1992-06-23-Death In The Group
Corona Del Mar #4
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Death In The Group
o 1.2 Group: Corona Del Mar TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Bertrand
o 2.2 TR: Unknown
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Dialogue
3.2.1 Death
3.2.2 Dreams
3.2.3 Anxiety
3.2.4 Thought Adjusters, Communication
3.2.5 Catastrophism
3.2.6 Teaching Mission, Doubt
3.2.7 Communion
3.2.8 Healing
3.2.9 Angelic Contact’
Topic: Death In The Group
Group: Corona Del Mar TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Bertrand
TR: Unknown
Session
Opening
BERTRAND:
The presence of God surrounds us.
The power of God protects us
The love of God enfolds us
Wherever we are, He is.
Good evening. I am Bertrand. I am your teacher. I am pleased to be here with you this evening after the long break. I know that many things have transpired since our last gathering. And I wish to leave this session open this evening to questions rather than the lesson that had been prepared. Next week we will discuss Universe Levels of Reality. This evening I wish to convey my warm regards and love to you all, especially ______ and _____ at their loss. But also wish to convey to them the higher reality of the fact of the progression to the morontia spheres of _______’s father. I would also inform you that your other dear friend, ______, will also be arriving on the mansion worlds. I will pray for your peace and pass along your good wishes and your love. Are there questions?
Dialogue
STUDENT: Let me start. Bertrand this is _____. As you know ______ will be going back to the funeral tomorrow and my concern is her safety and that of the children. Our van has suffered some problems today and my concern is that there might be a possible break-down. Could you let me know if there’s any problems in that area that I should be concerned about or we concerned about, in terms of her safe travel to her Dad’s funeral?
BERTRAND: The guardian seraphim that protects her will be along. I cannot totally guarantee the soundness of your physical conveyance. There will be watchcare over the family during the process. That is all I can say at this time. They will be safe.
STUDENT: I have one last question on this subject. Actually, it is kind of more just sharing something about my little boy, ______. When we were sitting and talking about Grandpa dying and that he was no longer in his body, and that his soul and personality could be in heaven or on the mansion worlds. ______ turned to me and said, “Mom, I have a question.” And, I said “Well, what honey?” He said, “Doesn’t it get awfully crowded up there?” It was kind of hard to explain to him how vast the universe is. It was a wonderful statement, a wonderful question.
STUDENT: Out of the mouth of babes….[1]
BERTRAND: Yes, indeed the children generally have greater insight than we give them credit for from time to time. They have a broad scope view of life and are able to draw many sources together to a conclusion that we, because of our experience, tend to overlook. Thank you for sharing that.
STUDENT:6/30/92 [other session comments inserted here]
I don’t know if you were around me very much this past week, but you know what went on with my father and everything. Probably one of the hardest times I had, and perhaps you could give me some insight on what to say about this, was how hard my father’s death affected my son. His comment, which I found myself making a day or so later, not repeating what he said, but I said it myself and thought to myself “Oh! It’s the same thing _______ said” He said to me, “Why does it hurt so much when someone dies?” Now, I know that my dad’s okay, but it still hurts. Why is that?
Death
BERTRAND: The loss of a loved one from their earthly life, where you are able to converse with them, share your life, share your thoughts, share your joys and your sorrows–when that is there a bridge is built between two people. When one leaves, whether it be by choice to go to another land, or through the graduation of one individual to the mansion worlds, what you feel is that intense loss of the companionship of that personality presence. The personality presence is very strong. Your personality craves to have that personality near so that you can communicate, so that you can share your earthly existence. You and your son and your mother all are feeling that same loss of that personality presence of your father. That is what the pain is. Does that help explain it?
Dreams
- About Dream Life
STUDENT: I have two questions that puzzle me. One, during our rest period which we call sleep, we dream. Where does the content of these dreams come from, because most the time they have nothing to do with what we call reality. How are these created and why do we focus our attention in this area?
BERTRAND: Dream life, for the most part takes place in the sub-conscious. It is the formulation of experiences overlaid by other experiences and overlaid by still further experiences. Most of our dream life is associated with occurrences that have occurred, sometimes occurrences that may occur. But on those rare occasions the super-conscious is able to overlay upon the sub-conscious and at that point your Thought Adjuster is able to make a picturization of a higher concept. It’s most difficult to determine which is which. But it certainly is the time in which the Adjuster is most active with your mind.
Anxiety
- To Deflect Worry
STUDENT: When I find myself tense and upset, call it worry, about different things that go on in life, nothing particular, just generally speaking. You can intellectualize that worrying about it isn’t going to make it any better, but yet I’ll tend to continue to worry about it to the point that my body will tense up; l get sore muscles, headaches and stuff like that. Is there a practical exercise to work towards to do away with that useless worrying?
BERTRAND: If you could substitute a meditation process of thinking about God the Father, of Jesus’ life, of true values. When you begin the process of worrying, try to somehow shift the mind to use it as a trigger to move into an area of the contemplation of Jesus’ life, that may be of assistance. I can also refer you to morontia mota that says “Anxieties must be abandoned; the disappointments hardest to bear are those which never come.”
And I think that if you will analyze those worries, when the final event occurs, it is rarely to the level in which you worried about it. It’s a very difficult process for human beings to abandon worry,to abandon anxiety. Its basis is in animal fear, and those things are very difficult to overcome. It takes continual work and continual reminding of oneself that those disappoints are never what you anticipate them to be. Does that help?
Thought Adjusters, Communication
- Pictures & Adjuster Efficiency During Sleep Time
STUDENT: I have two questions. The first one is: if sleep is the time the Adjuster can really work with us, is there anything we can do to open our minds to that patterning from him more consciously?
BERTRAND: The Adjuster is most able to work during your sleeptime because you are able to put yourself aside. Your conscious mind, the electro-chemical process, is at its least, it’s at its minimum. And therefore, the Thought Adjuster is able to make picturizations that otherwise he would be unable to do. In your daily life, in your awake life, the same process occurs, or can occur, if you are able to still your mind. You have another question?
STUDENT: Well, actually…now I have two more questions. So, what we should look for really in communication with our Thought Adjuster are pictures? Picturizations? Rather than words?
BERTRAND: Picturizations, yes. They are more closely a description of how the Adjuster communicates with you. Occasionally, in rare occasions, the Adjuster may be able to get a direct link and communicate with you with words, but that is very rare. In most cases the contact is through picturizations, through feelings, through awareness of concepts. It’s a difficult process to explain. Does that help or may I clarify more?
STUDENT: Well, the picturizations, are they very symbolic pictures or are they pretty literal pictures of what it is he’s trying to teach us?
BERTRAND: It can be both
Catastrophism
- Planetary Pollution
STUDENT: I have another question. I think we are all aware of the pollution of our planet. My question is: are we in any immediate danger from this over-pollution and should we be concerned about the ozone layer, the depletion of the ozone layer at this time?
BERTRAND: I’m not sure what your definition of immediate is. In a universe sense, it could be quite some time. I would gather, from your tone, you would mean in the next 100 years. Is that true?
STUDENT: More immediate than that. Maybe in the next decade or two. Just in terms of all the smog and pollution, it seems like it’s getting a little hard to breath at times. And although we seem to be rectifying that a little bit, our scientists are quite concerned about the depletion of the ozone. And it seems to me it’s more immediate than 100 years. But, assuming that we continue at the rate we’re going with our pollution maybe it would be that long. Is there anything we should be doing at this time?
BERTRAND: It is certainly a concern. There are many cities on the planet today whose air quality is sub-standard and could benefit from the wise actions of their leaders. Unfortunately, it’s difficult for one country to have an effect on another country at this time with relation to pollution. Some of the pollution that is in the air does contribute to ozone depletion. If it were to get to a serious point, remedial action can be taken on the part of the Life Carriers to correct such a catastrophic imbalance.
This planet would definitely not get to that point because of many other factors that have guaranteed the long-term, in a universe sense, existence of this planet, of this sphere. We believe that Michael would step in if a catastrophic imbalance were to take place. We wish that the peoples of Urantia recognize that this is the planet they live on; the air they breath; the water they drink; the food they eat; and that care must be taken to maintain their purity as one would try to maintain the purity of one’s soul. Does that help?
STUDENT: Thank you very much. It does.
Teaching Mission, Doubt
- Is This Group To Have Another TR?
STUDENT:Bertrand, is anyone else in our group being prepared as a transmitter-receiver at this time?
BERTRAND: That question is under the domain of Ham. I would direct inquiries to him concerning that matter.
- Doubt Or Confusion About Mission Is Healthy]6/23/92
STUDENT: Bertrand, as we get more involved with this Teaching Mission, in my own experience, I’ve noticed that there’s times of being extremely confident and faith-filled about its reality. Then there are other times that I’m just overwhelmed by doubts, that it can’t be true–it’s too weird; too big; too different; too everything. What should we do when those doubts sort of come and crowd out our faith in the mission and in you teachers?
BERTRAND: It is actually healthy for you to have doubts. It is healthy for you to go through periods of growth, periods of rest. It is a positive thing because through those periods of doubt you are able to forge stronger faith for the future. I would hesitate to instruct you how to alleviate those periods because they do bear fruit. They are very important. It is a normal ebb and flow of one’s spiritual growth.
And with direct regard to the Teaching Mission, it is far more healthy to have those students, who are in that same manner, both believing and doubting, because it keeps them balanced. When a human loses balance in a positive or negative direction, they run the risk of becoming fanatical. It is far more healthy, in the long run, for you to maintain that skepticism and faith, always working against each other and for each other to the building of your faith and your trust.
- Pass On My thanks For The URANTIA Book
STUDENT: That was neat. Bertrand, if you could pass on to whoever was ultimately responsible for The Urantia Book coming to us and the Teaching Mission, which I assume was probably Michael, how much the knowledge that I have gleaned from this has meant to me, especially when my father died, knowing how ravaged his body was…his earthly body. And the feeling of, I have to say the feeling of joy that I felt, knowing that he was no longer in this body, knowing that he was now going to be given a new body.
He had a lot of electro-chemical problems. _______ doesn’t understand how I am able to not feel totally devastated at his death. I feel a loss of him and of not being able to talk to him, but I also feel a joy and I just want you to pass on my gratitude for being so lucky as to have read The Urantia Book and to know the things that I know. So, thank you.
BERTRAND: It is done. Your faith, your knowledge will be like a shining light to those that you meet this week as you go through this process of saying good-bye to your father in your human manner. That light will stir the spiritual yearnings in many people. Your thanks has been registered.
STUDENT:Thank you.
Communion
- Set Aside Time To Keep Contact Alive With Spirit 6/23/92
STUDENT: Bertrand, I know that you visit us during the week, when we are not in this class environment with you. I was wondering if you had any personal advice for us. Should we read The Urantia Book more; should we worship more; is there anything we should be doing more that would help us in this Teaching Mission?
BERTRAND: Worship is good. Prayer is highly advised. Meditation is appropriate. Anything that you do that keeps that channel open; that contact alive with your Thought Adjuster, with the Spirit of Truth, is a positive thing that you could do. I would not say “take three hours today, or three minutes today, or tomorrow or everyday”. It truly depends on your own personal ability to set aside time.
But do it. Set aside time that you give only to the Father and you will find that connection will be strengthened and it will begin to last longer and longer as that connection gets stronger and stronger. Study the life of Jesus and how he led it and how he kept his communion and how he kept his contact unbroken with the Father. He is our pattern. Does this help?
STUDENT:Yes. Thank you.
Healing
- Inquiry About Healing: Talk To Ham
STUDENT: Bertrand, when the human body becomes sick or ill, this is due to an imbalance in the chemical-electro structure of it. How can I learn the techniques to assist another to put those balances in, therefore assisting to help heal a body and put a mind at ease?
BERTRAND: It is not my specialty, healing. There are other teachers whose specialty it is. You may want to attempt to contact Ham and have a direct meeting with him at some time in the future or you can relay your desires through him. The Life Carriers do work with individuals to make it possible for them to heal provided they have certain predispositions toward that process. I am unfortunately unequipped to be able to answer more fully your question.
- Teacher’s Specialty Training Question Deferred
STUDENT: What is your specialty?
BERTRAND: One moment [Pause] Your question is astute. I have been instructed that because my specialty directly relates to the future mission of this group, I am not able to relay it at this time, but ask me again and soon I will be able to tell you.
Angelic Contact
- She Saw An Angel 6/23/92
STUDENT: When I headed for Yosemite, our first stop, of course, was in the Mariposa Grove. And we walked up to the Grizzly Giant. There were other people there so it was a little bit hard to really have a time of Stillness. But, I tried to sneak around the other side and just kind of have even a couple of moments of peace and quiet. As I was trying to go into Stillness, I saw this little white star in the upper left-hand part of my mind appear as though it was . ..rays radiating out from it. I kind of thought, I wondered if it was my Thought Adjuster. It is possible?
BERTRAND: One moment [Pause] What you saw with your inner eye was a creature of the Infinite Spirit–one of the angels.
STUDENT: Thank you.
STUDENT: Elizabeth Kubler-Ross is well known on Urantia in her dealing with death and dying. She talks about angel appearances that have been seen by people near death. Are they real?
BERTRAND: I’m sorry. That is in the area of the time period between death and resurrection and I am not free to discuss that. I’m sorry.
