Metamorphosis And The Continuity Of Life

Metamorphosis

And  The  Continuity  Of  Life

John Gray   September 29, 1991   Glen Ivy, California

To all who are alert enough to watch and to see, the One Spirit constantly reveals aspects of its divinity through all life forms and functions. Here in this realm of creation with which we are familiar, on planet Earth, correlations with all of life’s other forms and functions are contained in essence in human beings. So, anywhere we observe life working we may learn something about ourselves.

Many of us have been talking lately about change. A lot more people have been thinking about change. And everybody, like it or not, is experiencing change. Change characterizes life as it expresses itself in forms. Nothing alive is static or stagnant. In the current affairs of the world we live in, it is so obvious as to be impossible to overlook that deep and unprecedented changes are occurring everywhere. People handle these changes or react to them in different ways: some with jubilant welcome, others with resistance.

To me, one of the most dramatic demonstrations of change takes place countless millions of times each year all over the world: it is the process that certain insects go through in changing from one form into another. Metamorphosis is a classic metaphor. Deep in the human psyche there is a fascination with it.

I have a rather old little paperback book called The Great Chain of Life by Joseph Wood Krutch. In it is a sensitive description of the process of transmutation that a caterpillar goes through in entering its chrysalis state and then emerging as a butterfly.

Joseph Krutch wrote an excellent non-technical description of the process: the caterpillar munching away blissfully for weeks and then acting like it got too full at some point, attaching itself to a branch or twig, forming a chrysalis inside its caterpillar skin and then letting its external skin fall away; then out of the chrysalis some time later, somewhat crumpled but complete, emerges an adult butterfly. Having described that process much more thoroughly and beautifully than I just did, he says this:

“Anyone who has thus watched the progress from caterpillar to finished butterfly has seen incredible things happen... But a great deal has been kept hidden...what he has seen is merely a series of suddenly revealed transformations.”

He goes on to describe some of the internal changes going on in the caterpillar. As the time to form the chrysalis nears, the caterpillar gets sluggish, stops eating and looks sick.

“When our caterpillar looked sick he really was sick... His muscles and his organs were beginning to dissolve into what looked like a sort of pus. He had just life enough left to perform the final rites which accompany his entombment within the chrysalis before he was returned almost to death...

“Once the skin has been shed and the creature—or what is still left of it—ceases to move, the destruction of the original organs and the fashioning of new ones goes on apace. Free-moving cells, much like the phagocytes or white blood corpuscles in the human body, absorb and carry away the disintegrating material, and at the same time new organs begin to form. Ever since the day when the caterpillar was hatched from the egg it has carried within its body certain little groups of cells which were useless until now. They are the buds, if the term be permitted, from which the butterfly’s organs will develop, and these organs grow on the material the phagocytes have been carrying away from the parts of its dead self. From these buds a butterfly began to form as the caterpillar was dissolved. No new material save perhaps air and moisture is available any more than anything is available to an egg closed within its shell. What is more remarkable, perhaps, is that almost nothing is left over. The material in one caterpillar is just sufficient to make one butterfly!”

Here life’s marvelous working in an insect may give us insight into the processes of change and how they work in our own experience and awareness, both in occasional dramatic metamorphoses and as continual changes in consciousness. To paraphrase the author’s pleasant description: entering the chrysalis state, the caterpillar form is willing to become pus-like mush and then out of that material the butterfly form is drawn together. Life is the constant throughout. Life reveals itself in caterpillar form and then as living mush within the chrysalis and later as the emerging butterfly. The shape, the form, that life takes changes utterly, but life itself is constant throughout. A butterfly is not at all a caterpillar with wings. It is a totally transmuted creature, formed out of the substance of what went before but totally new. Life fashions an entirely new creation out of the living matter provided by the caterpillar.

You may be familiar with the book of Martin Exeter’s addresses, Beyond Belief. In the chapter entitled “From Caterpillar to Butterfly” Martin utilizes this archetypal metaphor, equating the caterpillar state with a condition of earthly identity in a human being and the butterfly state with spiritual identity. He emphasizes the necessity that the metamorphosis in this day be a collective one for the whole of humanity, and he also emphasizes the necessity for at least some of us to willingly let this process of internal change occur without undue resistance, thus leading the way in an experience of a profound change of identity for all. Only by willingly participating personally may we understand what life’s deeper urgings are within the whole of the body of mankind.

“We are not expecting to sprout wings tomorrow and fly away as butterflies. No, this process is happening through the whole, and there is that which is left behind from the standpoint of the chrysalis and there is that which emerges as the butterfly. This is the way it works.

“We may see our responsibility in the matter possibly with a clearer vision because of the use of this analogy. Factually we are not caterpillars, or entering into a chrysalis, or becoming butterflies. But these words are useful to convey what is really happening, and we can be quite confident that if we let it happen it will happen just as easily as that process with the caterpillar transformed into the butterfly.”

I suppose we could argue that the caterpillar does not have the ability to object to change, but human beings can and usually do. We have will. We like to think of ourselves as free agents, capable of determining the direction of our openness. Theoretically that is true, but factually speaking most human beings are virtually always controlled by mass-subconscious factors and don’t make any more choices, really, about what is going on in their lives than a caterpillar does about its. Personally and collectively we feel that the process of change which we are all very aware of both within and without is moving toward some point of culmination. Martin’s concluding words of the chapter are:

“As we trust [the creative process], as we free up in ourselves, and are content to be nothing in the human state, we discover what it means to be something in the heavenly state. We cease being earthbound creatures and rise on the wings of spirit in the fulfilment of the restoration of man.”

Those two sentences put in vast perspective the experiences of internal personal change over which so many in our world today anguish. When we take a small view of what is transpiring we tend to be emotionally involved in it—how it affects me personally, whether I am made more or less comfortable by what is transpiring; whether I like it or not. But if I fall into that habit of narrowness I will invariably misinterpret life’s signs and misunderstand what is going on in my life, in the lives of others, and in our planet as a whole. The profundity of the change that is required is difficult for our minds to fathom. It is one of becoming nothing, “no thing,” just as the caterpillar going into the chrysalis state becomes nothing. It is not a caterpillar any longer; it gives its life in order to find it.

The caterpillar does not have any choice in the matter. It doesn’t question whether to trust the creative process. We can brush that off lightly, saying, “Well, it’s just instinct,” without understanding what is going on. How about us? How deep does my trust in the creative process go? In an internal, personal way that question is posed by circumstances numerous times every day, and we prove by the way we behave where our trust actually is. Sometimes we willingly move with the flow of life as it is moving; at other times resistant habits prevail, we dig in our heels and “would rather not”—and usually then don’t! Who is willing to become nothing? A frightening prospect! Remember that metamorphosis takes place in the external form of things; life itself is ongoing, ceaseless. The presence of life is the one constant. The external forms of things—my body, my consciousness—is where the changes unfold. Who is willing to become nothing in the outer sense?

People may have experiences which at the time seem severe, traumatic, difficult, when dramatic changes in their status quo take place. These are generally labeled as stressful experiences. Among common ones are loss of a loved one, a change of career, moving one’s place of residence, a serious illness, things like this. Such changes can come unexpectedly. Some people go down under the pressure; others find an inner resilience and in retrospect would say that the experience was one of the most important of their lives—and it seemed that they were becoming nothing at the time!

All of us have had the experience of at least one total, dramatic, irreversible shift in our lives—probably more—but at least one. Everyone in the room this evening is physiologically adult. So, somewhere back along the way we all went through puberty. That was a metamorphosis, for sure! The child, the boy or girl we were, passed away. You can remember the child you were but you are not the child you were and you can never again be the child you were. Many young people find puberty, that period of profound transformation, de-stabilizing for a time. The change is utter, complete. Feelings and thoughts one never had before are suddenly flowing in all directions. It is wild and wonderful, exciting, scary, even sometimes boring. Wide, sudden swings of emotion and experience can occur as the capacity to express feeling takes on new dimensions and the ability to think develops.

What is occurring during this time is a change in identity. The child identity becomes nothing and an adolescent identity emerges, a personality-self takes shape. All too often of course, young people decide that this is what they are, and that decision is aided by a vast population of people in older bodies not acting any more maturely than adolescents. So the general model is immature, and therefore many, many young people, taking their cues from that, settle into a mediocre identity as a personality-self. That would not be the end of the process by any means if life were allowed to have its way. Sometimes, of course, people awaken to this fact years later. Maybe twenty, thirty, forty years later they wake up and say, “My gosh! All these years have gone by and there are so many things I haven’t done.” Maybe they are ashamed of what they have done or not done. Or maybe they have really become somebody and now it doesn’t seem to matter so much. If you have achieved some goals—personal, career, financial—now what? This can be mid-life crisis time! A finite lifespan stretches ahead. At age fifteen life seemed eternal; now, not so much remains over the horizon. It may be scary again; there are again unfamiliar feelings, invisible urges. Ah! Life is providing another chance to continue maturing—a “second puberty.” This time it’s a change in experienced identity from the personality-self to a spiritual self.

Those who feel this stirring going on in themselves and elect to move with it find themselves sooner or later facing the challenge of becoming nothing. Like it or not, sooner or later everything we’ve brought along goes to mush! What we thought we knew, things we were sure of, everything that we thought was stable and infallible, unchanging—it all seems uncertain again. It is as if the rug is pulled out from beneath our feet and we come face to face with the fact that there is only “me.” That realization is the pivot point of the metamorphic process. It seems like a low ebb: “All is lost. I give up.” Immediately as there really is a giving up—the willingness to become nothing—the emergence aspect of the transition phase becomes predominant. Rather than the disintegration of what was, the “going to mush” of the caterpillar form, now the formation of the butterfly-to-be becomes predominant in experience.

The “little groups of cells” which were present in the body of the caterpillar but served no apparent purpose during its caterpillar stage now become the starting points for the development of the differentiated parts of the butterfly. They were present in bud form, as Joseph Krutch put it. I think this is a beautiful illustration of something in us as well. The starting points for all that is to unfold are completely present in us already in undeveloped seed form. It is said that within seeds, whether of an animal, a human or a plant, the whole design and pattern of the mature living form-to-be is invisibly present in essence.

There is in everyone the in-built capability in the very substance of our bodies to let dramatic metamorphic change occur safely. We have personal proof and precedent of profound change in our lives: everyone in this room survived puberty! Maybe we (or our parents!) didn’t think we (or they) would survive it at the time, but we did. We are living examples that we can go to mush and come out the other side as something else.

I think a lot of people feel themselves either in or on the edge of this kind of experience. Some dig in their heels and resist it, and others are more enthusiastically welcoming of it. Again, how deep is our trust in life’s creation process?

How deeply do we trust what has brought us to where we are, to such awareness as we have now? Are we willing to let that continue to develop? You might say that is all that life is asking: just that there be those who are so willing. For such ones are like these little groups of cells—buds—within the larger body of humankind, the foci of the differentiated parts of the larger body which is in formation and yet to appear in adult form. As I said earlier, wherever we observe the way life works we can learn something about ourselves—not just ourselves as individuals, but ourselves as a collective body of human beings. Do we know to the depths of our beings that the secure, controlling hand of the One Spirit is in fact on this metamorphic process that we all observe and know?

The caterpillar-to-butterfly analogy also applies to viewpoints, opinions or thoughts that we tend to have on this or that. Sometimes such things are pretty fixed. We may feel that we have considerable evidence to support a certain point of view: “This is the way it is.” Well, it may be somewhat like the way it was once, but nothing stays the same. Life moves on and if the structures in consciousness do not, the life processes themselves bring pressure to bear to turn that substance to mush. It is time to change! If we resist, trying to maintain our structures at all costs, it will prove to cost all, because we either relent, let go, let the process work, or we get out of the process. Getting out of the process is to die, whether it happens soon or years down the road. Getting out is an option that many take, but I think it much more sensible to yield and say, “Okay, so maybe the way I see everything isn’t exactly, entirely, one hundred percent totally the way it is forever.” Life needs only a little bit of willingness—and a sense of humor helps!

But then comes the change. The way we thought things were, our understanding of them, becomes uncertain. It goes to mush: “I thought I knew that.” There have been people, for example, who perhaps attended a spiritual education class back along the way, and came out of it with a lot of enthusiasm to willingly put themselves in the middle of life’s stream one hundred percent. The metamorphic change in consciousness keeps working and as a natural and unavoidable aspect of that process the point is reached where everything comes into question. And what we thought we knew, we didn’t really know because we only heard and accepted it, which is quite different from knowing, “Yes, I buy that. It rings right.” If we were open-hearted when we received whatever training we did, we probably had that wonderfully accepting attitude. We FELT as if we knew it because we were vicariously experiencing in the substance of the class setting the One Spirit as expressed by Uranda or Martin or perhaps a faculty member. But it was not fully our own experience yet. For our individual consciousnesses, the class experience was like those little groups of cells in the caterpillar—something life would activate as personal metamorphosis continued. Deeper changes must work out later, because in order for real personal transformation to occur there must be a lot of living consonant with the tone of what at first we just accepted open-heartedly but theoretically.

If we understand these things, should we question the process? If we ever feel de-stabilized and confused, great! The former structures in consciousness are going to mush. Wonderful! However, when we’re in the middle of it, it may not feel wonderful. We may feel uncertain, doubtful, perhaps even despairing and depressed; we may feel alone, on our own, and under the necessity of sinking or swimming personally. At a dark time we can either remember the state of open-heartedness which brought us to the experience or we can turn away from what at the time we think is the source of our anguish. This is characteristic of adolescence, and something that any of us who have teenagers and all of us who were teenagers know something about.

At some stages most teenagers tend to react to and resist their parents in various ways. I think this happens in the “second puberty” too. Maybe there is a certain reaction to spiritual leadership known in the past. “Well, Uranda was around a long time ago and I love his voice, but how do I really know that ‘he was there’?” Martin’s been gone a long time too. My point here is that questioning is analogous to what probably occurred when we were fifteen and our parents suddenly became stupid. Structures in consciousness arise again to be handled clearly. This should not come as a surprise, and yet to many it does!

The cause of metamorphosis is invisible. It is a spiritual control well back of the cellular level, at what we could call a vibrational level. The caterpillar makes its total living substance available to the metamorphic process: it gives its all. That equates to complete open-heartedness in a person and the willingness to become nothing. With that yieldedness, that openness, then the One Spirit creates a new form out of the substance that was provided by the previous form. Life starts “butterflying” in the chrysalis before the butterfly form comes to the point of emerging from the chrysalis. There is the overlay of butterfly essence to which the mush responds, a pattern of invisible butterfly essence. The mush responds and forms itself along the lines of force in the butterfly essence, utilizing those seed cell groups as contact points in the material. Life “butterflies” first and then the form of butterfly comes around it. When the form is adequately together and mature, the chrysalis-womb can open and the butterfly emerges.

Living essence creates living structure. Essence contains the pattern of both form and function. This is an interesting thing to consider in terms of our own consciousnesses. For example, if I say, “A bird can fly because it has wings,” most people would agree with the statement because if you turn it around it’s clear that a bird could not fly if it didn’t have wings. But if what we call a bird is life “birding” and essence creates structure, then a bird has wings because it flies. Think about how the metamorphic process in consciousness can be released to operate more fully and thus the re-creation of the big life form of humankind may take place efficiently and effectively. This is what I feel we are responsible for.

It’s sometimes suggested that a first step toward an experience of new identity is to assume it, even though one might be still convinced of the old one. If we start acting like an adult, even though we may have an adolescent identity, an adult experience will be created. Our essence as human beings is divine, an aspect of the One Spirit. This is already present. It is the constant that is back of all change. We have forms because we live. We don’t live because we have forms. Let’s emphasize the source, the origin, of the life that is flowing through our bodies, minds, and hearts. Let’s identify with that, and the form, the structure, will change to accommodate that real nature. This is the way the door to transmutation opens.

Together, our invisible essences may create humankind anew. We can look at the transformative urge as it is appearing in ourselves and everywhere in our world. We can see it in any terms we might wish—social, political, economic, militarily, you name it. We know this process at a personal level, psychologically, emotionally, but if we relax in openness of heart we can accept the larger pattern in which it is all safely contained. Then the changes occurring in and around ourselves will be in accord with the divine design. That’s how it works. What could be more fulfilling?

© Emissaries of Divine Light

Transformation and Transmutation

Heavenly  Heredity

from   Transformation  and  Transmutation

Martin Cecil   May 13, 1979

It is good that we should have these times when we may be together in this Chapel setting, keenly aware of our purpose, for we do come together in such a gathering for particular creative purposes. Something of a special nature may be experienced and initiated at such times, even though we never cease to be a part of a creative process. There is a time for everything under the sun. Wherever we may happen to be in the geographical sense we still participate in this one creative process. We may be reminded of this in a very specific sense as we gather here this evening, for instance. But we also know that while we are here present in person there are a lot of others who participate with us in this creative process but who are not here. We all share in this one unfolding purpose.

We see the effects of it round about. We enfold those effects but we do not judge them. Sometimes the effects of which we become aware are very close at hand; sometimes we observe them further afield. In no case do we judge or condemn. We simply enfold. We are in position to do this to the extent that we have allowed the generation of spiritual substance, which I suppose we might call a life plasma. It is only generated by living, and when it is generated it allows the greater experience of life. This we have seen as the substance of connection, rightly, with God and also the substance of action, rightly, from God into the world. The connection and the action all occur in this realm of spiritual substance or life plasma. Life plasma is very compelling because it provides the medium for the easy working of the Law within the range of human experience in a very particular and personal way. We may speak of the working of the Law in terms of radiation and response. Radiation moves freely through this substance when it is present, providing the connection. The radiation extends out in action. Response moves freely also through this substance, emphasizing the aspect of connection.

So the creative cycle works freely and easily as there is this essential life plasma present, and in the working there comes an intensification. This substance we have seen as the substance of fire, the substance which allows for transformation and transmutation. If the world is to be transformed then the substance must be present for it to happen; otherwise what is occurring in the world leads toward greater and greater disintegration. As we have noted before, there have been many civilizations in the past which moved into oblivion. Nowadays people sometimes dig up a few of the remains here and there and speculate about what was; but most of the remains are still covered from the sight of human beings—maybe the ocean has something to do with this. Certainly within the scope of this present civilization which has arisen over the last few thousand years there have been aspects of it that have risen up and then disintegrated. Nations and empires have come and gone but the overall state is still here. However there are many signs of disintegration. We might be able to envision a cataclysmic collapse of some kind somewhere along the way, or just a gradual falling apart. Take your pick!

There is a need, certainly obvious enough, for a transformation of some kind if mankind is to survive. We understand that this transformation comes not by physical effort or intellectual effort but by the spirit of the Lord. It comes by the Word. All things are made by the Word and without the Word is not anything made that was made and that is now made. So we have seen our responsibility relative to the Word. Our participation in the expression of that Word in our living is absolutely dependent upon this life plasma—the extent of its generation, the extent of our connection in the personal sense and the extent to which this substance of connection overflows to fill our worlds so that our worlds may be immersed in this substance. Then there is the means for transformation. The transformation occurs by reason of the Word and not by reason of human manipulation of any kind.

I think if you examine your own experience with honesty, even now, you will be aware of the fact that you tend still to be manipulative. This is partly because of fear, imagining that if you were not, things would obviously go from bad to worse. However all too often, I am sure, from your past experience you know that when you manipulate they go from bad to worse too. Of course manipulation is undertaken in order to produce a more satisfactory state of security for oneself or for one's family or society or whatever it may be. So some manipulation certainly continues in our own experience. Perhaps it is less than in the experience of most, but we are not really looking for less manipulation but for the dissolution of manipulation altogether, so that everything is allowed to work on the basis of this substance which provides the material for the living forms in what may be referred to as heaven, the living forms brought forth by the Word.

From the usual human view these forms are invisible. This is rather fortunately so; otherwise there would be manipulation no doubt, relative to those forms; and indeed there has been to some extent, but not in the true heaven. In what may be called black magic an invisible realm is involved, the realm of evil spirits I suppose you could call it: the spirits of fear and greed, the spirits of material lust of various sorts. There are those who are more proficient at working in this realm to manipulate their fellows. It is being done all the time. That is the first heaven, which needs to pass away, and the first earth with it. The first earth is merely a reflection of that manipulative heaven. But we see a new heaven and are assured of a new earth, because the earth simply reveals the heaven. Heaven and earth are one. If it is the true heaven then the true earth is revealed. The true heaven is impossible of emergence into experience except as there is substance to give it form—spiritual substance we might call it.

When this substance is present, the true substance of the new heaven is present sufficiently to enfold our worlds, then there is a compulsion present in our worlds which will have its effect. The effect, as we have noted before, is of two kinds. A person may respond to the radiation which is moving through this substance and consequently transformation may begin to occur in that individual's experience. You yourselves have known something of this. Some rather miraculous things have occurred with some; others have remained a little sluggish; but it all depends on response, the intensity of it, the passion of it. If there is a really passionate response there is a really miraculous transformation. If the response is of a take-it-or-leave-it nature, not very much occurs. At the other end of the spectrum there are those who oppose. They feel the radiation, they don't know what it is, but they are agin it. As long as such an attitude is persisted in there is only one thing possible of occurrence: the substance contained in the form of opposition will have to move to a level where it may be included in response. If that is the substance of the human body then of course it moves back into the dust, participating thereby in the second resurrection, sooner or later. Fundamentally, then, the two possibilities here are Yes or No.  Something like a computer, isn't it? We either say Yes or we say No. If we say Yes genuinely then transformation occurs in the form as it presently exists. If we say No, transformation occurs but that transformation takes the substance out of the form that presently exists.

Of course there is an area in between here which contains altogether the largest quantity of substance. There are those who say Yes and there are those who say No, but there are some in between who may be spoken of as neither hot nor cold. This is the vast majority, or it has been in the world. As long as there are those in human form capable of hesitating between two opinions, this large body of nothing remains. But there is something else here that comes into the picture, in these days at least, and that is the fact that there are those who, having said Yes, are beginning to participate in the increasing generation of the required substance—not only the generation of it but the intensification of it. The temperature is raised.

The fire becomes more fiery. This is the fire which initially allows for transformation, but as the temperature is raised it comes to the point where what may be referred to as transmutation can occur. In using this word at the moment I have reference to a change in the experience of what is called heredity. We all start out with an earthly heredity. This has been defined, in the human intellect at least, mostly in physical terms. There are the genes and the chromosomes, the DNA and the RNA, all this which is supposed to explain earthly heredity. But of course there is something more than these physical factors present. There is a matter of this substance of which I have been speaking. It is present in some measure, as we recognize already, or we would not be sitting here assuming that we are alive. So there is this life plasma related to the genes, to the chromosomes, to the DNA, to the RNA, to everything else that is present in our physical bodies. We have noted that this substance in present human experience has been considerably distorted by reason of human behavior disconnected from the truth, from God, from the reality of life. So earthly heredity has perpetuated lots of trouble—the sins of the fathers have been visited upon the children even unto the third and fourth generation, and way beyond. It could be said that we all suffer from this universal disease, the disease of earthly heredity. It takes different forms but it is the same disease.

It is interesting to note that all the various disturbances which human beings experience and call disease are really one disease. This is why when some particular form of the disease is conquered it springs out in some other form, because the disease is still there. It has not been eliminated at all; it just takes a different form, that is all. And there is an endless struggle therefore to conquer all disease so that everyone might be healthy. Nobody knows what health is anyway. But could it be imagined that all disease could ever be conquered on this basis? Nobody understands yet what disease is. All that is being struggled with is in the realm of effects. Symptoms are sometimes corrected. I am sure you have found that when some of your symptoms have been corrected in a certain area it is not long before you have symptoms in some other area that need correcting again. So you go back and forth, up and down, round and round, usually just going down a little each time. So there is a universal disease now with which human beings everywhere are afflicted: the disease of earthly heredity. This in other terms, religious terms, is sometimes called original sin. We have spoken of it as human nature. Most people are inclined to admit that human nature cannot be changed; in other words we could never cure it, we could never shuck off this disease. Well we need to understand what the disease is, and we have some awareness in this regard of course.

Earthly heredity, which is incorporated into what human beings are in the external sense, cannot be cured by any technique devised by the human intellect. It doesn't recognize earthly heredity as being a disease anyway. It is a disease that always proves fatal in the end. Sometimes people can limp along quite a while. The means for the healing of the nations of the world of mankind is found in this life plasma, which, when it is generated and allowed to ascend to every vibrational level that is actually present here in the world and in each individual, may provide the facility for intensified radiation, the radiation which springs from the spirit of God by reason of the expression of the Word. So there is intensified radiation, because there is the substance of connection through which the radiation may operate. That intensification continues to the extent that there is response. The cycle must be completed. The intensification of response, which is the passionate love for the Word, permits the intensification of radiation; the temperature of this substance is raised. It begins to have an effect upon the distorted substance that may be present, vibrational substance still, relative to earthly heredity.

We are not considering operating on the genes or changing the chemicals in the DNA chain in some valuable fashion. We don't operate at that level. We are not operating at the physical level or at the mental level but from the standpoint of spirit, because what needs to be accomplished can only be accomplished by spirit. No amount of mental effort or physical effort can get the job done. I think we are here associated with this ministry because we realize that—even though we still have a lingering attitude present in ourselves, related to earthly heredity no doubt—that we need to do a little bit of manipulation at least to keep the ball rolling. Surely it could never be assumed that even if the whole human race was wiped out the universe would cease to exist. Something would continue, would it not? Everything would continue, almost everything. Whether man would be missed or not, of course, is another question. But with the intensification of radiation moving freely through this substance, because the substance is present, there is naturally and rightly an intensification of response.

This morning, I was speaking about that intensification of response. It is not really a matter of human beings deciding, “Well now I'm going to really intensify my response.” If you are open in the right direction and yielding in that direction, the intensification of response comes automatically because of the intensification of radiation. It is not generated, it is not manipulated; it simply happens. It is a part of the working of the Law.

I mentioned the word yielding. The yielding of course relates to human consciousness, our own in particular. This must be allowed to yield. There are many people who have recognized some necessity in this regard and have devised various means, various techniques, to participate in this yielding process. There are many methods of meditation, for instance, that have been designed over the millennia. Some of them may seem to be a little more modern but these things have been going on for millennia. They have never produced anything. Of course the idea is that here is a technique that may be useful to cure some of the diseases that human beings have, to make them more healthy human beings, more able to wreak destruction because of their improved health. I don't think the end and aim actually is to improve the health of human beings. It is to participate in this creative process of transformation and transmutation, so that when that is complete we don't have human beings anymore as they are now—in other words we don't have any hereditary human beings exhibiting their earthly heredity all over the place.

The earthly heredity needs to be dissolved.

There isn't any way that human beings can figure out to do this. There is some consideration being given by certain ones, I believe, to the possibility of developing some sort of superperson, again by the manipulation of the genes, etc. What a horrible thought! Human beings are bad enough as it is. No, we see a different way, which is not dependent at all upon human manipulation. It is simply consequent upon the true design of life, a true design which already exists but which has been blocked from actual experience, insofar as human beings are concerned, by their subjection to earthly heredity. We understand this. We know that human beings, ourselves included, are or have been subject to earthly heredity. And in some measure we all still are. We realize that this can be transcended, not particularly by meditation but by the quality of our living regardless of our earthly heredity, so that the earthly heredity is not allowed to dominate the scene. It is still on hand but something else emphasizes itself increasingly.

This experience comes by reason of the working of the Law: radiation, response. Substance is generated. It is then intensified, and it is this intensification which transforms human experience. In spite of earthly heredity still being present it transforms human experience. As I have already noted, it has transformed your experience to whatever extent, and that extent is based in the degree of passion in your response. So the transformation occurs in the world the way it now is. This is part of what might be called the process of resurrection. New life begins to be experienced because a new consciousness begins to be experienced. At a certain point the temperature may be raised sufficiently to allow for the cycles of transmutation. This relates to the dissolution of earthly heredity so that the factors of earthly heredity are no longer present. That doesn't leave a blank: “Oh dear, no heredity” Where would we be without any heredity? We would be nothing. It brings something else into the picture which may well be called heavenly heredity—a heredity that is of far longer standing than earthly heredity, for the heavenly heredity has always been there. The earthly heredity only put in an appearance somewhere back along the way when man started to misbehave himself. Well that needs to be disposed of, to be dissolved, to be changed; and I refer to this experience as transmutation. I am not suggesting that transmutation is going to occur tomorrow. I think there is quite a bit of transformation that can still happen that has not yet happened, and until it has happened there is not much likelihood of transmutation.

I merely point to this to indicate something of an ongoing experience, carrying into a level which is completely beyond the comprehension of the human mind. It doesn't know anything about it; it cannot understand it; and it certainly cannot explain it. Insofar as the human mind is concerned it is a process and an experience that doesn't really exist. Well I suppose such a view might be taken as being valid until someone, somewhere, experiences it. Of course it has been experienced in a very particular sense by the One called Jesus. So it is not an unknown experience actually, even though it may be quite inexplicable. Lots of people have tried to explain the resurrection and the ascension but no one has succeeded in making any sense out of it. So the majority of people either take it on faith or say that it was impossible, it never happened. Well let's not argue about it. Let's just experience what it is. That is the only valid thing, isn't it? And if we have known some transformation heretofore, why couldn't there be any more? I presume we all have hopes that there may be some more. We are not altogether satisfied with the present state of affairs—I hope not anyway. Let the cycle continue, but there must be the substance present if there is to be radiation. When there is radiation then there may be response, when the substance is present.

The radiation has never in fact been absent but it has been disconnected from human beings to a very large extent, for lack of substance. Now the substance comes into the picture; the radiation increases in our experience. It doesn't actually increase—it is always radiation, whatever it is—but it increases in our experience because of the substance. Because it increases in our experience we find ourselves compelled to say Yes with a greater enthusiasm, with a greater zeal, with a greater passion. Or on the other hand we are impelled to say No with greater zeal and with greater enthusiasm and with greater passion. And those who are in the middle, in the lukewarm state, find that they cannot stay lukewarm, because things are being hotted up; and you find that the Yes end begins to expand and the No end begins to expand, taking in more of the middle, until finally they meet in the middle and there is no more room there for anyone. Everything is spewed out. The lukewarm state is spewed out altogether. There is the state of Yes or No: “I would thou wert cold or hot.” Yes! This is our reply, I am sure. But there are those who say No, and that is fine too. It all contributes to the transformation.

There is no need to speculate about it. All we should do is to experience it for ourselves in an increasing sense. Let the substance be intensified in our experience. When it is intensified there is more generation of that substance, and there is more to spill over into our worlds, until our worlds are completely immersed in this creative substance. Then the temperature of the substance is raised in our worlds increasingly. The transformation continues until all that can be transformed is transformed—I suppose in the larger sense we would say when everybody has either said Yes or No. Here is the separation of the sheep from the goats. Here a line is being drawn on earth, and when the line is clear-cut then the transmutation can occur. As it was put: “The Lord ... is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” that all should make a choice.  And there is a point somewhere where everybody has made a choice, everybody who is present on earth at that time. And because there are those who say Yes here, there and everywhere on the face of the earth—this is not restricted in any way to race, color or anything else—because there are those who say Yes, then the good news is preached in all the world. At that point the end comes—in other words the transmutation comes. It is not of much value as far as we are concerned now to try to figure out what that means or what the experience would be, because nobody knows anyway until it happens. Isn't that right? We can speculate about many experiences but we don't know what they are until they actually happen in our experience. Then we know. So that is what we are concerned with.

I rejoice that we might take a look at those things which we have considered together this evening, simply because there is sufficient substance to do it, but let us not assume that because we have taken a glance at something we now know what it is. What we do know, or what we may know, is that here is indication of an ongoing creative cycle. All we actually know of this creative cycle is what we experience now. Let us let our present experience be what it may well be because of the substance which is present, because of the increased radiation which is with us, so that we may allow an increase of response thereto. So the substance is generated and intensified and all things work together to perfection. That is a good way of describing it!

© Emissaries of Divine Light

The Law Of Resistance

The  Law  of  Resistance 

Uranda   July 14, 1937

The earnest one who has chosen to let the will of the Lord be accomplished in and through him by the creative power of the fire of love, and has proven to be steadfast and unwavering in the mystical school of life, having true faith in the firm foundation of reality, is brought to the point of being, where he may begin to comprehend the wondrous workings of the Law of Resistance as it functions in the triune negative world wherein he is manifest.

Such an one knows that in the silence of the outer self the divine sounds of the Inner Self begin to sound in the outer. He who ceases speaking the words of carnal mind and lets go in love to his Lord is he who begins to speak the Word of his Lord. He who ceases all self‑activity, in a true response to his Lord, is he in whom the divine activity of his Lord begins to appear, and such an one joyously finds that he has more to do than ever before and he rejoices in the realization that every thought, word and deed released through him is sent forth in the creative fires, accomplishing that whereunto they are sent, to the glory of God.

It is not enough to cease self‑activity, for the responding one lets God‑activity have free function through himself, that insofar as he is concerned it may truly be said, “The will of our Father is now done in earth as it is in heaven.” For all such there is great rejoicing among the eternal ones of the Inner Planes, for these are they who are the windows of heaven, through whom the union of heaven and earth is accomplished. No longer does the blessed one try to get away from the earth and all the natural things therein, but rather does he rejoice that through himself the earth may be lifted up in that glorious ascension that blends heaven and earth as one, for that is the new heaven and the new earth.

With this vision of the way of the Lord in the earth, the blessed one may let his attention rest upon the Law of Resistance, that he may relax into a realization of the truths thereof and rejoice in the greater privilege of full harmonization therewith. God‑activity is the Christ radiance of light, love and life that issues forth through every expression of the Lord, whether that Lord be incarnated in a human body or not. The law of such divine expression is love, which is the creative fire that brought all things into manifestation; and so it is that the Law of Love becomes the One Law for the responding one who allows God‑activity to manifest through himself.

The Master, Jesus, as the LORD of Lords, is the central, supreme Being of the Christ expression in this world, and He spoke the word: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.” This is the key to the Law of Resistance. Many there are who have thought to understand His words of instruction, “Judge not,” and so it is that they have followed after their own fancies, judging that “judge not” meant to part with one’s natural powers of perception to a degree that engendered self-delusion. The divinely keen powers of perception which enable one to face the facts, both of the inner reality and of the outer manifestation, are to be rejoiced in. Such perception allows one to have an understanding of all the influences and vibrations that are at work in any given situation or condition, so that the facts are known; but such clear analysis does not mean that the person or persons involved are judged. It may be noted of a certain person that he has light brown hair and blue eyes, without saying that his hair should be darker, or that his eyes should be grey. Noting the facts as manifest is not judging, for judging does not begin until that which is noted is accounted to be either good or evil.

In the mystical school of life the blessed one must prove that he can face the facts of manifestation, both in himself and in others, without fear or judging. Such an one is content to let all things prove themselves, whether they be of the real or the unreal, for he knows that whatever judgment is judged by any person determines the judgment wherein that person is judged; for each one judges himself. Much has been expressed concerning the judgments of God, but God does not judge any; He only allows the judgments judged by each to return upon the judging one, that each may prove himself. So it is that no one has any need to judge another; but this does not deny the fact that all should face the facts of being, both manifest and unmanifest, with clear perception.This becomes clear to the degree to which the Law of Resistance is understood.

In the positive planes of being the creative functions are eternally active, and each earnest one is aware thereof to the degree to which he is one with his Lord within. In the negative planes which form the outer triune world, or what is spoken of as creation, there are as many varying degrees of resistance as there are different creations. While resistance is necessary, the fact of resistance alone would be meaningless. The laws of electricity as known by man give abundant proof of these things. A wire of small resistance cannot carry a great current of electricity, but a wire of great resistance is of no value without its rightful current.

In every person on earth there is a degree of resistance, else life could not manifest; but the fact of resistance is valueless so long as it is alone. Many have thought that all resistance must be removed before a spiritual life could be lived, but to remove resistance would be to make the form into a spineless, meaningless mass. Response does not require the removal of resistance. Response means that whatever degree of resistance is present in the individual is allowed contact with the Lord, that the corresponding degree of positive radiance may be released therein, thus making the person to be alive in reality. All who do not allow their resistance to be controlled by the will of the Lord, but seek rather to do their own will, are dead already, in that they are not alive in the Lord. There is a great difference between a “dead wire” and a “live wire,” though both are wires and both may be suitable for purposes of conducting currents of electricity.

The purposes of the Emissaries of Divine Light include that of “resurrecting the dead,” in the sense of bringing those human beings who are dead to reality into contact with their Lords, that they may be charged with the Christ radiance and become eternally alive. It is God’s will that all should have eternal life now. He who lets his Father’s will be done in him now is now received into eternal life. No one can do the will of God and be subject to death, for the will of God is life eternal. Only that which refuses to let God’s will be done is capable of death. Eternal life is the natural state. Rejoice that it is so!

Step by step the Law of Resistance is being unveiled for you by these words. The resistance in any person is in direct ratio to his ability to live. When the resistance is high, and self‑controlled by the human being, the attainment in the chosen sphere of outer world function is high according to worldly standards, while the self‑active ones who have little resistance form the masses who are molded by the selfish will of the comparative few who have a high degree of self-controlled resistance. Nevertheless, the end of both the high and the low in self‑active resistance is the same, for both are subject to death, and their lives pass away as the shadow before the sunrise. These are they who defend their self‑will and cling to death, refusing to let the Lord’s will be done in them; and so it is that the dead bury their dead, not knowing that those who are not alive in the Lord are dead already. All such who respond not to their Lords within them are received into the earth and into the grave, wherein there is no knowledge or memory, for they are as if they had not been, and neither shall they be anymore; for if the dead be not resurrected while they are yet alive in the eyes of the world, they shall not be resurrected at all at any time, and their substance shall be given to another at an appointed time. So it is that the substance of all shall ascend in due season; for the “second resurrection” is that of the substance and not of the person, and it is only required for that which has been received of the “second death.” All human beings born upon the earth are at first subject to the first death, for they are dead already so long as they can die, and while they are yet alive in the eyes of the world they may receive the resurrection into eternal life. But the death of the world is the second death, and for all who die therein is the second resurrection prepared, that their substance may be lifted up by another at a time when it shall respond to the Lord.

When the resistance that is in any person is given fully and freely by him to his Lord, his outer manifestation of being becomes charged with his Lord’s presence, and to the degree of resistance is the power of the Lord released in accordance with the manifest need. He who thus gives his own free will to his Lord, that his every expression from that day onward may be of his Lord, is he who truly responds in the fire of love, thereby allowing himself to be drawn into contact with his Lord, by whom he is charged with light, love and life to the degree of his individual resistance. The Law of Resistance relates to the resistance to life that is present in the individual. So long as the resistance to life is kept away from the Lord through the self‑active will of the individual, the result sooner or later must be death. When the resistance to life is subject to eternal being through a responsive love contact with the Lord, so that the Lord’s will is done in the individual, the degree of resistance to life determines the individual’s ability to participate in eternal life.

The blessed one is he who has been drawn into contact with his Lord through a response in the Christ love, so that his resistance to life has become charged with eternal life which is allowed to manifest as perfection through his body and mind. The unresponsive one is he whose self‑active direction of his own resistance to life has proven him to be dead, in that he is subject to death, and his ill state is manifest in his body and mind as ailments and limitations. Between these two planes of manifestation are the hosts of responding ones in whom perfection is being made manifest as rapidly as the world release is accomplished, and these are they who are the contact points between the real and the unreal, in whom the wondrous works of the Lord are made known and through whom the glory of the Lord is established in the earth as an ever‑expanding radiance of the victory of the Lord our God, even the LORD of Lords. So it is that the responding ones are accounted as blessed ones in a vision of fully released reality.

A realization of the Law of Resistance allows the responding one to abide in absolute tranquility at all times, for he knows that the directionalization of any individual resistance to life will determine whether or not that person proves to be of the real or the unreal. The blessed one radiates the Christ love to all alike, but he knows that all do not receive alike, and so he knows that his love radiance will be established to each one in accordance with the response thereto. The blessed one faces the facts of manifestation as they appear in each one, all the while beholding a clear vision of reality in one and all, so that he may be conducted of his Lord into the specific expression that is required in meeting the conditions made manifest in and through all with whom he is associated. To such an one there are but two states among those of whom he is aware: namely, the state of those whose resistance is charged with life, and so is alive, and the state of those whose resistance is uncharged, and so is dead. The blessed one sees the functions of life expression as an active agent which separates these two states, as the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff, and the gold from the dross.

When the responding one has allowed himself to be so drawn into oneness with his Lord that his Lord’s will begins to be done in and through him, he finds that there are various manifestations of resistance toward his expression of God‑activity. The Great Master plainly warned His disciples that they would meet such resistance, and His Word is recorded in Matthew 5:10‑12; and 10:32‑42, with special reference to verses 34‑37. The Master Jesus knew that the great tests of life would come when the responding one’s friends and relatives should begin to resist his divine expression, and our Master pointed out that those who wavered at such times of stress were not to be counted among the blessed ones.

To illustrate the action of the Law of Resistance, let your attention rest upon certain situations that have come within the range of your own awareness. The responding one is so certain of his position, and so firmly grounded on the rock of reality, that he functions serenely in the doing of his Father’s will, no matter what the resistance may be. Of himself he never makes a choice that affects another, for he continues on, waiting the time of outer proof, when those with whom he is associated make the choice, and then he acts accordingly.

The blessed one never judges another, nor chooses for another, but he lets each one judge himself and make his own choice. So it is that the blessed one always accepts the self‑judgment and choice of those around him; which is to say, as each one proves himself and judges himself and chooses for himself, the blessed one accepts each one on the basis each one establishes for himself. Nevertheless the blessed one never accepts the judgment and choice of another for himself.

The responding mate may not seek separation from his or her unresponsive mate, yet when the unresponsive mate chooses separation the responding mate may and should accept that separation, that he may be free in the Lord. Nevertheless, so long as the unresponsive mate does not choose separation, the responding mate so lives in the Christ radiance that the mate may find it easy to respond to the Lord at any time should that be the choice of the one who had not before responded. Whatever the choice of the unresponsive one may be, let that be the choice; for as surely as the responding one lives the Christ life, remaining true to reality, the unresponsive one must sooner or later make a choice, as the Lord forces the issue through the Law of Resistance. And whatever the unresponsive one may choose, whether it be to separate or to respond, let that choice stand, and let not the responding one waver therefrom.

When there is an issue concerning matters between individuals, whether they be relatives or not, so that there is a mutual responsibility, let the responding one function in the radiance of love in accordance with reality, knowing that in due season the Law of Resistance will force a choice from the unresponsive one if the responding one wavers not. And when that choice is once made, let it be established, and let the responding one act under the direction of the spirit in accordance with the choice of the unresponsive one. So it is that the earnest one may know of a surety that so long as he is true to himself, responding to his Lord in love, the Law of Resistance will bring a release in due season from any ill condition or limitation, if he wavers not. So it is that all things will work out in perfection for all who love the Lord, and the responding one finds that he never needs to resort to any ill act or expression in order to seek freedom, for he knows that an unwavering life expression in the Christ light, love and life will bring needed changes at the appointed times. And when those changes come, the responsive one accepts them instantly and acts accordingly, under the direction of the spirit in the firmness of the Law of Love. The blessed one never seeks to hurry matters, for he knows that he is living in eternity, and he knows that the unreal must surely fall of its own weight, thereby giving him release as surely as day follows night, if he but stands firmly upon the rock of reality. So it is that the Law of Resistance divides the gold from the dross, and thereby is the unreal caused to fall and the real is lifted up, for the full function of the Law of Resistance requires that the responding one shall never attempt to fight, but stand firmly on the Rock.

© Emissaries of Divine Light