1997-08-28-Sacred Spheres of Paradise

Session

Opening

TOMAS: Good evening, my friends and my family.

Group: Good evening.

TOMAS: We are back in tune with you, following your many adventures, your travels, your celebrations, (and) your growths. Is it not a wonder how it is that the universe keeps unfolding? As you come and go like waves upon the shore, always does the moonlight even out the view. Merium and I are here, as well as your many loyal spirit companions, in obedience to your will which seeks to do the will of Our Father. How may we serve you this evening?

MERIUM: Tomas?

TOMAS: Yes.

MERIUM: We had such a successful (social & study) evening that I think that we were going to be forgotten. They had such a good time, don't you think?

TOMAS: There are times, truly, Merium, when I feel as though we are a redundancy.

MERIUM: Well, I must tell them. The arena is packed this evening and it has been a very, very interesting evening for us and we applaud your appreciation and your personal observations of your own experience. Let these gentle changes that are coming over you be noted, how freely it is. I can hear it in your confidence; it pleases us greatly. Are there any questions?

Dialogue

Celeste: I don't know, but don't stop talking because we really want to hear what you have to say! (Group laughter)

Elyssia: Tell us about yourselves! How about some of your experiences through Jesus' birthday. You all must have had a great big moment there, anyway, if nothing else.

TOMAS: You must remember that our time frame is not the same as yours. Our understanding for time is on a different level and so I suppose if we were in Mexico we would celebrate the Cinco de Mayo with the locals, and so when we are in Urantia we celebrate the birthday with the Urantians, but our ceremonies and honoring of the Creator Son are somewhat different from yours.

Even so, we do appreciate the noble efforts that you put forth in order to pay homage to He who is the Way. It is gratifying to us, not that you have a party necessarily, nor that you remember the date, but that you actually come to know Him better, for this is where it is that we know that we are succeeding, that you are succeeding, that Spirit is succeeding.

MERIUM: I would like to add that as you enter your awareness of your expanded consciousness, it would be as if you were celebrating continuously. Our entire experience over here is indeed a celebration, for we are living free of the heaviness that you have to plow through in your daily experience.

That is why we are so insistent that you prepare yourself for the day, so that you maintain this very special decibel that we know that you are capable of experiencing, and you will know, and you have already experienced a day that is far more effortless than one that you do not prepare for properly because you are wearing out-worn garments. When you do not take time to prepare yourself properly, you do indeed have heavy clothing on you and you have outworn ideas being expressed through your mouth, so let me once again take advantage of this opportunity to remind you that it is a wonderful thing to drink from the cup, that you might experience this high octane and have an easier trip as you travel throughout your adventures everyday.

Dialogue

Elyssia: Thank you for that picture of the continuous celebration. On a beautiful day like this, all you have to do on this planet is sort of put your head out the window and look at the sun shining and dappled shadows and you can get a feeling of regeneration at that moment. I'm curious about what your reaction might have been to the various personalities that ran around the table last Thursday night because we didn't talk about that when you came in, of course.

MERIUM: I would like to comment.

TOMAS: I would like to ask a question. When you say "the personalities that ran around the table," were you talking about the midwayers?

Elyssia: Ha! Well, since I'm not too well connected with them, as far as I know, I was talking about the human people and what they said about Jesus. I was so thrilled when I heard each person. Each person was absolutely wonderful, and I loved the way we did the thing, which was we gave a topic -- a good, really spiritual topic -- and then each person was able to say something really enlightened. And they did! And I was so impressed with each of these people.

TOMAS: I will make only one remark and then allow for Merium to proceed, and that is you are well aware of how much faith Jesus has in you. It is not so much a surprise to us to hear these words utter from your mouths, for you have been given these words by your own comprehension of and through the Spirit of Truth that Michael is your Creator and your divine elder brother. As you take Christ as a personal experience, not as an historic reference point, but the relationship with him as a personal experience into your very being, he becomes real to you and you can testify to him in your life and how your life is and has been affected by knowing him, by loving him and by his love for you.

And when there are fellow believers in company, the sharing then is multiplied because of your appreciation for the faith of he and she who stand beside you. You have become an army. You have become truly his flock. He has great faith in you, as have had Merium and I, and it is a great gift to us to see you develop your spirit nature and let it become a natural part of your living experience.

Elyssia: It seemed to me that from Toronto -- each was given a sentence with some beautiful spiritual thought on it and each of us spoke about it for a few minutes, and Gerdean adapted that for our evening and I think it was a very useful tool and I hope that we will use it again and it raises the level of discussion or something like that, and it seemed to do it that night. I was struck by the sincerity and the depth of the comments. As you say, we're responding to the love of Christ Michael as poured on as.

Leah: For the sake of the transcript, what was your topic that evening?

Elyssia: Jesus -- about how Jesus is in your everyday life. How does he become real in your life?

Gerdean: It was about the Alpheus -- James Alpheus, I think, who said, "How are we going to recognize you if you're not here? How are we going to recognize you through this new teacher?" and so we all discussed how it was that we recognized Jesus in our life.

Elyssia: It was amazing because everybody said something of depth. But it did raise the level of conversation, Tomas and Merium, I thought. And I thought it was a device something we would be using again because the depth of the discussion was perhaps increased over that which we sometimes engage in.

TOMAS: You know we have been working, Merium and I, to bring this about.

Elyssia: Good.

TOMAS: We have made tremendous and visible strides in the past year (and even less) in bringing about an elevated type of sharing. We have discussed the difference between a social event and an event that has overtones of communion, and you experienced a true communion the evening of the Remembrance Supper and at the celebration in Canada which also was a spiritual event with the subsequent fellowshipping of believers, as compared to a standard approach to a human birthday party.

Now, as we have practiced discussing from that part of your being, which is more related to your permanent aspects, your soulful aspects rather than your temporal and temporary aspects, we have been able to elevate the tenor and tone of the conversations and you have, I believe, also subsequently enjoyed the flavor of your communications as a result.

You are certainly beginning to appreciate each other more deeply for you are coming to know each other more deeply in a real sense. I want to -- of course you are commended for your growth -- but I want to encourage you to realize that we have just begun, and that as you have found our growth satisfying thus far, the future growth shall be no less fulfilling. And it is eternally progressive.

Last week -- and excuse me, Merium, while I go on here -- last week I was talking to you about how it is that you have everything you need here in order to develop and foster a miniscule moment of light and life as you pass by in your existence. You have the minds, the bodies and the spirits with which to create a powerful and wonderful life...

Elyssia: Well, it does seem that those moments in Hamilton and then here, were that tiny experience of light and life that you had encouraged us to think about.

TOMAS: I am glad that you recognize that thread of truth, Elyssia, but I want you to also realize that it can be extended and expanded not simply as a stitch here and there but a true tapestry throughout your life and throughout the world of Urantia … and indeed the worlds of time and space, even into eternity. This is part of the assimilation of your true destiny of a living reality as a child of God, a member of the universal family.

Elyssia: I'm going to have a whole huge bunch of relatives around me this week-end and I hope that I can offer something of a positive nature occasionally in the conversation.

TOMAS: Certainly.

Elyssia: I think I'm going to use this system of trying to bring the conversation along a bit. Some of them have some pain -- we all do, of course.

TOMAS: You, once again, have everything you need in order to advance your brethren in spirit reality.

Elyssia: I think I'm going to at least take a couple of them to church, because it is in the church that I'm going to have some pretty good moments to offer.

TOMAS: That is your choice. It is your arena in which to work and play, and however it is that you feel led to serve, then that is the choice you should make. The core choice, of course, is that you choose to serve, you choose to know your brothers and sisters more deeply in the spirit, that they too can share their relationship with the Father and that you together may learn to serve.

Elyssia: Well, I remember that you told me something about using your past, like... I'd like to learn to do that more, because it comes across not so badly when you're trying to give a word of cheer or something like that through this pain in this configuration.

TOMAS: Indeed, indeed. You are referring, perhaps, to our series of studies on Fruits of the Spirit, even the one perhaps regarding Confiding Trust, that you sit shoulder-to-shoulder with your sister, your brother, and discuss with them your innermost desires in terms of your soulful longings, even your hopes and dreams, and these human feelings are a marvelous way of bridging the gap of soul-to-soul in developing trust and camaraderie.

Elyssia: Well, there are people who are facing illness, serious illness; people who have experienced difficulty and tragedy; and a divorce among the young people's family; anger, great anger against the young man who left his wife and the children; typical things that we have in our society.

MERIUM: Knock knock. May I come in?

TOMAS: Certainly.

MERIUM: I am absolutely salivating to speak to my friend here about her guests. The subject I am attracted to here is anticipated in how it will be when you have guests coming to visit. Let me imply precaution here, because it sounds almost as if you are coming to a clinic and I do not want you to pass up an opportunity for these people, who have angelic presence, who have Thought Adjusters, who have a journey of their own, to miss out on an opportunity to experience coming to the rarified environment and atmosphere and vibrational consistency that has been developed in this home.

Let me remind you that it is the Christ that will be the hostess; it will be the Christ who is the host; it will be the Christ who is the guest and I am offering you this because the old conversations will start to develop, but in spite of themselves, they will be on holiday from their pain, from their doom and gloom and even their whipping their anger out and flashing it about over the misfortunes of the turn of events that have taken in their lives.

A holiday is indeed a holiday when the host and the hostess are enlightened and, if you think about the word enlightened, it does indeed mean to lighten up, to not feel the weight of the human overlaid as it is today. They may say things to you, "Oh, my, you're looking well!" They will find themselves totally pulled away from themselves and new enlightenment in coming together and celebrating in that magic of this home, so let me tell you, being a hostess is not any different, at times, than becoming a T/R, because truly it is an act of trust when you say, "Father, let me have the correct thing to say. Show me the way to go. What will I serve?" Are you not inviting trust into your being so that you will have just the right food, you will say just the right thing, and you will hear it because you will be at your own party.

So I am here this evening to remind you that there is no preparation except to bring in the highest welcoming of those who enter, at these meetings and by this party of worldly friends, to mingle with your many, many friends who are invisible to them, so I hope I have stimulated your imagination and hope that you will be able to find that this is going to be very grace-filled and joyous.

Elyssia: Well, my daughters have been praying for these people and they are very loving and they love their cousins and their aunts and their uncles very much.

MERIUM: Pray for their responsiveness.

Elyssia: I think that will help a lot. I think they'll do most of it (indistinguishable).

MERIUM: You will look forward to a report. I would like to make a comment about the expressions of appreciation at Christ Michael's party here, and I likened it to a talent show. Everyone was allowed to sing their song and, much to their surprise, there were words to sing; they had volume; they had confidence; and they were thrilled at being allowed to participate, and we enjoyed it and look forward to your rehearsals with yourself when you're alone.

Iyana gave an example, I believe; she sings a praise and then begins to write, and you are all encouraged to sing a praise, to vocalize a praise . .. when you are in a car. One of our friends here made that habit. So take license, take liberty, when you are by yourself, know that you have friends with you at all times.

Elyssia: I did enjoy each person was like a talent show. I'm anxious to hear the feed back they give us, and I probably will bring that to the table, too, for some discussion. I haven't had a chance to talk about it with the people.

Celeste: It sounds so good, I wish I could have listened to a tape to hear their voices.

TOMAS: The sharing was not taped. That is personal sharing and you have some reluctance about putting your expressions on paper. I think it has to do with some remnant of the Dark Ages or the legal system, I'm not sure which. But I have personally regretted that many times very profound and meaningful conversations, that you would do well to have recorded, went by the way of smoke, yet you will be secure in knowing that they are transcribed in the annals of the archives of your growth and development. Perhaps not word for word, but in essence, your value and your growth is recorded forever.

Elyssia: That's wonderful. I think we can scare up a good facsimile for Betty, on a human level, and for Leah. I think we can do it, if we get together, we'll do it.

MERIUM: I would like to interject that I do not feel that any unrecorded beautiful moment is of lingering consequence because I feel that it goes out into the atmosphere, and as Leah had indicated in the word "vibrations," it is like a lovely pebble dropped into the pool of life and it ripples out and touches everyone. At some point it joins the many others. And then collectively it could change many, many things. And, we sing our song clearly and it is indeed something we want to catch and preserve for time, but it has a journey of its own and it has done its own good will at the moment of its release and it travels on its way.

Celeste: Nothing of spiritual value is ever lost.

Elyssia: And then when these people come back -- and they will come back -- one by one, it won't be difficult for us to say something about what they remarked upon and they'll repeat them, some of them. So that it will be part of the coming study times.

TOMAS: What is important is that you acknowledge their reality and reaffirm for them that they are real. If they have bared their souls, so to speak, if they have set themselves out as a reality, as a believer, as a faith child, they have manifested their courage. Your only responsibility then is to uphold that. Not to praise it nor to transcribe it nor to crystallize it nor criticize it, but honor its reality and continue to trust in it.

Remember it is trust and faith that advances you in spirit reality. If you have faith in your fellows, they will sense it, they will respond to it; it is because Jesus has such great faith in them. And they are given the opportunity to rise to the occasion when you ask to see them again.

Now, speaking of guests, I, too, come with a hint from Heloise, and that is that as you in your graciousness provide this environment in its inherent perfection, do not allow it to become artificial; do not allow reality to hide its head in the sand like an ostrich and hide behind your gracious environs, but rather that their better reality shall be at peace in your environs and their feelings shall be accepted here.

Elyssia: I'll try to remember that and keep it in mind, especially since this will be (indistinguishable).

TOMAS: Merium, I feel as though we have meddled in the affairs of men today. I . ..

Celeste: Thank goodness you have.

Elyssia: How can we keep it from being . .. I'm interested in perhaps a further discussion of how to keep things from becoming artificial because, I guess I need some help along this line.

TOMAS: I know that Leah can augment the understanding of the situation and I know that she and others of you are familiar with the social value system that when you ask how they are, they say "fine" which is sometimes a total lie, they are not fine, but they believe they should say they are fine. And when you have created an artificial environment, you have created the kind of environment where they feel not free to say anything except "fine" and so the door is closed to further development. In that context then, allow your environment to be sufficiently real that it is gracious and accepting and yet allows for the human element.

Yes, their spirits are welcome and yes, the Master of the house is Michael, but they are human, and to the extent that you have a ministry, you need to be cognizant of their potential outpouring. Ministry is such that sometimes you need to roll up your sleeves. But, Merium's advice is good and, as I said, you have everything you need to effectively work for the Master in His assignment for you.

MERIUM: May I comment, please?

TOMAS: Certainly.

Leah: Fine.

MERIUM: When someone comes to you to pour out their heart, what you might liken it to being is: if you have ever watched an animal shake its fur, they are simply wanting to shake the portion of their stress so that they feel their normal weight or their energy. So if they have come to you, they have not come to you for an analytical dialog with your Heloise tips. What they've really done is they have come to you because subconsciously they know that if they come to you, you are the one place that they can come where they know they will feel lifted up, and that you will let them de-stress a moment and that you'll get them back on track.

But if you make it a lengthy catharsis session, you will fail to accomplish either of your higher values -- the recipient or the giver; and, therefore, would you want an embrace and a hug and some reassurance? Or would you want a heavy session of gut-wrenching analytical purging (which leaves you exhausted, of course) and since this is not, any more, the arena in which you are coming to work?

I am simply reminding you that you are indeed the gentle arm, the soft word, the return to laughter and humor, and perhaps a few lines of redefined things that they already know and they'll feel better. We are not doing surgery or carrying couches. We are standing and representing a new reality of the truth of their being. If it involves holding a basin for a little while, by all means, but it is very easy for that to become a favorite pastime, and I want you to allow each situation to come to you fresh, even if this is the previous relationship that you have with someone.

There are people who love to use you as a clinic and there are people who will listen to you for the first time because you are not holding clinic, so I hope you will take some of this variety of observations that Tomas and I have made this evening and fill your mental pockets and go away enriched, and have yourself a lovely carefree being about the Father's business.

Elyssia: Thank you very much.

Leah: Just be a good listener.

MERIUM: But not afraid to speak up, because if you have an urge to speak up and you have paused for the response, then it would be almost like an appropriate prescription. A light touch, a light kick, a releasing gesture.

TOMAS: Are we ready for a releasing gesture of cutting loose the teachers and venturing into your bedtime hour?

Group: Um-hmmm.

TOMAS: It has been fun. It is a joy to know you. It is an adventure to get to know you better. I tell you even we in these spirit realms are learning constantly by our association with you. Sometimes it reminds me of what it was like when I used to experience fear, and I would say, "What is that feeling"? and someone would say to me, "You're afraid of them!" and I would laugh and say, "Do you blame me?" And so, my children, I am happy to get to know you better, for that tells me that you are also getting to know me better.

Celeste: Can you tell how much we love you and how much we want to be with you? Can you tell that? Can you feel it?

TOMAS: Yes, Celeste, it is very apparent to us. It is apparent in the spirit; it is accentuated and made emotional by your expression of it. By emoting your feeling of love you have put the movement of love into the environment, and then not only can I see it, but others can see as well the ripple effect of love coming from your lips, your heart, your soul -- your love for another creature of the Creator. Thank you for you love and for your expression of love.

I encourage you all to engage in this practice of expressing your affections for one another, even as they are small appreciations. It is good to voice your random kindnesses and watch them grow. It is even more gratifying when we begin to perceive the Father's love growing in you and growing from you. But we will not be fussy here. We will take all the love we can get.

Closing

Merium, do you have a closing remark?

MERIUM: No, thank you.

TOMAS: We look forward to our entertaining upcoming week with you, dear ones. Farewell.

Group: Thank you for coming. Farewell. Please come back.