{"id":111459,"date":"2023-05-04T14:15:44","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T21:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/?p=111459"},"modified":"2023-05-04T14:17:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T21:17:44","slug":"making-your-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/archives\/111459-making-your-choices","title":{"rendered":"Making Your Choices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Awaken your Spirit, your Soul, to its divine nature and to the divinity of God and you, and live in and for that.\u00a0 Bring as much of that down into you and out into the world as you possibly can at any given time.\u00a0 And while you’re at it, cut yourself some slack and cut some slack for others.\u00a0 Allow yourself some freedom and some responsibility.\u00a0 Allow yourself a whole series of choices in your life.<\/em> – John-Roger<\/p>\n

This article by John-Roger was first published in the New Day Herald, September 1990<\/strong><\/p>\n

MSIA is sometimes called a cult.\u00a0 We’re even on a “cult list.”\u00a0 The interesting thing is that the people who have us on a cult list are, themselves, listed on another “cult list.”\u00a0 The Mormons, the U.S. Army, and a couple of other big organizations are also among the groups on various “cult lists.”<\/p>\n

It’s also interesting to see that the groups we grew up with could be called cults.\u00a0 For example, between seventh and twelfth grades, four friends and I were in a group we called the Big Time Five.\u00a0 (Back at that time, that was a sophisticated name.\u00a0 We couldn’t think of the Grateful Dead or something like that.)\u00a0 We played sports, rode horses, etc.\u00a0 We decided we were all going to live in the same house and in the same community and do everything together for the rest of our lives.<\/p>\n

Then we were old enough to have summer jobs and to go our separate ways.\u00a0 We hated to leave our friends because we had bonded with each other.\u00a0 I mean, when you’ve had a guy shoot a shotgun at you across a field and you’re running with your friends for dear life, you bond.<\/p>\n

By the way, this same thing happens in the military when people are under fire, and it also happens when people have been kidnapped.\u00a0 They’ll bond with their kidnapper because they’re all under a threat of death.\u00a0 As strange as it may seem, that bonding includes an emotional loyalty that is profoundly deep.<\/p>\n

This same sort of thing can keep you with your spouse when you have a lot of trouble getting along, make you give your kids what they want even if you’ve decided you won’t do that, return you to your job after you’ve yelled at your boss and quit, and make your boss tell you that you were never fired.\u00a0 It’s a very deep bonding.<\/p>\n

Then at college, there are fraternities, sororities, and other groups to join.\u00a0 And in these groups, you again start to bond and to think alike.\u00a0 (I remember that people at my college said you could tell a Tri Delta girl or a Sigma Chi guy clear across campus.)\u00a0 When I was in college, I played baseball and basketball with guys I had played against in high school.\u00a0 It was amazing that I could be so bonded with guys I had hated and fought against just a year or two ago.\u00a0 It’s phenomenal that we can hate somebody so much and later love them so much that we bond with them and think we’re going to be friends forever.<\/p>\n

If you didn’t have these exact experiences, you probably had ones very much like them, because we all grew up being members of “cults,” going from one to another to another.\u00a0 And it’s amazing how often you leave one group and then turn around and say, “It’s a bad, ‘cultish’ group, and they brainwashed me.\u00a0 But all you’re doing is making new choices.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we go to a church that tells us, “This is the right and true church because of \u2026,” and they cite some book or refer to a prophecy or a revelator.\u00a0 They’re persuading us to their point of view, but what does it look like inside?\u00a0 They’re manipulating our mind.\u00a0 Why do we buy it?\u00a0 Because there’s a payoff for buying whatever the group is doing.\u00a0 What is it?\u00a0 Camaraderie, bonding.\u00a0 This is the old fraternity again.\u00a0 It’s the old sorority.\u00a0 It’s the old high school gang. It’s Mom and Daddy, sitting at their knee.\u00a0 It’s your brothers and sisters.\u00a0 And all we’re doing is taking that little group and just moving it into other groups, and sometimes it gets bigger and bigger until we almost think that we can’t know something unless we read it in the paper, hear it on the radio, or see it on TV.\u00a0 If your brain’s washed you’re afraid to look.\u00a0 If your mind is open, then you just look.\u00a0 Believe?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 We’re not talking about believing anything; we’re talking about looking.\u00a0 Don’t believe anything as long as possible, but let the experience inside of you teach you.\u00a0 For “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.”\u00a0 That “he” or “she” in you can teach you more than what’s in the world.<\/p>\n

In basic training in the army, they break down the recruits’ resistance.\u00a0 They’re people when they enter the army, and the army breaks them down and then builds them up its way and calls them soldiers.\u00a0 It’s called, “You don’t think.\u00a0 You don’t do anything until I tell you to do it.”\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 It’s very simple.\u00a0 In time of war, when the unit commander says, “Charge,” they want everybody to go at once.\u00a0 If one goes and another one stands back, that first one’s dead.\u00a0 If they all go, there’s a better chance some will live.\u00a0 The theory behind that is behavioral psychology, the Skinnerian effect:\u00a0 “Condition people long enough, and they’ll do what they’re told.”<\/p>\n

In a group like this, people don’t do what you say.\u00a0 They do what they think they want to do about what you say.\u00a0 In MSIA we say, “Bring your brains in with you.\u00a0 Bring your mind in with you.\u00a0 We want you to think this through.\u00a0 We want you to comprehend what’s being said.\u00a0 We want you to work it and check it out.\u00a0 Then, when you’ve worked it and checked it, it’s yours and you own it.\u00a0 You do it.\u00a0 Don’t ask me.”<\/p>\n

People often ask me what they should do about their relationships, their jobs, their health, their lives on this level, and I tell them, “That’s your business.\u00a0 It’s your “10 percent”.\u00a0 I work in the 90 percent of the spiritual levels.\u00a0 You decide about this level.”<\/p>\n

They say, “Well, my pastor and my minister told me … ,” and I say, “Go ask them.\u00a0 They’re experts in the field.\u00a0 I have a hard time running my own life; I’m not going to tell you how to run yours.\u00a0 My karma is really ‘fun’ to work.\u00a0 I don’t want any of yours.\u00a0 Go work your own.”\u00a0 They come back and say, “What my minister told me got me in trouble.”<\/p>\n

I tell them, “Don’t blame your minister. They just said what they said.\u00a0 You did it.\u00a0 Go look in the mirror and see the one who did it, and then you’ll also be seeing the one who’s got to change it.\u00a0 I’m not going to write or say anything to your minister.\u00a0 I’m just going to say to them inside myself, God bless you.<\/p>\n

When you made a choice to be part of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, you probably felt really good.\u00a0 And you may have looked back at the thing you left and said, “I’m glad I’m out of that.”\u00a0 Well, I know that if you make a choice out of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, you’re likely to look back at it and say, “I’m sure glad I’m out of that.”\u00a0 I know this simply because that’s what people do.\u00a0 But your saying that doesn’t make MSIA anything; it\u2019s just that’s what you’re saying.\u00a0 In MSIA, we consistently focus you back to you as the source of your own information, and we show you techniques to bring this forward.\u00a0 You are sometimes amazed that you hadn’t looked inside, but you didn’t because you were brainwashed to keep looking out here, into the physical world, for answers and guidance.\u00a0 You have been taught and trained to make it in the world:\u00a0 Become a doctor, learn a whole lot about nothing and specialize in it, hope somebody gets sick, and charge a lot.<\/p>\n

I know it sounds funny, but when you think about it, you may say, “I hate to tell you, but you’re making sense.\u00a0 But I don’t want you to make sense about that.\u00a0 You’re breaking my images of everything.”\u00a0 Good.\u00a0 Don’t have any image between you and God.\u00a0 None.\u00a0 Not even your profession.\u00a0 Instead, awaken your Spirit, your Soul, to its divine nature and to the divinity of God and you, and live in and for that.\u00a0 Bring as much of that down into you and out into the world as you possibly can at any given time.\u00a0 And while you’re at it, cut yourself some slack and cut some slack for others.\u00a0 Allow yourself some freedom and some responsibility.\u00a0 Allow yourself a whole series of choices in your life.<\/p>\n

It’s a sign of oneness when we look in the same direction, not a sign of mind control or brainwashing.\u00a0 It’s not a sign of brainwashing when you’re all going down the freeway in the same direction.\u00a0 It’s common sense to do that.\u00a0 People who are going in the other lane will accuse you of being brainwashed because you’re going in another lane.\u00a0 But they’re not seeing that there are these lanes of traffic in people’s lives and that we’re following various ones.\u00a0 And we follow them according to the dictates inside of us.<\/p>\n

Some people go inside and do spiritual exercises; their mind and emotions unlock, and they start this free flow of upward energy (or maybe the energy comes down and pulls them up).\u00a0 They start to realize, “God loves and cares and knows that I exist.”\u00a0 But people doubt the presence of God.\u00a0 They doubt the Traveler Consciousness until it goes, “Click.”\u00a0 Then they say, “Oh my God,” and I just smile at them.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because I did the same thing.\u00a0 You’re not approaching Divinity differently than I did.\u00a0 I approached it through a long period of incarnations, and I can tell you a whole lot of ways that don’t work.\u00a0 Some people think that’s a prideful statement, but it’s not.\u00a0 It’s a declaration of dumbness, of how dumb we can be and, still, God’s going to assist us.\u00a0 That’s why I don’t worry about you doing what you’re doing.\u00a0 It’s in your hands; it’s in God’s hands.\u00a0 It’s not in mine.\u00a0 I just know that each day I’m given new opportunities to choose.\u00a0 I can think back to when I was four, to the Big Time Five, and to my university times.\u00a0 I can remember the groups I’ve been in, the friendships I’ve had, and the loyalties of bonding.\u00a0 And I realize that those were all just choices-not brainwashing at all, but deep emotional feeling, loyalty of the thinking towards the group, and my wanting to do the best thing towards it all the time.\u00a0 I think all that is, is human nature, and that’s why I don’t go casting stones.<\/p>\n

Jesus said it clearly:\u00a0 “If you’re without sin” (in other words, if you know God), “then cast the first stone.”\u00a0 But if you’ve seen God, you won’t want to cast stones.\u00a0 So it’s obvious that as soon as you start to cast a stone at somebody, you’re a “sinner.”<\/p>\n

So when someone is throwing stones, all we do is love them, thank them for their contribution, and get away from them because when somebody’s throwing stones at random, the stones may bounce off and hit us.\u00a0 If some guy is shooting a gun haphazardly, what do you do?\u00a0 Duck and get out of there.\u00a0 When people start to do that verbally, duck and get out of there.\u00a0 You’re going to be healthier and happier.\u00a0 Perhaps later you can come back and disarm them with a few well-chosen words — kind words, because that’s what disarms.\u00a0 You speak kind words to each other because kind words are the Soul tones of the heart.\u00a0 The understanding is the expression of the heart.\u00a0 And when you hug people and care for them, that’s the overflowing of the heart to other people.<\/p>\n

That’s what this Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness is about here on this physical level.\u00a0 But its business, truly, is only Soul transcendence.<\/p>\n

Baruch Bashan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Awaken your Spirit, your Soul, to its divine nature and to the divinity of God and you, and live in and for that.\u00a0 Bring as much of that down into you and out into the world as you possibly can at any given time.\u00a0 And while you’re at it, cut yourself some slack and cut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":111461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","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":"default","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":[266,260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-john-rogers-current-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111459","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\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}