In Sussex

An Apollonius of Tyana lookalike
Is preaching
The Sermon on the Mount
On the summit
Of Ditchling Beacon
In Sussex.

There is a large attentive crowd.

It includes several thousand
Human beings,
Four hundred and fifty
Giant pandas,
Twenty nine
Archbishops,
And a rear admiral
In mass vestments.

The preacher notices a giant panda.

"Animal people can be saved, too,"
He says.

The panda reaches into his sporran,
Pulls out a mobile telephone
And in a little-known mandarin dialect,
Leaves a message
On an answering machine
In Austin, Texas.

..............................

Creative subversion

Nothing passes

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Seven signs of ascension

Page update: 24.06.07

Alcuin: As we and the planet evolve to higher vibration states, and ascend from the third dimension to the fourth dimension, what are the signs of the times that we should be looking for?
Flutterby: In the immediate future, you mean?
Alcuin: Yes. Between now and the year 2012 CE.
Flutterby: I would suggest that as 2012 approaches, and the end of the world of your experience in the third dimension draws to a close, seven fairly obvious signifiers of change will become apparent.
Alcuin: Seven signs of ascension?
Flutterby: You could say that, yes. Seven results of a higher vibration state sweeping through the planet and its inhabitants.
Alcuin: What are these seven signs of ascension, in your opinion?
Flutterby: (1) There will be a major western stock market crash beginning in Japan.
(2) Human natality will change. In the next six to eight years, your surface population will gradually move towards a situation where three girl babies will be born for every one boy.
(3) A third human gender of tetragametic origin will begin to establish itself.
(4) Unusually persuasive strangers will give high-profile international press conferences.
(5) Your military and covert security organisations will begin to keep an irrationally close watch on certain ancient world heritage sites.
(6) Ordinary people will begin to see things they have never noticed before.
(7) Unexpected things will land.
Alcuin: Some of those signs are very specific, and some are very general.
Flutterby: I agree.


...................................................

Planetary Ascension Year 2012
Some resources for exploration

...................................................


What about ascension?

Extraterrestrial visitor news

2012 AD – A spiritual terminus or a change of trains?

Tell me a little about yourself

The central question of the universe

The unwisdom of belief

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Olive restaurant in Bromley

http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2004/11/olive-restaurant-in-bromley.html

Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home

The olive looks normal enough.

A hungry man cuts off a large piece
And places it thoughtfully in his mouth.

The olive tastes normal enough.

Two seconds later
The man's expression changes:
A serene look of spiritual ecstasy
Suffuses his features.

Three seconds later
The man's head explodes
In a raging fireball
Of green and purple flame.



.............................


Images of olives
1 2 3 4

Images of Bromley
1 2 3 4


...............................


A required tonic

Cricket on the radio

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Jesus said: "You must be reincarnated"

Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home

Page update: 10.03.14

What was Jesus talking about when he said: "You must be born again"?

The text is found in John 3: "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (Jn 3:6-8 NIV)

A growing number of modern New Age Christians are coming to the view that to be born again means to be reincarnated.

Although emerging evidence suggests that Jesus taught reincarnation, it is fair to observe that some church-based Christians still feel a little uncomfortable with the idea of individual human beings living a succession of different physical lives during their evolutionary return to God. But reincarnation, being born again, has become an important new emphasis in Western spirituality over the last 150 years.

The underlying idea of reincarnation and karma is very simple. Human perfection ("salvation") is the assured destiny of the spiritual self of everyone. Reincarnation, as the evolutionary method, provides the necessary time and opportunity for self-perfecting. The law of action and constantly modified reaction ensures justice to all. "God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." (Gal 6:7b – NIV) The attainment of perfection is rendered certain by the interior presence of an infinite, divine power ceaselessly at work within the spiritual self of every human being.

Jesus of Nazareth, himself, taught reincarnation and those around him took it for granted. There are passages in the Bible where it is evident that Jesus' inner circle understood and accepted reincarnation as part of the natural mechanism of humanity's spiritual journey.

When Jesus said: "You must be born again" (Jn 3:7b – NIV), he was talking about reincarnation. When Jesus said: ".... before Abraham was born, I am!" (Jn 8:58b – NIV), he was talking about reincarnation. When Jesus, perhaps with Malachi 4:5 in mind, explained to the crowd that John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah (Mt 11:7-15), he was talking about just that.

It seems that the people around Jesus were equally at home with the reality of reincarnation. On one occasion Jesus asked his disciples: "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." (Mt 16:13b-14 - NIV) In other words, people were taking the view that John or Elijah or Jeremiah had been reincarnated as the Son of Man.

On another occasion, Jesus and his group encountered a man who was congenitally blind. The disciples asked Jesus: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life...." (Jn 9:2b-3 - NIV)

The question as to whether the man himself had sinned and in consequence had been sightless shows the clear thought that justice demanded that the transgression should have occurred in a physical body. As this could only have happened in a former life on Earth, belief in reincarnation is implicit in the question. In the disciples' minds the man might have been born blind because of events in one of his previous lives.

But important objections can be made to all this: If Jesus believed in reincarnation, wouldn't he have talked about it more? And wouldn't what he said about reincarnation have been expressed in rather more explicit terms?"

These are fair points. One possibility is that the cultural milieu within which Jesus taught at that time (like that of the more advanced spiritualities in the East) accepted without question that reincarnation happened. It was not therefore necessary for Jesus to be explicit about it.

A further possibility is the exact opposite. It may have been Jesus' view that the people he spoke to were not yet spiritually equipped to assimilate the concept of reincarnation, and so he played it down or coded it into metaphor in his teachings.

A third possibility is more sinister. This is that there were plenty of explicit references to reincarnation in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible (in the texts as originally given), including many clear statements on the subject by Jesus himself, but these references were edited out of the Bible for political reasons in the sixth century.

Prior to the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 CE, the indications are that there had been many clear references to reincarnation in the Bible. But Justinian I (483-565), an energetic Byzantine Emperor, and his wife, didn't like the idea of reincarnation – it tended to reduce the power of priest-caste dogma, and therefore their own power – so they convoked the Council and, among much other gerrymandering, got the Church Fathers to issue a decree to remove most of the references to reincarnation from the extant biblical texts.

But in the early Christian communities, reincarnation was a datum. Origen (c185-254) asks: "Is it not more in conformity with reason that every soul for certain mysterious reasons is introduced into a body, and introduced according to its deserts and former actions? Is it not rational that souls should be introduced into bodies, in accordance with their merits and previous deeds, and that those who have used their bodies in doing the utmost possible good should have a right to bodies endowed with qualities superior to the bodies of others? The soul, which is immaterial and invisible in its nature, exists in no material place without having a body suited to the nature of that place; accordingly, it at one time puts off one body, which was necessary before, but which is no longer adequate in its changed state, and it exchanges it for a second." (from 'Contra Celsum')

And in another place, Origen says: "The soul has no beginning nor end. Every soul comes into this world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats of its previous life. Its place in this world as a vessel appointed to honour or dishonour is determined by its previous merits or demerits. Its work in this world determines its place in the world which is to follow this." (from 'De Principiis')

These two passages from Origen are cited in "Reincarnation: An East-West Anthology" edited by J.Head & S.L.Cranston (1961); Quest Books ISBN 0-8356-0035-1.

A capable essay entitled "Reincarnation in Christian History" can be found here and more historical detail about the Second Council of Constantinople is compiled here.

Among several books of scriptural status which were kept out of the official church Bible, perhaps for fear that they might empower the vulgar, was the Pistis Sophia. In this text there is a passage in which Jesus explains a little more about the reincarnation of Elijah as John the Baptist than the Bible (at Mt 11:7-15) has space for: "I found Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, before she had conceived him and I cast into her a power which I had received from the Little Jao, the Good, who is in the Midst, so that he should be able to preach before me, and prepare my way and baptise with water of forgiveness. Now that power was in the body of John. And again, in place of the soul of the archons which he was due to receive, I found the soul of the prophet Elias in the aeons of the sphere; and I took it in and I took his soul again; I brought it to the Virgin of the Light, and she gave it to her paralemptors. They brought it to the sphere of the archons, and they cast it into the womb of Elisabeth. But the power of the Little Jao, he of the Midst, and the soul of the prophet Elias were bound in the body of John the Baptist." (Pistis Sophia - Book 1 - Chapter 7)

The full text of Book 1 of the Pistis Sophia can be found here, G.R.S.Mead's introduction to the Pistis Sophia can be found here and an instructive blurb about J.J.Hurtak's influential book on the Pistis Sophia is accessible online here.

Richard Holmes' well-regarded website has a section entitled The Reincarnation FAQ. This covers reincarnation life histories, past life regressions, and some of the common questions which people ask about the workings of reincarnation.

Some people think that reincarnation is a deception wrought by demons on the undefended Christian mind. An intelligent presentation of why orthodox Christianity and reincarnation may be incompatible is offered by Ernest Valea here.

..................................



I died in spaceshuttle crash says four-year-old Indian girl
Upasama Kumar is a four year-old girl who has been drawing crowds to the village of Nar Mohammadpur in Uttar Pradesh (India). She was born two months after the death of Kalpana Chawla, the Indian astronaut who was killed in the US spaceshuttle Columbia above Texas (USA) on the 1st February 2003. Ever since she learned to talk Upasama has insisted that her real name is Kalpana Chawla and she died up in the skies four years ago when a huge ball of ice collided with the spaceshuttle and destroyed it. Locals say that it would appear that Upasama Kumar is the reincarnation of Kalpana Chawla. Upasama even knows the name of Kalpana Chawla's father.
Source: Hindustan Times (New Delhi, India) 07.07.07.

China bans reincarnation in Tibet
United Press International (Washington, USA) 03.08.07

China tells living Buddhas to obtain permission before they reincarnate
The Times (London, UK) 04.08.07




.......................................



How important is Jesus?

Jesus said: "I am Evolution"

Photographed light blessings from Jesus

The Share International revelations

Gospel for the New Age

Undead but positive

Index of blog contents

High fells

A man with sensible walking boots
Is striding across the high fells
In Cumbria.

Walking towards him
Along the path
Is a grey mountain troll.

As they pass, the troll says:
"How do you know
That I am a grey mountain troll?"

"Because these mountains are grey
And you have a disagreeable
Troll-like physiognomy," says the man.

Ten years later
The man recalls a curious detail.

The mountain troll was carrying
A bright orange Gucci handbag.


...............................


Cricket on the radio

Blowing in the wind

More Norfolk koans

What is the answer?

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Jesus said: "I am Evolution"

I want to suggest two things. First, that Jesus said: "I am Evolution," and, second, that Jesus understood that God's will is Evolution.

In the New International Version of the Protestant bible, the spiritual master known in the west as Jesus of Nazareth is recorded as having said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6)

I suggest that something of what Jesus may have meant by these words is as follows:

“I am process not stasis. The truth of my being is alive and dynamic. I am living movement. As the way changes as I move along, so does the truth and livingness of my being change. In the life of the Father there are no fixed positions.”

“This living change at the heart of my being describes the truth of who I am. Without living a truthful life of constant change, no-one can come to the Father.”

“I am Evolution. Without enshrining evolution at the heart of his being, no-one can approach the Father. Without evolving, no-one can experience a veridical contact with God.”

“The journey is my home. I am the journey. Be at home travelling. No-one comes to the Father except through travelling as I travel. Eschew the illusion of fixed positions and free yourself to travel. Truth is travel. God’s will is Evolution."


......................................


How important is Jesus?

Jesus said: "You must be reincarnated"

Photographed light blessings from Jesus

The Share International revelations

Gospel for the New Age

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Into Bodmin to shop

Tuesday is the only day
In the week
She can get into Bodmin to shop.

The carrots
On the vegetable stall
Are unusually large.

"How much do they cost per pound?"
She asks the stallholder.
"They cost 100 pence per pound,"
He says.

The woman picks up
Two of the largest carrots
And pushes them up
The man's nose.

"Why does this always happen
To me on a Tuesday?"
He cries.


Private collection

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

The Theologians' Brains Trust

https://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2004/11/theologians-brains-trust.html

Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home

At last the great day had arrived. It was the day of the Theologians’ Brains Trust. The church hall was full. On the platform sat two rows of distinguished theologians. The chairman called the meeting to order. A reverent hush descended.

“May I have the first question for our experts, please?”
A man stood up.
“Why are this year’s crop circles more complicated than last year’s crop circles?”
The theologians were silent.

“May I have the next question for our experts, please?”
A woman stood up.
“Why, when I am meditating, are my meditations a different colour at full moon than they are at other times?”
The theologians were silent.

“May I have the next question for our experts, please?”
A child stood up.
“What is best for curing paper jams in a fax machine? Tesco shower gel or Sainsbury's thick and creamy yoghurt?”
The theologians were silent.

“May I have the next question for our experts, please?”
A priest stood up.
“What is theology?”
The theologians all started talking at once.

When the last member of the audience left the hall, the theologians were still talking. Very quietly, the caretaker switched off the lights, locked the doors and went home. He didn’t want to disturb the theologians.


.........................



Nothing passes

Fundamentalists' Bring-and-Buy

How is religion?

Why is church so serious?

The unwisdom of belief

Pope terror talks

Greenbelt - the view from the Death Star

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2004/11/spirituality-websites-worth-watching.html

Alcuin Bramerton Twitter

Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home

Page update: 23.08.08

Share International

Benjamin Creme's main website. Benjamin is, perhaps, the most influential of the UK-based New Age spiritual teachers currently teaching openly in the West. His site contains up-to-date information about the Second Coming of Maitreya, the World Teacher (called "Christ" in church mythology), and about the spiritual connections between Maitreya and another important teacher, Sananda (known as "Jesus of Nazareth" in church stories). Alcuin's introduction to the Share International revelations can be found elsewhere on the blog here.

Sai Baba

Here can be found some recent discourses by Sathya Sai Baba, the Cosmic Christ (not to be confused with Maitreya – the Planetary Christ, with whom he works closely). Sai Baba is based in India. Maitreya is based in London (UK). And Sananda (Jesus) is based just outside Rome (Italy).

A Course in Miracles

One of the more recent books which Sananda ("Jesus of Nazareth" in an earlier incarnation) and his team have written is "A Course in Miracles" (1975). This is quite a demanding New Age Christian text. It is introduced here. And some of the most commonly asked questions about "A Course in Miracles" can be found here.

The Lucis Trust

This is the organisation that publishes the books of Alice Bailey. Alice's writings on esoteric spirituality were an important conduit of new revelation in the first half of the twentieth century, during the Armageddon period (1914-1945). Extracts of various of her books can be found here. There is a very full section dealing with meditation, including a piece on the spiritual significance of meditating during the full moon, and a Moon Chart. And there is an informed consideration of a New Age symbol, and an explanation of the spiritual background of The Great Invocation.

The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ

This is a New Age Christian scripture and is, perhaps, fuller, less tampered with and, at certain important points, more accurate than the official biblical synoptic gospels. The full text can be read here.


The Christ - Supreme Head of the Spiritual Hierarchy
Some ideas by Aart Jurriaanse

Apollonius of Tyana

An essay by Bette Stockbauer. Jesus of Nazareth reincarnated as Apollonius of Tyana in 16CE.

Invisible Helpers

The full text of Bishop Charles Leadbeater's ground-breaking book written in 1915. For many Western readers, this was the first time that they had learned of the possibility of doing active spiritual work in a parallel universe/adjacent dimension called by Leadbeater "the astral plane."

The Emerald Tablets of Thoth

An esoteric text from Atlantis. The writer is said to have built the Great Pyramid in Egypt.

Who’s Who in the History of Western Mysticism
Professor Bruce Janz's compilation

Meditation techniques
Richard Ebbs' roundup of the different traditions

Vipassanã Fellowship
An online Buddhist meditation course from California with useful links.


Traditional Yoga Studies
Dr Georg Feuerstein's website. There is an online Quiz of Sanskrit words used in Yoga, useful essays on Tantra and Kundalini, and a discussion about Yoga, ecumenism and interfaith relations.

Mike Quinsey
Mike is a clear and accurate channel for many of the senior figures currently supporting spiritual evolution on Earth. These include St Germain and several of the Galactic Federation people from Sirius, Venus and Arcturus. There are unusual texts here.


FourWinds10.com
This is an encyclopaedic website organised by Anne and Patrick Bellringer. It contains a substantial and regularly updated database of alternative spiritual news, including material to do with the NESARA prosperity programs, holistic health, extraterrestrial teaching, and some important perspectives on the inner workings of the Dark Side.

ThothWeb
Informed and detailed consideration of UFOs, ETs, ghosts and spirits, sacred geometry, unexplained mysteries, positive magic, ancient civilisations, dreams, spirituality, conspiracies and the paranormal. Several useful discussion forums.

NEXUS magazine
NEXUS is an international bi-monthly alternative news magazine, covering the fields of Alternative health, Ancient mysteries, Environment and spirituality, Conspiracy, Religious revisionism and mysteries, Suppressed and future science, and UFOs and the unexplained. There are substantial free pdf downloads of informed texts on each of these topic areas. NEXUS magazine is not affiliated to any political, religious or spiritual organisations, and has been published since 1986.

The Quantum Future Group
Here may be found much well-informed comment on topics such as Jesus, the man and the myth, Ascension theory, DNA and the matrix, Dreams and disinformation, The American Problem, The fundamentalist polity of George Bush, Tony Blair's attitude on Iraq, The fluoridation of drinking water, Mass mind control, The True Identity of Fulcanelli and The Da Vinci Code, Quantum future metaphysics, Quantum fractals, Physics and the mysterious, The Bogdanov Affair, Critical Notes on Tom Bearden and Richard Hoagland, and a searchable Esoteric Glossary. There is much on this website which the spiritually docile would prefer not to know.

The Earth Rainbow Network
"One Planet, One People, One Peace" - Jean Hudon's website. Offers an active meditation focus for healing the planet, and presents regular compilations of alternative spiritual news items.


Wistancia's Light Pages
Because of her privileged extraterrestrial connection, Wistancia Stone has some useful explanatory pointers to understanding exospirituality (the spirituality of advanced off-planet extraterrestrials). Wistancia opens her site with an introductory, slow-moving, intuitive graphic sequence lasting three minutes. It involves colour-coordinated ET symbolism. This is best seen in full-screen view. For Alcuin's introduction to Wistancia Stone's work, see Extraterrestrial symbols of spiritual protection elsewhere in this blog.

Master Beinsa Douno
Teachings from the Bulgarian Spiritual Master Beinsa Douno (Peter Deunov) 1864-1944.


Transpersonal psychology - an introduction
Dr Michael Daniels' site. This is a new branch of psychology which is concerned with the study of those states and processes in which people experience a deeper or wider sense of who they are, or a sense of greater connectedness with others, nature, or the spiritual dimension.


The Association for Transpersonal Psychology
"Transpersonal Psychology combines insights from modern psychology with those drawn from traditional spiritual practices, both Eastern and Western." Another useful introduction to the field.

The Lucidity Institute
Information about lucid dreams, dream management, out-of-body experiences and spiritual work in other dimensions during sleep.

Near-death experiences and the afterlife
A well-researched site with many case histories, described in detail.

Frequently asked questions about Parapsychology
A compilation of introductory material on the website of the Parapsychological Association. This international professional body is an organisation of scientists and scholars engaged in the study of psychic experiences such as telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, psychic healing, and precognition.


The Woodfish Institute
Education for an ancient future. Dr Leslie Gray's shamanism website about the integration of ancient healing wisdom and modern medicine. Includes an instructive essay entitled Shamanism and ecopsychology. Alcuin's introduction to Dr Gray's work can be found elsewhere on this blog here.


TASTE
The archive of scientists' transcendental experiences. Charles Tart's website. TASTE is an online journal devoted to transcendent experiences which scientists have reported. It lets scientists express these experiences in a psychologically and professionally safe space. Submissions are granted anonymity unless their authors choose otherwise. It is possible for readers of the website submissions to contact the authors through a secure email link at the bottom of each submission page.


Esoteric Philosophy links
A useful compilation by Todd Lorentz


Unmuseum
The Museum of Unnatural Mystery. A well-written and researched encyclopaedia of esoterica. Only for the curious and the open-minded.

Lectures by Laurence Gardner on the Holy Grail
And related legends, including Bloodline of the Holy Grail - The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed, Genesis of the Grail Kings - The Explosive Story of the Ancient Bloodline, Realm of the Ring Lords - The Ancient Legacy of the Ring and the Grail and Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark - Amazing Revelations of the Phenomenal Power of Gold.

Reincarnation in Christian history
A useful hyperlinked essay.


Sea of Faith Network UK
Sea of Faith's mission is to explore and promote religious faith as a human creation. No truths in the world arrive untouched by human hand. Truths are made within human culture and language. Ideas, beliefs, faiths: we made them all up - not, of course, as isolated individuals or lone craftsmen, but as communities, groups, collectives, cultures. There are some capable essays on this site by people such as Don Cupitt, Anne Ashworth, Priscilla Morton, Jude Bullock and Nicholas Smith.


Metareligion
Cassiel Sophia's website, promoting a multidisciplinary view of religious, spiritual and esoteric phenomena. Over three thousand pages of research. Encyclopaedic, eclectic, free-thinking.

Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
A website promoting an even-handed, warts-and-all approach to toleration from a human rights perspective. Enormous range of faiths considered. An effective anti-fundamentalist resource.


Nick Pope's UFO links page
Now a freelance, Nick Pope used to run the British Government's UFO project at the UK Ministry of Defence in London.


A-Z of alien species active in
Earth's evolution
An introduction to the local positive and negative extraterrestrial population. Includes, among others, Arcturians, Aghartians, Ashtar command, Cetians, Greys, Lyrans, Martians, MIBs, Mothmen, Orions, Pleiadeans, Procyonians, Sirians, Telosians, Vegans, Venusians and Zeta Reticuli.

.............................

Metaphysical glossaries

Weblog spirituality

Index of blog contents

Unguarded level crossing

A woman wearing pink nail varnish
Is driving her car
Across an unguarded level crossing
In Northamptonshire.

An inter-city express
Travelling at two hundred miles an hour
Approaches.

Fortunately the train
Is not approaching
This particular level crossing.


Lose weight feel great

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Yoghurt shelves

http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2004/11/yoghurt-shelves.html

Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home

A man in a grey suit
Is standing
By the yoghurt shelves
In a supermarket
In Cornwall.
 
He is looking for
Morphine suppositories.

This man is not
The promised messiah.

...............................

There is a YouTube audio file of this Traditional Norfolk Koan here.


...............................

Creative subversion

Lunch in Salisbury

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Lunch in Salisbury

A man with false teeth
Is eating a cheese soufflé
For lunch

In Salisbury.
He bites on something hard.

There is a second pair
Of false teeth
In his cheese soufflé.

..........................................................

The man behind him in the fish shop

Jellybabies theme park

A taxi is possible

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents