be “spiritual but not religious”, shouldn’t it raise a red flag when messages from the spirit realm segue from love to humiliation & guilt, from Jesus to Lucifer, from expressing spirituality to becoming obedient drones, from bonding at communal dinners to shunning ex-members..? This is classic cult control, and it’s pretty depressing to watch a bunch of Lightworkers abandon the spiritual classes they taught, centers they ran, books they wrote, and lectures they gave on subjects that encouraged people to bring more love and light into this world – to become obedient soldiers to “Lucifer, the good angel” and a fascist-like administrator that the discarnate voices literally once described as the “saviour” of all humanity! ("Egotist" doesn't even begin to describe this woman!)

When we left the group, the "Ascended Masters" showed their true colors by ranting about us in the messages, calling us (or our split souls or past selves) "hookers for Martin Luther King Jr". (I still got the social group messages for a while). As if that that weren't insane enough, they also said that our defection, or bad vibes or whatever, could be the cause of World War III. Not only didn't that put doubt in our group's minds – but they even shunned us under the instructions of the Administrator! They blamed us for causing great problems for the entire organization and its mission. Seriously?! We chose to leave, but we did not say or do anything to harm our old friends or the group. We went on about our lives. We didn't understand why quitting a group had to mean losing friendships and being labeled as troublemakers. (Can you say "cult"?)

Oh yes, this can happen to you! Not one of these cult casualties ever thought they were capable of being duped into cult membership! They are the living example of the hapless frog who doesn’t realize that the very water he is sitting in has gradually gone from comfortable to boiling. That’s how cults get ya... slowly.. patiently.. you never even notice when the train switches tracks!

But extrapolate this further, to other areas of life. Nazi Germany happened in relatively recent times. North Korea is oppressed by a dictator as we speak. Ditto for Syria. Women in the Middle East are forced to wear slave apparel called “burkas”. Fools are rampant in this world! Donald Trump, who has contradicted himself on virtually everything he has ever said, was elected to the highest post in the world! And why? Because he presented himself as a regular guy who was mad-as-hell at The System.. Donald Trump is as far removed from a “regular guy” as the North Pole is from the South Pole! Trump IS the System! But he was elected anyway – and largely by the sector that will be hurt most by his actions. It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world – and a significant number of its inhabitants are unable or incapable of using reason. Don’t believe me? Google the Milgram Experiment and you will be dismayed to learn that something like 99% of humanity will blindly follow an authority figure’s orders to the letter! Alas, we live in a world that is overwhelmingly populated by sheeple!

If teachers and parents succeed in nothing else, I would certainly like to see them succeed in teaching children how to discern when, and when not, to act in obeisance to authority. They

should be able to know the difference between obeying their parents’ house rules – and obeying a stranger with candy. They should be able to distinguish between a news show that demonstrates facts and backs it up with unaltered videos and expert findings – and a news show that dispenses nothing but emotional rantings against “Others”. They should be able to question their religion or spiritual group and even disagree with the leaders, priests, gurus, etc, on any issue. If you raise children to trust in their instinct and their powers of reason, then you just may see a world where fascists don’t have a chance of attaining power. (Wouldn’t that be awesome!)

Last I heard, the CAM is still in existence, though barely. Perhaps Lucifer (guest speaker in the Messages) and his cronies (or mind-control operatives, as the case may be) got tired of them and moved on to another project. Or whatever it was that spoke through that poor man who never wanted to be a channel to begin with, and who suffered several near-breakdowns – and even contemplated suicide as a result of his parasite-like indenture to “The Masters” (who even invaded his dreams and caused physical pain when he considered defecting!)

Those of us who finally realized that the organization we were in had turned into a cult will never know what the real story behind the CAM is, but one member is pretty convinced that it was a secret military, hi-tech mind-control operation. Personally, I think that it began with the genuine spirit of the Pure Being once known as Jesus (Yeshua), who did in fact bring his former companions together for a reason. Perhaps it was just a test. Perhaps it was a wake up call to stay on course – or a seed planted for a purpose unknown to us. But, as with the mustard seed parable, the results will differ depending on whether they fell upon fertile soil or withered on rock. But any way you look at it, all experience leads to growth. My father always said “You can do it the easy way – or you can do it the hard way!” Either way, the outcome is the same.

Even the members of Scientology have chosen, on some level, their experience for the purpose of expanded awareness. Some will realize one day, that they gave up their spouse, their children, their parents.. all for the sake of following a cold-hearted, charismatic con artist – and in that devastating moment their souls will grow in the knowledge of what not to succumb to in the future. And those who die having never seen the truth behind the cult...? They will say “well, at least I have had the experience of being a cult member to add to my repertoire of human experience.”

That’s what life is about, after all – experience! Some of life’s experiences, you will ace – and some you will fail – but all will ultimately broaden your awareness and knowledge. It’s a good idea though, to use your inner compass, common sense, and ability to reason – to decide if the group, the religion, the relationship, the career (etc) that you are in – is working for you... and not because someone outside of yourself says it’s where you ought to be. You do it because it makes you happy! You do it because it feels right for you!

In Conclusion ...

I watched a grown man cry at one of our meetings because a few of us expressed dissatisfaction with a new policy set down by management – as well as dissatisfaction with “Madame Administrator's” unbridled thirst for control. The new policy mandated that we sign an agreement to pledge our time and devotion to the two organizations that the CAM ordered us to become activists for. This man had been quite a force for good, organizing environmental demonstrations and campaigns, educating the public, launching transcendental meditation groups, running an organic co-op, and taking a leadership role in his community. Now, he was expected to give all of that up in order to devote his time and energy to the political organizations that the CAM was forcing its members to become heavily involved in. He was so frustrated with the few of us who voiced concerns about the direction the group was taking and how unhappy we were with the heavy-armed tactics of management that day, that he broke down in tears after angrily lashing out his contention that we just have to do what we’re being asked to do, whether we like it or not (because the Masters are only trying to get us to save the world!)

Seconds after the first man’s emotional outburst, the boring intellectual next to him (sorry guy, but your monologues literally put people to sleep) lit into a CAM member who dared to express her concerns – with such rage that the veins popped out on his beet-colored neck! And who could blame him for losing his cool ... this man’s entire livelihood – which included his home, a New Age mecca – was at stake! The spiritual/social organization these people refuse to recognize as a cult, that their lives revolve around, that began as a gentle spiritual socially conscious group, was now telling them to give up everything “New Age” and devote a good portion of their time and money to actively campaign for organizations of the “Masters” choosing!

If an association, organization, religious, political or any manner of social entity is trying to turn you into something that you are not... if they are pressuring or forcing you to give up the interests that come to you naturally and that you love, if they cause you to be estranged from your family and friends, if they put you at odds with WHO YOU ARE, and if they make you cry or feel anguish at what you are doing on their behalf... then dude, I hate to break it to you, but you are under the thumb of a bonified cult! You are the frog that sat down in cool water that had once been so pleasant, that you haven’t even noticed has begun to boil! It’s time to snap out of the spell that you’re under and come out of the water!

I leave you with these thoughts to ponder about your religious, political, activist, or spiritual group, church, or organization:

• Does it make you happy or fulfill a need?

• Would you have agreed with their tenets, principles, and rules before joining this group?

• Are you encouraged to ask questions?

• Are your suggestions and ideas appreciated and welcomed?

• Are you free to believe and think whatever you want to think or believe?

• Did the group’s focus alter course?

• Are you comfortable with the association’s actions and words?

• Do you find yourself rationalizing your beliefs to accept something that used to give you pause?

• Are there people you are forbidden to see, or activities that you are forbidden to do?

• Does your association shun ex-members or discourage you from contacting them?

• Are you being spied on, or in a social media group that is monitored?

• Does this group dictate your personal activities outside the group?

• Does it expect or demand money, other than small operational fees?

• Are you mandated not to read materials or watch videos that criticize your group?

• Does your group ever punish or “rehabilitate” members who fall out of favor?

• Is the leader controlling, and are you afraid to cross him or her?

© by Kat 2017

THIS IS THE SAME PERSON ...

For the purpose of my example, all of the individuals in the composite photo above, are the same person –

This is why racism is so laughable!

When you dislike another person for their race, sex, religion, economic station, nationality, body type, etc. – the joke is on you!

We slip in and out of roles (bodies/personalities) almost as easily as we slip in and out of a sweater. That sweater might be a cashmere pullover today, a gaudy Christmas sweater tomorrow, or a comfy old cardigan you throw on after work. We change bodies too. Only the spirit remains the same.

I have lived and died many times, and whether you believe it or not, so have you!

But let’s consider the trajectory of the soul in our example, whom I shall henceforth refer to as “Alexi”. The photos here do not depict all of Alexi’s lifetimes, only a few of them. I have heard that the number of lifetimes we live number anywhere from 150 to a couple thousand, depending on the source of information. For example, not every psychic medium or NDE experiencer is aware of split selves or parallel lives. (But that is material for a future post).

(Note: Until we come up with a viable pronoun that encompasses genders, I’m going to use the masculine personal pronoun for Alexi because it’s easier, although in reality, souls are neither male nor female, yet encompass both.)

All The World's a Stage... (no, seriously)

About the time that Alexi was beginning his Middle Soul lifetimes (after a series of “Young Soul” tribal lives and lifetimes in Atlantis and Ancient Egypt), he was a Roman centurion named Aelius during the time of Jesus’ lifetime. He was, in fact, one of the soldiers who accompanied Jesus during His fateful march to Golgotha. Alexi didn’t know what to make of this man, Yeshua (or as he is more commonly known in North America today, Jesus). He’d only heard tidbits thru the grapevine … stuff about pacifism and lepers. Aelius hated crucifixions; privately, he thought they were barbaric.. but publicly he went along with the idea that such things were necessary to maintain order. One of his primary duties included overseeing slaves, for whom he had little compassion.

Aelius was quite old when he died from stab wounds inflicted by a small gang of thieves who killed him for his money pouch. (The thieves got very little in the way of money, but they racked up a hella lotta karma!)

In the lovely interim dimension we refer to as either “Heaven” or “the Afterlife”, after reviewing his life as Aelius, Alexi was saddened by the atrocities he’d witnessed (and sometimes took part in) as a Roman soldier, and expressed the desire to experience a more peaceful existence next time around.

When he was ready to take the plunge again, Alexi was reincarnated as a Mongolian farmer named Enkhtuya. It was a very simple, very peaceful life. As Enkhtuya, this soul developed close relationships with his family and community, and experienced the peace and beauty that comes from working closely with nature. Working with the earth is very “grounding” (no pun intended). This was one of Alexi’s favorite lifetimes; it was uneventful from a human standpoint, but from a spiritual vantage it was a life of steady soul growth, as well as a chance to heal from the brutality of life in Ancient Rome.

It's not a good idea to spend too many lifetimes in succession as the same gender ..

it’s best to mix it up so that you don’t have any problems adjusting when you finally switch. Alexi chose to incarnate as the only daughter of a modestly successful painter and his wife. The little girl, Sarah, spent much of her time daydreaming in her English garden, fairly neglected by her otherwise preoccupied parents. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 8. We don’t always live out full lives.. many lifetimes are brief for any of a number of reasons (e.g., karma is cleared, the object lesson is learned, a relationship is balanced, we’re helping someone else with their lessons, we took the life of someone when they were young, etc.). In this case, Alexi took on the brief life of Sarah for the purpose of experiencing death by disease, and to help Sarah’s parents learn a lesson in priorities, as they had neglected children in prior lifetimes as well.

All souls have numerous lifetimes as warriors or soldiers...

because Earth is, after all, peopled by a combative species. If you are a healthy male, chances are good that you will spend some time in the armed forces of whatever tribe, community, or nation you reside in. And so it was with Alexi, who was a civil war soldier, a Native American warrior, a Japanese fighter pilot, a Viking, and an Afghani rebel fighter, just to name a few of his military roles.

To offset the violence, one of Alexi’s more whimsical personas was Daphné, a French Royal. As Daphné, she experienced a life of privilege. (We all have a smattering of privileged lives). Pretty much whatever she wanted, she got. She had beautiful surroundings and lavish material possessions. She had servants at her every beck and call. Daphné had a beautiful body and a brilliant mind. But while everyone admired her for her beauty, and were envious of her position in the palace, the one thing Daphné couldn’t command was respect for her intelligence. As a woman, she was looked upon, more or less, as something akin to a porcelain ornament. On her deathbed, she felt that her life had had little meaning, and that she wasn’t leaving anything of real value behind in her wake.

Alexi’s immediate incarnation after Daphné, was Chief Yellow Bear, of the Crow tribe in the American Midwest. In this lifetime, Alexi experienced a lot of action and adventure. He developed many survival techniques while learning how to use his wits to stay alive. He was powerful and commanded respect from his people. This lifetime was a good platform for building self-confidence and leadership skills.

Freedom rocks! ... But limitations are binding

Some lifetimes are as restrictive as Chief Yellow Bear’s was unbounded. Thiri, Alexi’s Burmese incarnation, was very limited in freedom. Thiri was subjected to foot binding shortly after birth. This intentioned deformity, known as “Lotus Foot”, was very popular among the elite as a way of indicating that one so delicate is above ever needing to work. Thiri never had to work, but she always longed to move around freely and do things for herself, like people who had normal sized/shaped feet. Her joy in this lifetime was her study of botany, which was carried over from her lifetime as a farmer. She especially enjoyed cultivating bonsai trees, which was a much needed creative outlet for her. It afforded respite from the periodic sexual assaults which she (and many lotus-bound women of the period) were forced to endure.

All human incarnations are challenging in their own way, even the ones that seem like a vacation. But some are especially difficult on a basic physical level. Alexi’s life as Eloise, a pioneer midwife, was pretty grueling. There were no luxuries in that lifetime.. not even the luxury of a stable home. Eloise and her family and friends were constantly moving, wagon-train style. Even when she wasn’t working (cleaning game to cook, scrubbing laundry in streams, delivering babies, gathering food and firewood, et al), she was always aware of the many dangers that often cut short the lives of pioneers. In fact, that was how she met her end. She was one of the few to make it to a ripe old age, but it ended one autumn day when a band of “Indians” set fire to the wagons and killed all of the people in the caravan. It was an ironic ending because when she/he was Yellow Bear, he killed a few white pioneers himself.

Even though we have certain qualities that are unique to our own soul, when we meld with a human body we take on characteristics that come with the body due to factors such as DNA and the cultural and familial environments of our upbringing. Our personality is greatly influenced by our brain chemicals and other cerebral affectations, which can make the difference between whether we are passive or aggressive, emotional or aloof, or patient or explosive, for example. The purpose of reincarnation is to amass as much experience as we can in the time that we spend in human existence. The human personality is a role we take on, and we are affected by the characteristics of that role. But how we, as a soul, react to that personality, and what we do with it, is key.

Similar settings – very different roles!

Alexi lived two lifetimes as males in the Middle East in a similar time frame. In one of those Middle-Eastern lifetimes, he was a gentle shepherd. His soul was coupled with a patient, intelligent personality, in a healthy body. He was born into a loving family in a close-knit community. As a result, he matured into a man of quiet wisdom.. one to whom many sought out for advice. That life, as Hani, was one of Alexi’s happiest lifetimes… But his other lifetime as a Middle Eastern male in the same century..? Not so much!

The peaceful soul of Alexi had a tough time being Ammar, whose body was biologically incompatible with Alexi. The DNA was wired for a personality that was impetuous and tenuous to begin with. The hope was that Alexi’s past experiences with nature, social relations, and the building of self-confidence would override the biological challenges… and it might have! But Ammar got in with the wrong crowd at the age of 12, when he allowed himself to be seduced by the exhilaration of boyish pranks that became more serious, and then violent, in his ensuing teenage years. Ammar joined a group of fundamentalist rebels that wreaked havoc on any person, group, or creed that the rebels deemed a threat to their cause. On the plus side, Ammar managed to avoid actually killing anyone (except once, in self-defense), despite all of the pillaging and destruction he caused when on rampages with his rebel band. One of his greatest regrets, upon his life review, was how badly he had treated women in his lifetime as Ammar. His other disappointment was that, as Ammar, he so blindly followed orders from the leaders of his group – and from religious tenets that were destructive instead of constructive, and hateful rather than loving – instead of listening to his own inner guidance and truth.

Positive Activism vs Negative Activism... what a difference a "way" makes!

After the Ammar incarnation, Alexi knew that it was time to engage in a couple of feminine roles, for balance. One of those female personas was Coraline, a beautiful black singer/dancer in the American South during the early 20th century. Alexi was really looking forward to becoming Coraline, as this was an opportunity to burn off some karma and act as a positive force in the world. Coraline had enough spunk and ambition in her personality to aim for success, but with enough wisdom and restraint to use her gifts wisely. It was a tricky situation. This was an era in history where blacks experienced major discrimination, on a daily basis, in every aspect of their lives. But as Coraline, Alexi’s spirit shone like a lone light in the darkness, as she helped paved the way for African Americans by bridging the divide via entertainment. She gained access to a world denied other blacks, and even though there were still obstacles (racial hatred) and closed doors (not being allowed to stay in the same hotels as white performers on the same circuit, and not being allowed to use “whites only” restrooms, for example), through her artistic performance and by virtue of her inner wisdom and kindness to the people she came into contact with, she helped to change the way that many whites viewed blacks. It seemed like baby steps at the time, but the ripples of her courageous cultural inroads continue even today… This was an incarnation of stellar progress!

Alexi’s trajectory continued with an eclectic progression of incarnations. He had made great strides in his lifetime as Coraline, but he still had baggage in regards to his Ammar life. That’s not to say that his lifetime as Ammar was a loss; very few lifetimes can be considered a loss. Despite his destructive thoughts and actions, he honed his left brain skills in mapping and planning, learned how easy it is for the human will to sell out to charismatic leaders in the name of a cause, and overcame the urge to kill (which did tempt him from time to time when pillaging). Still, it was a destructive path, and he wanted to burn the karma. Karma, Alexi knew, was not a form of punishment, but a system of cause & effect put into motion by human actions. Karma is like the teacher who hands back an essay that you flunked, and gives you the opportunity for a do-over, so you can make up the credit and move forward.

The Value of a Human Life: Learning to discern courage from folly

Takeshi was a young man who always strove to do his best. He was raised to be an obedient child who, true to his culture, respected authority and his elders. He took great pride in his ethics, studied hard, and was deeply patriotic… so patriotic, in fact, that he joined the military the day that he became of age. One of Takeshi’s greatest desires was to fly a plane, so he became a fighter pilot. With his strategic skills (honed during his Ammar lifetime), he quickly became an ace pilot, commanding the respect of his peers and the praise of his superiors. His dream was to continue to be a pilot even after his military stint was over. But that was not to be…

The Japanese forces were taking a beating in the war, and their supplies were diminishing, along with their troops. They were a proud people – “surrender” was not an acceptable word in their vocabulary. Death was preferable to the “shame” of defeat. With their honor at stake, Japan put out a call for Kamikaze pilots – men who were willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the cause by becoming human missiles. With a heavy, but patriotic heart, Takeshi volunteered.

As Alexi, it was known beforehand that he would give his life in this way. The roles we take on – even the manner in which we die – is often planned for the express purpose of diversified experience. As Takeshi, Alexi was given the opportunity to fly, to plummet, and to learn about the consequences of stubborn pride. He had acquiesced to human authority in many, if not most, of his lifetimes, and got burned every time. The tide was turning. Alexi was becoming a more seasoned soul, wiser and stronger for all of the turmoil, joy, suffering, love, and hate that he had experienced as a participant in the Human Condition.

Like Sand to Pearl...

The abrasiveness of life in human form takes the rough soul and continually refines it. This maturing soul is beginning to take on a more polished look.

At some point in his “Older Soul” phase, Alexi excitedly entered into an incarnation where he would become a Tibetan monk. Part of our human experience involves living lifetimes on the Spiritual Path. It was a wonderful life! Granted, it was strict. Monks spend long hours in meditative practices, developing disciplines that enable them to control the mind and body. As a soul, we already have unlimited abilities, but the challenge is to expand our consciousness while in human form.

Jampa knew from an early age that he was going to be a holy man. He entered the monastery with a pure desire to learn and to serve. These were similar qualities to his Takeshi incarnation, but with a broader purpose in mind. It wasn’t an army or a flag that he gave himself to – it was the Infinite Creative Source (that we humans like to call “God”), with a deep desire to connect to the Infinite, to expand his consciousness beyond the boundaries of physical limitations and our world’s subjective reality. It was a long and rewarding life where he was surrounded by breathtaking landscapes high in the mountains. There was a peace there that most of us can’t even imagine. Besides expanding his consciousness to acquire knowledge from the inner planes, Jampa also spent a fair amount of time working with the people in the village, primarily as a spiritual counselor, but even administering to their physical wounds in times of emergency. He had had some basic training in First Aid, which came to him naturally as a result of his midwifing experience when he was Eloise.

At a very old age, when Jampa knew that the body had served its purpose and the time had come to exit, he bid farewell to his spiritual brothers, went into a deep meditative state, and passed peacefully and consciously from his body the next morning. Due to his metaphysical training, this death was as easy as getting up out of bed.

One would hope that a very spiritual lifetime, where he or she has renounced material possessions and attained a higher state of consciousness, would be the last – and that the need to continually reincarnate would be over. But that is not generally the case. Alexi was in the “Old Soul” stage of his human experience, but not quite at the finish line yet. His successful spiritual incarnation was only a prelude to becoming a positive force for social change. If you are one of those people who always had a strong feeling that you were here “to save the world”, then chances are you are an old soul who made a commitment to do something with your life that will benefit humans, animals, or the planet itself.

Alexi’s next couple of lifetimes were very brief. In one incarnation he was Maria, a little Brazilian girl born to a couple that were also his parents when he was a Viking boy named Sigurd. There was a close bond between Alexi and the parent souls, so when it came time for them to experience the loss of a child (as we all do in certain lifetimes), he volunteered to be born to them and then leave prematurely. Maria was a well-loved only-child, and her parents were devastated when she wandered away from her yard and drowned at the age of three. From the viewpoint of the soul, a human lifetime is just a moment in time. They all experienced a big leap in soul growth as a result, and in the future they would be reunited again.

Some Lifetimes are Hell... literally!

This next life was one of the worst, but Alexi knew that he would experience an accelerated soul growth that might otherwise have taken several lifetimes. Jakob was a 9 year old Jewish boy in Poland when Germany invaded, burned down the synagogue and many homes, and sent Jakob and his remaining Jewish community to a labor camp, and then a year later, to Auschwitz. He managed to survive for a little over two years in what can only be described as Hell. At such a young age, he saw what human beings are capable of at their very worst. This experience would stay with him, on a subconscious level, no matter what form he took from that point on. After having experienced the nightmare of: being the victim of intense discrimination and genocide, losing his home and way of life, watching loved ones get tortured and murdered, being torn asunder from his family and friends, suffering physically & mentally, and of being put to death (and at such a tender, emotional age!), this soul developed a deep compassion for humanity and a firm determination that “nothing like this must ever happen again!”

While others are very liberating

After his life as Jakob, Alexi had balanced out all but a trace of his karma and looked forward to devoting himself to furthering the evolution of mankind. In his next incarnation, he enjoyed being the free spirit that was Suzanne. Precocious, artistic, rebellious, and compassionate Suzanne fell into the Hippie genre without even trying. She was already a long-haired, barefoot pacifist before she even knew what the Hippie Movement was. This soul had been a soldier and a victim of war enough times to know, innately, that war was a lose-lose for everyone. He/she knew much suffering and did not want to cause suffering of any kind, to any living being… they had experienced slavery and the oppression of slaves… had been a leader and a follower many times over… had been male, female, wealthy, impoverished, a servant, a royal, housebound, and an adventurer. Alexi had been the gamut of roles, races, nationalities, and caste. Suzanne didn’t remember being all those personalities, but her soul knew that racism, classism, and sexism were primitive human constructs. She thought the human race was, generally speaking, insane. An idealist, she embraced the so-called Hippie Movement and engaged in sit-ins, love-ins, marches, and all forms of protest against the Vietnam War. She took part in the protest at Wounded Knee, and she joined the fight for equal rights for blacks and for women.

Suzanne had rebelled against authority for as long as she could remember. Some of her rebellious nature stemmed from her own internal struggle with being gay and trying to reconcile who she was with who society expected her to be. The world, under the spell of its illusion, is not aware that we carry male and female aspects in our essence, and that the body alone does not necessarily denote our gender. Suzanne repressed her sexuality for the first 25 years of her life, then decided that if people couldn’t accept her for who she was, then it was their loss, not hers. She imagined a world where people were free to be themselves. She also dreamed of a day when everyone could enjoy the same freedom and prosperity that many Americans have. She didn’t understand how anyone could presume to be better than anyone else. “We’re all human”, she thought… “Why do some feel compelled to oppress the others, or to have so much more than they need?” She was hopeful that tomorrow would be better than today.

Great strides were made in the 1960’s. To older, more conservative folks who’d survived the Great Depression and enjoyed the bounty of the ’50’s – the ’60’s was a frightening time of turmoil. But in reality, the tide was turning for large segments of society that had not enjoyed the same opportunities that middle class white males had long cornered the market on. Suzanne attended college, got her Masters in Sociology, and wrote 2 successful books on feminism before succumbing to ovarian cancer in her early 40’s. Looking back on that life Alexi was pleased with the progress that he’d made as Suzanne, in tandem with a large group of soul mates, to open doors and create more opportunities for sections of society that were oppressed.

That final loop of the rollercoaster ride

After a long sojourn of lifetimes on Earth, the soul known as Alexi had one more trip to make. This time, he returned as the personality named Michael. Michael was born to the same souls that had grieved his loss when he was Maria. Most of his family members, as well as many of his friends and other influential people in his life, were soul mates from other lifetimes; this lifetime was a kind of spiritual reunion.

Michael is an "Afri-Cauc-Asian" American (a term I just made up for a person who has African, Caucasian and Asian roots), born and raised in New York, in a middle-class mixed community. A brilliant young man, he skated through school and earned a full-ride to a prestigious university. Everyone says that Michael seems wise beyond his years. He is very well liked by most of the people that he meets; he has kind, smiling eyes and a charismatic personality. If he has a “flaw”, it’s that he has a tendency to be blunt if he thinks someone is ignorant and needs to be put in his or her place.

Michael loves music, especially Hip-Hop, and isn’t half bad as a writer/rapper. His amateur performances garner encouraging feedback. He thought about majoring in music, but then decided to minor in music and major in engineering. By the time he graduated, Michael knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life… or at least, where he wanted to start – by cleaning up the oceans! This vocational aspiration began in his junior year when he watched a segment on Oprah, about a mass of plastic the size of Texas that is accumulating in the ocean. He started to think about ways to remove the plastic (a most formidable task!) Also, as a consummate animal lover, the thought of all those animals who were dying from either ingesting or being entangled in the plastic waste, was more than he could bear. Michael wanted, in a way, “to save the world”. When he is done with his current life as Michael, Alexi will be given the choice to either remain on the Spirit planes – on the higher level that he has attained – or to continue reincarnating on earth in order to assist the human race in our spiritual evolution – right there with us "in the trenches", as it were.

When you understand that you are all races, genders, nationalities, and creeds, it becomes difficult to feel superior..

• Could you judge a homeless person if you remembered the times that you were poor and homeless?

• Could you be a white supremacist if you remembered being a black slave?

• Could you, as a black American, blame whites if you remembered being a white plantation owner with slaves?

• Could you hate Jews if you remembered being a Jewish holocaust victim?

• Could you look down on women if you remembered being an oppressed woman?

• Could you cause pain to others if you remembered being tortured?

• Could you disrespect all authority figures if you remembered being a monarch whose ignorance cost people their lives?

• Could you support war if you remembered all the times you fought and died for the profit of rulers and corporations?

• Could you condemn Muslims, Christians, or Atheists if you remembered being all three yourself?

We experience all themes firsthand until we reach the point where we no longer need to be “better”, to be “right”, or to “have more”. When we have no desire to judge, when we don’t feel fear or hatred of others, when all we really want is for EVERYONE to have their basic needs met, to be happy, to be healthy, and to live in peace … then our time here is over and we can move on to states of consciousness where bliss replaces the struggle and suffering that is unique to earth. This physical world that we live in is nothing more than a temporary school.. a construct for learning through hands-on experience. People who have accessed deeper knowledge, whether thru NDE’s (Near Death Experience), hypnosis, or meditation, for example, tell us that Earth is the hardest school in Creation, but that it affords such an acceleration in soul growth that we readily volunteered for this “opportunity”, and that we are (quote) “very courageous souls”. I guess, to put it in perspective, going through the reincarnation cycle on Earth is akin to jumping from kindergarten to a Master’s degree in a week. (sigh… if only it felt like a week while we’re actually going through it!)

So, whenever you see someone pitching a hate fit over those god-awful refugees, blacks, whites, Jews, homeless “bums”, Liberals, Conservatives, Asians, “whores”, “hoodlums”, Muslims, “fatties”, pagans, criminals, Mexicans, Americans, gays, alcoholics, drug addicts, etc. – you can pretty much be certain that you're looking at a future (immigrant, drug addict, Muslim, Liberal, gay ... or whatever the target of their rant may be)!"

Ah, the irony!

© by Kat 2017

Photo Credits & Links:

Vintage Girl on Tricycle:

https://pixabay.com/en/vintage-girl-tricycle-1418518/

Afghani Shepherd:
https://pixabay.com/en/man-old-afghanistan-person-60655/

Black Acress/Singer:
https://pixabay.com/en/girl-woman-beautiful-colored-black-2228786/

"Middle Eastern Rebel Fighter":
https://pixabay.com/en/fighter-soldier-army-military-man-2238427/

Tibetan Monk:
https://pixabay.com/en/monk-myanmar-religion-buddhism-868268/

"Brazilian Child":
https://pixabay.com/en/photo-girl-portrait-smile-pure-2016619/

Youth in Auschwitz:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Child_survivors_of_Auschwitz.jpeg
Copyright: Public Domain
Photo credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Belarusian State Archive of Documentary Film and Photography

Hippie Chick:
https://unsplash.com/@amosbarzeev
https://unsplash.com/search/photos/braids?photo=hVk6pIFbW9o

"Michael":
https://unsplash.com/search/photos/stockholm-sweden?photo=IJrIeCs3D4g
credit badge:

https://unsplash.com/@hyingchou?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=photographer-credit&utm_content=creditBadge

Images:

The images that I have used for my hypothetical characters are not necessarily accurate representations of the historical period or personality, but I chose them intuitively. Also, the descriptions came from an intuitive plane – and I feel that there is a measure of truth behind some, if not all, of them.

Image Credits:

I do not own the copyright on any of the images in this article. I found all of them on "Free to Use" Public Domain sites: Pixabay, Unsplash, and Wikimedia Commons. The only exception is the painting "Miss Collingwood" by the artist George Romney, which is ubiquitous and doesn't seem to have a copyright or origin – but then, since it is a painting from 1767 that seems logical.

Kamikaze Pilot:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masaaki_Okawa_with_Ki-27.jpg

Guiding Lights

Our Guiding Lights

Call them Angels, Spirit Guides, Light Beings, Masters, or whatever you are comfortable with, but…

We all have them – our own personal spirit posse!

We have a Guardian Angel that is with us from birth to death.

We have deceased family and friends (some that we might never have met and may not even be aware existed), that pop in from time to time to help, comfort, inspire, protect, or just visit with us.

We have a Higher Self that is a kind of oversoul of all our selves (past, present, future, parallel, etc.).

We have Spirit Guides that are teachers who work from the other side, but on rare occasions may even incarnate with us.

We can also call on Angels, Archangels, or Light Beings in general.

For example, whenever I need a healing for myself or someone else (including animals), I surround myself with the “Light & Love of the Divine Source”, and I put out a call for “Healing Angels and Healing Energies”.

If I wish to clear myself of negative influences (such as an unwanted ghost, or when my negative emotions seem out of character for me, and could potentially be coming from an external force), I call upon Michael, The Archangel. He’s the go-to source for protection. Just say “Archangel Michael, please remove all negative beings and energies from me and my surroundings, and take them to the place that is for their Highest & Best” (for example). And be sure to add “Thank you”. Also, when communicating with spirit beings it’s best to verbalize, at least initially, to get the vibration out there, which makes it a little easier for Spirit to connect – but you can always use thought if you wish, or if you are someplace where you can’t speak out loud.

You can also call upon Ascended Masters, or Ancient Ones, or, as I often refer to them “Higher Light Beings”. Jesus falls into this category. You may, of course, call upon him at any time. He still works very closely with us 3-D folks. You may refer to him as Jesus if that works for you, but I prefer “Yeshua”, which is closer to the name he went by in his time. Accuracy in name isn’t really important though; your mind has a thought or image that is transmitted instantly. A thought is energy that seeks out the recipient’s energy. Everyone we ever connected with, in any form of existence including spiritual, is connected to us by a kind of energy filament.. better than copper cables!

Another energy source that you can call upon is the “Christ Consciousness”. The Christ Consciousness is the extremely high level of consciousness that ascended masters, such as Jesus, are aligned with when they are Christed. Tapping into Christ Consciousness is like calling upon Jesus, but in a broader sense which includes him, of course, but is not limited to him. We called Jesus “Jesus Christ” not because it was his name, which it wasn’t, but because he was a man (soul) at Oneness with the consciousness of the Christ energy.

Anyway… I think it’s kind of sad that over 7 billion people on this planet have all this spiritual assistance, and yet, the vast majority of them are oblivious to it. The lucky ones whose clairvoyant abilities are intact, whose Third Eye is functioning, are quite aware of the Spirit World and of the interactions between spirit and humans. But most of us have to find other ways to recognize communications from spirit beings. It takes time and practice, but it’s certainly doable.

Like Helen Keller, Feeling the Signs

Young Helen Keller was more aware of the people around her than we are of the spirits around us. At least she could feel them. But she couldn’t see, hear, or communicate with anyone until Annie Sullivan took her by the hand, quite literally, and formed symbols with Helen’s fingers.

You have to be aware of the existence of spirit beings if you wish to learn to recognize and interpret their signs. Unless you are clairaudient, you won’t be hearing them and having two-way conversations. That’s not to say that you won’t hear a non-physical voice once or twice in your life, if warranted.

I only heard a voice out loud once. I was going nuts wondering why my new boyfriend stopped coming around suddenly, without any explanation. So, instead of calling him up and working it into a conversation, I drove to his workplace and left a really stupid note on his truck.

As I began to awaken the next morning, I heard – and by this, I mean literally HEARD – my late sister’s voice speak right into my ear “Keith is gone for good!”. I just about flew right out of my bed!

That night Keith called to tell me that he had put his house up for sale and was moving back to Wisconsin – to an old high-school flame!

Typically, Spirit speaks to you in the form of a thought that you know is not your own, but rather, from an external force. It starts out like a far away thought, usually as you are waking up or just falling asleep. That's because the conscious mind is too analytical – and busy – like a highway in rush hour. You're much more receptive when in alpha state, when the mind is quiet. If you start paying attention to those subtle, out-of-the-blue words and phrases, they eventually become more frequent and more "audible". By "audible" I mean that instead of a very faint far, far away sound that you have to strain to "hear",

it gets to the point where it's quite discernible and similar to the "sound" of your own thoughts. I believe that if you work with your guides in this manner, the communication may eventually become as audible as the voice of a person sitting physically beside you in the room. But that depends on certain factors, such as how receptive you are to the idea. Some people would be scared out of their gourd if they heard a disembodied voice. Your guides know if this is something that would work for you. They won't suddenly start speaking at normal volume, although I have heard of that happening in emergency situations. Of course, in such situations, a person's attention is on the emergency and they aren't really thinking about where a voice is coming from or if it is disembodied.

I never got to the point where my Guides’ words became audible on a physical level, although I believe that it would have.

I blew it when I got really upset with something they told me once, that I was so sure was wrong, and I guess my negative reaction served to shut the door. But in retrospect, what they told me was true.

My spirit guides told me (in the form of very clear external thought), in advance, that “Shannon (my brother-in-law and dear friend, who was a former addict) is not on any drug”. I was so SURE that he was at least taking anti-anxiety meds or smoking weed (because he told me that he is okay with those, in a prior conversation), that I turned away from him when he needed me the most. As it turned out, he hadn’t slept in 10 days and was hallucinating. There were no drugs in his system when he was found wandering the streets and was picked up by the local authorities. I deeply regret the misunderstanding, and wish I could rewrite history. There was no way that I could have known that his hallucinations and bizarre behavior that day was not drug-related, but was in fact a side effect of severe insomnia. But I rejected him and my Guide’s message, and I stopped receiving thought-voices from my Guides for a long time after that. But I digress…

I have had many experiences with discarnate entities throughout my life, but it was decades before I began to recognize patterns and to believe beyond any doubt, that they are truly with me and do their best to help keep me on the path of my Soul Intention.

I began to learn the language, on a rudimentary level, and it’s an ongoing process.

Pay Attention

Your interactions with Angels and Guides may be different from mine. It all depends on what means are available to you, and what forms of communication you are likely to take notice of.

I have serious financial difficulties. To say that I am “poor” is a pretty accurate statement. I’m not homeless (now), and I don’t go hungry, but that’s about it. Every month is stress anew, as I wonder “How am I going to pay the bills this month?” I have learned that my spirit posse will find a way to keep my head above water (barely), but I never know how or when, and the anxiety manifests as physical ailments and chronic depression. That said, I keep getting readings that tell me to have faith that the angels will find a way to get me the money that I need in order to survive. It varies.

Occasionally, I’ll do a bit of data entry for a sister and she’ll usually slip me a little cash. One gray December, a friend sent me some money for Christmas. Another time, a different sister won at bingo and gave me just the money I needed to enable me to pay my overdue electric bill. A couple of times, an anonymous neighbor set perfectly intact framed art out at the dumpster and I sold them on a local market site. I never know how or where the money will come. But here’s the thing: there are always signs! You just have to be observant.

For example, one day during a siege of extreme anxiety (nothing new for me), I asked my angels during meditation to please help me financially. I was in quite a state. Later, while sitting at my computer, I started to nod off… and the number 48 jumped into my head out of nowhere. I wasn’t trying to think of numbers. In fact, I was semi-asleep and not really thinking about anything. But in my mind’s eye I saw “48”, as clear as a bell. So, as soon as meditation was over, I went straight to my Angel Numbers 101 book and looked up the meaning of the number 48. It read “Your prayers about money have been heard and answered by the Angels.” I hugged the book, smiled, whispered “Thank you!”, and breathed a sigh of relief. I knew that I was going to be okay. And I was!

Another sign of communication that the angels use for me is coins. I have learned to recognize this pattern of communication over time. When I come across a shiny penny on the ground, I know that it is a message from someone in spirit (my angel, my guides, or my father, for example) that simply means “I know that you are going through a tough time, and I want you to know that I love you and you are not alone”.

If I find a dime or dimes on the ground, perhaps near my car, I have learned to recognize it as a sign that money is coming my way.

One day, shortly after my birthday, at one of those crazy times when I was panicking about the bills and at a loss to fathom where the hell the magic money is going to come from this month – my sister called me up and asked me to meet her for coffee. As I got closer to my car I noticed two dimes sitting on the ground right next to it. Knowing that this was a sign of money to come, I excitedly picked them up and put them in my pocket!

At the coffee shop, my sister bought me a coffee and Turkey Club sandwich, and then just as we were about to leave, she handed me an envelope with some cash and 2 grocery store gift cards inside. I was beside myself with joy! I promptly paid a bill and bought some very much appreciated food items. Of course, I thanked my sister and my guardian angel!

The synchronicity of finding dimes and receiving unexpected financial assistance was not an anomaly; this has happened several times. That’s just one example of a spiritual message that can present itself for you to take notice of, and to work with. Ordinarily, people get messages all over the place, but they never even know that the messages are there. It’s so easy for us to go about our mundane existence and miss out on the wonderful world of spirit guides and beings that work around the clock to help us. They figuratively take our hands and form signs that are there for our benefit – if we would only begin to take notice!

Signs and communications can be tailor-made for you. When I was 10 years old and suffering from one of my various and sundry maladies, my father gave me a get-well gift: a porcelain cardinal to add to my porcelain animal collection.

Many years later, when my father was in his late sixties and living 2,000 miles away from me, I started seeing cardinals everywhere I went. Most significantly, when I impulsively stopped in at an antique store on my lunch hour – and saw several cardinal figurines on a table. Shuddering, lest it was a sign that my father was ill and/or dying, I quickly looked up and away from the cardinals. To my dismay, the wall I looked up at was littered with cardinal-themed art!

Shaken, I left the store, got into my car, and wouldn’t you know – the first car I got behind in traffic just happened to have a cardinal bumper sticker!

Days later, as I walked back to my work station after lunch, I felt a fizzy sensation on my nose that I like to describe as “sparkles”. I don’t get “sparkles” often.. in fact, maybe once every decade or so, but I know what they are..

In my late 20’s I went to see a locally renowned psychic – a lovely English woman by the name of Kay Frain. She said she wanted to do some hypnosis. Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was duly under, but I was relaxed on her couch and having some dream-like wisps of mental images. Suddenly, this very bizarre thing happened! What felt like little sparkles of electricity, were all over my body, from head to toe! I exclaimed “Oh my God, what IS that!?” Kay replied, matter-of-factly, “That’s your spirit guides”. .. It was awesome; I will never forget that magical sensation!

But, getting back to that day at work, so soon after the cardinal experience, as the spirit-sparkles brushed my nose I thought, “OMG, nooo… please don’t let this mean that Dad died!”

Within the hour I received a phone call at work from one of my sisters: my father, who had suffered 2 heart attacks in the past decade, had experienced a sudden, fatal heart attack shortly after enjoying a family dinner at his sister’s house.

Connect the Dots ...

If I had not made the connection between the barrage of cardinals and my father (because cardinals reminded me of him and that childhood gift), or recognized the spirit “sparkles” from the experience on the psychic’s couch, I would never have noticed the angelic portents at all. I would have thought “Man, this store sure has an impressive cardinal collection!” And I would have thought that was an “odd” sensation on my nose, scratched it, and gone my merry way. You have to be observant. YOU have signs and messages from your own angels and spirit posse, often .. Are you even aware of that?

I would like to clarify that I am not suggesting anyone become superstitious or obsessive in looking for signs in everything. Merely, begin to take notice of subtle patterns, and when they occur.

Maybe you have a favorite aunt that passed on, who was really into birds. You begin to notice that when you are feeling especially depressed or forlorn, you seem to come across bird feathers in unlikely places. It is quite probable that your aunt is letting you know that she is looking out for you, and that you are going to be okay.

Perhaps your late grandmother had a fondness for the saying “Don’t count your eggs before they hatch!”. One day you’re tempted to blow your utility money on an electronic gadget that you’ve had your eye on for a while.. but it’s okay because you’re expecting a bonus check. While you’re driving to the store to buy the gadget, you turn on the radio and hear a commercial where the sponsor says “Don’t count your eggs before they hatch”. There is a very good possibility that grandma subliminally prodded you to turn on the radio at just that moment. The words give you pause. You decide not to make the purchase. Good thing you made that decision, because a week later you find out that the company is suffering a setback and is not giving out bonus checks this year. Whew.. close call!

Obviously, not every feather, penny, or porcelain bird (for example) is going to be a message from Spirit. Take into account the timing or the location, and how you are feeling. For me, if I spot a dirty old penny lying next to some leaves by the curb as I’m rushing across the street, I’m not going to read anything into it. But if I just had a crying jag over a stressful week, and feel like my world is imploding, and then I go out to take a walk to clear my head and find a shiny penny on the park bench that I plopped my derriere down to rest on… I just know that it’s a copper greeting card from my beloved angels or my Dad, and my heavy heart suddenly feels a tad bit lighter.

It’s seems almost a waste, in a way, to have a celestial support group your entire life long and not even know they are there, don’t ya think? Might as well start talking to them, keeping an open mind and an awareness of signs, patterns, and thoughts that seem to pop up at uncannily pertinent times.

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Post script:

This article is getting to be too long and my domain provider doesn’t like a lot of text boxes, so I plan to add some separate, smaller posts about paranormal experiences that I have had over the years. Eventually, I will open up to comments as well – once I learn more about the technical aspects of running a website. (So far it’s been a real challenge, to say the least!) Feel free to drop in now and then; I’ll try to keep it fresh.

© by Kat 2017

All Religions Are Man-made, Not God-made

Virtually every member of every religion believes that THEIR religion is God’s Truth, and God’s Law.

But, they are all wrong!

Every prophet, every religious leader, every saint, every guru, every seer, every martyr.. was a personality temporarily inhabiting a human body… just like you and me.

Some may well have had inspiration from a higher plane. Some may have been privy to extraordinary information. Some may have had extra-sensory abilities. Or, they may have been liars, narcissists, schizophrenics, con artists, or simply delusional.

Some select few may even have been highly evolved souls on a mission to try and redirect our wayward species, and had their teachings or messages twisted and molded to fit their disciples’ biased points of view, further watered down, dissected, over-translated, and re-written over millennia by various and sundry popes and rulers of the human variety. That is not the Word of God – that is a dangerous game of “Chinese Whispers”!

No matter what your interpretation of God is, you are wrong! We are ALL wrong! Some of us may have brushed upon a glimmer of truth in our quest for Divine knowledge – but a glimmer is the best any of us can hope for.

Some call It God, or Goddess, or Allah, or Jehovah, or Divine Source, or whatever behooves them. I like to make it simple and just say “God”, for lack of a better term.

“God” evidently wanted this little experiment to be a blind experiment, or else we would have knowledge, or memory, of God, and of our origins. By being unaware of any of our realities prior to our incarnation, we have a clean slate with which to be creative, to make mistakes, to fall in love, to be children, to be parents, to be intrigued by mysteries, and to exult in our accomplishments. We get to experience what All-knowing Consciousness does not… because… It already knows everything!

We get to discover cures for diseases, fly a plane (or a spaceship), express our emotions in colorful oils, explore exotic reefs, read in bed, make beautiful music, float on the high of first love, cuddle kittens, find buried treasure, see the unbridled joy in a child’s eyes on Christmas morning, ride rollercoasters, indulge our creative side with Photoshop or chemistry experiments, luxuriate in a hot bath after battling a blizzard, eat chocolate tortes and drink piña coladas… there are millions of things to do in this jewel of the universe that we call Earth, that wouldn’t be possible if we came in with all of our knowledge and memories intact.

So we search for answers.

And when those answers aren’t forthcoming, we’ll latch onto whatever fills the hole. If that means turning one prophet’s sermons or another prophet’s delusions into a religion, then so be it. We’ll paraphrase. We’ll ad-lib. We will conjecture, embellish, tweak, edit. We’ll lose content in translation. We will “read between the lines” of hand-me-down memories of our triple-great grandparents. And in a hundred or a few hundred years, we’ll turn that “Truth” into a religion and we’ll slaughter and stone anyone who doesn’t agree with our “Truth”.

How many millenniums will it take before our civilization finally extricates itself from the cyclical rut of war, oppression, slavery, genocide and other insanities that frequently manifest from a clash in religious beliefs? As far as we know, there has never been a time of peace on this sad planet.

How can humans, unfathomably less conscious and intelligent than the Creator of All Life, be so narcissistic and foolish as to believe that this Intelligence beyond our comprehension tasked an occasional human being with rules and rituals that must be obeyed under the threat of eternal damnation?! Were YOU there when Moses supposedly received the Ten Commandments? How do you know it didn’t come from an extraterrestrial civilization that saw mankind as naive fools who would do anything and believe anything if they thought it was a message from God? And how do you know that Joseph Smith wasn’t under the influence of LSD when he conjured golden plates that launched the LDS?

“Eat no meat on Friday”

“Women are unclean and must cover their heads”

“Accept this prophet as your savior or be barred from Heaven”

“Convert to this religion or be put to death”

“Love someone of the same sex and I, God, will disown you”..

Seriously? This is what the majority of our so-called “civilized” species thinks God cares about..?! That the Supreme Source is some egotistical dictator who demands worship, sacrifice, blind obedience, baptisms, shunning, stoning, beheading, conversion to religions, special diets, special clothing, intolerance, and “Holy” wars.. ??? That is forking insane!

No, really! Humanity is largely insane. Their insanity knows no bounds. I’m sure that the cult, "Heavens Gate"’s, acolytes thought they were sane when they castrated their, er, “members”, drank poison, and asphyxiated themselves to death while waiting for a spaceship to swoop in and collect their souls. And I have no doubt that all of the people on this planet who kill or torture animals (for higher profits, for convenience, for “the fun of it”, or because they’re “just doing their jobs”) think they’re sane too. Ditto for the slime bags who molest children..

I spent a great deal of my life trying to “wake people up” to certain realities, such as spiritually or in regards to politics, government, or corporations. I thought that education was paramount. “If I just had a platform… if people heard certain truths then the world would change…”. But alas, I was wrong! The vast majority of human beings are in denial and there is no cracking their shell. You can reach a select few if you’re lucky, but for the most part there is no reasoning with the brainwashed masses.

When I was young, I imagined God as “Our Father in Heaven”, ‘cuz, God was a “He”, and he looked a lot like Jesus, but older and not as well defined. He was really far away, but I could feel his benevolence.

In my later years, having seen The Matrix trilogy, and spending most of my time on the computer, I have broadened my concept of God as something akin to a sentient computer that is light years beyond the greatest supercomputer that we can possibly imagine. Obviously, something that can create universes and All of Life would have to be the master of math, science and art to absolute perfection!

© by Kat 2018

People who believe that women are inferior to, and should be subservient to, men, are brainwashed. They are deathly afraid to allow themselves to question their religious laws. Man-made religious laws, to be exact. People who believe that homosexuality is a crime against God are deathly afraid to question their religious books, for fear of going to Hell. People who believe that premarital sex, paganism, "blasphemy", or not going to church is a sin, are deathly afraid to question the logic (or lack of) those beliefs. Fear renders humanity deaf, dumb & blind to reason and logic, and is the greatest obstacle to world peace, keeping us continually at war.

Take homosexuality, for instance. Somewhere along the line, someone decided that because same-sex love didn’t result in procreation, and was not as common as opposite-sex love, then it must be morally wrong. Never mind the fact that homosexuals come from the same Divine Creative Source as heterosexuals, or that they are the same as heterosexuals in virtually every other way, or that they aren’t hurting anyone, or that they are innately attracted to the same sex as naturally as some people are left-handed, some are musically gifted, and some are blue-eyed. Nobody has to coerce a heterosexual girl to crush on a boy in the same way that nobody had to instruct a homosexual boy to be infatuated with his male teammate. It’s all in the programming; it’s as natural as breathing! Our mysterious God, the Grand Designer, thought of all kinds of ways to make our lives challenging and interesting. If you don’t like the program, that’s a problem with you – not with the object of your disapproval or scorn!

Then there are the cultures (pretty much all of them since recorded history.. and take notice that it’s “his” story”), that consider women inferior. How stupid is that!? Men of such cultures actually believe that their God – the same one that made over half the population of the planet female – considers males to be superior creations, and put them in charge of the females, even to the extent of (in some extreme cases) enshrouding the bodies of females in yards and yards of black cloth, with a little window to look out of! Holy insanity Batman, WTF.. How dare they! They call themselves men of God? That reprehensible practice does not come from God – it comes from the minds of insecure men who are hiding behind a religious law that was created by some sadistic bully in order to fulfill his ego-driven desire to dominate. And it worked! They would rather die than question the insanity of this absurdity. Fear is a formidable oppressor!

It’s real easy to create a religion, anyone can do it!

For example..

I could fill journals with poetic mumbo-jumbo about how people should behave. I could say that the information came from a voice that emanated from a golden cloud. I could throw in some geometric designs and call it God’s language. I could predict some disasters that are generally imminent, like earthquakes in California, or a recession (or describe real events, but with fake dates of entry). I could prick my finger and let some blood droplets fall on the pages, and say that I cried proxy tears of blood from God’s sorrow over Man’s transgressions. I could make lists of sins to avoid and lists of commands to be obeyed. I could throw in stories about local “miracles”, and include “actual accounts” of misfortune that befell those who broke the laws. Then I could put all of this material into a lovely chest that I would have carved mysterious symbols over, rigged to expel golden dust or sparkles when opened, and buried it (not too deep) where it would likely be “discovered” in a century or two. That would probably result in a cult at the very least.

I’d probably need to scatter some more “easter eggs” around the region or world if I wanted the religion to be larger in scope. If the religion took off, there could be people for thousands of years who would live their lives according to my fake “God” rules. They would oppress or kill those who don’t accept my truths. They would live their lives by my book, and they would be too afraid to ever question my laws because I would include the "God-given" caveat:

“Whosoever does not accept, nor live, according to My Word will never enter into the realm of Eternal Paradise, but shall, instead, find themselves in the Dark Pit of Eternal Flesh-eating Maggots. – with Love, God”

If you believe something solely because your religious faith tells you that it’s so …

Then you don’t really believe it at all …

You fear the consequences of not believing.

What you really believe is that you will be condemned if you question or disagree with any of your faith’s tenets.

- Kat 1/2018

Don't Be Fooled By The Wrapper!

There is so much more to you than meets the eye …

What do people See when they look at you?

Seriously. What do they see?

Do they see a man or a woman.. A teenager.. An old “geezer”.. ?

Do they see an athlete’s body? A forgettable face? A girl that “would be so pretty if she just lost weight”?

Do they see a brash Latino youth? A chain-smoking white woman? An old black man on a cane? A shy Asian classmate?

What is the Personality that comes across when people are with you?

Do they think you are.. Funny? Boring? Attractive? Cold? Interesting? Smart? Stand-offish?

Do they feel comfortable with you, or are they usually in a hurry to get away? Do they appear happy to see you? Does warmth emanate from them? Or does your encounter seem strained?

How does the World at large perceive you?

Are you a senior citizen that teenagers look right past as if you weren’t there?

Are you a lumbering man that people seem to feel intimidated by?

Are you a young woman that people sneer at when you walk by wearing your hijab?

Are you a young black man that clerks follow around the store?

Do you come across as too meek?

Do you come across as a know-it-all? Do people see you as someone to take advantage of?

Do people always come to you for advice with their problems?

Are you treated with indifference because you are poor, of minority ethnicity, or an immigrant?

Are you perceived as a snob because you are well-to-do and of a majority ethnicity?

If they only knew who you really are beneath your earthly disguise!
(And if only you knew who you really were beneath your earthly disguise!)

Everywhere we go, and with everyone we meet – including our own families – we are fooled by appearances. But to be fair, it’s all we have to go on, at least, initially. We are all influenced by the stereotypes that colored our perceptions from the time we were born.

Even with our own family members and others that we spend a lot of time with, we can only go by the input we have: their age, gender, physical appearance, education, attitudes, actions, and words. But that is only window dressing.. it’s unique to the role they are currently playing. It’s not even a fraction of all that they are!

Take, for example ...

Lenny

felt like he was up against a brick wall everywhere he went… His father was a strict disciplinarian who worked long hours at the steel mill and didn’t have a lot of time for his three sons. He always assumed that they would follow in his footsteps, working hard for their daily wage. He knew that Lenny had artistic talent, but did his best to discourage his son from engaging in “useless pursuits”.

Some of Lenny’s teachers thought he looked like “trouble”, and treated him accordingly. So, he lived down to their expectations. “Dark, brooding, gangsta clad male” is how his society sees him. They make assumptions based on his physical body and how he presents himself. They can’t see his soul or his history, so they go with what they have.

With no sense of direction and feeling stifled, Lenny gets into occasional scrapes with the law. His

heart’s desire is to be an artist but he “knows” that he will never be able to make a living as an artist (at least, that’s what he has always been raised to believe). His expresses his anger at his father and society through his graffiti.

But one day, someone recognizes the talent in his graffiti and commissions him to paint a mural on a city wall. His father, viewing this as an “impractical” endeavor, is initially against the idea .. but when he sees the effect his son’s artwork has on the community, he feels proud of his son and reverses his position.

What his father doesn’t know, and what nobody knows, is that this seemingly unambitious adolescent “punk” once went by the name of “Rembrandt”. As Rembrandt, he was a master of painting and etching. He was the artist that other great artists emulated.

Once Lenny becomes fully immersed in his art, he will be a much happier person. With years of suppression of his creativity finally unleashed, he will paint with abandon, employing new forms of artistic mediums and much brighter colors than he did in his Rembrandt incarnation. (In fact, he was already beginning to express his love of color expression by way of his “rebellious” threads!). .. The Greats walk amongst us – incognito!

Maria

stands next to the highway, holding up a sign that says “Will Work for Food”. The Prius driver hopes the light will change before he comes to a stop; he doesn’t want to be accosted by the “Bag Lady”. “Don’t give her any money”, his wife admonishes. “You know she’s just going to use it to buy drugs or alcohol!” Thankfully, the light changes; the driver doesn’t have to stop.

A woman in an SUV doesn’t make the green light – she has to stop – right next to where Maria is standing! She rolls up her window and turns her head away from Maria’s gaze. “Lazy bum”, she mutters under her breath. “Get a job!”

So, it’s true… many, if not most, of the people who look at Maria, see a “drain on society” that is somehow depriving them of a better life (an erroneous assumption, but that’s not the point). This is the consensus among people who don't know how business and politics really work. It's convenient. You don’t have to feel sorry for people when you can write off their suffering with a one-size-fits-all label… it alleviates the guilt somehow.

In fact, Maria does suffer from an addiction. But that doesn’t define who she is… She was once an upper class, well-respected physician in her native country of El Salvador. But the Salvadoran Civil War changed the game plan with its brutal violence, civilian targeted death squads, and rampant violations of human rights. When her 2 teenage sons were killed in the line of duty, she was totally devastated. With nothing left for her in El Salvador, and the violence making it impossible to live a normal (or safe) life, she emigrated to the United States. Unfortunately, the U.S. generally doesn’t recognize foreign diplomas, so she could not legally be a doctor anymore. She was relegated to the lowest rung of the job market, trying to survive on general labor wages. She barely eked out a living, but somehow she got by.. .until… her health gave out in her 50’s. The pain she was in made it difficult to work, so she lost her job. Having lost her job, and unable to get another (because she can’t do menial labor, she’s “old”, and she’s an immigrant.. thus, nobody will hire her), she wasn’t able to keep her apartment, and was put out into the street with nothing but the clothes on her back. In constant pain, and with a sense of hopelessness that most will never know, she began to panhandle for money for food and mind-numbing drugs. The drugs give her temporary respite from the physical pain, and also allows her to escape from her overwhelmingly hopeless sense of reality. She never expected to become an addict. But then, she doesn’t care if she lives or dies anyway. She dreams of the day when she will finally leave this uncaring world and be reunited with her children. This is what people like the “SUV woman” don’t see when they look at the “threatening freeloader” by the roadside.

Maria has been all kinds of people in her past lifetimes. For example, she was a doctor in an Early American lifetime, an African slave in the 17th century, a wealthy humanitarian in Europe, and a Christian martyr in ancient Rome. And she was something else too… She was once the mother of the woman in the SUV!

God, or the Universe, or whatever you want to call the Supreme Creative Force, has a reason for everything. Our lives have purpose, no matter what the state of circumstances in the present moment may be. Maria’s soul needed to experience a period of addiction and poverty because we ALL must experience that in one or more lifetimes. She also wanted to serve as a catalyst for bringing out compassion in other people. One of those persons to whom this soul came to teach, was the SUV woman, for whom it was no accident that she came to stop at that particular intersection on that particular day. While the woman did not consciously remember having been Maria’s child in another time and place – her soul remembered. This woman couldn’t get the image of the “bum” off her mind that day, and wondered why she felt a twinge of guilt. After all, people are responsible for their own lots in life.. it’s not up to society to take care of them! … right?

Sita

When Sita walks by, nobody takes notice. She’s “just a woman” in a sari, like any other woman of her age and station. She looks older than her age due to a combination of sun exposure and a life of toil. She is very soft-spoken, which is common for women in her Eastern culture.. women are to be seen and not heard. She was raised to be obedient to authority, which includes all men because women are considered to be inferior.

Sita has an IQ of 160, but you would never know it because she was not encouraged to be anything but a wife, mother and laborer. She was not even given the option to choose her own husband. When she was younger she tried to offer ideas and suggestions, but was brushed aside and eventually stopped believing that she had anything of value to offer. She is such a perfect example of humans being treated according to their external guise, and not according to who they are on the inside.

If the people around her only knew the roles this soul had played in the world! They would be surprised to see her in her incarnation as Gunnar, a Viking General who commanded a fleet of seven ships. He was strong, decisive… a genius of military strategy! They would have been equally surprised to know the Greek philosopher and poet that she used to be.. or the successful trial attorney that she was in her most recent life before she was Sita. But, sadly, our species' default mode is to be duped by the wrapper!

Miguel

Miguel evokes a variety of emotions by everyone he comes in contact with. They look at his frail, physically handicapped body and they feel sympathy, compassion, fear, and sometimes revulsion. Other children regard Miguel with curiosity or pity, for the most part, although some can be downright cruel. They are uncomfortable with the differences in his physical frame and speech, from their own.

Most adults are compassionate and treat him with kindness, but not all of them. Younger souls have not learned compassion quite yet. One of the ways that they learn compassion is by having lifetimes in handicapped bodies. That’s not to say that Miguel is a young soul or that his disabilities are karmic or that he bears them for the purpose of learning a difficult lesson. In fact, in Miguel’s case, he was born into this body specifically to teach compassion. Despite his physical and mental impairments, he exudes an aura of joy and love that is almost tangible. His loving energy is a force that will have a positive effect on everyone he meets, and that effect will have many ripples in turn.

Most of Miguel’s prior lifetimes have been spent in “normal” bodies, and with normal intelligence. Sometimes his intelligence has been exceptional, such as the lifetime in which he, while attending an ivy league university, developed some key technology that led to modern filmmaking. For now, he will continue to spread love and be an inspiration to others while in his physically disadvantaged form. But in his next life, Miguel is going to be a major movie producer. At least one of his films will feature a physically and/or mentally impaired subject – which the soul of Miguel will be able to portray with incredible feeling and insight, having experienced such a life firsthand.

I have only presented a few examples, but ..

every one of us has in our soul’s repertoire, a vast repository of experiences

We run the gamut of occupations, live as paupers and kings and everything in-between. We know power and we know utter powerlessness. We are woman, we are man, and we are every kind of gender-diverse. We’ve been young adventurers and feeble octogenarians. We have been athletes and we have been wheelchair-bound. We mix it up constantly with all of the races and nationalities. One incarnation we’re in Africa, the next Japan, then the U.S., then Iraq, and so on and so on. And in every instance, we have made judgments about everyone we come into contact with, based on external data. You do not have the same reaction to a Muslim woman in a hajib that you have to a white cop. You don’t process your input about a little girl in the same way that you process your thoughts about the man at the homeless shelter. And you certainly don’t see any connection between the white supremacist and the black quarterback…

How ironic it is… and funny, really… that all of them are aspects of the SAME soul!

We should think about that… try to remember when we look at someone and think we know who or what they are – that in the broader picture we are only seeing the equivalent of a little twig on a big old oak tree!