The Reflective Lives of Michael Jackson and Mohammed Ali :Part 1-The Spiritual Evolution of MJ

The well loved Muhammad Ali made his transition,last week, and the tributes to him are endless. Much like it was, ans still is for MJ. As I watched the stories of Muhammad Ali's life, I kept thinking about Michael  What I noticed is how much alike the paths of Michael and Muhammad were. They are reflective of each other in Identity, choice of worship, political outlook, humanitarian efforts...and I suspect much more. So, starting with Michael, let's have a look at how they approached spirituality.  They each evolved, and did so fearlessly.

The matter of fear is important because often Christians are led to believe that if they do anything that does not agree with Christian fundamentalism they are in a cult and they will go to hell. There is really a lot of fear that can take place in changing faiths.  Michael however, was actually raised in the spirit of change regarding how to worship, and may not have been subjected to such fears. Michael's mother, Katherine, at some point decided to "make that change" for reasons of her own.  Possibly, it was the matter of fundamentalism, which is far to immense to be discussed here. Baptists, are often Christian fundamentalists however.

In the late 1950s, Katherine Jackson began working part-time as a store clerk in a local Sears in Gary. In 1963, Katherine, who was raised a Baptist, joined the Jehovah's Witness faith. After her conversion in 1965, all of her children followed her into the faith. While Joe, who was brought up in the Lutheran faith, also practiced the religion, it was often said he decided not to convert. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Jackson

"The most important aspect of Christianity for the enslaved was the promise of heaven — a promise made by plantation owners. This idea preached the notion that for all the suffering that is done in the physical world, your soul will be preserved and you will experience a hardship-free spiritual life, according to Slave Resistance, A Caribbean Study. What this did for enslaved Black people was give them hope for the future. Converted enslaved people’s belief in heaven allowed some to passively resist their plantation owners and focus on the afterlife. With that belief, all of the beatings and lashings meant nothing because in heaven the enslaved person would be rewarded and the master would be punished."  http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/04/10/9-devastating-actions-white-slaves-masters-took-to-convert-black-people-to-christianity/

At some point, this was not applicable to Michael. He later in life, makes it unquestionably clear that we do not have to die to go to heaven, His beautiful writing "Heaven is Here"  shows a decided change from fundamentalism.Fundamentalist's teach that we must die to see heaven. Of course, we all want to be in heaven, but none of us wants to die.  

People change their spiritual paths for various reasons. Perhaps Michael's worship practice's changed because of how confining it was to be a Witness. Michael was loved and was the Beloved of the entire world. So it was needful for him to see God in a more universal way.Michael believed that we are one, the Witnesses  did not agree. Heaven had limitations, and although Michael loved being a Witness, it conflicted with what  he believed God had gifted him to be, That meaning, it was in direct contradiction to his calling from God. As with any religion, there is speculation what is believed and why. Its my personal thought that it has much to do with unity/divisiveness as well as how God is revealed in ones life. That is not something that has been written in stone, it's only my belief. Consider the question and answer below. And how it might have affected Michael.

Question:   

"I was told by a Jehovah's Witness that only 144,000 people enter heaven and that the rest will either live forever on earth or be annihilated. He quoted Revelation 14:1–3 and Psalm 39:10 to prove his point."

Answer:  

 "There are actually three issues to address here. The first is the number of people in heaven. In Revelation 7 and 14, we are told about a group of 144,000 people that will always be with the Lamb. If we take these descriptions of this group literally they would be only Jewish male virgins. This would mean means that Peter (not a virgin), the Blessed Mother (not a male), and Jehovah’s Witnesses founder Charles Taze Russel (not a Jew) would not be in heaven."

http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/how-do-i-refute-the-jehovahs-witness-claim-about-the-144000

It should be clear, Michael loved being a Witness. It was just that he ultimately transcended the religion. He held on to being a Witness for as long as his soul would allow. In his writing "My Childhood, My Sabbath, My Freedom. You can see his love of being a Witness, and also being spiritually lifted by having the freedom to develop the gift God gave him just to be thankful. This is perhaps the beginning of a conflict, and ultimately change.

"Sundays were my day for "Pioneering," the term used for the missionary work that Jehovah's Witnesses do. We would spend the day in the suburbs of Southern California, going door to door or making the rounds of a shopping mall, distributing our Watchtower magazine. I continued my pioneering work for years and years after my career had been launched.

'Sundays were sacred for two other reasons as I was growing up. They were both the day that I attended church and the day that I spent rehearsing my hardest. This may seem against the idea of "rest on the Sabbath," but it was the most sacred way I could spend my time: developing the talents that God gave me. The best way I can imagine to show my thanks is to make the very most of the gift that God gave me".

http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/2000/12/my-childhood-my-sabbath-my-freedom.aspx#gOL7uRiOmdhtrCex.99

"Michael’s family was famously religious - they were Jehovah’s Witnesses and Michael occasionally disguised himself to join his fellow believers as they went from house to house, inviting people to think about God. As a grown man, he has moved beyond denominations of faith - his concern is not with religion but with spirituality. This gives him strength, but I think it is the joy he takes in life which keeps renewing his vitality - that, and a second factor which I shall describe in a moment."

Uri Geller, magician

It came to be at some point, that Michael was actually traumatized by the decisions he had to make, Should he follow his calling or follow his religion?. He really loved them both, but had not yet come to understand that there is a distinct difference between religion and spirituality.There was an actual conflict that led to his change, or spiritual evolution. Schmuley interviewed him regarding the effects of his religion on his art,

The Interview:

Schmuley Boteach: Do you think a hatred of pride is still a relic of your religious upbringing?

Michael Jackson: It hurt me a lot and it helped me a lot.

SB: How did it hurt you?

MJ:r... (long silence) When I did certain things in the past that I didn´t realized were against the religion and I was deprimanded for it, it almost destroyed me. Certain things that I did as an artist in my music I didn´t realized I was crossing a line with them and when they chastised me, it really hurt me. It almost destroyed me. My mother saw it.

SB: Their disapproval, their rejection?

MJ: When I did the Moonwalk for the first time, Motown 25, they told me that I doing burlesque dancing and it was dirty and I went for months and they said, "You can never dance like that again." I said 90,9 percent of dancing is moving the waist. They said, "We don´t want you to do it."  So I went around trying to dance for a long time without moving this part of my body. Then when I made Thriller with all the ghouls an ghosts, they said that it was demonic and part of the occult and that Brother Jackson can´t do it. I called my lawyer and was crying and I said: "Destroy the video, have it destroyed." And because he went against my wishes, people have "Thriller" today. They made me feel so bad about it that I ordered people to destroy it.

Thankfully, that did not happen!  Nevertheless, Michael was hurt. He still lost the religion he tried so hard to keep,  A religion can be like a living being. It is a lifeline to God as you understand God to be, a platform to communicate with those you love, who are also in the faith. If taken, it can be like a death...a certain cause for grief. Michael’s grief was at best nigh, but had not yet come full throttle.. Schumley shares what happened when it did.

“Michael was a little late arriving the next day. I was waiting in his trailer. He walked in so distraught. I didn’t understand, we were having so much fun the night before. He was silent as he sat in the makeup chair. I had to ask him please tell me. Please tell me what is wrong.

His eyes welled up with tears. “Mother called last night. The church called her, and told her that I held and fired a gun yesterday. They ordered that I have to make decision. I must leave the church, or leave the entertainment industry.” He was weeping as he uttered those words.

I was quite mortified. “What did your mother advise you to do?”

“She felt horrible. She told me it was up to me. She said she would stand by me with whatever I decided.”

“I see, you are here today”.

“Yes”

“Mother is supporting my choice”.”

http://www.truemichaeljackson.com/faith-religion-spiritualiy/  

The Watchtower Society is very clear on how a disfellowshipped person is to be treated. A disfellowshipped person is not to be associated with under any social circumstances; in fact the word "Hello" should not even be uttered to these ones, even in the kingdom hall. This treatment is far harsher than how a Witness would treat a person of the world. Yet,the Bible only said that it is the Antichrist that one should not say a greeting to. This type of treatment was not to extend to other wrongdoers such as fornicators. The Society is bundling all forms of wrongdoing as the same, and treatment is to be of the same harsh standard for all disfellowshipped people regardless of the wrongdoing that was done. Hence, a disfellowshipped Witness must not be greeted regardless of whether their "sin" was murder, changing beliefs or simply smoking cigarettes. http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/disfellowship-shunning.php#treatment

It is clear that Katherine did not shun Michael… Chiefly, because love is more important that “religion” . She did not support The Witnesses...she supported Michael. That in itself is the beginning of another change in her worship path.  A worship path is personal, but a religion is not. Religion cannot belong to any one person. Michael had this to say;

“I avoid using the term 'religion', because many people say 'my religion' this and 'my religion' that. Why should it be 'my' religion? I just believe what’s in the Bible with regard to which religion is involved. I simply believe.... I believe in it and I get down on my knees every night and thank God and ask Him to lead the way."

I believe that after Michael’s separation from the Witnesses, he began to see God in many ways, face’s and even places. He developed a relationship with God, not a witness to God. He expanded, as it began to show in his work.

"It's strange that God doesn't mind expressing Himself/Herself in all the religions of the world, while people still cling to the notion that their way is the only right way. Whatever you try to say about God, someone will take offense, even if you say everyone's love of God is right for them.

'For me the form God takes is not the most important thing. What's most important is the essence. My songs and dances are outlines for Him to come in and fill. I hold out the form. She puts in the sweetness. I've looked up at the night sky and beheld the stars so intimately close, it was as if my grandmother had made them for me.

How rich, how sumptuous," I thought. In that moment I saw God in His creation. I could as easily have seen Her in the beauty of a rainbow, the grace of a deer bounding through a meadow, the truth of a father's kiss. But for me the sweetest contact with God has no form.

I close my eyes, look within, and enter a deep soft silence.

The infinity of God's creation embraces me. We are one.""

It is a spiritual evolution. It takes time. It is possible that as a Witness Michael had to learn how to deal with rejection very early. Uncountable doors being slammed in one's face can could toughen up anyone to be sure.. It becomes a little trickier when the problem is you being rejected by an entire religion. Separated from all you had come to believe.

Personally,I believe God spoke to Michael and healed him from the hurt he had endured in organised religion. Organised religion is not for everyone. I mean that in an absolute way..I believe we are hearing the voice of God, as God spoke to Michael through “ Heaven is Here”  I am not speaking of some cloud floating by with eerie sounds in the wind. There are many who feel that the voice in this “scriptural” writing was Michael speaking …. I believe it is God speaking to Michael. I am saying it the absolute voice of God which was delivered by who I believe to be The Prophet Michael.

God spoke to Michael, and let him know that he may have been separated from a religion, but he was not separated from Him. God told him to reclaim his bliss. Michael could lift his head he was not alone...God was with him,  and told him not to be afraid to be who he had been called to be. Be joyful...reclaim his bliss. Michael made the change , but only because he could hear the voice of God so clearly. I see and hear God in Michael,

Michael made that change, but change is never easy. Michael evolved spiritually, and he shared that experience with us. .We can see how much is involved in just changing your faith. In Michael’s case it was generational.

Next: Part 2 - The Spiritual Evolution of Ali

Michael and Mohammed:Their Reflective Paths/ Part 1 - Michael's Spiritual Evolution

The well loved Muhammad Ali made his transition

Prayer for Peace: ONE

Prayer for Peace: ONE:  Exodus 33:18 And Moses said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. 19 And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. 20 but,thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. 21 And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: 22 and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: 23 and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.



The glory of God is too much for any of us to see, the brightness and magnificence of his  glory is so great that to see it all would kill us.He must actually protects from seeing His glory. So, with precision, he places and scatters fragments of His glory wherever He will. Little by little the  earth is permeated with the Glory of God;



His glory is like a snow cloud. If the entire cloud were to fall on you, it is likely that you would not survive it, Therefore it is given to us flake by flake  by flake. I is astonishing indeed. It is His amazing grace.



My soul astonished

At the precision and placement

Of Your countless fragments

Scattered everywhere

Permeating everything

Seen and unseen



Thank you Siren for such a beautiful prayer,and even forcing me to see the unseen

The Occult World of CG Jung:How a near-death experience transformed the psychologist's attitude to the world of mysticism and magic

Repost:

Jung the Mystic: The Esoteric Dimensions of Carl Jung's Life and Teachings

By

Gary Lachman

An Excerpt:

The Occult World of C. G. Jung*

11 February 1944, the 68-year-old Carl Gustav Jung – then the world’s most renowned living psychologist – slipped on some ice and broke his fibula. Ten days later, in hospital, he suffered a myocardial infarction caused by embolisms from his immobilised leg. Treated with oxygen and camphor, he lost consciousness and had what seems to have been a near-death and out-of-the-body experience – or, depending on your perspective, delirium. He found himself floating 1,000 miles above the Earth. Seas and continents shimmered in blue light and Jung could make out the Arabian desert and snow-tipped Himalayas. He felt he was about to leave orbit, but then, turning to the south, a huge black monolith came into view. It was a kind of temple, and at the entrance Jung saw a Hindu sitting in a lotus pos­ition. Within, innumerable candles flickered, and he felt that the “whole phantasmagoria of earthly existence” was being stripped away. It wasn’t pleasant, and what remained was an “essential Jung”, the core of his experiences.

He knew that inside the temple the mystery of his existence, of his purpose in life, would be answered. He was about to cross the threshold when he saw, rising up from Europe far below, the image of his doctor in the archetypal form of the King of Kos, the island site of the temple of Asclepius, Greek god of medicine. He told Jung that his departure was premature; many were demanding his return and he, the King, was there to ferry him back. When Jung heard this, he was immensely disappointed, and almost immediately the vision ended. He experienced the reluctance to live that many who have been ‘brought back’ encounter, but what troubled him most was seeing his doctor in his archetypal form. He knew this meant that the physician had sacrificed his own life to save Jung’s. On 4 April 1944 – a date numerologists can delight in – Jung sat up in bed for the first time since his heart attack. On the same day, his doctor came down with septicæmia and took to his bed. He never left it, and died a few days later.

Jung was convinced that he hadn’t simply hallucinated, but that he had been granted a vision of reality. He had passed outside time, and the experience had had a palpable effect on him. For one thing, the depression and pessimism that overcame him during WWII vanished. But there was something more. For most of his long career, he had impressed upon his colleagues, friends, and reading public that he was, above all else, a scientist. He was not, he repeated almost like a mantra, a mystic, occultist, or visionary, terms of abuse his critics, who rejected his claims to science, had used against him. Now, having returned from the brink of death, he seemed content to let the scientist in him take a back seat for the remaining 17 years of his life.

Although Jung had always believed in the reality of the ‘other’ world, he had taken care not to speak too openly about this belief. Now, after his visions, he seemed less reticent. He’d had, it seems, a kind of conversion experience, and the interests the world-famous psychologist had hitherto kept to himself now became common knowledge. Flying saucers, astrology, parapsychology, alchemy, even predictions of a coming “new Age of Aquarius”: pronouncements on all of these dubious subjects – dubious at least from the viewpoint of modern science – flowed from his pen. If he had spent his career fending off charges of mysticism and occultism – initially triggered by his break with Freud in 1912 – by the late 1940s he seems to have decided to stop fighting. The “sage of Küsnacht” and “Hexenmeister of Zürich”, as Jung was known in the last decade of his life, had arrived.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Yet Jung’s involvement with the occult was with him from the start – literally, it was in his DNA. His maternal grandfather, Rev. Samuel Preiswerk, who learned Hebrew because he believed it was spoken in heaven, accepted the reality of spirits, and kept a chair in his study for the ghost of his deceased first wife, who often came to visit him. Jung’s mother Emilie was employed by Samuel to shoo away the dead who distracted him while he was working on his sermons.

She herself developed medium­istic powers in her late teens. At the age of 20, she fell into a coma for 36 hours; when her forehead was touched with a red-hot poker she awoke, speaking in tongues and prophesying. Emilie continued to enter trance states throughout her life, in which she would communicate with the dead. She also seems to have been a ‘split personality’. Jung occasionally heard her speaking to herself in a voice he soon recognised was not her own, making profound remarks expressed with an uncharacteristic authority. This ‘other’ voice had inklings of a world far stranger than the one the young Carl knew.

This ‘split’ that Jung had seen in his mother would later appear in himself. At around the age of 12, he literally became two people. There was his ordinary boyhood self, and someone else. The ‘Other,’ as Carl called him, was a figure from the 18th century, a masterful character who wore a white wig and buckled shoes, drove an impressive carriage, and held the young boy in contempt. It’s difficult to escape the impression that in some ways Jung felt he had been this character in a past life. Seeing an ancient green carriage, Jung felt that it came from his time. his later notion of the collective unconscious, that psychic reservoir of symbols and images that he believed we inherit at birth, is in a sense a form of reincarnation, and Jung himself believed in some form of an afterlife. Soon after the death of his father, in 1896 when Jung was 21, he had two dreams in which his father appeared so vividly that he considered the possibility of life after death. In another, later dream, Jung’s father asked him for marital advice, as he wanted to prepare for his wife’s arrival. Jung took this as a premonition, and his mother died soon after. And years later, when his sister Gert­rude died – a decade before his own near-death experience – Jung wrote that “What happens after death is so unspeakably glorious that our imagination and feelings do not suffice to form even an approximate conception of it.” [1]

TABLES AND KNIVES

Jung’s mother was involved in at least two well-known paranormal experiences that are recounted in practically every book about him. Sitting in his room studying, Carl suddenly heard a loud bang coming from the dining room. He rushed in and found his mother startled. The round walnut table had cracked from the edge past the centre. The split didn’t follow any joint, but had passed through solid wood. Drying wood couldn’t account for it; the table was 70 years old and it was a humid day. Jung thought: “There certainly are curious accidents.” As if she was reading his mind Emilie replied in her ‘other’ voice: “Yes, yes, that means something.” Two weeks later came a second incident. Returning home in the evening, Jung found an excited household. An hour earlier there had been another loud crack, this time coming from a large sideboard. No one had any idea what had produced it. Jung inspected the sideboard. Inside, where they kept the bread, he found a loaf and the bread knife. The knife had shattered into several pieces, all neatly arranged in the breadbasket. The knife had been used earlier for tea, but no one had touched it nor opened the cupboard since. When he took the knife to a cutler, he was told that there was no fault in the steel and that someone must have broken it on purpose. He kept the shattered knife for the rest of his life, and years later sent a photograph of it to psychical researcher JB Rhine.

SPIRITS AFOOT

By this time Jung, like many others, was interested in spiritualism, and was reading through the literature – books by Zöllner, Crooks, Carl du Prel, Swedenborg, and Justinus Kerner’s classic The Seeress of Prevorst. At the Zofingia debating society at the University of Basel, he gave lectures on “The Value of Speculative Research” and “On the Limits of Exact Science”, in which he questioned the dominant materialist paradigm that reigned then, as today. Jung led fellow students in various occult experiments, yet when he spoke to them about his ideas, or lectured about the need to take them seriously, he met with resistance. Apparently he had greater luck with his dachshund, whom he felt understood him better and could feel supernatural presences himself. [2]

Another who seemed to feel supernatural presences was his cousin, from his mother’s side of the family, Helene Preiswerk. In a letter to JB Rhine about the shattered bread knife, Jung refers to Helly – as she was known – as a “young woman with marked mediumistic faculties” whom he had met around the time of the incident, and in his “so-called’ autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections he remarks that he became involved in a series of séances with his relatives after the incidents of the bread knife and table. Yet the séances had been going on for some time before the two events, and at their centre was Helly, whom Jung already knew well and who, by all accounts, was in love with him. This is an early sign of his somewhat ambiguous relationship with the occult.

Helly would enter a trance and fall to the floor, breathing deeply, and speaking in old Samuel Preiswerk’s voice – although she had never heard him. She told the others that they should pray for her elder sister Bertha, who, she said, had just given birth to a black child. Bertha, who was living in Brazil, had already had one child with her mixed-race husband, and gave birth to another on the same day as the séance. [3] Further séances proved equally startling. At one point, Samuel Preiswerk and Carl Jung Sr – Jung’s paternal grandfather – who had disliked each other while alive, reached a new accord. A warning came for another sister who was also expecting a child that she would lose it; in August the baby was born premature and dead. [4]

Helly produced further voices, but the most interesting was a spirit named Ivenes, who called herself the real Helene Preiswerk. This character was much more mature, confident, and intelligent than Helly, who Jung described as absent-minded, and not particularly bright, talented, or educated. It was as if buried beneath the unremarkable teenager was a fuller, more commanding personality, like Jung’s ‘Other’. This was an insight into the psyche that would inform his later theory of “individuation”, the process of “becoming who you are”. Helly did blossom later, becoming a successful dressmaker in France, although she died young, at only 30.

In Jung’s dissertation on the séances, On the Psychology and Pathology of So-called Occult Phenomena, he describes Helly unflatteringly as “exhibiting slightly rachitic skull formation”, and “somewhat pale facial colour”, and fails to mention that she is his cousin. He also omits his own participation in the séances, and dates them from 1899 to 1900, whereas they had started years before. Gerhard Wehr politely suggests that “[T]he doctoral candidate was obviously at pains to conceal his own role, and especially his close kinship relat­ionship, thus forestalling from the start any further critical inquiry that might have thrown the scientific validity of the entire work into question.” [5]

In other words, Jung the scientist thought it a good career move to obscure Jung the occultist’s personal involvement in the business.

THE POLTERGEIST IN FREUD'S BOOKCASE

In 1900, the 25-year-old Jung joined the prestigious Burghölzli Mental Clinic in Zürich. Here, he did solid work in word-association tests, developed his theory of ‘complexes’, and initiated a successful ‘patient-friendly’ approach to working with psychotics and schizophrenics. It was during his tenure that he also became involved with Freud. From 1906, when they started corresponding, to 1912, when the friendship ruptured, Jung was a staunch supp­orter of Freud’s work and promoted it unstintingly. There were, however, some rocky patches. One centred on the famous poltergeist in Freud’s bookcase. Visiting Freud in Vienna in 1909, Jung asked him about his attitude toward parapsychology. Freud was sceptical and dismissed the subject as nonsense. Jung disagreed, and sitting across from the master, he began to feel his diaphragm glow, as if it was becoming red-hot. Sudd­enly a loud bang came from a bookcase. Both jumped up, and Jung said to Freud: “There, that is an example of a so-called catalytic exteriorisation phenomenon!”, Jung’s long-winded circumlocution for a poltergeist, or “noisy spirit”. When Freud said “Bosh!”, Jung predicted that another bang would immediately happen. It did. Jung said that, from that moment on, Freud grew mistrustful of him. From Freud’s letter to Jung about the incident, one gets the feeling that he felt Jung himself was responsible for it.

This isn’t surprising; Jung did manifest numerous paranormal abilities. While in bed in a hotel room after giving a lecture, he experienced the suicide of a patient who had a strong “transference” on him. The patient had relapsed into depression, and shot himself in the head. Jung awoke in his hotel, feeling an odd pain in his forehead. He later discovered that his patient had shot himself precisely where Jung felt the pain, at the same time Jung woke up. More to the point, a visitor to his home once remarked about Jung’s “exteriorised libido”, how “when there was an important idea that was not yet quite conscious, the furniture and woodwork all over the house creaked and snapped.”

THE RED BOOK

It was Jung’s break with Freud that led to his own ‘descent into the unconscious’, a disturbing trip down the psyche’s rabbit hole from which he gathered the insights about the collective unconscious that would inform his own school of ‘analytical psychology’. He had entered a ‘creative illness’, unsure if he was going mad.  In October 1913, not long after the split, Jung had, depending on your perspective, a vision or hallucination. While on a train, he suddenly saw a flood covering Europe, between the North Sea and the Alps. When it reached Switzerland, the mountains rose to protect his homeland, but in the waves he saw floating debris and bodies. Then the water turned to blood. The vision lasted an hour and seems to have been a dream that had invaded his waking consciousness. Having spent more than a decade treating mental patients who suffered from precisely such symptoms, Jung had reason to be concerned. He was ironically rather relieved the next summer when WWI broke out and he deduced that his vision had been a premonition of it.

Yet the psychic tension continued. Eventually there came a point where Jung felt he could no longer fight off the sense of madness. He decided to let go. When he did, he landed in an eerie, subterranean world where he met strange intelli­gences that ‘lived’ in his mind. The experience was so upsetting that for a time Jung slept with a loaded pistol by his bed, ready to blow his brains out if the stress became too great.

In his Red Book – recently published in full – he kept an account, in words and images, of the objective, independent entities he encountered during his “creative illness” – entities that had nothing to do with him personally, but who shared his interior world. There were Elijah and Salome, two figures from the Bible who were accompanied by a snake. There was also a figure whom Jung called Philemon, who became a kind of ‘inner guru’ and who he painted as a bald, white-bearded old man with bull’s horns and the wings of a kingfisher. One morning, after painting the figure, Jung was out taking a walk when he came upon a dead kingfisher. The birds were rare in Zürich and he had never before come upon a dead one. This was one of the many synchronic­ities – “meaningful coincidences” – that happened at this time (for more on Jung and synchronicity, see FT171:42–47). There were others. In 1916, still in the grip of his crisis, Jung again felt that something within wanted to get out. An eerie restlessness filled his home. He felt the presence of the dead – and so did his children. One daughter saw a strange white figure; another had her blankets snatched from her at night. His son drew a picture of a fisherman he had seen in a dream: a flaming chimney rose from the fisherman’s head, and a devil flew through the air, cursing the fisherman for stealing his fish. Jung had yet to mention Philemon to anyone. Then, one afternoon, the doorbell rang loudly, but no one was there. He asked: “What in the world is this?” The voices of the dead answered: “We have come back from Jerusalem where we found not what we sought,” words that form the beginning of Jung’s strange Seven Sermons to the Dead, a work of “spiritual dictation”, or “channelling”, he attributed to “Basilides in Alexandria, the City where the East toucheth the West”.

GHOSTS IN THE HOUSE

By 1919, WWI was over and Jung’s crisis had passed, although he continued to practise what he called “active imagin­ation”, a kind of waking dreaming, the results of which he recorded in the Red Book. But spirits of a more traditional kind were not lacking. He was invited to London to lecture on “The Psycho­logical Found­ations of the Belief in Spirits” to the Society for Psych­ical Research. He told the Society that ghosts and materialisations were “unconscious projections”. “I have repeatedly observed,” he said, “the telepathic effects of unconscious complexes, and also a number of parapsychic phenomena, but in all this I see no proof whatever of the existence of real spirits, and until such proof is forthcoming I must regard this whole territory as an appendix of psychology.”

Scientific enough, no doubt, but a year later, again in England, he encountered a somewhat more real ghost. He spent some weekends in a cottage in Aylesbury rented by Maurice Nicoll (later a student of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky) and while there was serenaded by eerie sounds, while an unpleasant smell filled the bedroom. Locals said the place was haunted and, on one particularly bad night, Jung discovered an old woman’s head on the pillow next to his; half of her face was missing. He leapt out of bed and waited until morning in an armchair. The house was later torn down. One would think that, having already encountered the dead on their return from Jerusalem, Jung wouldn’t be so shaken by a traditional English ghost, but the experience rattled him; his account of it only appeared 30 years later, in 1949, in an obscure anthology of ghost stories.

When his lecture for the SPR was reprinted in the Collected Works in 1947, Jung added a footnote explaining that he no longer felt as certain as he did in 1919 that apparitions were explicable through psychology, and that he doubted “whether an exclusively psychological approach can do justice to the phenomenon”. In a later postscript, he again admitted that his earlier explanation was insufficient, but that he couldn’t agree on the reality of spirits because he had no experience of them – conveniently forgetting the haunting in Aylesbury. But in a letter of 1946 to Fritz Kunkel, a psychotherapist, Jung admitted: “Metapsychic phenomena could be explained better by the hypothesis of spirits than by the qualities and peculiarities of the unconscious.”

A similar uncertainty surrounds his experience with the I Ching, the ancient Chinese oracle, with which he began to experiment in the early 1920s and which, like horoscopes, became part of his therapeutic practice. Although he mentioned the I Ching here and there in his writing, it wasn’t until 1949, again nearly 30 years later, in his introduction to the classic Wilhelm/Baynes translation, that he admitted outright to using it himself. And although he tried to explain the I Ching’s efficacy through what would become his paranormal deus ex machina, synchronicity, Jung admits that the source of the oracle’s insights are the “spiritual agencies” that form the “living soul of the book”, a remark at odds with his quasi-scientific explanation. Ironically, his major work on “meaningful coincidence”, Synchronicity: An Acausal Connect­ing Principle (1952), written with the physicist Wolfgang Pauli, provides only one unambiguous example of the phenomenon, and readers who, like me, accept the reality of synchronicity, come away slightly baffled by Jung’s attempt to account for it via archetypes, quantum physics, statistical analysis, mathematics, JB Rhine’s experiments with ESP, astrology, telepathy, precognition, and other paranormal abilities, all of which read like a recrudescence of Jung’s “I am a scientist” reflex.

THE AGE OF AQUARIUS

In the 1920s, he plunged into a study of the Gnostics – whom he had encountered as early as 1912 – and alchemy. It was Jung, more than anyone else, who salvaged the ancient Hermetic pursuit from intellectual oblivion. Another Hermetic practice he followed was astrology, which he began to study seriously around the time of his break with Freud. Jung informed his inner circle that casting horoscopes was part of his therapeutic practice, but it was during the dark days of WWII that he recognised a wider application. In 1940, in a letter to HG Baynes, Jung speaks of a vision he had in 1918 in which he saw “fire falling like rain from heaven and consuming the cities of Germany”. He felt that 1940 was the crucial year, and he remarks that it’s “when we approach the meridian of the first star in Aquarius”. It was, he said, “the premonitory earthquake of the New Age”. He was familiar with the precession of the equinoxes, the apparent backward movement of the Sun through the signs of the zodiac. By acting as a backdrop to sunrise at the vernal equinox, each sign gives its name to an ‘age’ – called a ‘Platonic month’ – which lasts roughly 2,150 years. In his strange book Aion (1951), he argues that the ‘individuation’ of Western civilisation as a whole follows the path of the ‘Platonic months,’ and presents a kind of “precession of the archetypes”. Fish symbolism surrounds Jesus because He was the central symbol of the Age of Pisces, the astrological sign of the fish. Previous ages – of Taurus and Aries – produced bull and ram symbolism. The coming age is that of Aquarius, the Water Bearer. In conversation with Margaret Ostrowski-Sachs, a friend of Hermann Hesse, Jung admitted that he had kept this “secret knowledge” to himself for years, and only finally made it public in Aion. He wasn’t sure he was “allowed” to, but during his illness he received “confirmation” that he should.

Although the arcane scholar Gerald Massey and the French esotericist Paul Le Cour had earlier spoken of a coming Age of Aquarius, Jung was certainly the most prestigious mainstream figure to do so, and it is through him that the idea became a mainstay of the counterculture of the 1960s and ’70s. This was mostly through his comm­ents about it in his book Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky (1958), in which he argued that UFOs were basically mandalas from outer space. During his crisis, he had come upon the image of the mandala, the Sanskrit ‘magic circle’, as a symbol of psychic wholeness, and he suggested that ‘flying saucers’ were mass archetypal projections, formed by the psychic tension produced by the Cold War that was heating up between Russia and America. The Western world, he argued, was having a nervous breakdown, and UFOs were a way of relieving the stress.

Jung wrote prophetically that “My conscience as a psychiatrist bids me fulfil my duty and prepare those few who will hear me for coming events which are in accord with the end of an era… As we know from ancient Egyptian history, they are symptoms of psychic changes that always appear at the end of one Platonic month and at the beginning of another. They are, it seems, changes in the constellation of the psychic dominants, of the archetypes or ‘Gods’ as they used to be called, which bring about… long-lasting transformations of the collective psyche. This transform­ation started… in the transition of the Age of Taurus to that of Aries, and then from Aries to Pisces, whose beginning coincides with the rise of Christianity. We are now nearing that great change… when the spring-point enters Aquarius…” Ten years later, The Fifth Dimension (whose very name, appropriated from the title song of The Byrds’ third LP, suggests the cosmic character of the Mystic Sixties) had a hit song from the hippie musical Hair echoing Jung’s ideas, and millions of people all over the world believed they were witnessing “the dawning of the Age of Aquarius”.

JUNG THE MYSTIC

Jung died in 1961, just on the cusp of the ‘occult revival’ of the 1960s, a renaissance of magical thinking that he did much to bring about. He was also directly responsible for the “journey to the East” that many took then, and continue to take today. Along with the I Ching, Jung gave his imprimatur to such hitherto arcane items as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Taoism and Zen, and without his intervention it’s debatable if these Eastern imports would have enjoyed their modern popularity. That he was in many ways a founding father of the Love Generation is seen by his inclusion on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, although Jung himself would have thought “flower power” sadly naïve. Although for all his efforts he has never been accepted by mainstream intellectuals, his effect on popular culture has been immense, and our contemporary grass roots, inner-directed spirituality, unfortun­ately associated with the New Age, has his name written all over it. Jung himself may have been equivocal about his relationship with mysticism, magic, and the occult, but the millions of people today who pay attent­ion to their dreams, notice strange coincidences and consult the I Ching have the Sage of Küsnacht to thank for it.

http://www.intuitive-connections.net/2011/book-jung_the_mystic.html

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WE ARE DUST FROM THE STARS : HEAVEN IS HERE

All videos and any poetry on this page are posted under Fair Rights Use. None of these videos have been created by me. They are being used for non-profit educational purposes. Fair use tempers copyright's exclusive rights to serve the purpose of copyright law, which the US Constitution defines as the promotion of "the Progress of Science and useful Arts"

I have always fathomed myself rising from my body, and going up into the heavens, but just as Michael said, heaven is here. We have all been told this, however, it has been hard to hear because many of us have been told that we must die in order to go to heaven. It was been written centuries ago. Michael merely presented it in a way that we all could hear.

 Michael Jackson was more amazing than many know. It is critical that we listen to him with depth, he is not giving us shallow messages at all. Heaven really and truly is here, and I hope to show that. So, let’s look first at a biblical point of view. As you read, I implore you to consider what you have heard Michael say, and think of what you have seen him do. Michael comes close to doing everything that Jesus does.

Matthew10:6-9 And as ye go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. 9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,

None of us could ever say that Michael did not give freely. Has he healed the sick? Yes. We have seen the evidence. . As for us, we have been changed.  Notwithstanding, many of us have found that we have talent within us that had been buried for years by negativism and fear. Everyone has talent. It is a gift from God…and it is one of value. Michael never ceased to create and build on the talent that God gave him. The following scripture tells the origin of talent and how it should be used.

 Matthew 25:14-18 (AKJV):14 for the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. 15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. 16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. 17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. 18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. (To find out what happened, I suggest that you read the entire verse. Matt: 25:14-40 (pretty long!)

Moving on, what does ‘at hand’ mean? It means it is within your reach. It is not some distant thing that we must first die to see. We are already here, it is within our reach, not after we die, but now, Heaven is at hand, heaven is here. Certainly the question could be asked, why we have been praying “Thy kingdom come?” That follows with “on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Consider replacing the word ‘as’ with ‘because’. It is not complicated as we do it all the time.(see what I mean?) Here is an example; “She went shopping, as she had no food”. So what that scripture really means is, ‘on earth because it is in heaven’. We must at some point discuss Michael’s concern for the earth. Following, I quoted from Archbishop Williams, as he clarifies the matter well. However, other clergy say the same.

Archbishop Rowan Williams:

“The idea of the kingdom coming was very near the center of Jesus'teaching. And the kingdom is not a   place  or  a  system  –  it’s just  a  state  of  affairs when  God  really is  acknowledged to be directing and giving meaning to everything. It’s the kingship of   God, if you like.

 ‘So  we  pray  ‘Thy Kingdom come’,  meaning  let  God’s  will  and  purpose  and  God’s nature show through in every state of affairs, because that’s what it is for God to be king. It’s not asking for God to be ordering everyone and everything around but for God in his glory to be visible everywhere.

‘Thy kingdom come is saying let the world open out to the depth of God’s love…which is really at the root of it all. Jesus  himself  tells  us  that  the  kingdom  comes  in  unexpected  ways,  it doesn't just come with an unexpected clap of thunder at the end of time, it grows in our midst secretly…It  comes  through  in  quirky  little  moments  when  people  do  extraordinary  things, take  extraordinary  risks  and  you  think,  ‘Yes,  that’s  a life in which  God is  showing.  Jesus’  parables  tell  us  about  people  who  give  up  everything  because  they  catch  a glimpse of the kingdom,  they catch a glimpse of God’s beauty. So that’s what we’re praying for; let the world show God, let God come through." (http://goo.gl/zt2ZJd)

We will take another look at Michael’s piece. “Heaven is Here” We have to look at it again because it truly does unite the spiritual and the physical. They are not separate. It is beautifully written, but it is more than a poem. Let’s read/watch with depth Michael’s “Heaven is here”, then let’s look at it all from a scientific point of view.
heaven IS HERE

You and I were never separate
It's just an illusion
Wrought by the magical lens of
Perception

There is only one Wholeness
Only one Mind
We are like ripples
In the vast Ocean of Consciousness

Come, let us dance
The Dance of Creation
Let us celebrate
The Joy of Life

The birds, the bees
The infinite galaxies
Rivers, Mountains
Clouds and Valleys
Are all a pulsating pattern
Living, breathing
Alive with cosmic energy

Full of Life, of Joy
This Universe of Mine
Don't be afraid

To know who you are
You are much more
Than you ever imagined

You are the Sun
You are the Moon
You are the wildflower in bloom
You are the Life-throb
That pulsates, dances
From a speck of dust
To the most distant star

And you and I
Were never separate
It's just an illusion
Wrought by the magical lens of
Perception

Let us celebrate
The Joy of Life
Let us dance
The Dance of Creation

Curving back within ourselves
We create
Again and again
Endless cycles come and go
We rejoice
In the infinitude of Time

There never was a time
When I was not
Or you were not
There never will be a time
When we will cease to be

Infinite — Unbounded
In the Ocean of Consciousness
We are like ripples
In the Sea of Bliss

You and I were never separate
It's just an illusion
Wrought by the magical lens of
Perception

Heaven is Here
Right now is the moment
of Eternity
Don't fool yourself
Reclaim your Bliss

Once you were lost
But now you're home
In a nonlocal Universe
There is nowhere to go
From Here to Here
Is the Unbounded
Ocean of Consciousness
We are like ripples
In the Sea of Bliss

Come, let us dance
The Dance of Creation
Let us celebrate
The Joy of Life

And
You and I were never separate
It's just an illusion
Wrought by the magical lens of
Perception

Heaven is Here
Right now, this moment of Eternity
Don't fool yourself
Reclaim your Bliss

 We will be guided by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson to view the scientific aspects of it all. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist. Tyson's professional research interests are broad, but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way.

“Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kind of cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.”

― Neil deGrasse Tyson

I believe they are saying the very same thing. They are both saying heaven is here, and they are saying 'we are one'.

The only difference is Dr. Tyson does not acknowledge it spiritually. Michael says we are the sun, the moon and the wild flowers in bloom. Dr Tyson says we are stardust. Although he claims not to believe in God, he speaks of the universe as though it is God. He actually testifies that he was called by the universe to be an astrophysicist He actually is speaking of being enlightened, and confesses that the universe fills his spirit just as concept of God fills the spirit of those who believe in God.

 Dr. Tyson has claimed himself to be an atheist, and then an agnostic. Despite all his brilliance he has to confess that the most acclaimed scientists to ever exist, concluded that God was the creator of the universe. He is very keen on ‘The big bang theory’. What no one has acknowledged is that the big bang theory is all through the bible as well. It could actually be that the world started with a big bang. However, the same big bang that the bible says ends the world, is perhaps the same explosion that begins the world. Thus he may not be completely wrong. The scientific view of creation is not much different than the biblical one.

Here is another look at the scientific view; “The knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on earth - the atoms that make up the human body, are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars- the high mass ones among them- went unstable in their later years- they collapsed and then exploded- scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy- guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems- stars with orbiting planets. And those planets now have the ingredients for life itself. So that when I look up at the night sky, and I know that yes we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up- many people feel small, because their small and the universe is big. But I feel big because my atoms came from those stars.”

― Neil deGrasse Tyson

“What does the Bible say about the end of the world? The event usually referred to as “the end of the world” is described in 2 Peter 3:10: “The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” This is the culmination of a series of events called “the day of the Lord,” the time when God will intervene in human history for the purpose of judgment. At that time, all that God has created, “the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), He will destroy.”

“First, it will be cataclysmic in scope. The “heavens” refers to the physical universe – the stars, planets, and galaxies—which will be consumed by some kind of tremendous explosion, possibly a nuclear or atomic reaction that will consume and obliterate all matter as we know it. All the elements that make up the universe will be melted in the “fervent heat” (2 Peter 3:12). This will also be a noisy event, described in different Bible versions as a “roar” (NIV), a “great noise” (KJV), a “loud noise” (CEV), and a “thunderous crash” (AMP). There will be no doubt as to what is happening. Everyone will see and hear it because we are also told that “the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” http://www.gotquestions.org/end-of-the-world.html”

Interestingly enough. We see ‘The New Jerusalem”. Created immediately after the ‘biblical big bang takes place’. In effect, the world …a new world is created by the big bang theory. This last video is for an understanding of how this knowledge was attained. Despite all that scientist had done, they ultimately came to believe in God as the creator of the universe. In this talk Dr. Tyson says that the most knowledge that exists came from Islam. What he doesn't mention is that now, they are killing each other over God. That of course is another topic. My purpose was to show that heaven actually is here, no matter how you shake it. We are on a planet, in the universe (the heavens) and the universe is in us. We are one. We were never separate. This final video is incredible. 

A MISSION IS A MISSION

I had been listening to a church member who was very unhappy in her marriage. She told me about all the things she could not do. She finally broke down in tears as she talked about all the things she desired, but could not have because her husband kept her in submission.

Out of the blue I told her she was not in submission, she had a submission. The truth is, a mission is a mission. Whether is an admission, dis-mission, emission, omission intermission, transmission, permission, submission, or remission, it is a mission. You own the mission, whatever that mission may be. It is your mission. Often we see missions on resume’s. Here is an example;

 My Mission: I am a dedicated member of the Michael Jackson Global Family. My love, admiration and commitment to him is unwavering. My goal is to bring surety to the restoration of Michael Jackson’s legacy.

 The thing is, it is your mission. I can’t emphasize that enough. Your mission is given to you by God, although we may not immediately realize it. We get smothered in the talk of today, and people telling us what we should be doing. Ultimately we can’t hear the voice of God, giving us the mission He/She has for us. Scripture has an interesting story about the voice of God;

  Genesis 3:8-11a (AKJV) 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Everything goes downhill from there.

So, this is the situation. Adam and Eve were in the garden enjoying each other. The most High called out to them but they ignored the voice of God. Adam finally comes forth and expresses fear, because he was naked. God responds, in asking “who told you that you were naked?” 

The key word here is ignore. The root word for ignorant is ignore.  It doesn't mean dense or slow, it means uninformed; unaware. Well no doubt, if you cannot hear the voice of God you will not be able to hear your mission!. Ultimately, you become  a prime target for someone else to use to complete their mission, while not fulfilling your own.Nevertheless, inside we all know what our mission is. A well known scripture is:  Eccl 3:1 “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Everyone, and everything has been given a mission by God, or as King Solomon said, a purpose.

Those thoughts that you have that delight or thrill you are in most cases are you receiving the purpose God has created for you. We begin to have aspirations (notice the word spirit in there?) by the time we get to college it becomes our major, but once we step out…it becomes our calling. It is like a company. Everyday that you walk in that door, you realize that your mission is your position. If your mission is to whole somebody elses  mission up, then it is a sub-mission. It belongs to you. No worries though. In a crazy way we all have a sub-mission. Our mission in life is to help others, so we cannot always have the same position whether we like it or not.

My favorite verses on this are what Paul says to the Corinthians. Romans 12:19-26 “19 and if they were all one member, where were the body? 20 But now are they many members, yet but one body. 21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be feebler, are necessary: 23 and those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. 24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: 25 that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. 26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.”

What I like about this is we are all cells in the love of the Most High. In as much as we are one body, each member has a purpose. If one member because of ignorance, try’s to fulfill the mission of another member it is sure to feel fearful and unaccomplished. Just like us! If a cell from the foot attempts to follow the eye and do what its mission is, it will not be successful. That mission was not given to that cell! However, if that same cell were to fulfill its God given mission it would be strengthening to the body. Each member “owns” a unique mission, it is not transferrable.

Michael is incredible. He says all that I have said in a few simple words, “In the end, the most important thing is to be true to yourself and those you love and work hard. Work like there's no tomorrow. Train. Strive. Really train and cultivate your talent to the highest degree. Be the best at what you do. Get to know more about your field than anybody alive. Use the tools of your trade, if it's books or a floor to dance on or a body of water to swim in. Whatever it is, it's yours. That's what I've always tried to remember”

 "Even if you're sweeping floors or painting ceilings, do it better than anybody in the world, no matter what it is that you do. Be the best at it, and have a respect for others, and be proud of yourself…and to honor, be honorable.”

 Michael was wise beyond his years. In other words he is saying take your mission and run with it! Don’t let anyone make you feel ashamed.  Empire probably began  with that one old man mopping floors as young man. There is no doubt in my mind that he was snubbed by many men who looked a bit high and mighty. However, he followed the mission that he had been given. To thine own self be true. Still you have to know yourself. "I know who I am inside and outside, and I know what I want to do. And I will always go with my dreams." Once again we hear wisdom from Michael Jackson. Michael in effect is talking about how dedicated he is to his calling, his mission.

This is how the pope said it. (I am not Catholic, but I am so happy about the message of love that he brings.), “When the Lord wants to give us a mission, wants to give us a task, He prepares us. He prepares us to do it well, as he prepared Elijah,” the Pope explained in his June 13 daily Mass. “The most important part of this…is the whole journey by which we arrive at the mission the Lord entrusts to us.” June 13th 2014 Dailey Homily. That’s it in a nutshell.

Steve Jobs is an excellent example His unwed biological parents, Joanne Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, put him up for adoption. His adopted parents raised him in a community of engineers. Although he went to college he dropped out and began to seek another path. Jobs was a “fruitarian”. I suppose his favorite fruit was apples. The first job he got after he dropped out was working in a video store. Can you see how God is preparing him for his mission? It was not long after that that he and a friend began to work with electronics. Together they began “Apple”. So you can see that the pope has hit the nail on the head.

There is a painful element of hearing the voice of God, and realizing that God has already given you a mission, and you are free to fulfill that mission. It is that you must leave some people behind, this is an absolute fact.  Scripture says “2 Corinthians 6:17 (KJV)  17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” Now, I really don't know what the unclean thing is. I suppose we all have something that is unclean in our lives. Something that hinders the spirit. We will each have to answer that for ourselves. What I want to show is you have to leave some friends behind. For our purposes, let us see the unclean thing as the life you are leaving behind, and God receiving you and blessing you to a conversational relationship with Him. You cannot converse with God  if you cannot hear his voice

.

Now, I am speaking with the bible as a reference. Consider this, however. Everybody does not read the bible.  In fact, you may be the only bible that some may get to see. Michael is like a walking book of righteous instruction. It is incredible! Michael has given us the same message as Pope Francis. Why was Michael able to do that? That is for you to ponder and answer. Personally, I think that Michael had a very personal relationship with God. He could hear God calling, and he never ignored His voice.

Here is the Dalai Lama in his teachings on training the mind; Training the Mind:

 Verse 1

With a determination to achieve the highest aim

For the benefit of all sentient beings

Which surpasses even the wish-fulfilling gem,

May I hold them dear at all times.

‘These four lines are about cultivating a sense of holding dear all other sentient beings. The main point this verse emphasizes is to develop an attitude that enables you to regard other sentient beings as precious, much in the manner of precious jewels. The question could be raised, "Why do we need to cultivate the thought that other sentient beings are precious and valuable?" Training the Mind/ Teaching of His Holiness. The Dalai Lama. 

Verse 1 is about training the mind to deal with the practices associated with cultivating the method aspect of the path such as compassion, altruism, aspiration to attain Buddhahood.”

Michael made the same point in two short sentences through the spoken word.  1) “But I will never stop helping and loving people the way Jesus said to.”  2) “When all life is seen as divine, everyone grows wings.”  ― Michael Jackson

Also, he delivered the same message in song “There’s a place in your heart And I know that it is love And this place could be much Brighter than tomorrow And if you really try You'll find there's no need to cry In this place you'll feel There's no hurt or sorrow There are ways to get there If you care enough for the living Make a little space, make a better place. Heal the world”

Each of them are speaking of a path. Michael sings also “There are ways to get there if you care enough for the living…  The Pope, The Dalai Lama, and Michael are all speaking of loving your neighbor. The Pope is speaking of a journey by which we arrive at the mission the Lord entrusts to us. His Holiness says it is a matter of achieving the highest aim. So they are speaking of a path… but the vehicle that takes us is love.

It is a matter of respecting and loving Our Most High, ourselves and our neighbor. When all is said and done, the only mission that any of us has in this entire world is to be of service to each other.  That is the only way you can make a better place. It is actually possible to renew your mission, or to have a remission of the pathway you are traveling

The good thing is that our missions in life can change. You can work your way up on a job. However you cannot do it without learning, and usually when you learn something exceptionally well, it is because God has empowere you to do so. Jesus taught the disciples for three years, then they became Apostles. Apostle means sent. They were sent to fulfil the mission God had given them. So, what is your mission? Do you know?  The most important thing to know is everybody and everything has a purpose, or mission if you will. Lets conclude with a few quotes from Rick Warrens " The Purpose Driven Life"

"Your purpose becomes the standard you use to evaluate which activities are essential and which aren’t.  You simply ask, “Does this activity help me fulfill one of God’s purposes for my life?” 

“Without a clear purpose you have no foundation on which you base decisions, allocate your time, and use your resources.  You will tend to make choices based on circumstances, pressures, and your mood at the moment.”

“Without a purpose, life is a motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason.  Without a purpose, life is trivial, petty, and pointless.”

 “The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.”

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Remembering Michael Jackson

A Brother and a Hero

Recently I heard a reporter say,"Why is the whole world grieving over Michael?" He then said Michael was a good entertainer but that he was a pervert and a freak. He got the part about Michael Jackson being a good entertainer half right...he was more than good. Michael Jackson was phenomenal. There is not likely even the slimmest chance that someone like him will come again. Also, some of us knew them before Ed Sullivan, before MTV. In my case, I first knew of Michael Jackson when he was five years old. He and his brothers sang at an assembly at my mothers school. My mother raved about him forever. By the time I actually saw Michael, by the time I saw him at the Regal Theater he felt like my little brother. Most of us watched him grow with protective spirits, because life was not kind for black artists. Until Michael Jackson, MTV refused to put black people on. But, who could resist Thriller? Michael changed how music was presented and he changed the way white people treated black artists. He became something of a hero to most of us. He was breaking barriers and changing life for black artist who would follow.

Why did Michael turn white?

I really do want to address his transformational appearance, which earned him the title of freak. Michael Jackson had the unique ability to take the hand that life dealt him, and to play it...win or lose. One of the things that Michael experienced was a skin disease that turned him porcelain white.He never beached himself white because he hated being black, He simply never wanted anyone to see him as someone with a disability. So he did everything he could do to hide it from the world, including wearing a glittering glove. More recently he was seen wearing masks over his face. Michael found a way to live through it all. Have a look at this video, it is extremely informative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6xJlyJgfS8

There was also quite a lot of talk about the surgeries he had on his face. The first rhinoplasty he had done was because of an accident because he actually broke his nose. What is unknown to most of those who are not his fans is the shame he'd felt from his father ridiculing  him about the size of his nose. The rhinoplasty was a reason to have work done on his nose was a reason to reshape his feature. That is the nose you see him with on the Thriller album. He is black, and he still has a black mans features. Refined, but black, like Oprah.

As time went on his skin disease got worse. Virgilio was beginning to turn him white. This took place over a period of years. The treatments that Michael had to take did not bleach his skin. (If you haven't watched the video above, now is a good time. It explains what vitiligo is, and the treatments Michael had to take for this incurable disease). Ultimately, Michael became almost totally white. It was something he could not change. Michael decided to live the best he could with the condition. He was now white with black features on his face. Michael finally had a second rhinoplasty to have a nose that belonged on a white face. At this time he was beginning to look totally white, and most people had some theory about it. The chief myth was, he hates being black.

I think changing his features to fit his skin was smart. It really was more fitting, plus people would still have talked if he had not had the surgery. Later he felt he looked too feminine, so he had a clef put in his chin hoping it would solve the problem. He was taking his situation and finding a way to live with it. He was not trying to be white, and he was especially not trying to look like a white woman! The tabloids went wild! They completely forgot about the good that Michael had done to save hundreds of lives.

He Was a Humanitarian

ccording to Whats Haute, June 29th "The loss of Michael Jackson shook the world on Thursday. Michael Jackson the entertainer not only impacted the music world in tremendous ways, he was also a global humanitarian, lending his support to 39 charity organizations either with monetary donations through project sponsorships. He received recognition in the 2000 edition of the Guiness Book Of World Records for breaking the world record for the “Most Charities Supported By a Pop Star”. Despite media allegations, Mich

Michael Was an Inventor!

Michael Jackson loved all children, and took time out while touring to secret visting sick children and even had special rooms at his Neverland Ranch for sick and terminally ill children.' This is agood article with beautiful pictures. I you can, visit this site.
(http://whatshaute.com/?tag=guiness-book-of-world-records)

http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/113-michael-jackson

Charities Supported

Michael Jackson has supported the following charities:

The following is a list of charities he pubilicly helped in his life that was taken from AllMichaelJackson.com:
AIDS Project L.A.
American Cancer Society
Angel Food
Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles
BMI Foundation, Inc.
Brotherhood Crusade
Brothman Burn Center
Camp Ronald McDonald
Childhelp U.S.A.
Children's Institute International
Cities and Schools Scholarship Fund
Community Youth Sports & Arts Foundation
Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)
Dakar Foundation
Dreamstreet Kids
Dreams Come True Charity
Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation
Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
Love Match
Make-A-Wish Foundation
Minority Aids Project
Motown Museum
NAACP
National Rainbow Coalition
Rotary Club of Australia
Society of Singers
Starlight Foundation
The Carter Center's Atlanta Project
The Sickle Cell Research Foundation
Transafrica
United Negro College Fund (UNCF)
United Negro College Fund Ladder's of Hope
Volunteers of America
Watts Summer Festival
Wish Granting
YMCA - 28th Street/Crenshaw