2012-0917 Integrity of the Team; Team Qualities
– Sept. 17, 2012
Conversations with Monjoronson #60
Topics: (Unpublished from Sept. 7, 2012)
Teams as social organisms
Morontial beings are totally transparent
Emotional pain and defensiveness
Learning to trust by being vulnerable
Prepare a topic about the integrity of the team as a social organism
Topics: (From Sept 17, 2012)
The integrity of the team as a social organism
To do the Father’s work, his presence must be invoked
The team is a living, social, spiritual, working organism
Finding the synergistic flow of the team
Developing harmonization within the team
Revealing backgrounds and skills of each member
Resolving deficiencies that hinder or obstruct the flow of the team
Every individual has some emotional, social, spiritual, mental impediments
Qualities needed in the team facilitator
Team members need varied skills and abilities but similar intentions
Dealing with member “withdrawal” or domination
Self-image and self-esteem in team members
Contributions or detriments to morontial growth
Without adversity there is little soul growth
Learned coping mechanisms can be detrimental to growth
Resolution of mortal problems in social existence
With celestial involvement individual healing creates world healing
Each team member must be proactive in their own healing
Revealing one’s vulnerability and asking for assistance
Celestials are involved in selecting team members
Asking for help from God and celestials
Comments on the problems in the Middle East
Closing statements by Monjoronson
TR: Daniel Raphael
Moderator: Michael McCray
September 17, 2012
Prayer: Heavenly Father, Michael and Mother Spirit, we, your loving and faithful children, once again gather in your embrace to do the work of Urantia. We thank you for sending Monjoronson to guide us in this work of bringing social stability to our world and it is our hope that these transcripts will lead more Urantians into the process of correcting the many social problems that exist so that eventually, this beautiful world will enter into the days of light and life for your glory. Amen.
MONJORONSON: Good morning; this is Monjoronson.
MMc: And how are you doing this morning, Monjoronson?
MONJORONSON: Perfectly, as always!
MMc: That’s good to hear. Is there anything you would like to say to us before we start?
MONJORONSON: Let us just begin, please.
[[Unpublished topics left over from CWM session #59, added here for subject continuity.]]
MMc: As we are now starting to work in co-creative design teams, I wonder if we could talk about the difficulties involved in forming these teams to help the process proceed efficiently. Working in teams seems to be a difficult challenge for many members.
Teams as social organisms
MONJORONSON: Yes, I would be glad to. What we wish to have you learn is that your team—any team—to be truly effective, must act and behave and operate as a whole social organism. And when we say, “organism,” we mean that it lives and breathes and is able to reproduce itself with others. A social organism must be healthy in order for it to operate well. If you have a necrotic lower arm, it will affect the rest of your body, just as would a badly infected tooth or foot. So it is in a team. It cannot develop holism and an internal and external integrity until all members are on the same level of emotional and spiritual development. The operational linear factors of participating in a team or group are a learned development, but the organismic development must be whole and integral and healthy for the team to operate well.
The requirement of being a fully operational equal member with us—and we mean “with us”—and with each other of you, is that you must be whole emotionally, that you have healed the major and dominating emotional difficulties of your life, so that your spirituality can be whole and complete. We have talked many times, and we will repeat this many times in the future, that your emotional development and emotional energy reflects the degree of your spiritual development. You cannot become a spiritually evolved individual on intellect only, but you must have that emotional development as well. It is the qualitative and quantitative; it is the contrast of process and object, the differences between the male and the female. Spirituality is not complete and whole until these qualitative aspects of your being and personality have evolved and been healed, and then are capable of moving forward.
Morontial beings are totally transparent
It is necessary that the individual heal these deficits because they will be the niggling, the undermining wash of the tides, so to speak, that undermines the foundations of a mighty fortress, the mighty fortress being the linear intelligence of the mind. The foundation that holds that in place is the stability of the emotional being. There is always an agenda going on for individuals who do not have emotional completion. They may feel inferior or inadequate. They will then seek for power, control and authority to put themselves into place and to protect themselves.
We, however, operate without an agenda, an inner agenda of band-aids to cover any weaknesses: we are transparent. You as morontial beings will be totally transparent; your weaknesses will be very, very evident to all who come in contact with you. They will never attack you, but always try to assist you. Those individuals, who have not healed themselves emotionally, cannot be fully trusted with greater responsibilities — it is as simple as that. So, too, in your morontial development and evolution, you must grow into that emotionally—if we can use that word for the morontial side of yourself—that must be whole and complete before you can ascend to your next evolutionary stage of development.
Emotional pain and defensiveness
It is common on your world for mortals to carry over some of their emotional pain into their adult lives. In the situation between some parents and their children, the parent in their authority and their position and their role—and their own ego needs—has used the child as a whipping post, so to speak, which in a child is interpreted in a particularly personal way, and most children do not want to endure such criticism or punishment or harsh treatment again in their life, so they take on a coping mechanism which may become a shield to protect themselves, that tender part of themselves, during the rest of their life. They do not want to be emotionally sensitive and vulnerable and so they become defensive and easily injured by criticism.
Learning to trust by being vulnerable
In order for you to grow out of this defensiveness, you must reveal yourself as vulnerable, that you desire to improve and to ask for assistance from Christ Michael, your guardians and Thought Adjuster. It is the case where you proceed cautiously and carefully and ask for the tutelage and mentorship of your guardian [angels] and others to assist you in this process. By truly revealing yourself as vulnerable, you then can trust us to assist you. Not being vulnerable, you cannot learn to trust, and without learning to trust, you cannot learn to love. It is as simple as that. We mean you no harm; it is that it is very difficult to sometimes lance an abscess underneath the skin, without going through the skin. You must open up the abscess to drain it, to heal it, and to put the healing balm of love on it to bring it to closure; is quite metaphorically accurate. It does take some skill to reach the painful area to do so.
Even Jesus, as a son of Mary, had difficulty in his youth with Mary, and that her projections upon him caused him great unsettled thoughts. He was not exempt from this even as the Creator Son, and even as he was in his seventh bestowal. He had to go through the same difficulties and vicissitudes that other youths encounter, other children encounter in their childhood, in order for him to thoroughly understand the predicament of his mortal children in the family setting. This situation is not unique, but quite the opposite; it is a commonality among everyone. If you were to ask what lessons he came to this lifetime to learn, this would be one of them, and that would be vulnerability.
The mistake, oftentimes, with those who have been injured severely in childhood, is that when someone who approaches who is helpful and loving and caring, they also interpret this as an attack. This is most, most, most unfortunate! Unless this lesson is learned here, it will be learned later in the morontial lifetime, but much more intimately in the presence and guardianship of your guardian [angel], and of a group and team supervisor, and those who can assist you to rapidly move through this. Your advancement in the morontial realm will be delayed until this problem is resolved. Do you understand?
MMc: Yes, understood.
Prepare a topic about the integrity of the team as a social organism
MONJORONSON: If I may, I would like you to have a line of questioning eventually, in one of our public sessions about the constitution of the team. It is important that this be shared with all those individuals who eventually will initiate teams. Do you understand my request?
MMc: Uh, you’re asking us to put together a line of questions?
MONJORONSON: That is correct. I want you to facilitate the discussion of the topic of the “integrity of the team as a social organism,” so that we can use this as an instructional piece for our readers and listeners.
MMc: Yes, I’ll do that.
MONJORONSON: Thank you.
[[The following is material from our CWM session #60 on Sept. 17, 2012]]
The integrity of the team as a social organism
MMc: We often find ourselves working with others in groups, in teams. The design team is one instance of this, but there are others. I wonder if you would speak to us today on a topic of the “integrity of the team as a social organism” as you requested in our last session?
MONJORONSON: I would be glad to. The team, as we have formulated it for social sustainability, to be the primary engine that leads societies towards social sustainability is a particular—and in fact, quite a peculiar entity by itself. You see, we do not see teams as groups of separate individuals having come together for a particular mission or purpose, but we see these design teams as a social organism, one who has an integrity of its own. And when I say, “integrity,” I mean a holistic integrity for its functioning. First of all, it is a spiritual being; it has a spiritual essence to it, and it is this spiritual essence which must be the foundation of teams as individuals come together, that they invoke the presence of the Creator whenever they convene, and that they surround themselves with the Creator’s light and to fill themselves with that same light. Without this foundation, they are simply another team coming together to accomplish a task.
It is not that teams who do not have a spiritual base cannot function and provide good results to the ends of social sustainability, but it is that the spiritually infused and invested teams add far more to the process and eventually to the outcomes. You see, it is the process of the team that gives it viability, gives it “vital-ness” as an organism is vital. This spiritual essence provides a harmonic, sympathetic, parallel of vibrations between the individuals and the spiritual beings who are there with them, all with the common intent of bringing about those occasional, profound “Ah-Ha’s” of understanding, insight and wisdom.
To do the Father’s work, his presence must be invoked
Further, the team is a social organism in that individuals relate to each other and to the team for higher purposes. One is that they make a contribution to the team, and this should be one of their intentions. Each of the areas I am speaking about this morning is part of a global intention for the functioning of the team. As individuals who have come together to do the Father’s work, then the Father’s presence must be manifest and invoked for the proper functioning of the team. Those of you who are well acquainted with the functioning of the Teaching Mission and Magisterial Mission, understand this thoroughly, that whenever two or more are gathered together, you “invoke the presence of higher majesty of divinity,” so that your work is more complete and full, that your minds are led by those nuances of influence from your spiritual helpers, from us, so that in small ways you are guided forward in the right directions.
The team is a living, social, spiritual, working organism
It is very similar to the metaphor of you driving on an interstate freeway; you are traveling very rapidly down the highway and you come upon a curve in the road and you make just the smallest influence in the steering wheel, yet the car traverses around the corner as though it were on rails. This is a similar way that our spiritual helpers influence your team, just slightly giving you more options to think about when you are involved in the process of the team. Truly, the team is a living organism; it is a social organism; it is a spiritual organism; it is a working organism—it has something to do—with all of you. You will find that through the days and weeks of your coming together, you begin to harmonize with each other, to be influenced by others, both verbally and non-verbally, that you become tuned into the energetic environment of the team, so that there develops a synergism that is seemingly unexpected and unanticipated for doing such linear work, yet this is the influence of all parts working together.
Finding the synergistic flow of the team
Just as your cells and organs and parts of your body can operate individually, they provide a new function and meaning to the whole. So too, will your teams go through this same process. You will also find that there is a “flow” to this organism, just as you see a millipede crawling along the floor or the carpet of the forest, where there are many dozens of legs moving harmoniously along to move the whole organism of the centipede or millipede forward. This flow is almost magical in its performance. You will come away with working in these teams with a thrill and joy of accomplishment, of completion through the understanding and the feeling of having been a part of that flow. You as an individual realize that you are not responsible for that flow, but you are responsible to participate almost effortlessly in the process of the team, so that the flow of the work does move ahead almost seamlessly. When you see this occur in your team environment and in the working processes of it, you know that you are working synergistically with each other. This is a wonderful outcome.
I will stop now with this and let you digest that to ask another question, if you choose.
MMc: Yes, I do. I can understand the feeling of the “flow,” but I can also understand sometimes working in a team where the flow stops; where there is an interruption of what’s going on. The integrity is lost for some reason. In identifying… the question I want to ask is “how do we proceed,” but I don’t think I’ve given you enough information for you to give me an answer in that regard.
MONJORONSON: My dear friend, are you underestimating me?
MMc: No. Can you help me out here?
Developing harmonization within the team
MONJORONSON: Yes, most definitely. When individuals come together in a team setting, there is the necessity of harmonizing with each other. There must be a common understanding about why you are coming together and this must be discussed openly among the team members. You, perhaps, could do this during one of your first social meetings, where the team comes together to get acquainted with each other, to have coffee and cookies together, for instance, when you would have chit-chat to discuss what brought you to this group meeting, what your intentions are, what you hope to achieve as an individual, what contributions you might want to make, and so you begin to get acquainted with the members.
You must remember that in the early phases of a team’s coming together, that you may have five to eleven individuals coming together and they still remain as individuals. It is important for the facilitator to begin operating almost immediately to facilitate the bonding of the team members into a oneness, so that eventually you do have flow, you do have synchronicity, you do have a synergism that occurs within a team setting. The facilitator must begin by exposing those similarities and those differences. There may be individuals who come with a different agenda. They may have an agenda that is hidden, and this will hopefully become clear when they verbally state their intentions for participating in the team. This is a part of bonding, a part of developing commonalities. There are individuals who do want to save the world and they want to be recognized publicly; there are individuals who want to participate, but never be recognized. And so, each one brings to the team certain prejudices, biases, preferences for doing business, for working in a team. These must be made clear.
Revealing backgrounds and skills of each member
The facilitator must also assist the team to reveal the backgrounds of each individual who comes forward. Now, this is not simply just a regurgitation of one’s history, but it is a process of disclosing your resources to the team and to other team members, so that team members can be aware of what your experiences are so they are able to tap into that through their questions. Each individual has with them a repertoire of experiences and skills and abilities which they bring to the team to assist in its process. It is important that all these things be made clear. The facilitator is perhaps central to the development of the team’s capabilities. That is the facilitator should have thought about these issues before hand. However—and I must put a “however” in here—that oftentimes, the facilitator is not chosen until after the team has bonded and has had a meeting or two. At that time, then, the facilitator can begin his or her work by asking the team how they think they should proceed, and this is a legitimate way for the facilitator to gain insights into his or her work, facilitating the function of the team.
Resolving deficiencies that hinder or obstruct the flow of the team
There is no need for keeping secrets or hidden processes from the members. Members can as easily participate in assisting in the training and education of other members. This is an internal function of the team and helps bond the team and to help develop confidence in each other. This is central to the function of the team, is that there is a confidence in each individual for every other individual in the team. Surely, if there are concerns about the confidence in another member, these will eventually become openly known in the team, both through verbal and nonverbal behaviors. These need to be clarified. Though the team setting is not therapeutic in nature, it will become readily apparent to team members the deficiencies and efficiencies and effectiveness of each team member as time goes by. These need to be exposed and resolved promptly, rather than staying and hindering and obstructing the flow of the team’s work. Are you with me so far?
MMc: Yes. I’m going to ask you… you say that it’s not that the team is therapeutic, but it would seem that if there is growth of individuals within the team, that would be therapeutic. We may be arguing semantics here, but…
Every individual has some emotional, social, spiritual, mental impediments
MONJORONSON: It is the degree to which the team functions; it is not necessarily that the team proceed to examine the pathology of each person’s personality. This is not necessary and is not desirable, as it takes the team away from its function and direction. However, it is necessary that these problems or impediments in the team process of its members be exposed and revealed. How the individual resolves that is up to them. The team may have suggestions and the individual may ask for suggestions how to proceed. You will find, however, that if there is someone who comes in a position of authority—let us say that one of the members is a psychiatrist—but that this psychiatrist has some neurotic impediments, every individual brings with them some sort of emotional, social, spiritual, mental impediments; these can be seen also as assets to the team function. Just because someone is obsessive/compulsive does not mean that they cannot be highly effective in the team setting. It is not the team’s responsibilities to heal that person’s compulsiveness. Do you see the differentiation so far?
MMc: Yes, I do. Somebody like “Monk,” a television character, who was obsessive/compulsive, and yet he was an excellent detective, so he was able to function in that role very effectively, where he was not able to function in society very effectively.
Qualities needed in the team facilitator
MONJORONSON: Yes, of course. Wonderful. For your facilitator, you would anticipate that this person would be a very social being, who is outgoing, who is an extrovert. These qualities and capabilities can be used most effectively, whereas a person who is an introvert and a bit withdrawn socially, may eventually come up with the some of the most startling and profound insights into the course of the team’s work, simply because they are thoughtful, do not engage verbally in all the chit-chat that goes on in a team, but is taking notes and listening and observing and adding things up in their mind until they are able to provide a summation statement, which is most helpful, that other people perhaps had not come to.
Team members need varied skills and abilities but similar intentions
So, it is not that everyone is going to come from the same socio/economic background; it is not that everyone is going to have a similar professional background or work background. These are simply not necessary. It is, however, useful to a team that they have varied skills and abilities. What is important, however, is that they are all tuned into the work of the team, they have a similar intention for being there, and they have a similar concern for its outcomes and they have a commitment to assist their civilization and their communities to move ahead into social sustainability. It is important that the facilitator and the team be able to recognize their broad palette of skills and abilities, yet also clearly recognize what they are there for, so that everybody can stay on track.
MMc: As I understand it, the team should look for the output of the team, and not necessarily look to any particular individual to produce that output?
Dealing with member “withdrawal” or domination
MONJORONSON: Yes, that is correct. Just because you have an eminent psychiatrist on your team does not mean that this person may have a head for power and control. What is needed is the equal participation, not the domination or submission of individuals, but that there be a clear presence of individuals at the table, even those people who are dominant and those people who are socially receding. You will find it interesting to note that the presence of individuals is highly important. When someone withdraws even while sitting at the table in the team setting, withdrawing while thinking of their own personal problems, you know that they have “left the premises,” so to speak, and that is a loss to the team, as that asset is also lost to the functioning of their work. It is much like what happens when an individual’s leg or arm becomes numb—you are not able to feel it. Even though you can move your fingers, you do not have the sensation of touch or of depth and space. So, too, when a person withdraws within a team, that this is noted and that the individual is assisted to become present in the situation. You do not have “hall monitors” to keep people in the classroom all the time, yet there is obviously something going on with the person if they withdraw from the interaction of the team. It may be that they note something particular is going on that no one else notes, and it would be helpful for them to reveal that to the team.
MMc: When the team members become aware of a problem with one of the members of the team, how should they proceed?
MONJORONSON: They should proceed with a sincere concern for the individual. What you will find, however, in your societies, whether they are western or eastern, is that people who are outgoing, who are extroverts, who are expressive and effusive in their interaction with others, tend to not be questioned. However, if you have someone who is withdrawn socially and emotionally in discussions in the group, others may be concerned for that individual. Yet, what those individuals, who are concerned for the withdrawn individual should also come to question the domination of one or more individuals, who tend to dominate the discussion. A person of an over-bearing presence can be as detrimental, or even more so, to the productive work of the team as the withdrawn member. Yet most people of even temperaments are reluctant and reticent to question that individual, though this eventually must be done. It is necessary for the team. Remember, that all team members come to the team equally and are valued equally, and that their participation is necessary and needed. Their prior social eminence, recognition, and status neither add to nor subtract from the functioning of the team. It is how well those members perform in the team that is of importance.
MMc: There is a feeling of equality within the group that everyone is… although they are not necessarily equal, they are equal in God’s eyes and equally needed to make the group a team, so that each individual is in a needed situation?
Self-image and self-esteem in team members
MONJORONSON: Exactly, yes. It is the self-image and self-esteem that people bring to the team that other people will become aware of. If you have someone who has an inferiority complex, that would become obvious very soon. As well, they will become very aware of someone who has a superiority complex, that this would also become known to the team. How the team deals with both situations is a particularly important process. The team truly is almost a morontial being, simply because once you graduate from this earthly plane, the importance you had as a mortal upon your world—or unimportance on your world—is of no importance at all, whatsoever, in the morontial plane. You are accepted there by the accomplishments you have achieved moving towards a full morontial being. What lessons you had learned here may be immense or they may be miniscule.
Contributions or detriments to morontial growth
It is very interesting to us to observe a person who has had tremendous mortal achievements on the mortal plane in their world, who comes to the morontial plane fairly well bereft of morontial skills or abilities or achievements. This also could be said of the person with an inferiority complex, who feels inadequate to engage the activities of their mortal life, and so they withdraw. These individuals too, have chosen to withdraw from the interaction of their mortal lives; they have withdrawn from the mortal school of learning to become morontial. Whereas, on the other hand, a superior individual becomes so busy in the pursuit of their career and their achievements, that they also come away with not having engaged the problems of adversity and disappointments that are so common to mortals and who learn to overcome them. In learning to overcome these challenges, you grow morontially, and you can move ahead in your morontial standing, even to a completely new class, if your achievements on your mortal plane have been great. Do you see how both mortal careers can contribute and can cause detriments to your morontial career?
MMc: Yes, I can. So, you are looking for that balance again?
Without adversity there is little soul growth
MONJORONSON: We are looking for balance within the team, yes. We do not need individuals who are dominant or submissive, inferior or superior. We are looking for individuals who are capable, who are capable of social engagement, to understand the social/emotional/spiritual problems of your world. Your world is one of a tremendously broad spectrum of adversity; in almost all phases of a mortal’s life, there is adversity. When there is no adversity, there is usually not much achievement or growth morontially; soul growth is little, as one does not have to contemplate the challenges of life and how to work through them. That can be said of either the inferior or superior individual. Life is to be lived; life is a learning process; life is a school for growing in your morontial careers. When you have a challenge in your personal life—no matter where it is, what spectrum of activities it is—if you ask Christ Michael and Nebadonia, your guardians and teachers for assistance to grow through the problems, they will truly assist you. That is one of their purposes for existence in their relationship with mortals in this realm of yours. They are here to assist you to grow. When they assist you to grow here in this realm, they have assisted you to grow and advance in your morontial realm.
If you are able to overcome the adversities and disappointments in this lifetime, then those which you find in the morontial realm will be no challenge to you; you will understand that this is just part of the process of living, and that disappointment and adversity are part of the process for learning—they simply say, “Not this way.” Adversity and disappointment does not say, “Stop, die in your tracks and wither away to nothingness,” it simply says, “Not this way.” And so, you must initiate the next way. If that is to request from us our participation for you to discover the way forward, then we will most certainly do so.
You will not find that we are hesitant to relate to you or to assist you. We are highly proactive in assisting you, once you ask! It is important that you understand that once you ask to engage us, we will be engaged. Until then, we are bystanders, striving to get your attention, so that you ask us questions and you engage us in the mortal and spiritual realms during your lifetime.
Learned coping mechanisms can be detrimental to growth
MMc: Let me take this discussion outside of the team for just a moment. So many of us here are unaware of our particular deficiencies. We have grown up in a deficient society and in deficient families, and we have learned coping mechanisms that have become defense mechanisms, and we sit inside our little fortresses of ideas, defending ourselves on a daily basis from the rest of humanity, yet, we are unaware that we are doing this, that we have cut ourselves off from growth, simply because we persist in the same type of thinking patterns on a daily basis. Am I correct that there are a great number of us here on this planet in this situation?
MONJORONSON: Oh yes, the vast, vast majority of mortals on your world are coping with the difficulties that they have faced in their early childhood, and they carry them forward. Once they are successful with that, then they perpetuate that. Why go against success? Correct? But success in coping then protects you from the adversities and the challenges of life as a spiritual being, who is growing on a material world.
MMc: When you encounter these types of individuals within a group situation and you find that their coping mechanism interferes with the group action, how do you suggest that we proceed in that situation?
MONJORONSON: That is a good question. You will see it this way: that when you are part of a team, let us say you are in the microchip industry, and you have a team coming together to solve a problem concerning the architecture of the circuitry of your microchip, then your functioning is on that, and that you are simply looking for answers and resolution. We sit back and watch you, and we work with you individually, but we do not necessarily work with you as a team, as a group. However, in a spiritually infused design team—a socially sustainable design team—that has come together co-creatively with us, then we will assist you as individuals and we will assist you as a team, to grow emotionally, spiritually, socially and mentally so that you are more and more capable of engaging the difficulties that come to you. You see, the architecture and circuitry of a microchip does not deal with humans.
Resolution of mortal problems in social existence
The sustainability design team comes together solely for the resolution of mortal problems in social existence. We need to have individuals who are whole and complete, those who are willing to challenge themselves to grow, to even expose themselves and invite others to assist them in their growth. This may be challenging, it may be difficult, but the individual who sees that they are growing, sees that they need to grow, then begins to challenge others to point out their deficiencies. It is much like an athlete who is in weight training to participate in the Olympics, and that they have a muscle group that is deficient. They ask their coach or their trainer to assist them.
With celestial involvement individual healing creates world healing
For you in the team setting, you would ask your celestial angelic assistants to point out your deficiencies and lead you into situations where those would be exposed, so that you could grow. So too, the Olympic athlete who has a muscle group which is deficient, which needs to be strengthened in order for them to thoroughly perfect their athletic skills, would then begin a regime of training to strengthen those muscles to support the work of the rest of their body. The parallel with the team is very similar: You may have a team member who has some deficiency that they need to overcome. It will be most difficult for the team as a whole team, and a team of individuals to move ahead until that individual exercises their skills at exposing and working through their deficiencies. This is far more challenging than ordinary life!
This is far more challenging than any other setting that you would have, because we are involved. We are involved because it deals with the spiritual healing of your world, and we are involved because you are working as a whole social organism that must have all of its functions integrated, meaning that all individuals must be evolved fairly closely together, so that one does not drag down the remainder, does not cause the team to falter and to stop. Teams that enter these situations do not move forward, but disintegrate and reform in other teams or situations. Does this help clarify?
MMc: Yes, it does. It’s much more difficult than even being in a therapeutic group, because there is the added pressure of the spiritual aspect that is brought into play here. Am I correct?
Each team member must be proactive in their own healing
MONJORONSON: Yes. One of the primary facets or ingredients we look for in a good team is that each team member is proactive in their own healing, that they wish to come forward and expose that. We do not support confrontational therapeutic tactics either, but for an individual to say, “I come forward and I think I need to have some work done on this area. Do I see this correctly, or am I in error?” and so this statement, this question by that individual, means that they are willing to reveal, they are asking others to assist them in revealing and identifying their inferior or their “inadequate muscle group,” so to speak, so that they can become more effective in the team. Each team member who comes to the team must realize that they are all inadequate or insufficient in some skill areas, but it is most helpful when the individual asks the team to help them work with that. This gives the other team members permission to speak assertively. However, we do not appreciate or support individuals who then use those comments hurtfully against that individual, as this is a very tender situation, where you are now in the very hand of developing intimacy between individuals.
Revealing one’s vulnerability and asking for assistance
When one reveals their vulnerability and asks for assistance, this is the very moment of developing trust, where others can contribute to their development. All of this must be done positively, and constructively. There is no room for hostility, bitterness, cynicism or criticism, but simply revealing what others observe in each other. This is something that the facilitator must make known in the early phases of the team’s bonding, that there will come occasions where team members are faced with their own limitations, and that they realize that they have limitations, and that others are seeing those limitations and that they wish to resolve this. You will find that you will achieve tremendous breadth of growth and rapidity of growth when this revealing, identifying and supportive [effort] is done by team members. Then you become bonded; then you become “one;” you become whole. You have confidence in other team members that they will not betray the sacred work of the team. That is the most devastating development that can occur in a team, when team members see the betrayal of one team member against the progress and process of the team, such that it pales, it stops and does not move forward.
Celestials are involved in selecting team members
You can rest assured, my dear friends, that we will poke you in the ribs, and that we will get your attention so that you can begin to identify those deficiencies that you have. You can also be assured that the civility and etiquette of the team members probably will not do that, but we will not hesitate to do that for the best outcome and working of the team effort in the long term. We have brought you together. When teams come together, it is through a long, enduring process of our selection and arranging so that people come together. Oftentimes, the first meeting of a team of individuals is preceded by 18-24 months of us working and selecting individuals to come together. We do not want to waste that effort, as we know that each team usually has a principle function and work mission that it has come together to accomplish. To reconstitute another team to do that same function would be to throw that effort out the window.
MMc: I wonder if it would be conducive for us to stop at this point. You have given me a lot to think about and I’d like to come back, perhaps next week or the end of this week and ask you some more questions, but I’m afraid I’m going to need some time to bring together what you have already told me, and ask pertinent questions about that, rather than ….
Asking for help from God and celestials
Roxie: Michael, I’d like to ask one, please. Monjoronson, we have a saying on this world that “God helps those who help themselves.” Some of us feel like we can’t ask for help until we have exhausted all possibilities of helping ourselves. Would you address that, please?
MONJORONSON: That is most unfortunate. Let me go back to an earlier part of your question, where you stated this saying that you have on your world, is that “God helps those who help themselves.” What is the situation for the individual who does not feel they need help? That is not a rhetorical question, but until one is, as I mentioned earlier, until one is able to ask for assistance, then they will not be open to assistance, and so that is why we stand by waiting for the individual to ask for our assistance to help them grow. To the second part of your question, the answer is this: that you do yourself a morontial disservice by waiting until the last moment to ask for assistance. You do yourself a tremendous service by asking for God’s assistance, for your celestial teacher’s assistance, for your guardian’s assistance, if you are unable to work through the difficulty that you are engaged in.
Of course, there are individuals who ask God immediately to answer everything, to take care of all their needs. This does not bring about the challenge of adversity or potential of disappointment in the individual so they learn. We see these difficult situations you bump into as learning situations, and that if you wait until the last minute before asking for assistance, you have waited too long, and for some individuals this means not just months, but many years. And so you have wasted many years of your potential spiritual growth as a mortal. You must try to resolve the problem on your own. If it is such that you know that you are unable to resolve it, or it is outside your realm of influence, then please do ask immediately for our participation, for we would be most happy to do that, and promptly. Does this help?
Roxie: Yes. It’s finding that “sweet spot” where you realize that you can’t solve the problem and you need to ask for help.
MONJORONSON: You mean by waiting too long or asking too early?
Roxie: Yes. I find that I don’t know if I’ve exhausted all my own possibilities for solution.
MONJORONSON: Dear one, we are not asking you to exhaust them. We are asking you to simply come to a determination that you perhaps do not have the capability or capacity or time to resolve the situation, and that you are faced with that, and you know that there perhaps may be other alternatives, but that is the time to call upon spiritual help for assistance.
Roxie: Okay; thank you very much.
MONJORONSON: Michael, do you have further questions?
MMc: I am remembering in my workdays as a physician, I began each day with a prayer of asking for God’s help to help me through my day. It was not so much that I couldn’t make the day on my own, but simply that I wanted his help and assistance there with me.
MONJORONSON: Yes, that’s excellent.
MMc: No, I don’t have any further questions for today, but I would like to revisit this topic at some point in time in the future.
MONJORONSON: You are most welcome to and I offer this suggestion that you share this part of the session today with a spiritually oriented psychotherapist or clinical psychologist, who has a concern for spiritual development of individuals who understand the “Urantia Book” and who may be of assistance to you for developing a line of questions that gives more insight. Remember, we are not so much concerned about the therapy, but the pragmatics of a team’s function that leads to accomplished work and product. Do not get too complex and too technical and sophisticated in your question asking, as it would not be useful to our ordinary readers.
MMc: Thank you. Have I been too complex in questions that I have put forward today?
MONJORONSON: No, no you have not. You have developed them well. I was concerned that we would not get to the ends which I had in mind, but you eventually did so, and so we are pleased. When we, as a team on this side, come together preparatory to your own meetings, as this meeting this morning, we have already discussed what you have been working on, as we have been looking over your shoulder at the questions that you have developed. Today, we were of concern that you would not proceed far enough in your inquiry to cover the points that we wanted, but we are sufficiently pleased with the outcome. Thank you.
MMc: Thank you.
Comments on the problems in the Middle East
Roxie: Monjoronson, before you go, do you have any comments about the situation on our world right now in the Middle East and what’s brewing there?
MONJORONSON: Yes. These developments that you see, and which are so much in front of your face, and the conclusions that you’ve drawn from the evidence that you have seen so far, have been known to us for many, many years. There was speculation about these developments over a century ago, and as the decades have passed, this speculation has been confirmed that these developments are in place, and that the outcome is almost inevitable at this point. That is why we are of concern that our discussion about teams and sustainability and the publishing of these instructions move forward. We are of concern to have this done before your world gets in too much disarray. What is of concern are the developments that will occur in the next few months will be detrimental to the development of our work, approximately one year to three years in the future. It is important that our work, our distribution and publication of this work be in a timely manner, so that the outcomes we desire be accomplished in a timely manner in the near future. And “in the near future,” I mean by 18 months to 3 years—not 3 years to 5 years.
Roxie: Do you see a likelihood that there might be nuclear arms used in this conflict?
MONJORONSON: This has been a perennial concern of ours for several decades. It is quite a predictable development, one that is not necessarily inevitable, but I think you will see that the development of events will make itself advantageous to the Iranians for their own purposes. I will say no more than that. Thank you.
Closing statements by Monjoronson
MONJORONSON: This is Monjoronson. I speak with my team members beside me that we are most pleased with the development of your discussion about the inner-workings of the team. We have proceeded over the months in the last two or three years, of going from the outside, global perspective of social sustainability and healing your world, to the dynamics of workshops to teach people about these topics and now to the mechanism of the team and the team members in their roles, and now we have gotten to the inner-workings of the spiritual/emotional/social/mental and even physical developments within a team that affect the outworking of the team in its productiveness. These are essential to the full working of our plans.
You will find that any work further from here must be dealt with in pragmatic terms with operational teams in place. We were most willing to clarify any points that you wish, but if you look at the overall progress of our discussions in the last three years, you will see a very, very clear V-shaped pattern where the breadth of the V, the open end, has encompassed everything that we began discussing 3-5 years before, and now we are at the point where we have discussed almost everything, and it is now time to go to work. Know that we will assist you—meaning each individual in each team that comes together—in these purposes. It is important that teams see themselves as ongoing, as functional and as making positive contributions. You can do this in the isolation and insulation of your local community at this time, quite productively, as you learn the inner processes and workings of your team, and how to become productive.
You have no need to be concerned about the collective productiveness of numerous teams, or bringing their products and services together to a new focus. That is for a future time when those developments are needed. You do not need to divert your attention to the future, but focus on the moment “now,” where these principles and lessons can be put to work to bring about local teams who are interested in working with and for Christ Michael in the healing of this world, which will also make a huge contribution to the healing of the other thirty-some planets which were in rebellion. Remember, that your products here will not be forgotten, and they will be useful on the other planets. The progress you make here may be of paramount importance on another planet, to which you have absolutely no knowledge.
Also remember that you do not work alone — you work with us. When we work with you and you are committed to working with us, then we work as a unit, and if one of our limbs is numb and sleeping, we will bring attention to it and say, “Wake up! Pay attention! Let’s go to work.” Know that you are surrounded by love—this is not just work, it is also play—play as you learn to work with each other in these daily activities, and in this play you learn to become more whole and complete in your being. You will work in ways which will contribute to your morontial development, because you will be in teams—very similar teams with the same inner-workings of the teams as you are in now. The topics we have discussed today of the inner-workings of the minds and personalities in the teams, and the team itself, will be primary and essential to your understanding in participating effectively in your morontial teams. Good day.
(Group gives thanks.)
