Gerdean [T/R]: This is Gerdean. I have a checklist of things I want to do -- to get comfortable and get ready for this thing. One thing is to get myself into a state of prayer. I want to thank Kelly and Tom for their technical assistance and Manu for setting up this system and getting it rolling. Even though we remain apart physically, we can convene in this architectural field that we've been given. (Pause) Also, I want to thank Michael for everything we've been given, every opportunity, every challenge … (pause) and the Father, of course, for overseeing it all. (Pause) I feel the circuits enclosing around me now so I'll be quiet and see what happens, along with you.

TOMAS: Greetings! I am Tomas, your trusty servant and friend, here to meet and greet with you once more in the press forward into the greater dimensions of consciousness. I greet you along with a host of other heavenly helpers who also take a great interest in your doings and our occasions to join in this fashion. We embrace you in the spirit as friends and teachers, as elder brothers, and welcome your presence, your attendance, and your questions.

I thought perhaps this evening I would speak to you a bit about what you call "channel." There is great controversy around the word channel -- channeler, channeling -- and, as usual, it is just a word. The emotional connotations of words affect your sociology and I, as an original sociologist -- on my world I was a sociologist, or cultural anthropologist -- how people get along, how they engage with one another is of endless fascination for me. And so, language is a very important factor in how people get along and on your world the problem of semantics makes your work and ours much more difficult than is necessary were you to have a greater appreciation for the word itself, without the prejudicial impact of what your limited understanding of that word might mean.

There is a reference, for example, in Rodan of Alexandria where he, Rodan, is talking about finances and money. I know economics is of great and compelling interest to you these days, and wealth or lack thereof has the attention of many. And Rodan says that wealth tends to run in certain "well organized channels" and so here we have a definition of channels as an avenue through which something travels. A highway can be considered a channel; a tunnel, of course; and an individual.

Each of you can be considered a channel, considering you open your mouth and words come out, attitudes are reflected in your every utterance, and so everyone is a channel of their own voice, their own thoughts, their own expressions. There is nothing prejudicial about that, nothing negative, nothing positive; it's simply a fact.

When and as you are called a channel, or you refer to others as a channel in the context as that word is used today, stemming from its popular understanding in the New Age community, aligned with your understanding of transmitting/receiving, when that word channel or channeler or channeling comes up in a derogatory fashion -- as it will and as it does -- remind yourself of the prejudicial impact that is behind the word usage and recognize that the full range of comprehension of that word is not being utilized. It is thus given out of fear and not understanding. If there were understanding, it would not have that negative context that you feel when you are subject to curses or vindictives.

If money is able to flow through certain well-organized channels in the material world, it would stand to reason that wealth can also be channeled through well organized mental channels. Students certainly know this to be true; when they are writing a theme paper, it does not behoove them to daydream or let their mind wander too far afield of the topic underway lest their own mind betray them and they become scattered. And so, mental wealth is also found in well-organized channels. To be able to focus on something and give it its best shot is allowing it to operate in a well-organized channel.

There is really nothing negative about the word channel or channeling, nor is there really anything negative about people who perceive themselves to be channeling entities, personalities or beings from another realm because anyone who listens with ears to hear, will be able to tell within a very short time whether they are listening to truth, beauty and goodness or whether they are listening to someone's agenda. And in truth, you are going to get a little bit of both, no matter what.

As you ascend in the circles and as you are assisted by the adjutant mind spirits, you develop from a base, dense, gross, self-absorbed, egoistic, pleasure-seeking individual into a thoughtful, conscientious, gracious, inquiring, gregarious, humble, philosophic human being, child of God, and that full range exists within every human potential, every human being. Until fusion occurs -- literally -- there will be degrees of truth, beauty and goodness as well as self-seeking agendas.

Try to avoid distrust and suspicion. Try to take matters as if they were well intended. Save yourself a lot of grief giving them more importance than they require and more credibility than they need. Give yourself credit for having some discernment. Give the Spirit of Truth a doff of your hat for being able to counsel you accordingly.

I visit this subject upon you because so many of you are engaged in circumstances that become bogged down as a result of the use of language … the use and the misuse of language. It is not a new habit for humankind to insult their fellows or praise their fellows by the emotional impact of the words they choose to use. When the words themselves don't convey what they want to convey, their attitude will carry the message across. I would ask that you, as a part of this babble, convey the highest and best good you can for all concerned. Try not to become embroiled in the emotionality of words that are hurled in anger or in vindication of your position or their position, as if they were weapons.

Try to rise above the fray, even though I understand you love the mental exercise. You will be far more effective if and when you can see what is really being conveyed and address the spiritual need and not linger over the emotional distraction. Emotions, remember, are a side effect of how you think, and so when you see an emotion coming at you or when you respond emotionally, try to understand what's happening to your mental state or their mental state. It is how they think, how you think, that gives rise to the emotions that complicate your lives and often hurl you downhill. While I know everyone has the capacity to get up and brush themselves off and push again up the hill, eventually maturity will see to it that you fall down less often, to save that energy for better use as you anticipate the work awaiting you further up toward the summit.

This same lesson can be used for so many words -- so many words that are so popular in your culture today: cult is another word, which is just the base word for culture and the root word for cultivate. Wonderful words. But the negative connotation that they bring because of someone's emotional impression has clouded a perfectly normal evolutionary development, clouding it and obstructing progress. But this is nothing new. It goes on. The good news is we are here to encourage you to be able to step up and out and away from it so that you can get on with the good news and the abundant life and the work that you have been called to do in kingdom-building.

I will be getting the reputation of an English teacher if I am not careful here, but I have finished my formal lesson for the evening and indeed look forward to other discourse. I heard a question earlier about Athena, our associate celestial artisan. I put in a message to her when I began my remarks and she is here to respond personally. I will therefore move over for Athena to talk a bit about how she goes about doing her work. One moment, please.

ATHENA: Good evening. I am Athena, a celestial artisan at your service. May I know who it was who inquired about my kind? Who was it who asked about me?

Karo: Athena, hello! This is Karo.

ATHENA: Ah, yes. Karo. Hello.

Karo: I'm good. How are you doing today?

ATHENA: I am well. I am in good company.

Karo: Oh, thank you! That's great. That's wonderful. We are also. We are in good company as well. It's just that most of us do not fully sense the great company around us all the time.

ATHENA: That will come.

Karo: Good. That will be nice. That will be nice. I wanted to know what group of celestial artisans you are part of because the Urantia Book talks about seven different groups -- you have the celestial musicians, the divine builders, the thought records, and such. We had a meeting this week in our study group here in Maryland and we studied Paper 44, the Celestial Artisans, and we talked about it. We had a great time, and so …

ATHENA: Well, the artisans are a very great bunch! We are very creative. Yes, there are the musicians and the performers and the painters and those who put on the pageants. There are more kinds and different ways of working than elucidated in the text. There are, as you say, many sub-sections and I am hard pressed to state what category I am part of because I am involved in what you might call "an ad hoc committee" to work with certain mortals toward advancing planetary evolution. I am working with the angels of the future.

I have companions, however, also here with the Urantia project, who are under the aegis of the celestial musicians, who are into song-writing, who may be working with the angels of enlightenment. There is a great deal of cross-pollination, cross-culturation in the finite realms. While there are, yes, certain fundamentals, there are many variations. It is not as cut-and-dried as you might like it. But once you begin to experience the flexibility of celestial design you will appreciate its lack of regimentation. You might consider it a part of setting the captives free. Our work is not standardized.

There are, in fact, few artisans who are permitted to work with mortals. At one time it was not allowed at all, but as you advance and as some of you, at least, aspire to do great works on behalf of deity, you are assisted to the extent your mind is amenable to our guidance. We can help you through the angels we serve and the midwayers who serve them, the mechanics of the mind being such that it is able to pick up nuances from those of us heavenly helpers who would access you to teach you and to utilize you in merciful ministry and loving service. Many seraphim access your mind. And while we are not seraphim, we are able to work with them so that you can be accessed, and this has been our entrée, our opening through which, if you will, the channel of creativity can flow.

My assignment with Gerdean, which put us in a position of becoming close co-workers, was the creation of the civilization she calls the Zooids. It is a representation of advanced society. It is not the ultimate utopian picture of light and life that some might prefer, or that will eventually transpire, but it is forward, progressive, thought-provoking, contemporary, and leads into the future way of life which will be forthcoming as sure as night follows day.

Already it is apparent that many of the things that we addressed are coming to pass, and so my work was to that extent effective, for not only did it work its way into her book and into her consciousness, it spilled out naturally into the distribution centers, the well-organized channels of energy and direction from the seraphim and midwayers who worked with us on the project so as to feed and stimulate those in our environment and on the planet that were susceptible and open to these kinds of changes and advancements.

Most of them were and are simple evolutionary steps, but as they are set out, as they are set down on paper, as they are snatched from the ethers of the mind and the imagination and put on paper, they are put to work to cement ideas for tomorrow that can be worked on today, such things as alternate energy sources, solar energy sources that will provide fuel for vehicles. That's my idea, you see, that was written into the script, and so here it is coming to pass. It would have probably come to pass anyway, yes; I have faith in the evolution of the mortal races. But since this planet seemed to need a little cultivation, it was my pleasure to help bring some of these concepts into fruition, into print, and into the consciousness of those interested. And so we have worked for the future.

I would probably be categorized as one Thought Recorder because I have recorded thoughts; I have recorded your thoughts. And, in many cases, recorded them again after your Adjuster has worked them over. And the difference between how it was at first and how it was later is a noteworthy before-and-after shot. Giving your mind to your Adjuster will always result in a stimulation of your mental processes. And while you may experience some conflict -- since it is always difficult to give up your own ideas and exchange them for something better, or something different -- if you are courageous enough to experiment with that process and discover how the Adjuster works in your mind, you can develop great faith -- not only in the Adjuster but in yourself -- and this contributes to the process of your ultimate fusion, as well as the success and effectiveness of your teaching. Do you have any questions?

Karo: Thank you so much for your comments. Many thoughts come to mind, listening to you, and for the sake of time, I will just limit my comments to one or two things. Interesting to note, you talked about solar energy advancement in science and technology. Personally I am passionate about the growth and development of science and technology in Third World emerging economy and I work in that area. I have some videos I put on You Tube and I am trying to promote science and technologies in Third World emerging economy. So I would really appreciate … I guess I would need a little help from people like you!

And also you talked about the book that Gerdean wrote, and the thought came to my mind, from what you said so far, it's like -- let's assume 500 people read the book, only 500 people. However, because 500 people read the book, it's going to carry on thought processes and actions so that in the long run, in the process of five years, because of the book, a million people can be impacted. So I'm trying to figure out what you said. Is there also a dimension of Gerdean contributing to the human collective consciousness simply by writing, simply by allowing her creative juices to flow, to write?

ATHENA: Absolutely.

Karo: Okay. So let's say somebody picks up a pen and writes a book. That in and of itself contributes to the collective consciousness? Even before the book is put on the market.

ATHENA: Yes, and do you know why that is? It is because thoughts have power. Even those people who do not read the book, or talk about it, if they think the thought, it is contributory to that collective consciousness about that subject. It is as if no thought is wasted. The Supreme will grasp what it needs and nothing goes to waste, and so if -- as your example is -- if 500 people read the book and they tell other people, then those people will be informed. It is not even necessary that they tell other people, although that is optimal. That they think about it is a huge advancement to the human condition. Just thinking about it puts it into the ethers and it's as if thoughts have character. You can stand next to someone who is peeing in the bushes and not say a word but look at them in such a way as to convey to them that they are polluting the bush. You see what I am saying?

Karo: Yes.

ATHENA: And so you don't have to say anything. All you have to do is look around and your own consciousness speaks loudly. What this is, is the "fruits of the spirit." The fruits of the spirit are projecting reality based on how you perceive reality, and if your reality is spirit-born, spirit-focused, that is the value you will be emitting, expressing, projecting.

And speaking of well-organized channels and Third World countries, if some Third World country were to begin to create battery packs that enabled machinery to run by way of the sunshine, it could well easily slide into one of those well organized channels of wealth, since it is something that everybody needs and the planet certainly would appreciate some assistance from the current paradigm.

It's like when you spend too much time on your knees, you mangle the cartilage in your knees. And you will need that cartilage for the rest of your life! Just as your planet will need some of its oil for the rest of its life, and doesn't need to be brought to its knees too often lest it become crippled and arthritic before its time.

I have given myself permission to use such a metaphor, such an allegory, because I am a celestial artisan and I have the imagination to do that. I regret if my creative imagination loses some of you but I really think you have more going for you than you think you do. (Pause) I intended that as a compliment.

Karo: Well, thank you. I want to leave time for other participants who might have comments or questions, but I wanted for you to expand on that word 'ethers' for me, please. Thank you.

ATHENA: Yes, the 'ethers' is the surrounding atmosphere, the energy field into which your mind projects the limits of your capacities to influence the environment in which you live. It is not strictly physical; it is 'etheric' as well. [Ed. - Ethereal] This is what I mean by the ethers -- the 'etheric' environment, and not just the literal atmosphere.

Karo: Okay. Thank you much.

ATHENA: Thank you for your questions. I have enjoyed our tete-a-tete. I will take a back seat and let Tomas resume his role as host. If there are further questions for me, however, I will be available. One moment.

TOMAS: Tomas your teacher again at the podium. I enjoyed hearing from Athena. I am glad that she has no hesitation to talk about her work, even her work with Gerdean, from which I am constrained. Are there questions about other matters besides my little lecture and Athena's contribution? I am interested in your soul growth and your concerns and so I don't want to just hog the whole show. It's your show. We are here to serve you.

Student: I have one comment and one question. Not really about soul growth, but a curiosity question. My comment is, when Athena was talking about having our thoughts, isn't that consistent with what Michael said about our thoughts, that our loving thoughts would affect the people around us and our surroundings?

TOMAS: Yes, it is. That is certainly the foundation of it all. That is the one we would like you to know the best. God is love, love is the desire to serve others, and if you access it, seek to project it, then the atmosphere is steeped in love vibrations, the ethers are saturated, the atmosphere is saturated, and it is much easier then for hostilities to subside and for confusion to evaporate, easier for harmony to prevail --

Student: Okay, one more question and then my curiosity question. How come it appears when we ask for things or think about things like beauty, and positive, they don't manifest as fast as when we have negative thoughts. It is because we have spent so many years thinking negative thoughts that they appear to manifest quicker? [Silence] Are you there?

Karo: Gerdean sometimes gets knocked off the line. I heard a sound.

Student: I'll hold on. We'll hold on and see what happens.

Gerdean: I'm back. I don't know what happened. My phone went dead.

TOMAS: -- and they may come without warning. And so if your underlying platform is founded on love, these secondary situations can be dealt with more effectively but perhaps it will need to be manifested in a different way than standing back prayerfully. It may require getting in the trenches, rolling up your sleeves, and doing the work that is required. That does not mean love is not involved, but work is also involved. Effort is involved --intelligent effort.

I'm thinking of my friend Marty who recently had to assist the birth of a baby goat. If he did not love the goat he would not have been able to do what he had to do to see to it that the kid was born, but it was not as if he didn't have a moment of angst about the circumstances. And so it is that, as you travel through life, if your fundamental base of reality is one of love -- divine love -- you will prevail, but if you also participate, you may be more effective. I say this not to imply that loving is not an action in itself, for we know that it is, but some think that simply loving is all that's necessary. Loving is the first step.

Marty: Teacher Tomas, this is Marty speaking. (Yes) I have a question. I don't know if there is time to handle this one, but I have been thinking about the gift we have, which are the Thought Adjusters, that are gifts from the Father that have been given to us to live with us. And it also occurs to me that we are also given fragments of personality by the Father. And it occurs to me that the personality is a personal fragment and the Thought Adjuster is a pre-personal fragment, and these two divine entities come to indwell a human animal being born here and give us, as the animals, the adjutants and free will. But these divine entities, they guide us, and they energize our lives with their love of us, and it occurred to me that each of us then is a bestowal in the flesh of the Father, just as Michael was bestowed as Jesus. And I just wonder if you want to speak to that.

TOMAS: I am concerned about your understanding of personality. You speak of personality as if it were something separate from you when it is you. It is not something that indwells you; it is you. The Adjuster indwells you. You reference the fact that personality comes from the Father. Yes. It is not, however, a fragment of his; it is yours.

Marty: Okay then, just let me ask. The animals that we have here … do they have personalities?

TOMAS: Actually they do. They are very limited, but they do. They have pattern, personality pattern, more accurately, and character --or characteristics -- which is what makes them interesting or endearing or fearsome. They don't, however, have the kind of personality that will extend into the higher adjutants. They know about the spirit of intuition; they have instincts; they have their survival instincts, as you do, and their procreation urges and their territorial urges give witness to their spirit of understanding of their place in the animal kingdom. They have courage to get their needs met, and fight their battles, and tend their young. They are gregarious when necessary; they may be in a school of fish or a herd of buffalo. They speak to each other through their barking or their chirping. And they have affection and they have certain knowledge, but they do not extend into worship or wisdom, and so their personality -- if we can call it personality -- is sufficiently limited as to not really want to confuse it with the human personality which is what the Thought Adjuster seeks to acquire, so that it can have expression.

Marty: It's extremely difficult for me to understand what personality is. (Yes.) I think of it as a divine thing. It's like God is personality and his personality is manifested throughout creation individually and uniquely by each of us here.

TOMAS: Yes, it's true. He is the father of personality therefore every personality is his offspring and we would not exist without the personality that we got from the Father, this is certainly true, but just as the Father sires his children, they are there in their own right and they can, through their choices, either survive or destroy themselves

Marty: And the personality is the entity of choice?

TOMAS: The will is the entity of choice. The will is not the personality.

Marty: Okay. Then what is the relationship between the personality and the will?

TOMAS: I'm not sure I can answer that.

Marty: Don't worry about it. I'll think it over and you can do the same.

TOMAS: I will discuss it with my peers.

Marty: I tell you why I asked this question. We had been discussing "you had made the decision to be here during this time of planetary crisis -- during Correcting Time"-- and it occurred to me that the Father, being omnipotent and eternal and in control of everything, would be sending his Thought Adjuster in his personality to live as Marty G and he knows what kind of destiny I will have here, and that's what I was thinking about.

TOMAS: Well, look at the example of Jesus of Nazareth. His adjuster knew he was coming here and would be incarnated as a mortal of the realm, but Jesus, himself, did not have any part in his own materialization. He did not know in advance that he was coming here; he did not choose his parents. He came to certain awarenesses as he grew up, more specifically his divine origin, his Adjuster, and you do the same. As you grow up you become aware of your divine origin--

Marty: And destiny.

TOMAS: -- and destiny. But you didn't know it before you got here.

Marty: Right.

TOMAS: That's why it was a gift.

Marty: I understand that. That's the question that I'm having. Father, as the origin of our destiny. That's why I asked. That's why I'm having a hard time

TOMAS: By that time, it is your Thought Adjuster that is advising you. You are working with your Adjuster; you are becoming one.

Marty: Right. Thank you, Teacher Tomas. I appreciate what you said about the goat. I just wanted to say that "angst" doesn't fully get to it, what happened that night.

Karo: We are not pre-existent, right?

TOMAS: Right. We who are created in the worlds of time and space begin in the worlds of time and space. That's the point of the creatures of time and space. That's the point of origin. Except the Spirit originates in Paradise and returns to Paradise. It returns to Paradise with the personality of the creature from time and space.

Karo: If I think I understand Marty's question, I think he was talking about that we had been somewhere before and we decided to come here, to planet Earth. I think he was trying to ask a question along those lines.

TOMAS: Yes and the Adjuster does choose to come here.

Karo: But we humans decide to come, as if we come from somewhere else, from that planet or wherever, we decided to come to planet earth.

TOMAS: Yes, he is asking that and I am saying that is not the case.

Marty: That was not my question, at all. I don't think that we pre-existed. But I was thinking that the personality that we are originates in Paradise and returns to Paradise.

TOMAS: And that is your Adjuster, and that is you having merged with your Adjuster. It has succeeded in securing your personality because you have cooperated with it, and thus together you return as one, not to Divinington but to Ascendington, which is now your new address in Paradise, so … it's a long process.

Karo: Thank you, Marty, and thank you, Tomas.

TOMAS: Thank you all. It has been a very stimulating evening and I'm glad we had this opportunity to engage one another in these matters that stimulate the mind and encourage the spirit and satisfy the personalities of those of us who yearn to know God and to be more like him. Amen.

Marty: Amen.

TOMAS: Farewell.

Karo: Farewell.