2002-07-19-Community As Social Organism

Session

Opening

Daniel: Let’s visualize our lines of energy meeting in the middle with the merkaba.

Rayson: Good evening, this is Rayson. Continue with your silence, please. We wish you to be at ease and at peace. In the roiling of energies within yourself, we wish you to settle these, see yourself sticking your hand into fresh soil and grounding yourself. Be at peace. During this time, you are welcome to direct energy of the merkaba and your energy towards the healing of those requests that we received today. Know that this energy is being received by those individuals. This energy does not have any distinctions, does not know, does not have a consciousness. It is completely manipulable by you. (Long pause.) Declare your intentions for yourself for being here. This is not for anybody else’s information, but just for yours, so it is a very personal declaration of intention. Now as we prepare to begin, we wish you to invoke the authority that you wish to activate this energy for this session, whether it is your own or Michael’s, or some other being.

Lesson

Today, I would like to take you one step further into the TR process, and this is where you hear what is said and just let it lay. If you have some feelings of contention or disagreement with it or another opinion, set that aside. Let this enter as a breeze into your ears and to flow out the top of your head. Yes, you are right, when this occurs you are very vulnerable to indoctrination, as the mind is not challenging the material. But you will find that after the session you will be most able to do this easily, and that when you do read the transcript you will be able to argue with the material or to disagree or find other options. But in the TR process, this that comes through, through this individual does so without challenge on his part. And this is how one is able to set aside their ego, to set upon a stool to the side of this conscious process, and to see it flow through you. You in this position on this stool see this information flowing past you, through the passive individual of yourself, and speaking it out your mouth.

Today, let us continue with our discussion of community. You will find that communities we have discussed are social organisms. They are brought together by designs, by intentions, and the underpinnings of them are more social, with goals and intentions in mind. Yet, there are far more challenges for you than these intellectual and spiritual pursuits, there will also be the challenges of coming to like-mindedness, to agreement with others in actually carrying out the designs and intentions for building an intentional community. Where agreement is not possible, then find compromise or workable options.

We have discussed the issues of a physical community before when we said that community is not just buildings, but people; and not just individuals, but families and communities and larger groupings. You have been through the conference and you have had the experience recently of the TR announcing that he was going to take a sabbatical from September 1st through January 1st. Some of you have supported this and others have had different opinions about it one way or another, and so this is a microcosm that you will find will exist in all realms of human interaction, whether it is simply finding another location where you would build a community, or how you would get an existing grouping of families together to do this. It means meeting with other humans.

The way out through this, we see from our perspective, is that you would envision and use one or more TR's who would bring through community-based Celestial Teachers who would assist you in this process of working through the tedious issues of compromise, negotiation and agreement on the issues involved in building a community. Even though most of you do not come from an adversarial background, your society is highly adversarial and competitive. Competitiveness seems to be endemic so that there would be argument and compromise and negotiation and "sides," whether it be one, two, three or many more sides to a discussion, leading to some form "of winning" by one side, with losers on the other. In a co-creative working team building a community, winning is "winning for the ALL" —the potential of devising a community that will last past the moment, into the future decades and centuries.

Think, too, of allowing for those transforming experiences and transitions that will come about in any group that provide a new paradigm, a new interpretation of your community in action for the individual, for the family, and for itself. Those transitions come about when new needs are not being met by old methods. Then you must sit down at the table with other people and discuss how to do this. It is meeting with other minds —other individuals who perhaps have slightly different takes on the agenda, or have an agenda that they have not shared with you of what they think should occur. These are truly mortal issues that you will deal with in building communities. We are not talking about a committee approach towards building community, but more of a co-creative working team. These concepts were shared with others approximately six or seven years ago, and they are still as pertinent and relevant and viable as they were then. In fact, perhaps more so because of the expansion of the Teaching Mission and the willingness to accept wisdom from outside sources other than mortal thinking.

We are not pessimistic that you cannot do this on your own without Celestial assistance in your working teams, but it will go much more smoothly, and the higher-minded values and beliefs that are inherent in Celestial existence, morontial existence, will be able transferred to you more easily.

You will be kept abreast of those higher values and beliefs that are necessary to bring your community into existence. We live with morontia mota, you do not; you strive to achieve it at the lower levels of your highest behavior and thinking and the spiritization of your thinking. It works much more easily in a co-creative fashion, when others who live that way are with you. It is much like having a foreign exchange student living in your household who brings new ways of living and seeing your world. It is co-creative.

We have continued to speed the policy of co-creation with you ever since the beginnings of the Teaching Mission and its revelations to you. It will, in fact, become much more hands-on and functionally and materially oriented as you become more grounded and accepting of the necessities of co-creative partnership in devising sustainable community, even a sustainable working team. The need for capable TR’s will become even more important as the future goes on, and we believe that your children will be able to have this capability much more easily than you. We will explain why at a later time, if you wish.

The communities that we have been envisioning for you, that you would be willing to accept, are higher-minded communities; communities that work actively against the animalistic behaviors and patterns of thinking and beliefs that are inherent in your mind systems. You were born as animals and have this in your thinking; it is part of your being from animal origins. The utopianism that flourished in the 1700’s, 1800’s and the 1900’s in your nation and in Europe are ideals of those people who had the means to establish communities of a utopian nature, through the force of their will and through the prosperity of their fortunes.

But communities we speak of will be higher-minded individuals who strive to live that way on a daily basis and moment-to-moment. We are not talking about cult belief system, but a social belief system that works, one that can sustain a society into the future, not just in fortuitous times, but through difficult times as well. A society that can do this is flexible, is adaptive and is willing to look at new ways of organizing its social forces and the functions of its communities.

Rather than being an occasional activity of TRing or listening to a TR session, it will become a much more operational part of your social organizations. It will be built into your system, much as the Robert’s Rules of Order are. Just as you have a president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary, and others, you will also have the co-creative partnership vehicle or medium. (We try not to use the "M" word, medium, for it has very gross connotations from the late 1800’s into the early 1900’s and it is one that we do not like to use. Neither do we choose to use "channel" as that is too imbedded in negative ways as well.) More acceptable is the [term] TR. Few people outside this community are aware of what it means —that of a conduit, a co-creative conduit is a much more acceptable term. And perhaps this position will become embedded in your society’s organization, whether it is a school board, or whether it is a church finance committee or whether it is a family activity. We anticipate that young children will be able to do this easily in years to come.

A bit ago, I mentioned the word "cult." When you think of a cult, you also think of mind control, behavior control, living in very stringent ways, ways that are dictated from outside yourself. But you know as well as we, that the best lives are always lived from forces within yourselves, from that connection with your Thought Adjuster, with Michael, with your Guardian Angel, with other beings of Michael’s realm who are here to help you. But this is not a dependency that we speak of, but an inter-active process; it is much as you work with the best of your computer programs, where you have a touch-screen that is inter-active, and it anticipates your needs, presents you with options. You can select it, and you can go to "this place" or "this source" when it is needed; it is always available for you. But with your co-creative partnership, with your Guardian Angel, your Celestial Teacher, or Michael or your Thought Adjuster, this is always with you, and the wisdom is always with you as well.

In a community the wisdom is always there. When wisdom is at hand, you begin to believe in yourselves, you begin to believe that God truly does reside in you as well. Wisdom in this community is an active element. It only has to be accepted and anticipated—particularly "anticipated" in that moment. Be still for those two seconds that it takes to make that connection and receive that "Ah-ha" that you’ve been looking for, an insight, perhaps. Rather than thoughts of apprehension of going to a meeting with others where you will have to work on difficult policy issues or difficult material issues, you anticipate going there, to seek the answers that others have received or that will be shared there.

We are talking about not a utopian society, but a society filled with communities and families and individuals who are infused, who realize that the majesty and presence of Michael and Nebadonia are with you always, and this is not forgotten. You perhaps may be thinking that this is much too good a thing to be true, this thoughtful, spiritual way of living. Yet you already have wonderful communities of Buddhists and Taoists and Christian religious individuals who live in communities. Though these are cloistered and monastic in nature, they still and yet have all of those activities, and this is ever present in their thinking.

So too, we propose that your communities be of a higher-minded nature, and that when these difficult issues have forced themselves upon you in your society as they do—for instance right now you have the difficulty of the forest fires. The questions abound: is it better to clear-cut sections of land, cut the trees down, and leave other trees standing as buffers to expanding forest fires—these are things that will be needed for you to work on. And you may wonder what the Celestial Foresters are thinking about this; what would be a good policy? How would we manage our forests? What would be an ideal or an ultimate "win" solution for environmentalists or those who want to preserve the forests, yet do not want to see expanding forest fires consume huge tracts of land in the forests? There are solutions and answers to these questions. These are very natural questions to be asking, and there are natural answers to be sought. One has only to believe that there are answers for these difficult problems.

Yes, you do have to deal with political forces in your society; that is a much different element, one which we do not deal with; we are not here to advertise or market political positions, that is a human situation. You must deal with your human politics, and eventually, your human politics will also become higher-minded. Just as there were the political positions of seat belts and drunk drivers, the forces of your society have moved upwards a notch or two so that cars now have seat belts and there are strict laws against drunk driving. These may seem like very primitive measures, yet they are incremental and developmental. They speak of an evolution of thought, which surpasses individual freedoms or rights, ones that assist in the humanness and compassion of your societies.

The feature which causes almost a reverse traction of this movement, is the fact that you do not have a society filled with conscious individuals who wish to live by higher-minded standards, or who would even contemplate that. So you represent a very small nucleus of advanced thinking-individuals. It is going to be a slow process to expand this into larger realms of your society. You have entertained thoughts of cataclysms or difficulties on your planet, whether it is earthquakes or rising seas or epidemics, where people would be brought to God-consciousness, yet these will be insufficient to do that, as you have seen in your own society after the 9/11 incident last year. People take heart and look within, but then when time passes and the impending threat does not exist any more, then their thinking goes back to old ways.

It will take the slow, incremental increase of like-minded individuals to promote the communities that we have been speaking about, and that we see [will] develop. Lessons that we have shared with you are templates for you to use in applying your energies to develop communities intentionally. Someday, these will be needed, and they will be in place, and they will be in archives and ready and waiting for others to use. At those times, when individuals are so inclined and there are enough individuals to sustain conscious thinking of co-creative partnership with Celestials and created beings, then you can move forward quickly.

Right now many of these things we have been speaking about speak to idealism, a utopianism, to almost a cultism that will be impossible to sustain without external authority, or the over-whelming wealth that would attract people to participate. Yet we know the downfall of all those sources, those forces that would bring these into existence are temporary. Community and enduring family dynamics last because people believe in them; they accept them, they know that they work, they are healthy.

Last session we spoke about the development of child rearing guides on a continuum basis, from the procreative couple through gestation and onwards. This is the beginning of the indoctrination process for developing like-minded individuals, those individuals who adhere to these principles will gather together, just as there are individuals who gather together for the Montessori and the Waldorf schools, because they believe in those principles. So too, will these concepts be developed to an extent where families will gather together in community because they support these concepts and the concepts support them. In this context, the reality of this coming into existence, is almost immediate, and could occur within a few years. It depends upon the efforts of individuals to develop these texts and these lessons and these guides for parenting and individual growth.

The way is not hopeless, as you see. The way is interwoven with many strains and efforts of participation. That is why the Teaching Mission is only one aspect of many missions involved; this Community Mission is also one, which is here. I speak of the Community Mission, even while I am a Teaching Mission Teacher. So we are weaving many influences into your society, into these lessons here. They seem complex; they seem comprehensive; they seem to be almost over-whelming.

Yet, the nature of human lives, living successfully as individuals and families and communities, is complex, and it takes an over-arching, holistic approach that is extensive and will last over centuries, to pull this together well. It will occur because of individuals as you who come into these groups as this, who are willing to participate and add their effort along the way through their lifetime. Just think, my friends, you have begun this only within the last ten years, and some of you only with the last couple of years. You have remarked about the changes and the miraculous life-styles and belief systems of families who have been raised with the Urantia Book. That is only a living text, a wonderful reference that people read, meet and read together and study and contemplate its messages and think about and apply them without outside direction, other than inspirational insights they receive from their Thought Adjuster and Guardian Angels and others.

And so, you will see a much more active development will bloom from the work that you are doing here. When this Teaching Mission following is as large or larger than the existing world population of Urantia Book readers, you will see quite a difference; you will see enclaves, communities where people gather together to live peacefully using these basic beliefs.

Last comments concerning the issues of human contention: If you have differences with another, then how do you come to union and agreement? It is through the vision that Michael gives you for your world, a world that is in peace.

You may have differences with other humans and the way they live and their beliefs and how they live their lives, but if you all have a like or similar belief that your lives are guided by Michael that is as a voluntary and co-creative participation, then you can move forward, even though there are differences. You may move in and you may move out of functional working groups of humans, but if the intent is always to find a place where you can contribute, then you will find a place where your contribution will be received. Only those individuals who withdraw from your society, your social structure, who become social recluses or those who are bound within themselves by their beliefs of isolation, will not be able to participate and will not be able to make a contribution. This is sad, for this is also a personal choice. So though you may have differences with other humans, do move forward, do not withdraw, but continue on with the ideals that Michael has given you. There are always places for you to serve as well as there are for us.

[This is Daniel. I am seeing a metaphor of a concrete object, there is a binding of the adhesive of the cement, which is the beliefs of Michael, and the form is of the new society, and the grains of sand are individuals and the pebbles are communities.]

Rayson: The metaphor that Daniel speaks of is as of the new world that you will see that is being formed. You are the workers now who are building the forms for this to be put in place. You are not lost in the form, you are not lost in the design, but your existence is abundantly needed in place, where you are. You have an identity, you have a contribution to make; and the binding structure is correct in the metaphor description that the beliefs of Michael’s world, the beliefs that he espoused as Jesus, are those that will help your society take form and last. It will give it the outline of a new society and the communities that will support the continuance and permanence of that society, and it will become world-wide. Know that this is true.

Right now you are struggling to have communities and working families, and to become successful in your own right. Know that the contributions you make in these areas of individual growth and family development contribute mightily to the strength and structure of your new society. Think of families that do not have good internal structure. They are crystalline, and when there are tensions in their society, they will be the weak points that will crack and lend themselves to the fracturing of the larger society. You are seeing this occur in some of your nations that have been at war, where the outside is so corrosive that they cannot develop these things. And yes, it is occurring too in this nation, as you see the corrosive actions of things that are of fad and a personal distraction. There are many things to draw you away from the beliefs that maintain the solid form of a society, community, and a family.

Dialogue

Student: I have a question. (Please.) As you well know there are a number of fractures within the Urantian community, and I wondered if you would review for us or expound a bit on Jesus’ method of conflict resolution, helping to heal these kinds of divisions and antagonisms, resentments.

Rayson: I will strive to answer your question fairly. This is a wonderful question because it does bring to a point of how to integrate your beliefs into the operation of a human organization. Our observations are that mortals in organizational structure tend not to apply these beliefs within the context and the immediacy of the difficulties that they are in. Rarely have we observed where a leader would say, "What would Michael do," "What would Jesus do in this situation?" "Are there any parallels from the Urantia Book that we can apply here?" And you see, dear friend, that this is the reference that they must use is the Urantia Book, for they do not have the co-creative participation of Celestials to assist them on a conscious basis as we have here. So the reference must be to that source, to the Urantia Book. There is a wealth of lessons in Part IV, which are applicable to most human situations in one form or another. It would be helpful to find parallels between Jesus’ teachings and the difficulties that arise in your groups.

What we observe is that in the larger divisions, political in nature, individuals or groups of individuals have an agenda or idea of what they want the organization to do. In a spiritually oriented organization, the question must become, "Whose agenda, Michael’s or some individual or group of individuals?" This is the place of, as you call it, "walking your talk," where you must apply those principles and forgo individual preferences to seek solutions that aid the larger whole.

We are not talking about a beehive or an ant mentality, but more of the human-morontial mentality, to intentionally seek a higher-minded solution. And yes, do come to stillness, literally stillness, in the group, seeking for answers from within. There is much to be learned from the Quakers, who have had group process without knowing the outcomes, trusting that the answers would come through the process.

The fundamental, (and we are talking "Fundamental," perhaps with a capital "F,") issue is revelation. How does one receive revelation? Does revelation present itself in the moment? And can it be trusted? We offer and ask that revelation be tested to see if it works. What is the intention of individuals who come into these contentious groups? Do they seek to go there with revelation, with insights being given to them, that they would receive? Or do they go there with a closed mind and their own agenda? Your question has depth to it, which strikes to the very heart of every human spiritual organization. It is our belief, our knowing, that revelation is always operant, always available, and always positive and constructive. The only question that remains is, are we available for it to come through? I think you will find the answers to your question in your group, through this process, through the openness to hear and to see what had not been seen before. It takes faith that others, who are in opposition to you, also are guided, have that within them that can guide them. And yes I know, it makes life difficult when there are stubborn individuals who hold their position and want it "their way."

Student: Rayson, I have a question. (Certainly.) Does your lesson plan on community include, or would you consider, studying the relationship the "becoming relationship" between human and Celestial governments and how that relationship will eventually commingle or cross-integrate between the two?

Rayson: Yes, I’ll be glad to answer that. And as you may surmise, some of the answer has been shared with you already through the active participation, actually an actual invitation preceded by actual intent by mortals to receive this assistance. And yes, this is available and this is part of a future lesson plan. It is real, it is operational and it follows the parallel of the individual who invites in, spiritual influence into their life, to live that way. Some societies have long-term plans. You recall that your communist opponents in times past had five-year plans. And these are very productive, but we find that in democratic countries, there is more flow. There may be agendas by powerful groups, but there is more flow, and so the opportunity for outside guidance is available; it depends on individuals in higher positions of decision making who are open to that influence.

And then, as decades and centuries pass, to make that a living part of the organization. We project or see this occurring in the future, but we are reminded to always make our lessons relevant for today. What can you do today, to affect the future, to make the future more enjoyable, satisfying, fulfilling and friendly to growing individuals? I don’t believe I answered your questions "spot on," as they say, but I do believe it provides you with more information. Do you have further questions regarding that?

Student: I’m interested in how they possibly would cross-integrate.

Rayson: The way to proceed would be to actually have a group who was working on a problem and invite Celestial input. Let us use this group as one form of group. This is a teaching group, where there is present a teacher who shares information, information that you can apply on your own to your lives, throughout the days of your life. But rather we are talking about a working group, where there are open-eyed individuals working on their project. There is a team, of let’s say less than ten individuals, who are working on a project, whether it is microelectronic architecture or whether it is social restructuring or education in public institutions. You would have a group who would be working much as a working team does now, where you have individuals who, on their own, have been working on the project. And remember that these individuals can work with their Celestial Teachers as well, during these times, and you come together in a group and present your material and the Celestial(s) Teacher(s), or Technicians who are there present, would participate on a give and take basis as well. Yes, it would take a very flexible TR to do this, but that is something that can and is and will be developed in individuals. It would make for a very interesting working team, wouldn’t it?

There are always more ideas than what are presented on the table at any meeting, committee or working team. And it would be nice to know, wouldn’t it, what higher-minded ideals/ideas are involved. Remember that Universal Mind of the Infinite Spirit is everywhere present, and everywhere accessible and is only limited in its accessibility by the beliefs of the individuals to use it or not. You will find that once you begin to tap into Universal Mind Circuits, for information dealing with the topic at hand, that you will not be limited to this planet’s history or experience or possibilities, but those that have been tried and used on other planets as well. And if you are able to astral-travel, or visualize these things, you will see them.

This is much the same process as inspiration, where people envision a new architecture for perhaps a computer chip, or a new educational setting, or an art form, where the idea comes to them and they have preceded that idea with, "I wonder if?" and they begin to explore the options in their thinking, and inspiration comes to them. Yes, it is possible now, right now, for your groups to do this. It is only a matter of credence on the part of individuals to let this occur. What we find is that most people are incredulous that this can occur and are unwilling to let such an "airy-fairy" activity occur in human activities of a vital nature and of a practical nature, particularly. (Student: Thank you Rayson. That was very useful.) You are welcome.

Student: I have a question as well. (Certainly.) It occurs to me, Rayson, that certain diets of humans (and maybe whole regions of humans, in their like-wise diet,) could help them to "think" in the same/like manner. Would there be a diet that, taking into account that everyone is different in biochemistry, would there be a helpful diet that would benefit all mankind to be more spiritual, to be more attuned to their spiritual needs? Is there a special type of diet for tuning into your Thought Adjuster, and that would also be helpful for TRing?

Rayson: Yes. All of these items are available to you now. We are not talking about mushrooms from Mars, but from the real diets of your planet and the produce that it has available. It is essential, first of all, to begin to eat fresh produce. The sooner the produce is consumed after it is picked, plucked or cut, from your gardens, the better. Some religious beliefs call this Chi Energy or Prana and this is real, it exists. Every living plant, every living being has this life force in it, and it contributes to your own life force on levels of energy, which are not necessarily parallel with your material/mineral nutrition. But Prana, as you know, is Universe energy. It is life-energy; it is non-dimensional and non-empirical. It is dissipates as the plant deteriorates…disintegrates? (Student: Goes mushy!)…Good word, Jim (laughing)…. May I continue? [This is Daniel. There is a giggle coming from Rayson on the other side.] Life-force energy is real, and even if you call it "the Force" it is real. The Universe is a living being and the energy of the universe flows through it, and of course we know that this comes from the First Source and Center, and it is invested in a very practical, pragmatic, organic way in the living produce on your planet.

As you restrict your diet to more and more processed food items, the less of this Prana is there; the Chi force diminishes. And when you have foods that have been processed three or four times, it is virtually non-existent. What is left are the nutritional elements that are inherent in the compounds that made up this original produce, whether it is animal tissue or whether it is vegetable produce. You are only left with the compounds that these produced. For the spiritually minded individual, you want the greatest amount of Chi that these plants contain, so you eat them as fresh as possible.

What you find with the lower element plants is that they are without conscious thought, they are non-emotional beings. So there is not the warpage in their energy construct that you would find in animals that have been held captive and terrorized before they have been slaughtered. The better animals to eat are those that are more simple and less intelligent; fish are an example of this, fowl are another. Higher animals such as sheep and goats and larger animals are more excitable and they interpret their environment and their interpretation affects their Chi. You have met dogs that are inherently mean, and you have met dogs that are inherently peaceful. And so, if you consume animal flesh, you would want to consume animal flesh that has been raised humanely, carefully, lovingly, and dispatched with the same care with which they were raised.

This is very important; this is a very important topic for the humanness of your individual being to develop appropriately. Meaning that your own being is not skewed, your emotional energies are not skewed by your nutritional intake. It is very abhorrent to us to see how many of your animals are brought to a frenzy of fear, and then killed in this manner when they go to the slaughter. It is much more healthful for your Chi to eat animal flesh that has been raised in peace. Literally, the farm animal that has been given a name, petted and loved, and raised diligently by the whole family and who is eventually killed and slaughtered by the neighboring butcher in a peaceful manner, is the best produce to eat, for it does not contain energies that have been warped by outside influences, but can support your own individuality on an energetic basis without influence upon you. Does that answer your question? (Yes, it does. Thank you very much.)

Let me finish in conclusion to that. It seems that I am wordy tonight, huh? This contributes to your spirituality; it supports a healthy spirituality without outside influence. The point is that it is far easier for you to decide how you want to feel and how you want to react to outside influences.

Thank you. Further questions?

Student: I had one earlier. I was thinking about two men, a Muslim and a Christian, trying to settle their differences in conversation, and I had the insight that when you ask for your spiritual help, you ask for him also, and that solutions could be reached that way, but it would seem to me, it would be extremely difficult without Michael/Christ as a common factor.

Rayson: If you were to take these two men away from the borders of their countries, and take them into retreat, as though they were going to a spiritual retreat, and treat each one respectfully, ensure their peace, their safety and their well-being, you would find that in time, they would drop their political agendas and their political indoctrination, and become individuals and sharing their commonalities. They would come to find a unity in agreement, rather than unity in disagreement. And were you to take these two individuals and put them into a common life-threatening situation, be assured that their differences would dissipate even more quickly.

The contemporary political and economic situations support lazy thinking by political adversaries. The expediency of survival by mutual support is absent. There is laziness devised through economics and politics, through separation as though one can exist without others, and that your nation should exist across all boundaries to achieve oneness. The oneness that truly lasts is the oneness of beliefs in the commonality of your origins, and the best that your religious heritage can give you. Your insights are correct. Thank you. (Thank you, Teacher Rayson.)

Student: Rayson, getting back to the question about the animals being raised in a humane way, with our current population as high as it is, I don’t see how we could feed that many people if the animals were raised as you suggest, as part of the family. Too many people in cities would not be able to participate. In fact, the more population we get, the more the big conglomerate businesses take over in our food production and ranching.

Rayson: That is a mentality; that is a belief structure, which is supported by many people because it is efficient. Yet, there are also llama farms of hundreds of animals, where each animal has its own name, and is known as an individual. The way your animals are treated when they are raised en masse is despicable and can be adapted easily by those who are in charge of their feeding and their care.

When one realizes that these animals are not objects, but living beings, then one has a different responsibility to their care, and how you feel about them. And yes, animals can still be raised in large pens, where they never are able to walk upon a pasture and eat natural grass, yet raised with the same care and thoughtfulness as the animal family pet that is eventually eaten. It is a matter of attitude, it is a matter of respect; it is a matter of acknowledging that these are truly living beings with minds, and that they have real fears and real feelings as do people.

Too often, your species has objectified other species as being disposable, as being commodities, as being objects. And until there is a change of heart and attitude towards living beings, whether they are plants or animals, your earthly environment will be in jeopardy. Those who love the earth, who are the "green people," as you call them, though they are political, they see that all living beings are sacred and that there is a right way to think about them as well as raise them; and that raising them and growing them even in large situations, large productive situations, can be done humanely by adapting one's attitude towards them in healthy, loving, peaceful ways. Few of your species have truly tried to place themselves in the animal’s place and then adapt their living situation for them in peaceful ways, and their movement from one pen to another in peaceful ways, or their transport in peaceful ways. Were your animal managers to do this, it would not decrease greatly from the efficiency of their operations. You do not need to give them massages and feed them beer as Kobe Beef, but also love them, talk to them, pet them and let them come near you and walk among them peacefully. It is to be a "Francis of Assisi" among the birds and the animals. You can do this, and still maintain your efficiencies. It is a matter of attitude and beliefs. You can have mass production and healthy belief systems for the animals that you raise.

Student: I have read of a woman who devised those techniques and methods. She was autistic and stirred up great reforms in some industries. I think it was with cattle. (Another student: Yes, she is Temple Grandin.)

Rayson: It was not too many decades ago in this country, children were treated much the same way as cattle, to be sent to factories and treated as though they were objects. And even now, in other countries, your corporations take advantage of the desperately poor, and this is unfortunate. Until these attitudes are changed towards your own kind, it will be most difficult to change their attitudes towards animals that are consumed. So you see, the Days of Light and Life are not next week. Perhaps as a soap opera title, but not in reality. It will be decades and centuries and millennia before you see this occur on your planet.

When you look at these disparate situations, you begin to realize the daunting task that Michael has begun to rehabilitate your planet. And even you, who are …[This is Daniel: What is that word habili…? (Habilitable?)…yeah … (house broken? …trainable?)]…you see that even when you are agreeable, it is most difficult to transform your own thinking to those that are peaceful and healthy for yourself and for others. (Thank you, Rayson.) You’re welcome.

You see, when you begin to think and ask these questions, then you begin to reflect upon the lessons that we have. You begin to realize that community is everywhere around you and effects everything that you do, whether it is raising 10,000 animals in one feed lot, or whether it is providing housing for 10,000 people in a larger community; the issues are very similar and very parallel, they depend on beliefs and your intents and your goals.

The key to developing these are to apply these principles every day to your thinking about your community in its larger sense, and asking for assistance in how you may view that and come up with new options for solutions. Then you will see progress. Closing questions? (None.)

As we approach the end of the sessions from this TR, that come through him in August, be thinking about how I may be of service to you during the interim of his return, if you wish him to. You are always open for my guidance as well as other Celestial Teachers. We wish you to continue this group and continue it in earnest. This little "speed bump" that you are feeling here is very typical of the movement of all groups, that they are not static, that members move on, that members grow and members come in. And so this is one more aspect to deal with in the living out of the Teaching Mission’s function and its work, is to find out, within yourselves, among yourselves, and with us, how you can devise ways of continuing in the same productive way. We do not doubt that you can be as productive as has been. Know that we are available for guidance to you. Blessings to you this evening, thank you for the time you have shared with us, and for us to speak of these issues to you. Good night. (Group: Thank you.)

Discussion about Dr. Temple Grandin, a professor at CSU (Colorado State University), shared by a student of the TeaM group who works at CSU:

"Temple Grandin personally undertook a study of the way feedlots were set up and how tainted meat became because cattle were fed in feed lots and run down chutes and were killed. Not only did they "smell the death" of the animal in front of them, but sometimes they witnessed it. She has revolutionized the entire animal industry, the slaughter industry, and the feedlot industry, and is doing so internationally as well. She has been traveling for 10-20 years giving talks and redesigning animal facilities. The way she came to [her insight] was because she was autistic, was raised in a very understanding and compassionate family that helped her get through a lot of her problems to become educated.

"She couldn’t stand to be touched, so she designed a "padded squeeze machine" where she could give herself comforting "hugs" that she is unable to accept from people because they overload her senses. She knew she had to be in the public a lot, people would bump into her and it would just make her freeze up, and she needed to learn how to accept those boundaries and move among people. She started equating every bit she learned about her own needs to animals being handled by people, by being in feedlots and being crowded all the time and then being run down chutes. And she developed more humane chutes for them for inoculations, and then designed things so as they went to slaughter, they were well treated before and were taken to separate areas where it was very quick and painless, it was very humane, it didn’t create a panicked situation in the animal which tainted the meat. They just found remarkable results with her methods and she has been asked to come to every major continent and country in the world. She gives talks to cattlemen, horsemen, everybody in the animal industry concerning the animals’ environment and treatment."