Points to Ponder by Richard Wooldridge

     In July of this year, a Secrets of Life quote was posted from Vernon Howard’s book Your Power of Natural Knowing. The gist of the four-paragraph quote was that, being insecure as we go out into the world, we put on costumes that are artificial, unreal and have no relationship to what ought to be our natural state. We do this because we don’t know what else to do. We believe the costumes are necessary for our very existence. These are the roles we have assumed in order to live a fictitious life which we imagine will make us happy.
     What almost every human being on earth does not see is that these costumes are unnecessary. The inherent nature of the costume is a lie. We have been fooled into presuming that the eventual result is what we want and what we need. For example, if I get the ‘perfect’ job it will make me happy. “I will be set for life.” “This is going to do it.” “My struggles will be over.” Remember, this is what you are being conned into unconsciously believing. It is imperative to see the truth of this.
     Let’s take another example. I say, “If the right person comes into my life, that’s going to make everything perfect.” “Everything is going to be hunky-dory.” Whatever I say to try to convince myself that this is going to do it won’t work because it’s not real. It’s just another costume I’ve put on. Human beings come up with thousands of so-called answers or contrivances to try to be happy. Notice how these schemes always fail and how the next thing is always waiting in the wings to be pursued.
     Vernon Howard stated, “A costume is something that is artificial, that you put on uselessly, for the purpose of trying to feel good fortune of some kind.” The role of being a good person, a positive person, a successful businessman, a world class athlete, a helpful person, a loyal person, a loving husband, wife, parent is simply a role. You’ll never be able to prove you are any of these things because these qualities do not exist where we are presently living. For instance, as soon as the person who you proclaim to love does something that you don’t agree with, what happens to the so-called label of love?
     You convince yourself that if you invest in this particular stock or piece of property, you’ll make a fortune. What actually happens is that a thought passes through your mind and you grab onto it. Of course, Truth doesn’t say not to spend or invest your money wisely. But if your motivation is coming from greed or if you think the action will provide you with power or ‘security’, it isn’t going to work. Real security cannot be found in earthly rewards or endeavors because their very nature is temporary. Nothing of this earth can provide you with something permanent, only Truth can do that. Vernon Howard states, “Insecurity is a mental condition, not a condition of finances, friendships or sex.” (A Treasury of Trueness #262)
     You see, even if you acquire the things society tells you will lead to a happy, fulfilling life, like the $10 million dollars or the nice big home or the family, they will not bring permanent rest and contentment. It is not in the nature of money, people, experiences, events or memories to be able to provide that. They simply can’t do it.
     And if we aren’t intensely pursuing the Higher, only disappointment and bad things await us. It’s the nature of the beast. Christ said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
     Have you ever had this happen to you? You meet someone for the first time, and you have the distinct impression that they can’t possibly be this ‘nice.’ They say things that are over-the-top, like they’ve heard so much about you and how wonderful it is to finally meet you. You detect that they’re actually a big phony only pretending to be friendly, loving, kind, thoughtful, etc., etc. Again, this is a costume they’ve put on.
     And when you don’t reciprocate or go along with their phony act and repeat the flatteries, watch how, underneath the surface, they secretly flip-flop to the opposite state of hostility. If someone is not truly genuine, they have no choice but to go from over-the-top praise to secret hostility. You simply know that they know nothing about you and have no awareness at all of what they are doing.
     I recently went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. It has decent food, it’s very reasonably priced (under $20 for two people) and you get a 3-course meal. You also get a fortune cookie at the end of the meal with a check too. On this particular occasion, my fortune said, “Generosity and perfection are your assets and they show.” I bought it hook, line and sinker. My wife was with me and she just heartily laughed.
     There is so much more to these teachings than anyone can possibly imagine. They will explain everything about life if we are receptive to the message. We can learn to not take ourselves so seriously even though this is a very serious matter. We can start to truly have fun and begin to realize what we’re actually supposed to be doing with our lives. Then life genuinely becomes satisfying. As we slowly stop hurting and deceiving ourselves, it won’t be possible for us to be deceived by others either.
     Recently I happened to look out a window at our home and observed a doe and small fawn. The doe was eating vegetation (deer are vegetarians) while the fawn was investigating its new world. It noticed a set of table and chairs and was very cautious approaching it. It wasn’t sure what it was and wondered if it might pose a threat. It then noticed a large rock off to one side and got spooked. It sprang back to mama for safety and security. She would protect it from the big bad rock. The young fawn did not yet recognize that the rock represented no threat to it.
     The doe knew there was no danger lurking nearby and wasn’t concerned. We have yet to fully recognize that truth poses no threat to us. It is simply trying to show us that pain and suffering is a hoax. I was once privileged to be at a business meeting with Vernon Howard present. He was quietly observing the small group of people in the room when quite suddenly he exclaimed, “You are being hoaxed and don’t know it!” I have never forgotten that moment as it still rings true to this day. It was shouted from the stars.
     When are we going to let truth break through our thick heads, our obstinate ways? We believe we know better and that’s why we suffer. Everyone thinks they know what they are doing and none of them know. But we can know with God’s help.
     Vernon Howard once told us, “Listen to me, you can do this.” (A Treasury of Trueness #2027) It’s wonderful to hear those encouraging words because though we don’t often admit it, we have taken negativity and defeat to be a necessary part of life. All these things can be verified with an ounce of self-honesty and a sincere wish to understand.

     A memory came back to me recently about one of the trips that was made to Southern California in the early 1980s. Vernon Howard periodically would go back to give talks at different locations in the southern part of California. His family had moved there when he was a boy from Massachusetts. When he grew up in LA it once was a beautiful physical location. But as time went on and LA was developed it has been consumed by what has been called progress and much of the natural beauty has disappeared.
     I was in my early 30s at the time and was full of adventure. It was my first trip to Southern California. I was looking forward to experiencing this new quest and seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life. I rode with someone else in the class who was going to the outside talks by Vernon. He was a little older than me and had agreed to camp out on the beach. I had a two-man tent and thought nothing of sleeping out under the stars next to the ocean and most important of all is we would get a chance to hear Vernon Howard speak in a different setting amongst unfamiliar faces. I was ‘pumped’ to say the least. That term wasn’t used back in the early 1980s. Suffice it to say, I was very excited.
     The talks were being held in Laguna Beach, California so we decided to stay in San Clemente State Park, which is south of Laguna Beach. It was still okay to camp out on the beach back then. You didn’t need a permit and it was safe. You could even leave your tent set-up with sleeping bags inside and other belongings and it would still be there when you got back from going out to eat or to the store or to the lecture or wherever.
     Anyway, it turned out that a storm came in off the ocean that night and it rained heavily all night with wind and crashing waves. There was no danger but it was pretty nasty out. There was a fly sheet for the tent, so we stayed dry. My spirits weren’t dampened from the weather but the other person with me hated it, didn’t get much sleep and reacted negatively to the circumstances. When we got up the next morning at the crack of dawn, I vividly remember that he empathically pronounced, “I’ll pay for a motel room. I’m not sleeping out here one more night.” Obviously, he wasn’t one to rough it or endure the somewhat uncomfortable living conditions.
     I don’t remember what we ended up doing but I suspect we got a motel room as he was the one with the vehicle. At the time I wasn’t developed enough to not let his state affect mine. However, the talks that evening by Vernon made it seem like the episode out on the beach was nothing. I completely forgot about it as inspiration from on high helped break any residue of previous reactions.
     In fact, I got another valuable lesson when Vernon assigned me to be a greeter outside in the rain in the parking lot of the edifice where the lectures were being held to watch for late comers to the meeting one night. I was fine and I had brought a poncho to wear to stay dry but my mind was in conflict because there was a part of me that wanted to be inside to hear the talk.
     We had driven all that way from Boulder City, Nevada, camped out on the beach and “I” was instructed to be outside in the rain while the talk was going on. The lesson was, I was still in the vicinity of truth, there was tremendous energy and help being sent to me. Vernon even came out before he started the lecture and said something to me and gave me some instructions to lift my spirit. But my mind was telling me to feel pain, be bothered by my fate, that I was missing out, when all I had to do was be in the present moment, be aware and watch for anyone who showed up late for the talk. It showed me we have a choice to remain divided and tormented or we can do something different, even though I was unable to do it at the time.
     On a talk I listened to recently, Vernon said, “Change your views toward yourself and you change your nature. Change your nature and you change your behavior. Change your behavior and you change your destiny.” (New MP3 CD — Something Higher Than Ideas, Talk 1 — See page 4) What a great fact. If only we would listen to this cosmic fact. It is an absolute certainty that I can change if I will follow these words of wisdom.
     What I was really doing in the parking lot and what the other person was doing at the beach was complaining. Our work project for the entire year of 2019 is to “Stop Loving Complaint.” To be more concise “Stop Complaining.” Also in a talk entitled “Let the Bus Take You Home” (DVD 26-1 or Blu-ray 9-5 — See website to purchase), Vernon instructs us to ‘unlove complaint.’ The whole lecture is about complaint and why it is so detrimental to our well-being. In the dictionary complaint is defined as an expression of dissatisfaction. We’re unhappy about the way things are, so we gripe or whine about someone or something.
     Now, I just have to start catching myself complaining. I have to see it clearly and the seeing of it will begin to shine the Spotlight of Attention on it so that I will see how it is causing me great pain so that I can eventually put an end to it. I simply see the harm it is doing to me and end it or the light will put an end to it for me. Vernon in this same talk poses a question to us, “Did you notice how your complaints did nothing for you?”
     It takes time for Truth to correct the damage that has been done but we must also have a sincere wish to want to change. We have spent a lifetime of complaining and we’re not just going to give it up overnight. It’s the same with any harmful negative trait that presently exists in our life. We have to see that it is negative and harmful to us.
     In the Fall newsletter of 2016 (New LIfe News PDF file), I made mention of a particular issue I was having with my back and that I had gone to see a chiropractor. An x-ray was taken of my spine and neck in April of 2016 and another one was taken recently to see if the adjustments and treatment I have been getting have made a difference. By comparing the two x-rays side by side you could see the changes that have occurred since beginning the adjustments.
     There was a dramatic difference in the two x-rays. The chiropractor was very pleased by the progress made. If I hadn’t gone to see her I would more than likely be looking like the hunchback of Notre Dame plus have some other serious health issues. She made a very interesting comment to me: “See things can change and progress can be made with proper treatment and your willingness to be treated.” The proof was in the x-rays.
     Life takes its toll on the human body over time, the general wear and tear, etc. Living with the false self, the negative nature all those years drains the life out of people. It destroys the human host. If we will observe ourselves and others, we will see the damage that has been done and is still being done from anger, guilt, resentment, complaint, jealousy, revenge, fear, worry, and all their negative relatives. We have the ability to observe and end this tyranny. Just like the x-rays showed the damage that had been done over the years so too can insight into ourselves show the progress that can be made from the proper application of these truth principles.
     An astonishing difference can be made in anyone’s life who willingly goes along with truth’s efforts to help them; to take correction with a right spirit and to have a right attitude. To listen in spite of voices inside which loudly protest. A genuine effort must be made to go against the false self which objects and proclaims its dominance over us.
     In Psycho-Pictography there is a list of the Four Golden Keys. They are: 1. A sincere desire for inner change (a man must really want to be different). 2. Contact with workable principles (we must beware of counterfeits). 3. Self-honesty (be brutally honest with yourself in order to separate truth from falsity). 4. Persistence (a man must persevere).
     If we truly apply these four golden keys, our lives will wonderfully change. The truth will begin to dissolve all these negativities for us and all will be well.

     Vernon Howard would periodically quote the New Testament and remind us “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” In other words, there is no middle ground. You can’t sit on the fence. If we remain undecided we have decided to remain ambivalent. In other words, having mixed feelings about someone or something; being unable to choose between two courses of action.
     I remember when I was a teenager my father once got very firm about a particular matter with me and told me, “There’s no gray area. You can’t have it both ways.” There can be no neutrality. We either love the Truth or we hate it. You either get it or you don’t get it. You’re either for me or against me. It can’t get any clearer than that.
     We all have to make a choice. Most people have made up their minds. They have chosen ordinary life over the higher life. In this work you cannot remain impartial toward it. There can be only one loyalty. It’s either right or wrong; good or bad; real or counterfeit; truth or falsehood; heaven or hell.
     One of the things I love the most about this work, these cosmic facts is the definitiveness and directness about them. Vernon Howard was never wishy washy or confused or unsure of himself and it was not contrived. It was for real. There is a way we can live our lives where there is never any uncertainty about it. God intended us to be absolutely sure about everything.
     We are still fooled by appearances. We still think people are nice because they smile at us or turn on the charm or have perfected the act of being friendly. People in the retail business have to be outwardly cordial because they want your business. They have been trained in business etiquette or customer service or have learned over time it’s probably best to be pleasant when doing business if you want someone’s business again. In some cases, you may not want their business again. But it’s a rehearsed or learned behavior with an artificial motive. You want something from somebody, so it automatically puts you in a compromising or trading position.
     The whole point of this work is to become real. If we’re unnatural we suffer. Recently I was paying for my breakfast and the waitress commented to me, “That lady was rude.” I didn’t know who she was talking about but she said she tried a few times to be ‘nice’ to her but she did not reciprocate. The waitress was bothered by the woman’s unresponsiveness. So she set herself up to feel wronged. “If I’m nice to them, they should be nice to me in return.” So I’m going to feel bad because they did not have the appropriate response. Do you see how we do it to ourselves?
     Vernon Howard frequently instructed us to be consciously pleasant, not because we want something from somebody or that we’re trying to achieve a desired result, but simply because it is our natural state. It’s the right thing to do. It’s not good for me to be a perpetual grump.
     In summary it is imperative that we start seeing through the superficiality of people. We are neither the grump nor the phonily cheerful one. It’s time to see human beings are masters of mendacity/duplicity.
     All right, here is something marvelous and very high that I came across recently from a talk given in July 1980. “There’s no way you can think your way back to the Father’s house because the Father’s house is without personal thoughts. When you understand this, the thought structure collapses and with its collapse you ARE back home.”
     When Vernon Howard spoke about being back home, it represents a safe place, an unshakeable inner locale where nothing can disturb or phase us. He once put it this way, “Disorders are healed when lifted to a higher plane of thought than the plane which caused them, for on this higher plane we cease to interfere with the healing.” * It’s above the mind. If we stick with these teachings long enough, we will start to see for ourselves what all this means. It comes to you. The healing occurs by embracing the Truth.
     Recently I was pulling and removing thistles on the property. Here in Colorado it is an invasive species. If allowed to they will take over and push out native species of plants. They have spiny stems and thorny leaves which can be painful if pricked by them. The thistles know they aren’t welcome so will sometimes grow next to a rock or under some other kind of bush or vegetation making it more difficult to extract.
     You can spray them with poison or you can do the more labor-intensive way which is to remove them manually. You want to try and get the root out which can be as long as the part of the plant which is seen above ground. The best time to pull them out is when the ground is damp or wet or embedded in softer soil. Wearing heavier work gloves you pull them out from the base of the plant. If they have grown in harder soil you may need to use a pick.
     It can be tedious work depending on the number of thistles. Mechanical and negative thoughts can be likened to thistles. Bad habits are, as well, like thistles. They need to be removed or they will destroy our lives. They will make life miserable for us if allowed to multiply and must be gotten rid of.
     If we are unconscious and unaware of their existence they go undiscovered and do their damage surreptitiously. So what we first have to do is spot or become aware of negative thoughts and feelings and recognize the damage that is being done. We feel bad. That’s our job. Negativity is an invasive species to human beings. It is not normal. God did not make us with negativity. It is something that we have acquired from other undeveloped biped beings on this planet through imitation.
     So through right effort on our part we can begin to see clearly what must be done. We can refuse to go along with the negativity but we must first detect it. We must see it as negative. Complaining is negative. It is a thistle. Confusion is negative. It is a thistle. Being resentful is negative. It is a thistle. And so on.
     Clarification comes as a result of right effort. There has to be a conscious wish on my part to want to understand. God wants to help us but we must allow him to do that. My interference is getting in the way. The intrusion is my incessant unconscious thinking. An incredible point that was made is “… the Father’s house is without personal thought.” This is a huge clue we’re being given. Let this cosmic fact do its marvelous work to help and heal us. It will if we will acquiesce.

* A Treasury of Trueness (#194)

     Typically, most people take care of their physical bodies. They brush their teeth, bathe, wear clean clothes, etc. or at least you hope they do. Animals certainly have enough sense to wash and clean themselves. Birds take baths in streams, cats and dogs and squirrels groom themselves and various animals do different things to preen and take care of themselves in that way. We know that personal hygiene is a good and necessary thing. We also know that the body needs to engage in a certain amount of physical activity and movement to be healthy too.
     Our parents feed us and pick out foods for us to eat, hopefully nutritious, so that our bones, muscles, nervous system, brain, immune system and other parts of the body grow strong and healthy. At a certain point in our physical development we must start making decisions for ourselves in choosing our own food, determining what we’re going to wear, etc. We try to choose nutritious and balanced foods, but obviously some of these choices are prompted by budget constraints in younger years.
     There are other things which need to be nourished as well, the mind and the emotions. We go to school, hopefully to learn something practical and help us deal with life’s daily challenges. It used to be described as the 3 r’s, readin, ritin and rithmetic. This phrase was said to be introduced in 1795. If you do a little research, you will discover that the second ‘R’ at one time was reason and third ‘R’ was probably reckoning. Reckoning was a Victorian term for mental arithmetic and had been in use as such since the 14th century. Today it’s the 3 i’s, iPad, iPhone and IT (Information technology).
     God also put into human beings a fourth element, a yearning to discover why we were put here on earth. Vernon Howard put it this way, “Something in you yearns for goodness and permanence.” * Another way to state it is that our inner nature is waiting to be transformed through conscious effort on our part. Remember, “There’s nothing to do, there’s only something to see.”
     There’s so much more that needs to be understood about what’s really going on. Here is a clue which can help us understand. In Pathways to Perfect Living, * Vernon states it this way, “A false society has imposed upon you a false conscience which chains down your natural happiness. By rising above society’s falseness with trueness to your own nature, artificial conscience can neither exist nor pain you. True conscience springs from your recovered essence and is the same for all who live from essence.”
     As the damage that has been done to us begins to be undone, it frees us from the burdensome weight and interference of the false self and conditioning from all the years of feeding our mind and emotions with wrong data, faulty information and misleading phony religious, moral codes and ideas. If you put trash in, you’re going to get trash out. How can faulty conditions exist outside of a faulty mind? Get rid of your faulty thinking and you get rid of all of your problems.
     It’s like trying to tune in a distant radio station but there’s lots of static and interference from all sorts of things of which we’re simply not aware. As we get closer to the source or the storms move away, the signal becomes clearer and stronger. Eventually we can hear the message perfectly. The dial is then set to harmonious, Heavenly, Truthful or Cosmic wavelengths instead of negative, moody, distorted or dark forces frequencies.
     In a fabulous talk I just recently listened to, Vernon said this, “Being good is a need, it’s not just a virtue.” * We need water, we need food, we need activity, we need a roof over our heads, we need warm clothes in the winter and so on, but we need Goodness above all else. Deep down we’re looking for something that will not betray us or let us down. That something exists. All of these truths are provable facts that can be verified by anyone who is willing to accept the unvarnished truth and who wants real happiness, not the counterfeit variety that this society is offering.
     Recently I was in the local Post Office to pick up a package. While I was waiting a customer came up to the counter and knew the lady who was helping him. He asked her, “How are things with you?” She responded, “Pretty good.” I observed by the tone of her voice and facial expression that she really wasn’t good at all. She wasn’t happy. She just said the mechanical, programmed and expected response in that particular situation. People reveal themselves all the time. They show what they’re really feeling and thinking. She has chosen that state. She is unaware that a higher way of living exists for her. She doesn’t know she could be wide awake while answering the gentleman’s question without annoyance or any other kind of negativity.
     We have said we want something different. We have said we want to stop making wrong choices and getting into trouble with ourselves and others. We start by seeing how we unconsciously make demands of this ungrateful world. We are demanding that we think we should be treated differently and that somehow, we are owed something. We are also insisting that other people should act differently. Even though I can act immaturely, others should behave intelligently, they should be more mature. How can they do this if they are like you are? Vernon put it this way, “What you do is what you are.”
     We’re neglecting something. We’re failing to see what we are really like. Can I honestly begin to admit without any self-condemnation that I’m lost? “All lost people are loaded with hostility.” That I’m not a nice person. I’m not a happy person. In the same talk I alluded to earlier, Vernon gave an incredibly uplifting and positive fact if I can accept it, “Consciousness of your badness dissolves it.” How marvelous. Aren’t you excited when you hear a beautiful statement like that? If you want to put it this way, there’s real hope. There’s a real opportunity for me to see that something higher exists above this sick world and my mad mind.
     There’s a pre-requisite though. You have to love what you are hearing. Your old nature doesn’t and can’t love it, but the budding new nature can. “Your essence is happiness itself.” Another incredible, dynamic, living, true statement.
     There’s something that we can begin to see for ourselves and that is, besides the human body that we inhabit, there is a spirit. It was just referred to above as essence. It’s something that God has put into human beings, but it is not developed. It needs nourishment just like the body does. So, we’re either doing one of two things — we’re uncovering it or we’re neglecting or even damaging it. We’ve been given the chance for understanding and we’re either doing the right thing or we’re doing the wrong thing with this chance. If we begin to see ourselves and others in action, it becomes easy to see what the consequences of those actions are.
     The existence of the essence within cannot be proven or disproven intellectually. It’s a spiritual matter and it is real. You can see and feel the energy of it. If we must use a word to describe it, that word would be intuition. The dictionary defines intuition as the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. But it’s actually more than just intuition. It’s much more. It could also be called pure perception.
     As we begin to grow up spiritually, start to wake up from psychic sleep or unawareness, and catch all these negativities inside of us, it will become clear to us what must be done. It is imperative though that we observe all of these things for ourselves. See the hostility. Notice the price paid — the loss of energy, feeling awful or whatever the aftereffect is that inevitably comes from doing wrong.
     If we’re separated from God, from Truth, there can only be anger, resentment, fear, hypocrisy, irritability, worry, rage, desperation, emptiness, loneliness, etc. These are the consequences of not following cosmic laws.
     All of my wounds and problems are self-inflicted. But I have to affirm that by own personal observation. As long as I remain solipsistic I will continue to pay the price. But the good news is that something can be done about our faulty thinking. It can be transcended. “We can win over the world by not being a part of it.” * We can also defeat what now defeats us.
     If we follow all the truths outlined we will experience a feeling which is out of this world.
     I highly recommend listening to the first talk on Vernon Howard’s Higher World *MP3 CD Volume 30, Track 1. It is loaded with gems of wisdom.

     I recently watched part of a program entitled “Ireland’s Wild Coast.” In it there was a segment about the journey of wild salmon going from their birthing place in Connemara, County Galway out to the sea and the Atlantic Ocean and back again. It primarily chronicled their trek back to their birthplace. At a certain point while traveling the coastline, they pick up the scent of their homeland and have to wait for certain rains to come before they can start their excursion up the rivers and streams which come down from the mountains. They use tremendous bursts of energy and power to go against the downward flow of the water to reach calmer pools upstream. They even climb waterfalls along the way. Nothing stands in their way of achieving the ultimate goal of reaching their spawning grounds. Once their life cycle is completed they die, but they have fulfilled their purpose here on earth.
     It was pretty amazing to watch and you could see that God has put into them the will, the determination to not let anything stand in their way of realizing their ultimate purpose. As I was watching this documentary, it occurred to me that most men and women never reach their spiritual home, never fulfill the real purpose of their lives here on earth. They get sidetracked and distracted by the pretty baubles or by the sickness and negativity of this world. The salmon, in contrast, never lose sight of or deviate from their life mission.
     Vernon Howard tells us in A Treasury of Trueness, “The purpose of life is to outgrow your dependence on physical places, people and things and develop within you a source of higher power.” It is to arrive at the point where we actually see there’s real existence on this earth for each of us, right now. But because we take the unreal as the real, we are tricked and deceived by the charlatans of this world, both inside of us and outside of us. In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of a charlatan is a person who pretends to have skills or knowledge that the person does not actually have; showy pretenses of knowledge or ability.
     Ponder this: If we had real existence there would be no fear of death. The fear is there because we are living a fake life. It is the imposter that is afraid of its extinction. The salmon don’t lament over the fact that they are going to die, they don’t even think about that. So why should we? In The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power, Vernon writes, “People wear a variety of masks, smiling masks, wise-appearing ones, excited ones, masks of worldly success, all in a frantic attempt to convince themselves and others that the act is real.”
     If we were as determined as the salmon are to reach their spawning grounds don’t you think things would be different than they are now for you and me? If we truly had a higher aim in our lives, don’t you see that something else would begin to take care of and handle things for us? All these obstacles that seem so insurmountable would be as nothing. All problems would magically disappear. But we must begin to see through the hoax.
     Man keeps making the same mistake over and over again. He keeps repeating himself. He thinks that if he makes the next big sale or another $10,000, that’s going to provide lasting security. If he takes another trip to that exotic vacation spot where the cool tropical breezes are gently blowing, where there are white sandy beaches, where the temperature is 78 degrees all year round and the ocean is azure blue, that’s going to make him happy. She believes that if the man of her dreams appears, even after twenty past failed relationships, that’s going to change life for the better and take away the awful ache. Your particular escape may not be so fanciful but everyone is still running away from something.
     We unconsciously suffer from “the next syndrome.” We don’t see that the next isn’t going to do it for us. It will never work. Something exists though that can take away the pain, the heartache and suffering, the compulsive desires, the fear of what other people can do to you, the secret shames and guilts carried over from past follies and can put an end to the misery once and for all. It is reunion with God, with who we really are. We can begin to call the bluff on the gigantic hoax that has been played on us, the trick that keeps our attention on the temporary and not on the infinite.
     Let’s examine a certain point. Everyone thinks they’re going somewhere and accomplishing something. That’s a lie, an illusion. We assume we’re capturing a moment in time, or satisfying a desire that will somehow fulfill us, or cementing our place in history. We believe we’re accumulating comforting memories, or gathering experiences, or leaving a permanent legacy. And somehow all of this accumulating will help us to reach some future heaven or nirvana. None of these things are real. They are only temporary and fleeting because they exist in time and memory only. There is absolutely nothing we can take with us when we leave this earthly life. We can only live in the present. The salmon doesn’t stop and think, “Well, what should I do next?” or “Let me stop what I’m doing and take a selfie and capture this big adventure I’m on for a keepsake.” The salmon does what it is intended to do. It does not live with a time nature.
     Do you see that this is the trick that is being played on us? Society is trying to get us to believe in an illusion. In Chapter 1 of A Treasury of Trueness, Vernon Howard states, “Nothing is important in life except to be spiritually awake right now.” Awareness is the only thing which matters. Let’s use a different word, stillness. If the mind is quiet, there is awareness. I can then observe my thoughts. I don’t have to be worried about the next business deal I’m going to make because there is another unconscious thought telling me my life is being wasted, which then sets off another anxious thought, etc., etc.
     I can see that while I’m waiting for the cook to finish my fried chicken club sandwich with Applewood smoked bacon on it, I can either quietly stand out of the way or go find a seat and relax. There is no compulsion to do anything but to sit still. I am then free to watch that man eating at a table with his wife and quickly raising his right arm and throwing a bite of food into his mouth from a short distance. Well, that’s odd, he doesn’t even know he did that. That lady behind the cash register is new at the job so she’s a bit nervous because she’s afraid she might make a mistake. It really isn’t necessary for her to be afraid but she doesn’t know that. A middle-aged man is also nervously waiting for some sandwiches as well. He doesn’t know what to do with himself while waiting, so his mind tells him he has to be nervous and fidgety. He’s very uncomfortable and that’s what he’s putting out into the atmosphere. A woman walks in the door very unnaturally. She’s also in a hurry. She has to get back to work or back to whatever she’s doing because she has told herself there isn’t enough time to do all the things she thinks she must do.  She hastily grabs a couple of items to go and forcefully puts them on the counter to be checked out. Her aggressiveness is unnatural and unnecessary. She’s really afraid behind that mask of being in control.
     All of this happened in a few minutes time. It goes on all day long with almost every human being on earth, including us, but no one is aware of it. If we want to get well we’re going to have to start seeing all these things.
     There’s tremendous power and energy in beginning to unravel the mysteries of human life and seeing the truth about ourselves. There should be great enthusiasm as these things are being revealed to us. But it is essential that the negative impressions be purged from us. The salmon is being animated by God to do what it’s supposed to do. So, should we. All we have to do is to discover who we really are and all will be well.

     Why can’t people get along? Because they’re living from preconceived ideas about themselves. They’re living from society’s conditioning. Conditioning that lives in time. Conditioning that lives in history. Right now, because of these preconceived ideas and that relentless conditioning, we are separated from God. What did Christ say? “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” What does that mean? It means that ideas about God and the qualities of God are not God. They are only ideas; they are just mental constructs that have a temporary life in time.
     Vernon Howard told us, “All evil originates in the mind.” So, where does real goodness exist? It exists above the mind. It rests somewhere, within something, that is not of this world. Superior solutions come from heaven not from this earth. True goodness, real essence, lives in harmony. That’s its nature. It has no interest in fighting. It doesn’t even occur to it to fight.
     Most people want to live in the illusion (a false idea or belief) or delusion (a false psychotic belief) that underneath it all, people are basically good. If we live from that premise we are going to get duped. We are going to get taken advantage of. We are going to get hurt. Why do you think we live in such a dangerous world? Why are there so many problems? Why do so many human beings get into arguments with each other? Why is there so much crime? Why do people prey upon one another?
     I recently listened to a great talk from Vernon Howard’s Higher World series, Volume 14, Track 8 that explains everything. It starts out, “You must have no good but God” and the entire lecture goes on to address this topic in great detail. Vernon explains who the enemy is and how we’re being tricked. He says, “The fiends and liars try to tell you what is good,” but that we must not fall for their lies.
     Vernon explains, “The world tells you, you must sacrifice yourself for the sake of the less fortunate, for the poor and the oppressed. They have their own little schemes, their own little plans to try and expand their own kingdom of hell within by trying to impose a sense of guilt on you and trying to get all the money and the cooperation, all they can get from you in order to continue with their sickness.”
     Isn’t that fantastic? Amazingly, it reveals that there is so much more going on that we don’t see. It explains motives and why people behave the way they do. If we begin to truly ally ourselves, to put ourselves on the side of Goodness and to see the utter lostness of human beings, something of a higher nature can and will begin to comfort us and take care of us. There truly is God. It’s no longer just an idea or theory that deluded people argue about or deny.
     The masses of humanity don’t really want peace and calm. They say they do but deep down they actually want chaos, discontent, problems and heartache. As long as a man or a woman remains on the level he or she is presently on, nothing changes. There will continue to be strife, angst, argument, interminable protests, rioting, murder, crime, wars and so on. By the way, there is no such thing as a nonviolent protest. We are going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice which is to give up our pain and suffering. If we honestly want something different, you and I can have it.
     I recently watched a program on TV in which an interviewer went out amongst a couple hundred high school teenagers who were in the streets protesting. They had been encouraged and let out of school to do just that. It was in a major city in the U.S. The interviewer’s purpose was to see if they knew why they were protesting and if they actually were aware of any of the facts of the situation they were opposed to so ‘passionately’. The interviewer asked some very simple questions about current events. He purposely asked these questions to lead them in a certain direction so that he could follow up with a question that would determine if they knew why they were there and what they were talking about. The interviews were not an attempt to put them down or make fun of them, but to see if there was any understanding behind the protesters’ behavior. Out of the two dozen or so young students interviewed, not one of them really knew anything about the issues or why they were protesting. They gave incorrect answers to all of the simple current events questions as well. The host of the show observed that to the teenaged students, what the protest offered was a chance to get out of school and to be part of a social event.
      I must ask at this point. How many of you reading this article would still like to get out of school? Get off work and go play?
     On another show, a program’s host interviewed some adults who were involved in a big protest also taking place in a large American city. The so-called grown-ups didn’t know any more than the high school students. They could articulate some things a little better but were a lot more negative and vile than the young students. When people scream out obscenities they are just plain wrong. God is not vulgar. Isn’t that nice to know? Isn’t it a relief to know that the Higher Power has nothing to do with crudeness and indecency?
     In Secrets for Higher Success, Vernon Howard writes, “Have you ever wondered why human beings are angry so much? It is because anger provides a false feeling of life. Along with other negative emotions, anger supplies a fiery feeling of aliveness, of agitation, of having strong individuality. But to take this imitation life for true life is the great blunder of mankind.”
     It all boils down to whether we truly want an answer, the real solution, or do we prefer the phony substitutes of this world? Do we really want happiness or do we prefer our pain and suffering? There is only one thing you can take with you when you leave this world. That is Truth. You can’t take money. You can’t take your earthly belongings. You can’t take your family or your friends. You can’t take your experiences. You can’t take your memories. You can’t take your emotions. You can’t take your fear. You can’t take your physical body. You can’t even take what you call ‘you’ with you. Nothing of this world can go with you. This is the reality of our situation here on earth.
     Have you ever pondered any of this? What sense does it make to hang onto your negative states when you can give up all the negativity to have something which feels ten million times better? The problem is we choose to stay in illusion, to continue to live in a substitute unreality. We fail to recognize how unaware we are. We fail to see the bitterness. We fail to see how we’re bluffing our way through life and pretending we’ve got it all together. If someone asks you what you think of some issue facing the country you live in, will you express a strong opinion or make a joke about it in order to cover up the fact that you don’t really know what the practical solution is?
     What is wrong with simply saying, “I don’t know the answer”? This opens the door for something else to come in and supply the true solution. It’s hard on the ego and vanity to say, “I don’t know.” Someone who’s ‘somebody’ in this world or has a ‘position of authority’ in the community or is a successful businessman known by everyone in town doesn’t want to appear not to have all the answers. They live from an image that everyone looks up to them and that they’d better act as if they know what they’re doing.
     Here’s a powerful clue. On DVD 36, in the first video called Teachings, Vernon Howard implores us to see that there is only one solution and that is a spiritual solution. Bringing peace to the world is a spiritual problem. The cure for inflation is a spiritual problem. Saving energy is a spiritual problem. Making people happy is a spiritual problem. The only solution is a spiritual solution.
     We can have something entirely new and different while we’re still here in a physical body on this earth. We can experience and feel the Power of Truth for ourselves and know the relief of not being the anxious and fearful ‘me’ anymore. Happiness, contentment, Goodness, peace of mind, well-being exist.
     If we put ourselves in the right position internally, Truth will explain everything to us. If we’ll get ourselves out of the way, genuine help will come to our rescue. So, it would behoove us to investigate and seek the higher answer.

     Vernon Howard once told us that we were born at this particular time in history to see the changes. It’s not an accident or happenstance that we are living on this planet in these specific times. And if there is any kind of a truth spark in an individual, he or she will come into contact with a true teaching. But most will miss it, ignore it, hate it, fear it, mock it, attack it, deny it or simply fall by the wayside. People get easily distracted and deceived by the lures, false rewards and charlatans of this world. Power, money, sex, being ‘somebody’, falling in love with the false feeling of self and all that that entails, occupy the lives of almost everyone. They even get a false thrill by falling into despair over their inability to cope with the madness or by simply getting negative in any way at all. Somehow I ‘think’ that tells me who I am or proves that ‘I’ exist. How shallow can we be?
     We were put here to learn, to evolve, go beyond, rise above, transcend, conquer the weakness, the fear, the annoyance, the anger, the confusion or whatever the haunting state or problem might be. The world wants you to believe there’s nothing that can be done, but at the same time constantly offers pointless human solutions at every turn. The Good News is that the Truth exists and there is something above the madness and insanity of this world and the world inside us. It doesn’t matter if no one else on the earth wants it as long as we are willing to do what it takes to understand these things. God exists! The Answer exists!
     Within the past 6 months I had a pain in my lower back which wouldn’t go away. Maybe 5 times in my life my back hurt for a short time. So after a month of enduring the pain I decided something had to be done but I wasn’t sure what to do. I went to get a haircut one day and the barber noticed I was favoring my back and  suggested I go see a particular chiropractor who she said was excellent and had helped her. So I gave them a call and made an appointment. They did an X-Ray and used some other instruments and discovered the problem.
     The diagnosis was subluxation. Subluxation — a pattern of misalignment or malfunction of a spinal joint that is less than a dislocation producing nerve interference. In other words, over time the human body starts to break down and parts and pieces begin to malfunction from wear and tear, accidents, bad posture, etc. But luckily my problem isn’t too serious and can be corrected with treatment, adjustments and realignment. One of the most interesting things I learned was with proper care, certain parts of the back will heal themselves if put back into proper alignment.
     So after 3 adjustments the pain all but went away. But there’s still a lot of work to be done so that things can get back to normal. I have gained more flexibility and mobility already for someone my age. All my physical problems in this case were caused by an imbalance and interference in the nervous system between the brain and other parts of the body which resulted in physical pain. The same is true with our psychic system. The reason we suffer psychologically is because we’re imbalanced and there is something interfering with messages from Heaven which are being sent down to help us all the time. We are getting in our own way.
     In this case it is the mind which is interfering. We need to let the cosmic doctor adjust our thinking so that we can begin to hear the cosmic messages. Vernon Howard put it this way, “We must not do with the mind what must be done with the spirit.” We are obsessed with negative thinking, which we don’t see as dark and hurtful, and our mind and this world do nothing but reinforce the wrong thinking patterns. We have a very bad habit, which is to try and think our way through life. It will never work. It will only lead to more problems, difficulties, heartaches and pain.
     You would think we would want to get well, but unfortunately the fact of the matter is we don’t want to get well. We are addicted to negativity and neurosis. We love the pain and suffering. We love the confrontations and arguments we have with other people. We love the rejection. All of these things we take as being normal, as being human. We live and almost everyone on the planet lives on a very low level. People don’t really want to get along. They outwardly say they do but inwardly they love the chaos, the struggle. This is why human beings keep killing one another. This is why the world is so dangerous and violent and this is why nothing will ever change unless you change as an individual. The world is never going to be any different but you can be. None of this is disheartening or negative in any way. This is what is. See it!
     I have to want to get well. I have to make the appointment to go see the Cosmic Doctor or Cosmic Chiropractor. And then I must follow the doctor’s instructions. Had I not gone to the chiropractor, listened to the diagnosis and agreed to the treatment, I would still be suffering from very bad back pain. I recently went to the dentist which brought up another example of the same principle. The dentist can’t force you to take proper care of your teeth. He can’t brush for you or floss for you to make sure food particles don’t stay between the teeth and eventually cause cavities. It’s costly, painful and time-consuming to have a cavity filled, so to avoid the problem in the first place, isn’t it practical and sensible to follow the dentist’s recommendations?
     I’ve been told what the problem is. Here is something I recently came across from a class note I had taken from a talk given April 1, 1989 and it reads, “Your obsession is with thinking about other people.” The problem is my incessant thinking about everything. The mind won’t leave me alone. It won’t shut up. I now have to take what I’ve been given and see the damage that is done every time I blow up, every time I get flustered, every time I unconsciously blab just to hear myself talk or give out unwanted advice. See it clearly and begin to develop a distaste for the negativity.
     The next time that politician lies or makes that inane statement I’m not going to react or get upset like I’ve done 10,000 times before. Or when that so-called friend makes that monumentally stupid remark in a public setting and somehow in my mind I think it reflects upon me. I worry that maybe others will think that I’m as stupid as he or she is because I associate with them. I’m the one who made the choice to believe I need that person in my life. Or maybe when it seems like the whole world is against me, I’m going to vow not to get mad or break down. I’m going to do something different with God’s help. I’m going to get myself out of the way and let something else handle it for me. I’m going to start to practice self-correction and eliminate self-deception as Vernon has instructed us to do so many times.
     You and I have a choice. I can choose to remain the way I am or I can start to turn the tables on the dark spirit which has been interfering and ruining my life for all these years. I can begin to see that everything starts with me and my unconscious thinking. In the book, Cosmic Command, Vernon Howard says, “We resist being hoaxed by others, but eagerly invite hoaxes perpetrated by our own muddled minds.”  The thing that has been pinching that nerve in my back can go away. I actually have the power, the ability to begin to turn things around.
     The human body is an incredible creation. But even more incredible is that something actually exists that created the human body. That same entity is still alive and well in the universe right now, contrary to what you or anyone else may say or THINK.  It is a wonderful day when you hear the voice of Truth and begin to see and feel for yourself that something actually exists above the human madness.