2002-05-19 Self-Sustaining Intentional Communities
Rayson
– NOCO #17
– Self-Sustaining Intentional Communities
– May 19, 2002
Northern Colorado TeaM, Lesson #17
Loveland, Colorado
Topic: Self-sustaining, Intentional Communities
Broader definition of community
Families are the beginnings of new individuals, new souls
What family processes contribute to constructive growth of the soul?
The influence of grandparents on their grandchildren
Definition of community
The Tao of community and society
Your culture is less functional now than in the past and is detrimental to life
Sustaining intentional communities are necessary for quality of life
Good leadership is mandatory to sustain community
What is good leadership?
An intentional community is more than a planned neighborhood
Building individuals of soul survivable quality
Bringing a healthy community into existence
Invite a celestial community planner to assist
Why the urgency in building intentional communities?
Only in chaos will you find opportunity this great
Do not anticipate changes with fear, but with preparation
How will you contribute to your new society?
You cannot bury social issues but must face them
Addressing the individual’s capacity to contribute to the community
The goal of the educational system for the individual
Your societies are failing!
The waste of geniuses lacking morals and ethics, values and beliefs
A well designed, self-sustaining community can be replicated
This information will serve you as a Finaliter
Spending time constructively towards this work
What is needed to build an intentional community?
Replicating these communities
Need for spontaneous developments of intentional, self-sustaining communities
What place does religion have in these communities?
Destruction of the old school system before a new system is in place
It is a tragedy to waste or misdirect the growth potential of an individual
A global point of opportunity will be coming
Teacher: Rayson (T/R Daniel)
May 19, 2002
[[ Daniel: Let’s hook up to the Merkabah individually and as you do this, see yourself linking up through the Merkabah with others here in the group. See the Merkabah and the equatorial line that connects us all, the lines of latitude and longitude, and the orb of energy that fills a large space outside of us, way above the house and way below it. Make your statements concerning your intentions for being here, for making that connection, your sincerity, your invocation of energy, and your commitment. Also use this time to project healing energy to those who have healing energy needs for this, for their bodies, for their minds, for their emotions.
[Student makes a request for a 9-year-old neighbor girl needing a heart transplant. Other students make requests also.]]
And for those people whose lives, it appears, are in disarray, send them energy for “Divine Order and Sequence of Developments” for their lives, and for them to be aware of this. It is not just a matter of sending them this, or projecting order and right sequence of events in their lives, but an “opening of consciousness” in their minds to see this and accept it. They don’t have to necessarily be “conscious” of it, but to be “accepting” of the order, the right order of developments in their lives. Of course it is much more powerful if it is conscious and they “will” to agree to that. Bring your attention back to center, to the Merkabah.
Broader definition of community
RAYSON: Good afternoon, this is Rayson. Welcome, my friends, and as you know, I am most eager to begin today’s lesson. We will continue our discussion about community, it building upon the prior lessons and discussions about the inner healing of your lives. And I hope that you are still working your “sticky notes,” bringing to consciousness those issues you wish to remove, that you command to remove, and those qualities and values and beliefs you wish to, command to, be instilled and operant in your mind so that your lives become expressions of these new beliefs, and that the old beliefs are gone.
Families are the beginnings of new individuals, new souls
Community is the next step above family. Families are the points of issuance of new individuals, new beings, new souls; individuals who work together with their Thought Adjusters. Hopefully consciously, as the era of Correcting Time proceeds, more and more individuals will be working consciously with their Thought Adjuster. The family and the individual are rather a bit like the chicken and egg metaphor: Which comes first, do we heal the individual, or do we help heal the family, so that healed individuals come from the healed family and live in balance from the first days of their lives? We are very pragmatic in the Correcting Time and in this Teaching Mission effort, in that we address both. We have addressed you as individuals in prior sessions, in training and the experiences that we have had together.
What family processes contribute to constructive growth of the soul?
Most of you in this group are past the childbearing age, yet some of you can still bear children and raise them in a new way. You may still be raising children, and this new influence will have a positive effect upon them. And we hope that you would bring to bear upon those children your new beliefs and to instruct those children who are old enough to discuss these—what works and what does not work, and why. And of course, what works are those processes in the family that contribute to the positive, constructive growth of the soul, the individual personality, the consciousness of the individual to live “in the moment” with their Thought Adjuster, making conscious decisions for the direction of their life.
The influence of grandparents on their grandchildren
For those of you who are past the childbearing age, your children have gone on and you may become grandparents. And what a marvelous position you are in as grandparents, or grandparents-to-be. For you will have a tremendous influence upon the growth of these new children, your grandchildren, who come into their family, your family, for you can be a positive influence to the child, a loving positive influence to the child during those times when you are close to them. And in their immediate family, mother and father present, there are the ups and downs, the tugs and pulls, the disciplining, the loving, the caring and the direction, that is sometimes not easily taken by children. But love perseveres; and so parents, who give love in greater measure than discipline and direction, will always find their children present. But for the grandparent, what a wonderful occasion your lives have, and if you have no grandchildren then take on some! Whether they are your neighbors or some other children, you may offer to do daycare for mothers who work and who are not home for those hours after school. And you can be a positive, passive influence to these children, an example of right thinking, right acting, and right feeling. And then when they go home, do not discount that a couple of hours a day is of no consequence, for some of the most tremendous life changing events can occur in a very brief time.
Definition of community
And the wonderful water drop of love from grandparents is a smoothing agent to the rough side of children’s emotions and personalities as they come away from school and come away from homes that are fraught with difficulties and contention and competition, much of which is neither wanted nor desired by them. So in a way, you have begun to build a community. You as grandparents, grandparents-to-be are the first elements of an extended family, which is the beginning of clan, which is a beginning of community. Community, of course, involves people who are not “family,” but you behave towards them as though they were family, in an open, loving way. [(Ironically, in this nation and in many countries, many cultures, family is often times a difficult and non-supportive place in which to be – a relationship to escape.)]
So in community, new things happen. You have new, broader associations. What we wish you to do is think upon the community as a larger family of unrelated individuals, and behave accordingly, as though you were grandparents. Loving, caring, somewhat distant, but connected. Not aloof, ever, but connected. In community, this is where you build the processes of a larger society. If the community is positive, helpful and contributory to the growth of individuals and families, then you will have growth of more individuals and families that are positive, constructive and functional. (Of course there are always deviants, and we will discuss that in the future.)
The Tao of community and society
Always keep a positive influence in mind, thinking not in terms of “what I can get,” or “what I can give without return,” as though you must get your personal regard and love from others for doing things. No, that would be enmeshment on your part with a larger group of individuals to pay homage to you and appreciate you and accept you. Give with the assumption, the appreciation that you will be given back…sometime. As you have been taught many times in metaphysical churches and situations, you give sometimes without ever expecting return, for when you give to the universe, it returns to you. That’s how the universe works, it is continuous. It is “the flow,” and some of you call this the Tao. And there definitely is a Tao of community and of society.
And when cultures have this flow in them, always individuals giving, then there is always receiving. This is how a larger project in the community is achieved with the help of families and individuals — you volunteer. You may be a volunteer fireman; you may be a volunteer home economics agent, or family development and family operation agent in your community. We know this may sound foreign to you, but your society had these community action efforts during the Depression Era to assist individuals, and then was phased out for economic reasons by your governments. But these aids and supports should exist, must exist, to help pass on those skills that are inherent in operant, functional, contributory, constructive families and communities.
Your culture is less functional now than in the past and is detrimental to life
As we look upon your society and culture, and your culture now pervades Europe as well as it is now invading technologically developed Japan, it is in some ways usurping their older, cultural traditions. There is less and less functionality towards community and self-sustaining operations within the community, those agents for indoctrinating or inculcating traditional beliefs that help communities survive, families prosper, and individuals to grow and progress, are missing. And as advancing nations grow, they go through an era where these are stripped away and there is tremendous competition for economic and financial reasons. Surely, these add to the quantity of life, but they are very detrimental to the quality of life. And as I see you and visit you in your families, here and throughout the states, I see you yearning for quality of life. You have quite a stretch to work on, you reach in one way for quantity of life and you reach tentatively in the other for quality of life. You have been sold “a bill of goods,” literally, by your economic prosperity in this nation that having “things” gets you happiness. And if you can’t be happy, you become numb by watching your television sets. So these lessons are to assist you in developing quality of life in all regards, for the individual, for the family, and for your community.
Sustaining intentional communities are necessary for quality of life
You recall that Machiventa spoke last time about sustaining communities. This is a subset of a larger community development, which is intentional communities, and we spoke about intentional communities through Mor-gan and Daniel years ago. Intentional communities are communities of individuals and families that have come together, who join in a community for intentional reasons. A self-sustaining community is only one of many types of intentional communities. But the broadest intentional community is a community that sustains life at all levels for the individual and family. Materiality is a minor element of that. You’ll find that economic and financial and material prosperity issue from happy individuals, productive families, and cooperative communities. Doing so, you’ll find there is less competition, no warfare, no expressions of hostility, with social processes that provide for adjustment of differences, peacefully.
Good leadership is mandatory to sustain community
Let us take this subset, self-sustaining community, a bit further. You probably have and idea what we mean by this. We mean far more than just material sustenance: Houses to live in, infrastructures for communications, water, disposal of waste, garbage pick-up, food, jobs, education. These are only the meagerest degrees or parts of a self-sustaining community. Surely, you can have these things already. There are already many self-sustaining communities in development now in the United States and elsewhere throughout the world. Many have come and gone, haven’t they? Why is that? Let us look at the errors, the problems of those communities that have disintegrated. Was it due to lack of food? Was it due to lack of housing? Was it due to lack of employment, education, or religion? No, none of those. Why did they disintegrate? As I was listening in on Daniel and Agatha speaking earlier today, they discerned that one of the primary reasons for the disintegration of communities in the past has been due to failure of leadership. Those societies where there is good leadership have continued.
What is good leadership?
What is good leadership? Well, there are many answers and you will find them in the Urantia Book. There is primarily required a selfless dedication to the larger concerns for the group, past the individual ego needs of the leader. A secondary cause of community disintegration due to inadequate leadership exists when there is no oversight for the watch care of leadership. This means that there is no self-monitoring process within a successful community for the continued monitoring of leadership, or a process for receiving grievances or complaints from populous community members about leadership that deteriorates. You may have a leader who established a community who did well, had good intentions; and has happened so often, something occurs in the mind of that leader that deflects them from their original selfless dedication.
Surely they must have become bored, for they seem to have set themselves upon an agenda of self-destruction, either through power, aggrandizement, sexual difficulties that violate boundaries of families and relationships, material gathering at the expense of others, differences in prerogatives between the leader and members so that there becomes a caste system between the leader, his family (or her family), and the rest of the population. We could go on, but if you examine the belief systems of those individuals, who once were good leaders, you’ll find they have become corrupted, lazy, and have lost their selfless dedication and commitment.
Now this is not a chastisement I am giving you; this is simply an analysis of past failures. So, knowing that a successful community is not dependent totally upon food, housing, employment, location, geography or so on, realize that the sustaining community is sustained by something that is unmeasurable and immaterial. Not immaterial in that it does not affect anything, because it surely does affect all aspects of each individual, the family and the community as a whole, but it is not a material aspect that is measurable, quantifiable, or empirically knowable. We are talking about higher values that must be operant always.
Let’s take this analysis to the farther extreme where a society, a community has such high ideals, that they become draconian, they become very austere, the soul and the spirit of individuals shrivel, and creativity and variation among individuals is stifled. This is not good either. This does not allow for the expression of the individual for variance of the individual’s growth and development. So when you think of intentional community, it is a community that encompasses the broad spectrum of all positive behaviors, thoughts, beliefs, practices of individuals, and families in the community.
An intentional community is more than a planned neighborhood
You must think past a planned neighborhood. You have these already. This house sits in a planned neighborhood, yet it is not an intentional community in terms of a sustainable community. People live here in this planned neighborhood because the streets are laid out in an interesting way, houses are within a certain variance of conformity, all the infrastructure is provided, it’s clean, it’s quiet, it’s pleasant—it may not be cheerful*—but it is uniform; and it is planned. This is not an intentional community. The only intention involved in this was to develop a planned neighborhood for profit motive, to develop barren land into a livable space, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that, in fact, it is quite admirable.
[*Note: Refers to a current ego-based leadership conflict in the Home Owner’s Association.]
But let us say that you and others want to develop a sustainable, intentional community in the broadest spectrum of thought that you can apply towards a community of let’s say, 100 families, (anywhere from 200-1000 people,) for some of these families will be extended families. If you were to do so, how would you prepare this community? Would you say, “Oh, I know someone who has land, let’s go talk to them and buy it and build houses”? Well great, you’d simply have another planned neighborhood. And someone else says, “Well, we can use the rest of the land to grow food, we’ll have community gardens and we’ll have a common well, a water source, and pretty soon you’re thinking of all the infrastructure of water filtration, wastewater disposal, garbage, recycling, a clinic—a physical clinic, and a mental/emotional clinic where people get help—you get the “physical” things in order.
Building individuals of soul survivable quality
Let me take you aside a bit and give you perspective of what Michael was up against. Michael started Nebadon a long time ago. Empty space! He developed the energy into a system; planets arrived; life was introduced; whole worlds were occupied by individuals, people. Not just one planet but millions of planets! How long did he work in the planning and development of his local universe? Millions of years! So, my friends, when you go about planning an intentional community, this is no small project of just buying land and building houses. How do you build individuals? That’s the “business” that Michael is in, of building individuals of soul survivable quality. Now, how would you do this? And that is not a facetious question! It’s not a rhetorical question! It is a very practical question. It is the fundamental question necessary to ask when you develop sustainable, intentional communities.
How will you build an individual, or grow an individual, into soul survivable quality, allowing for all the variation of the individual to express themselves in positive, constructive ways? Well, having read the Urantia Book, you know that inner structures, spiritual structures are already existent—the seven Mind Adjutants, the eventually arriving Thought Adjuster, a guardian angel over one individual or many, and now you have Celestial Teachers. You have a mind that is clear and not befogged by misbeliefs, you have a body that is sustainable, has no inherent flaws—and you’re saying, “Wow, that would be really terrific! What about those genetic, congenital issues that we have?” Well, in this community, you would not want them, would you? My friends, in a thousand years, these things will be weeded out. Not all populations will have advantage of those at that time, but it will be a known process of how to raise or how to beget new individuals who have no congenital issues. That’s something for you to work on!
Yes, you will need nutrition, nutrition for the mother as she grows this new being inside herself, all the right nutrients at the right time for the right places, to build and sustain and grow this wonderful new creature, and the elimination of detrimental habits and detrimental intake of chemicals that would harm this new child. So step aside here again or step back and take a look at that. You need pure water. Pure water! Not with chlorine in it, but pure water, available at each house. You need produce that is without detrimental chemicals, and you have yet to figure that out, both concerning application of chemicals to plants and to genetically altered gene structures of plants. You are just at the early, early dawn of discovering the advantages and disadvantages, the hazards and benefits of genetically altered produce. So you would have to have farms—truly, you will need farms—to grow good, pure food, economically, profitably, productively.
Bringing a healthy community into existence
And the individual that comes into the family, what about the pre-natal training for the mother and the father? What do they need to know for their mental well being and for their social well being so this child is raised in a peaceful womb situation? What kind of diet does a child need in the first weeks, first years of its life that will tremendously assist the full capability of development of their minds, their bodies? For every question, there is an answer; for every question, there is a connection and a product and a process within the community to provide that. And it may require the interconnection of hundreds of communities to provide what you need in each community, an interconnection of healthy communities, intentional communities. So, for our self-sustaining community, developing one becomes an awesome, awesome responsibility, tremendous dedication of many individuals to bring this into existence.
Invite a celestial community planner to assist
What kind of an education system would you provide for children to grow and then to become integrated into their community? Not just integrated as workers, but as parents-to-be, community members-to-be? These are deep questions and we look forward to those individuals who entertain these questions in the larger distribution of these teachings, to engage these questions and to strive to answer them through your group process. And I give you a proviso, not a caveat but a benefit, that when you do so in a group, make sure you invite a Celestial Teacher, a Community Planner—one or two or three. They are available! There is a large cadre existent of community trained individuals, who are doing what we are doing. This is the Teaching Mission and there is a Community Mission as well.
Why the urgency in building intentional communities?
Before I change subjects a bit, I wish to strive to answer some of your questions that you have been asking during the last couple of weeks. The primary question that you have asked is, “Why the urgency, why the rush?” Well, there are several answers to that and one is, we are not sitting on our hands, wondering,” Oh my gosh, what is Michael going to do to help us with this?” We are fully capable ourselves, we have executive qualities of mind to bring things about, and so we are “pushing your envelopes.” We are striving to draw your edges farther out in front of you, and we are not resting. Machiventa has taken this on as his own project, not for Michael, but with Michael. And our Melchizedek corps is active in this. None of us bring these issues to the table to alarm you, but your nation will not stay the same as it is, it will not continue as it is. Neither will other nations.
Your world is in a tremendous era of flux and change. If you think this happy era of the prosperous 90’s in America will continue, well, you have had that dispelled during your recent recession. Your nation is recovering and will do well. Do you think this wonderful era of prosperity and abundance for all will continue? No, surely not! And I am not a doomsayer; this is just reality. For example, if you look back upon the 20th Century, your world entered into an economic depression early in the century, then an awesome world war, exited that into a very debilitating world-wide depression, followed by another world war, followed by many wars among nations coming and going, and economic manipulation of nations by large corporations. These will not halt; these will continue, you know that! Don’t hide your heads in the sand, children, yet do not be afraid. You have immense, wonderful tools to do well, and to recover from any minor or major cataclysm. Of all nations on this planet, this nation and the one to the north and other nations that are prosperous, well educated, and have established infrastructures, communications and energy sources will do well.
Only in chaos will you find opportunity this great
There is a symbol the Chinese use for chaos, a wonderful symbol. It is also the symbol of opportunity. Only in chaos will you find opportunity without bound, whether as economic, cultural, political or social; it’s the old “break and build” process. It’s what body builders do; break down tissue to build new tissue, but they also sustain themselves with a good diet, high in protein, lots of fluids. And for the spirit body, you must have good beliefs—Truth, Beauty and Goodness—a value system more fully developed and evolved than is existent in your nation at this time. And where will that value system be sustained, and then expand itself? In the individual, my friends! You! You lovely people here, and those who are reading these transcripts, this year, next year, a hundred years from now and longer! In you! It is such a wondrous thing and interesting; it boggles us to see what mere individuals can do in your society.
There is what, 275 million, approximately, in this nation? Yet individuals have a tremendous opportunity to change the course of their nation, in ways that are unfathomable. We may aid and guide you, but what you do and what you decide not to do is a powerful influence on your society. So it is most important, dear ones, that you keep in mind and hold high the values that sustain you, are meaningful to you. And do not be afraid to share those with your family, especially new parents, parents who have impressionable children, children who will still listen, and those who have grandchildren. And you also must tell them “why” these values and beliefs work, and share that with them, too. These children are not “dummies!” They are pragmatic; these are hands-on, “doing things” kids! They want to know “why.” “Why does this work, Grandpop?”
Do not anticipate changes with fear, but with preparation
Let me finish this part by saying that there will be changes that occur in your society, and it is not to anticipate them with fear, but with the prepared, anticipation of producing something worthwhile out of what comes about. You have fire stations—do they go out and set fires so they can put them out to show their function? No, of course not. They are there for some anticipated tragedy. They anticipate it. And so, too, you must anticipate opportunity to build community.
How will you contribute to your new society?
Your archaeologists travel to the old country of Assyria, and they dig trenches through these tels, mounds of dirt, layers upon layers of a city that has come and gone, not once or twice, but dozens of times. So, too, you will see this occur in your nation after you have traveled across the morontial barrier and look back. How will you have contributed to your new society, your new community, your new family, to your children and your grandchildren? It is important to answer that with a positive response, and we hope you do. It is not that you have to become moral evangels in your educational system, but operate where you are in the small way that you can, and success will grow.
You cannot bury social issues but must face them
Okay, Let us begin a new topic that is definitely related to your community building, and this is the topic of individual differences. This almost assuredly flies in the face of your social, cultural wellbeing and status quo at this time in your nation, but hear me out, please. One thing about the future and the process of the time is that everyone, who is here, will arrive in the future with you! You may wish to disregard the uneducated; you may wish to disregard the materially disenfranchised; you may wish to disregard the opposite gender, racial, cultural, nationality differences, but children, you are all going to be there in the future, and those differences will still exist! You cannot bury these issues, social issues by forgetting about them or not looking at them. Your nation is in a difficult situation. It has expressed its arrogance in the world in many ways, at the expense of other people, thinking that, “Well, we’ll be dominant in the future and we will have control of it then.” It’s a pretty broad assumption.
Addressing the individual’s capacity to contribute to the community
Let us speak principally to those individuals, and this is on an individual basis, for this is the only area in which you can positively and constructively make a tremendous contribution. The big social issues even in your local community are often times larger than the individual to resolve. So let us deal with individual differences. Let us once again begin with the child who comes into the world. Some of these children are uneducable, but they have a certain capacity for self-maintenance. Yes, there are children who will come into the world who are uneducable and who are unable to care for themselves, and who, if not cared for, would die. For those individuals, you will find no Thought Adjusters, and that is really the qualitative factor that determines who contributes, and who doesn’t in your society, in the future. Were you to know who carried the light of the Thought Adjuster and who did not, you could more easily discern how to provide services to those individuals who do not, and how to hold those individuals who have Thought Adjusters, responsible, or more responsible and accountable for their behavior in your society. But you are unable to see this.
Now, I will just cut through the buckwheat, as you say out here in the west, and get to the point. And that is, there is in each individual an inherent capacity for expression of good, for self-maintenance, for contribution to themselves, to their family, to their community and perhaps, to their society. Each individual does! How to address that? The individual capacity to contribute, or not, must be considered as part of your intentional community. Asking and answering this question ties in with the earlier question we asked, “How do you build an individual of soul survivable capacity?” More to the point, how can you bring that individual into expression of the maximum potential that is inherent in them? That’s through your educational system that begins in the family.
The goal of the educational system for the individual
In an intentional, self-sustaining community, the educational system reaches right down to the time the child is born, or preferably, even before the child is born, just after the child comes into existence in the womb. When the individual comes into the world as a new baby, oftentimes it is months before parents realize that their child is “okay,” or “not okay” and has some inherent learning disability. It may be even into the second year before the parents realize that their child is deaf, and this has occurred. In this intentional society, the primary goal is to bring the individual to the greatest expression of potential inherent within them for the development of a survivable soul. There are only two qualifications: 1) “to develop the inherent potential;” and 2), “help assure the survivability of the soul.” The first has to do with measuring the individual’s capacities: Do they see; do they taste; do they touch and feel; do they hear; do they smell? Do they have all the five senses? Those are necessary for the basic education of an average individual. An average individual will continue on into a daycare situation where they will be taught those developmental skills for physical, social, neural, psychological, and so on, as can be taught to them, to develop those inherent potentials within them. And this continues on, through their life until they are separate from the family.
Some children read at age three; some children play Mozart at age four; some never learn music, some never read. Why? Is it a factor of the system, or is it a factor of their capacity? In an intentional, self-sustaining community with these two goals, its chore must be to measure and evaluate and then provide the resources to develop those inherent potentials. There are some arbitrary reasons for teaching children to read when they are ten, and some at age five or four. Some can do numbers very early on. Should they enter an appropriate educational program, or should they wait due to some arbitrary educational policy?
Let me give you a clear insight, I think you can appreciate, which you may have not thought of before. You understand sports in your schools, do you not? You have all the eighth graders try out for baseball. Some have played baseball, some haven’t. Fifty boys and girls try out for baseball, and the coach has each one of them throw, catch fly balls and ground balls, play different positions, understand the different plays, and works with each child to evaluate their capability. And out of fifty children, he ends up with seven teams and a manager. Now, do you think he’s going to put the best players with the least capable? Certainly not. How does he evaluate this? By measuring their skills, does he not?
Student: Or she?
RAYSON: Certainly. What is their capacity? What is their skill level? And then assigns them accordingly to the different teams. This way, they can develop their skills simultaneously with other children who are the same age, without having to feel less-than, nor more-than other players of the same team; and therefore, they are able to develop the team working processes much more easily, rather than having internal strife among the players, let alone win games against other teams.
Now, here’s the catch: Do you do the same thing in reading or writing, penmanship, history lessons, and mathematics? No! When you are age six, you go to grade one. When you are age seven, you go to grade two, whether you can read or write. And this continues on in many of your schools! It has simply become a process of passing children through without development or appraisal of skill and assigning them to appropriate levels. We do not understand why this is so! It would seem appropriate to us, that if you have a fifteen-year-old who cannot read, he may be best assigned to a grade two level of reading, where his skills are competent with those who are at that level. It may be that this same individual, who is fifteen, is mechanically adept to the point where he may be working with a high school graduate in learning welding or mechanics. But because he is unable to read the manuals, he cannot develop these skills to become a master mechanic. This is non sequitur to us! And this must be healed in your intentional, self-sustaining community, because failing to do so you have an inherent flaw that causes inherent problems, which are detrimental to the self-sustaining function of the individual, family, community, and eventually the society.
You know more about the gene structure of the human genome than you do about the progression and application of skills for individuals. Oh, I know that’s an exaggeration, for there are some excellent schools in your nation and communities which attend to the right development and evaluation of the skills and the assignment of children to appropriate levels where they can learn these best. But in the main, your educational system is failing, and so is your society.
Student: Not your nation, your society.
Your societies are failing!
RAYSON: There are inherent detrimental processes or lack thereof, for sustaining your societies, let alone your states and your cities. Look at your cities: These are self-deteriorating, self-destructive social processes. Many are too large, most have educational systems that are not beneficial to the maintenance of families, let alone the growth and prospering of the individuals and their minds and their spirits. So, dear ones, appraise individuals as they are, assign them to levels of education and training that is appropriate, and continue through that process of evaluation, appraisal and assignment. And yes, there will be individuals who become the age of eighteen who cannot read, who have been given every opportunity, every advantage by dedicated individuals, teachers, instructors, and tutors, using outstanding materials, who will not read, who cannot read.
If you can say that all of your community has provided this and the individual is unable to read, then what will you do with that individual? What will they do? Where will they work? We visit your grocery stores and we see individuals working there who were born with Down Syndrome. And these are lovely individuals, as most are very happy—they understand their situation, and they love it when you say “hello” to them and call them by name and you acknowledge them. They feel that they are a part of your society. These individuals are probably working at the best capacity level of their inherent potential. This is good!
The waste of geniuses lacking morals and ethics, values and beliefs
And my friends, lastly, concerning this topic, the waste of genius. The waste of genius is just (Heavy sigh) …oh, we are not embarrassed, but I suppose if we were human, we would be blushing, greatly! For we see genius among you, and geniuses wasted because there is not the moral fiber, ethical fiber, the values and beliefs that sustains genius in a positive, constructive way. Genius that is wasted sometimes goes awry and you will find many geniuses in prisons, mental hospitals, and as derelicts along the streets. Why did this occur? Answering these questions is a pragmatic process of developing a self-sustaining intentional community.
A well designed, self-sustaining community can be replicated
And the wonderful thing about this whole message today is that once you have begun to design a self-sustaining, intentional community in the broadest parameters, you can replicate it over and over again, across societies, across cultures. You get down to the basic ingredients that Michael deals with in building worlds of successful individuals and surviving souls. You will have a beginning appreciation of the daunting immensity of his work. And I hope you are not overcome with this, but it is a wonderful thing to entertain and to appreciate and work on in your lives as you move forward into more capable positions in your morontial life, as you move through your Nebadon experience, and move on to Uversa.
This information will serve you as a Finaliter
As Finaliters, this may be something you will need to think about. And when the Grand Universe is settled in the days of light and life, and there is, we suppose, a dispersal of individuals, Finaliters across the broad new universe, perhaps you will become creators too, and you will be well prepared. Because the Creator will have developed every possible avenue, every possible, measurable, capacity within you to the utmost in your ascendant career.
Spending time constructively towards this work
I leave you not in a dour sort of way, but one with hope. Of all individuals, who could take on this rather large task, people like you who are most capable of doing this chore of building a new, intentional, self-sustaining community and world. It’s why you are here. You have self-selected yourselves to be here. You have chosen the way; it is not easy, and some of you are in what you call retirement, and some of you will be in retirement, but this my friends is a glorious time for wonderful work, without constraints of having to make a daily living. Spend time in constructive ways for yourself and in association with others, who think as you do.
I won’t cut off the time today as I did previously, but allow you some moments to think of and speak some questions, if you have them. And I won’t cut you off—I’ve been chided about that –I will give you some time to think, to cogitate and to devise questions.
Student: So historic preservation is out, and people preservation is in!
RAYSON: Explain.
Student: I was just making a joke about our society that worries more about saving and preserving old, quaint structures than it sometimes does about saving people.
RAYSON: As buildings replace those that are destroyed, those individuals who leave will be replaced by new ones and it is most important, and serious business, that you attend to this education, a moral, ethical, value education of individuals who come into your lives. It is most unfortunate that your society, your government, your processes have allowed for the loss of ethical education of individuals, in the name of religion. These can be taught many ways without once naming a religion. It is in the best behalf of a society, a culture, a nation, and a government to sustain all efforts to maintain a peaceful, law-abiding society.
Student: You were talking about this self-sustaining community, I was wondering if you were implying that this is something that needs to be built from the ground up, or if this can be developed within and through where we already live, in our neighborhoods?
What is needed to build an intentional community?
RAYSON: Yes, it can be developed now in your existing neighborhoods and existing communities. All that is required is much like the Waldorf School participation and other private schools where families intentionally, consciously join in the standards and beliefs and values of that process. What is needed in an intentional community is a consensus as a group, hopefully unanimous—there is almost never unanimity—but a prevailing group of individuals to have similar beliefs, similar intentions, and have made a conscious decision and dedication to move forward in this direction. It is best done within a close geographic area, or even as large as a school district.
Replicating these communities
Student: So you’re saying that when this becomes, should it become, or when it does become successful, then that’s when you start with another district and the other people will be talking to you and there will be commerce because they will like what you’ve done? Then it will take off in other areas throughout the country, and that is the way it grows? You couldn’t, for instance, legislate this sort of thing by government by any stretch of the imagination, anywhere. So it’s one person at a time, one community at a time?
Need for spontaneous developments of intentional, self-sustaining communities
RAYSON: I hear some sniggering, some cynical comments in your minds about that government involvement. You asked several, multi-layered questions there. First of all, what we anticipate, and hope for, is a rather spontaneous, development across the nation or your world, of intentional, self-sustaining communities, rather than one being successful and then building from there. This is not the way social evolution usually works. It operates by the “Hundred Monkey Process” if you are acquainted with that,…
Student: Yes.
RAYSON: …and particularly in a technologically developed, communicative world that you have now, it can happen rather quickly. It can begin even at an academic level, if I might expand on your question, but there are many principles already known in academic research of what sustains a community, and what does not, in the terms that we are speaking of. So there is already an existent base of research, though it is not perhaps a coherent database yet, but there will be, and this will be necessary to help support the understanding of why some communities are successful and why some are not.
Student: Have you any models?
RAYSON: Have we any models? Definitely, come to Edentia and we will show them to you!
Student: On Earth?
RAYSON: There are communities on your planet that have many of these qualities, but few, if any have taken in the total parameter of the necessities of supporting successful, soul-surviving individuals.
Student: I was researching some Danish ones that were along the lines you are suggesting, of course they were basically Lutheran in orientation, but it was all levels of ages and grandparents with children in grade schools and everything, working together, basically.
What place does religion have in these communities?
RAYSON: Yes. I’m glad you mentioned the Lutheran aspect. How would religion be developed within this intentional, conscious community? What place would religion have? What inter-faith requirements would be necessary to sustain a self-sustaining, intentional community? I think you will find that many church organizations have internal doctrines and beliefs that are antithetical to a surviving society, which do not allow for variance of beliefs. So, when you come into an intentional community, and you begin planning for one, you will need to allow for a larger mind-set of beliefs. You will need to move towards the Universal Father Church, where beliefs are contributory towards a self-sustaining intentional community. That is probably shocking to some who are reading this, if you come from a very denominational sectarian religious base. What is needed is a stable base of beliefs that contributes to the soul growth of the individual, that also helps sustain a social structure, is moral and ethical, does not create a caste system, yet provides for the egalitarian participation of each individual as they are capable.
You’ll find that the religious aspect will be one of the pivotal issues for the maintenance or destruction, or eventual demise of a community because some individuals think that it “ought” to be this way, or “ought” to be that way. And you will find that in the end, a successful, self-sustaining community has “the flow” running right through it. And always, whether it is a religion, or whether it is the waste treatment plant, it is all in agreement, it all works, it is part of the flow. Even the effluent that comes from your sewage system has a process of being in the flow, and contributes to the maintenance and sustenance of the lands around.
Student: Rayson, there is some work being done in our society about using Charter Schools as a way of boosting the learning climate for the children that can handle more education. I find that this is very good in a lot of ways, it benefits the children that are in it, but it seems to leave the normal public schools with the lower level kids, the ones that are disadvantaged educationally and socially, and so on. There is also talk about a voucher system that would make it possible for parents to choose schools for their kids, and that one I see as being fraught with a lot of religious problems. Do you have any comments on this?
Destruction of the old school system before a new system is in place
RAYSON: Yes. The voucher system simply pulls children from one school and puts them in another that is very much like the first. The Charter School system you speak of is a qualitative difference from the existing school system, and our interest is more in that direction. You will find a strategic process involved in our work, and that is we always sustain and work with those projects that are productive and the bud of something in the future. We assist individuals in existing situations, whether it is in school or in their work situation, but your educational system is long overdue for an overhaul.
You see this tearing and pulling in your society and you do not have a long-term appreciation of what is going on, but it is a separation, a destruction of the old system, with the new system not yet in place. And there are many questions involved at this time for individuals who have children and which schools they should attend. When you see children thrive and grow and learn more quickly, at the level of their competence, and can move on without restraints due to a grade system, then you will see a system that will prosper. This system you speak of has evidence of many issues that are beneficial and superior to the existing educational process.
Student: I’ve been a student of the Summerhill experiments in England, for many years. Is that supported by our Celestials and is it a worthwhile endeavor, for instance as opposed to the Charter School system?
RAYSON: I do not wish to get into an analysis of school systems at this time. This is an overview lesson/training session today, and I’ve given you some broad brush strokes of what is needed and necessary to sustain a community that is intentional in design. Are there other questions?
Student: Rayson, you mentioned earlier that very young, disadvantaged children in the sense that they have basic instructional or mental problems who are very low in intelligence or low in capability for some reason, to the point where the Thought Adjuster wouldn’t come to them. Is there some way to distinguish that?
It is a tragedy to waste or misdirect the growth potential of an individual
RAYSON: Yes, there is. It is determined by the capacity for moral decision. It is as simple as that. Thought Adjusters come to individuals when they make their first moral decision, and if they are unable to make a moral decision, then the Thought Adjuster does not arrive. Your society does not measure for this capacity at this time, even through observation. Only through the grossest observation of whether they come into the net of the criminal justice system, or not. A greater tragedy, my friend, are those individuals who have tremendous soul survival capacity, who have an inherent, superior belief system as they come into life and who, due to circumstance and environment, their growth is wasted and their lives are misdirected. This is truly a tragedy for any individual, for any family and any community. And this is one of the major elements of the community project, is to reach down to each individual at their level and to assist them to express their potential at the highest level.
You can appreciate that, can you not? Each of you has come from humble circumstances, compared to many in your society, and through guidance and opportunity, you have been able to make great of your life, though you know within yourselves, there is much inherent potential still unexpressed – that God-like quality to become more, to be curious about yourself and to wonder what you might become, even in your later years. This is a wonderful thing to wonder about and it is important to continue to apply yourself to assist others, volunteering in responsible ways; to aid your community and your family members is a wonderful thing, and I would encourage this. I will close in a moment, if you have one more question or two.
A global point of opportunity will be coming
Student: Rayson, you mentioned a “point of opportunity” that we would be experiencing shortly,
RAYSON: My critical listener here!
Student: I refer to a point of opportunity that is the beginning point of putting in place the sustainable communities that you are speaking of. I’ve been involved in much of this already, from an observational point of view and I am trying to be more participatory. Is this point of opportunity something that will encompass only our society, immediate North America that you spoke of, or is this a global opportunity?
RAYSON: It is opportunity in various places throughout the world, but the opportunity only exists if you are conscious of that existing. Therefore, you must have the skills and knowledge inherent already, and be able to reinvent your community then.
Student: Is it something that will be obvious to us, or is it something that is going to be really subtle? Are we going to “know” like, “Hey Man, that’s it!” Or will it be…” a brick in the head”…or something much more subtle?
RAYSON: It will be a “brick in the head” in some places, and in others it will be a process of reinventing, due to the “brick in the head” of others. So it’s not either one…either/or…but both.
Student: I’m not sure if I know how to frame this question. It’s one thing to deal with younger children in trying to support the development of their obvious skills. Would you say it is possible for us human beings with our limited knowledge and skills, to assist an adult who perhaps excels greatly in one area, but is grossly lacking in another? As you mentioned before, “wasted genius”…people who are very developed intellectually, but are perhaps inadequately developed socially, or in some other important aspect of life? They usually aren’t very amenable to some other person offering support or assistance. Can you speak to that?
RAYSON: Yes, I understand your quandary. As a grandparent, you may not be able to do much for your own children. You can only offer assistance when they are able to express a need, and then provide it judiciously, appropriately in ways that benefit them. And sometimes children will ask for assistance in ways that are self-serving. In those situations, you must make a discerning decision about it. But always offer your assistance to them in the areas where they are least capable, and speak frankly about that. It is like seeing two cars that they own, an old Volkswagen bus and a new sports car. You say, “I see you have a new sports car and it is very capable to go fast, but it doesn’t carry many people, does it? And you also have and old bus that goes slowly, but has a great capacity and is dependable.” So you speak to them about their deficiencies and their weaknesses in very candid ways, and you tell them that you love them and you will assist them to work with this, how best you can, when they ask.
The interfering parent, adult upon adult, is not a welcome partner in the life’s course, but rather a nettlesome bee in one’s ear that gets slapped at. Aid your children who are adults, as they ask for assistance; and if not asking for assistance, tell them that your aid and assistance is always available when they ask for it. As grandparent, you can best apply your efforts because there you have the broad playing field of the whole scope of the individual, the child, who has yet to find their potential, let alone express it. And this is the wonderful place that grandparents, and hopefully parents, can explore with their children. Seek to help them explore their potentials and their capacity to develop positive, good, contributory and excellent behaviors – feed those. Where they are less skilled, also help them to explore those areas and help develop them, as they are able. If you have a child who is wonderful at computers and who is terrible at baking, you would not want to spend equal times upon baking and science, would you? But to aid them in learning how to bake and cook to sustain themselves, but to work in computers and technology to help make a livelihood and integrate that into their lives. Does this answer your question?
Student: Petty close.
RAYSON: Last question, please?
Student: It seems like there are optimal times for learning certain things.
RAYSON: Yes, definitely.
Student: A lot of times if we’ve missed one of those crucial “deadlines” with our own children, is it still possible to go back and work on those deficient areas with some Celestial help?
RAYSON: As you say, there are optimal times for learning. There are optimal times for learning foreign languages, or languages in general in a child’s life, as well as there are times most opportune to learn social skills and to learn mathematics, for instance, and to learn music. These come at different eras, and if you pass them, you have passed the opportune era for “imprinting” that individual to be open to this area of potential, to explore that in larger parameters later on. We cannot go back in time and re-develop those for individuals, yet each individual has a capacity to learn and express their skills in ways they have not discovered or developed before. And this is more easily done with some individuals than others. You have to see how it works. We are always glad and able to help, but you cannot put 32 ounces in a 16-ounce jar. If you are unable to learn calculus now, you will probably be unable to learn calculus in ten years, though you may strive and you may become competent at it. Let us close.
Blessings to you, dear ones, this day for we have begun a new era of instruction, which is most difficult and which could go on for decades. We have given you a brief—ever so brief—overview of this. As you are capable to appreciate, we will continue this and to develop it. If you don’t mind, we would like to use this group and other groups who are also attuned to this training instruction to develop these lessons, even though you may not incorporate them, use them or develop them. It would please us if you would discuss this during your break, afterward.
As Michael’s consciousness does pervade this local universe, and has set upon a plan to guide the development of each world and each individual, so too, we have taken on this work to bless you with this instruction. And may you take away from this time something positive that you can contribute to your own lives and to those around you. Know that in every effort, every conscious effort you make, or decide not to make, you are blessed, you are loved, and you are supported. The same elements that we desire to see developed in children, we also wish to see developed in you and we will strive to do this till the last breath you take on this world. Our dedication is to assist you in the development of community in all ways on this planet, and this is foundational to the Correcting Time. Blessings to you. Know that many have been present here today and that there is much more to be shared with you. Good day.
(Group: Thank you!)
