{"id":110411,"date":"2021-03-12T10:35:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T18:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/?p=110411"},"modified":"2021-03-12T14:07:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T22:07:06","slug":"no-man-is-an-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/archives\/110411-no-man-is-an-island","title":{"rendered":"No Man Is an Island"},"content":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \n

Matthew VanFossan sharing with Traveler John Morton at Windermere in October of 2012<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

We pulled up in front of my apartment building on one of the quieter residential streets in Santa Monica. I was talking to a fellow volunteer who was driving me home from the children\u2019s class we\u2019d just assisted with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so glad you\u2019re playing guitar for the kids.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe, too.\u201d I said. \u201cAnd the energy in the classroom is like \u2014 wow. It\u2019s just like USM with Ron and Mary only there\u2019s a bunch of kids instead. The energy is so amazing. I wonder what that is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh,\u201d said my companion. \u201cThat\u2019s the Traveler.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the words left her mouth I had a moment of that same magic from the class. A soothing pressure on my forehead, a gentle warmth through my body, a sense of indescribable freedom and joy. Then it was past.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow,\u201d I said. \u201cThere it is again. That\u2019s amazing. How do I get more?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a computer, right? You can go to the MSIA website and…”<\/p>\n

I did go to the website. I read about the course of study they called \u2018Discourses.\u2019 I noticed how even just the website had a subtle light to it that made it easier for me to navigate than other pages. I read that the first year of Discourses was $50. That\u2019s where I stopped.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo thanks,\u201d I thought. \u201cI didn\u2019t just spend tens of thousands of dollars on a Masters in Spiritual Psychology to waste my time subscribing to monthly booklets from a church. I\u2019ll keep my fifty bucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weeks passed. Then I found myself talking about the Discourses to a friend who was graduating with me from the University of Santa Monica. She\u2019d heard of them, too. And no, she hadn\u2019t tried them, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, maybe we should,\u201d I said, playing devil\u2019s advocate. \u201cI mean, energetically, there seems to be something to them. And I heard you can get your money back if you don\u2019t like them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A week or so later I went back to the MSIA website and bought the Discourses. I chose the PDF files instead of the paper booklets. They came as an e-mail attachment. I opened the first one and hit the key for my computer to start reading it aloud.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntroduction into Light.\u201d As I listened to the first paragraph being read aloud I felt a wash of that same energy. The Traveler, they called it. It was the strongest I\u2019d ever felt.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy God,\u201d I thought. \u201cThis is incredible.\u201d I continued listening. The actual content was not nearly as spectacular, I thought. But the energy\u2026<\/p>\n

My first John Morton seminar had been at the USM building in Santa Monica. I\u2019d left pretty unimpressed. It wasn\u2019t anything I hadn\u2019t heard from Ron and Mary at USM. That was before I\u2019d gotten on Discourses.<\/p>\n

Two months into my Discourses I headed to Santa Barbara for a picnic at Windermere Ranch. John Morton was going to talk. I hoped there\u2019d be more of that energy.\u00a0 He was already giving his talk when my wife and I arrived. As we got closer to him I started getting really excited. I could sense the presence of something amazing. \u201cThat\u2019s Jesus Christ!\u201d I said to myself. And that made absolutely no sense to me. but I was so moved! I knew I had to share with John.<\/p>\n

I pulled away from my wife. \u201cWhat are you doing?!\u201d she asked, horrified. But I was determined. I bumped into someone who guided me to the line of people waiting to share. As I took the mic I said, \u201cJohn, I – I love you!\u201d And then I felt really embarrassed. \u201cI\u2019m like a teen-aged girl at a rock concert,\u201d I thought. But even though I felt stupid, the compulsion to stand and profess my love to this stranger didn\u2019t leave me. I just stood there listening as he asked me about my blindness.<\/p>\n

That was about nine years ago. The urge to serve this energy, this man, and this phenomenon that somehow relates to Jesus Christ hasn\u2019t gone away.<\/p>\n

After studying in MSIA, I understand a little better intellectually what it is, but when I try to explain it to family, friends, or anyone who isn\u2019t studying in the Movement, I\u2019m totally at a loss. Sure, I can tell them that MSIA is part of a line of masters extending back into history right back through Jesus Christ, that it\u2019s a way to access higher realms of awareness and loving through a kind of enhanced meditation practice, that it\u2019s the most meaningful and profound thing I\u2019ve ever experienced. But what good is telling people all this? It\u2019s just a fanciful story unless someone is really inclined to check it out. And it\u2019s just dogma until someone becomes aware of the blessings for themselves.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another part to this disclaimer. MSIA, the Mystical Traveler Consciousness, is not for everyone. Not everyone likes to go deep sea diving. Some people prefer snorkeling or playing Marco Polo in the pool. And that\u2019s all perfectly fine. But for those that are honestly seeking direct and profound spiritual experience and are ready to overcome the resistance they\u2019ve unconsciously built up to having it, MSIA is a one-stop shop.<\/p>\n

My biggest resistance has been, \u201cI don\u2019t need a spiritual teacher or some spiritual organization to find divinity. I\u2019ve already found it and it\u2019s inside of me. It\u2019s inside of everyone. So why should I look to some external thing?\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re now in an age of the self. Self-esteem, self-exploration, self-knowledge. This is reflected in edicts like \u201cfollow your heart,\u201d and \u201cbe who you are.\u201d The idea is that in doing so we\u2019ll live more fully, we\u2019ll be happier, more congruent people. And we\u2019ll avoid getting stuck as a peon, a cog in the wheel, or a soulless yes man.<\/p>\n

But this doesn\u2019t mean that the age of the spiritual teacher has passed. It\u2019s just as important now as it\u2019s ever been. Even in this age of the self, people who want their cars to work better still go to car mechanics. People who want to eat delicious food still go to restaurants. And people who want spiritual experience can still look to a teacher or way-shower to reflect back to them their own light.<\/p>\n

What is often overlooked by people who want to be their own spiritual teachers, what I overlooked during years of telling myself that I didn\u2019t need anyone, that I could do it myself, is that pearl of wisdom from John Donne which says, \u201cno man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter how high we climb, no matter how expansive our awareness, no matter how great a master we become, we need others. And we need especially look to others who have climbed higher, expanded more, or touched into greater mastery. It\u2019s true that we can only learn what we teach ourselves, but in teaching ourselves, we look to others who have learned it first. To try to do it alone is arrogant and foolhardy when there are those who stand above us with outstretched arms, smiling and eager to accompany us home.<\/p>\n

MSIA is full of people like myself who have resisted following others. Loners in high school, rebels against all sorts of causes. It also has its slice of normality running through it. How such different people are brought together to worship God and love one another is a miracle in itself. But it\u2019s the awesome nature of the Mystical Traveler that is the real miracle. And this miracle can only be experienced through one\u2019s willingness to sit at the foot of another, to look to one who has gone higher, to learn from someone else about the divinity within oneself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We pulled up in front of my apartment building on one of the quieter residential streets in Santa Monica. I was talking to a fellow volunteer who was driving me home from the children\u2019s class we\u2019d just assisted with. \u201cI\u2019m so glad you\u2019re playing guitar for the kids.\u201d she said. \u201cMe, too.\u201d I said. \u201cAnd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}