from
The Powerless Conspiracy
Martin Exeter February 2, 1986
Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy
strength.
This is the first and great commandment.
This is the first and great commandment.
It was given a very long time ago, as a direction to human beings, but who indeed has kept it? It might almost seem that there is a conspiracy afoot to make sure that this commandment is not kept. Most people have a feeling that somehow or other there is a conspiracy on earth by which they are being victimized. They have never been able, quite, to determine who exactly the conspirators are. There have been some likely candidates: the bankers, for instance, or those who direct the multinational corporations, the Jews possibly, the Masons. From time to time there are endeavors to pin this down, but they have never really succeeded, possibly because the conspiracy is much more widespread, including all the rest of us as co-conspirators.
I summarized the definition that is provided in the dictionary, as to what conspiracy is, with these words: a secret plan or scheme to achieve an illegal, treacherous or evil act. Human nature motivation is based in a conspiracy, and who amongst the children of men is not subject to human nature motivation? The conspiracy, of course, has been to seize power in the earth from whatever God there may be, to utilize what is seized to the advantage and benefit of human beings and their variety of ends. Who amongst those of us present here this morning have not attempted to use the earth in this fashion, participating in the ongoing conspiracy?
In effect, while it might not be put this way by many people who have little awareness of the reality of divine being, the idea is that God should stay in His heaven, wherever that is, and leave the earth for human exploitation. This is fundamentally what has happened. It may be that there are some who are more proficient and expert at exploiting the earth, but I challenge you to find anyone, oneself included, who has not been in that business.
Having a certain amount of mental capacity, one may be able to excuse and justify whatever it is one is doing in the earth, having excluded the heaven. Again the attitude might be, "What is the heaven? Who cares? We have the earth here; let's get busy! Let's make it the way we think it should be." So there indeed has been a human conspiracy, and these days it certainly has reached a point where all those who compose the human race participate in this conspiracy. It is hoped by everybody that some advantage will accrue.
Surveying the worldly scene, we see this maneuvering of the conspirators present everywhere. Some may deem that they have gained an advantage of some sort; others are hopeful, not yet having succeeded, that they will one fine day. Maybe there is a good deal of hopeful expectation that the grand prize of the lottery will come one's way. Then there will be, supposedly, sufficient money to do what one really wants to do, to succeed in gaining power over the earth. This is the reason why people want money, isn't it?—so that they will have power to do what they want to do, to buy what they want to buy, to manipulate other people in the process, but to seize power in the earth. The human population is interested in seizing power—all of them, not just the bankers!
I suspect if you were acquainted with the high echelons of those who control and manipulate things on earth you would find that they are very much like you are. There has been some sort of expectation that these sort of people might perhaps conceal horns under their hats. Because being part of this conspiracy is the normal human condition, other people look more or less familiar when one gets to see them, regardless of their national or political affiliations.
This certainly is a conspiracy, set in motion by human beings everywhere, to seize power in the earth—indicating in effect that "God can do whatever He wants in heaven, if there is such a place, but we are going to do what we want on earth." This attitude is excused and justified in a variety of ways. Because this sort of behavior has been known to human beings for so long, thousands of years, there has been built up a strong motivation along these lines which influences everybody who is born into the world. To be a conspirator in this sense is considered to be normal. "As individuals we'll all endeavor to seize power"—usually thought of in terms of money—"and all together in our various groupings we'll promote what we deem to be the way to go in the exercise of such power as we may have seized." This is the human nature state, isn't it?
There is this continuing influence present, to which everybody who is born into the world is subjected; and because for so long there has seemed to be little alternative—whether that is the real reason or not is another question—everybody has fallen for it. There has consequently been a rulership or government on earth of a secret nature, a hidden nature, and most people feel this. There is a feeling that there is some deep, dark plot somewhere to take us all over somehow and bring us into a state of slavery. All this, as though it hadn't already happened, because of this fact of the attitude present in people everywhere to do everything possible to seize power.
Some may translate that in terms of survival: "Well I just want to survive." But in order to survive you have to seize some sort of power to do it. Everybody is in the same boat, from the richest to the poorest, because the attitude is the same for all. This is why the more lofty conspirators are able to control the more subservient conspirators so easily. They know what the motivation is, and it's the same for everybody. We have noted that it comes through the subconscious mind because it has been in effect for so long and we have a heredity of this nature.
In excluding heaven from the earth, in order that we might have power in the earth, we have created an entity separate from God. We only need the word "God" because we have created this separate entity. This separate entity is known as human identity, whether of the individual or of the whole human race. This entity has been given various names to identify it, seeing that it was humanly created: the dragon, that old serpent, the devil, and satan; but insofar as human beings are concerned it's a very real identity. After all, it governs their lives! It establishes the nature of their motivations, springing out of the subconscious, out of all that has been brought down from the past. It is a control out of the earth, certainly not out of the heaven, all based in the attempt, on the part of human minds and hearts, to seize power on earth. Back along the way human minds and hearts have thought that they really had it made. It never quite proved out that way. Of course not, because they didn't have it made. It is an attempt to do the impossible!
However, in this separated state there is a peculiar condition of stupidity which has prevented most people from comprehending what it was that was going on. So satan has been going to and fro in the earthly human consciousness, up and down in it, providing the motivation for human behavior; and human behavior has reflected this. Satan is a very real creation insofar as human beings are concerned, with God sometimes looked upon as the other part of the act: the Creator. Nobody could quite understand how He could create satan, or why. Of course, He didn't. That's a human creation, based in the endeavor to seize power in the earth, which has proliferated over the ages into what we now know as human nature, as the human state, as the condition of the earth now.
This reminds us then, properly, of that first great commandment to human minds and hearts: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all," seeing that a division has been made here between God and the devil and it is deemed that there is some dingdong battle going on between these two entities, both humanly created. There is the reality which we may refer to as God, but that reality is not the god which human beings have created, any more than the devil should exist either. Both are human creations, and very convenient it is to have it this way, because the control of human behavior continues on the basis of this division, the division which ultimately tells people what is supposed to be good and what is supposed to be bad. But of course that is a relative proposition anyway, depending upon where you are, who you are, etc., in the earthly sense.
The true state doesn't require either god or the devil, as they have been humanly created. There is just the way things are. There is just the reality of being. One may call the reality of being "God," but if this reality of being is confused with the human invention, then there is further division, as is clearly evident in the religions of the world for instance. "Let's all get together and agree that our god is the god." Unfortunately at the same time human behavior is being governed by the devil, and this produces a division, of course, between the various gods of religion. The gods of religion are powerless to provide any answer, simply because they are a human creation. But there is a reality of being which has always maintained the way things are.
Anyone may accept the way things are if they so choose, or they could get into this conspiracy and into the battle which then ensues, with no expectation whatsoever of what would be deemed to be victory. I'm not sure what that is supposed to entail: a fantasy—"We'll all live happily ever after"—just a fairy tale. But there is no necessity to be governed by satan, even though satan does walk to and fro in the earth of human consciousness, up and down in it. And human beings follow this way and then that way, and up and down, simply because their behavior is controlled this way. Do you have your ups and downs? You may know immediately why. Do you think there are decisions to be made this way or that way? You may know why you may think that, but there are no decisions to be made. Things are the way they are! This is all a fantastic human invention.
There certainly is, insofar as mankind is concerned, satan and his minions, his powers, at work in determining human behavior, in establishing human relationships amongst other things. There are all kinds of details in the scheme of things which has been produced by the conspirators in their endeavor to seize power. The government of satan works through human minds and emotions, controlling human behavior. The humanly created entity which works in this fashion is very real to human beings. You may have noted that. You may say, of something that you did or said, "Oh I didn't mean to say that, or do it." Well why did you say it or do it if you didn't mean to? There must have been some motivation that caused you to assume the attitude which was portrayed by what you did. Of course this has been the ploy of satan, incidentally, in religion, to emphasize the point that there is this shady character in the background there, trying to make you do bad things. But there is also a bright character in the background there, endeavoring to make you do good things. And you have these imps on your shoulders, whispering this way and that way in your ears, controlling you sometimes to do bad things and sometimes to do good things. But it doesn't really matter which; here is satan.
Satan is often in the habit of clothing himself in robes of light; he looks pretty good. But anyone who is controlled by this government, this earthly government, without regard to heaven, is in a very disintegrative condition. It's not that there is not satan present; he surely is. We have defined that as human nature; and this influence, control, of human behavior has been absolute heretofore. Now we are just beginning to awaken to the fact that it really needn't be, that there is another way in actual fact. But we cannot discover what that other way is in any real sense without relinquishing the behavior engendered by satan, whether we imagine that that behavior is good or bad.
So much of that behavior we love. But it's all perverted! Humanly speaking, in mind and heart, there is the need to come up with a statement: "I am a pervert! It doesn't matter what I do; it is perverted." There is a reason for admitting this rather than justifying it, which most people do. They have their justifications for their behavior. They justify it because it's what they want to do anyway. So in order to assuage the guilt a little bit they have to find reasons, excuses, justifications, for behaving the way they do. And the devil was always credited with the fact that he could use scripture pretty well to convince his victims that they were quite justified in doing what they did.
We have that portrayal, allegorical portrayal, of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. The devil there gave Him every opportunity to justify Himself in doing what He shouldn't do, in other words behaving according to the behest of the devil. Satan always seeks human allegiance and most people just go along with it; and if they get to thinking a bit, which occasionally someone does, then of course one must produce some justifications for one's behavior.
But one must reach a point where one honestly admits that one is a pervert, and that one cannot do anything which isn't perverted as long as one's allegiance is to satan, as long as the government is of this earthly nature, which is rather easily discerned, because it always permits the individual to do what he wants to do. That's how the devil has people by the short hairs, so to speak, because under his influence and consequent human behavior everybody is interested in doing what they want to do, satisfying themselves. What else would anyone want to do? The key really is in that first commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all." None of this human behavior do I love at all. ALL love should center in the Supreme One in heaven. No other love, no other love before this One.
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God...and him only shalt thou serve." There is no escape—and we are not, when we come to experience the reality, interested in escape—but there is no escape from the clutches of satan until that heavenly love is absolute, so that there is no love left for earthly human behavior, which is summarized by the words "I want." When you say "I want," it is indication of the fact that you don't think you have—which is the truth of the matter. What it is that you don't have is love for the Supreme One.
I rejoice that as we have moved along the way there are those who are beginning to emerge into the place of stillness, where there may be the experience of this one love that is needful. This one love is essential. Most people try to get around that by saying, "Well we have got to love our neighbor; we have got to love other people. I pick this one." But the first commandment comes first, simply because when that commandment is fulfilled there is no separate God; there is the state of oneness, which is the state of love. But as long as love is being dissipated by perverting it into human channels, the rule of satan is supreme on earth, as it has been for thousands of years.
However, now there is the opportunity, seeing we are moving toward the point of critical climax, for a change to occur. There is no survival without it, and if one doesn't survive one can't have what one wants! Trying to have what one wants ensures that one will not survive. But to love the Supreme One—what does that mean? There have been those who have earnestly tried to love the god of religion, and that may be a step toward the experience of love, but in and of itself it isn't. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." That is the direction in which it is supremely natural to move, out of the earth into heaven. That's where mentally and emotionally we belong. And being in heaven, the perverted condition of human behavior becomes starkly visible. It's awful. It's filthy! And the endeavor by human beings to justify it is sleazy.
But who is there who will love the Supreme One, with all, in fact, not just in theory? "Well that's nice; we love God. But of course we have these other things on the side." Satan is still governing. But once there begins to be this absoluteness, the dragon is cast into the earth. He is still there around, influencing, governing human behavior everywhere, but at last there is a window opened in heaven through which the truth shines. And the expectation is not that it should shine to one's own advantage. It should not bring fulfilment of one's own human desires and wants; it's not for that purpose at all, because there shouldn't be any human desires and wants in the picture at all. Yet this filthy state has been maintained and excused and justified by utilizing the principles expounded in the Third Sacred School: "That must make our behavior right." Not when satan is still dictating the behavior. It cannot be justified. Admit it, that it is perverse. Repent! "It sickens me! and my love belongs to the Supreme One in heaven." Then the Supreme One is on earth as well; there is no division. I am the way, the truth and the life.
