A recent comment reminded me of a most wonderful Christmas (a couple actually) when I was around 5 to 8 years old. An Internet acquaintance, referring to the lyrics of 'Jingle Bells', thought that the line "Sleigh bells in the snow" was rather odd. And so it is if taken literally, since bells in the snow would be somewhat muffled! But I knew right away what it might refer to - this is my story:

My mother entered a sanatarium hospital with tuberculosis shortly after I was born. I did not see her again till I was nearly three. In the months after she came home, she went from invalid (the strange lady who stayed in bed, who I was not allowed to see), to gradually doing kitchen chores. Her participation in this Christmas event makes it all the more memorable for me.

We lived in a part-log, part lumber farmhouse with no plumbing or electricity. It was drafty and often cold so we huddled close to the woodstove or the coal heater as we needed.

On Christmas Eve we had a family dinner, then our nearest neighbors would visit for coffee and goodies around mid-evening, and stay till near midnight.

Then on this particular Christmas, it began to snow in mid-afternoon, with flakes becoming bigger and bigger, till they were nearly an inch across. By the time dinner was over, it was about 5 inches deep. such heavy snows are always accompanied by a warming trend, bringing the temperature up to a few degrees below freezing.

My Dad went to the corner of the fenced yard where an old sleigh, made from the body of a Model T Ford, had sat for some years, surrounded by uncut grass. He took a shovel and cleared away the deep snow, then used a crowbar to pry up the sled runners which were frozen to the ground. He swept the accumulated snow from the seat and the floor.

We had two aging horses named Wolly and Tilly; a mother-daughter pair, gifts from my maternal grandfather, my 'Afi'; but there were three sets of harness. Two were purely functional, but the third set had bells attached in several places. Dad used this set along with one other to dress the horses, led them to the sleigh, and pulled it out of the corner, over the snowbank that held it captive.

The sleigh was brought to the kitchen door, and Mommy was led out, bundled for warmth, and placed in the seat with blankets piled above and below. With me in the middle, Dad clucked to the horses and snapped the reins, and away we went, snowflakes piling down by the bucketful, and bells jingling with every step the horses took.

I seem to recall a moon shining hazily through clouds, because I could easily see the huge falling flakes, the flying hooves, the dancing harness. There was no electricity on any farm around in those days. Had we had the gasoline lantern with us, surely the sizzle of snowflakes on the hot globe would have remained in my memory along with the jingling of the bells and the taste of fresh snowflakes on my tongue.

I never had to wonder what "Sleigh bells in the snow" was about. I remains in one of my earlest childhood memories. I think we repeated that jingling ride at least once, but only that one time was all of the magic firmly in place.

THE OBVIOUS QUESTION

Are we human beings or are we mice?

How can we even think of going all through our life without ever asking the obvious question - what is the means by which we came to be here? What is God?

The usual, traditional answer to that question is that we are not meant to ask such questions, that God is a mystery, unfathomable, not remotely knowable. At this point the questioner is supposed to go away, suitably chastised, and get back to following the traditional, rule-based religious practices. And if you can live with a blindfold over your head, that's good enough.

Oddly enough, the answer is mostly correct. God is a mystery - to us. God is unfathomable, and not altogether knowable as a whole. But we do know God in part.

We know the part that is nature. We decode the rules and laws of nature with our science, and we deduce the actions of cause and effect on a physical level. All of that is God in action. So we can know the effects of God in part through science.

We know the part of God that is human nature - or at least we can learn it. We know how God thinks - as us. And human thought takes us out of the physical realm into a world of ideas and imagination. This too is God in action. The study of thought is philosophy - so we can know the action of God in part through philosophy.

Finally, we can learn the essential nature of God as our saints, poets and sages have tried to describe to us. There is an essential base of goodness that God must have, or else our creation would be self-destroying. Since we are here, these qualities must be the underpinnings of our universe. These principles form the basis of all the religions of the world, although they are masked by layers of ethnic and cultural ritual and costume. These principles are those which must apply in order that the world and life continue to advance and thrive. So we know the essence of God through religious intuition - that which we call revelation.

So what are we dealing with? What can we conclude?

Science shows us that God works through laws that are not personal. They work the same for all, and we can use them to our advantage. Ernest Holmes noted that there was just as much electricity in the world when Moses was alive as there is now - but he could not heat his tea or toast bread with it. The law - the principle has not changed, but our use of it has grown till we work with computers, robotics and iPods.

Many wise people have noticed that our use and governance of human thought and emotions has not kept pace with our understanding of science. We think that we can pick and choose our interpretations of science according to our desire for wealth and our need for resources. Accordingly, we think that we can choose our lifestyles independently of the effects on the Earth's water, air and climate. We still have a lot to learn.

I do have a little money in oil stocks. I might be tempted, when I hear that the rivers downstream from the oil sands have fifty times the poisons in them that they ought to- rivers that supply the native reserve lands downstream - I might be tempted to discard that information, thinking it doesn't matter. When the cancers and other illnesses show up a few years from now - if it takes that long - I can always say that the link has not been proven, because the studies I was unwilling to pay for were never done. Yes, in the world of ideas, we are back in the stone age, even though our science is far advanced.

We can see this more easily when we look at Iran or North Korea, waving nuclear capability in the face of the world. We cannot see this when we look at our own unwillingness to give over some of our profits to keep the earth and water pure.

Have you ever notice that philosophy is never taught in primary school or high school? Wouldn't you think that the knowledge of how to think straight, use logic, make fair comparisons, would be a fundamental subject? Not only that, but at university level, this area is underfunded and pushed to the back burner. A Ph.D. used to mean a doctor of Philosophy - now it can mean anything at all.

God works through the human mind - but we have avoided studying this aspect in our culture. When we teach the Science of Mind, we are at least partially filling a void that exists in our entire civilization. The linkage between Mind and matter, between thought and experience, is also God in action. We should teach metaphysics right along with physics.

Finally, there is direct revelation - that flash of insight that makes us go "Aha" and reveals to us yet another aspect of how the Universal Power works in our life. These are experiences that are near impossible to forget. They change lives, as they ahve done down through the ages.

There is one problem with revelations. They come in a flash, usually as images, dreams, visions and so forth. They rely upon us for interpretation. We interpret them through the filters of our minds; through our upbringing, our language, our culture, and our learning. Sometimes by the time we are done, there is very little left! This is why we have many different religions in the world, and on the outside they seem very different. It takes a lot of digging to see past the surface layer to the core ideas that they are based on. When this is done, we find the patterns repeating themselves, over and over, covered up under layers of sound, color, and movement. We interpret God in our own way.

So although we might ask the obvious question, "What is God?", the answers may not be obvious at all. In fact, we need to change the question a little, and ask, "What is God to YOU?", because each of your is going to interpret the revelation of God in your own way, as it applies to your own life.

God is infinite. God is the sum total of every possibility that there is, regardless of whether we think it is constructive or destructive, or whether we would call it good or evil. There is only one Power, one Intelligence, and that is God. From that one, we draw forth whatever action is held in our consciousness.

God's will is pretty simple. God's only, single desire is to unfold and express Itself in endless ways. The Power is eager to respond to your earnest belief and express as your experience. You are interacting with that Power at all times, whether you know it or not. God is being your life, through you, as you, right now.

You ask "What is the nature of God?" What is the nature of you, right now? Whatever you are, now, is the portion, the aspect, of the Life of the Universe that you are allowing to work through you. That's the nature of God, in your life.

With a change in perspective, with a growth in consciousness, with greater openness, you can allow more and more of the infinite nature of God to show up for you.

The universe is vast, perhaps infinitely so. It has been brought into being through the action of an intelligence, a wisdom, that has formed and applied both the laws of physics and the mental laws of creativity. Mind has always gone before matter; the greatest philosophers thoughout history have duly deemed it so. How could we hope to fully grasp the complexity and power of these forces? Yet we are part of them.

We think we are only a few years old. Yet the stuff we are made of, the very atoms, are nearly as old as the universe itself. They were forged in the hearts of the first supermassive stars, before they exploded and spewed their material products out into space, there to form solar systems and galaxies. We are as old as time itself, and we partake of the very nature of Nature.

In the simplest analysis, God is That Which Creates out of Itself. We exist within this creation - within God, as part of the Divine Product. In the image and likeness of this Creative Power, we too create our world, our lives, and our experiences.

The nature of God is as much as you can imagine, as much as you can channel into this world, and to you it can never be more than that. Like the faucet of a sink, the waters of Spirit will only flow as much as you are open. Open more, and more of God will appear in your life.

It is entirely up to you.

With a new year coming, you can think about it over Christmas! Merry Christmas!

CATS AND OTHER ANIMALS

Speaking of cats, I noticed something about our Fluffy. When our children were in school, I would find her sitting on the boot shelf by the back door (or what passes for a back door at our house), sometime in mid or late afternoon. The timing would vary somewhat, with one exception - it would always appear to coincide with the time that our kids were getting off the city bus - a couple of blocks away.

I would see the cat hop onto the top of the boot shelf, about an inch from the door, and in about 2 minutes or less, someone would appear in the doorway.

I read that Rupert Sheldrake was gathering data on the apparent psychic ability of animals, so I fired off an e-mail. I received a quick response, but of course he wanted real data - such as a log of incidents, times, specifics. Sadly, I couldn't provide those, because most days I was at the office, and not available to log the behaviour. On those days when I was home, it certainly seemed to be a regular behaviour.

Animals have retained some abilities, I think, that we have lost. I think it is because they live more of the time unconsciously, whereas we are thoroughly trained to spend more time in the conscious awareness state. These psychic impression simply do not make it past our conscious thought process, perhaps due to the amount of ego-chatter that we keep between our ears.

Humans appear to have better access to their psychic impressions during sleep, and being able to remember, interpret, and even control our dream state is a way to get 'messages' that we normally would miss.

In the Bible, there are many examples of great revelations that came during the dream state. These stories show us that we do have the capability that animals have retained; and perhaps we can teach ourselves to decode these inner impressions that our culture has trained out of us.

A CAT TAIL - SOMETHING DIFFERENT

I was reminded today of our family tale regarding cats

Many years ago, our daughters were promised a cat for exemplary behaviour, and we chose a short-haried tabby (male). He was extremely handsome, as I suppose we all consider our cats. When he was partly grown, he managed to disappear. Weeks went by, and we considered him gone. The girls were heartbroken - my wife was ecstatic!

But..... we had friends who were 'cat-people'.

They just KNEW that we must be mourning our loss, and they sent another friend to our house with a stray kitten he had 'rescued'. It was a fluffy female, and she was quickly so named. My wife was not thrilled. The daughters were.

Then, of course the cat came back, as the old song goes. Our tom returned, fat and healthy, from no-man's land - apparently to stay, checking out the new arrival with approval. Now we had two cats.

So- in due course, we had him neutered, at the proper age.

He stayed a month or so more - and left - this time, for good. We were out $80 for the veterinary bill. 'Fluffy' stayed on, and in her time was also 'fixed' at the veterinarian's. She moved with us, and lived to about 16 years.

Sir Tom, whose actual name I have forgotten, perhaps due to trauma :-)) came back once more, years later, for an impromptu visit, still looking well-fed and regal. His stay lasted only a couple of hours. He had found a home he liked better.

That is our cat-tail, or cat tale if you must. We mourned Fluffy when her time came, but the girls were both adults, away from home, and my wife had tears, although she insisted she hated having even one cat.

Now we have no cat.

Last year, we had mice for the first time. I trapped 10 of them near the kitchen garbage before we were free of them.

BRING YOUR FULL HUMANITY WITH YOU!

Every once in a while, someone will skip coming to church- not because they are sick or otherwise occupied, but because they have done something stupid or something they feel is wrong, and they don't want to be with anyone just then.

I think this is exactly the time that people should show up, warts and all, and let their friends show them some real unconditional love and compassion.

Although we know that we are spiritually perfect, In this human experience, we all carry some imperfection in the material sense. We have character flaws that are balanced by some excellent qualities as well.

I'm proud that the movement our Centre belongs to does not require anyone to check their humanity at the door. We are all just doing the best we can, and some days that's good enough, and the odd time perhaps it's not. Our teachers teach to learn, and they are working out their 'stuff', just like everyone else.

It is important that we don't pretend to be more perfect in the material sense than we are. It is also important that we are clear about our spiritual perfection - perfection in the realm of pure ideas. We work toward realizing more and more of that perfection as we learn and grow.

It's also vital that we don't put someone up on a pedestal and then expect them to stay there 24/7. We can be fellow pilgrims on the path and yet still be fully human at times, with all the foibles and errors that entails.

By choosing well moment by moment we continue to get better and better, with ease and with joy along the way.

A WEEK AT ASILOMAR STATE PARK CONFERENCE CENTER

The International Centres for Spiritual Living held their Ministers' Conference last week, at the Asilomar State Park near Monterey. This is a magical stretch of wilderness on the ocean that is lovingly cared for and preserved as much as possible. Centres for Spiritual Living have held conferences there since sometime in the 1920s, when the park was a YWCA camp.

It was so great to meet the leaders who are taking our teachings forward in this new Millennium. It was really great to know that as a group we understand that we are part of a movement that world-wide seeks to bring more love, more peace, and more joy into the public discourse and decision-making of all peoples. Thinking and acting positively and with a belief in an abundant future for humankind, is our offering in contrast to some of the fear and anxiety that we hear so much these days.

No matter what the situation, a positive approach can draw more good out of it than giving in to despair.

My little book "Turn the World on Its Head" is a good start to seeing through the appearances of our world.
You can turn your world around just by understanding the Truth (capital T) of your own nature. See below.

A CHANGE OF NAME FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM

The organization of churches in which I work is taking the big step of changing its name. It has been known since 1927 as Religious Science, and in the period shortly after 1950, was divided into Religious Science International and the United Church of Religious Science.

There has always been a certain element of confusion of Religious Science with Christian Science. However, in more recent years, the rise of Scientology has confused the public further, and it was determined that a more appropriate and descriptive name be chosen.

In addition, it have been further decided that the two main groups should gradually be integrated into a common organization. What this will look like, no one really knows yet, whether it is a complete merging, or a collaboration, like two people under the same umbrella.

However, the new name will be Centres (or Centers) for Spiritual Living, which aptly describes what both groups teach. There will be the United Centers for Spiritual Living, and the International Centers (Centres in Canada) for Spiritual Living.

I am proud of what our leaders have accomplished in a short time - and though our groups will be drawing closer gradually over some years, the process is ongoing and inexorable.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Science

A FUNNY NAME FOR PRAYER

Every group has some jargon that makes it both unique and peculiar.

In a church I once attended, the pastor continually used words that I’m sure he learned in college, but they meant nothing to me, and as a result, his sermons meant very little to me either. They seemed wonderfully filled with high emotion, but they made no sense. I think they came from Greek, and they were certainly Greek to me!

When I worked in telecommunications, we had a huge vocabulary of jargon in Engineering, but I found there was a completely different set in Marketing, and when I got into Operator Services, which after all is the oldest department of any telephone company, the jargon was almost impenetrable. (Until you have measured the AWT on the SOST boards, and compared it to TOPS or to the Relay Positions, you have no idea what to put on your TDR reports!)

Meanwhile, back in Engineering, WebMethods is the integration engine in the Network Architecture, while Operations relies on Seibel for its Call Centres.

Everybody with me so far?

What’s this got to do with anything? It is no surprise that we in our church organization also have our share of jargon, and if you listen to us, or read us, you’re bound to encounter it. Trust me, it does mean something, and we’ll be happy to take a stab at explaining it if you ask.

For example, Spiritual Mind Treatment, or just Treatment, seems like a funny name for prayer. Relax, let me explain.

If you cast your mind way, way back to the Book of Genesis, or Guinnessis, as one small boy called it, it starts out by describing the process of creating both Heaven and Earth. After this very busy week is over, it says that God saw that it was good.

We believe that. We believe that this whole Earth, and all that is in it, is basically good. In fact, we believe that since Spirit, or Universal Mind, is all there is, and everything exists within It, then everything is created whole, perfect, and complete – at the level at which it was created. That is, it partakes of the wholeness that is its Source, at the level of that Source. This Oneness or Wholeness forms the background quantum reality for everything - the Energy (Matter) and the Intelligence.

But, you say, I’ve got the flu, my left leg hurts, and my doctor says my blood pressure is up. How in Heaven is that Whole, or Perfect?

Good Question – glad you asked.

There are at least two levels to our being – possibly more. The two levels we talk about are Spirit and Material – which you might say represent Heaven and Earth – or Mind and Matter.

We are not one or the other – we are both at once. We are one with all Being at the level of Spirit, or Mind, and we are individualized, or separate, at the level of Material.

Don’t expect to get this at a deep level right away – people take classes for several years to get into the meat of this.

The Spiritual level, or the level at which everything is completely at one, is the true reality. Unfortunately, we do not tend to experience it. We experience the thought-matrix of individualization and separation.

We experience the level of Individualized objects, or the material world, as we call it, because that is where our attention is placed during much of this thing we call life. This level is a carefully constructed ILLUSION, which allows us to roam apart from the Oneness of things, and pursue separate challenges and have separate experiences. The separation causes us to forget where we came from, until we gradually learn it again. Until then, we are trapped in the physical illusion – a player in the game of life.

Spirit is the cause to all things. Our physical experiences are the effect. When we want to change things in our life, we can work at manipulating the effects – that’s what most people do – or we can work at the level of cause, and direct our thoughts to the Spiritual field of omnipotent Oneness. Where you place your conscious awareness determines the level at which your thought will act.

The Psalm says, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” Lifting up your eyes means lifting up your MIND – to the level of awareness of your oneness with all things.

The Science of Mind began as a healing teaching, so we started by using healing terminology. When something is wrong with your body, you treat it until it restores itself to its normal state, or you ask the doctor to treat it.

We believe that the normal state of our life is one described the qualities of Spirit. Wholeness, Abundance, Harmony, Joy, Peace, and whatever other good you can imagine. Remember what is said in Genesis – God saw that it was good.

Anything you could possibly want out of life - that is, anything you fee is missing - could be described as a deficiency in one of the Transcendent qualities of Spirit. Now that’s impossible. If God is everywhere– in everything- then there cannot possibly be any deficiency in reality – so there must simply be the appearance of a deficiency.

We alter an appearance by altering our mind – that alters our perception, and our perception IS our experience.
So, whatever appears to be wrong in your life is the appearance of a deficiency where none can exist, unless God is on vacation!

So we do Spiritual Mind Treatment – that is, we move our mind to the level of a realization of Oneness, and of our own Oneness with All things.

We lift up our eyes unto the hills, and then we declare, no begging, not bargaining, not beseeching, but with the boldness of a definite knowing, that all is well, that we have what we need, that God is with us now, and the Power pours through us, sweeping away all false illusions of lack, of illness, of loneliness, of inability.

We are Spiritual beings, and the Most High is our source, now and always!

Then, to complete our treatment, we allow the feeling of that knowing to flow, as joy, as gratitude, as the confirmation of our healing.

This applies whether it is the healing of our body, the healing of our finances, the healing of our family life, the harmony of our relationships, our dealing with neighbours, in business, or around the world. The power of Spirit knows no limits, no constraints, and no barriers.

Jesus said, "Whatsoever you desire, believe you have it, and it shall be added unto you."

Feel the joy of having this loving Power flowing in and through you, smoothing the way for your life, protecting you, whispering to you of love and encouragement. Feel it wash away all your fears, all your hesitation, and all your feelings of smallness.

In any crowd you operate in, you plus God make a majority!

Now, with your mind uplifted, with your confidence restored, your fears flushed away in the swirl of enthusiasm, now is the time to let it all go. Release it. Don’t feed your doubts by hanging on. Turn it over, knowing that the message has been delivered – the wheels of the entire universe have been set into motion.

That is Treatment – simply the restoral of your birthright – that’s what the story Jesus told, of the prodigal son, is telling us.

Jesus told about two sons – one was discontented with his lot and was not comfortable at home. The other was helpful, obedient, and hardworking. So the father divided all his wealth between the two, and sent the unhappy one on his way.

Well the fortune was soon spent, and the son wandered till be became a beggar. He was mistreated, until he ended up on a pig farm, where he had to live with the pigs, and share the swill that was brought to them.

You have to understand the context of this story. For a Jewish man, this represented the lowest level of degradation. The teaching is that pigs are the filthiest, most unclean of all creatures. He had sunk to the lowest of the low.

Yet, when he finally had enough, when it finally got to him, he decided to try going home. He changed his mind! And even before he arrived, when the father saw him coming, he sent servant out to him with clean clothes, with water for washing, he ordered a grand feast to celebrate, and not only that, he expressed the desire to once more share his wealth.

Now most of us are like the other son. We play the game by the rules, and we expect to be rewarded. Then when some smelly bum, some rebellious renegade, some maverick, gets rewarded the same as us, why we are indignant! That’s how the other son reacted, in the story. He complained – in fact, he was a bit of whiner.

The father pointed out that love is unconditional. In fact, there is something marvelous about someone who has had to turn his life around, and has taken that step.

Treatment is just a tool for changing your mind – to align it with that Master Mind that represents Oneness with all things. You can only go against the universe for so long – then it’s time to come home, and be welcomed with open arms – with love, and with abundance.

We call it Treatment because love and abundance is our normal state. The universe has been arranged to support us, and still we think we have to struggle, and manipulate, and grit our teeth and bear up under a burden.

When we see people who don’t do any of that get rewarded, sometimes greater than we have been, we think that’s unfair – but we just need to change our mind about what life has to offer us. To change our own minds, we do Treatment.

We treat our minds to see the good that has been placed before us. We treat ourselves to see the opportunities that abound. We treat so our bodies repair themselves like they were meant to – that our immune systems work like they were created. We treat to know the Kingdom of Heaven that is right within us, waiting to be discovered.

One more time – these are the steps:

• Understand the Oneness
• Know you are a part of It
• Know the Truth for yourself
• Feel the joy and gratitude
• Release it – Let Go and Let God do the driving.

That is Treatment.

DG

CHANGE

(from talk in Winnipeg, August 2007)

I think the prospect of change frightens most people, even if they are not sure why. I know
why. People are afraid of the unknown. They have been taught to be afraid. When that un-
known involves who you are, or at least who you think you are, it can get even scarier. Letting go
of who you think you are is a little like dying. But we all have dreams, we have ambitions, we
have goals – and the only way to get to them is to become the kind of person who has realized
those goals. And so we embark on changing our thinking, our actions, our habits. Each small
change can be compared to a tiny crucifixion, followed by a resurrection to something greater.
We are spirit-beings. Our potential is infinite, but our actual life is limited by the box we have
built. We stay within the sides of our box, and the box is called our ego. It is also called our
self-image.

Our imagination is the key to forming a mental image of life outside the box. If we can unleash
our imagination, we can picture the possibilities: So we begin to expand ourselves in our mind,
and we start to break down the walls of our mental prison – and our outer affairs will follow. But
then the ego alarm goes off – like a bell clanging somewhere inside, and the ego-guards come
running. Someone is trying to operate outside of parameters – someone is trying to do some-
thing that we know is not possible – it’s not within our self-image. The result is a conflict that
must be resolved – between our old self-definition and the new one we are trying to put in place.
The result is temporary confusion. Actually, some people even get a cold or the flu at this point,
just to teach themselves not to try to escape! When you catch a cold – ask yourself if you have
entertained any conflict recently. When we push past those transition points, we enjoy the fruits
of an expanded, enriched, empowered life.

THE NEW BLOG IN TOWN

There's a new blogger in town. This is one to watch, because this chap has a beautiful capacity with words, and the potential to be inspiring. Please check out his new blog.

The name is Carmien Owen, and here is the blog address:

http://consciouscalling.blogspot.com/

Let me know what you think, or better yet, give him the feedback!

Now back to watching the Obama Inauguration!