2021-02-25. Open Mind, Curiosity, and Wonder; Free Exchange of Ideas and Unity.
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Michael – February 25, 2021. – LLN #608
Michael – T/R – JL
(Staying open-minded through & after a crisis)
(Deadly effects of politicizing)
(Authoritative versus Democratic methods)
(The enormous value of trust & flexibility)
(Democracy depends on the free exchange of information)
(Your wealth in yourself, and each other)
(Recognizing everyone’s freewill)
(See, welcome, and enjoy human variety)
(Initiative, Referendum, and Recall)
(Unique individuals are God’s handiwork)
(Coming out of the past versus here-and-now)
(Where to find peace—and connection)
(Goodnight, Michael. We got it: open mind, curiosity, and wonder)
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[speaker]
Prayer. Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, It is so good to be here again with the two of you–our wonderful, spiritual parents. It helps us imagine just for a few delicious moments, what it must be to be a Creator Son and Daughter of God, and be responsible for, and responsive to our whole Local Universe. It helps us keep in mind that you are all around us. and even right within us as part of us. You often encourage us to have conversations with you right within our own hearts, and minds, and souls–open to your suggestions in our meditations.
We thank you, dear sweet ones, dear magnificent spiritual beings. You are God’s gift to us–Grandpa God’s and the Trinity’s giving you to us–your children–to be our closest spiritual parents. And so we thank the whole spiritual community for being such wonderful company. It is nice to be alone, and not be alone—both, and to have that choice. Thank you. Amen.
Michael. Good evening!–everyone right here with me tonight, and all those to come who will hear the wonderful recordings of our sessions together. Welcome too the great printed transcripts that a dear soul puts in her good work to disseminate.
It’s nice to know that these experiences are not only being treasured in your souls right now, but will also have their own electronic and physical existence on in time. It’s part of our celebration of this age you live in–this February, 2021, including these old-tech telephones we are using this evening. Mother Spirit and I are always delighted to talk with you this way, as well as individually within you.
Tonight I sense a desire for me to comment as much as I can, from my point of view, on these last few months of your being tried–both personally and as societies–all over the world–with this recent pandemic. It has been a trying time, not only for the million and a half poor souls who contracted the illness and perished because of it, but also the enormous isolation it caused as you separated from each other , trying your best to stop the spread of this disease. This isolation has had its own terrible cost in people’s minds, with worry and fear. It’s seared many a soul who had to lose their most beloved family members without the ability and the comfort to be close by.
(Staying open-minded through & after a crisis).
It is still not at all done yet, and so there is a continuing need to re-utilize what Mother Spirit and I have talked on so much. How do you become, and then stay open-minded?–especially when you are confronted with something “right out of the blue” like this.
I’m sure you are very much aware that across the world, from one country to another, and even right within countries, different states and regions have had an enormous variety of response to this pandemic. This is why there is a continuing need to be open-minded as you review all these different ways of confronting the virus. How affective–and why–have these different responses been?
Any review points at two great errors to avoid, both in your personal life, and as societies, reacting to this. The worst reaction is what you call prejudice–pre-judging something that is so deadly and terrible, and new. The other is a tendency to associate it with something else with which it has absolutely no relationship whatsoever. Different leaders of society, and different political groups started promulgating their own prejudiced response for or against some policy, based on something so silly as social standing.
(Deadly effects of politicizing).
Promoting policy based on political ideology caused–from Mother Spirit’s and my viewpoint–such a terrible and deadly price to be paid during this last pandemic. Everyone got so polarized, right off the bat, in terms of technique. Whereas staying open-minded to all the different ways that were being tried could have given everyone the greatest ability of all, my dear ones—Flex-ability! Some of the initial responses, to something coming right out of the blue, can be forgiven because your social and political leaders mistakenly associated it with other things that had no connection.
Now for each of you personally—which is the way Mother Spirit and I address you in these times we have together–being open to all points of view is the most critical thing because, both immediately and then carrying on, good information is itself the most valuable thing. Obviously, the most terrible thing is disinformation being promulgated for some social or political advantage—so very cruelly and callously.
Yet how do you avoid such a thing and continue to be open-minded to all the different points of view that are available through the dozens of different TV channels and internet all over the world? The only advice Mother Spirit and I can give you is: Develop a sense of, “How much of this is just pure, overly-emotional rhetoric? How much of this is only heat and hatred—with very little light? What are the facts?”
(Authoritative versus Democratic methods).
In the midst of the most irresponsible, adolescent, or even childish things—like “name-calling”–only you, yourself, can determine this distinction. Listen to all the different viewpoints and try to sift out for yourself: What are the facts here? This is especially critical in a dynamically changing situation like this. If we could generalize, Mother Spirit and I will always recommend that your societies tend towards truly democratic and transparent ways of exchanging information, rather than an authoritative/restricted, censored way. As we have said over and over again, we look for a de-centralization of authority! Just because there is such an enormous difference in every country from a large city where several hundred people are living in one multi-storied apartment building, to the small towns or out on the farms, there is an equally enormous difference in how people relate to each other, day-by-day, and even hour-by-hour.
This is why it is so destructive to promulgate some universal application for everybody, and then follow it up with the most severe punishments by law. The trouble with the authoritative approach is, not only is it overly broad in its application, but because the situation does change, the initial response can be disastrously wrong. Then there is the simple—but great–human temptation to appear to have been right all along. This leads—in an authoritatively controlled media—to the most extreme, even criminal measures to cover up what might have been a honest initial mistake.
And then to continue to promulgate that mistake, and punish any deviation from it? This is where democracy—trusting in the people themselves—as individuals–not seeing them in mass groupings but as unique personalities right from God, each with their own creative spirit—is so critical. Everyone needs to be encouraged to use their own creative spirituality to assess their individual situation—while being given the most unbiased, up-to-date, ever-changing information about the situation. From great city to small town, a truly democratic approach has this enormous quality of flexibility. It’s being able to keep up with new information as it is being discovered, rather than bound to some previous declaration for political expediency.
(The enormous value of trust & flexibility).
Think about this in terms of discovering who was most susceptible to the virus. It quickly changed from the young–who are usually the most vulnerable to the common yearly flu–to, in this case, older folks who were the most vulnerable. Think how ignoring, or outright denying, this early discovery lead to the enormous percentage of the deaths that have occurred with older folks being more or less kept together in places not designed for safe, preventative procedures.
This is why a democratic approach to things is always superior to an authoritative one, even, or especially in everyone’s normal day-to-day lives. Encourage everybody–every individual–be able-to-respond, especially in critical times like these. There will always be natural disasters like forest fires, or hurricanes, or earthquakes, where each individual’s response-ability is critical.
See this in each other. See each other as individuals with spiritual creativity. Little groups can form spontaneously, and wonderfully so, to take on emergencies. This is the great triumph of the human spirit, the ability Mother Spirit boosts, called the Mind/Spirit of Counsel—folks getting together to counsel/share information and experience, and help each other. The human Mind/Spirit of Counsel.
But that only comes about when people are not prejudiced or in denial, but open to each other. Let the best ideas rise in the group to be recognized and shared. Along these lines–the greatest dissemination of the broadest information–any censorship whatsoever has got to be the worst possible thing in these instances.
(Democracy depends on the free exchange of information).
Any person, or group of people–political or societal–who take upon themselves to censor what various viewpoints can be brought forth–is the very epitome of what it means to be un-democratic. True, lack of filtering out disinformation may lead to little firestorms of panic, but who is to do the filtering? Panic can be short-lived in the face of new information, compared to censorship that eliminates so many different points of view it only promulgates one narrow one that, over a long period of time, can be so destructive.
Hopefully as this pandemic comes to an end, Mother Spirit and I hope and pray there will be an open-minded investigation clear across the world into what worked and what didn’t. Did the issuing of top-down decrees, backed up by strict laws and punishment, work best? Or did the up-to-date dissemination of the latest discoveries, trusting people and encouraging them make mature decisions for themselves and their families? Which has proven the most rewarding and least destructive?
(Your wealth in yourself, and each other).
Your world went through a World War not too long ago with an enormous confrontation between authoritarian governments and more open societies and democracies. This same distinction applies in all aspects of your social and political lives, especially in how you see and relate to each as individuals, and not just as members one group or another. You are all God-created unique personal beings. This is your wealth in yourself, my dears. It is equally, if not more, your wealth in each other. That is up to you, especially in times of crisis, and how you have learned to react with each other.
Now if you have any questions or comments, this is your individual thing, and why it tickles Mother Spirit and me so much when we get to talk with you one-at-a-time. So go ahead.
Student #1: Hello. Well, it is about freewill isn’t it? What bothers me is thinking the virus is debilitating the whole body of God. Some have been sick for a long time-for nine months or so–and are not recovering. I wonder how this will affect the human species in the long run.
(Recognizing everyone’s freewill).
Michael: Well, my dear, about freewill, as I said tonight, use your freewill to stay open-minded in an ever changing situation to the different information you are presented with from your television stations and internet. Above all it is your need to grant everyone their freedom of expression, as Mother Spirit talked about last time. Yet for those with a totalitarian mentality, who don’t trust other individuals, they immediately start promulgating rules as if no one has the ability to decide things for themselves. So it is the granting of freewill to each other that makes all the difference with flexibility. Seeing each other as creative, spiritual beings is what makes all the difference in a crisis, whether a temporary natural disaster, or a disease..
Trust in each other and the truly scientific method of experimentation–staying open-minded to the results. Learn from this pandemic how to trust each other by disseminating the latest information as the situation matures and develops, never having to appear as always being right–clear to the point of censoring new information. That’s the authoritative way of approaching things.
(See, welcome, and enjoy human variety).
If societies continue to develop their democratic ways of living and respecting each other, seeing and enjoying all the variety, then there is great hope for the future, whatever emergency comes along. It will be so much less destructive than this one has been. This is why I said you have to carefully study which technique was truly the most beneficial, giving up any prejudice you might have before that evaluation.
Student: I don’t know how to change people’s minds so they won’t be totalitarian and want everything their way, and never admit to any mistakes.
(Initiative, Referendum, and Recall).
Michael: You know, my dear, this is where each individual must do their own best to exercise their political power. Do your best to make your representatives be responsive to you in all the different ways of doing this across the political spectrum. Get with your group and, like Mother Spirit and I said, share ideas. Go beyond your comfort zone of what is already familiar, and open yourself to all points of view. This is what gives you your greatest ability to respond. In the United States there is the process of initiative, a way to propose a new law and make sure it is voted on. There is also recall, a way of getting someone out of office if you don’t like the decisions they are making. Get rid of them this way, as well as with your periodic elections. Also, you can get rid of bad laws by the process of referendum.
Student: So, in other words, you are advising us to stay political?
Michael: Oh yes, my dear, you are already political. You are a member of a “polis.” Just be aware of the political dimensions of your lives, and those representatives above and all around you. It is truly “getting involved”–as you say, and taking responsibility for those who have, as Shakespeare wrote, “The insolence of office.” I think it was in Hamlet where he talks about the things that plague you among the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune—’The insolence of office.’” He meant those who may get into office by democratic ways, but then turn into petty tyrants.
Get rid of the bad laws and introduce a new law. This is the true sense of democracy with everybody being involved and making the formal part–the legislators, the governors, the president and so forth, be responsive. Unfortunately–generally speaking–history has shown the office holders are only as responsible to the people, as the people themselves demand. So if your officials are getting a little too insolent and dictatorial, get them out of there. Let someone else have a hand at it.
Student #1: OK, good. I think that is what we’re doing. Thank you.
(Unique individuals are God’s handiwork).
Michael: Thank you my dear. It is why a democracy that recognizes individuals–as individuals–is really seeing, and appreciating, and welcoming God’s handywork. Keep up the good fight for each other’s and your own freedom. It is always best done with a really open mind and a loving heart. Keep your mind and heart together and you can’t go wrong. I love you very much.
Student #2: Michael, what about a problem whose solution which requires a unified front?
Michael: Then unify.
Student #2: But what we’re seeing is a great deal of splintering. People aren’t unifying. They are exercising their individual free wills and so there is not a unified front, and the problem persists.
Michael: My son, I see your point, but from my point of view, there is enormous polarization now because people are not unified around particular policies, but more around emotional attachments to political parties and personalities. And because true racism is so recognizably despicable, it’s become an equally despicable political/social slur, much as being called a “communist” once was, devoid of any valid context. Meanwhile there are billions of dollars and hours being poured into organizations both economic, political, and social.
Student #2: Right. So, I guess that is my point. That to me is splintering, not unification. How do we unify behind a policy, as you say?
(Coming out of the past versus here-and-now).
Michael: When people cease to identify with the past of a party or situation and come up-to-date by seeing and discarding their narrow-minded prejudices. Positively, it’s their developing a genuine curiosity about different points of view. And, fortunately, a good, honest, transparent election can unify folks around the winner—though, as you have seen—not necessarily so.
Here is where democratic societies have evolved the need for not only majority rule, but also basic human minority rights. A great, terrible historical example of a majority terrorizing a minority is Nazi Germany, with all the attendant propaganda and censorship. This is the greatest danger to freedom of information, and why it is the first thing totalitarian governments do.
Well, my dears, it is getting late. I really must go, but I appreciate your questions, and your concern.
Student #2: Thank you very much.
Michael: Thank you. Once again Mother Spirit sends her love. She is right part of you, right there in your minds, and your hearts, and your souls. I bid you: Be in my peace—especially through all these tumultuous up and downs we kicked around tonight. Be at peace.
Student #2: Thank you. We are trying.
(Where to find peace—and connection).
Michael: Right. You can find it in your meditations. This is where God’s part of you can be heard. He is even a part of your soul and all you’ve been, so tune in from time to time and just wonder, “Hello, Father! What do you have for me–today?”
Student #2: Amen.
Michael: All my love. Good night.
(Goodnight, Michael. We got it: open mind, curiosity, and wonder.)
