I wish to continue interacting with the Religious Conditioning Self-Test. People of all religions struggle from time to time. They struggle with illness. Struggles with mental health occur from time to time. They experience financial difficulties. But some people compound the struggle by declaring, either openly or privately, that the struggle implies a lack of faith on their part. Therefore, the Religious Conditioning Self-Test asks these questions.
If I struggle with illness, does it mean I lack faith?
If I struggle with mental health issues, does it mean I lack faith?
If I struggle financially, does it mean I lack faith?
What does it mean if I struggle?
The New Message from God encourages its followers to build and balance strength in four particular areas of life. These are known as the Four Pillars, and they are 1) relationships, 2) career and providership, 3) health and 4) spiritual development. The New Message gives further detail as how to strengthen each of these areas.
If I struggle in my health, I believe it says nothing about my faith or the lack thereof. A health difficulty could be due to an error of omission or an error of commission on my part. Perhaps I am neglecting some aspect of self-care, such as hygiene or exercise. I might be eating too much or drinking too much. Maybe I’m eating or drinking things that aren’t good for me. This approach brings the problem much closer to my behavior, instead of anything about my relationship with God.
If I struggle in my finances, I might be living beyond my means. I might be spending money on things I can get along just fine without. I have to weigh my relationships, my activities and my possessions in the balance of my experience. Perhaps some things should be deleted if I am over budget. Maybe I really do need more money to do what I feel I must do. It works both ways. But again, I’m not waiting for God to do anything. I can do something about it.
What does it mean if I struggle? It could mean one or more of my Four Pillars are weak. It could mean I am obsessed with one particular Pillar to the expense of the others. There are countless examples of people who have failed to fully give their gifts, because of imbalance in their Four Pillars. I claim to be working on strength and balance in these areas.
In the 1913 play Pygmalion by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), phonetics professor Henry Higgins makes an offer to Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle. Professor Higgins believes he can uplift Eliza’s social status simply by improving her speech patterns. Eliza visited Professor Higgins because a flower shop rejected her because of her accent. She offered to pay for his services, even though it was a relative pittance to Higgins. After some further conversation, Higgins makes Eliza an offer that could be considered an offer of a lifetime:
“You are to stay here for the next six months…learning how to speak beautifully like a lady in a florist shop. If you’re good and do what you’re told, you’ll sleep in a proper bedroom…have lots to eat, money to buy chocolates and take rides in taxis. But if you are naughty and idle…you’ll sleep in the kitchen amongst the black beetles…and be walloped by Mrs. Pearce [the housekeeper] with a broomstick. At the end of six months, you shall be taken to Buckingham Palace…in a carriage, beautifully dressed. If the king finds out that you are not a lady…the police will take you to the Tower of London where your head will be cut off…as a warning to other presumptuous flower girls. But if you are not found out, you shall have a present of…seven and six [seven shillings and six pence, which was some money in 1913] to start life with as a lady in a shop. If you refuse this offer…you will be the most ungrateful, wicked girl…and the angels will weep for you!”
If you refuse this offer
Why am I telling you this? I am telling you this because I feel like I should tell you my answers to some of the questions in the Religious Conditioning Self-Test. I mentioned this in the previous post. I am focusing on questions 2 through 4. Question 2 is “If I continue to follow my religion, will I gain something?” I don’t believe I will necessarily become wealthier, more beautiful or more charming. I do believe that I will become simpler and deeper. I believe that I will become stronger and more competent. Question 3 is “If I stop following my religion, will I lose something?” I might lose the trail of Knowledge within me. I might become more affected by the conditioning of my culture, the mental environment in which I live, and the shadows of the past. Question 4 is “If I stop following my religion, will something bad happen to me?” There is no punishment involved, but I might have to try again in fulfilling my purpose.
I wish for every practitioner of every religion to feel the way I feel about my studenthood of the New Message from God. Like the offer of Henry Higgins to Eliza Doolittle, the chance to study Steps to Knowledge feels like the offer of a lifetime to me. I don’t really know why this is something I am being offered. But here it is. All I know is that if I were to stop following the Greater Community Way of Knowledge, I feel like the angels would weep for me.
I have written here on more than one occasion that people must penetrate their attachment to their ethnicity, nationality and religion. The New Message from God encourages people to be global citizens. Exactly how does one do that, exactly? All I know is that any religious custom that interferes with a person experiencing and expressing their deepest inclinations is part of the problem. Psychologist Vincent Smith has created a series of questions for exploring the extent of one’s religious investment. I will put it in the form of an image and text.
What is the strength of your religious conditioning?
Am I allowed to read these questions? If I continue to follow my religion, will I gain something? If I stop following my religion, will I lose something? If I stop following my religion, will something bad happen to me? Does my religion welcome all human beings regardless of what they do for fun? Does my religion welcome all human beings regardless of culture and ethnicity? Does my religion welcome all human beings regardless of sexual orientation? Do these questions make me feel uncomfortable? Does my religion encourage serving those who follow other/no religions? Does my religion encourage fellowship with those who follow other/no religions? Does my religion encourage separation from those who follow other/no religions? When I do things that make me feel guilty, is it temptation by evil? Am I in a battle against evil? Are people who follow other/no religions evil? Would I share these questions with my loved ones? If I struggle with illness, does it mean I lack faith? If I struggle with mental health issues, does it mean I lack faith? If I struggle financially, does it mean I lack faith? If I lack faith, will my community accept me? If I lack faith, does that make me a bad person? If I lack faith, does that make me evil? If I lack faith, will I be punished? Does reading these questions make me a bad person? If I had no faith, would I still love my loved ones? If I had no faith, would I value my own life? If I had no faith, would I love myself? If who I worship did not exist, would my life have any value? If who I worship did not exist, would I still love my loved ones? If who I worship did not exist, would I still love myself? If I had no religion, would I care about other people? If my religion was taken away from me, would my life still be worth living? Would I share these questions openly? If I left my religion, would my family still openly welcome me? If I left my religion, are there any friends I would lose? If I left my religion, would my community still openly welcome me? Am I worried someone may find out I am thinking about these questions? Does my religion serve humanity, or does humanity serve my religion?
What is the strength of your religious conditioning? It is well-known and well-documented that religious participation damages some people’s wholeness and integrity. I can appreciate people wanting to demonstrate that they are devoted, but they might just want to sit with the cool kids. Sometimes religion is used as a weapon to coerce people into doing things. Perhaps these questions will help some people get untangled.
Steps to Knowledge is the book of spiritual practice of the New Message from God. One of the 365 steps is “I am honored when others are strong.” It might take a while to realize why that might be so. When someone else is strong, it is never an individual effort. Others, maybe many others, contributed along the way. When someone else is strong, giving, magnanimity and generosity took place.
It is I who must begin
Today I am taking honor in the strength of Vaclav Havel (1936-2011). He was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. He was a critic of the communist regime in then-Czechoslovakia. The regime imprisoned him multiple times in the 1970’s and 1980’s. He played an important role in the “Velvet Revolution” that led to the fall of communism in 1989. He was the first democratically elected president of Czechoslovakia after the fall of communism. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays, and memoirs.
But I take particular joy in this poem, written during the activist protests of 1989.
It is I Who Must Begin
It is I who must begin. Once I begin, once I try – here and now, right where I am, not excusing myself by saying things would be easier elsewhere, without grand speeches and ostentatious gestures, but all the more persistently –to live in harmony with the “voice of Being,” as I understand it within myself –as soon as I begin that, I suddenly discover, to my surprise, that I am neither the only one, nor the first, nor the most important one to have set out upon that road.
Whether all is really lost or not depends entirely on whether or not I am lost.
“The strength that We speak of is not the kind of strength to simply mount a great effort for a short period of time, to go run ten miles or to finish a project on time, or to mount a great effort in the moment, even in service to another. The strength that We speak of is the strength to take a long journey, to go through long periods where you are not sure what you are doing, to be able to face your own self-doubt and the doubt you have in the wisdom of your actions. It is the strength to carry a greater responsibility in life over a long period of time.”
It is I that must begin. I too recognize that I must live in harmony with the “voice of Being.” No, I am not the only one, nor the first, nor the most important one on the Way of Knowledge. I have been on this road for a while, only to realize that this journey is a great one. I read this poem and feel that Vaclav Havel is a companion on my journey. It is I who must begin.
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
The precious resource of time
I wonder how many people demonstrate that their life is wild and precious? We live in a world full of social conditioning, national conditioning, and religious conditioning. If you are free to do what you’ve been conditioned to do, are you really free?
I think of “purpose and direction” as that which makes life wild and precious. I think of “purpose and direction” as something I brought to the world. And temptations to waste the precious resource of time lie in wait at every turn. Wealth, beauty, charm, adventure, excitement.
It’s not just because I’m getting older that I think of the precious resource of time. It doesn’t hurt, though. I long to meet the people I came to the world to meet. I long to give the gifts I came to the world to give. Is such a thing even possible? The New Message from God says it is, but that it takes a lot of work. Particularly in the penetration of social conditioning, national conditioning and religious conditioning. Will purpose and direction make me a troublemaker? Maybe, but it’s not something I’m trying to be. I seek to find that which will make my life wild and precious.
Sometimes I get tired of declaring what the New Message from God teaches about extraterrestrials. I’m going to try an alternate approach, and ask any reader what they think and how they feel regarding certain questions. I have asked these questions to many people over the past couple of years.
What do you think? How do you feel?
Question 1: Do you think there is intelligent life on other planets?
The vast majority of young adults answer “Yes” to this question, as if to say “Of course!” I’m not sure what has convinced them. It could be the explosion in exoplanet discovery, particularly in the past decade. It could also be an influence of popular culture. Older adults are more skeptical. If someone answers “Yes,” I ask the second question.
Question 2: Do you think that intelligent life from other planets is present in our world?
I find much less certainty in the responses to this question. But it is documented that many people have changed their minds on this subject from “No” to “Don’t Know/Not Sure” or “Yes,” and from “Don’t Know/Not Sure” to “Yes.” I believe many people were influenced by the UFO/UAP report of the US government in June of 2021. The US government admitted the existence of numerous objects they could neither identify nor intercept. If such objects exist, then the testimonies of alien abductees might be true. There are still many people who don’t know what to make of this. But if someone answers “Yes,” I ask the third question.
Question 3: Do you think that the intelligent life from other planets, that is present in our world, is here for the benefit of humanity?
A lot of people express bewilderment at the very question, much less have a well-thought-out answer. I sometimes feel that people answer “Yes” as a way of “whistling past the graveyard.” They say “Yes” because if the truth is “No,” humanity is in great peril. Sometimes people answer “Yes” because they know no evidence of belligerent activity. Perhaps they are unaware of the deactivation of nuclear missiles in 1967 associated with UFO sightings. Sometimes when someone says “Yes,” I ask “Why would they be?” There are people who wish to believe that extraterrestrials are spiritually advanced. But again, what evidence would support this?
What do you think? How do you feel? All I know is that there is an extraterrestrial intervention underway, it is not in our interests, and it must be exposed and resisted.
What have I written in the past 10 years? I have written 492 posts (including this one). Alisa joined in 2013 and wrote 293 posts in both Russian and English between 2013 and 2018. I wrote a series of blog posts about Steps 1 through 95, of the 365 steps of Steps to Knowledge. Steps to Knowledge is the book of spiritual practice of the New Message from God. I didn’t go further because I didn’t have a succinct way of explaining “what is in this step will only make sense if you have practiced all the previous steps.” But I would like to think that I have written something that describes part of the Steps to Knowledge experience.
Part of this devotion and determination comes from the recognition that humanity faces challenges to its survival and freedom. Humanity faces an increasingly difficult world, a world created by its own choices. A world of declining resources, affected climate, a degraded environment, and extraterrestrial intervention.
So what are the statistics? 166,607 page views, from 113,916 sessions (visits), from 95,262 users, from 10,935 cities in 204 countries/regions. Sometimes an inner voice tells me it’s not enough. I tell it that it’s more than what would have happened had I done nothing.
What shall I write in the next ten years? I consider it presumptuous to declare what I will write about in the next ten years. Nothing is guaranteed. But it might be some things about building a practical spirituality for a crashing world. It might be some things about mitigating the Great Waves of Change coming to our world. I might write about some of the thousand solutions the human family needs for its survival and freedom. And most assuredly, there will be poetry, from poets of every nation and era. I offer this poem by J. R. R. Tolkien for company:
The Road goes ever on and on, Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with eager feet, Until it joins some larger way Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.
Varginha is a city of roughly 135,000 people in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. The Varginha UFO incident occurred in January of 1996. It is hardly the first UFO sighting to occur in Brazil, as sightings have been reported as early as 1947. But this particular sighting is noteworthy for multiple reasons. First, there is testimony of a UFO crash. Varginha is referred to as “the Roswell of Brazil” because of this. Secondly, there is testimony of encounters with both living and deceased aliens.
Different aspects of the story have varying amounts of evidence and credibility. But the main events of the story took place on January 20, 1996.
Midnight – NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) contacts their Brazilian counterpart, the CINDACTA (Centro Integrado de Defesa Aerea e Controle de Trafego Aereo or Integrated Center for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control). NORAD warns of an Unidentified Flying Object they detected coming down over the state of Minas Gerais. How do we know this? An anonymous Brazilian Air Force officer leaked this to Vitorio Pacaccini.
Oralina and Eurico de Freitas saw a UFO above their farm
1:15 AM – Eurico de Freitas and Oralina de Freitas lived and worked on a farm on the side of the BR-491 highway, which runs through the city of Varginha. In the early morning of January 20, they spotted a ship about 5 meters from the ground, flying over the pasture and leaving the cattle agitated.
Oralina opened the window and saw the cattle were very agitated and stampeding all over the pasture three hundred to four hundred feet away. Then she saw a cigar-shaped object just above the cattle. There was no moon but the craft gave off a faint light.
Oralina called out to her husband, Eurico, forty, and he rushed to the window. “My God!” he cried. “There’s a submarine above my pasture.”
They could see gray smoke or vapor coming out of the back as it moved slowly, in a sort of rocking motion, only fifteen to twenty feet above the ground.
Neither Eurico nor Oralina ventured outside, but stood at the window watching as the object took forty five minutes to pass ever so slowly out of sight over a ridge about two thousand feet away, heading in the direction of Varginha.
They had the impression that it was having difficulties of some kind because of the very slow way it was moving. If the UFO was making any sound, the bellowing of the cows drowned it out.
All this time the cattle remained panicky and frightened but the couple’s four dogs, although awake, showed no reaction. Eurico and Oralina’s four children, aged twelve to twenty, slept through it all.
Eurico and Oralina have maintained their original account for the past 26 years. They believe we had visitors at Varginha.
1:30 AM – An American civilian was present when the cigar-shaped UFO was loaded aboard a flatbed truck in the early morning of January 20. The only mention of this is in the Brazilian Revista UFO (UFO Magazine).
Artist’s conception of the capture of the alien
Early morning – The Varginha Fire Department receives multiple calls reporting a “strange creature” had been seen in the area of Jardim Andere, a Varginha neighborhood.
The Fire Department personnel in Brazil are part of the Military, and must respond to all calls. What could this be, a couple of pranksters perpetuating a hoax? If so, the group was growing, as several more calls came in also reporting this unusual monster. Firemen followed the civilians’ instructions to the site.
To the utter surprise of the men, they found the source of the strange reports. The entity was seemingly in a dazed condition. Three protrusions stood atop of it’s head, which glowed with red eyes.
It also had long arms, short legs, and big feet. The monster sounded off with a buzz as it was taken into a net approximately 2 and one-half hours after the first call was received. The Fire Deparment reported the fact to the Army Sergeant School Commander in the neighboring city of Tres Coracoes (about 10 miles east of Varginha).
An Army truck was sent to the place and both forces captured the creature using nets and equipment regularly used to capture wild animals. The ET was placed till alive in a box that was then covered by resistant fabric. The box was placed on top of the truck, the vehicle headed to the Army Sergeant School and all personnel involved was ordered not to talk about it with anyone else “It was a Secret Operation” said Lieutenant-Colonel Wanderley, who commanded the operation. After such unusual, confidential report a few other military decided to come forward and speak about the captures as long as their identities were totally kept secret.
The three Varginha alien witnesses in 1996 and now.
3:30 pm – 3 young women named Liliane, Valquiria and Katia observed a strange creature in a field of small bushes a few blocks from where they live. Their ages ranged from 14 to 22. It was Saturday and they were coming back from their jobs when, crossing an empty area their attention was attracted by a strange being a few meters away. The ET was kneeling and looked like it was hurt, suffering some sort of pain. No UFO was ever seen. The girls observed it for a few minutes and ran away, afraid that they had just encountered the devil.
UFO researchers extensively interrogated the three girls, leaving no doubt whatsoever about what happened. They described the ET’s as being a dark brown creature, with a small body of 4 – 5 feet in height, no hair at all, big brown head, small neck. It also seemed to have some greasy, dark oil on its skin. The mother of the girls noticed a strange odor was when she later went to the site. The head of the creature had 2 big red eyes, no pupils, very small mouth and nose and – what is interesting – 3 protuberances in the head. The girls described such protuberances as horns.
“It was squatting, with the long arms between its legs”, recalls Liliane. “At first I saw the eyes, enormous and red.” Frightened, Liliane turned her back to the creature, while her sister Valquiria and her friend Katia continued to observe. “It was not animal or human, it was a horrible thing”, says Katia. “It looked dumb, didn’t make any noise”, adds Valquiria. The creature, however, appeared to move slightly with the head and the three girls ran away.
The testimony of the three girls appeared in the Wall Street Journal five months later. Liliane, Valquiria and Katia have maintained their account for the past 26 years. They believe we had visitors at Varginha. There is a great deal of documentation of the efforts made to bury this story by the Brazilian military. It is well documented that many high-level military officials gathered in this region at this time. This Brazilian video on the subject was recommended to me.
Another reason this incident caught my attention is that a documentary on the subject will be available on October 18.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE7hVSlk7Zw
I realize that some readers will find these accounts to be impossible. But if you do, what do you think about the witnesses maintaining their accounts for 26 years? What do they have to gain by this? Why do you find these accounts to be impossible? What do you think actually happened? What if we had visitors at Varginha?
The New Message from God teaches what is currently a minority viewpoint on the subject of extraterrestrials.
I realize these ideas are considered improbable at this time. But at this point, I’m recalling the words of Sherlock Holmes: “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
Attendees of the 2018 Encampment of the New Message from God
From time to time, I write about the progress of the New Message from God in the world. But I feel an inclination to write about this in a larger context. What are the efforts and accomplishments of the Worldwide Community of the New Message from God over its entire history?
What has the Worldwide Community of the New Message from God done so far? Marshall Vian Summers has experienced some 800 instances of receiving revelations from the presence that called him to record. Roughly 400 of those instances are either in published books or available online. Marshall considers it his responsibility to organize the remaining teachings into volumes, books and chapters. This is what I mean by “curation.” Of the 400 that remain, the Society for the New Message from God started releasing one every two weeks in February of 2022. At that rate, the remaining 400 would be made public in roughly 16 years.
The books and online revelations of the New Message from God are currently being translated into the languages of the world by dedicated volunteers. The New Message from God is currently being translated into 35 different languages. It is in various stages in these different languages. Once entire books are translated, they are published. Books are available in 18 different languages. The development of print-on-demand technology has greatly facilitated the publication of books.
How many people know there is a New Message from God? I don’t know, but I do know we have many dedicated advocates. There is an online community site for students of the New Message from God. There are roughly 2,000 active users on this site. That may not seem like very many. But I consider it in the context of doublings over time. This works out to roughly 11 doublings over 39 years. Another 11 doublings over the next 39 years would work out to 4 million students of the New Message from God. Bringing a new revelation into the world may seem impossible. But I say for something impossible we’re doing rather well.
Some of you might be thinking, “If Marshall Vian Summers could arrange these teachings, he would put the important ones in a prominent position.” The first book of Volume 1 of the New Message from God is “God Has Spoken Again.” The first chapter of this book is “The Proclamation.” And the opening words of The Proclamation are “There is a New Message from God in the world. It has come from the Creator of all life.” I hope and believe and pray and work that these words will be said many times. Said by growing numbers of people from many nations and faith traditions.
But why do I write about a sacred day? July 7 is an ordinary day in my world. But someone brought it to my attention that Marshall Vian Summers received The Proclamation on July 7, 2006. Therefore The Proclamation has been in the world for slightly over 16 years. The Society for the New Message from God made The Proclamation available to the public on October 19, 2011. But I have a thought that a hundred years from now, students of the New Message will look upon July 7, 2006. They might recognize it as a day when the direction of the world changed. Thus it would be a sacred day in the history of the future.
