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1998
Readings #133-144

Please note that these early recordings (1987 through 2001) were made on cassette tape and later transferred to digital format. The sound quality  can vary.
STUDY GROUP READING #133
January 1998
Opening Teaching
1. You have often encouraged us to take time to meditate. What is the actual value and benefit of meditation? There must be millions of people in the world who do not meditate and who live perfectly good lives. If a person does not meditate, does God or their soul really care?

2. Is there any basis in truth for the traditional Christian concept of Hell? How did the people who formulated this teaching come up with the idea of Hell?

3. So that became the concept of Hell? Are you saying that the negativity was the concept of Hell?

4. In other readings, you have given some very mystical teachings about how we all express in four different areas at the same time. You describe those as: (1) expressing as an individual human being in physical form; (2) expressing in family and social groups with other human beings that we know; (3) belonging to larger groups that include human beings we do not consciously know but who are connected to us by magnetic energies and impulses; and (4) being an eternal soul while we are temporarily expressing in human form. You have spoken of these symbolically as circles within circles. Would you elaborate on these teachings for the benefit of the Study Group?

5. We are curious to know the difference between the after-death experience of an average person, and the after-death experience of someone who appears to be evil. For example, a person such as a Hitler, who has chosen to act in ways that cause great harm to others. Using Hitler as a dramatic example, would you tell us what he experienced after his death, and compare that to the after-death experience of an average person?

6. Please close with an attunement for us to use this month.


STUDY GROUP READING #134

February 1998
Opening Teaching
1. February being Valentine's month, we want to ask some questions about relationships. Many of us have loved ones in this lifetime, including mates, children, or parents, who we would like to be with again in future lives. Some of us feel that if we had to reincarnate without these loved ones, we would rather not. But, surely, in the grand scheme of many lifetimes on earth, we have had other beloved ones toward whom we have had the same intensity of love. After we die, how are all of these love connections sorted out?

2. Is there always a love connection from the past with romantic mates that we love in the present, or, can new people that we grow to love be introduced into our lives for the first time around?

3. The sex drive is a powerful force, greater in some people than in others. This drive for sexual pleasure often gets people in a lot of trouble. Obviously, one can imagine that the sex drive was designed by the souls to propagate the race. But, spiritually and psychologically speaking, how can it have such a power that it would cause someone to jeopardize so much in order to fulfill a moment of pleasure? Would you address this issue?

4. There now seems to be an interest in bringing spirituality and expanded consciousness into the workplace. Is this a passing phase, or will this grow and become the norm?
5. In the September, 1996 Study Group reading you said that many people from the time of ancient Rome were coming back now to heal their fears which caused violence in the past. Please explain the process by which people who have a lot of fears and distortions from past lives come into a new life with a plan to heal those fears. How do the souls set up the situation in these people's lives so that they will be led to heal those fears?

6. You have said that souls can sometimes override human choice and a life will be saved, seemingly miraculously. When animals exceed their normal abilities, could this be an example of soul manipulation? For example, there was a totally blind Labrador who dived into a raging river to save a screaming child. The dog dragged the child to shore and saved her life, even though the dog did not know the child.

7. Please close with an attunement for us to use this month.


STUDY GROUP READING #135

March 1998
Opening Teaching
1. We have been told that groups of people alive today have been together in groups at other times. This suggests that souls prefer to express on earth as part of a group. For instance, we often hear that a father or mother in this life was an uncle or a sister in another life, or that lovers were together before, or that groups of teachers have taught together before. Under what conditions do souls express as a group? What are we to learn from this kind of repetitive reincarnation?

2. When meeting a person for the first time, we can have the feeling that this new person is familiar in some way, as though we might have known them before. The person's eyes, face, or entire physical presence might look familiar to us. Assuming that such a meeting indicates that we knew that person in another lifetime, how is this familiarity being communicated to us? How can someone's eyes, face, or body seem familiar when the person's physical appearance has changed from the earlier life?

3. If we believe that we have known another person in a previous lifetime and we want to find out about that life, how can we accomplish that? Would you give us a method for remembering our past lifetimes?

4. This last question brings us very much to the present. In a recent article in Newsweek about Saddam Hussein and his biological weapons, the author stated that it was inevitable that sooner or later Iraq or some other country would launch an attack with weapons of mass destruction that would kill millions. The article stated that it was not a matter of if, but when. Please tell us how we can understand this danger from a spiritual viewpoint. How will the human race be able to heal fears of people such as Saddam Hussein and others who would use such weapons? Is this kind of danger related to the biblical Armageddon, or to some kind of crisis of healing in the human race at this time? How do you recommend that we as individuals react to this kind of situation?

5. Please close with an attunement for us to use this month.


STUDY GROUP READING #136

April 1998
Opening Teaching
1. Metaphysicians talk about some or all of us having "twin souls" in existence. The ancient Egyptians believed that when a human was born, its soul created a Ka, or spirit twin. Would you tell us about the concept of twin souls? How are they created, and for what purpose? Is this part of the soul-spirit co-existence, or is this just a human-created distortion, coming out of a belief that if there is a Ying so there must be a Yang?

2. In the past, you spoke about our current civilization paralleling the fall of the Roman Empire. Would you give us more information, both globally and personally, as to what specifically might unfold?

3. This next question is on the same subject. It seems that the world has become a mean-spirited place, where there are too many complications, hassles, and inconveniences. People seem to have become closed and stingy, and have lost the friendliness in communication. You have said that it really can't get much worse, so we are wondering how, and through what means, we will begin to communicate in better ways. Will it be through the internet, through different business insights, and so forth? How will we bring the spirit of a loving world back into focus?

4. Your teaching regarding fear and negative emotions developing from difficult and stressful experiences is to experience them, but ultimately to stand aside and see the painful experiences as not the truth, and temporary. This presupposes the ability to separate one's self from the personality and ego. Besides meditation, what can we specifically do to assist ourselves in accomplishing this separation to transcend our suffering into learning and joy?

5. Cancer rates are increasing drastically in our lifetime. Many believe this is due to environmental factors, such as chemicals, pollutants, and so forth. Are these some of the causes? What other causes should we know about, and how can we protect ourselves?

6. And please close with an attunement for us to use this month.


STUDY GROUP READING #137

May 1998
Opening Teaching
1. You spoke about "training the camel" as a metaphor for strengthening our personal self. How do we know how to find the balance between discipline, and nurturing and pleasure? In other words, what's up with the camel?

2. Each person has a purpose, a role in life. How do all of these individual purposes interplay with one another? Is there a correlation between one's purpose and his or her place on the path of spiritual enlightenment? Are patterns of a tapestry being woven with the fulfillment of the various purposes of life?

3. We have many role models of great teachers who have made a huge difference in the world, such as Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Mother Teresa, to name a few. What can each of us do, as seemingly ordinary, less well-known individuals, to contribute to the awakening and healing of the planet, and to better serve God?

4. The world seems to be spinning faster and faster with more and more stimuli. How do we find a way to live in this complicated world so that we can treat other living beings with compassion and find inner joy?

5. How will we know if our work is finished on earth, and where do we go next as a soul?

6. And if our work is finished on earth, where do we go next as a soul?

7. There are attachments in life that we sometimes want or need to let go of, such as a person who has become annoying, or the grief from the death of someone. How can we release and let go of things and people that we have become attached to?

8. Please close with an attunement for us to use this month.


STUDY GROUP READING #138

June 1998
Opening Teaching
1. Would you please discuss the phenomenon of youths turning violent and killing people? What is behind the recent incidences of violent youths shooting their peers and parents? Is there a past life influence here?

2. There are so many invisible, man-made energy waves in the air, such as radio, TV, satellite and so forth. They are passing through our atmosphere and us. How do they affect us mentally and physically?

3. There has been an increase in the incidence of breast cancer in women. Is there something that women are eating or doing to cause this? Or, is it something in the environment?

4. Will our bodies eventually adapt or mutate to the chemical and environmental factors that are now plaguing our earth? Or, will we have to clean up the environment?

5. When a loved one dies, is there a "saying goodbye" that takes place at the moment of death? Does the one who dies return to visit the loved ones left behind to say goodbye in some way? Some people seem to know when someone they love dies. They can feel or sense their leaving, even from a distance. What actually takes place here?

6. You have said that a soul will eventually complete its earth cycle. In other words, a soul will no longer project a portion of itself into a personality in the physical world. Do souls who have made this evolution ever decide to return and again project a portion of themselves into a personality? If so, how often does this occur, and how many souls do this?

7. I want to go back to the first question about the phenomenon of youths turning violent. It is quite rare for a female to create the kind of violent mayhem that we spoke of in that question. Yet, many women certainly suffer mental and physical abuse as children. They watch the same movies and have the same opportunities as the boys. There is the hormonal component, but is there a spiritual difference here that you could speak of? Would you comment on the differences?

8. Please close with an attunement for us to use this month.

STUDY GROUP READING #139

July 1998
Opening Teaching
1. We would like to begin with two questions from one of our Study Group members who is struggling to understand your teachings. The first one is: You have taught that our personalities are projected into the physical body by the soul in the form of what you call the "personality matrix," which is basically a nonphysical energy structure created by the soul. Considering that identical twins have similar personality characteristics, even when reared separately in different families, and that personality changes occur in conjunction with physical brain injury, stroke, drugs, Alzheimer's disease, and many other disorders, it appears that the personality and mind are genetically, not spiritually, determined. It seems that they are functions of the physical brain, not aspects of a spiritual energy matrix. How do you reconcile your teachings with these facts?

2. The second question is: Sometimes extremely negative experiences of severe and protracted suffering happen to certain persons-such as physical torture, horrible painful disease, and so forth. Such extreme suffering is inherently dreadful and terrible to human beings regardless of any spiritual explanations or perspectives of the soul. Your teaching is that the soul and God itself are the essence of pure and unconditional love and infinite power. It is clear that God and the souls do not prevent these dreadful human experiences, or intervene in them in any observable way. In the face of this, it seems that the love referred to in your teachings is irrelevant and incomprehensible from the perspective of a human being in the physical world who is suffering.

3. You have often said that none of our feelings on earth can damage our souls. Can our behavior damage our souls under certain circumstances? How about our thoughts? Is there anything that can damage our souls?

4. Many spiritual people in the West now look to Eastern religions in an effort to find God. One of the strongest appeals in Buddhism and Hinduism is the belief in reincarnation, while popular Western Judeo-Christian tradition makes no reference to it at all. Since Jesus based his teachings on a Jewish foundation, and added far-reaching knowledge about eternal truths of his own, it seems inconceivable that neither would mention people living multiple lives. Why was reincarnation not part of Jesus' teaching, or of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition?

5. Some say to believe in reincarnation would make this life seem unimportant. What is the benefit of believing in past lives?

6. You have said that our personal spiritual guides "walk in our hearts" throughout our lifetimes, but they can change when the needs of our personality and/or soul change due to breakthroughs or dramatic life-choice shifts. Do we keep our original spiritual guides throughout our entire physical life, or are new ones added as our choices and needs change?

7. Are there occasions where the souls of a person's mother or your father, or someone they love dearly in this lifetime, might join the guiding souls to guide the person through the rest of this life?

8. Please close with an attunement for us to use this month.


STUDY GROUP READING #140

 August 1998
Opening Teaching
1. What are the factors that lead to a successful relationship?
2. Other than procreation, what is the purpose of human sexuality, individually and globally? And please address its unique role in the individual and relational process.

3. We know that each person born has their own unique qualities, purposes, and patterns to work out and express in their lifetime, but we are wondering if the children who are being born now are bringing with them any common themes, purposes, or qualities that are particular to what this generation will encounter or contribute to the unfoldment of humanity? For example, are they more intelligent, more sensitive, more psychic, or more able to handle complexity? What general themes can we look for in the generation being born now?

3. It is sometimes difficult to imagine a world without violence, anger, and negativity. The idea of a mass healing and awakening seems very far away, and yet we know that it can and hopefully will happen. Would you give us a metaphor to understand how this can happen? Once a certain number of people reach a level of enlightenment, can that help balance out the rest of the world, or does each and every person need to master for themselves?

4. Are we in a time when the sciences will discover God? Specifically, the field of biology, for instance, has clung to an atheistic philosophy and materialistic methods, and has been successful in doing this. What is the bridge between science and God?

5. What is it about music that makes it a universal means of communication? Is it the sound vibrations, the rhythms, the style? How is it that music touches us so deeply?
    --Closing


STUDY GROUP READING #141

September 1998
Opening Teaching
1. There are concerns about the "Y2K" problem-meaning the year 2000 problem-that involves computer glitches that will make some computer chips think it is 1900 rather than the year 2000. There are different points of view on what will happen. Some people believe that computer chips will malfunction in all sorts of everyday places such as elevators, airplanes, weapon systems, utility plants, and food distribution systems, creating a disaster situation where we will need to stockpile food and water. Others see various problems, but not a complete disaster. Many are working very hard on solving this problem. It is interesting that this is happening at the end of the millennium, just when some are predicting an Armageddon type event. What can you tell us about this unusual event in history?

2. There is an increase in terrorism from religious fanatics who believe they are doing God's will. How can someone justify killing other human beings in God's name?

3. There is much controversy, bigotry and discussion over the issue of homosexuality. In a prior reading, you said that homosexuality was human choice, as it is very apparent what the souls intended when they made male and female. Many gay women are very masculine and gay men very feminine both in appearance and thought. It seems that there must be more than choice involved in being gay, at least for some. There is also a study that found an extra gene in gay males. Can you comment on homosexuality, it's spiritual purpose, and what all this chaos about sexual preference is about? Is it the souls' intention that a person be gay? Is there something to be learned from homosexuality?

4. Many religious and spiritual books and saints tell us not to get angry, but to live in peace and compassion and love. Yet, feelings of anger do exist. Is there not sometimes a good purpose for anger, for example, leading to behaviors of protection or to promote change? How do we comply with the spiritual directives to live in peace, and yet not end up then just "stuffing" our anger?

5. From various answers you've given, we understand that a soul's progression through its many human lifetimes does not unfold along a linear progression, and that the soul's final human lifetime is not necessarily one that looks exemplary or advanced in the way we might expect. For example, we tend to expect that one's final lifetime would be lived close to perfection, filled with love, generosity and almost a saintly existence. But you have indicated that this is not necessarily the case, that a final lifetime could be filled with challenge or be very simple and un-exemplary. Can you explain how this works, and whether or not this is true for all souls-or is it different for those souls who are dedicated not just to their own completion, but to the upliftment of all humanity?

6. Please close with an attunement for us to use this month.


STUDY GROUP READING 142

October 1998
Opening Teaching
This month's reading by the Guides was recorded live at "The Miracle of Love" retreat in Malibu, California. The questions asked were chosen by the retreat participants.
1. Many of us have been in romantic relationships that have been a struggle, perhaps because of past karma and difficult lessons we needed to learn. However, at this stage in our lives, some of us would like to attract a lifetime partner for a joyous, nurturing, harmonious, loving growth connection. Please give us specific knowledge and steps that we need to be aware of, or to do to fulfill this desire. How can we know when we have met the right person for a lifetime commitment?

2. How do we help someone that we love who is aging, or dying, and afraid of death?

3. Would you speak of letting go of our children when they are resistant to our help? How can we allow our children to find their own way when they are having a hard time?

4. There seem to be a great many people who judge themselves as unworthy of their own love, of the love of others, and of divine love. What role is this playing in our individual and collective environmental evolvement? How can we remove this block to our more full loving? And, what is the role of forgiveness and self-forgiveness in this process?

5. If we have been deeply hurt in a romantic relationship, can you give us some steps to move from a place of anger and hurt to forgiveness?

6. How do males and females differ in the process of loving and opening their hearts to one another. Males seem to have some inherent sex related difficulty in this area. If so, how does this relate to the intentions of the souls?


STUDY GROUP READING #143

November 1998
Opening Teaching
1. If souls are created in God's image, does this mean that they are omnipotent? How do souls experience, power, love, energy, creativity, and their relationship to the Universal God force? As souls, are we all on a continuing, growing, learning, awakening "curve," just like our human personality?

2. This question is from a doctor who works with very ill and dying people. She writes: In trying to help us understand our transformation from the spirit realm to the human realm, you have taught that much about our lives here on earth has to do with choices made before we incarnate as a human. I have seen much pain caused by premature deaths, children dying from prolonged illnesses, bringing pain to their families from which they might never fully recover, not to mention the fear and suffering experienced by the dying children themselves. Mothers and father dying, leaving small children behind to live their lives without the nurturing of their parents. Why would we, while in the spirit realm, choose for these things to happen?

3. We would like to ask about the process of dying. There have been recorded instances where a voodoo curse was placed on someone, and, believing in the curse, the person virtually laid down and died. On the other hand, there are very ill and/or old people who pray to die and cannot seem to hasten their death. What is the mind/body component here? Is the animal survival instinct so strong in some that the mind cannot make a difference, yet what about the instance of the voodoo curse?

4. There are naturally occurring mood altering substances such as caffeine, peyote and marijuana. There is controversy over the detrimental or beneficial effect of these substances. Would you tell us if these are harmful to the body? Why would the souls have created mood-altering substances if we were not intended to use them?

5. In a past reading, you stated that cloning would never happen. Would you clarify this please? Physical cloning of mammals has taken place. Did you mean that human bodies could never be cloned, or that human personalities or the soul could never be cloned?

6. Please close with an attunement for us to use this month.


STUDY GROUP READING #144

December 1998
Opening Teaching
1. It seems that there have been certain outstanding spiritual teachers throughout time, like Buddha and Jesus, who have had similar messages for humanity. We are wondering if the souls of such teachers belong to a small group of souls, sort of a "divine messenger group," who specialize in reminding us humans who we really are. If this is so, what is it that distinguishes those teaching souls from other souls?

2. Regardless of our religious backgrounds, at Christmas time, most spiritually oriented people focus on the benefits of being generous and giving. In addition to this, are there any unusual or special activities that you could recommend for us that would enhance our experience of love and divine grace during this holiday season?

3. At Christmas, there is a focus on the life of Jesus. Many people in our culture experience a direct, personal relationship with Jesus. Is there really an active, ongoing energy or teaching coming from the Jesus soul, or Jesus' transcendent personality, that is different from the loving energy coming into earth from all souls?

4. Many of us who work closely with the Guides through Ron feel privileged to have this unique source of wisdom available to us. Is there a special connection between those of us who work with this particular "channel" of wisdom?

5. Would you please close with an attunement for us to use for the coming month?