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 In this Issue:
COMPASSIONATE LISTENING PEACE
STRATEGY
Among the organizations working for world peace is the Mid East
Citizen Diplomacy, which has been working with Israel and Palestine
since 1990 and initiated the Compassionate Listening Project in
1997. Check them at
www.mideastdiplomacy.org/clp.html.
"This project is on the cutting edge of
Jewish-Palestinian dialogue.
Compassionate Listening is a process rather than a product. It is
healing precisely because it does not pretend to 'have the answers.'
Rather, it engages the participants in processes that have each side
seeing the humanity of the other, even when they disagree."
- Rabbi David Zaslow, Ashland Oregon
Compassionate Listening was developed by Gene
Knudsen Hoffman, international peacemaker and founder of the US/USSR
Reconciliation program (Fellowship of Reconciliation). Gene writes,
"Some time ago I recognized that terrorists were people who had
grievances, who thought their grievances would never be heard, and
certainly never addressed. Later I saw that all parties to every
conflict were wounded, and at the heart of every act of violence is
an unhealed wound." In her role as a counselor, Gene recognized that
non-judgmental listening was a great healing process in itself.
Compassionate Listening requires questions which
are non-adversarial and listening which is non-judgmental. Listeners
seek the truth of the person questioned, seeing through 'masks of
hostility and fear to the sacredness of the individual.' Listeners
seek to humanize the 'enemy'. They do not defend themselves, but
accept whatever others say as their perceptions, and validate the
right to their own perceptions. Compassionate Listening can cut
through barriers of defense and mistrust, enabling both those
listened to and those listening to hear what they think, to change
their opinions, and to make more informed decisions. Through this
process, fear can be reduced, and participants will be better
equipped to discern how to proceed with effective action. You can
access Gene's essays on Compassionate Listening on the web at:
www.coopcomm.org/listening.htm.
You can also read and download Gene's book -
Compassionate Listening: An
Exploratory Sourcebook About Conflict Transformation, at:
www.coopcomm.org.
THE FAMILY OF GOD RADIO BROADCAST
from Urantian Vernon Grimsley commemorated 38 continuous years on
the air in December, the first broadcast being on Dec. 12, 1964. The
Family of God Foundation Spiritual Renaissance® Broadcast may be
heard in real time worldwide each Sunday at 9:15 a.m. EST over
http://www.KAAT.com . The
commemorative Christmas broadcast and On Campus programs may also be
heard worldwide any time at
www.vernbennomgrimsley.com.
From Vern:
This Child of Heaven
This child of heaven, born of
earth
Who slumbers at his mothers breast
Is God and man and by his birth
Shall all of humankind be blessed
This child of heaven, frail
and weak
Who slumbers in this midnight hour
Will one day stand and stride and speak
In Godly, manly, mighty power.
This child of heaven, born of
earth,
Who slumbers at his mothers breast
Is God and man and by his birth
Shall all of humankind be blessed!
Vern Bennom Grimsley can be reached at: PO Box
3080, Oakhurst, California 93644
TOP TEN SPACE MYSTERIES FOR 2003
Robert Roy Britt, a senior science writer, writes:
“The funny thing about discoveries is that they
often produce new mysteries too. The year of 2002 was no exception,
as many remarkable space science findings generated puzzling
problems for astronomers to look into. In some cases the puzzles are
brand new. Other times a discovery merely confirms how little we
knew. Either way, there's plenty for astronomers to do.
Among the 10 major space mysteries for 2003 are
first and foremost: Dark Energy.
“Nobody knows what the heck it is, but it is
officially repulsive. And man, is it powerful! More powerful than
gravity, even. While gravity holds things together at the local
level (and by local I mean within galaxies and even between them,
forming galactic clusters) some unknown force is working behind the
scenes and across the universe to pull everything apart. Scientists
have only come to realize this dark force in recent years, by
discovering that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing
pace. Having no clue what it is, they've labeled it dark energy.
“The past year was a good one for proving that
dark energy is at work. Calculations have been refined: The
repulsive force dominates the universe, comprising 65 percent of its
makeup. (Similarly unseen and exotic dark matter makes up 30 percent
of the universe, leaving us with a universe that contains just 5
percent normal matter and energy.)
“There are two curious ideas related to the
accelerating expansion, both of which emerged in 2002: All galaxies
are destined to become frozen in time
["All Galaxies to Become Ghosts, Frozen in Time and Space"
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy ]
Or perhaps time never ends. ["In New Theory of
Universe, Time Never Ends"
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy]
There is more to this story and nine more top
Space Stories for 2003 at
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy including articles
on water on Mars, the murky and mediocre middle of the Milky Way,
and the Origin of Life.
URANTIA POWER SITE
Saski Raevouri and associates are on a
roll with the Urantia-based magazine, “The Circular,” and a dynamic
website at
http://www.squarecircles.com . The site includes such new
material as a family tree of races chart, an educational Living
Universe poster, Urantia Book source articles, archived issues and
book excerpts. With more time to work on the site, Saskia’s team
continues to grow the site.
URANTIA FELLOWSHIP SITE
is growing rapidly too, under the leadership of David Kantor. New
additions to
www.urantiabook.org include essays by Bill Sadler, Tom Allen,
and Kantor.
David calls attention to three Urantia-related
books:
The recently published Uversa Press edition of The
Urantia Book contains a comprehensive 300 page index, greatly
facilitating study of the text. The text itself contains an internal
cross-reference system that enables accurate citation of passages
and quick lookup of quotes. This edition is the only faithful
reproduction of the 1955 original text on the market. Order The
Urantia Book from Amazon.com
The Paramony: This
valuable study aid provides a comprehensive cross-reference between
passages in the Bible and The Urantia Book. This is a new edition
produced by Duane Faw, with hundreds of new references not in the
original version. Call 877-288-3772 toll free to order your copy.
Jesus: A New
Revelation: Part IV of The Urantia Book as a separate text has
proved valuable for people who may not be interested in the
complexities of the cosmology in the first sections of the book but
who are interested in Jesus and in having a deeper personal
experience with him. Order it from Amazon.com
Upcoming Conferences:
The Fellowship's 2003 Summer Study Session will
address issues related to the sources of the text of The Urantia
Book. Is the book a sacred text or an impressive anthology of truth
interspersed with the profound thoughts of many human sources, or is
it both? Will the book suffer from a critical but honest
examination? What constitutes true revelation? The latest research
into the origins of the text will be presented by the researchers
themselves. Some of the implications of this work will be discussed
by other experienced readers and there will be ample time for
related workshops and group discussion. For more information take a
look at Summer Study Session 2003
The Urmia Symposium Series, sponsored by TheoQuest,
will provide a three part,
in-depth exploration of three revelatory themes from the teachings
of The Urantia Book:
- October 2003: Discovering a Philosophy of
Living for the New Epoch
- October 2004: Discovering a Religion for the
New Epoch
- October 2006: Living as Cosmic Conscioius
Citizens in the New Epoch
For more information and to register please visit
www.urmia-symposium.com.
GLOBAL VISION SETS IDEALS
Triaka invites spiritual seekers to explore
www.globalvisions.org/
Their belief:
“Spiritual awareness will continue to grow at an increasing rate in
the
face of unbalanced materialism with its focus on worldly goods and
money as seen in government-sponsored capitalism, corporatism,
fascism, imperialism and wars.
Spiritual awareness, often misdirected into
materialist-oriented forms such as government-sponsored communism,
socialism and religious wars or terrorism, nevertheless will rise
through chaos more focused and effective in the mass consciousness.
Understanding the natural Cosmic Laws of the
universe, and especially applying the Laws concerning "Love" and
"Mind", will certainly result in a more balanced Spiritual-Material
world.”
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC HEALING?
In a humanitarian gesture, noted scientist
Tom Bearden has posted the entire contents of his pending patent
application for the "Porthole method" extension of the Priore
electro-magnetic healing methodology on his website for public use.
He is discontinuing any pursuit of this patent in the hopes that the
technology can be developed for the public good and to alleviate
human suffering.
The title of the Patent is "Method, System and
Apparatus for Conditioning Electromagnetic Potentials, Fields, and
Waves to Treat and Alter Matter." Not only does it embody everything
Tom knows about electro-magnetic healing theory, but it also
includes a large number of alternate embodiments of the technology.
These include how to nullify the radioactivity of nuclear waste in
9.1 minutes, how to decontaminate the effects of biological warfare,
the production of time-reversal zones in electrolysis to produce
heating effects, and much more. Tony Craddock is administrator of
the Tom Bearden Website/ Cheniere Press at
www.cheniere.org.
INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES ABOUND
Check them at the site for THE FELLOWSHIP for INTENTIONAL
COMMUNITY, www.ic.org/
They promote community living and cooperative lifestyles in
locations across the country and publish “Communities” magazine.
VISIONARY MUSIC
– Check out these leading edge music creators at
www.visionarymusic.com.
Their recent message:
“The energy really begins to ramp up on the
planet this year. We'll be releasing several new albums that we have
been preparing for some time -- the first of which will be part of
the Abundance series. This energetic offering will assist in
connecting with this much needed energy on a profound level. If you
will begin to allow for a transition to a new way of being, this
expansive energy will be made available to you, along with that of
sanctuary and, as you act, the promise of true freedom moves that
much closer into manifestation from what may appear to be some
disturbances ahead. As always, how you utilize this life affirming,
foundation building energy is up to you. We can assure you that what
is offered is given with utmost sincerity and Love.
“The evolutionary process reveals what is in
alignment and what is not. The masks dissolve, the frequency fences
are made apparent as all reveals its true nature and intent. The way
will be made clear for each of you to express your unique abilities
and gifts, whatever they may be. Your levels of discernment will be
made ever more clear. Some will support, some will create -- all are
a part of the manifestation of an open, positive future. The
dinosaurs flail. Love and forgive them. Love will prevail.
“We will begin the sharing of the more profound
soundscapes within the next month. It is time. We will leave it up
to each of you to take that which you resonate with and share it
with others who resonate. Stay tuned!”
THE CO-INTELLIGENCE INSTITUTE
of Eugene, Oregon, promotes awareness of co-intelligence and of the
many existing tools and ideas that can be used to increase it. The
CII embraces all such ideas and methods, and explores their
integrated application to community problems, organizational
development, democratic revitalization, and global crises and
transformation. Ultimately, the goal of the CII is the conscious
evolution of culture in harmony with nature and with the highest
human potentials. If you'd like to be involved in this effort, check
their site at
www.co-intelligence.org.
THE EARTH RAINBOW NETWORK
developed by Jean Hudon, was founded in 1997 and has an extensive
list of more than 2,500 people in some 50 countries sharing
information, visions and feedbacks on a broad range of subjects as a
way to expand and deepen global awareness and the sense of forming a
global spiritual community gradually empowering itself to contribute
in shaping the future of this world. For more information, please go
to
http://www.EarthRainbowNetwork.com where you will find
the archives of the compilations of material sent to everyone on the
list by the ERN coordinator. To get a free subscription to this
automated list, please go to:
http://www.EarthRainbowNetwork.com/ERNlist.htm.
THOUGHT-EMOTING QUOTES
from the Earth Rainbow site:
"We can only Be Here Now when we accept
instantly our moment-by-moment
emotional experience."
- Gita Bellin
"God exists in eternity. The only point where
eternity meets time is in the
present. The present is the only time there is."
- Marianne Williamson
"When life is experienced clearly, fully, and
directly, it is blissful no
matter what is happening. It is the experience of that particular
moment of
life that brings bliss -- not the content of that moment."
- Bartholomew
"It is only when we truly know and understand
that we have a limited time
on earth, and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up,
that we
will begin to live each day to the fullest; as if it was the only
one we
had." - Elizabeth
Kübler-Ross
"Only when your consciousness is totally
focused on the moment you are in
can you receive whatever gift, lesson, or delight that moment has to
offer." - Barbara
de Angelis
"Always aim at complete harmony of thought and
word and deed. Always aim at
purifying your thoughts and everything will be well."
- Mohandas Gandhi
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very
persistent one." - Albert
Einstein
"Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow
is today's dream."
- Kahlil Gibran
FEATURE REPORT
FROM:
http://www.wired.com
DEAD, BUT AWAKE. IS IT POSSIBLE?
Maybe the brain is not the center of
consciousness.
By Daithi O hAnluain
Wired
October 2002
Two British scientists are seeking £165,000
($256,000) to carry out a large-scale study to discover if
clinically dead people really have out-of-body experiences.
Dr. Sam Parnia, senior research fellow at the
University of Southampton, and Dr. Peter Fenwick, a consultant
neuropsychiatrist at Oxford University, are both highly respected
researchers.
Near-death experiences are the most common
experience and include seeing a white light, while out-of-body
experiences involve serenely observing one's dead body while medics
work frantically to resuscitate it. The researchers have founded a
charitable trust, Horizon Research, to promote studies in the field.
Last year Parnia published a study indicating that
10 percent of clinically dead patients who were later resuscitated
reported memories while they were lifeless.
Evidence includes patients recognizing hospital
staff they had never met but who helped during their resuscitation.
Others have recalled conversations between doctors.
According to known medical science, this should be
impossible, given the absence of any brain activity.
In the past, the theory has been scorned by the
scientific community. Even those who want to believe the truth is
out there have turned skeptical.
Susan Blackmore was once the doyenne of British
paranormal research. She has since retired, disillusioned, from the
field. She concluded in her book about near-death experiences, Dying
to Live, that near-death experiences and out-of-body experiences are
a result of anoxia, or lack of oxygen in the brain.
While skepticism remains, scientists are coming to
recognize that more research is necessary. In December 2001, a Dutch
neurologist, Dr. Pim van Lommel of Hospital Rijnstate in Arnhem,
Netherlands, led a team that published an article in The Lancet, the
United Kingdom's highly respected journal of medicine. The study
showed that 18 percent of clinically dead patients, later
resuscitated, recalled near-death experiences years after the event.
Another study, this one conducted in the United
States by the father of near-death-experience studies, Kenneth Ring,
used blind patients, resuscitated from cardiac arrest, who likewise
described seeing their body while clinically dead, although slightly
out of focus. The book Mindsight was inspired by this research.
Fenwick and others are not positing life after
death per se, merely consciousness after death. Nevertheless, the
implications are enormous. If near-death experiences and out-of-body
experiences don't come from the brain, where is consciousness based?
"There are two ways to view the universe," says
Fenwick. "Our current world model is that everything is matter."
In other words, everything that we think of as
"real" in scientific terms has a physical form that can be perceived
by our senses. But this model, which philosophers call "radical
materialism," cannot explain the existence of consciousness, which
has no physical essence.
So how do we account for consciousness? "There's a
little (unexplained) miracle, and consciousness arises," Fenwick
says of the current paradigm.
However, another theory proposes that the basic
building block of the universe is not matter but instead
consciousness itself. This is described as the "transcendent" view,
a perspective shared by many of the world's religions.
"This second, transcendent, view of the universe
makes it much easier to understand NDEs," says Fenwick, who believes
that science will eventually replace the material view of the
universe with the transcendent one.
The advent of quantum mechanics, which posits that
matter can simultaneously have both a physical form and a wave form
is a step in that direction, he says.
So are scientific studies of the power of prayer,
which suggest that subjects benefit from the prayers of others even
when they aren't aware that someone is praying for them.
These studies have been interpreted by some
researchers as an indication that consciousness behaves as a field,
much like magnetism, which can be affected by other fields. If
that's true, then it's possible one person's consciousness could
affect another person's.
Now Fenwick and Parnia hope to add new
near-death-experience and out-of-body-experience research to these
findings. If they can raise the cash, they intend to study 100
reanimated heart-attack victims who had near-death experiences.
Research has shown that 30 of them can be expected to have
out-of-body experiences. Fenwick and Parnia plan to place cards
above the patients' heads that can only be seen from the ceiling,
where those who experience out-of-body experiences claim to watch
their resuscitation.
So will this convince the skeptics? "No, nothing
will, but that's OK," says Fenwick, laughing. "It's how science
progresses. Any research that says you have to have a major rethink
in your world model is always rejected. But it will prove that
consciousness is not in the brain."
Another thing the research proves is that there's
life left yet in speculating about the afterlife.
RESPONSE FROM THE EDITOR:
So scientists once again struggle to “prove”
things that they have no way of proving, given the plethora of
flawed findings and foundational beliefs that riddle their often
self-serving research.
How about the frustrated researcher Susan
Blackmore, noted above, who seems to dismiss the near-death and
out-of-body experiences with lack of oxygen to the brain. (duh).
Perhaps it is too late in her career to realize that the cause of
the experience is not relevant to whether the experience is real.
While scientists are still battling to understand what “reality”
might be, God uses techniques such as evolution for creationism, and
time-space worlds for mortal ascension, even perhaps a lowering of
oxygen levels to effect a white light experience.
Many things are absolutely real that scientists
can’t begin to validate. While some know this, others seem intent on
invalidating anything that they can’t “prove” while in our current
reality. This comes dangerously close to worshipping science in my
view.
Of course, humankind’s quest for more knowledge
must continue from our current stage of development. Hopefully,
scientists will develop a greater appreciation for spiritual forces
and learn to meditate in the Stillness to open themselves to
advanced information that will empower their work. Revelation is the
only way much of this information can be conveyed.
IN CLOSING ….We hope you’ve enjoyed the Light and
Life Online Express in its new format, which we hope will allow us
to get more issues published more frequently with more of the
exciting news and events happening across the planet.
ALL IS WELL,
Jim Cleveland, Editor
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