03/24/2002

Ham: Greetings, children, I am Ham and I greet each of
you warmly with an open heart. This evening, we shall
discuss the creation of defining boundaries that make
for later difficulties in growth.

One of our students once declared "I need my enemy
for my enemy defines me". Many of you have grown in a
culture that emphasizes definitions and you define
yourselves more through what you perceive yourselves
not to be than what you are or are striving for. Each
person has a long list of dislikes or opinions in the
negative that help you feel comfortably defined. These
negative definitions grow constricting and confining as
you continue to add new negative definitions on top of
the old ones.

Many of you have been led to believe that strong
opinions reflect strength of character. Actually, the
opposite is true. Strong opinions act as a substitute for
character. True character grows by being tested and
challenged in the world. When you allow your opinions
to limit your experience, you contribute to the gradual
weakening of character. True character is always open
to varying opinions and experiences.

True character does not prejudge nor does it lean on
old opinions or the opinions of others like a crutch.
Character development comes through robust
engagement in life. Many people like to lean upon
previous character building experiences, times when
they engaged truth, beauty, and goodness whole
heartedly against the shadows and partial realities that
exist.

Many people tire of constantly going forth with these
allies into the world where everything is grey and
nothing is well defined. They use the opinions and
perceptions generated from these earlier experiences
as shields and definitions in the new undefined world.
But that is a kind of giving up, it is a kind of moral
cowardice for life can be frightening as well as
challenging.

No, leaning upon past experience will not do in the now
time. You only rob yourself of the character building
experiences that are coming at you all the time. Moral,
spiritual battles cannot be fought when the heart is
closed. To fight on the side of truth, beauty and
goodness, one's heart and mind must be open and
open wide. The more your hearts and minds are open,
the more you will realize that opinions formed in the past
have no bearing on the present. Experience is valuable,
experience informs the present, but set opinions formed
in the past may not be a help but rather will be a way to
close the mind and heart to the present realities and
then it becomes easier and easier to lose touch with the
value of transcendence that stand ever ready to inform
the present.

Eternal life is a long, hard struggle. There are many
resting places the likes of which you know not in this
world. There is rest that is completely refreshing,
complete peace. And so, after experiencing these rests,
you are strengthened and ready to resume the upward
struggle. Many times we observe you falling back on the
old reliable positions out of fatigue.

It is hard to be completely open to the slings and arrows
of failure and disappointments in this world. But, you
must remember why you are here. You are here to learn
from experience, all experience, good and bad. There is
no time between your earthly life and the eternal portals
of paradise where you will not be learning from your
experience.

Therefore, grasp true strength of character, open your
minds and your hearts to all experiences that come.
When you are tempted to reach for the shield of opinion,
think twice. Live in the now, grow in the now, and leave
the past with its old experiences and definitions behind
you. In this way, you will live fully and completely and
you will grow as the Father would have you to grow, by
and through the experiences he sends you. Are there
any questions at this time.

Q: I sometimes need to be concrete. I was thinking of
three examples of when people close themselves off:
religious fundamentalism really closes people off to new
truths and experiences, when I keep up with world
events I find myself falling back on old ideas and
opinions to try to understand what is happening, and
sometimes in relationships you develop expectations of
how a person will be and then these old expectations
keep you from seeing how people have changed and
are now different than they were in the past. Are these
three good examples of what you were talking about?

Ham: Absolutely. People sometimes actually gradually
quit living, especially as you grow older it is important to
continually let go of the past. People who do not have
this capability can gradually be drawn into shutting out
the present. This is dangerous territory for character
must continue to grow or it begins to atrophy and one's
life seems to be increasingly irrelevant to the present
day. This is a sad state.

Q: Is it a coincidence that I have felt that my adjuster
was dealing with me on this subject all week. In my
family as I was a kid, everybody has these strong almost
violent opinions all the time and they wanted to enforce
it on all the other members of the family. Much of our life
was made up of that. I thought that was one of the
reasons I was so prone to do that.

Ham: Of course. The child always imitates the older
people in the family group, consciously of
unconsciously.

Q: Is this interlocked with low self-esteem?

Ham: Certainly. By focusing negative thoughts and
opinions on the outer world, you do not face the
negative thoughts and opinions that you have of
yourself.

Q: Being open sometimes means you can see both
sides of an issue and that you do not end up picking
one side or the other is a strong way?

Ham: Yes it can. As your book pronounces, many
people would be very disappointed with the Master's
return for he would not take sides on political or
religious issues.

Q: I have a friend who grew up in a family where the
father was an alcoholic. One of the ways denial
manifested itself is that he is defensive about the way
things were as a child and he must constantly prove to
himself that everything is alright and that his early
experiences were valid so he has to put down new facts
and learning or any psychology or sociology and when
people talk about it he becomes irate. Anything that he
did not learn back then is not valid. Does that fit>

Ham: Yes.

Q: Almost anything new that is discovered by science is
invalid.

Ham: Yes, and of course his greatest fear is becoming
true that he is the one who is becoming irrelevant.

Q: I have a question about trying to remain open minded
and not getting locked into old opinions and how you
combine that with having values that you stand by and
believe in so you don't slip into this moral relativism. Is
that dangerous, or should be guard against that too?

Ham: No, there are certain transcendent values which
are absolute and it is these absolutes which must come
through the open heart and mind to the present
situation. When you decide before hand and take
opinions formed in past experience into the present, that
is when you can shut off these absolutes which will
unfailingly reveal the higher reality in the present
situation and, yes, the trend toward moral relativism has
not been helpful for you. But when you see it as a kind
of reaction to those which hold the past as sacred,
specifically religious works of the past, like the Bible and
Koran, you can understand it without being trapped in it.

Q: Ham, instead of for myself and if you think it is
appropriate, can I request a message for Jesse who
asked for one?

Ham: Certainly. My son, you are doing very well. You
are truly a person with a strong moral compass and you
are now experiencing the thrill of fighting on the side of
goodness, truth, and beauty. You are a person of great
loyalty and gradually you are coming to understand that
God the Father is the person who is the source of all
truth, all beauty, and all goodness and therefore when
you come to understand that attaching your loyalty to
him opens the doors to all transcendent value and
reality, you will understand the meaning of the words,
"to be saved" in a deeper and more profound way than
those around you. This message will inform your life for
many years and I look forward to watching you grow.

Q: Ham, I'd like to ask for a message about my mother,
Iris, who passed away a week ago and also for a
personal message to me surrounding these last few
weeks.

Ham: Yes, you have great peace concerning your
mother and your relationship with her. This is very
fortunate for you both. You were always very honest
with each other which is quite refreshing, for your level
of honesty was unusual. There are many things over
the years that you did not understand about your
mother, but that will come back to you in increasing
understanding as the years go by. Your mother has
already awakened on mansonia one and will be going
through a lot of reorientation and a few difficult lessons
over the next time period. Be at peace concerning all
these things, for you do very well.

Is this helping?

Q: Yes, thank you.

Q: Do you have anything for Rebecca?

Ham: Yes, my daughter, you are doing very well. You
have come into new areas of thinking and functioning
that is very much like a level. Take your time and get
used to this new inner reality before you rush out and
try to do too much.

Q: Jarad?

Ham: My son, you too have had a type of break through
and sometimes when you reach a new level your
tendency is to grab toward the old level of comfort. So,
you too must take it easy. Be careful and conscious in
the steps you take going forward. You do very well, my
son. Be at peace.

Q: I'm a little bit vague about what you mean the things
we should be careful about. What kind of...

Ham: Simply in your thinking. Just as this week you
have been dealing with the issues of opinions and
vocalizing opinions, as you go forth be conscious of
your actions and get comfortable with new levels of
thinking.

Q: Ham, do you have a message for me tonight?

Ham: Certainly, my son, it is wonderful to greet you
again in person and to be in your presence. Yes, of
course, you are also doing very well and making good
progress over time. You are a person who has great
affection for the past, your religious upbringing, and the
people who informed your early life. This is as it should
be. You, however, have the courage to reach beyond
your religious base, so to speak, and to recognize and
appreciate truth where ever it may be found. This is a
sign of true character for while you hold your religious
roots in high regard, you are not enslaved by these
early world views. Continue to exercise your spiritual
freedom for remember the Master said, "I have come to
liberate the spiritual captives". And once you enthrone
him in your heart, his living spirit does just that.

Q: Do you have a personal message for Charlie B?

Ham: Certainly. My son, you have also been undergoing
a personal reformation of sorts. Expect slight crises to
occur in the spirit as you grow beyond the old opinions
and attitudes which can suddenly reveal themselves to
be inadequate. Above all, do not fear change. All
growth, spiritual as well as material, entails change.
Have an open heart and mind to all these things.

Q: Do you have any feedback for me this week?

Ham: Certainly, my son, you are doing very well. You
tend to have a very steady rate of spiritual growth. Most
human beings are plagued by sudden fits and starts and
while these do occur with you, they are relatively mild.
You can certainly have your moments of feeling
imbalanced, even turned up side down, but these
episodes are quite short lived and your overall balance
is very steady. Remember to continually open your
heart and mind to those spiritual transcendent values
and beings who surround you with love. Always be wise
enough to reach for help.

Are there any further questions.

Q: This thing of like when I reach a new level or
something my tendency to try to ground out the charge,
the spiritual charge I suppose, I can think of several
reasons maybe. Is it a fear of freedom or a fear of
change?

Ham: I would look closely at this discovery, the fear of
freedom.

Q: Can you tell me anything about it, can you give me
some clues.

Ham: I would prefer that you think about it for a week
then we will discuss it next week.

Once again, we have come to the end of our discussion.
As always, my love and my prayers are with you each.
Until next week, farewell.