Dr Sir John Whitman Ray Anniversary Message
2003
Hello everyone.
Monday 21 April 2003 marks the second year since Dr John Whitman Ray's passing.
Having pondered many things I might like to say at this time, I am moved to dwell on but one item, that of putting into practice that which we have learnt from John. I assume that the great majority of people reading this email have also read at least one of John's books and have had some degree of experience with Body Electronics and can make use of the following.
We will fondly recall one of John's many one-liners, etched into our minds through what he called ponderous repetition, "Faith without works is dead." A corollary to this is, "By their fruits shall ye know them." John also petitioned us to, "be anxiously engaged in a good work of our own free will and choice". To that end, we each set out with our "List" to conquer the morass of karma and incomplete action we have been accruing for aeons of time.
There is often a tendency for us to search out the works that require doing, assuming that there is some inherent value to those works. Then at the end of the day we take stock of our progress and items get crossed off the List or remain for another day. The "works" and the "fruits" appear to carry great importance since we are after all going to be judged by them it would seem.
However, it is my understanding that we would do well to relegate those works and fruits into subservience to our responsible attitude towards those works and fruits. The point is fine; no matter what degree of importance we may have placed upon any given item on our List (from sewing on the missing button through to achieving world peace), we must clearly understand that "importance" is a relative measure born out of judgement.
To put this another way, there is no item we can place on our List that is truly more important than the attitude with which we manifest or do not manifest that item. There are items which we may complete but which benefit no-one, although we may temporarily believe these to have some seeming benefit. There are also items that we will never complete or manifest until we are capable of manifesting them for the right reason. The items that we do complete or manifest and which benefit ourselves and others the most on an inner level may have little seeming importance on an outer level.
There is no doubt that many people can agree on certain items as being "important", but then again many people also share the same crystals and beliefs. We call this cultural, racial or societal programming, wherein people agree on importance because they can see things no other way. Take world peace, for example. Is this really important? What does it mean to be important anyway? Is world peace more important than individual inner peace? Some would say yes and others no. Some would perceive world peace difficult to achieve without a lot of people first having inner peace. So which is more important? I'm sure that most people have an opinion because most people have strong beliefs in this area.
Is a watermelon more important than a grape and if so for what reason? Is it size or weight or colour or texture or taste or for some other reason? And will two people agree on that measure of importance? In point of fact, a watermelon is simply what it is, just as a grape is simply what it is. Indeed we may be known by our fruit, but is a good tree one that produces lots of fruit or one that produces good-tasting fruit?
Can peace be enforced? Enforced peace must result from restriction of personal freedoms, one of which freedoms is to not be at peace. This approach to our List (enforcement) reveals our desire to manipulate the outer world, to attempt to compel the outer manifestation to be shaped according to the power of our will. While this can indeed be done, it is not the reason we were given The List.
Energy can definitely be manipulated. Energy is here to be manipulated; energy has no other purpose to fulfil. You can imagine Superman grabbing an iron girder and bending it by the force of his superhuman strength. This is a manipulation of matter using physical energies. Others manipulate matter using the superhuman strength of their mind, for example, the spoon-bending of Uri Geller. There is no doubt that matter and energy can be manipulated; Superman and Uri Geller therefore have a lot in common. When we approach our List, are we attempting to mould the universe to our will or do we recognise that the universe is already moulded to our will?
Contrary to what you may believe, the purpose of our List is not to help us get things done. This is certainly the purpose of "checklists", "to-do lists", "goal lists", etc as are used in the business world and by motivational experts. Our List will help us get things done, as it happens, but incidentally to a much higher purpose that we must understand if we are to receive the blessings we require for our progress.
To reveal this purpose, first we must understand that this is a universe of duality, meaning that matter and energy exist only because of will and desire. In other words, everything is where it is because someone put it there; there are no mistakes or accidents, consciousness has been involved in every action.
Please consider this fully until you can at least also see that the existence of matter in one place and in one form also necessarily means that the same matter must exist in all places and in all forms, if one's mind can but perceive it. The straight iron girder that Superman must bend by the force of his muscles is already bent before he lays hands on it, if he could but see it so. Superman was a great inspiration to me as a child, but I now see that I do not have to be Superman because it is not great physical or mental exertion that is required to do the job, for it is simply a matter of changing perceptions.
This is where our List comes into play, because we have submerged our ability to change our perception at will beneath the morass of incomplete acts and karma we carry. We have effectively and quite comprehensively convinced ourselves that things are indeed the way we see them such that our judgement corresponds with our physical reality. In fact, we believe our judgement depends on outer reality, when the truth is that the outer reality depends on our judgement. But while we erroneously believe in the outer determining our judgement we are like a cat chasing its tail.
The purpose of constructive outer action (good works), as guided by our List, is not merely for the sake of certain or copious constructive actions coming into being. The purpose of constructive outer action is to excavate our buried will so that we might learn to become responsible creators. When we make that grade then we become nothing but a wonderful blessing to all life, regardless of our actions.
This is what I mean when I talk about putting into practice that which we have learnt from John. We must unshackle ourselves from the limiting belief that the outer world dictates the necessary actions. Our inner world, our inner essence, our individual intelligence dictates action through the application of will and desire. In other words, things happen because one chooses for them to happen or they don't happen because one chooses for something else to happen. One is free from judgements of importance at this level.
What we must put into practice is our understanding that the outer manifestation shapes itself around our consciousness. Rather than only give this concept lip service, "Yes, I understand that," we must apply it until we really do understand it and can apply it unerringly.
We clearly understand that when we see a burning candle in a mirror the way to blow it out is not to blow on the mirror or the reflection, but to go to the candle itself and act there. There is no difference in our life other than that we typically are so fixated on the reflection (the outer manifestation) that we cannot see the mirror itself (our mind or consciousness), nor the will and desire (in the inner essence) that is being reflected by it. It would seem that many of us are living our lives trapped inside the time and space-fixated mirror instead of being inside our inner essence, which has no time-space boundaries. In the mirror, supermen are required to bring about changes and the changes are mere manipulations; outside the mirror change is effortless and merely a matter of perception.
Please feel free to discuss this further with me if at least the concept does not make sense to you. The understanding of it is an unfolding and ongoing process as we strip away the obscurations we have previously placed in our field of vision. I do not mean to suggest the existence of an unending array of energies to be dealt with, for in reality I believe that we may each be transformed in the twinkling of an eye once we have reached a certain level of understanding.
Please consider all of the above in terms of John's great revelation that, "Until man can experience on the mental level that which exists on the physical level, he will be bound to the physical." May I reword it slightly to help put it into perspective, "Until we can perceive that which exists in the mirror as only existing there because it first exists in our mind, we will be bound to experiencing what we perceive in the mirror."
Please spare a thought today for John's contribution to our lives and understanding and endeavour to make use of what we have been given.
In Love, Light and Perfection,
"I AM"
Graham Bennett
As a footnote to the original article, I have since published a book called, The List - The Art of Constructive Manifestation, which you can securely purchase through PayPal here.