Here's the text for this conversation:

"I am constantly reminded that, at this spiritual level, the great question is if we will in courage reach out and find larger connection, or in fear retreat behind the walls of difference. It keeps coming up... just like a bad bologna sandwich.

"The test is not knowing, but believing, because too many people know, but by their actions show they don't believe. And here's a challenge: how to live, such that if you were to die right now, it would be ok. We haven't found a substitute for Heaven which is compelling enough. But I've given hints... hell, I've given blueprints. So I want you should ponder that for awhile. Ok, time's up... no, just kidding. I tell a joke.

"Did you know I'm black on the inside, too? It goes all the way in... but only here. Oops, I'm chartreuse... ecru... teal... periwinkle... mauve... scarlet... mango... key lime... aubergine. It's fun being other colors, but only if you aren't wedded to one for identity. I have fun sometimes saying to KKK members 'My, you're looking yellow today (or red, or brown).' They turn white as sheets... or dark as shit. We have a game with newcomers: Guess the Race. Most of 'em are off balance.

"You think a balanced person uses physical properties for identity? I don't theeenk so. Male, female, child, adult, brown, big, black, deaf, red, short, yellow, fat, white, stupid... I don't theeenk so. [We identify with those things] until we get our act together. And in the last go-round at this level we see beyond it all, and seeing beyond it all, we have two choices: To proclaim the vision or to fall into despair. But if one falls into despair, then one doesn't have their act together anymore.

"It's like climbing to the top of a mountain and seeing the view, and finding it so beautiful that one desires the valleys again, when one could just as easily have stood atop the world and shouted the truth. That's why the only way forward is to proclaim the truth you sense, even if that be perilous. We often think that such proclamations of faith are all fundamentalist or conservative. But that's only because they dare to speak out, while the ones seeing the more courageous, wider view think it arrogance to speak, when it is actually fear to keep silent.

"So when you get a vision that takes you to a new and more generous place, speak it! Write it! Share it! Live it! Dream it! No, don't just dream it, be it! And that's all I have to say about that!"

here's the text of today's conversation:

"[Most people] want confirmation, not challenge. And those who get with us through loss want to be assured of what they've found, not of what they have yet to explore, because the loss was so painful they want to avoid other change--which is, as we all know, loss. So 'Confirm what I have learned so far through my losses, but don't push me to maybe lose more.'

"How comfortable we become with our healing, and don't notice the scar tissue. Scars are hard and without pores.

"People need to realize that having changed doesn't mean they're open to change. And not all the world's lessons will be understood in one session. Like spiritual accidental tourists: 'I'll go if I can keep it the same.'

"And don't focus on those who don't get it. Know the role of the catalyst. 

Here is the text for this conversation:

"We are entering a field of dangerous possibilities--which is always true. The ones which ultimately will be the safest will be the most dangerous ones.  Huh. Ok, an example:

"When the Cold War was at its hottest, there were 2 dangerous options: build up defenses, or nuclear disarmament. And disarmament was the more dangerous, it seemed, because it held the least control--or illusion of control--but in the end, it was the safest.

"The path to a reduction of fears will always be paved with its own fearsomeness. The appeal of the apparent often leads astray the lazy. How do you get to a quiet and easy retirement. Hard work. How do you get beyond fears. By doing some seemingly scary stuff. Not all is as it appears. If it were, you'd know it all.

And when the hawks claim you need war to achieve peace, they forget how easy war is and how hard and scary peacemaking is. Drop all of your defenses and you'll see what I mean.

"Great leaders have always been those who could drop their defenses and thus gain unimaginable power. Defend nothing; express all of value." 

Here's the text of today's podcast:

“As we have shared before, the progression of spirit at any level of complexity moves through stages. We have said this, haven't we? I don't know. First is Discovery. ‘O wow, I'm me. This is different!’

 “After Discovery comes Exploration. ‘What is this new entity. I know some of its aspects but not all.’ And then… hmm, what to call it… Expression. ‘Ok, together we are this and together we can do this.’ But wait, then comes Differentiation. ‘I'm me and not them.’ The newly experienced entity tries to understand itself by not being any other entity. Subset of this is radical independence. The new entity senses it has so many more possibilities than before. So, it wants to believe in its ultimate uniquity. I always wanted to use that word. [That was the second time. you've used that word.] I know. And so it's not a uniquity anymore. So stand apart, declare independence, not rely on others… until that doesn't work to generate more meaning.

 “Slowly it dawns on entities that are aware that such radical independence may lead to a great deal of self-expression, but limited fulfillment. If and when that awareness comes, the entity seeks to find new and larger interdependence--because by sensing the limits of the single entity, a wider potential is glimpsed and then the process moves toward the possibility of greater connection.

 “What you are living with is the collision of those still in the radical independent mode and the more inclusive interdependent mode.

 “So, the masks, the rules, the number of people gathered, becomes symbols of this clash. And when you have leaders who are still enjoying the feeling of being singularly special, this is a time of tension.

 “I invite you to apply this model to the birth of nations and the lives of individuals and the history of spiritual movements… and, dare I say it, the theories of science. And I think I have pushed the limits for now.

 “There will always--at any spiritual level except the final union--be more stages of differentiation than connection, but the superficial appearance will be of connected differentials. Ok, you got your gun rights people and the anti-vaxxers and the radical religionists and the homeschoolers and the flat-earthers and the know-nothings and the like, all shouting the same but for different reasons.

 “Only in connection is there a new harmony and a shared vision. [So those groups… are you saying they can't connect unless they find a larger harmony to connect into?] They think they are connecting on things like social distancing, but they don't really agree about that.

 “If your mode is Discovery or Experience or Differentiation, you may reject the larger coalition of interdependence, but for far different reasons. [Right] I’m done

Here is the text of today's conversation:

“There appears to be so much empty space in your reality--between all thingies, at both the biggest and the smallest levels.

“When we finally become aware of our oneness with All That Is and the complexity of Allness of which we are a part, you won’t find any emptiness. Ultimate unity will not have any emptiness--which implies that something else would bring completion. When we get our act together, there won’t be any gaps physically or spiritually or in the infinite number of other ways which describe all the dimensions beyond our present knowing. And in some other awareness, our very place in it all appears to be an emptiness. If we don’t share any dimensions, it’s like we aren’t there. And with growing complexity, which is the unification and connection of realities sharing at least one common dimension, we begin to perceive more. Just like in marriage: One perceives another set of family perceptions through the in-laws. The acts of inclusion are always acts of attempted complexity enhancement, by which that which is shared opens the windows to that which was previously unknown and seemingly empty.

“So, the process of Spiritual Persistence, as well as spiritual enhancement (and they go together as one), means that we are always opening ourselves to the potential of greater dimensional awareness and, therefore, greater manifestation of the universals which wave by us and 'hi' to us. When we sense something luminous but ineffable is calling us, we are experiencing that waving but we are not yet ready for a full awareness of either the manifestation nor the dimensions.

“When we get a sense of the fullness of All, we are being prescient of the abiding reality in which we have our very partial existence.

“The grain of sand, miles from the shore, can sometimes feel the call of the ocean and sense its place in a beach--even while it sits alone, part ways up a mountain, without any concept of ocean or beach to guide it."

Here is the text of today's conversation:

"Why are all the theories of spirit physically based. Of course, SP sounds like it, too--atoms to molecules to complexity--but remember always, I use that as a metaphor, a model, a teaching tool, something to hang your hat on. Complexity of spirit is not the same as the complexity of a carbon-based molecule.

"The physical gives a hint, a glimmer, a point in the right direction, but it is not it. Nope, not it. So, what’s the problem with all the spiritual systems? Nada. But when the spiritual system is subverted to the physical analogy, you got trouble in River City.

“This is the absolute, concrete truth: There is no absolute, concrete anything.

“So, be aware that when you stop an idea and put it into words or symbols, it is now in the mausoleum of human thought. How many pinned butterflies can fly?

“The trick is to see the picture but not be obsessed with the paint. Method means squat with the eternals; methods have to do with what has been. Teach a person the fundamentals of Renaissance painting and what do you get, copies of long ago. But let a person use the media of choice, and something new might happen.

“Why, I ask, would you want a Heaven which is just a better Earth, when you could have it all. People don’t dream too much; they dream too little."

here's the text of today's conversation:

“I want to talk about responsibility and the two main camps of thought and then my position.

“On the one hand, we have those who argue that the responsibilities of spiritual development belong to forces outside individual lives--gods, saviors, gurus, etc.--that we must give into them because they are ultimately responsible for the spiritual meaning and progress. On the other hand, we have those who argue that each spirit is ultimately responsible for its own development--that each of us entities, if we fail to develop are irresponsible. And both are absurd on their faces.

“If we are simply spiritual pawns in some larger plan that really does not depend at all on our choices, then what's the point. Yet if we are totally responsible for our spiritual development, what’s to stop all from simply winding down and kerplop.

“If we will, at points of exploration, fail to do what we need to do does that mean all meaning collapses? No more than trying to say we are the sum total of all meaning. But I boldly suggest another understanding: that we are each responsible but not ultimately. And at the same time there are no enduring sources of ultimate meaning… yet!

“Ultimate meaning outside ourselves implies a static reality. Ultimate meaning within ourselves implies a limited meaning. But if we… and by that I mean all spirit… seek to find at least some measure of meaning, then the ultimate meaning will dynamically come more into being. We are only responsible for taking part, not creating it all nor abdication of all responsibility. Like a good game of anything, show up! Be there! And the score at any moment or level doesn't matter.

Here is the text of this episode:

“Many things we take as particular and significant are only contextual and relative. The problem at every level of complexity save the last, is the universalizing of particulars. In a level without heads, hats would make no sense, but still the concept of hats could. And one of the great spiritual challenges is glimpsing potentials that are not part of your complexity. Easy looking back along the scale, sometimes with a smile, but looking ahead is harder. For example, look ahead to a level without sight. Would you be able to look ahead at that level? Only if you can reframe looking out of physical terms as you know them and... wait for it!... the sight that is possible at a more complex level beyond eyes may not be any more universal than what you have.

"Every level has its equivalent of the physical representation of the embodiment of the spiritual, but which is not the spiritual. Always and forever, cul-de-sacs of understanding which are not part of the holistic universal but which appear so in terms of that level.

"Transcend the particular if you are looking for universals–even if the present particulars seem universal. Just because something is true to all of human nature, does not make it universal. It just makes it human

"Not figuring it out, because all solutions are particular, but finding a radical openness that what appears universal may not be, but at the same time may be offering glimpses beyond the present particularity. It’s not to be solved but experienced at the spiritual level.

"Dealing with great loss is not a problem to be solved or figured out, but a set of situations to be experienced.

Here's the main text of today's podcast:

"While I talk about both inclusion and connection, they are not the same.

"Inclusion is about the field of possibility, while connection is the fulfillment of the field of possibility.

"Think of a small room, just big enough for 12 people. Now, also picture a room big enough for 1200 people. So, the second room would be more inclusive because fewer would be excluded. But if the 12 really connected, they might have tighter bonds than if the 1200 just stood around. And the difference is important. In order for connection to occur, each of the people must be willing to be open with the others AND be willing to be changed by the connection.

"In any real connection, there is change! The edges of being become permeable, and points of connections arise and reach out and reach in.

"There are in a room of 12 connected people, more than just 12 people. In an inclusive but not connected room of 1200, there are only 1200. And nothing more, but over the interactions of the 1200 without connection, there ends up being less! Each person who is with others but doesn’t connect is lessened. That’s the pith for today. Lots there!

"And I point to Edward Hopper’s Night Owls for not connecting. Visual aid."

Here's the text of the spirit message featured in this episode:

“Point to Ponder: If there is no time and all states of complexity coexist, what’s the point of complexity development.

 “Remember, the All of All That Is is the total of all that is and it is dynamic and organic So the sum total is always in a state of development—even beyond time. It always contains the promise and probability and possibility of more. If not then it would be static and any slight failure of fulfillment would cause it to crash… be gone… over with.

 “It is always in a state of positive flux and so though there is not time there is potential.

“Instead of measuring existence in units of time, measure in units of fulfillment. Ponder that!

 “[so even though happening at once, there’s always possibility and potential that’s not determined] Already but not yet. Here’s an analogy: would you expect any less. It’s a road atlas of the USA. In it are all and every journey you might make. But you won’t make them all. And because you are making one along this route, the map may change because your car caused a bridge to collapse. See. The atlas of the now is both different from the one of 1950 and the one of 2043. Plus the vehicles change, too. Each map is all there is and yet not all there could be and will be and were. With that pith I sign off"