The Elders

The  Elders

Martin Exeter   January 26, 1986

“I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” These words were recorded as having been spoken by Moses. “I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” They are revealing of the One God, the one universal, unifying, creative power, brought to particular focus in the expression of these words. This is revealing of the truth of man. Man is designed to bring to focus this universal, unifying, creative power in heaven on earth. These words may be spoken, describing a particular state, but what that state is remains speculative until there are those who let it factually be brought to focus. It is quite obvious that human beings, for the most part, have not been interested in so doing. Human beings in their present state certainly do not bring to focus this one universal, unifying, creative power. There has been much more concern about getting one's own human way, producing a state of human affairs. The result, of course, is obvious enough in the state which we not only see all around us but have been aware as being present much closer, namely within ourselves.

These words were spoken by Moses several thousand years ago, relating to an occurrence that had been brought to pass under his hand for the Israelites, those who had been willing to leave the land of Egypt at that time. They were quite a mixed company. That may be an interesting event in the historical sense but it has little meaning to us now unless we are keenly aware of what it is that is being portrayed and made available to the experience of human beings now. We have seen and understood this as the story might relate to ourselves. Clearly, it represents an emergence out of an Egyptian condition, whatever that might be. We have recognized this in terms of darkness, the state into which human beings have been brought where it is dark, because human consciousness is merely of the human subconsciousness. It is of the earth and the things of the earth, including the world which has been humanly created by reason of the conscious mind of man having an awareness merely of what is available subconsciously.

The invitation which is provided through the words which we have just shared is, of course, to become aware consciously of what might be referred to as super-consciousness, a spiritual consciousness as opposed merely to a material consciousness. The material consciousness now humanly experienced is there because the only awareness that the conscious mind has, has been limited to what is present in the human subconscious. What is known consciously arises out of the subconscious. It is a material earthly state, which excludes what might be referred to as the heavenly component. This can be seen easily enough in terms of the story of the fall of man, or the fall of Lucifer, the light-bearer, the conscious mind in heaven, the conscious mind aware of what is present in heaven. There is virtually no awareness in this regard in the general human state now. It is all an earthly awareness, which springs out of the past of human experience stored away in the subconscious.

To be conscious of what is present in the subconscious, in whatever measure, is to be in the dark. It may seem like light; we know something apparently, but what we know is in the dark. The subconscious mind is rightly in the dark; it isn't supposed to be conscious. The conscious mind, however, has become thoroughly involved with the subconscious. Much probing has been going on, in the psychological field, for instance, into the subconscious to try to figure it all out. But the conscious mind has no business being involved in that way with the subconscious, where the subconscious is in control actually. Human beings are inclined to think they are bright at times; but it all boils down to the fact that what is present in the subconscious erupts to the conscious level. What is present in the subconscious is largely irrational, so the conscious mind, having a capacity to be rational (even though it isn't!), undertakes to rationalize what erupts. And, as we have noted, it does it so expertly and quickly that it is imagined that the conscious mind has produced this brilliant idea, opinion, thought—whatever it is—all on its own, when basically all human function is subconsciously controlled. The conscious mind of man does not belong in the earth, seeking light from the subconscious, seeking light from the darkness. There is no light in darkness. But all the supposed great knowledge and understanding, which is prevalent in human experience now, has emerged out of darkness, out of the bottomless pit. This is no basis, as we well know, for determining what shall be done in the earth of human habitation. It is not surprising then that the world so created is in such an appalling mess. More struggle in that realm only produces a worse mess.

“I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, the land of darkness, out of the house of bondage,” if anyone has been willing to be brought out. There is a means by which the conscious mind of man may be raised into heaven; that is, out of the earth, out of subjection to the subconscious mind. We ourselves have presumably been concerned with this matter, recognizing that it is impossible for the conscious mind to raise itself, just as impossible as to lift oneself physically by one's own bootstraps. But there is a means by which the conscious mind may be raised up: I am the Lord thy God and capable of doing it, when there is interest, attention, paid to the quality and the nature of what I really am. Speaking in the first person in this way, I am speaking presumably for everyone, because everyone is capable of speaking in the first person.

There is that present with everyone which is quite capable of lifting up the conscious mind from subjection to the subconscious, out of the land of darkness. Most conscious minds are totally unwilling to let this happen. They have deceived themselves into imagining that they are intelligent and wise and able to operate on the basis of subjection to the subconscious mind—only that is not recognized as being the case. There is the deception! The conscious mind thinks it is free as a bird; it's going to find all sorts of marvelous things, when all it can find is what is already present in the subconscious mind. Everything that is happening now is not something new. It may have changed its form a little bit, but it emerges out of what was already present in the subconscious mind, what had already been the experience of human beings in the past.

There has been some interest displayed in the gentleman who, under self-hypnosis, produced some supposedly marvelous wisdom—Cayce. This information was all out of the human past, all out of the subconscious. He was unconscious of it at the time and was rather amazed apparently afterwards when he heard about it. And there are those who thought that here was something marvelous, but it's something that is going on all the time with everybody. It is merely a particular manner of its production which is not common to most people. What is common to most people is the fact that what is in the subconscious mind erupts into the conscious mind and it controls human behavior. It controls human behavior, it controls human thought, it controls human emotion; and that is the house of bondage, that's where everybody is trapped in this state of deception.

We have been trapped in that and certainly still are in a certain measure, regardless of the fact that we have had opportunity to let the conscious mind be raised up to the level where it really belongs, let Lucifer be restored to heaven. Because it is factually true that heaven and earth are one, being restored to heaven allows the earth to be comprehended, understood. The earth can't be understood by the earth. And human beings buried in the earth can't understand. So they produce all these wonderful theories and hypotheses about everything, to try to explain it on the basis of the eruptions out of the subconscious mind, and it is all confusion; it doesn't mean a thing. Yet it is anticipated that a little more digging in this regard, a little more eruption out of the subconscious, is going to solve all problems. But it is what is present in the subconscious mind in control of the conscious that has produced all these problems. In actual fact there are no problems to solve, because all problems are humanly produced in this way and are absolutely insoluble. This is becoming more and more evident. We don't need these problems.

Let the conscious mind be resurrected to the level where it belongs, out of the clutches of the subconscious, and—no problems! Everything is exactly as it should be. That is something that is discovered when we let this happen. Things are exactly the way they should be right now. Obviously, if there is turmoil and conflict and violence in the world it has been produced by this condition in human experience. As long as the condition in human experience remains, the production will remain—all very logical and reasonable; that's the way it should be. Let the human state change and the production changes. But to try to change the production without changing the human state, or without letting it be changed, is surely well described by the word "stupidity." Yet this is all human beings are doing. Deception! It's all we try to do too in most of our experience, until there is a willingness to acknowledge that all this stuff that keeps erupting out of the subconscious mind should be relinquished, shouldn't be given any weight. Everybody takes it all so seriously. It would be helpful if we could always laugh at it. What amusing stupidity!

On this basis there are many, many people, even in the Emissary ranks, who think that some sort of input, their input, is going to solve all problems. What is input? It's human opinion, isn't it? "My opinion is important about this." No, it isn't! What is needed is output, that is what comes out of heaven, and the whole process of operations is completely reversed. So the first order of business, as is clearly indicated in the words which I read from the 2nd and 3rd verses of the 20th chapter of Exodus, describes how it is that human beings may come out of the state of deception. “I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Is that true? It may have been literally, historically, true of the Israelites, but is it true of anyone now? Come out of the land of darkness and stop being governed by the past of human heredity!

Some of you may have seen the movie "Lost Horizon"—more recently it was a musical—a very excellent one that was made long ago. In any case, in that movie there is something portrayed that is very accurate of usual human behavior. The two brothers who were in Shangri-La were of a different nature. One had become aware of the beauty of being in heaven. The other one interpreted heaven as hell. It's interesting, isn't it?—it's what human beings do. It seems that the vast majority of the population interpret heaven, which is actually present, as being hell; they want to get away from it. Here is the subconscious out of the past establishing the control. It was illustrated in this motion picture on the basis of brotherly love, the implication being that if the older brother, who was aware of heaven, loved his earthly brother the way he should he would follow his earthly brother into perdition, because his earthly brother didn't think he could get there without him. Very interesting: “I can't make it without you. Poor me. You've got to help me!” So much of human function is based in the demands of earthly heredity: “Come and serve me. Look after me. Care for me in my state of human perdition.” And everybody perishes. It's been done generation after generation after generation.

I am the Lord thy God, and I would willingly bring you out of that state. I provide everything that is necessary to do it, except you have to make the choice. It is in making that choice to let consciousness be restored to heaven, which requires relinquishing the subconscious controls, that the way is opened for everybody else. The door is opened in heaven if someone will actually let it be done. “Well I can't. I have all these earthly responsibilities here, got to take care of them.” Yes, we have to take care of things, but not at the expense of what is required to abide in heaven, to let the consciousness be lifted to heaven so that it can see what needs to be done. But if one is being pulled this way and pulled that way by earthly heredity he can't see anything; such a person is blind and in a state of destruction.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me”—before the one who is known in conscious experience and expression when the conscious mind is lifted to heaven. Lucifer is then the light-bearer, the bearer of the identity of that one. I am the Lord thy God then, not, “He is the Lord thy God.” I am the Lord thy God, the one who is present in the conscious mind when it is lifted to heaven. There is another one of human invention who is in the conscious mind when it is involved with the subconscious mind. That is the human state, the human identity: “This is me.” No, it isn't! That's a hereditary invention coming out of the earth, humanly produced. Why do we cling to it so desperately? Oh yes, a body, a mind, a conscious mind, are important for my use, for the use of the one who is in heaven. Unless the conscious mind is in heaven, that one is not known. When the conscious mind is in heaven that one is known, but not as someone separate from the conscious mind: “Oh yes, I know this high figure up here, the Lord my God.” I Am the Lord thy God. That is the way the truth is known, because the conscious mind is in heaven where it accommodates the Lord who I am. “Oh, it's impossible to understand all this!” Well of course! How about coming up into heaven, because it can't be understood from the standpoint of the earth.

A door is opened in heaven, because this invitation is always there. I know it's in the past here in Exodus, because it relates presumably to that event, bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. But it can be in the past for anyone: “I brought thee up, I'm quite willing to bring you up, if you will just let go of all these weights which keep you at the bottom of the pool, so to speak.” There's no problem. All supposed problems are humanly produced, and we are inclined to identify ourselves as being human. In fact this is a good justification and excuse for a lot of things: “I'm only human, you know.” What's wrong with you, if you're only human? That's tantamount to saying, “I'm only dead, you know!”

So a door is opened in heaven. “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.” Here is something that, to the extent that we have come up hither, we begin to know to be a fact. There is government. I am the Lord thy God which brought thee up. The control emanates from heaven, not from the subconscious mind. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, the control of government is present; and we have become aware of that fact, have we not? We know it's there, even though we still hang onto some of our weights.

“And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.” Clothed in the radiant light of the truth, crowned with the authority of love—here is something emerging into experience. It's no use looking at these things theoretically, but let them emerge into experience. It's interesting that just recently there has been an assemblage on Sunrise Ranch of some elders. If you were going to describe something in heaven, would you differentiate those who are there present as to their age? Utilizing the word angels, for instance, are some angels older than other angels? Are there baby angels? Oh yes, cherubs! No, we begin to consider age on the basis of what emerges into the earth. We talk about growing older—everybody does it—in the earth. But I'm sure that those who are longer in the tooth, as I have called it, don't feel any older inside. Does anybody here feel ancient inside? No, the feeling of being ancient is something that is outside, if it's there; it depends on where you put the emphasis, on what is inside or what is outside.

So elders referred to here would relate to something that was emerging into the earth. Of course there are classifications in some of the churches, the Christian religion in particular; there are elders in some of them. But this is not an organizational factor in humanly produced religions. This relates to something emerging out of heaven, something that is not humanly produced at all, fortunately, because, as we have noted, what is humanly produced is chiefly defined by the word “problems.” And there have been problems with the older people, haven't there? What are we going to do with all these old folk: stack them away somewhere so that they can gradually fade out of the picture without bothering the younger people too much? This is the common human view: you become more and more useless as you get older, because usefulness in human experience is equated with physical action primarily. Some think there is usefulness in mental action. But then older people don't always retain their mental faculties, so they become more and more useless in that regard too. This is not true of everyone of course.

But in what I have just read there is indication that there is a very important part to be played by elders; in fact they are the only ones that are mentioned; it doesn't say anything about the youngsters! Maybe there could be a little deflation here as to their importance. Of course it is not merely a matter of physical age anyway, but of spiritual competence, competence in the process by which what is already moving powerfully in heaven may be shepherded into the earth, may be allowed to take form in the earth. It requires those who are competent in this field. And, by the way, it is not a field of opinion: “Well I think it should be this way,” and somebody else thinks it should be that way. Then arguments break out and there is conflict which leads to violence. No, there is a process with which one may be attuned and of which one may be vividly aware when the conscious mind is lifted into heaven. But it is an unknown quantity as long as a person is consciously subject to the subconscious; that's darkness, darkness which maintains the bondage.

So there is something valuable being indicated here with respect to elders. They have a very significant part to play, which is evidently necessary for the whole of the unfoldment that is to take place. I think when people are younger they sometimes feel, “Oh well, when we get these oldsters out of the way we'll be able to do what's needful.” What arrogance! It simply isn't true. It requires everyone. But, clearly, the elders have a special part to play. Now it's not just being old that does it. I have known a lot of old people who remain childish; they never grew up.

Until recently the high leadership in the Soviet Union was composed of rather ancient characters who evidently had become well crystallized in their age. They kept cracking! So it was thought to be forward movement when a younger man put in an appearance. Maybe, who can tell? But the mere fact of elders in that sense doesn't achieve anything. It is only when spiritual experience over the years has permitted conscious minds to be raised into heaven that the elders have any meaning; otherwise they are just old youngsters. Youngsters are inclined to be a little brash at times perhaps, assuming that they are going to be capable of functioning very wisely. But if they follow out the same old routine that the oldsters did it will never happen. It only happens as conscious minds are permitted to rise up, under the power of the one I am, into heaven, so that there may be a learning—there is a learning process—how to become aware of what it is that is moving in heaven, and how to allow this to emerge into the earth. It is totally—this is output, what I spoke of before as output—totally the reverse procedure of what is commonly thought of as being useful humanly speaking. The human idea is presumed to be so important: my opinion, after all. But human opinions are for the birds. They are of no value, because they are based in the subconscious eruptions; and the subconscious has been a far cry from heaven. It's been filled up with all this human crap; generation after generation after generation—endless repetition. It's been piled high and deep—the experts usually have those initials after their names; they are expert in all this stuff. But what's the use? It produces hell on earth.

So we move with assurance to let our conscious minds be raised up into heaven, because we hear the voice out of heaven, and we are aware of the door open in heaven, and there is a willingness to relinquish all those old controls out of the subconscious which have insisted we behave this way or that way. And we have gone along with it, for the most part unconsciously, but whatever consciousness we had was also subject to this eruption.

It is necessary to acknowledge that virtually everything that arises out of the subconscious mind to control and dictate the way we behave is a destructive deception. So we stop giving it weight, stop insisting that this is the way it is: because we see it this way, this is our opinion; it must be that way, because I see it that way. Who are you? Rising up into heaven there is a totally reversed perspective; and without those who are consciously in heaven there is no means by which what is in heaven may be conveyed into the earth, there is no means of discovering how that works.

We have had a little experience of it. It comes by reason of the focus point of being, and it is step by step differentiated through those who are responsible for conveying it into the earth. It involves no human opinions whatsoever. One becomes aware of one's own particular part in conveying this into the earth, not because anything in the earth told one, not because of all the careful consideration of all the factors. It is well that one should be aware of factors, but the factors are not going to tell you what it is that should be conveyed; they are merely the material which will clothe what it is that is conveyed. There is a total reverse here, and human beings are a little reluctant to let it happen, because of all their good ideas. But what needs to come into the earth has never been here before, so how could you have any idea about it? You find out what it is as you learn to convey it. “Ah, there it is. I didn't need an opinion. This wasn't my opinion, I never even thought of it.” Of course the conscious mind is cut down to size then; it's merely the conveyer, Lucifer the light-bearer; it's not the thing itself. But there is one who comes forth, once Lucifer is restored to heaven.

So we relinquish the weights of the subconscious, the controls out of the hereditary past. All our human forebears, and relationships, and everything else that has been deemed to be so important in the world has no importance whatsoever, except as it may be seen from the standpoint of what is in heaven. Then perhaps out of heaven this may be used, that may be used, the other thing may be used, something else may be completely useless. But it's not determined by the way the human being thinks. It is determined by what it is that is coming down from God out of heaven, what I am bringing into the earth in the ways in which it was designed to be brought into the earth.

© emissaries of divine light