Your comments on my last post are all very much appreciated. If I select one for reply, please don’t feel that somehow the rest have not impacted me.
One reader has commented (I won’t give his name so as not to have him end up in a search engine):
“Hi Steve, I don’t know if this article has anything to do with it at all, but this was the main issue to me in a posting I called to your attention about 2+ weeks ago written by Gordon at the Galactic Messages website called; “Thoughts on Earth Ascension”. It really grabbed me…. My conclusion to this premise is in line with yours, especially the part about looking for the next grand vision, ‘We’ll start again’.
“I would only add that I think that the whole 2012 thing turning out to be a fizzle (which is really unimaginable to me) could not be brushed aside as if it’s no big deal. I think it would cause a very considerable upheaval in the New Age community. And I think this would in the short term lead to a number of very separate camps until a new understanding and vision becomes established. But I really don’t want to elaborate on something that is for me unthinkable.”
I’d like to share my reply more generally:
“Yes, it would be a huge earthquake under everyone’s feet if it turned out to be a scam.
“But that earthquake can be lessened if we get, every step of the way, that we are adults and giving our assent to events.
“Lauren Gorgo, Lisa Renee, Mike Quinsey, Suzy Ward, Drunvalo Melchizedek, Steven Greer, Stephen Bassett, Colin Andrews, David Wilcock, Kerry Cassidy, Bill Ryan, Arthur Neumann, Andrew Basiago, etc. – all these people cannot be under some form of mass hypnosis.
“Even if the galactics haven’t landed, and the whole thing is taking a long time, and we are being stretched to the limit, too many people of integrity have looked at this whole thing and have seen a piece of it and are united in saying that ‘This is real. This means something,’ to quote Richard Dreyfus again.”
I’d like to make a few more observations if I may.
In 1984, I was impressed with the literature attributed to Hilarion. (1) It consisted of quite a few excellent spiritual observations and, at its center, predicted a “rapture ” on 4/4/4 – that is, April 4, 1984. (Did I hear someone burst out in laughter? What? You too?)
As that day approached, Hilarion blinked and said, on a crucial date, that we had all been so good at waking up that management had given us all an extra year. That was the last we ever heard of Hilarion.
Couples had separated. People had moved from various parts of the country to places like Nelson, British Columbia, that were said to be safe havens. The lives of many followers of Hilarion’s messages were left in ruins.
His literature is still available in some used bookstores. I saw one of his books the other day. It took some time for me to recover from that one. A piece of me seemed to have died.
In 2000, I became aware that a guru, whom I’d been following for 25 years, was a pedophile. No, I won’t name names. But the evidence against him was on the face of things indisputable, including testimony from a long list of boys that he had violated.
Children had committed suicide out of being unable to handle their having been violated. Countless lives were impacted. Three young boys had set out to kill him and had themselves been mowed down by police. But all this at the time was explained away and we devotees knew nothing until overwhelming evidence began to emerge.
I had written much about this teacher. I operated a paper and an electr0nic archives on his behalf. I reported to the International Vice-President, so I was heavily committed.
I do know what it feels like to have the ground fall out from under your feet.
It took me months to recover and to this day I shy away from too close an involvement with a spiritual teacher. I know the spiritual guide with whom I’m presently connected understands this.
In our case, I don’t have any sense that we’re being strung along. But unless we look the possibility squarely in the face and allow it to be one among all eventualities, a small part of us will be continually held back, fearing being scammed.
The fear of being scammed, I’m led to believe, is one of the strongest fears. So I know how much of me I can hold back as long as that fear plays unconsciously in my mind.
I give my willing assent to participate in these events knowing full well that being hoaxed is one among all the possibilities of my participation. I declare that I am a willing participant, that I am growing from my involvement and see participation as a good thing.
I know the price I’ve paid so far for being involved, as have many of you as well.
I’m willing to risk being disappointed, willing to give my all for as long as my reserves of energy hold out. If I retire from the fray, it’ll be because I have no more energy left to give.
I’m responsible for my own need for discernment. I recognize my need to seek the truth and express that truth, however the chips may fall, at all times and in all places.
And I see that as all I can do.
Life is a gamble. I can only reduce the risks, not utterly remove them. If I want the growth that comes with strength of commitment, then I choose not to hold back a part of me. But I also want to recognize that there may always be disappointment.
I think this self-examination is part of personal accountability.
Thank you for having that discussion with me. Hopefully for you, it will expose the part of you that you may be holding back. If the need to avoid being scammed is a great need for you, then this is an “interesting” field to be in.
If you continue to involve yourself, I take it that you are willing to risk, as I am, what I regard as the very slight chance of finding that you’ve been fooled.
Footnotes
(1) I emphasize “attributed to.” The literature could not have emanated from the ascended master Hilarion. Please don’t think that I’m implying that it did.