Whether in politics, religion, or some other field of human endeavor, conservatism can be a trap. It can become an attempt to live in the person’s imagination of the past. It can become an effort to re-live the forms that were glorious once upon a time, but which no longer work today. Likewise, progressivism can be a trap. A person can imagine a future that they think ought to be and attempt to impose that imagination on the world and the people in it. In each case, the person is prone to experience disappointment and a sense of hopelessness. They find they can’t bring back the forms of the past. And they can’t live in the world of their imagined future. There is “The Power of Now”, as Eckhart Tolle put it. This is where the axis mundi—the axis of the world—descends from the invisible realms of Being and intersects with the world of space and time. Living in the here and now, the essences from the past that are relevant to life now come rushing forward to empower us. And we draw to us the optimal manifestation of life now from out of the unformed future.
In October of 1979, Martin Cecil gave a talk emphasizing the significance of a space in consciousness that allows what is sacred to live. He later entitled the talk “The Preservation of Essences”. The preservation of essences as Martin describes it is different than the preservation of forms, which are, by their very nature, temporary. The essences of life are preserved by us because we are fully here where we have landed geographically, and fully in this present moment, now. In this place, the forms we create can be full of the essences of life. Some of those forms endure longer than others. Here at Sunrise Ranch, many of us know that when we walk through the campus we are likely to receive a big hello from Brian Mullen. The reverberation of his words hangs in the air for a moment and then they’re gone. In the process, the essence of Sunrise Ranch lives. Thank you, Brian.
We have an elliptical geodesic Dome that is almost 50 years old. Being inside it and gazing at the dome ceiling reminds us of the heavens. While it has been well taken care of over the years, it now needs a new roof and renovation of other facets of the structure. We have an archive department at Sunrise Ranch. It is an extensive library of books, audios, videos, and booklets, mostly recording the precious words of the founding leaders of Emissaries of Divine Light, Lloyd Arthur Meeker and Martin Cecil. These materials won’t last forever. But for as long as they are useful, they provide a connection point to what does—the Eternal. A good book can be like a magical powder. Add water and stir, and what seemed inert connects the reader with what is alive within them and in the world in which they live. Our library is like that. All that is needed to bring it alive is the conscious attention of the individual. We have the God-given ability to invest our words and all the other forms of our expression with the same magic that is in those archived materials.
When we think of the past, while we can be grateful for the forms that are from the past, the ultimate value is in the essence that those forms expressed and embodied. The essences of that past, and the reality that was known by those who lived it, can come forward into the present to support us now. In that sense, the essences of the past are preserved. But how are they preserved? Having been around when Martin gave that talk, I remember thinking, in my silly imagination, of little vials up on the shelf, with the essences in them preserved. But that’s not really how it happens, of course. Essences are preserved in living experience. They are preserved because they resonate in consciousness. They resonate in the vibrational field—in the epigenetics of today. An essence might seem like an ephemeral thing. And yet in the essence of things is the very pattern of life, the very pattern of a human being. The innate pattern of human culture is in those essences. The forms play a part, and I’m not here to diminish the significance of forms. Martin was talking about the forms present in his day that preserved what is essential, naming Sunrise Ranch and the community of people in 100 Mile House in British Columbia. Spiritual essences were preserved because they were lived and known by human beings.
That’s what we’re doing here at Sunrise Ranch today, along with our friends around the globe. We are letting the essence of what it is to be a human being, the essence of who we are together as humankind, be preserved in our living. We can embody that in form. Some of those forms seem to be more temporary—a conversation, a smile, or a meal served. However temporary, they are not unimportant. The simple things we do, even in casual ways every day, preserve the essence of life.
Some forms are more enduring than others. The skyscrapers of today would likely topple within several hundred years if not maintained. But the oldest building in the world is thought to be a temple in present-day Turkey, Göbekli Tepe. It is thought to be 11,600 years old. There are pyramids around the globe which are generally thought to be 4,600 years old. The prevailing opinion is that the Great Pyramid of Giza is approximately that age. But some say it is much older, perhaps dating back to 10,500 B.C. Stone structures last longer than modern-day buildings, and perhaps longer than books, magnetic tape, or digital records, though they don’t endure forever. Ancient pyramids pre-date the Incas and Aztecs in the Americas. There are buildings and pyramids elsewhere that pre-date cultures with which we are more familiar. They are not just ancient. They are ancientancient.
Many of these “ancient ancient” structures are aligned with celestial bodies. They memorialized and embodied the relationship humankind has with a heavenly order that is of a far vaster scale than human culture itself. In this way, they preserve the essence of that relationship for people of today. They remind us of that connection. They also remind us that while we like to think of the culture of today as the zenith of human civilization, there are those who came before us who had knowledge and ability that exceeded our own, at least in some respects. Who among us could build Stonehenge, or a giant stepped structure the size of the Gunung Padang Pyramid in Java, Indonesia, which is at least 4,000 years old? The significance of these ancient structures is not that they inspire us to re-create them today. We are not going to build a pyramid or temple of stone. Their significance does not lie in their outer form, but in the fact that they preserve the essence of an ancient knowledge and experience. For us in the present, we can access that same heavenly connection that was embodied in stone so long ago.
Part of what’s preserved in documents from “ancient ancient” times is the realization of who and what we are as human beings and how we are made. It was preserved in form in the story of Creation in Genesis, attributed to Moses. Moses, himself, lived 3,500 years ago. And yet we suspect that the truth that is in those words is not only ancient but is “ancient ancient”, telling us about how we are made and how we were empowered by the Creator to keep the world in which we live. The story carries the implication that we are endowed with magical powers. We are made in the image and likeness of the Creator with the powers of Creation, which include the powers of consciousness.
People who have exceptional creative ability have tapped into those magical powers of Creation that are latent within us all. If you ask them about how they accomplish what they do, they typically explain it in ways that are unfamiliar to most people. They conceive of what they do in fantastic ways. Einstein did not develop the theory of relativity just through rigorous study. He imagined himself riding a beam of light. A violinist isn’t thinking where she is placing her fingers as she plays a Bach sonata. A creative magic takes over. From the hermetic tradition comes this saying: “As above, so below”. This is exactly what is portrayed in the story of Creation. It says that humankind was made in the image and likeness of God. “As above, so below”. Here is a core essence of human potential, embodied in the words of the biblical text, translated into English.
As I wrote the “Pulse of Spirit” last week, I puzzled over the use of the Hebrew name for God used in the story, Elohim. It is a plural word, just as the Hebrew word “kibbutzim” is a plural word for the word “kibbutz”, an Israeli collective community. I wanted to know if the word Elohimis commonly accepted as plural, and whether it is a name for God or more like a title. Many religious scholars deny the plain meaning of the word, whichis plural. They excuse away the plural form of it and assert that it is a name for the one God of Israel. And they say it is usually inappropriate to speak of The Elohim, just as I would not call myself TheDavid. It is understandable why this attitude might be taken. The Israelite tradition—and the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions that followed it—was developed in a surrounding religious context that featured competing gods, many of whom were not kind to human beings. The Israelite tradition distinguished itself from these surrounding cultures. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” [Deuteronomy 6:4]
But in the zealousness of this monotheistic tradition, what was lost is that while the reality of God is one, it is also plural. “E pluribis unum. Out of many, one.” One Family of God in perfect unity. The word Elohim refers to the plurality of God, and especially to a high pattern of focalization of the Family of God. Why does this matter? As human beings, we are not made as something distinctly different from what is above. We are the same reality at a different frequency. Knowing that, finding the correlation with what is above becomes easy. It is essentially the same as us, but at a higher level and without all the human tendencies. Relating to that reality becomes far easier than trying to relate to an omnipotent old man with a beard.
After I posted the “Pulse of Spirit”, a biblical scholar in Israel, Etzion Becker, who is a fluent Hebrew speaker, wrote to me, verifying that the name Elohimis plural and that to understand the Hebrew words, they have to be experienced. If we conceive of God as one being, then what is below is different than what’s above. We are not just one being, as humankind. There are now eight billion of us. If we understand that God is at the same time one family, in total harmony and unity, and also plural, we will understand something about how we are made as human beings. We are both plural, and we are one. And just as above, where there is a center to the family of God, there is a center to this human family that we seem to have lost. And so, we end up in conflict and chaos.
I proudly declare that thereis a center to who we are as a human family, to be found in the here and now by each of us. We can figure out all the social parts of that in due time. The essential matter is that we know that center inside ourselves. And so we wait for the day when what is central for us all can naturally emerge among us as human beings—that one thing that we all hold in common that unites us all—that one love, that one divinity. Yes, we know we’re plural, but we are also one. We’re one because we share one thing. And that one thing unites us, and we know that one thing in the here and now as we connect vertically with the reality of the heavens now. And as that heavenly reality is known and expressed and embodied by us in our living, we come to feel and know and experience that one thing that unites us all, that brings us all together.
It is one reality “up there”—above. And one reality “here”—below. Let’s know and live that reality here and now. Let’s accept the powers of the Creator that are largely dormant within us. Let us live and know the reality, “as above, so below”. Praise to our ancient ancientancestors who preserved the essence of this reality in the words of the Creation story: “And the Elohim said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
The Spiritual Expression Plane Of Being
David Karchere March 21, 2025
When Uranda founded Emissaries of Divine Light, he spoke about this ministry as operating at the “spiritual expression plane of Being". It was probably an unfamiliar way of talking about something to most people. His point was that what was really at issue for humanity—and the area of greatest opportunity—is the experience and expression of our spirituality. This is an area that has been claimed by religion, as if religion has authority over it. And so, for many people, it seems like you either play by the rules of religion or just leave the game. In either case, there can be a lack of a conscious approach to our own spirituality.
I want to make the distinction between spirituality, and religion without spirituality. Now you can have religion with spirituality, and to some degree that happens for people. People who are practicing their religion sometimes experience the spiritual expression plane of Being. Still, there are shades of gray and partial spiritual experiences that are part of the picture. And religion can easily degenerate into doctrine, dogma and unthinking ritual. So, we make the distinction between religion without spirituality and the experience of spirituality wherever it might appear, which is what we are knowing and bringing to the world.
To some degree, religion without spirituality has spoiled spirituality for the world. Because if you have someone representing this field of human experience in a dogmatic way, without spirituality, it’s a turnoff. They’re telling you how life is, what you ought to believe, and all the rest. And it’s often not happy stuff. And so, for many people, they just turn the other way and look to make a lot of money or find some kind of happiness in the world without paying attention to their spiritual experience and expression. What a huge missed opportunity! There is something else that happens as a result of the phenomenon of being turned off by religion without spirituality. A person can search for what they think of as spiritual things, but with little understanding of where to find them. They might have no map to the experience, or an erroneous one. They can become lost in some form of New Age spirituality, which is very much a “roll-your-own” experience.
In a world full of doctrine and dogma, the individual can come to distrust spiritual knowledge of any kind. There can be a sense that there is no spirituality that is real or solid, that there is no reliable truth to it, or intelligent pattern—that it is just what a person chooses to think or believe on any given day. We might applaud a person’s spiritual search. But searches should lead to something being found, and not just a counterfeit or faded version of the reality sought after. It should lead to finding the real thing, probably not all at once but over time.
What we call spirituality is a reality that has a size and a shape to it. There is a pattern to it. Just like any reality, it isn’t just mush, and it isn’t just anything that a person might conceive it to be. It isn’t this way one day, and another way tomorrow. Reality is reality. There’s something to find, to get to know, and to experience. It is not a physical thing. And even though physical form can manifest it, spirituality is the essence of the form. That essential reality is stable, though ever-changing. It is the bedrock of the human experience. For a person who is searching, they have to ask themselves if they are finding that bedrock, or just experiencing feelings and ideas that shift and change day by day—not really something that you can live your life by.
Authentic spirituality is experiencing the bedrock of reality. It’s a place of true north and true centering, the birthplace of wisdom. When we know that place, we can come to know ourselves and each other. We can find the basic pattern for success as a human being, and for us as people together. So, Uranda, and Martin after him, and us today have sought to bring to the world the opportunity to know our spirituality. To some it might have looked like religion. It doesn’t really matter what it looks like to someone if they’re willing to find out what it really is.
It’s pretty hard to show the pattern and the shape, size, and feel of something that is invisible until it is known, lived and embodied. How do you teach it? Especially, when we live in a world that contains religion without spirituality, sometimes full of lifeless dogma and doctrine? But I will proudly say we’re doing it. We are teaching something that is a living knowledge. We’re speaking of something that we know. And we are not forcing anything on people. Or just telling them to believe what we believe. We are offering signposts so that a person can discover the experience of spirituality for themselves. We are showing them how to find it. Does that excite you? Does real spirituality excite you? The idea of coming to know that and experiencing it and bringing it to the world? It excites me terribly.
The only time and place to find the empowerment of spiritual knowing and expression is here and now. This is how it came home to me. Maybe you can relate to the story. I was living in New York City, right in the heart of Manhattan, working downtown in the financial district. I’d been there just a short time when I found myself thinking, “How do I get away on the weekend? How do I get out of this place and get a break?” And then I found myself thinking, “How long am I going to have to live here? Perhaps I can do a stint for a couple of years and then move on to someplace else.” I had all these escapisms going on. And needless to say, that’s not a happy state to be in. I felt buffeted by all that was going on in the city—the smells, the noise, and the sheer energy of it. New York hums!I don’t know how it happened. But at some point, I had a talk with myself about it. Do you ever give yourself a talking to? I said, “Dave, you might be here forever. Get over it. Get used to it. Accept it.” And I did. Something magical happened. It had felt like I was drowning in the cultural sea that is New York. But when I finally chose to be here now, it felt like I bobbed up like a cork to the top of that sea. I went from drowning to floating. And all the influences that had buffeted me were now supporting me, stimulating me, and holding me up. I felt like the king of the world, or at least the king of the city.
The experience of spirituality is in the here and now. This is where we tap into spiritual power. This is the only place where spiritual expression becomes real. In this place, we connect with the source of power, which is above the human world, and above the world of form. We then relate to the world as an expression of that power. We are connecting with the axis mundi. We are connecting with a higher reality that’s empowering us.
Here is Jesus’ teaching on this matter: “And when it was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or Lo there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” [Luke 17:20,21] The text references both time and space. The Pharisees were looking for the kingdom of God in the future. Essentially, Jesus tells them to stop looking for it in the world of time and space because it is within you. How much more immediate can you get? He wasn’t really saying that it is in your stomach, your brain, or your liver. It is right here with you, inherent in who you are. Dr. Bill Bahan used to say, “The kingdom of God is within you. Let it out!”That’s spiritual expression.
Jesus was putting attention on what is right here, right now, with you, and in you. He was a profound spiritual teacher—not a teacher of religion, a teacher of spirituality. Here is the rest of the story. “And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. [Luke 17:22-24]
There’s something happening in the invisible ranges of the spiritual reality we share—the heaven. That’s where the answer for our lives and for our world appears. That’s where the power is. But you have to be in the here and now to see it and know it. And that’s never going to happen if you’re chasing after it over here, there, or the other place. Something happens when we’re here now, individually, wherever we may be, and it’s miraculous. You here and now where you are, and me here and now where I am, we are here and now together. We are in one place spiritually. We find ourselves on that basis. When we come home to ourselves in that way, we find each other. We find the community of people who are having that experience together in one place. And there you are, there I am. We greet each other with joy in this one place of power and light and knowledge, not just imagined or hoped for, but known. I am making no claims here. I’m just saying that the more that we’re here and now together, the more we know the power of Creation. We come to know the essence of things, not just the form.
Years ago, I was commuting by car for about 45 minutes twice a day, mostly through Westchester County in New York. It was wintertime, and I was working in an office all day long. There was stress and challenge in my job, and in my life otherwise. I was driving to work one winter morning. Above me was a gray sky. There was snow on the ground, and I was driving through the bare trees. It was cold and bleak, inside and out. I had gotten hold of a CD with traditional Hawaiian chants and songs. And I had a killer sound system in my car. So I put the CD in the player, and all the warmth of Hawaii filled my car. All the essence of the beaches and the feeling of Hawaii came through. Even though I had never been there, it was strangely familiar. In those moments, I was transported to an ancient paradise. It felt more like home than anything I had felt before. And there I was in the middle of those cold woods with my heart on fire, inspired by touching these essences. I sobbed.
Last Saturday night, I had a similar experience. The Hawaiian Music Masters were playing in town, featuring George Kahumoku, Jr., on the slack-string guitar. George has a beautiful, melodious voice. As the band played their enchanting melodies, harmonies, and rhythms, the packed house in the Rialto was transported to Hawaii. You could feel the Motherland through their music. Between songs towards the end of the show, George called out, “Keahi, Keahi. Where is Keahi?” He was calling for Keahi Ewa, whom he had met the day before. He wanted her to share the hula while they played. So she danced on the stage in front of the band, her every micro movement evoking the essence of an ancient paradise.
Keahi
This is not about trying to be somewhere we are not, across an ocean. It is not about trying to go back in time. The truth is, we all carry the essence of a dormant reality. When we show up fully here and now, those essences have the opportunity to come to life through us if we let them. And so we become interested in those essences in ourselves, in other people, and in all humankind. In this case, the essences of ancient paradise came to life through Keahi’s hula. So much of reality is like that. It seems, perhaps, that the essences of things is ephemeral. But no, they are forever. They are eternal. They are part of the spiritual reality we are coming to know.
Spirituality is knowing the very essence of reality. Developing our capacity to know is partly a matter of the mind. But without a heart perception of what transcends all the forms of life, we can’t know. There has to be heart clarity for that perception to be available. We are here to experience that clarity and perception. If we do, we can share it with the world. We awaken the world to the spiritual expression plane of Being. No human institution rules this field. It can’t. It is not theirs. It all belongs to God—to Being.
