A Silenced God Is Not Good

Posted on October 18, 2021 by Douglas

As a student of the New Message from God, I cry out that God has spoken again to humanity, This speaking is in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. There are lots of people who don’t believe this is true. Even worse, there are lots of people who don’t believe this is even possible.

A silenced God is not good

Christians declare that “in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son [Jesus], whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.” (Hebrews 1:2, New International Version) Muslims declare that Muhammad is “the seal of the prophets.” (Surah Al-Ahzab, verse 40, Arberry translation) Multiple Quran translations of this verse render it as “the last prophet” or “the last of the prophets.” These verses have a certain air of finality to them.

But to any Christian who would quote Hebrews 1:2 to me, I have a question. What do you think about the emergence of Islam? Do you believe that God has spoken again? Can you believe that such a thing is even possible? Or do you believe the entire Islamic enterprise is a fraud, spread by the sword? There were those who accused Muhammad of fabricating the revelation. “Or say they (again): He hath invented it? Say: If I have invented it, upon me be my crimes, but I am innocent of (all) that ye commit.” (Surah Hud, verse 35, Pickthall translation)

Albert Einstein is famous for saying “God does not play dice with the universe.” The physicist Niels Bohr one time replied “Einstein, stop telling God what to do.” Or rather, Einstein, stop telling God what God can and cannot do. One way of thinking of quantum mechanics is that God indeed plays dice with the universe.

But I say to everyone everywhere, stop telling God whether God can speak again or not. A God who does not speak to humanity, when it is facing its greatest challenges, is either not as powerful or not as good as advertised. The Muslims say “And if you are in doubt concerning that We have sent down on Our servant, then bring a sura [chapter] like it, and call your witnesses, apart from God, if you are truthful.” (Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 23, Arberry translation) I offer more than a single chapter. I offer an entire revelation. All I know is that a silenced God is not good.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

How Dare You Say Something Anti-Evolutionary!

Posted on October 11, 2021 by Douglas

In the normal course of events, people might say “My ethnicity is this.” Or, “Your nationality is that.” Possibly even “That person’s religion is the other.” A while back, I wrote about how Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) characterized all such statements as violence.

How dare you say something anti-evolutionary

I make no expectation upon anyone to believe anything just because Jiddu Krishnamurti says it. I do encourage everyone to weigh it in their own experience and feel how it feels. But there might be some people who reject these ideas. Therefore, I would like to offer them from a different angle, a different world view.

R. Buckminster Fuller in 1979 with a tension-integrity sphere

R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was many things in his life. An architect, a designer, a futurist. One book he is well-known for is Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, published in 1969. As far as I can tell, this book has never gone out of print. I share this brief excerpt with you.

This “sovereign” — meaning top – weapons enforced “national” claim upon humans born in various lands leads to ever more severely specialized servitude and highly personalized identity classification. As a consequence of the slavish “categoryitis” the scientifically illogical, and as we shall see, often meaningless questions “Where do you live?” “What are you?” “What religion?” “What race?” ’”What nationality?” are all thought of today as logical questions. By the twenty-first century it either will have become evident to humanity that these questions are absurd and anti-evolutionary or men will no longer be living on Earth.

I prefer the word “ethnicity” to “race,” but that was the commonly used word in 1969. Krishnamurti called identification with ethnicity, nationality or religion “violent.” Buckminster Fuller leveled an even stronger criticism, calling such identification “anti-evolutionary.” How dare you say something anti-evolutionary! But people do it every day, alas.

I believe some of you are reading this and thinking “I say, Douglas, that’s a pretty harsh criticism.” What would you have us say and think instead? Glad you asked, friend, glad you asked! Buckminster Fuller would encourage you to say, believe, act and demonstrate the words

“I am a crew member of Spaceship Earth.”

Perhaps this alternate formulation would help.

“I am a citizen of Planet Earth. I claim certain rights and accept certain responsibilities for the survival and freedom of the human family.”

I realize some people may call this unpatriotic. But the New Message from God tells us we are entering a time when no ethnicity will succeed at the expense of another. Likewise for nations and religions. The New Message from God calls us citizens of the Greater Community of Worlds. We are clearly citizens of Planet Earth. I am a citizen of the city of St. Paul. My citizenship in the state of Minnesota does not invalidate this. I am a citizen of the United States of America. This does not override my citizenship in Minnesota. My citizenship in the Greater Community of Worlds does not nullify my citizenship of Planet Earth.

Will there be enough crew members of Spaceship Earth in time? Can we evolve our thinking enough in time? We will find out shortly.

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Crying Out For Joy For Another Year Of Peace

Posted on September 18, 2021 by Douglas

September 17, like August 10, is another beautiful day on the calendar of the uniting world. On September 17, 1978, the Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Israel and Egypt have been at peace for 43 years. Anwar Sadat was assassinated in October of 1981. Menachem Begin died in 1992. The peace between Egypt and Israel has lasted for many since the deaths of its original architects.

Crying out for joy for another year of peace

Between the founding of Israel in 1948, and the signing of the Camp David Accords, Egypt and Israel went to war three times. In the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, over 6,300 Israelis and as many as 7,000 Arabs died. During the 1967 Six-Day war, as many as 15,000 Egyptians, and almost 1,000 Israelis died. In the 1973 Yom Kippur war, 2,800 Israeli and as many as 15,000 Egyptians died. What would have happened if Sadat and Begin had not signed the Accords? That part of the world would be a much sadder and poorer place.

I wish to recall peace much more than war

Anwar Sadat, Jimmy Carter and Menachem Begin at Camp David, Maryland

I consider the keeping of this peace agreement to be a great accomplishment for both Israel and Egypt. It is something to celebrate. This year I celebrated by eating kushari, beloved street food of Egypt. Next year it will be falafel, beloved street food of Israel. As I ate the kushari, I imagined an Egyptian man born after the signing of the Camp David Accords. In my imagination, he was eating some kushari with his family after a busy day at his work. He was grateful for the peace between Egypt and Israel, as he had family members who died in one of the earlier wars.

Kushari and falafel at Zait and Za’atar in St. Paul, Minnesota

If we are to have peace, we must celebrate peace at every turn. We must make the celebration of peace in the world part of our lifestyle. Each year, I am looking for a way to celebrate the waging of peace. Every year, I am crying out for joy for another year of peace.

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A Lot More People Think We Might Have Visitors

Posted on September 7, 2021 by Douglas

Some public opinion polls ask the same question on a regular basis. The Right Direction / Wrong Track poll is an instance of this. Sometimes, polling organizations ask the same questions as they did on an earlier occasion, to measure how opinions has changed over time. For example, the Marist Poll asked the same question in 2005 and 2018. From time to time, pollsters have measured public opinion regarding extraterrestials. I am writing to share of a poll repeating a question regarding extraterrestrials.

A lot more people think we might have visitors

The poll is the Gallup Poll. The first time the poll was taken was in August of 2019. The second time the poll was taken was in July of 2021. The question asked was “Which comes closer to your view – some UFOs have been alien spacecraft visiting Earth from other planets or galaxies (or) all UFO sightings can be explained by human activity on Earth or natural phenomenon? The percentage of people expressing the possibility that UFOs have been alien spacecraft jumped from 33% to 41% in two years. The “human activity/natural phenomenon” group declined from 60% to 50%. If this is a representative sample of American adults, it means that millions of American changed their minds on this subject.

There were multiple subgroups that had significant increases over two years. College graduates, people with some college, men, and middle-aged adults (34 to 55) all showed significant increases. I consider the Gallup Poll to have downplayed the significance of these changes. The headline of their article read “Larger Minority in U.S. Says Some UFOs Are Alien Spacecraft.” It didn’t say how much larger (about 20 million Americans). And it didn’t give the time period over which this change took place (a mere 23 months). A lot more people think we might have visitors.

What inspired so many people to change their minds?

I consider the US government UFO/UAP report of June 2021 to have had a substantial impact on this change in public opinion. The UFO/UAP report confirmed a belief that there were many more UFO sightings taking place than what the government was reporting. The reports of unusual movement patterns were confirmed. The report debunked beliefs that these movement patterns were instrument malfunctions or pilot hallucinations. The confession of ignorance by the US government sparked a certain degree of wondering in the American public.

Are the visitors here for our benefit?

There have been two recent public opinion polls asking if UFO’s constitute a military threat. There have been many polls on the existence of intelligent life on other planets. A growing number of polls ask if intelligent life from other planets is present in our world. There is a question I would ask that no pollster has asked yet. The question is “If intelligent life from other planets is present in our world, are they here for the benefit of humanity?” What do you think?

The New Message from God teaches what is currently a minority viewpoint on the subject of extraterrestrials.

1) Intelligent extraterrestrial life exists
2) Extraterrestrials are intervening in human affairs today
3) This extraterrestrial intervention is a threat to human freedom

This extraterrestrial intervention relies upon secrecy and human acquiescence. Nobody is going to resist something that they think doesn’t exist. But a lot more people think we have visitors.

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I Dream The Far-Off Watchers Of The Skies

Posted on August 25, 2021 by Douglas

The human discovery of exoplanets, planets orbiting a star other than our sun, is a relatively recent phenomenon. The first exoplanet to be discovered was in 1992. In 2002, an exoplanet was discovered by means of transit. A transit is a phenomenon when a celestial body passes directly between a larger body and an observer. Like Mercury passing in front of the Sun. It makes the Sun seem ever-so-slightly less bright. 3,372 exoplanets have been discovered in this way between 2002 and the present.

I dream the far-off watchers of the skies

Earth Transit Zone, projected on the celestial sphere

In 2021, two astronomers asked a question that stimulated my imagination. They asked, “What stars are in the right position to see the Earth transit the Sun?” These stars must be relatively close to the plane of the Earth’s orbit. They discovered 2,034 stars in what they called the Earth Transit Zone. 117 of them are within 100 light-years or less. 75 of them are close enough to receive radio waves from Earth.

“From the exoplanets’ point of view, we are the aliens”

Lisa Kaltenegger, associate professor of astronomy, Cornell University.

Lisa Kaltenegger and Jackie Faherty were not the first astronomers to contemplate the Earth Transit Zone. But they were the first to consider what stars might be moving into it, or out of it. My teachers never told me that the stars move relative to each other. But they’ve been doing it for a long, long time. The star known as Ross 128 used to be in the Earth Transit Zone, but left it 900 years ago. The star known as Teegarden’s Star will enter the Earth Transit Zone in 29 years.

I found this interesting because the astronomers considered the possibility that humanity is part of a greater community of intelligent life. This is something taught in great detail by the New Message from God.

I dream the far-off watchers of the skies. Suppose a star is in the Earth Transit Zone. If there is a planet orbiting that star, an astronomer on that planet could see the Earth. There’s nothing we could do about that. But we could stop sending probes into interstellar space. We could stop broadcasting everything about ourselves into space. We could be more discreet about our affairs.

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What If I Cried Out To Come To This World?

Posted on August 16, 2021 by Douglas

The American humorist Dave Barry made this observation as one of the things he learned in 50 years of living.

There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 11.

This may be true in Dave Barry’s world, but it is not true in mine. As a student of the New Message from God, a birthday is so much more than a biological event.

What if I cried out to come to this world?

A person’s birthday is the beginning of efforts toward purpose. Some traditions teach that people are correcting distortions from previous lives. But the New Message from God frames it as the beginning of progressively greater efforts towards a purpose.

Steps to Knowledge, Step 33. I have a mission in my life to fulfill. — Step 33 of Steps to Knowledge

Step 33 of Steps to Knowledge teaches “You have a mission in life to fulfill, a mission that was given you before you came here, a mission that you will review once you have left. It involves the reclamation of Knowledge and the proper engagement with others to bring about specific results in the world.” Therefore, a birthday is a day of contemplating that mission given me before I came here. I do not claim to have recalled that mission. I claim to be preparing to recall that mission.

I mentioned once that I participated in a number of theatrical productions in an earlier season in life. I have this picture in my mind’s eye. The work of preparation for bringing someone to this world could be a little bit like a theatrical audition. Usually a call is made for an audition in a place where actors gather. It is a director’s nightmare for the time of the audition to arrive and no actors show up. But usually some actors show up for various reasons. The actors read from the script, they sing and dance. The director is not only looking for competence, but an inner correspondence. A connection between the role and the actor.

Sometimes there is an abundance of actors, and callback auditions are held to decide between multiple worthy candidates. But at each stage in the process, an actor had to choose to show up. The actor who was cast in a particular role had to choose to show up, possibly multiple times.

What if I cried out to come to this world? To serve its evolution and destiny?

What if I cried out to come to this world? It’s as if they told me there was an opportunity for me to come to this world. To meet certain people and give certain gifts. And meeting these people and giving these gifts would satisfy the deepest longing within me. I can think of times when I have knocked on certain doors in life, figuratively speaking. As I knocked, something within me was crying out, “Oh, if only this door would open to me. If this door opens to me, I promise I will make the most of it.” One of my fellow New Message students expressed this by saying “I have to make an adamant declaration.” I don’t know if this is true or not, but it seems to put me in a position of wanting to be more attentive. That might be important.

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Humanity Avoids Self-Destruction For Another Year

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Douglas

August 10 is an inadequately celebrated date in my world. It marks 76 years of humanity going without using a nuclear weapon in warfare.

Humanity avoids self-destruction for another year

By “nuclear weapon” I mean either a fission weapon or a fusion weapon. America used fission weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Nations of the world have only tested fusion weapons, also called thermonuclear weapons or hydrogen bombs. No nation has tested a fusion weapon since November 1, 1952 (No, I don’t believe North Korea). My people have refrained from using our most destructive weapon for almost 69 years. We have gone almost four years since the last nuclear test (September 3, 2017 by North Korea). I have written a number of posts about this happy day here, here and here.

In the song “1999,” the American musician Prince (1958-2016) wrote the lyric:

Mom? Why does everybody have a Bomb?

When I hear this song I think “Stop. Wait. Hold up, Prince.” Everybody doesn’t have a Bomb. There are 9 nations with nuclear weapons. There are over 100 nation without nuclear weapons.

American musician Bob Dylan wrote in the song “With God On Our Side” in 1963:

I’ve learned to hate the Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side

And yet, America and Russia have managed to negotiate a reduction in nuclear forces over the years. America and Russia have seemed to recognize the threat of their nuclear arsenals. If America and Russia can work things out, any two nations can work things out.

I take comfort that between 1945 and 1968, the danger of nuclear proliferation was recognized. Effective action was taken to reduce it. Some people say it wasn’t enough. But I shudder to think what the world would be like without the Non-Proliferation Treaty. I shudder to wonder if humanity would still exist without the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The story of this near-miss of self-destruction makes me shudder.

I take comfort that the human family recognized a threat to its survival, and rose to the occasion. Humanity avoids self-destruction for another year. Human civilization faces other threats these days. The New Message from God calls these threats “The Great Waves of Change.” Declining resources, environmental degradation, affected climate, and extraterrestrial intervention. There aren’t individuals seeking nuclear weapons. But the behavior of ordinary people seem to be making these new threats worse. Will we notice the threats? Will we respond and prepare? I don’t know. But today, I celebrate humanity’s accomplishment with some okonomiyaki, beloved street food of Hiroshima.

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Right Now Someone Is Working To Help The World

Posted on August 5, 2021 by Douglas

There is an accomplishment that the New Message from God wants from me. I must recognize that humanity is heading for a new world reality, an increasingly difficult world. A world of declining resources, affected climate, environmental degradation, and extraterrestrial intervention. And yet, with all these difficulties, I must also keep my faith in my human family. Even during its reckless, destructive adolescence.

Right now someone is working to help the world

What do I do when I have seemingly impossible sets of constraints to meet? I share a poem. And the poem I am sharing is The Manifesto of Encouragement by Canadian author Danielle LaPorte. It exists in both text and picture form.

The Manifesto Of Encouragement by Danielle LaPorte

Right now: There are Tibetan Buddhist monks in a temple in the Himalayas endlessly reciting mantras for the cessation of your suffering and for the flourishing of your happiness.

Someone you haven’t met yet is already dreaming of adoring you.

Someone is writing a book that you will read in the next two years that will change how you look at life.

Nuns in the Alps are in endless vigil, praying for the Holy Spirit to alight the hearts of all God’s children.

A farmer is looking at his organic crops and whispering “nourish them.”

Someone wants to kiss you, to hold you, to make tea for you.

Someone is willing to lend you money, wants to know what your favorite food is, and treat you to a movie.

Someone in your orbit has something immensely valuable to give you – for free.

Something is being invented this year that will change how your generation lives, communicates, heals and passes on.

The next great song is being rehearsed.

Thousands of people are doing yoga right now intentionally sending light out from their heart chakras and wrapping it around the earth.

Millions of children are assuming that everything is amazing and will always be that way.

Someone is in profound pain, and a few months from now, they’ll be thriving like never before. They just can’t see it from where they’re at.

Someone who is craving to be partnered, to be acknowledged, to ARRIVE, will get precisely what they want – and even more. And because that gift will be so fantastical in its reach and sweetness, it will quite magically alter the memory of angsty longing and render it all “So worth the wait.”

Someone has recently cracked open their joyous, genuine nature because they did the hard work of hauling years of oppression off of their psyche – this luminosity is floating in the ether and is accessible to everyone.

Someone, just this second, wished for world peace, in earnest.

Someone is fighting the fight so that you don’t have to.

Some civil servant is making sure that you get your mail, and your garbage is picked up, that the trains are running on time, and that you are generally safe.

Someone is dedicating their days to protecting your civil liberties and clean drinking water.

Someone is regaining their sanity.

Someone is coming back from the dead.

Someone is genuinely forgiving the seemingly unforgivable.

Someone is curing the incurable.

YOU. ME. SOME. ONE. NOW.

Right now someone is working to help the world. I send them skill and inspiration. They’re going to need it. We’re all going to need it.

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You Are Not A Frail And Fragile People

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Douglas

This is the thirteenth post in a series of posts on the revelation “The Great Turning Point for Humanity.” This revelation is a small part of the New Message from God. The first post is here. The previous post is here.

What have we seen before? Humanity has responded to great challenges in the past. There is a great, untapped power within people. It is important for nations to focus on world security as well as national security.

You are not a frail and fragile people

The following is the 79th paragraph of this teaching. I will add my experience of each paragraph in brackets. These are the final paragraphs of this revelation.

So what We are speaking of here today is known to you. It is in your cultures. It is in your history. It is in your blood.

[ I believe they are referring specifically to the previous paragraph. But the entire teaching is giving the details of the great difficulties humanity will face.]

You are not a frail and fragile people, but you have become weak in your luxury and self-indulgence; you have become distracted and confused seeking personal wishes and ambitions.

[ “You” in this case means “humanity.” What if you were asked what you did with your life? Would you like to be able to say “I helped secure human survival and freedom?”]

The great times are upon you, and you must respond. This is a gift of unparalleled value, if you can respond. It will do everything for you that you could not do for yourself. It will do everything for the world that must be done, if enough people can respond.

[ Now they switch to you as an individual. You may not think you are much in the greater scheme of things. But if you can respond to this, it would be a great contribution to the world. If enough people can respond, humanity can succeed, securing its survival and freedom.]

Heaven waits and watches to see who can respond. There is no condemnation here. There is only encouragement. But there is great sobriety over what is occurring, great need and great urgency.

[ What if not enough people respond? This was said in an earlier paragraph: “If humanity cannot respond sufficiently, if enough people cannot respond, then the human family will fall prey to domination by other forces, who are already planting the seeds of dissension amongst you and even within you, within certain people.” I confess that when I heard the words “great sobriety,” I thought to myself “Even the angels are nervous about our prospects.”]

Great change is upon you. It is time to prepare. The preparation is here, it is given, through the Grace of God and through all of God’s Angels and advocates and true servants in the world.

Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, currently the top ranked chess player in the world, right, makes a move as he plays against India’s former World Champion Vishwanathan Anand at the FIDE World Chess Championship Match in Sochi, Russia, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Artur Lebedev)

[ You are not a frail and fragile people. But we face great difficulties. You have great, untapped power within you. You can express it if you take the preparation, the Steps to Knowledge. ]

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Do We Think Our Visitors Are A Military Threat?

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Douglas

Two new recent public opinion polls have been conducted regarding UFOs/UAP. Ipsos conducted the first poll in May of 2021 of 1,000 Canadians. The Pew Research Center conducted the second poll in June of 2021 of 10,000 Americans.

Do we think our visitors are a military threat?

The Ipsos poll asked “Do you believe intelligent life exists somewhere else in the universe?” 65% of the respondents said “Yes.” The Pew Research Center poll asked “Just your best guess, do you think intelligent life exists on other planets?” 65% of the respondents said “Yes.” I consider this consistent with the Gallup Poll survey of June 2019 and the Marist Poll survey of February 2018.

These two surveys are the first surveys I know of where people have been asked if UFOs constitute a military threat. An Ipsos press release for the poll reports:

“Though a majority of Canadians may believe in UFOs, the prevailing attitude toward them is surprisingly laid-back. Fewer than two in ten (17%) say the Canadian government should have a dedicated task force and battle plan in place for a potential alien invasion. Half (51%) say no, and one in three (32%) are unsure. Even among UFO believers, only one in four (25%) think Canada should have a task force and battle plan in place.”

I find the opinions of Canadians and Americans to be remarkably consistent regarding whether UFOs are a military threat. I believe that the small minority consider the seemingly advanced capabilities of UFOs. US Senator Marco Rubio has spoken on this from a national security standpoint

“The minute people hear about it they think, ‘These are little green space aliens.’ I don’t even start from that premise. That’s the wrong way to analyze it in my mind,” Rubio told Fox News Radio.

“The facts are that there are things flying over our military installations. They don’t belong to us. They seem to evidence some technological advancement that we don’t have and have never seen,” he continued.

The New Message from God teaches what is currently a minority viewpoint on the subject of extraterrestrials.

1) Intelligent extraterrestrial life exists
2) Extraterrestrials are intervening in human affairs today
3) This extraterrestrial intervention is a threat to human freedom

It’s almost as if a pacification program is underway. The 50% of Canadians and Americans who are persuaded that UFO’s do not constitute a military threat might be evidence of this program. Do we think our visitors are a military threat? It would seem that we don’t. But it doesn’t follow that they are here for the benefit of humanity.

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