Easter messages from Ham, Abraham, Michael, Nebadonia

[David G. Schlundt, Ph.D.]

{sorry about the empty messages I sent earlier, here is the lesson}

3/30/97

Ham: Greetings, children, friends, colleagues, I am happy to have you
all here this evening.  We are happy also that someone else is here to
speak this evening as well.  Tonight, the lesson again is concerning
the avenue or pathway of spiritual development and personal growth of
character. Character evolves fruits of the spirit, but also is more
concerned or central to the trunk and branches of the tree that hold
the fruits.  Character must grow in strength along with wisdom that
your fruits can be upheld in the world and not pull you into areas of
confusion such as we have witnessed in the recent mass suicides in San
Diego.  

Character involves courage, and courage requires the thinking mortal
to bravely listen to opposing view points, accepting that others who
don't necessarily ascribe to your own view points are not in error. 
Courage involves exploring different views and attitudes and
information, and from these constructing your own code of life. 
Courage involves allowing your own code of life to be unique and
special.  

Character involves something you would describe as nobility. Nobility
not in the sense of the hypocritical self- righteousness that you
popularly associate with this concept. Nobility meaning discovering
your own morality and giving a loyalty to the higher being who is the
architect of this morality. It is something akin to delighting in
righteousness.  Something that is very lacking in your materialistic
society , because often the morally praiseworthy acts of an individual
are looked upon as foolish by the world. 

Character involves the steadfast dedication to the expansion of
wisdom, and wisdom involves life's experiences more than knowledge of
facts. When one is steadfast in the pursuit of wisdom, one allows
life's mistakes and makes the decision to grow in wisdom from these
mistakes. When you say you learn from your mistakes, this implies
something different. This implies just don't do it again. Growth in
wisdom may force you to do that same action again.  The wisdom comes
from how you deal with the consequences.   

Think of your character as being the trunk of you tree. So one with
sturdy, strong character can bear the fruits of tolerance, of
forgiveness, of love under extreme and difficult circumstances.  There
are those who attempt to become the fruits of the spirit, who hold
themselves to such extreme standards as they become perpetually false.
 And this psychological conflict is unhealthy and even dangerous
because it can be carried to the point of denying one's own humanness
and pretending to be something you are not ready to be. 

So I say to you, cultivate your humanity, grow character, and wisdom
in age.   Allow the fruits of the spirit to be bourne naturally in
their time.  To be on the spiritual path, first one must be true to
one's self. One must accept life as we are given it to live, and
honestly, without guile, open one's heart to the Father.  His
spiritual light shining within your heart reveals your self to
yourself.  

So then if you are truly sincere about opening your heart's core to
the Father, then you must be sincere about accepting what you see and
accepting its changing nature.  One thing is a certainty on the worlds
of time and space, and that is change. You are not the same person you
were an hour ago and this constant metamorphosis means that something
you see today might be different tomorrow and different the next day. 


As you grow and go through these changes, there will be periods when
what seemed to be a clear pool within your being is turbulent and
muddy, and the certainties of yesterday have vanished.   But this is
nothing to be ashamed of, or to worry about.  It is just part of your
growth.  In these periods of turmoil and uncertainty, you should know
that soon the sediment will settle and things will be clearer once
more.  

Now my dear colleague, friend, partner, Abraham will say a few words
and then I will return for questions.

Abraham: Hello. Friends. I am Abraham and I greet you each as brothers
and sisters of the Father's universe.  Today marks the celebration of
the Master's appearances in morontia form to the witnesses who have
confirmed, even down to this generation, the reality of life after the
death experience. You question whether I am Abraham of old, yes I am
he who has long worked for Melchizedek and been instructed and raised
by him like a child.  We are lucky to have the opportunity to address
mortals in this manner who through their belief and faith in the
Urantia Book, which holds the teachings of Melchizedek. A personal
message from Michael now.

Michael: Friends. Look upon me. I am dwelling always near by, even at
your right hand. I have never stopped the human ministry that was
ended in your records by my physical death. No, my ministry to the
world exists perpetually through the actions, through the service, of
my children.  You who would follow me have the duties imposed by your
own dedication.  You are welcome to enter into this divine service.
Behold, I stretch forth my arms and welcome you in the spirit. Your
lives will never be the same from the moment you are ordained into my
service.  I accept your willingness, each one, accept in return my
love, accept my own dedication to you, accept my service in your life,
accept my arm about your shoulder, accept my whisper into your ear.
Father, keep you well these tender children, sustain them in their
hours of uncertainty, give them inner peace. Give them security. Guide
them in the earthly endeavors, and allow me to hold them fast to my
bosom that they may be comforted and inspired in their times of need. 


Nebadonia: I am the universe mother spirit Nebadonia. I speak that you
may be welcoming to me as well. Like Michael, I desire to enter your
hearts and to be a source of inspiration and courageous love on this
day of solemn celebration. 

Ham: Greetings, again, I am Ham who is speaking. I humbly give thanks
for these inspiring, indeed, life altering messages that you children
have received this evening.  Now, I will open the floor to questions
and discussion.

Q: First of all I would like to thank you for being here and for being
in Charlotte with our fledgling group. Any comments for myself or for
Abbagail or for any of the people in our Charlotte group?

Ham: Certainly, Clement, you have been a great example of the
development of character that I spoke of.  You have courageously
looked into and explored knowledge from many directions and are
certainly developing your own code of living that stands as an example
to many.  Your life's happiness is increasing, you are becoming more
peaceful and at home in the world.  You're not experiencing the
problems that once seemed insuperable.  This is all the direct result
of your dedication to spiritual living. Have faith son, everything is
developing well in your life and you have much in store for your
future adventures. Go in peace.

Q: Ham, talk a little more about methods of developing this character
which you made the analogy to the trunk of the tree instead of
focusing on fruits?

Ham: Much of character growth is unconscious, but to a very large
degree it is shaped and strengthened by conscious decision making.
Life is full of these decisions. You are constantly being bombarded
with situations that involve choosing something slightly more selfish
or something slightly less selfish.  Do you decide to reach out to a
stranger in friendliness or do you selfishly remain inward? Do you
honestly seek righteousness in terms of honesty, generosity, and
ministry? There are so many decisions that influence the growth of the
spirit, but character growth essentially revolves around righteousness
_ the right thinking, right acting of Buddhism.  Always striving to
act a little closer to your ideal. This is different than creating an
ideal or conforming to an ideal and not honestly accepting that you
cannot possibly always live up to it.  Ideals are meant to be a little
out of reach.  So, it is the conscious striving for righteousness that
builds character I would say. Is this helping?

Q: Yes Ham, thank you very much.

Q: Am I correctly understanding that it is that gap between our ideals
and our ability to live them in the real world that is the arena
wherein we acquire wisdom?

Ham: Yes, Brodan, that is very profound understanding.

Q: Ham Happy Easter.

Ham: Happy Easter to you.

Q: Would you elaborate on the mistake we make when we attempt to
become the fruits of the spirit? 

Ham: Certainly. I think it is essentially the overreaching of the mind
for an ideal that is not realistic and when one attempts to be totally
Christ like without allowing for human error, then there is a
psychological tension created that can result in bizarre and tragic
occurrences because on the one hand the person knows that they are not
gods above others, but in the trying to be at some point turns into
pretending to be. So then, the life becomes a lie and entirely
dishonest even while portraying to the world a being of absolute
righteousness.

Q: Ham, what is the force or almost entity like presence in the
subconscious mind that must right this situation and must let the air
out of this, that must balance the inner and the outer so as to right
this situation through the exposing of this imbalance. There seems to
be, in fact in...  That there is a mechanism in there that strives to
end this situation. Could you describe this mechanism that does that,
at the impetus of the spirit of truth, the actual mechanics of that? 

Ham: It is really just the tension within the mind, the personality
always is seeking balance. And so, if something is off balance in one
direction, there has to be a balance in the other. The exposure of the
hypocrisy is just a result of this tension, this...

Q: The unconscious mind long sfor balance, for truth?

Ham: Yes, for integration.

Q: Unification?

Ham: Yes.

Q: Could you relate character to personality. 

Han: Character is a possession of personality.  It is the sum total of
the unification or integration of righteousness within the human mind.
 The mind is the mechanism through which this righteousness is brought
into personality unification and character is built over the
experience of years . You are not born with character, only experience
and the conscious integration of righteousness builds characters. Is
this helping clarify?

Q: Ham, you mentioned before that it was not good to pretend to be
righteous or spiritually evolved when you are not. Is it sometimes
beneficial to act as if in the growing process.

Ham: Yes, as long as you know the difference. One is always striving
for righteousness and so of course there are times when you can do
things that astonish you by there sheer unselfishness, but gradually
each person becomes a little less selfish, a little less self-absorbed
only over time.  The occasional dramatic act does not alter this
gradual process.

Q:  The thing that bothered me the most about San Diego tragedy was
the faith and sincerity of those people and even some reasonably
correct beliefs mixed in with error and confusion. How do we guard
ourselves against this, against embracing confusion with great faith
and sincerity,  without losing faith or becoming cynical?

Ham: The most sure way of protecting yourself against this kind of
confusion is to maintain wide social interaction. People who are
isolated can easily reinforce each other in erroneous thinking.  So,
maintaining wide intellectual interests and understandings and wide
social interaction guards quite effectively against that kind of
thing.

Q: Regarding the tragedy in San Diego, is there some truth that the
comet Hale- Bopp will bring dramatic changes to Urantia?

Ham: No. It is not likely that this body can change or influence any
thing dramatically on Urantia at this time. Probably my understanding
is that the coming of the millenium has many implications which are
very real and some which are confusion and will not likely be manifest
in reality.  There are not likely to be more serious calamities
occurring in the next three years as have occurred in the past three
years.

Q: Ham is this an appropriate time for me to ask my usual question
regarding evaluation of where I am and advice?

Ham: Certainly. You are learning intensively about character,
strength, and determination. You have made much progress over the past
few weeks and I expect you will make still more in the coming weeks. 
You are doing very well, and are happier than you have been for some
time. Your inner peace is increasing, and your stability in decision
making also increases.  We are very pleased with your progress, son,
very happy for you. 

Q: Do you have anything for Rebecca?

Ham: Daughter, I am sorry if I placed too great a burden on you in
suggesting certain time limits for your research. There are meant to
be guide posts not deadlines.  Don't take it too seriously. We are
trying to help you not pressure you. Continue, your work is coming
along fine, don't be discouraged.

Q: Do you have anything for Esmeralda?

Ham: I have nothing to tell her at this juncture. Continue reading the
Urantia book and relaxing.

Q: Do you have any advice for me in my stage of development?

Ham: Yes. I perceive in you a tendency to place too great an emphasis
on people, on relying on their advice or their guidance.  You should
keep your original understanding of the idea first and not be
pressured by others so much.  Does this help?

Q: I think so, yes, thank you.

Ham: You are welcome

Q: Ham. I am open to constructive criticism as well.

Ham: Friend, you have always been considered a wonderful light and
inspiration for others.  Likewise, you can tend to go up and down in
your feelings and enthusiasm, even moods.  The wise man knows that a
triumph and defeat are just two sides of the same coin and is not
swayed by either one. I know this is easier to say than to live,
that's what ideals are for.  That is all.

Q: Ham, any words you have for me I would appreciate.

Ham: Son, you are likewise doing very well, and are beginning to find
a way forward in your work.  Expand your horizons, your social
interaction still further for this is necessary at this time. That is
the most important thing to do now. 

Q: Ham, for a newcomer for the group, could you explain the process
that is taking case using Rebecca's body and how that works.

Ham: It is somewhat like if you could imagine typing in your words
into a computer and having them come out altered. It is not a perfect
system.  Even the language sometimes is a hurdle for me. But, often
times my meaning is somewhat distorted, kind of like a translation
from language to another.  It works through direct transfer a midway
creature was here this evening to help with the transfer Michael's
message, but I generally can transmit directly without an
intermediary. Mortals potentially have the embryonic ability to
transfer thoughts one to another.  This is what it is.

Q: Like telepathy?

Ham: Yes, kind of.

Q: Are you literally in Rebecca's body in this room?

Ham: Yes, I am here, but I am not in her body per se. I am just close,
soul to soul.

Q:   Earlier you said, "Courage involves exploring different views and
attitudes and information, and from these constructing your own code
of life". I was wondering if I interpret this to mean we need to
engage in critical thinking, to carefully evaluate all the information
we get, am I interpreting this correctly? 

Ham: Yes, its partially correct. I would also say it is correct to be
open to truth no matter how it is clothed. Sometimes the semantic
clothing of a idea can be an obstacle to understanding the idea.

Q: I went to a church service today with my family and had a sincere
country preacher talk about Jesus giving his life for our sins. He
said that they only way to heaven is through the blood of Christ and
that if anyone says anything different...  I forget what he said
exactly.  If you accept such a thing without questioning,  I do not
see how there would be any character building by just accepting that
without questioning.  That is one place where traditional religion is
flawed, by insisting on blind faith.

Ham: Yes, exactly.  Accepting a belief as true is not necessarily a
way to build faith. Correct. I think that I should release Rebecca
from this duty for this evening. Until next week my love and my
prayers are with you each. Farewell.

 
*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*
David G. Schlundt, Ph.D.               (615)322-7800
Associate Professor of Psychology      (615)343-8449  Fax
Vanderbilt University               schlundg at ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu
301 Wilson Hall
Nashville, TN  37240
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The soul of man requires spiritual exercise as well as spiritual
nourishment. The Urantia Book
Paper-91 Section-7 Para-2  Page-1000 Line-19 Para-4
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