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Introduction

The suggestion that I write this book came to me as I was driving back to the Minneapolis airport after my 15th college reunion. I had graduated a geology major, and returned as an alternative healer, the sort of alternative healer who makes homeopaths and aromatherapists look downright conventional. I hear voices in my head, for goodness sake. Were all my old friends and acquaintances going to think I'd lost my mind? What of my dear old professors, who had spent four years molding me into a careful and critical thinker?

I had been asking myself those questions for months, and gradually I came to the conclusion that the only person I needed to convince of my sanity was me. If I believed, to the very core of my being, that I heard voices belonging to very wise and loving Spirit Beings, and that these Beings wanted to help me in my healing work -- then other people would see that I have no doubts and they would, perhaps, not see a need to convince me to visit a psychiatrist. And so, when I found myself sitting with six physics majors at dinner the first night, and we were going around the table sharing something of our lives since graduation, I took a deep breath and plunged in.

The response? They said, how remarkable! Tell us more! When did you discover you could do this? How do you think it works? Can you treat the knee I injured last week? And they started sharing some of their own experiences which were difficult to explain with conventional science. Soon we were all speculating about what else could exist beyond the "five senses", and wondering which discoveries could be on the horizon to help mankind understand the Universe more completely. Like the best scientists and rational thinkers, they were open-minded and curious. I'm not so afraid to tell people what I do now.

But it seemed that my work was changing. My Spirit Friends wanted to help me write a book. I've always loved to write, and I can always be sure that anything they nudge me to do will be educational and worthwhile, but I wasn't sure about writing another book of channeled wisdom. There are so many books of this type on the market already, why write another one? They didn't answer, but just smiled silently in my mind.

A few hours later, on the airplane back home, they gave me a list of chapter topics, along with the identity of the Spirit Being who would like to "dictate" each chapter. Several of these Beings were not known to me at the time, so I started visiting them in my mind, asking them to give me the "flavor" of their personalities and perhaps some preview of what they would like to say, if I agreed to help with this book. Before long, my own curiosity had gotten the better of me. I was hooked.

What was Veronica going to say in her concluding chapter, vaguely titled "tomorrow?" It depends a lot on what the others say in the first nine chapters, she replied. But I've been thinking, I may not know what they are going to say yet, but she knows, surely. I'll be helping to choose the best language to capture their ideas and personalities, but I won't be changing the messages. In essence, the book is already written, so she must know what she's going to say at the end. Well, Veronica, am I right? In response, she is giving me an image in my mind, of herself with a finger held up to a lovely but mischievous smile. "shhhh." And now she is using her finger to beckon me forward.

"let's begin...."

1. Reflections on Love

Every person on your planet has a Higher Self, a consciousness which is Divine in nature. Frequently this consciousness remains buried in your minds, and your day-to-day lives are run by a personality consciousness, one which corresponds to the gender, age, profession, and so forth of your current physical incarnation. If you are especially attached to your personality consciousness, you will feel quite lost and miserable, because this is not the True you. You are not your shape, your size, your career, your clothes. You are Divine.

We in Spirit encourage each of you to identify with your Higher Self. Feel it, listen to it, become one with it - and gently let go of the feelings, the voice, the identity of the smaller, personal self. Expressing it another way, we encourage each of you to become a cleaner channel for your own Higher Self. Every human being is a channel, a vehicle for a Divine spark which exists beyond physical dimensions. In fact, you are channeling your Higher Self all the time, even if you are not aware of it and even if the signal becomes distorted during transmission.

Emily has discovered that it is also possible to channel the Higher Selves of other individuals, when they wish to speak to her. I wish to speak to her now, because she and I are very old, very dear friends. More precisely, her Higher Self and I are very old friends - Souls who have lived hundreds of lifetimes together. At the personality level, we are also friends in this lifetime, but we do not speak of spiritual matters and my personality consciousness does not know that the two of us are special friends. Thus, I am only identifying myself by the initial "W" which I chose at random from the alphabet.

Emily feels somewhat uncomfortable with the idea that she is speaking with the Higher Self of a friend, without that friend's knowledge. I don't suppose it would be comforting to her to know that her own Higher Self speaks to hundreds of individuals each day without her knowledge. (what?!) No, I didn't think so. What can I say? Don't be afraid, Emily. Where there is love, everything is safe.

* * * * *

In all the Universe there is only Love.

Wherever Love appears to be missing, that is only an illusion. The illusion of emptiness is created precisely so that the Love can be known more completely.

It is difficult to observe brilliant white light on a background of brilliant white light. On a dark background, the light is magnificent.

Love creates the darkness. We in Spirit say to you, Love the Light and appreciate the darkness for allowing the Light to stand within it, radiating outwards.

Do not hate the darkness. Do not hate anything. Hatred of any kind, including hatred of evil and hatred of the Self, blocks out the Light. Choose to love. Love the world, love the children, love the plants and animals, love the air and water, and love the murderers, love the polluters, love the viruses and bacteria. And most of all, love the Self. You yourself are a manifestation of Love.

In all the Universe there is only Love, so what else could you be?

In all the Universe there is only Consciousness.

Wherever Consciousness appears to be absent, that is only an illusion. The illusion of non-awareness is created precisely so that consciousness can re-discover how magnificent it really is!

You sit by yourself on a rock and stare at the moon, and experience an aching, lonely emptiness so deep that you wonder how you can possibly continue to live. At this very moment, the rock and the moon will begin to call out to you: Remember us! The illusion has served its purpose now. Come back, come dance with us!

The rock is conscious. Each mineral, each molecule, each element, each atom within it is also conscious. Within you, each organ, each tissue, each cell, each strand of DNA is conscious. Each one has its own stories to tell. You are never alone! Such a thing is impossible.

In all the Universe there is only Divinity.

You may call it God or the Creator or Divine Consciousness or Divine Law or the Great Spirit or Love or the Christ Principle or the Almighty or whatever is personally comfortable to you. Just remember that they are all the same, and they are all that is. Everything else is illusion.

God is Love.

If a toddler pulls the tail of a cat, and the cat turns around to scratch him, what does his mother say to the child? "Come here, my love, and let me hold you. I'm so sorry kitty hurt you. She wasn't trying to be mean, you know, she just doesn't like having her tail pulled. But you didn't know that, it's all right. Let's get a bandaid... there, does that feel better now?" This is love.

It is amazing to us in Spirit how many people think God is less loving than a caring mother.
A person makes a simple mistake, and suddenly it is labeled a "sin." God punishes those who commit sins, some people say. If someone makes a mistake and gets hurt, they imagine God would say, "It serves you right. You got what you deserve. Maybe if you're really sorry and make me a lot of promises about how you will behave in the future, I will get you a bandaid. But first I'll let you sit there on the floor and cry for a while, to be sure you've learned your lesson."

God is the most perfect Love in the Universe. How could God behave that way?

Some people will make the argument that God is not Love, or perhaps that God does not even exist, because otherwise the young child would never have been scratched by the cat in the first place. But consider the mother who is trying to raise a happy and healthy child. Will she never allow him to play with the cat? When he is 15, will she refuse to let him light a match, because he might burn himself? Will she take him to work and back when he is 35 because she is afraid to let him learn to drive?

God does not want to keep you in safely padded play rooms all your lives. That is not love. God wants to see you fly, be independent, learn to make decisions, set your own course. Naturally, you will make mistakes from time to time, naturally you will experience pain and frustration. You may even become angry at God for seeming to abandon you.

God never abandons. God never punishes, or scolds or lectures or gives dire warnings. God is Love. God and Love are everywhere, because there is nothing else in the entire Universe.

Your pain comes from the choices you have made, not from God. God allowed you to make the choice that resulted in your pain because God loves you and would never take away your free will.

* * * * *

God is always, always available at your side, to give comfort and advice, and to heal your pain if you ask for help.

Remember, "God" is just a human word, a name with the same meaning as Love or Consciousness. There is nothing in the Universe that is not God or Love or Consciousness. As long as you direct your prayer to some element of the true Universe, and not toward illusion, your prayer will reach God. You may pray to Christ or Buddha or Allah or the Virgin Mary or Saint Patrick. You may pray to Vishnu or Hanuman or your family's household gods at a small altar in the corner of your house. You may pray to the stars or the moon or the Great Spirit. You may pray to your family ancestor spirits or to your recently deceased grandmother. You may pray to a dog or a flower or a speck of dust. God is big enough to hold all those. God is not petty or jealous. Pray with love to something that is the embodiment of love for you personally, and your prayer will reach God.

Consider the prayer, also. Isn't a prayer a loving message from you to this one that you love? Prayers can be made in churches and temples, with elaborate ritual and ceremony, or while kneeling beside one's bed, or at the laundromat. Prayers can be words or pictures or a smile, a message that expresses gratitude or shares feelings or makes a request.

The form of God and the structure of your prayer are not important, as long as they are based on love. All messages of Love reach to the source of Love, and Love answers all messages. Then, because Love grants you freewill, you may choose whether or not to receive the reply.

* * * * *

There is no valor in embracing your pain and holding it close, as if it was meant to be there. Likewise, there is not a single person in your world who is "meant to be" suffering for any reason. Pain is the natural consequence of a freewill choice -- in this lifetime or a previous lifetime. Let it go and choose differently next time.

You ask, what about the pain of others? If their pain comes from their own choices, then am I responsible for helping them ease their pain? No. You are not responsible for taking care of anyone other than yourself. But consider the situation carefully. If you see someone who is suffering, and you know that you could help, but you choose not to, you are also making a choice! Perhaps you will also experience pain as a natural consequence of making this particular choice, if the choice was not based on love.

If you give $10 to a man begging on the street, be clear in your mind that you are giving to help yourself feel good, because you love yourself, not because you think you should, or because you feel sorry for the man, or because you think that you are helping him. Give because it feels good to be generous.

Now you may ask, is it ever appropriate not to say yes to a request for help? Of course. In order to avoid pain, you need to make choices based on love. Frequently the most loving response to a request for help is, "I'm so sorry, but I don't have the strength or energy to help right now. I'm going home to take a long hot bath and then go to bed early." If you are truly tired, then this is not a self-ish response, this is a self-love response. It is a loving choice.

The same principle applies to any opportunity to help, not only to a request for help. If you know there is a community clean-up day at the local park and you are planning to stay home and rest that day, your decision should not be affected by a personal phone call requesting your help. If decide to go after you have been phoned, why did you change your mind? Was it because you felt too awkward or guilty to say no? Was it because you make a policy out of never volunteering and always waiting to be asked? Or, on the other hand, was it because you just learned that your best friend would be there and you were even more inclined to spend the day with her than to stay home to rest?

And now Emily is asking the question: How does one know when it is more loving to help others than it is to take care of oneself? You will know because of the way it feels inside, assuming that you have not forgotten how to listen to your inner feelings.

Love never causes the one who loves any pain.

If you give love to another, in the form of time or attention or energy or an object, and you feel even the smallest twinge of resentment or discomfort, then you were not in fact giving love. You were perhaps meeting an obligation, or allowing yourself to be pressured into something, or simply acting without any awareness of where your resources were going.

If your action is not motivated by love, you will feel some level of pain in the moment, and you will also experience pain later on, as a consequence of making an unwise choice!

In a situation where you are obliged to give, as when it is time to pay your taxes, can you see how important it is to gauge your inner response, and make every effort to mail your check with joy?

Whenever you give, give with love. If you cannot give with love, make every effort not to give, or to delay your giving until you can muster up the joy to go with it.

Emily is wondering what I would say about a hypothetical selfish millionaire, who made his fortune off cheap foreign labor, and now happily spends his time in exclusive country clubs and his money on vacation homes and yachts. First of all, I would like to gently suggest that this picture reflects a common misconception in your world. Most rich people are not selfish with their money. It is very difficult to become rich if one has a grasping and hoarding attitude. And the ones who are selfish are rarely happy. They may spend their fortunes on luxuries rather than giving those fortunes to charities, but they are miserable. Luxuries cannot fill the emptiness created by lack of love. Have compassion for these people. They have chosen a hard road.

Anyone who is well-off (and this includes nearly everyone in the US and other affluent nations) will find joy when they learn to make loving choices about sharing their abundance. And as long as they pay their taxes with groans and grumbling, and make charitable donations solely to give a certain public impression or to satisfy pangs of guilt, they will feel a degree of pain and misery.

Those who are not well-off and would like to increase their prosperity would do well to examine their own attitude toward abundance. Do they believe that abundance is being controlled by wealthy people or institutions or governments, that the only way they can become abundant is to take from the wealthy, by force or law, and hoard and protect every penny? Do they believe in scarcity? That there is not enough for everyone? I would again gently suggest that this attitude, more than any innate selfishness on the part of those with wealth, blocks these people from finding abundance. Their desire for wealth is not as strong as their desire to judge the world as scarce and selfish - and since they can't have both, they are given the one they want more.

Among some people who are seeking abundance, there is the tendency to see money as "dirty," a sign that the wealthy person is not on a creative or spiritual path. Many artists, poets, musicians, healers, charity workers, etc., block their own prosperity with this judgment. Subconsciously, they would rather be poor than judge themselves as materialistic or superficial. And so they are! Their un-loving judgments about wealthy people return to them as pain in their own lives.

* * * * *

There is no "reward" for living a life of self-sacrifice. A person does not receive blessings in this life, a seat next to God in heaven, or easy subsequent incarnations for putting himself last and treating himself as unimportant. If he does not love himself and take care of himself, he will suffer.

Now, many Souls choose lives of self-sacrifice as part of their education -- in other words, to help themselves learn the value of self-love. We in Spirit applaud the initiative these Souls have taken in designing their education this way, and look forward to the time when they feel they can learn in another way!

Have you ever watched, with tender compassion, a small puppy trying to reach his favorite toy under the bed? He struggles and strains and finally pauses breathless. But then it seems he is struck by an inspiration -- he realizes he could reach the toy easily from the other side of the bed. In a moment he is playing with it again, a wonderful look of triumph on his face. Would you deprive your beloved small friend his moment of triumph by retrieving the toy for him before he had a chance to try to get it himself? Would you scold him for trying to reach the toy from the near side of the bed? Would you expect him to think of trying from another side before he had tried a few times to reach it the most obvious way? We think not. But you might start offering some encouragement if he seems to be getting too frustrated, and maybe a few hints and clues to help him realize how he could solve his problem. This is love.

Many people make unloving choices over and over, and receive pain over and over, and take many, many lifetimes to hear the Divine hints and clues all around them. But that is OK, they are never in any danger. They have all the time in the Universe, and eventually they will be triumphant.

* * * * *

Some people's Souls choose pain itself as part of their education. Perhaps they want to experience what the world is like when one is blind, or gain first-hand knowledge about depression in order to be more empathetic toward loved ones who have been depressed. If they have not made any choices which would give them these kinds of pain as a natural consequence, they may freely choose that pain directly.

Quite often Souls choose pain and suffering directly because they have agreed to give others around them a chance to develop compassion. How often through history have men looked at those who are suffering in a very obvious and public way, with leprosy or AIDS for example, and declared that these people are being "punished by God for their sins" or are "paying off their karmic debts." It is much more likely that these individuals are highly evolved Souls, who have agreed to lives of public agony as a service to their fellow men! Are you making the most of the opportunity they are giving you?

It is certainly possible to choose pain and suffering, and to make sacrifices for others, out of pure love! A sacrifice made for others out of pure love is a beautiful thing, and by very definition, it causes no real pain to the one making the sacrifice. Do you think Christ suffered on the cross? Not at all! He went willingly and joyfully to his death, because God had shown him how his death would benefit the world.

* * * * *

One action truly motivated by love will make up for many actions where love was lacking.
The harried housewife gives all week to her family, but she may not always give with love. Her family may take her for granted and not offer much assistance or appreciation. Inside, perhaps deeply buried where she can barely feel it, she is resentful. In 20 years, her continued choice to not act in the most loving way (in this case by noticing her resentment and learning to love herself more), she may develop arthritis. But once a month she makes arrangements to go out for dinner -- just her and her two best girlfriends. They have a nice meal, with wine, and she comes home late, very happy. She may not get the arthritis after all.

If she were to feel guilty about this act of self-love, however, she would completely erase its benefit!

* * * * *

Thoughts are just as powerful as actions.

A negative, fearful, hateful, or judgmental thought will return to you in the form of pain as effectively as any action that is not motivated by love.

Consider the average family who spends the evening in front of the television. Perhaps they watch the news, and feel angry toward a criminal who committed a crime, depressed about the latest environmental disaster, and judgmental toward a politician who had an affair. Then they watch a spy-thriller movie. They cheer for the "good guy" and hiss at the villains and shake with fright at all the suspenseful parts. You can not imagine all the suffering that is poised to return to this unsuspecting family! Of course, it is possible to watch uplifting shows on television, and even to watch the news and movies from a detached point of view, without getting caught up in all the negativity, but very few people choose to do this.

Remember the power of love to cancel out the products of illusion! We in Spirit suggest to you to fill your day with loving actions and your mind with loving thoughts, to the highest degree that you are able.

Simply do the best you can. If you think negative, critical thoughts about yourself for not doing as well as you think you should have -- well, you have just made the situation worse!

Notice how much you like the music on the radio or the flowers in the neighbor's front yard -- you are thinking a loving thought. Say a blessing over your food, smile as you pass grandma's photo on the mantle piece. When your boss has been particularly nasty, consider that perhaps he has made some unloving choices in a past lifetime, and now he has chosen the painful consequences, the poor man.... it must be hard to have such an unpleasant disposition. Find some compassion for him if you can, or do your best to think of something else.

Whenever you give, give with love, and this includes giving energy to the world in the form of your thoughts! If you put your thought-energy behind the idea that all politicians are crooks, you will directly contribute to the manifestation of this idea (because thought creates form), and also your non-loving and judgmental thought will carry pain back to you. If you find it difficult to think the thought that all politicians are dedicated and honest (which would be the best and most loving thought, if not the most technically accurate), then try a thought like this: The world being what it is, we do seem to have a lot of crooked politicians around, which is regrettable, but surely not inevitable. Any day now there is sure to be a major change in the situation....

In a Universe that is only Love, what is the point of having a pessimistic outlook? Eventually, all illusion will dissolve and you and your world will all return to One, so why delay your journey Home by creating more illusion? Negative thinking creates your negative surroundings and keeps you stuck there.

* * * * *

Love is much more powerful than truth!

If you look carefully at a loaf of bread, and you think that it is enough to feed four people, then you are probably right. Your thinking that it would feed four, and the collective thoughts of thousands or millions of rational people that such a loaf would feed four, all come together to manifest a loaf of bread that would feed four. In this case, your thinking and the thinking of the general population are fairly automatic and based on your past thinking and experiences.

But imagine you are Christ. You have one loaf of bread, and 100 dearly beloved friends to whom you wish to feed the bread. Look carefully at the loaf of bread, and direct a loving thought toward it -- a thought that contains no doubt or fear, a thought which is stronger than all the other thoughts that say it will just feed four. "You, my fine little loaf of bread, can feed 100 people easily, with some leftover." Your thought -- your gift of love to the Universe -- will be more powerful than the "truth" that one loaf of bread can't feed 100 people.

We in Spirit invite you to use your love to change the world, literally! If it is too much of a stretch for you to imagine, without any doubts, that your loaf will feed 100 -- then begin by imagining that it will feed five. Anything is possible, with love, if you believe that it is.

* * * * *

When you give love, give the deepest, strongest, purest type of love you can imagine.
Do you remember the way love felt the first time you fell in love, in high school or college? Your beloved smiled at you, and suddenly the day was perfect, life was perfect, everything in the whole world was perfect. Your landlady came to complain you hadn't mowed the grass, and you greeted her warmly and set to mowing with a song in your heart. A policeman pulled you over because one headlight wasn't working, and you felt nothing but love, for the policeman, the old car, your parents who had refused to lend you the money to get it fixed.... All you felt was love. There was no room for anything else. Love was intoxicating! That is the best and purest form of love.

The best and purest love rips you apart
tears the world limb from limb
until all illusion is reduced to dust
and you stand alone before God on a barren plain
without a trace of fear
and say, I know you.
I know love.

Unfortunately, this kind of love doesn't last very long on Earth, in general. It tends to get mixed up and adulterated with hormones and possessiveness and control and chores and mortgage payments. Here in the Spirit world, that is the kind of love we experience almost constantly. We are madly, madly in love with each other and with every single object (and consciousness) from atoms to stars. We study, we work, we play, we rest, all with a song in our hearts. Life is grand! Everything in the whole Universe is perfect!

We are in love! We are love! We are conscious, we are Divine, we are part of God (there is nothing else) and we'd like to share everything with you.

With love, your friend W.

Interlude 1

It is November 2005. I haven't read through this book at all in several years. Mostly when I open it up to a random page and read a few paragraphs, I end up rolling my eyes, closing the book, and stuffing it back in the drawer. I've thought about just throwing it away. But I spent so much time writing this book, and the process was so important in my own life, it seems a pity not to do something with it. So now I'm trying my best to dust it off and make it "fit." Ideally, I would like it to fit the "new me" and also fit today's potential readers. But how do I manage that?

"Fitting" is a touchy subject for me right now. I moved to the Netherlands in 2003 to be with someone I love very much. I am working hard to learn the language and the customs here. But despite my best efforts, I don't fit. In fact, I don't think I'll ever fit, and the more I try to fit the more trouble I seem to have. I'm beginning to think that it makes more sense for me to look for happiness in the Netherlands as a misfit. As long as I respect and try to understand other people, I don't have to become just like them, right? Maybe they will respect me and want to understand my point of view, or maybe not. In any case, I think it is time for me to take the first step, and respect the "old me" who wrote this book, and try to understand her.

Who was the old me? She was certainly someone with a hundred thousand questions and no good answers - or at least no answers that she found completely satisfying. Like a woman with 100 dresses in her closet and nothing to wear to dinner, she read a lot of books and tried on a lot of different ideas, but couldn't find exactly the right thing. The old Emily was searching for spiritual meaning, and she knew that she should avoid becoming too attached to any particular outcome, and also that she should avoid becoming too identified with the "seeker" if she wanted one day to become a "finder." She should find the truth within, and feel it to be true in her heart, and not simply believe it to be true in her mind. And if it was hard to find it, then she should create it, using the power of her own thoughts and beliefs. There were a lot of "should's," including some very wise advice in one book which encouraged the reader to slay the dragon "thou shalt." The old Emily got overwhelmed, broke down from the stress of it all, and ended up with terrible chronic headaches.

Now I look back and see that I really made it so complicated for myself. Why did I have so many questions? Most of the answers were not important.

Part of me wants to say to the reader now: close this book. Go outside, pick up a leaf, and BE with it. Then you will have all the spiritual meaning there is. This book, if it prevents you from BEing with a leaf RIGHT NOW, is nothing more than an obstacle on your path.

Yet, at the time I wrote this book, I had no idea myself how to BE with a leaf. I think I needed to ask all my questions and get all my answers before I could go on. Having a structure, with Spirit Guides and karmic laws and lots of organized details, gave me a measure of inner stability. If someone were to ask me now, do I believe that I actually channeled this book from Spirit Beings, my answer would be, why does it matter? The experience I had and still have is consistent with that explanation, but maybe there are other explanations that are just as good or better. The point is, I can BE a leaf now - and what a tremendous thing that is! And I can BE a Spirit Guide named "W", and in the next chapter a Chamomile deva, and that is tremendous also! "Real" or "imagined," the world as I experience it is a tremendous place. That is worth sharing, I think.

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