I phrased the question that leads off this blog article very carefully. I am very aware that many readers will have beliefs very different from mine. Each of us has come to our beliefs based on the unique experiences that have made up our lives. Of course, this guarantees that our beliefs will differ, but more importantly, it implies that each of our personal systems of belief has the same validity as any other. Where I am going with this is that we all have a lot of faith in our beliefs and I don’t think anyone has the right to say that their beliefs are right and anyone else’s beliefs are wrong. Changing what anyone else believes is not my intent with this blog. We need more respect for everyone’s viewpoints in our world, not less.
With this clearly stated, I am about to discuss topics and ideas that probably will not fit in well with the view of the universe strongly held by some of my readers. I will be discussing the concepts that imply that our world was purposely created and this Creator may conceivably choose to speak to us through the inspired words of average, everyday people. Someone who does not believe such a Creator exists may find such a discussion of no real value, right from the start. Alternatively, someone who holds to firm doctrines that preclude God speaking to us in this way, could easily be offended or put off by the rest of this article. This article is not for them, it is for people who either already have accepted such potential modern revelations as valuable or are at least open to considering such possibilities.
With this behind me, just how would you know who was talking if you heard or saw God’s words? Have you ever thought about this question in any detail? I am pretty sure that most of us were given examples of something like the Bible and told: “This is God’s Word” and other teachings were described as: “This isn’t God’s word” and that was pretty much what we have always believed. I know that is how it was for me much of my life. Have you ever asked yourself just how the original writers knew what was divinely inspired and what wasn’t? I contend that all sacred writings were derived from the original writer’s personal experience and then communicated to other individuals, no matter what the ultimate source of the information actually was. This would be equally true of God-inspired text and text that was mistakenly believed to be divinely inspired but wasn’t. What, then, determines when certain revelations become widely accepted and later viewed as canonical text as opposed to those that never are widely accepted?
I can only conclude that it is how the original writer’s words affected their listeners or readers. This could be described as a kind of resonance that those words had with the experiences of the listeners’ or readers’ lives. It is a judgment that many individual people make over time. When enough people have judged a text as divinely inspired, the members of a group tend to accept this, and this is especially true when the group has accepted certain leaders as authorities and these authorities lead them in that direction. Usually, it becomes part of the cannon and often viewed as our Creator’s actual words that were merely transcribed by the original writer.
What if God chooses to speak to us again, through some modern day human being? On what basis could anyone say this could not happen? How could human limits be placed on God? If He did speak, wouldn’t we be back to the very beginning in the process where a prophet, great teacher or just an average writer who has been uniquely inspired was hearing His words clearly and speaking or writing them for us? This is precisely the kind of situation we may now be witnessing with certain people who are “channeling” or doing “automatic writing” of words they feel are inspired and being revealed through them. I have come across a number of sources that I resonate strongly with, but I want to discuss today the one that seems to be head and shoulders above all others, in my experience.
The writer I am referring to is a lovely lady from Fairfield, Iowa, Gloria Wendroff. I will not try to summarize or interpret Gloria’s path that led her to begin writing messages she feels are from God, here. For interested readers, though, here is a link to her website where you can read this fascinating story in her own words:
http://www.heavenletters.org/the-story-of-heavenletters-all-in-one-page.html
What I want to focus on today is how I came to start reading Heavenletters and why I feel they are so important to me in helping attain the goals I have set for myself in my life. In my bio (that I have placed on the header, above), called: “Who I am and the purpose of this site,” I relate how my beliefs went from a very materialistic scientific orientation to a desire to search for possible non-physical connections between the events of the world and a spiritual reality that lies beneath the physical.. In many areas of science and even in engineering research I found exactly what I was looking for. I found a lot of research into various anomalies in many fields that just could not be explained within the accepted scientific theories.
What amazed me the most was that there were very important themes that ran through all these bodies of data – they were all virtually saying the same things about the nature of the world and this also matched the puzzling messages of physics and quantum mechanics. This could not be a coincidence. Something else was at work here and its evidence was very reproducible. But no one could explain these findings, not even our best minds. I read widely, looking for any hint at an explanation.
A sort of a breakthrough occurred when I happened upon a reference to Jane Robert’s “Seth material.” This consisted of over twenty books concerning ideas and information Jane had “channeled” from a self described “non-material entity” who called himself “Seth.” Years ago I had read some of them, they sounded interesting, but not too practical. I had taken a new look at them and realized that there were potential answers to very vexing questions buried within these books. From there I looked at similar materials that were published by people who were channeling or doing automatic writing. Many were pretty far out and not too useful, but certain ones were surprisingly helpful. Not only that, but the messages in the best of these writings were very internally self-consistent, as well as consistent amongst the different writers. They were also very consistent with the science that had led me on this search in the first place!
I was finding answers to the questions that had been raised by my exploration of the scientific anomalies. These answers were being confirmed in many different sources. I also found that what I was reading was resonating with me on a very deep level. The readings not only matched my experience well, but it seemed to do so for a lot of other people as well, since these writings tended to be very popular. Perhaps the single most important indication to me that there is truth being presented in these writings is the effect they have been having on me as I read them. Many of the passages either strike me as beautiful or give an “Aha!” experience of feeling like they are obvious answers that we have somehow overlooked. In addition, people also report healing in their lives as they engage with some of these sources. I can feel my life changing for the better as I continue on this path. As I learn, I am feeling more at peace, less anxious and more fulfilled.
Is all this absolute proof of anything? Nah, I don’t think so. I don’t think scientific proof of these contentions are even possible. What I would recommend, though, is that if you are interested in the kinds of writings I am discussing, consider reading a few Heavenletters. Let me quote for you a recent statement by a reader who frequently provides marvelously insightful comments on the Heavenletters forums. Berit Delaini, from Italy, wrote:
“I present Heavenletters as Love Letters from God, more than to read, they are to be felt. Watch what happens inside your heart and then see if you like them, I tell people.”
Here are a couple of recommendations of which Heavenletters you might read as an introduction:
First, one called: God Speaks, published on November 17, 2000. This letter describes how God views His children. Here is a link:
http://www.heavenletters.org/god-speaks.html
Second, one called: How to Read a Heavenletter, published on June 22, 2004. This letter tells us of the value of Heavenletters as we read them.
http://www.heavenletters.org/how-to-read-a-heavenletter.html
One more thing, I have included an eBook that includes Heaveneletters pertaining to our experience of grief in a page that can be accessed by a link in the header at the top of this page. If you know someone who is grieving and who would be open to reading heavenletters, this might be helpful for them.
Gloria has published thousands of these letters and a new one comes out every morning. They continue to amaze me.
Love and peace to all,
Chuck
Science and Spirit 
Congratulations on the blog Chuck. I throughly enjoyed your insightful writing.
I’d love to hear about some of the “scientific anomalies” you found explained outside of science. I’ve equally interested science and logic as I am with creativity and spirituality. I begun to see that science and spirituality come from and point to the same thing. Science and spirituality are like two springs that emerge from the same mountain top, eventually becoming rivers they merge into the same ocean.
Heavenletters are a treasure! God in Heavenletters uses both science and poetry.
Santhan, I was thrilled to see a post from you on this blog. I am honored! I think we completely agree that science and spirit (and religion and technology also, for that matter) must all be one unified system. How could it be any other way? We humans have developed an intellectual tradition of seeing our experience artificially divided right down the middle. I do believe this was a useful mental experiment for us to have played with for the last two centuries or so, but it is now time for all of us to break down that imaginary wall.
The theme of this blog partially involves participating in the effort to re-integrate our divided mass consciousness. There will be posts in the future discussing many of the nuances of this goal that I suspect you may greatly enjoy.
I have also completed seven rough draft chapters of a book discussing the scientific research that shows what many of our mystics in the past and many writers that deal with metaphysics have been saying is accurate. We are all inter-connected and so is every part of the physical world (among many other similar insights). I would be happy to forward these chapters to you if you want. I had put this book on hold for the last six months, but I am about to restart the writing again. I think these seven chapters will end up being condensed into two or three, but they will remain the heart of the book. All the rest of the chapters will either be leading up to these key ones or they will be helping the reader to incorporate the insights into their understanding and their lives. When I get the revised outline complete, I will probably be putting it up as a page for those who want to read it and help me in this project.
Thanks, again, my good friend, for your very helpful comment.
Chuck
There is so much I could say in response to your beautiful words. I could go on and on with all that your writing stimulates in me and probably never stop! I have so much I could say in support of your beautiful heartfelt writing. But, as it is, I’m going to question one of the things you wrote!
You said: Someone who does not believe such a Creator exists may find such a discussion of no real value, right from the start.
Of course, you say may, so you’re covered! As it happens, the downloader of Heavenletters(tm), Love Letters from God, for most of her life, ignored existence of God!
Your blog is one of the most exciting blogs I have read on the worldwide web!
Thank you.
You are so right, Gloria, I did put that “may” in very carefully. I wanted to leave those who are not in the mood to be questioning their beliefs a way out, gracefully. I really do think it would be very useful for those who do not believe that a loving Creator is behind this amazing world, to read a few Heavenletters. I think those who are interested will ignore what I said and go right to them. But it is all their choice!
(For those who are reading this and have not yet realized who Gloria is, she is the individual who writes down or types up what she receives as God’s word every day in Heavenletters. There are thousands of Heavenletters in Gloria’s archives. I have read many of them. They are soul stirring, mind calming and healing in many, many ways. Even if you don’t believe in God, or you don’t believe He would speak through someone like Gloria, you will still benefit in the reading. Gloria is also a superbly talented writer and has her own blog that is quite stimulating and lovely to read in its own right. For those interested, here are two quick links: Gloria’s blog with today’s blog entry: http://www.godwriting.org/godwriting/love-and-godwriting%E2%84%A2-are-superhuman-gods-presence.htm. Today’s daily Heavenletter: http://www.heavenletters.org/enough-of-requirements-for-love.html. If I have it right, there are well over 30,000 subscribers to Heavenletters and many subscribers circulate their daily letters to others. This number is growing daily and includes people from most countries around the world.)
It is so nice to be able to welcome you here to my new blog, dear. You do such superb work and are such a blessing to us all. Thanks for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to visit and comment!
Love,
Chuck
You have launched a wonderful blog, Chuck. I fondly remember the many years I spent with the Seth Material and other great channelings like the Pathwork of Eva Pierrakos and of course with science and what is called the convergence of science and spirituality or of science and mysticism – not to speak of the many spiritual traditions of the world I have studied. I think there is a great demand for this kind of knowledge in the world today. May your blog become a veritable hub that benefits many.
Having said that, I don’t think I can be helpful here since all of that abruptly ended when I found Heavenletters almost four years ago. Quite suddenly, I found myself unable to speak about “science and spirituality” and so many other topics I used to enjoy. From my understanding of Heavenletters, my answer to the question that forms the title of this blog entry is, You know by the depth of the resonance you feel. And to the degree you resonate with the words of Heavenletters, they are your words.
So, feeling somewhat dumbfounded by Heavenletters and, for now at least, happy with keeping quiet, I drink to this blog and to you.
You know that I like to quote from Heavenletters. Here is something I found today. It made me laugh and throw up my hands and laugh some more. It just feels so wonderful to not know what to say.
“Oftentimes you think you are trying to understand the spiritual aspects of life, but it is really the physical that you try to understand. The physical is what is unbelievable. The physical, which is of the senses, makes no sense, does it? It is the physical that you are a stranger to. As with many things, you have switched things around in your moiling mind.
“It is the spirit that you are comfortable with. Discomfort does not exist spiritually. Discomfort and all the why’s it attracts are the mystery. My love for you is the Known. Only the physical has mountains and mesas. There is no halfway up in Heaven. Heaven has no proportions. Infinity cannot be measured.
“Nor can you be measured. You are immeasurable. You have been mistaken about yourself and who you are, and you have mistaken the physical for real and have thought that near and far exist. They do not exist. They never did.
“But for convenience, even though there is neither, We talk about the mirage of near and far so that you may know I draw you ever closer until you know that you are fully unified with Me, but, of course, there is no until.”
Oops, forgot to hug you.
It’s good night for me now.
Love,
Jochen
Thanks so much, Jochen, for your kind words and your wishes for my blog’s success.
You mention you have read the Seth Material. At one point, I spent a lot of time reading about 20 of Jane Roberts’ books and extracting what I felt were the most informative Seth quotes. I collated and organized them. What I found when I did this amazed me. The messages became much more clear and distinct, beautiful and consistent. This work literally launched me from my materialistic worldview into a much more metaphysical approach to things. I had put these selected quotes into a few chapters that I planned to publish. I never completed it, but I still have those chapters. If you want to read them for any reason, drop me a line and I will attach them to an email. I understand that you are not pursuing these sorts of materials at this point, but it might be fun. (This offer is open to anyone interested.)
I love the image of you offering a toast to this blog! I clearly recall a couple years ago expressing the desire that some day we could get together and have a few drinks and spend at least a few hours in face to face conversation. I would love the opportunity if it ever occurs. If I make it to Germany at some point, I will try to fulfill that intent. If you make it to the US, please look me up.
This is a wonderful Heavenletter that you quote. It is one I haven’t read, but it contains a fascinating twist of ideas that delights me also. I will definitely look it up. I would love to hear from you any time you feel like commenting! I hope my efforts here live up to your expectations. If they don’t it won’t be for a lack of my effort. It is great fun and even a relief to at last have a simple means to communicate the many things I want to discuss with others like you, my friend.
Love and hugs,
Chuck
Chuck
I would like those Seth quotes please. That is if you can get the email to work. I have been doing some reading on your blog today. I will get to commenting later.
Love
Mary
Mary,
I will try to send you the Seth abstract chapters via an email attachment. I would just put them up as a page on this blog, but I am not sure if I would be violating any copyright rules in doing this since there are so many verbatum quotes from Jane Robert’s books about the “Seth Material.”
Love,
Chuck
Ceegie replys after reading the blog on How would God communicate with us? I suggested to my wife, Allene, that she read it. Immediately on reading the first paragraph she said, “This sounds like the Cross-talk that you talk about in your book, “Call Me Ishmael.” Here is what I said in that book:
This book advocates Cross–talk not crossfire. Cross–talk is civil talk. It is gracious, respectful and considerate. Like love, it “is patient and kind… It is not arrogant or rude.” It “does not insist on its own way (I Cor. 13:4–5).” Crossfire is mean talk. It is the opposite of those adjectives used to describe Cross–talk. I have watched programs on television in which the participants engage in crossfire. They talk over one another. You have difficulty hearing what they are saying. A song written by Simon and Garfunkel had this line: “Everyone is talking at me. I can’t hear a word they are saying.” You get the feeling that the participants are not listening to one another. Much talk in today’s world is like that. We are trying to get “one up” on the other person.
I want to read your article closely, go to the sites you reccomend and give a more extended answer. I am with you on the need for us to listen to one another with an open mind.
Respectively, Ceegie
Ceegie,
I am so glad you found my post about how we know God is speaking to us to be worthwhile, and I’m glad you shared it with Allene. The stories and theme of Call Me Ishmael definitely are related to what I say in this blog article and what is printed everyday in Heavenletters, for that matter. We completely agree on the lack of insight produced by the “crossfire” sort of dialogue. I do aim for your concept of “cross-talk” in my writing.
I am very interested in what you and Allene think about Heavenletters and their whole concept. I think I have already given my take on this, but I will expand further. I do not have the quote from the Gospels right off, but I am sure, you being a minister, you will know what I am referring to. I recall that Jesus had said that we can do everything he has done and more. It is also reported in the Gospels that hespent much time talking to his Father in prayer, and I think it is clear to me that his Father answered him directly. I believe he also said something to the effect that he spoke only the words the Father gave to him.
Now, if all this is correct, we all have the innate ability to speak directly to God and hear His words and we can speak the words He gives us. I believe this is what Gloria Wendroff in Heavenletters is doing. Again, by my reading of the New Testament and Heavenletters, I find no essential inconsistencies in the messages between these two sources.
Thanks for your wonderful comments, my friend, and I look forward to your further comments on these topics.
Chuck
From Ceegie,
I have read your blog which includes the idea of “automatic writing.” I did not know what this entailed so I looked it up on the internet and came to an understanding. Personally, I do not sit quietly at my computer and type. My experience of being quiet comes at night. As I lie in the bed quietly, thoughts come to me, ways of expressing things. If they are important enough, I get up and get a piece of paper and jot down the key ideas. The next morning I go to my computer and begin writing. When this process takes place I always have the feeling that I have not written this, I have been written through. When I finished writing my book, “Call Me Ishmael” and read it I thought I do not have the talent to have created this. I have been inspired by “Someone” beyond myself. At the end of the book there is the poem “My Quest.” I wrote that poem a number of years ago. I had gone back to school and taken a number of courses in psychology. The thrust of the courses were in the direction of behaviorism. I accepted the concept that we are sum of our past experiences. I interpreted this to mean that I had no real freedom unless there was “Someone” outside of my experiences who had experienced all there is to experience. Believing that, it made sense to me to feel that this “Someone” could see opportunities in my past experience that I chould not see if left to myself. With that thought, a sense of freedom returned and one night I had the beginning thoughts of the poem “My Quest.” Over the next week the poem was written and re-written until the final form was before me. On reading it, there was the thought I have been written through, I did not do this alone, this is to good to come from me alone.
Here is a footnote that I attached to the poem in later addition of the book:
In this poem Atheists refers to the logical positivist who is a person who holds a philosophy asserting the primacy of observation in assessing the truth of statements of fact and holding that metaphysical and subjective arguments not based on observable data are meaningless. Regarding miracles, David Hume did not deny the possibility of miracles. But he did argue that miracles would always be less probable than some alternative explanation.
Here is a copy of the poem from the book, “Call Me Ishmael.”
MY QUEST
With superlative questions some persons live.
They demand empirical data before believing;
majestic computations prior to conceding.
Their disbelief is honest, their skepticism arrayed.
With superlative questions these persons die!
They are the atheists.
With superlative answers some persons live.
They have divine revelations to prove its all true;
marvelous miracles to verify it too.
Their dogmas are rigid, their devotion assured.
With superlative answers, these persons die!
They are the believers.
With superlative faith some persons live.
They have no absolutes to end the quest,
no tangible evidence to put it all to rest.
Their truths unproved, their trust remains.
With superlative faith, these persons die!
They are the questors.
I value the warm devotion of believers.
I do not malign atheism’s honest doubt, but
It is from the questors I take my inspiration:
O God, grant me their grace
To live with unanswered questions,
to die in unconquered faith.
Ceegie,
Your comment, here, expands the theme of this article nicely. You have experienced what I think is a great truth: we have access to an enormous source of beauty and wisdom that does not originate in the accumulated experiences of the individual life we are currently living, nor in our intellectual explorations and creations. It appears like the only access we have to this source is when we look inward within our own minds. I would say we all have this access if we only become aware that it exists and begin to look. ( But I think it takes some courage to do so.)
Gloria Wendroff, the person who types up the daily Heavenletters that she feels inspired to write, goes through a very similar process to what you describe for your own writing. She also reports the feeling of not having written what comes through her pen or word processor. In addition, she says what comes out is far beyond what she is individually capable of. Gloria teaches seminars that she calls “Godwriting” workshops. The participants in her workshops also report this experience of not feeling like they have ownership of what they write during her workshops (and later, too). Not only that, but when others read what is written by them in their Godwriting work, it is a different experience that feels very “true” and feels beyond what average people are capable of.
Is this any different than the “inspiration” that artists and poets feel as they create their beauty? I suspect these are one and the same experience being manifested in different ways. I have always viewed the inspiration of artists to be a mysterious, almost random event. I wonder if this automatic writing process, while tapping into these human potentials, is a means to access this tremendous source of wisdom and beauty at will.
I am glad you included your poem from your book. It is nice to read it again. It is a very beautiful and poetic statement of your approach to life, very much in line with the whole book. I particularly like the ending:
O God, grant me their grace
To live with unanswered questions,
to die in unconquered faith.
What a beautiful prayer! Thank you.
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