Tag Archives: Greater Community

The Greater Community Nabi

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The Greater Community Nabi

Muslims in Minnesota were active in sharing their faith at the recent State Fair of Minnesota. In 2022 their booth was on the second floor of the Grandstand, and thus out of the main flow of foot traffic. In 2023 their booth was in the Education Building, a much more visited display.

The Greater Community Nabi

I seem to recall this wheel at the booth in 2022. I spun the wheel a number of times, and correctly answered the questions on the wheel. The gentleman at the booth exclaimed “You know so much about Islam! Why are you not a Muslim?” My answer was “Because I believe that God has spoken again. There is a New Message from God in the world.” I might have said something about the gentleman having trouble believing this. I might have had to think about what I was going to say for a moment, but I’m happy with what I said.

In 2023, I distributed some copies of “The Proclamation,” one of many revelations of the New Message from God. Anyone who is sharing their faith gives implied consent to me to share my faith with them. I answered some of the questions on the wheel. I offered the gentleman a copy of The Proclamation. He looked at it and asked “Who is this, Marshall Vian Summers?” This time I said “He is our Nabi.”

Nabis and rasouls

In the Qur’an. the Arabic word nabi is used to speak of a Prophet. Moses (Musa) is mentioned as a prophet 136 times, and Abraham is mentioned as a prophet 69 times. The Qur’an uses the word rasoul to speak of a messenger, someone calling the people to return to what was originally revealed. Some people are a nabi but not a rasoul (Jacob, Zechariah, Elisha). Others are both a nabi and a rasoul (Moses, Jesus, Muhammad).

The New Message from God uses the words prophet and messenger in the opposite way from their use in Islam. A Messenger brings a new reality. A prophet is someone who calls the people to return to what was revealed earlier. I consider Billy Graham and Martin Luther King, Jr. to be instances of prophets in 20th Century America.

The gentleman at the booth was calm and polite. He said “I know this cannot be true, as the Qur’an teaches that Muhammad is the seal of the prophets [the final prophet]. Yet, for your sake, I will read this.” I admire his openness and nobility.

In the following days, I spoke with students of the New Message from Muslim backgrounds. I asked them if this was consistent with the New Message. I told them I wished I said “He is the nabi for our time.” Two students considered this acceptable. One student remarked “You could have said the greater community Nabi for this time.” I am saving that for a future occasion.

The New Message from God doesn’t use the phrase “Greater Community Messenger.” But one of the distinctives of the New Message from God is that it is here to prepare humanity to successfully encounter a greater community of intelligent life. Life in a larger region of space. It is therefore appropriate to refer to Marshall Vian Summers as the Greater Community Messenger.

As of today, Google reports zero results for the phrase “greater community nabi.” This post may be the first searchable mention of this phrase. I hereby prophesy that many people will use this phrase in the future.

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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.

A Step Into Space Opened His Eyes

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A step into space opened his eyes

The Canadian actor William Shatner has played many roles from 1951 to the present. But the role he is most famous for is Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. He played this role in what is now known as Star Trek: The Original Series. There were 79 episodes of this series from 1966 to 1969. It sowed the seeds for multiple movies and multiple television series.

A step into space opened his eyes

In the year 2021, at the age of 90, Shatner became the oldest living person to travel into space. The Blue Origin spacecraft flew to an altitude of 65 miles above earth before landing 11 minutes later. Shatner shares some of the technical details of the flight here. But I wish to share his testimony after the flight. He reflects upon the flight, and how it connects with his portrayal of Captain Kirk.

“Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration.

I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced.

I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, of adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet.

This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness. I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable.”

Earth is and will stay our only home

Star Trek filled countless people (including myself) with beautiful dreams of exploring space, settling other worlds, interacting with new civilizations, and so forth. The New Message from God is seeking to provide an awakening from these dreams, as politely as possible. Star Trek: The Original Series didn’t consider the possibility that the Enterprise would be perceived as part of an invasion force. They didn’t consider the possibility that nearby space would be inhabited by older and stronger nations. If we continue to make this world uninhabitable, we won’t get another one.

It is my sincere hope that Star Trek enthusiasts will consider William Shatner’s testimony. I am happy that a step into space opened his eyes.

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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.

I See An Unidentified Standing Still Object

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I see an unidentified standing still object

There has been a good deal of news recently regarding UFOs. This photo is one of the news items. It is said to have been “leaked” or unofficially released. The website The Debrief has done a good deal of work in investigating the context of this photo. They have spoken to members of the US Department of Defense, and members of the US Intelligence Community.

I see an unidentified standing still object

An enlarged portion of the 2018 photo

Anonymous sources tell us that someone took this photograph in 2018. The backseat weapons systems operator of an F/A-18 fighter jet took this picture with a cell phone camera. The fighter jet was somewhere off the east coast of the United States. This photo was part of a 2018 report from the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF). The pilots reported this object to be perfectly motionless, unlike a GPS dropsonde used in weather research. This photo has been widely distributed among the US Intelligence Community.

I see an unidentified standing still object. The UAPTF was only first mentioned in a 2020 New York Times article. But apparently it has been operating under that name as early as 2018. I infer from the wide distribution of the photo that the Intelligence Community is taking the UAPTF report seriously. The Department of Defense took roughly three years to confirm the leaked UFO videos of 2017 as genuine and complete. Will this photo be confirmed in three years? We’ll find out soon enough.

I see an unidentified standing still object. 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 takes a certain mental and emotional preparation to think about these things without preference or fear.

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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.

This May Be All The Disclosure We Get

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Something happened on Monday, April 27, 2020 that received less attention than it deserved. The US Department of Defense confirmed that three videos that have been public since 2017 are both genuine and complete. Who took these videos? Pilots for the US Navy, while in flight training missions. What is in these videos? Flying objects moving at remarkable speeds and accelerations. Flying objects which could be neither identified nor intercepted. When did the pilots take these videos? In 2004 and 2015. Where did the pilots take these videos? The 2004 video is from off the coast of San Diego, California, USA. The 2015 video is from off the east coast of the United States. (I have written about this here.) Why did the pilots take these videos? The pilots took these videos because the pilots weren’t expecting to see these objects.

This may be all the disclosure we get

This may be all the disclosure we get
Chad Underwood, US Navy pilot recording 2004 “TicTac” UFO video

The Department of Defense confirmed that the flying objects in the videos remain unidentified to this day. No natural phenomenon has demonstrated this speed and acceleration. They are not known to be the military assets of any nation on Earth. They answered one question, only to leave a much larger question unanswered. Many people have contended that the videos were fake or edited. Between 2017 and the present, these videos have undergone intense scrutiny by interested parties. Many hoped to find evidence of fakery or inauthenticity. I imagine the April 27 confirmation disappointed them.

An admission against interest?

This may be all the disclosure we get. I wish to explore another aspect of this event. Can you imagine that the Department of Defense wishes to say that the flying objects in the videos remain unidentified? Would any military on Earth say “We do not know what this is” without significant motivation? I make no claim to know what this motivation might be. However, I consider the very existence of this confirmation to be evidence of its truth. This is known in legal proceedings as an “admission against interest.” The Department of Defense has a lack of incentive to make an embarrassing or damaging statement about itself. This is an indication of the statement’s reliability.

What consequences follow?

Image from the movie “Fire in the Sky”

This may be all the disclosure we get. I realize some people will be greatly disappointed in this. I believe historians will note that in 2019 and 2020, unidentified flying objects (UFOs) took a great step forward in credibility. The United States government has admitted that these objects exist. They have confirmed they are something other than instrument errors or pilot hallucinations. What does this say about the 6,000 UFO reports in the United States in 2019? Are those camera errors or mass insanity? What does this say about the testimonies of people being taken against their will? Are they some kind of cultural delusion? Perhaps we need to reconsider some things we previously rejected.

Have your thoughts and feelings changed?

This may be all the disclosure we get. 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

I realize some people consider this not only false, but impossible. But many things once thought to be impossible have turned out to be so. Therefore a belief in the impossibility of something carries little weight with me. Could the April 27 confirmation make this a little less impossible for you?

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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 Do You Feel About Not Being Alone?

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How do you feel about not being alone?
Navy pilots from the VFA-11 “Red Rippers” squadron aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in 2015.

The New York Times published an article on May 26, 2019. The headline was “‘Wow, What Is That?’ Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects.” The authors of this article are Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean. Between May 26 and now, I have spoken with many people in my world about what is presented in this article.

Cooper, Blumenthal and Kean are also the authors of a New York Times article on the little-known Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, published in December of 2017. I consider these two articles to be a thread on the subject of unexplained flying objects.

Ralph Blumenthal was a reporter for the New York Times from 1964 to 2009, most notably for investigative crime reporting. I consider his contribution to these two articles to be a sign that the New York Times is taking this subject seriously.

On the other hand, when this article appeared in the New York Times, it appeared on Page A14, roughly halfway between the front page and the editorial page. Media commentator Glenn Reynolds wrote “What does it say about the news environment that the U.S. government admitted UFOs were real earlier this week, and it was like the fifteenth biggest story?” Which it was.

The US Navy destigmatized UFOs

How do you feel about not being alone? On April 23, 2019, Politico magazine published an article with the headline, “U.S. Navy drafting new guidelines for reporting UFOs.” The May 26 New York Times article described UFO sightings by US Navy pilots in 2014 and 2015. I consider these sightings to have contributed to the new guidelines described in the Politico article.

What do these sightings mean?

Lieutenant Ryan Graves reported numerous UFO sightings in 2014 and 2015

How do you feel about not being alone? No one in my world disputed the testimonies of Lt. Ryan Graves and Lt. Danny Accoin. Graves and Accoin are the two Navy fighter pilots who spoke publicly and on the record to the New York Times.

A Navy veteran I spoke with mentioned that at one time, reporting a UFO was hazardous to a pilot’s military career. Furthermore, it was hazardous to a post-military career as a commercial pilot as well. Besides Graves and Accoin, there were three other pilots who only spoke to the New York Times on conditions of anonymity. It takes a great deal of time, effort and resources to take a person from a pilot trainee to a pilot. I surmise that there have been many UFO sightings by many Navy pilots. Enough to make it unprofitable to consider a UFO sighting as a sign of mental instability.

Plenty of people in my world offered opinions regarding the significance of these sightings. One person suggested that some party was developing the capability of projecting illusions to the radar of military aircraft. Another person suggested that the objects sighted by the pilots were advanced military craft. Still another person suggested that it was impossible for these objects to be of extraterrestrial origin, because of the vast distances between stars.

At this point, history helps

How do you feel about not being alone? I know someone is reading this and thinking “Well, what about you, Douglas? What do you think and how do you feel about these things?” Like everyone else in my world, I accept the testimonies of Ryan Graves and Danny Accoin. I believe they saw what they said they saw. I believe they saw objects capable of both hypersonic speed and hovering in one spot. I believe they didn’t see what they said they didn’t see. I believe Danny Accoin didn’t see the object that his radar detected.

The pilots of that squadron considered it unlikely that the US military would introduce advanced craft into a training mission. In recent history, when the US military has obtained a superior weapon, it has used it. The US used an atomic bomb in World War II. The US has used cruise missiles (developed in the 1970s) and drone warfare (developed in the 1990s) in the 21st Century. Therefore, if the US military had a craft that could both travel at hypersonic speeds and hover in one spot, I believe it would use it. The only exception I know of is the hydrogen bomb.

What if it’s…not American?

When other nations have developed superior weapons, they have used them. Germany used the V-2 missile in World War II. Therefore, if the military of another nation on Earth had a craft that do these things, I believe it would use it. If a military force had the capability of projecting illusions to military aircraft, I believe it would use it.

Humans have considered the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life for a very long time. It took centuries to confirm the intuition that the sun is a star. It took centuries to confirm the intuition that there were planets orbiting stars other than our sun. Therefore, the fact that human intuition about intelligent extraterrestrial life has not yet been confirmed, carries little weight with me.

I realize this is improbable

How do you feel about not being alone? 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

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?”

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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.

Many New Planets Swim Into Our Ken

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Artist's conception of Kepler-444 system. Many new planets swim into our ken.

The poet John Keats had an experience of wonder when he read a translation of Homer by George Chapman. He cried out,

“Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;”

Many new planets swim into our ken

I mention this to share two items of space exploration news. The first item is the sixth anniversary of the launch of the Kepler space telescope. Many times scientists conduct experiments expecting to find certain things. Many times they fail to find what they had hoped for. But the Kepler mission has found what was looking for in abundance.

Many new planets swim into our ken. How many? Kepler has found 1,019 exoplanets, planets outside our solar system. By “found” I mean “found possibilities of exoplanets which were later confirmed by independent observation.” The above image shows an artist conception of 5 of those exoplanets who share the same star. In addition to this, Kepler has found possibilities of an additional 3,100 “candidates” which will either be confirmed or discarded in the future. The mission scientists believe that 90% of the candidates will be confirmed as exoplanets, although I don’t know how they know this.

Many new planets swim into our ken. Where does this figure of 1,019 exoplanets fit into the larger picture of exoplanet exploration? At this point, NASA reports a total of 1,827 confirmed planets. The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992. In other words, Kepler has discovered more planets in the past six years than all the efforts from 1992 to 2009. And that’s not counting the candidates. Even though crucial components of Kepler failed in May of 2013, I consider the Kepler mission to be a smashing, groundbreaking success.

Many new planets swim into our ken. How many of them are habitable? These scientists say “62, or around 3%, so far.” On the other hand, astronomer Charlie Lineweaver posited that the average number of habitable planets per star is 2, plus or minus 1. Since there are somewhere between 100 billion and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, that’s quite a few habitable planets.

Many new planets swim into our ken. What does it all mean? I say it means that Giordano Bruno might have been on to something in the 1500’s when he envisioned intelligent life on then-unknown exoplanets. I also say it means that the New Message from God teaching about a greater community of intelligent life to be a little more plausible than it was before these news items appeared.

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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.

Space Beyond Any Astronomer’s Dreams

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Walt Whitman 1852 Space beyond any astronomer's dreams

I was rummaging through an old poetry book at a used book sale when I came across this poem by American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892). “When I Heard The Learn’d Astronomer” was written in 1865, and appeared in the 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass.

Space beyond any astronomer’s dreams

There is a step in Steps to Knowledge with which this poem vibrates very sympathetically. Step 326 of 365 steps is “The Greater Community is something I can feel but cannot understand.”

Space beyond any astronomer’s dreams. There are 9 steps in Steps to Knowledge where the phrase “Greater Community” is mentioned in the step itself. The first step is Step 187, “I am a citizen of the Greater Community of Worlds.”. The last step is Step 326. Part of the preparation of Steps to Knowledge is how an individual can prepare for humanity’s emergence into a greater community of intelligent life.

Space beyond any astronomer’s dreams. But for right now, I need poetry to even be able to think about things too great for me to bear. Who knows, maybe Walt Whitman felt a little bit of what I’m feeling now. I don’t believe Whitman bore any ill will toward the learn’d astronomer, merely that his configuration of inner lenses and mirrors had a different focus.

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

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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.

Giordano Bruno, Prophet of the Greater Community

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Giordano Bruno, prophet of the Greater Community

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was many things in his full, eventful life. He displayed a talent for memory as a child. He was an ordained Catholic priest and a member of the Dominican order. He was considered a scientist of that time. His instrumentation was inadequate to prove or disprove his thought experiments. He expressed his scientific and philosophical arguments in the form of literary dialogues.

The part of his life I find mysterious is his ideas about the universe. Nicolas de Cusa had suggested a hundred years or so earlier that the sun is but another star. In the early 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus showed that the earth and the other planets revolved around the sun.

Giordano Bruno, prophet of the Greater Community

Giordano Bruno put together a number of ideas. Suppose the sun is but another star. Suppose there are planets around our sun. Why should there not be planets around other stars as well? Our planet has intelligent life on it. People believe that is a good thing. Why should there not be intelligent life on the many other planets revolving around the other stars? Why should that not be a good thing too?

Giordano Bruno envisioned what the New Message from God refers to as the Greater Community of Worlds. Sometimes it is just called the Greater Community. It is a universe swarming and teeming with intelligent life. I therefore call him the prophet of the Greater Community, someone who considered the idea quite a bit before its time.

Nicolas de Cusa would not be proven right by scientific observation until the early 19th century. The first exoplanet (planet outside our solar system) was discovered in 1992. Since that time, there has been an explosion in the amount of exoplanet research. Many new methods of exoplanet detection have been developed. Many new exoplanets have been confirmed.
multi_transits_many_full_0The NASA Kepler mission announced Wednesday (as in today, 26 February 2014) the discovery of 715 new planets. These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system. This brings us up to a total of 1,690 planets around 1,023 stars. All I know is that somewhere, Giordano Bruno, prophet of the Greater Community, is smiling.

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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.