2020-07-27. Education, Social Institutions, Spirituality, Core Values, Viruses.
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New Era Transition – NET #96
– (Find this and previous NETs at: https://bigmacspeaks.life/)
– To attend these sessions live contact JT at Up**********@gm***.com
Machiventa Melchizedek, Planetary Manager
Topics:
Opportunity and success in difficult times
Stubbornness
Opportunities for improving educational system
Acquiring wisdom
A new (magenta) hat—size normal
Verne Grimsley and the Family of God
Reforming the educational system—intention and values
Two levels of morality
The democratic process as a social institution—Core values
Developing workable solutions for improving social institutions—religion, education, democratic process, and family
Machiventa today
Time frame of pandemic—many variables
Government overreach—local and global responses
Wall of mothers
Inflection points and the Urantia Book
Injecting the 7 Core Values into casual conversations
A coy question
Truth, Beauty, and Goodness—Love, Mercy, and Ministry
Spiritual intuition, spiritual reason, and spiritual philosophy
Evolution of viruses
Decimal planets—laboratories for spiritual growth. You are making progress.
TR: Daniel Raphael, PhD
Participants from: Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela. If I missed your country, please let me (JT) know at Up**********@gm***.com
Invocation: Daniel
2020-07(July)-27
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Opportunity and success in difficult times.
Machiventa. Good morning my friends. This is Machiventa Melchizedek, and I am reveling in the brightness of your smiles, the radiance of your personalities, and the God presence within you. Thank you.
Today we engage you in some of the traumatic realities of your world. However traumatic as they may be, there is always the option for progress, for positiveness, for a beneficent realization of the possibilities that surround us, that surround you. You are the ones who will be engaging this future of your world. You will be the ones who will be making the future happen in the situation you call today. And so, we strive to educate you, teach you, train you, and to bring you along through the difficult times and to enjoy the times when there is no tumult, when there are no great tragedies in the world. As you have read, and we have told you many times, the greatest tragedy of human life is to not have had any difficulties in life. To have what you would call a gifted life of no troubles is the cause of tremendous retardation, spiritually, of those newcomers to the morontial worlds—to the training worlds that you will eventually cross over to.
Those of you who are now going through these great difficulties in your world are being well prepared to appreciate and enjoy your new circumstances in the morontial realm. You will not remember those tragedies that are so personal, and that are so great in your life now that will have no positive consequence in your morontial life. It is important that you bring with you the lessons that you need to review—the lessons that you failed to accomplish and work through during your mortal lifetime. When you now as mortals see your life experience as a pre-school, as an arrangement of circumstances that confront you for developing solutions to problems, then you will have a much better appreciation of those difficulties around you—that they are not totally insurmountable—but they are capable of being overcome by you, particularly so when you ask for the revelations of your Thought Adjuster and your celestial, unseen friends.
They are here to assist you through these difficult times so that you are able to learn something positive from those troubling times. It is important that, as you engage these difficulties, you have the attitude that you have the capability and the wherewithal—the internal fortitude—to overcome these problems. And particularly so when you know that you have a Thought Adjuster and celestial teachers who want you to succeed through these difficult times, and that they are there to assist you in the ideation of solution finding within your mind. When you have this perspective, then you are ready to receive the bounty of solutions which you had never thought of before. And yes, they might come through to you as an aha moment—that spontaneous sudden insight of problem solving or working through something that had been pending for a long time. You are worthy and deserving of all the assistance that we can give you. Are you open to receiving your own worthiness to receive answers? You provide the seedbed for the solutions that you seek.
Stubbornness.
As you live your daily lives now through this Covid-19 virus pandemic that has gripped your world, you are seeing the difficulties of national and local governance. Whether it is in totalitarian nations or whether it is in democratic nations, there is a certain tension of humanness that is stubborn. We have spoken of this a number of times before, and the stubbornness runs through your species. In many ways this is a wonderful trait to have because it gives you perseverance. It can give you patience (if you’re wise enough to appreciate that), and it gives you the stick-to-it-ness, the persistence, perseverance, the willingness, and the willfulness to overcome problems. The difficulty arises when you are too willful and want to have the solutions your way rather than working with other people and the solutions that benefit all of you.
Opportunities for improving educational system.
I now turn our attention to your educational system. In reality, it is not a system. It is simply a linear process of one step following another leading to another and so on. It is not necessary that there is progress involved. There is simply the rote learning and the accomplishment of tasks. As many of you who are late comers in having children or you are early grandparents and you reflect upon your own experiences in public education, and now reflect upon how your grandchildren or great-grandchildren are being educated, you may come away from that thinking that your world, your democracy, your society is truly crumbling from within. The missing element will cut right through those difficulties as we have discussed them previously.
The difficulty is in teaching children how to have self-discipline. When parents and grandparents who have no self-discipline and they have children and grandchildren, how is it that they can give the children the most important ingredient in becoming a productive adult? That is, how do you teach self-confidence? How do you teach individuals to know that they have within themselves the capability of overcoming problems? That is something that has yet to be instilled into the public education process.
Many private educational facilities and organizations do teach self-confidence and know how to develop self-confidence in children. This is a vital ingredient to leadership. It is a vital ingredient for capable and competent followers—those who can make meaningful contributions to leadership and to the organization. Self-confidence is a commodity that cannot be bought. It cannot be put into a container and sold. It is something that is learned bit by bit as one goes through life.
And sometimes it is those small pieces of wisdom are what grandparents give to their grandchildren that are of assistance to the children to gain self-confidence—the encouragement to say “You can do this. You have the resources in yourself to do this. Let me give you a start.” And then the process begins in building self-confidence. That is the means by which the self-capability can be explored and discovered. Being capable means that you have the potential to become able. To become capable means that you have the realization, the consciousness that you are able to overcome problems. Do you see the connection? We hope you do.
It is important that the future generations have the same kinds of strengths and propensities to overcome problems as those generations 200 years ago. Those were people who lived in daily circumstances that were challenging, and often times challenging to the death. It is important that children understand their tremendous strength and capability to overcome many problems their parents have not been able to learn themselves. For children to be able to look at themselves as an independent person—an independent being—that one day they will be adult, and that now they are children, children who have the consciousness to understand that they are children, and the consciousness to understand that they will be adults, and some of them may be parents, and hopefully when they do become parents, they will be fully capable of teaching their own children self-confidence and the ability to trust themselves to find solutions. Thank you.
Acquiring wisdom.
Liz. Good morning Machiventa. It’s great to be with you today. In researching philosophy for this new educational organization, the definition that I found most interesting and confounding is that philosophy is the search for wisdom. I always thought wisdom came with reflecting on our various experiences, not as the result of an active search, but then, perhaps, not everybody reflects on their experiences, so wisdom eludes them. Could you speak to this please, this search for wisdom?
Machiventa. Certainly. First, and second, wisdom is gotten by reflecting on experiences—that’s true. And any person who has an experience, wonders about it, and asks the question “Well, what was that all about?” has the beginning elements of gaining wisdom. And that requires, for the individual, a discourse with themselves, a process of discerning the different facets of an experience. There are far more sides to an experience that are just yes or no, or plus and minus, or light and dark. There are many other facets to the consideration of an experience. As far as philosophy is concerned, that definition is correct.
What is required for philosophers to gain wisdom through a philosophical discussion, is to reflect with another individual about that experience or that topic of consideration of examination between at least two people who are philosophizing. So, they can think of education as a means to gain wisdom and experience in an educational setting. What standard public education has not done is to reflect upon—philosophize about—what it is about public education that is needed. Now, as you see in my statement here, I have turned the conversation around to an examination of public education. This is simply a philosophical tactic that one can use with themselves or another person to examine the educational process. So, wisdom is to be gotten in many ways, and it is most effectively gotten by thinking and questioning one’s thoughts.
When you examine your own thinking, you say: “Well, where did this thought come from? From whom did I hear that before? And what is the wisdom in that?” And children begin to do this as they examine the statements that they learn from their parents, and they wonder what they have learned from the parents. And they ask, “What is the wisdom of that? Why would I need to know that? How will this be useful?” This One can remember asking the same questions of his parents, “Why would I need to know that?” Well, that’s the entry point for a good philosophical discussion between parents and the child. And, hopefully, the parents can be grounded enough to be able to engage answering the question for the child. Do these answers suffice for your question?
A new (magenta) hat—size normal.
Liz. Yes, thank you very much. I understand completely what you are saying, and it makes a lot of sense to me. On a completely different topic, I have acquired an amazing skein of magenta yarn, and I thought I would knit you a hat unless you would prefer a scarf.
Machiventa. One moment. I have to consider that I lived in the desert with the Bedouins for almost 100 years, and, thinking about the cold nights, my preference would be for a hat please.
Liz. Alright, I’ll try to make one that I assume will fit you as you are larger than the normal humans. Excellent.
Machiventa. Please make it the size for a normal human head.
Liz. I will. Thank you very much.
Machiventa. Thank you.
Jeff. Good morning Machiventa. I hope that I am here to see you in your new hat.
Machiventa. As do I. That would be magnificent.
Verne Grimsley and the Family of God.
Jeff. Well, both Liz and I were hoping to serve you something with peaches in it, but I think a hat is more appropriate. Several weeks ago, you encouraged Liz to consider establishing a new religion, and I’ve been thinking about that and what I could do to aid in that, although I told Liz privately that I didn’t think I was particularly qualified to help. But I do have a question for you if I may. This relates to Verne Grimsley and the Family of God in the bay area (San Francisco) a number of years ago. Several of us on this call, I think, are roughly familiar with what happened there. My question is: are there any specific lessons from that experience that you might suggest we look at carefully in this new endeavor to start a religion?
Machiventa. Yes, certainly, and thank you for your question. The first major concern we have is that T/Ring or channeling, [revelation], become a part of that religion. And the second statement is that you not do this alone, but that you have an audience. And that this become a process of inquiry. As we have a question and answer time now during these sessions between you, me, and the audience [so should] you have the same process in place. What you will find is that T/Ring alone by the individual can lead to a wrongful ideation. That this is a self-feedback system where the individual who is unaware of their own thinking, their own prejudices, and particularly their own assumptions can lead themselves into a false thinking.
Thinking that they are hearing and listening to a celestial being when in fact it is not. This is an important validating process that must be in place whenever T/Ring or channeling is involved—particularly where others will be reading the material. Validation of the process is important, and you begin to realize the validation process can be quite difficult, tiresome, and challenging to personalities who are self-appointed authorities—meaning they are authorities unto their own right and because they think they are right. This is a very dangerous situation to occur and this has happened to more people than you realize; whether it was Vern Grimsley or some of the prophet-speakers in the last two centuries or so. Does this help?
Jeff. Yes, thank you very much.
Walt. Machiventa, I am just gleefully grateful at this marvelous opportunity. I do not take it for granted no matter how many times we do it. I am thankful to you and the Father for this wonderful opportunity that we mortals get to interface with spirit from the Light in this fashion. Now for my question.
Reforming the educational system—intention and values.
You discussed the educational system which I am very intrigued about because you seem to be suggesting that a key failing in the public educational system is the lack of instilling self-confidence in students. It seems like a big topic and I’m wondering where to begin. What first steps, what first, concrete steps should be taken in order to address this large issue?
Machiventa. Certainly. I thank you for your question as it dovetails so well with the assignment to Liz to develop a religion. What is inherent in developing a functional social institution (as education is a social institution, as is healthcare, and so is religion)? It is important that, when you design and you want to invent a new religion or a new educational system, that you begin with an intention. What is the intention for public education? And in that question, it raises the point that public education is not just for this generation, but for all future generations. As you look back over the last 200 years of American culture, you see that education has changed, and it as a culture has changed. Unfortunately, the intention of education has never been very clear—not clear enough to sustain future generations for receiving effective public education.
If you study cultures, without too much detail, you will realize and come to learn very quickly, that at the core of every culture there is a set of values that define that culture. As you realize from observing and studying American education, that, as a culture, it came into existence rather spontaneously. And yes, you know, we know, that John Dewey did design an intention into American education which has long since outworn its usefulness. Education then was to prepare people to become competent and capable employees (workers) in American Industry. That has long since outworn its usefulness and needs to be expanded greatly.
So, whether it’s a religion, as Liz is working on, or whether it’s an educational system that you might want to work on Walt, you want to include a philosophical basis for this culture. And you want to be able to put yourself in the future, let’s say, 80 years from now, and as you look back from that 80 years ahead you say: “These things that we designed into a public education are wonderful. They are still applicable today and will be applicable 80 years from now as well.” And so, you begin to look at the larger picture of society. You then get into the philosophical and moral arguments about public education as something that is useful to all future generations.
Now, when I say moral and philosophical together, I truly mean that. There must be more than one level of morality and more than one level of philosophical education discussion to really account for the usefulness of education to a nation and to individuals. One level of morality looks to the morality codes of individual decision making as they relate to—and in their interplay with—other people. In education, you look to education as useful to the individual child who grows up to be an individual in their society, then you would ask, how has public education been useful to that individual?
But when you are looking at the societal, moral level of this discussion, you realize that education has a far broader usefulness and scope than just the individual. You’re really talking about seeing the potential of a whole society of millions of people being unlocked by education, so that the society and nation becomes more capable to sustain itself. What is more important than that, is that [by unlocking] the innate potential of a group of individual citizens, the collective potential of that society is unlocked as well.
Two levels of morality.
On the moral level, it is important that moral decision-making be at two levels. One is [at] the level of the individual, and the second is at the societal level. Societal morality is highly important in the decision-making process for individuals to consider, families to consider, parents to consider, and as the individual grows up. This has not been developed or explored in 21st century societies and has not been explored in democratic nations to date. There is still the fog of thinking about morality as individual, yet there is an extreme need for a separate, second level of moral decision-making for national and societal level decision-making. Who makes those societal level decisions? Well, obviously, it would be the legislative branch as it proposes legislation, the societal level of morality in the judgments of courts, in executive branch decisions, plus hundreds of other society-level decision-making bodies and agencies.
I’ve gone way far from answering your question and provided you with tremendously more information, but, my friend, whether it’s education or religion, you want to start with core values, and you want to start with core intentions of those social institutions. We do not suggest that you look to the historic record for the values and philosophies of historic education and religion, but look to the religion of values that you find in the Urantia Book and through the highest thoughts of classical thinkers in education. You will find much to help you along the way. Thank you.
The democratic process as a social institution—Core values.
Walt. Thank you so much Machiventa. What you have said has been supremely insightful especially when you mention national morality and certainly what you have done, especially for me, which I hadn’t considered before, is one has to begin with intention to begin with, and look at purpose, core values, and what the long-term objectives are. So, there are a lot of pieces of the puzzle that I had not considered before. You said something in regard to who gets to decide or put together this kind of perspective of national morality and you mentioned legislative. It seems as if what you have laid out is the vision for developing a new educational system, but as you have laid it out, it seems as if there isn’t a way to impact that within our current system. I mean, I still do not know how we even begin that discussion within the relevant bodies—the legislature. What actions can be taken to actually start a discussion among those who can actually drive the process forward in concrete ways such as government?
Machiventa. I am so thankful for your question and your statement. This leads me into the next part—the democratic process is a social institution. Do not ever forget that. And that the democratic process is at the heart of every democracy—philosophically, operationally, and so on. If you want to design a new democratic process, a new social institution that enhances the best aspects of the democratic process and the principles of democracy, then you would also want to look at the core values. What would the core values be in an advanced or developed democracy? What would be the legislative process that would give it empowerment to consider developing guidelines for the courts?
How would you do that? Obviously, you know, and I know, Walt, that the current democratic process is defunct. It is corrupted. It does not work, it does not produce, it is not supportive of the future of democracy of this nation or any other nation. And in fact, the people who are the original authority of a democracy’s establishment must now come forward to develop, devise, and design a new form of democracy. You have many resources to draw upon and once this session is completed, I ask you to be in contact with This One who has the materials you may want to read and look at.
Developing workable solutions for improving social institutions—religion, education, democratic process, and family.
As you see through this discussion, Walt, we have been discussing religions, education, and the democratic process. We have all along through the Teaching Mission been discussing the family as the original social institution. So, therein we have four social institutions we have been discussing and which need to be worked on, need to have thoughtful design teams to examine, and develop workable solutions that will be so desperately needed once the pandemic has wreaked its havoc. So, do you see where we’re going with all this?
Walt. I surely do. It actually seems as if, before we can even get to the stage of looking at redesign as a society, we have to come to a place of sufficient desperation to realize that this is not working—we need to change. And until we get there, we will not be able to make headway in this direction.
Machiventa. However, and there is a “big however” to this Walt, and to Liz, and to Jeff, and that is there must be advanced thinking done by individuals who are concerned about this situation. You do not have to be genius individuals to do this advanced work, but you do need to be sincere, you must be heartfelt, and you must think in terms of future generations who will have to live with your suggestions and solutions.
Walt. Well, thank you so much Machiventa, because that last statement makes me feel like you are saying that even if there isn’t today the opportunity to begin this discussion, that the work must be done now in advance so that when the opportunity arises—when people are sufficiently hungry—that pre-work can then be acted upon.
Machiventa. You are correct, and we want to encourage rational thinking and rational solutions.
We want to have rational thinking involved so that future generations can live with the solutions that you suggest. When we/you see the media talking about “Black Lives Matter” and the business about the man who was killed under the knee of a police officer, when you see the riots and protests in Portland, Oregon and elsewhere across the world, you are seeing symptoms of dis-ease. People are disgruntled, they are unhappy, they don’t like the present situation, they see that it is not working, and as it is not working it does not satisfy their needs at the deepest level of individuals, families, and in their societies and communities.
Walt. I am so grateful. Thank you so much Machiventa. This has been a breakthrough for me and my thinking. Thank you.
Machiventa. You are most welcome.
Machiventa today
JT. Well, Machiventa, we haven’t had Stéphane with us in a while so I’m going to take up his baton and ask: How are you today?
Machiventa. This is Machiventa. Thank you for the splash of humor. That is greatly appreciated. And as Machiventa Melchizedek, your planetary manager and the leader of my Melchizedek team with many others, we are in fact in a grand state today. We have seen some developments coming along [for which] we have been waiting many decades, and which we have been preparing for, and which we have been working what you call the “setup” for the entrance of some solutions which were unexpected and unanticipated by mortals on your world. We are delighted to see these co-creative developments though, in many cases, these are unappreciated and unrecognized by mortals who are, in fact, our co-creative partners in some of these schemes, these plans, these developments, and these designs. It is our great joy to share these with you, and we will disclose them fully when the time comes to be shared in a way that you can appreciate, recognize, and know that someone else is helping you besides your elected officials.
Time frame of pandemic—many variables.
Craig. I have two questions. The first one is a little off our present topics, but I remember it seems to me that I was hearing that the pandemic would run its course probably by 2050 and that we might get down to around 2 billion people by then. But I think in the last session I heard you say it might take 50 or 100 years for the population reduction to occur. Have I misunderstood something, or has there been a change perhaps? Has the present epidemic caused people to be more appreciative and more understanding and might [we] outlast another epidemic longer?
Machiventa. Thank you for your question. When we give you vast spaces of 50-100 years—in terms of decades—this is to let you know that there are many variables that are involved in the final outcome. This current pandemic (which is not the last pandemic) is one that will circulate around in your world for many years. It will take at least fifty years for it to come to a conclusion—much as rubella and smallpox have been tamed, yet still are not fully sequestered or removed from your planet. These viruses are dangerous, they are such that they can morph in time and lay dormant for decades before resurrecting again in some alternate form. That is what makes them so dangerous.
You have also to wait for the maturation of virology and epidemiology and those related fields to become more mature. Also, mortal laboratories that are working on antiserums are still quite primitive, uninformed, uneducated, and not mature. The speed at which they are progressing is remarkable to us as now they are cooperating. There is more to be gained by joining ranks, joining energies and systems of laboratory procedures to gain control over these viruses and so forth. It is something that can be overcome.
Were you to be alive 50-75 years from now, you would see that these problems are simply passé—that your laboratories will have come to understand the basics of virology and the problem with viruses that makes them so hostile, what makes them so dangerous, and what allows you (meaning the laboratories) to gain control of them in the public. So, when we say 50-100 years from now, it truly depends on the progress of your sciences, it depends upon the isolationism of certain cultures and nations who seek to control others even by such despicable means as releasing viruses and bacteria into the population of the world. So, we ask you to abide with us in patience and realize that all the answers are not readily apparent even to us at this time.
Government overreach—local and global responses.
Craig. OK. Thank you very much. The second topic is: I was watching a video by John Stossel who uncovers many unpleasant things being done today and reports on them. It was on abuse and overreach by governmental authority. And I was thinking that maybe you know, when an individual is asked to do something outrageous by other individuals or by a company, they have recourse to complain about it to the government, but when the abuse is by the government, they have no apparent recourse. They just have to put up and shut up, and it sometimes disrupts lives and plans and I was thinking that maybe what is needed is something like a body, something like a board of variance of a municipality where it’s a board of grievance or a grievance panel that the citizen can go to and it may be volunteer citizens on this panel, and they can listen to the grievance and decide if it’s warranted.
Maybe the government is misapplying a law or bylaw in a situation that’s just working harm and perhaps recommend that the government stop whatever process they’re enacting against this person and maybe refund any fines they’ve collected off him and perhaps even pay recompense if that seems warranted. And that then that body, if the government objected to that process, to their decision, only then it would go to court. I have the feeling that just such a process being available would stop most of the abuses. I’m just wondering what you might think of that.
Machiventa. I’m in agreement with the rest of my team here that we applaud that idea, and we say bravo. What I see in what you’re saying is that there would be a world class body of individuals on the scale of the Hague and the World Court deciding issues within democratic nations. What is needed to make that applicable, useful, and practical is a set of ultimate values that could be used as guidelines for this court’s work. Also, behind that, or in front of that, is you would need an ethic and morality that are based on those values to make good decisions that would be applicable across the board to all democracies.
What you are really talking about is a board that has a way of assisting the social institution of the democratic process to evolve. What you have proposed is a very advanced idea—one that surely will take form in the future. When that occurs is unknown, but the sooner the better as far as we are concerned. The immaturity of these Stage 1 and Stage 2 democracies ‡ that exist now are primitive, and there is a great need for democratic process to progress and evolve. If you read the material that This One has written about the various stages of democracy, you will see that the mature democracies of wealthy nations are Stage 2 democracies that have a tremendous need to evolve to Stage 3 democracies which gives more power and authority to the public—to citizens—that is also well balanced and reasoned.
There is much to say about this, but we are very heartened by your idea, because this is an idea of consciousness that is capable of being shared with others across the world in each democracy. We thank you so much for your question.
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‡ See, The Progressive’s Handbook for Reframing Democratic Values.
Particularly see, Chapter 14, p 113, “Comparing the Characteristics of Stage 2 Democracies to Stage 3 Democracies.”; https://sites.google.com/view/danielraphael/free-downloads
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Wall of mothers.
Craig. Ok, thank you very much. I had in mind more of a small, local body, but I could also see where it would go into what you’re talking about like a very much larger body that is respondent to larger social issues as well.
Machiventa. Then I have one local solution to you which has already been tried, and which has been very successful. It’s the one that has been called a “Wall of Mothers.” So that you have a wall of women who are mothers and those who are not mothers, who have concern for the generations, to come forward and present themselves as a wall—an impregnable wall—to the police as occurred in Portland, Oregon recently.
Craig. Thank you very much.
Inflection points and the Urantia Book.
Geoff. Good day Machiventa, this is Geoff of South Wales. Thank you for your wonderful presentation today, and answers to questions. It’s indeed a privilege to address you in this informal fashion. If I could begin by just giving a shoutout to the religion of Jesus as opposed to the religion about him, I think it would be a good place for Liz to start. Perhaps I’m out of my depth there. In Paper 118:1.5 (1295.5) of the Urantia Book on Time and Eternity it is stated “In the maturity of the developing self, the past and future are brought together to illuminate the true meaning of the present.”
And I was struck by how this seems to relate directly to what was being referred to in NET #95 as the inflection point that we are now living in. So, it brought home to me the extraordinary opportunity we are being offered to participate consciously in this process, and to receive the blessings that would naturally flow from that commitment, but also the ponderous responsibility to seize the moment with prompt and conscious action.
Injecting the 7 Core Values into casual conversations.
So, my question, along more pragmatic lines is: If we earnestly pray for positive outcomes and the highest good for all concerned, and we apply ourselves diligently to being the change that we would like to see in those areas over which we do have actual influence (which may include education, health, or horticulture as it is in my case,) is it also necessary for us to specifically cite the 7 Core Values in informal conversations, or will it sometimes suffice to suggest events and to model these values as best we can, so that others may themselves begin to question their own accepted modes of thought and behavior?
Machiventa. Thank you for your question and thank you for being here with us today. In the situation you mention you need not mention the 7 Core Values all the time but use them as reinforcements to right decision-making. And the point of discussion—of sharing or not sharing—comes about when you use the ethics and morality for making decisions. And someone may challenge you, Geoff, and say “Well, what makes that right?” And then you can say: “Well, these are the values that are innate to us humans, and that these have sufficed for 200,000 years to see us through to survive today. And that ethically and morally that these values (the ethics and morality) guide us to make decisions with these values that underlie those decisions.”
It really is quite as simple as that Geoff. that you are eventually going to have to make decisions, and with horticulture, gardening, and so on people will ask you, will challenge you and say, “I want my own garden. I don’t want a communal garden. Why do we have to have communal gardens anyhow?” And so, you will use your ethics and morality that stem from these 7 Values to make a rational answer. One that would be reasonable to yourself, the other person, and to people who may read about your answer decades from now. Do you see how this works?
Geoff. Yes, I do, I do entirely, and I find that you are validating such small attempts that I am making, and so I really appreciate that. Thank you very much.
Machiventa. You are most welcome.
A coy question.
Bob. I would like to answer a question that’s kind of general, but I think important. What types of questions would you, Machiventa, like us to ask to learn important things you wanted to teach us? Could you give us a few examples please?
Machiventa. Well, thank you for your coy question. It is one in which we would be self-defeating by answering your question. The obvious answers include that you know already. How do you become a child of God? How do you become a child of Jesus? How do you become an individual who can walk the truth that Jesus walked? How do you become an individual who lives their faith? and so on. The core and heart of what you are asking is that you really want to know how to integrate your spiritual inclinations and beliefs with your pragmatic living day to day, and this is the heart of our work. And it is through this same process that the Days of Light and Life will come to your world, and that individuals who ask questions along those lines will be the ones who empower the Days of Light and Life for their children and their great-great-great-great grandchildren.
Bob: I think you answered the question.
Truth, Beauty, and Goodness—Love, Mercy, and Ministry.
Liz. I hadn’t intended to ask this question because I haven’t formulated the question, but our discussion today brings it up because it seems to be pertinent, particularly with what you and Walt were talking about. The Urantia Book speaks much about truth, beauty, and goodness, and those seem to be concepts. Well, somehow, I have equated those (I don’t know if this is in the Urantia Book or if I made it up—I don’t know if it’s valid), but I have equated those with love, mercy, and ministry [Urantia Book Foreword 0:1.17 (3.4) per Liz in post-meeting correspondence] as corresponding actions to truth, beauty, and goodness. So, in other words, to my mind, if you seek truth, then you live your life in love. And there is nothing more beautiful than being merciful, and the very heart of goodness is ministering to one another.
Now, I don’t know if this is true or accurate. I don’t know where I got it. I may have gotten it from the Urantia Book, but I don’t know. [JT: see above.] So, could you speak to this please?
Machiventa. Congratulations dear. You have hit upon some of the truths that pervade life as a mortal who is becoming spiritual. You have to walk the talk, you have to live the word, you have to share and love others in reality to make these principles real in your world for yourself and for others. And this is the only way in which your world will evolve socially to become a planet that is embraced fully and a planet that also embraces the planetary brotherhood of all inhabited planets. Thank you.
Liz. Well, thank you. So, this then is a blueprint.
Machiventa. Yes.
Liz. Thank you very much Machiventa. I appreciate that. I have puzzled over that for quite some time and, in fact, I’ve made a grand assumption about that, and I’ve repeated it often over the years. And to have it validated is good. Thank you very much.
Machiventa. You are most welcome.
Spiritual intuition, spiritual reason, and spiritual philosophy.
Richard. This is related to my interest in wisdom and philosophy. In the Urantia Book 101:3.2 it talks about faith-insight, or spiritual intuition, spiritual reason and soul intelligence and spiritual philosophy, the wisdom of spirit realities, and the coordination and inter-association of these spirit endowments constitute man a spirit personality in potential destiny. So, I’m wondering what these distinctions refer to and how we can operationalize them in our own lives. What is spiritual intuition, spiritual reason, and spiritual philosophy?
Machiventa. Thank you for you question. As you may surmise, these words refer to the parallels that exist in mortal minds—intuition, reason, and so on. These are the levels of morontial thinking, reasoning, and philosophizing that you will engage in in your early classroom work in the planetary schools. You are being teased by the writer—by the author of those words—to consider these things, and to then, for instance, as spiritual intuition, you would want to intuit the combination of spiritual reasoning and spiritual logic in a way that would lead you to a spiritual insight—one that did not exist before, and that you intuit this answer not through a mechanical means, but through the evolving spiritual awakening of your morontial mind.
You are really being confronted with the development of your super-conscious mind. This is existent in you at this time in initial, elementary, embryonic ways in your mind just as the morontial mind is also being awakened in your mind now. You and others who aspire to these levels of thought, of philosophizing, of thinking, of insight, intuition, and wisdom are the ones who are making progress in other fields of your mortal lifetime. Whether you are an engineer, or whether you are a social anthropologist, or many other fields, you can begin to discuss your spiritual awakening with yourself, think with yourself, and others at your level of awakening to discover insights and valuable new wisdoms that are coming to you. It is difficult to discuss this in much detail with you as the spiritual database of This One is not very well developed or existent. We apologize for that lack.
You are also broaching a topic that will also expand the databases for your understanding and others as well. It is important that this expansion be undertaken. These are not topics that you would want to entertain in an academic setting, however, you would want to entertain these topics with others who are spiritually evolved as yourself, and who are curious to know what is before them once they cross over into the morontial realm. This is good hobby work.
This is good coffee-time talk if you want or teatime where you would sit around with friends and discuss this quite earnestly and very sincerely and deeply to discover the truth that may be there. Of course, we advise you as well to go into those quiet times of reflection intentionally, by yourself or with others, during this group meeting to receive the download from your Thought Adjuster and from your celestial teachers who are with you even now. There is much benefit to times of quiet, times of spiritual reflection rather than pursuing [intellectual] answers. That may seem rather absurd, but sometimes intelligence works against your spiritual evolution.
Evolution of viruses.
Raymon. Good afternoon Machiventa. I have a quick question about the virus. You talked about it being around for years and years in a dormant state. Does the DNA of the virus as it lays dormant running something similar to a timer to signal activation, or is it activated by some other natural or other type of signal?
Machiventa. One moment. What is remarkable about viruses and bacteria (but particularly with viruses) is that they behave in certain ways—certain ways that are similar to human DNA. There are, as you know and we have suggested, latent programs within DNA that will come forward as there is an environmental need for that program to come forward. This is in the progressive evolution of the human genome and outwardly the human species as it undergoes these subtle changes. As you know as well, there are devolutionary influences that can come into play on the human genome.
This also works within the virus structures. They have within them latent programs. It is much like playing with Legos—they can be put together in different ways to perform in different manners which will be expressed in reality. Some of those will be successful, and many will not be. Just as there is within the human genome the program to survive—to continue the species, so too there is within the virus similar programs. It is at this level that your virologists must come to bear upon to begin to decrease the viability of the virus. That is part of the secret of successful virology. I have answered your question indirectly. That, yes, there are mechanisms within a virus to progress, to evolve, and that they are latent. And that when there are circumstances which allow it to come forward, then it will. The drive to survive is no different at the level of virus than it is within the level of your species. We hope that this answers most of your question.
JT. We are out of time Machiventa. Do you have a closing?
Decimal planets—laboratories for spiritual growth. You are making progress.
Machiventa. Yes. Christ Michael is a remarkable Creator Son. These experimental planets (decimal planets) are laboratories for spiritual growth. You are free agent control groups and experimental groups under observation by the Life Carriers, the Melchizedek’s, those teacher corps who observe the way your species is evolving, and under what influences do you progress spiritually and under what programs do you progress evolutionarily. It is important in our work in the Correcting Time that your species, which we call believers and you call yourselves believers, can grow and evolve and in which their faith and their trust and knowing is reinforced and expands and grows into the true knowing that you are sons and daughters of God. That you go beyond faith and belief into trust and then knowing. That you have the assurance that you are one with the Almighty, and that the One is with you in your lifetime as your Thought Adjuster and the God presence within you.
It is most difficult for individuals to live on a decimal world, and one which has been fraught with so much difficulty and so much evil intention by the spiritual managers of the past. You now are working co-creatively with us. You have that “spiritual genetics” as a backlog to overcome as well, besides growing as individuals and as spiritually believing societies and communities. The work on this planet is truly challenging—both as mortals and as your spiritual leaders, guides, and managers.
We know that we are making progress. We want to assure you that you are making progress, and that you, co-creatively with us, are making tremendous progress. We have no way of assuring you that is the truth, but you know that we work for Christ Michael and if you doubt us, you can ask him directly. And he will assure you as I assure you now that you are loved, you are wanted, you are needed, and that you are progressing—surely you are. Please be at peace, maintain your faith and your love of God—so strong within you. Good day.
