Keys Writings 2015, Part 4

This entry is part 5 of 13 in the series 2015B

2015B

Feb 16, 2015

Free Will

Clay:

It was a simultaneous “knowing” of all experience, past, present and future as having already transpired, and always and forever determined, yet the underlying actor was free. All of creation was determined from beginning to end in the mind of G-d, but there is still a deep freedom and learning that transpires despite the predetermination.

I can see how you would come to this conclusion after having a mystical experience, but I do not think the reality of the whole experience was retained in your physical brain.

There is a plan for each creation of God just as there is a plan for any creation that we (who are in the image of God) also make. I can draw up a blueprint for a house and initiate plans for building it. I can thus know the beginning and the end as well as much of the middle.

In building the house one starts with a set of blueprints. With these and a drawing of the house in hand I can now visualize pretty well how the plan will unfold.

Next I hire a contractor and proceed with the building. Just as we get started my wife decides some changes are in order. Instead of two and a half baths she wants three and the master bedroom is too small. She wants it bigger with more closet space.

We redraw the plans and proceed. A couple weeks into the project the contractor comes to us and tells us that the changes we made will cost more than expected. We reluctantly agree and I reminded my wife that this extra cost was not part of the original plan.

As we move ahead with building the house a number of unplanned events occurred.

A construction worker fell and broke his leg.

The building inspector was picky and caused several delays.

A hailstorm occurred and damaged some of the building materials.

The price of building supplies went up.

A survey revealed our property line was incorrect and we had to move the location of the fence.

In spite of unplanned events we moved forward and finished the house. “Just as we planned,” we said to ourselves, satisfied with the result.

Yes, the final product turned out as planned but in between the original plan and the finished house, many unplanned events occurred.

This is also the way it is with one’s life. Before you ere born you saw reality with a much wider vision than you do now and planned out a number of things that was to happen in your life in order to achieve maximum benefit and progression.

After incarnating and proceeding with life it will seem that some events in your life and directions you take are a part of some plan that you are supposed to follow. In many cases you will be right. On the other hand, because of free will and bad decisions on your part the overall plan will suffer delays and setbacks. Many things happen that are just caused by a fairly random series of events, but if you follow your inner guidance you will wind up accomplishing your objective set before you were born.

Just like the guy who successfully builds his house despite setbacks, you can have a successful life even though many unplanned events occur that slow you down.

Just as this principle applies to us who are reflections of God, it also applies to Higher Lives.

It is of extreme importance that we realize that we have free will and using that will we can overcome all obstacles and accomplish the plans that we set before birth as well as during this life. If there is no free will then we might as well follow the path of extreme selfishness; after all, if you do this then it was what you were supposed to do (according to this thinking).

Feb 17, 2015

Change of Plans

Clay writes:

Like I say, if you had a mystic experience I can see why you would think this. It is interesting to note that many different people have had various mystic experiences and have come away with different conclusions, often contradictory.

There are four reasons for this.

(1) The person only saw a piece of the whole.

(2) He was only able to bring a part of the understanding back to physical reality.

(3) The reasoning mind interprets incorrectly what he has experienced.

(4) The experience is filtered through his emotional body and contains much illusion that is pure fiction.

There are two views on time that seem to contradict each other. The common view is that time is linear and moves from A to B and what happens in B is determined by free will.

Another view is that we live in an Eternal Now where the past, present and future is all one and everything in the future is already set.

Those who side with one view or the other insist the apparently opposing view is incorrect.

As usual, the truth lies between the two extremes. If we move our consciousness above the worlds of form to the realm of the beginning of creation wherein reside divine ideas then yes, we do discover there is an Eternal Now where the past, present and future of all creation springing from divine ideas is indeed one. BUT… even though this realm is linked to the worlds of form, it is not the same thing. Seeing the past, the present and future there is a totally different thing than seeing or experiencing it here.

To experience time we have to incarnate into time and once incarnated into time there is a separate past, present and future. Here the future is not set, but determined by the free will of the lives who reside here.

This is evidenced by the fact that no one in the history of mankind as ever been able to predict the future with 100% accuracy. Not even Jesus could if he were to give it a try. Not one person out of 7 billion on the planet could even predict a simple thing such as the two great catches that happened at the last Superbowl.

Here is another way to look at this. If we rise above the realm of time and enter the Eternal Now there is no time because our consciousness is not incarnated into it. Because there is no time there is no past, no future and no present as we understand it. Here all ideas are present which are the seeds of creation that manifest in time. One can follow these ideas into time. How they play out in real time is malleable, but in the realm of ideas they can be seen playing out in such a way that creation will unfold correctly. If life moves from the formless and non time into time and form then life will encounter the limitations of the past, present and future. Here the future will not be completely known or set and cannot be accurately predicted in detail, even by God.

It is interesting to note that most psychics are only about 10% accurate with their predictions. Good sensitives are lucky to achieve over 50%.

A couple different years I challenged the group to make predictions for the coming year. I told them that none of us were going to be 100% accurate but an intelligent bunch such as us should beat the law of averages. Some of us did pretty good. I had about an 80% accuracy level, but far from being perfect.

Clay

It is essentially G-d already knew each and every decision we would make, in each and every incarnation we would live, and provided exactly each and every situation that the soul needs to progress.

Okay, I’m going to scratch my big toe now. … There, I just did it. So, do you really think this was important enough to be a part of the great plan of God? What kind of being would have nothing better to do than go around planning the scratching of a toe a billion years before it happens? I certainly would not. Any being that does such senseless unnecessary planning has to be just plain silly. This would mean we must be worshipping a goofy god of some kind who makes trillions of unnecessary silly plans that are not needed or wanted or even appreciated.

Here’s another thought. Our essence is one with God; therefore, I can access the mind of God. So I access the mind of God and discover hat he has plans for me to scratch my toe in five minutes. Since I have free will I change the plan and scratch it in ten minutes instead. The fact that a plan can be known and changed proves that the future is not set in every detail for the change of plans was not in the plan.

There’s much more that can be said here, but I have to go rest my brain. That is probably in the plan, but I won’t resist.

Feb 18, 2015

A Reasonable God

Clay gave an interesting description of Catholic Mass on Allan’s forum. He says:

The Catholic Mass is the most powerful act of theurgic magic that has ever been discovered, yes I absolutely believe in Magic. The Work is an absolutely powerful technique for establishing the magnetic center in a man and being exempted from the Law of Accident and of certain A influences and start drawing more B influences. The Catholic Mass is a direct B influence, whether the person is even aware of what is transpiring or not and does much to establish the magnetic center. This is my experience.

I’ve never heard mass described this way Clay. It almost makes me want to attend to see how I would be affected. You obviously take in the symbolic meaning more than the average Catholic.

I attended the LDS church in my younger years and the only symbolic thing in meetings was the sacrament, called the Eucharist by Catholics. I never got much of a spiritual high out of that.

The Mormons though do have a lot of symbolic ceremony in their temple services. There have been numerous books written explaining their deeper meaning. They have been accused of borrowing a lot of it from the Masons, as there are similarities.

I do not think anyone here will criticize you for attending Catholic services. I realize though that many esoteric and new age groups feel it is backward to do this and the standard religious people will see you as being astray. Most of the members here are also looked upon with suspicion by both groups. I know there are LDS people on the forum who still attend their services and get value out of them as you do the Catholic and no one has a problem with them.

Each person’s path is different and what benefits one person may be seen as a big yawn to another. The core teaching here is to follow the highest each of us knows and this is different for each person as well as each life we live.

I thought I would comment on one more thing Clay said which was:

My personal experience is G-d is not rational, G-d is what I would describe as being trans-rational.

A lot of people see God’s thinking as being not rational by human standards. They give several reasons.

(1) They quote Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” Isa 55:8

They take this to mean that it is useless to attempt to understand God’s thinking. We should merely appreciate and worship him.

(2) A lot of things that happen in life, which is supposed to be planned by God, are not logical to many. It doesn’t seem right that some innocent people suffer and the guilty go free. The unfairness of life seems so great to many that they merely exclaim that God works in mysterious ways beyond what the logical mind can comprehend.

(3) Others have had a mystical experience that convinces then that the ways of God are beyond anything that logic can explain.

To find the truth of the matter the first Principle of Discovery is helpful which is:

Take the things you know (for reasonable surety) to be true and use them as a foundation or stepping stones for testing additional truths.

Keeping this in mind we must ask, “What are some things we know for sure that are the result of the workings of the mind of God?”

One thing that all believers do agree upon here is that the mind of God is behind the creation of this universe and everything in it.

But the interesting thing about this universe is that everything in it that can be proven to exist functions on reasonable and logical principles. We do not understand everything in creation but we are discovering more truths every day and, when discovered, they turn out to function logically. The laws of gravity, inertia and motion all work according to logical formulas.

All lives are remarkable pieces of logical engineering. Many discoveries by scientists have been made by studying the engineering incorporated in plants, animal and human lives.

The system set up by the cells in our bodies to insure that each get their supply of oxygen and nutrients put our human governments to shame.

So, when we look at creation that we know for sure is in front of us we see remarkable logical and reasonable feats of engineering, design and function.

There is not one thing created by God, that is available for all to see, that was not crested by logical and reasonable principles.

So, “what about quantum physics” says one?

The quantum worlds may function on different laws than the macrocosm, but they still function on logical and reasonable principles. Proof of this is that the next generation of super computers will use quantum principles. If the quantum world did not function on logical principles then a reliable quantum computer would be impossible.

There are manifestations in the spiritual and the physical world which the human mind has not yet figured out, but so far each thing that was unknown has become logical and reasonable when it has become known and understood. There is no reason to assume this will not be the case in the future.

***

The Sabbath

Clay:

For my personal experience, the Sabbath needs to be kept, not because God demands it, but because it is actually beneficial to us as spiritual beings, and so it does not matter which day you do it, as long as you do it at least once a week, at the barest minimum.

The basic principle you bring out is in harmony with my teachings on this. Here is what I have written in the past.

The principle behind the Sabbath is an eternal one and is always in effect. The ancient Hebrews and other peoples had to live by black and white rules which were a “schoolmaster” to the understanding of the “why” behind the rules.

This was why Jesus had such a clash with the religious rulers of his day. They were attempting a black and white obedience to law and Jesus sought to understand and incorporate the principle from which the law came.

Jesus enumerated the principle very well when he said:

“And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27-28

Quite plainly here Jesus told his critics that they were in error concerning the Sabbath for man was not made to be subservient to it, but the Sabbath instead was made for the benefit of humanity. The sons of men are therefore to be masters of the use of the Sabbath – the Sabbath is not to be the master of us.

We all realize that the Sabbath is a period of rest and it is generally recognized that a period of rest now and then is a good idea, but the principle goes deeper than that. The Sabbath period is actually a prime ingredient in the creation process itself. This is, of course, where we were first introduced to the Sabbath for we are told that God created the world in six periods and rested on the seventh period.

Preceding the creative process is a period of rest or stillness where the work to do is contemplated. The creator is not taking any physical action, but instead is in deep contemplation thinking of the work to be done. Then the effective creator will go forward and work on that which has been decided upon and labor for a period approximately equal to six times the contemplation period.

This is where many visionaries fail. They go forth and work one of two times the contemplation period and quit because the vision has not yet materialized. Then they create a new vision and fail again.

“He who endures to the end will be saved” means that one must work through the six periods of creation to be delivered from failure.

A key to understanding here is that the first period of creation may be of a different time period than the second and the second different than the third, etc, but if one understands the six periods he will always materialize his heart’s desire. I hope to elaborate on these six periods soon.

After the six periods are over a creation will be completed. The creator must take another period of rest and contemplate the value of the completed work. Then he must examine his creation as did God in Genesis and declare the work to be “good” or not worth keeping and revise or start over.

From Archive 1319

***

Brother Brown:

Do you have an opinion concerning what Yeshua said about the “flight” entered into, after one “sees” the Abomination of Desolation:

Mt 24:20 Pray that your flight will not be in the winter, nor on the Sabbath

Do you think Yeshua in bringing up the Sabbath, was referencing a specific time or day, or as JJ thinks, a period of contemplation? Just why should we pray our flight is not on the Sabbath?

The reason Jesus said this had nothing to do with the technicalities of the Sabbath. There would be two main occasions where the ancient Jews would be reluctant to leave their homes and flee. The first would be during the cold of winter. The second would be during the Sabbath. Because they had such a fear of offending God by not resting on the Sabbath many would not flee and lose their lives.

Fleeing is hard work and distracts from focusing peacefully on God.

Feb 20, 2015

Moral Guidance

Today I received a letter from an LDS mother. She and her husband have been losing interest in the church for she feels it is like attending kindergarten. They have been reading my writings and are concerned about their children. On one hand, they like the idea of the kids learning basic values the church teaches, but on the other they do not want them to get brainwashed into blindly following authority.

She wants to know what advice I may have.

It is rare to find a question I have not covered in the archives, but I do not think I have written about this yet.

As our society becomes more structured our kids face more indoctrination than ever before. Unfortunately, the schools are becoming worse than the churches. Many concerned parents are home schooling their children so they can protect their kids from bias and give them the education they desire for them.

In some situations this turns out to be beneficial, but in others where the parents are not good teachers or examples it may not. It is interesting that most of the kids who win the national spelling bee are home schooled.

Now we are entering an age where a lot of parents also want to home church their kids. They realize that the little crumb crunchers need to learn some of the basic lessons taught in Sunday School, but they do not want them indoctrinated or to get caught up in an authoritative system.

Again, the question is – what to do.

First I’ll tell you how I was raised. It was good for me, but wouldn’t be for many.

All the spiritual guidance in my home came from my mom as my Dad’s philosophy of life revolved around drinking partying and having a good time. I never heard him speak of church, religion, God or morality.

There was one time that my Mom did seek some moral guidance from my Dad. When my older brother approached dating age she decided that that some good moral advice from my Dad was in order so she asked him to give him some counsel. He took my bother in the bedroom, sat him down and closed the door, but my mom put her ear to the door and listened. She was somewhat horrified with what she heard which went something like this:

“Bill (my brother’s name)… You’re approaching the age where you’ll be dating girls, going to parties, drinking and having fun – so I have some advice for you. First, don’t get tied down to an old lady the way I have. Go out and have a good time while you’re young and can enjoy yourself. You’ve only got so many years here so do whatever it takes to have a good time. Just enjoy yourself and have fun. That’s about all I have to say.”

My mom was horrified, but the die was cast and my brother took my Dad’s advice. He was a hit with the ladies, did a lot of partying, drinking and had a good time. Later he had to overcome alcoholism, but overall he turned out to be a great guy, though he did turn out to be an atheist.

Anyway, after this experience my Mom was determine to get me to avoid situations where I would get any advice from my Dad. Neither of my parents attended church or took me there. My mother partied and drank with my Dad mostly to keep an eye on him.

As far as going to church went my mom didn’t believe in influencing me. She told me that if I wanted to go then fine and if not fine. The choice was up to me. Well, I went a couple times and found it to be incredibly boring so the choice was easy. I decided not to go.

I wasn’t totally devoid of guidance though as my mom gave me good moral advice on the basics. I learned to not lie, cheat, steal etc. She also taught me to say my prayers each evening. This was perhaps the most important thing she did for me spiritually as I never doubted the existence of God.

Having the responsibility for my spiritual course placed totally upon my shoulders was nice in a way for it gave me freedom of choice, but I felt a little uneasy in the fact that many others attended church while I did not. Maybe I would miss out on getting to heaven in the next world.

I’ve already written about my journey from this point so I’ll include part of it from the archives below, but don’t worry. I will get around to answering the main question.

When I was about twelve we moved from Boise to a farming area and lived not far from my sweet but overly religious grandmother. She took it upon herself to get me active in the church. Every Sunday morning she would just show up at the house to pick me up. Unfortunately she was such a nice person that I couldn’t say no to her. I don’t think anyone could say no to her.

She would wait for me to get dressed and take me to church.

I was so bored all I did was suffer in silence. The authorities interpreted this as reverence and always complimented me on what a good kid I was and stated that they wished the other rowdy boys were more like me.

After a few weeks of this I smartened up and kept an eye out for my grandmother driving up. As soon as I saw her car approaching I climbed out the back window and ran into the prune orchard and hid until she was gone.

Then a short time later we moved into a house that was just a few feet away from a Mormon church. My grandmother didn’t pick me up as I didn’t need a ride, but I did feel a little guilty about not going and went once or twice. Once when I was there, the Bishop grabbed me and took me in his office.

He sat me down and suggested that since I was now so close to the church that I should attend regularly.

I told him that I did not plan on it as I found church extremely boring.

When I said this he just about choked and incredulously gasped back, “Boring? How can you say that? What is boring?”

“The speeches for one thing,” I said. “They are so boring they put me to sleep.”

“How can you say that?” asked the Bishop. “We have wonderful speakers here who give uplifting talks. They are very inspiring to listen to.”

“Not for me,” I said.

“Is there anything else that bores you,” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. “The Hymns are boring beyond belief. They are almost painful, to listen to.”

The Bishop really gasped at this statement. It was as if he had never heard a statement like this before in his life. “I don’t understand you saying this. Our hymns are wonderful. I love to listen to them.”

“Well I enjoy listening to some good rock and roll,” I said, “and by comparison the hymns just don’t cut it.”

The poor Bishop seemed devastated with my attitude and I think he saw me as a lost cause.

After my talk with the Bishop I pretty much was determined to stay away from church as much as possible. There was one thing that nagged at me, however, and that was the idea that if you went to church and were good then you would reap a heavenly abode. If not then you would go to the lower regions where who knows what awaits you. I decided that maybe if I went to church once in a while I would be able to keep my foot in the door just in case.

One time when I attended the Bishop grabbed me again and took me in his office.

He said: “I hear you drink and smoke. Is that right?” He seemed a little incredulous since I was only 12 at the time.

I looked back curiously wondering where he had heard this. My parents drank and smoked so I thought that was all right to do. My friends and I would take advantage of cigarettes and beer whenever the opportunity permitted.

“Well, yes, I do sometimes,” I said.

“Well God doesn’t want you to do that,” he said.

“I wasn’t aware of that,” I replied.

Then he explained to be about the Word of Wisdom revelation through Joseph Smith and the harmfulness of the products and implored me to give up those vices.

I thought about it for a few seconds and decided it would be a good idea to give them up and told him I would do so.

(I do not smoke to this day and did not drink again until the church threw me out at age 33.)

He must have been pleased with himself as I’m sure he saw progress was being made.

Then a few weeks later he called me again into his office. He looked at me and said:

“You know that when you are twelve you can be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood and become a Deacon. You are almost thirteen and you have not been ordained yet. Don’t you think it is about time you took the step?”

I answered back, “If I am ordained and decide I do not like being a deacon can I quit?”

“Oh, no,” the Bishop replied, shaking his head. “The Priesthood is eternal and you have it forever when you get it.”

“Then I do not want it,” I replied. “I’m not prepared to be a priesthood holder forever at this time.”

The poor Bishop. The last meeting he saw progress and this one he saw none.

I went to church maybe once in six weeks until I was into my thirteenth year. One Sunday morning I was on my way to my token church visit and I started thinking to myself something like this.

I have to figure out what I am going to do with this going-to-church business. This halfhearted attendance isn’t accomplishing anything. I either need to be like my Dad and not go to church and live life entirely by my own will and pleasure or take this church going seriously.

So what are the plusses and minuses here?

If I don’t go to church I could go to hell, but I could have a good time here and have lots of fun in my life.

If I do go to church I will be much more restricted by the religious teachings and bored to death in all the meetings I will have to attend. As I thought about it the boredom with the meetings would be the most difficult to handle.

Then I decided to put the whole thing in a wider perspective. If I go to church for a lifetime and behave myself I will then be entitled to an eternity of heavenly bliss and joy.

If I do not go to church and just pursue a life a pleasure then I risk and eternity of misery.

Logically it comes down to this. Compared to eternity a lifetime is less than an hour or even a minute. Now suppose someone came to me and told me that if I endured boredom for one hour that I could have anything I wanted for the rest of my life. Would I do it? Of course. It would be a no brainer.

Should I then attend church for a short lifetime to have an eternity of heavenly joy? Life is less than a minute by comparison to eternity. Logically, this also seemed like a no brainer. There’s only one problem I told myself. I was just not sure if I was psychologically constituted to handle the boredom of attending all the meetings and of all the churches on the planet I think the Mormons have more meetings than them all.

I then made a deal with myself. I decided that I would commit myself to full church attendance for six weeks. During this time I would attend every meeting there is to be had no matter how bored I was.

Then after six weeks I would assess the situation as to whether I could handle attending meetings for the rest of my life. If I could handle it then I would become a regular church-goer and assimilate the whole program. If I felt I could not handle it then I would take the same course as my Dad did and live a happy-go-lucky life without the burden of church.

I kept my agreement with myself and attended all the church meetings for the six-week time period. The first couple weeks I forced myself to go and I just endured the boring lectures, classes, meetings, hymns, etc.

Then I started studying the other boys. I found most of them found church every bit as boring as myself and unlike me, who was going of my own free will, they went because their parents dragged them there. Once at church instead of just sitting quietly, as I had been doing, they seemed to make the best of entertaining themselves.

In Sunday School class they did all they could to aggravate the teacher. They threw spit wads and erasers at each other and made jokes about the teacher when his back was turned.

That said I just have to relate one memorable event. Around that time Sunday School class was taught by my friend Wayne’s grandfather whose name was True. Nobody liked him very much and the kids did everything in their power to aggravate him. When he was aggravated he would just scream at the class but we soon discovered that his bark was worse than his bite and the more the kids could get him to scream the more entertained they were.

I was often late to class and everything else and sometimes when I was strolling down the hall to Sunday School class I would hear True yelling at the top of his lungs: “This is the house of the Lord and you’re supposed to be quiet!!!”

“Not much quiet coming from him,” I thought to myself.

Then one Sunday, True was sick and the class was taken over by his daughter, Gladys. Immediately the kids had a nickname for her and started calling her Glad Ass. I’m not sure if she caught the nickname or not.

Anyway we made the mistake of thinking that Gladys would be a pushover just like her dad and everyone started horsing around. Then when Gladys turned her back and started writing on the blackboard the kid next to me, named Mark, picked up an eraser and threw it at another kid. Gladys must have had eyes in the back of her head because she immediately stopped writing, turned around and walked toward Mark with a very serious look on her face.

Suddenly the class went deathly quiet. Gladys forced her head about three inches away from Mark’s head and said: “If you do that again you will regret it.”

Then she turned around and started writing again on the blackboard.

Suddenly Mark sported a giant grin and the whole class lightened up. As a leader of the rebels we knew Mark was not going to let a slightly built female intimidate him.

A few minutes later Mark got hold of another eraser. He held it in his hand and looked over the room still wearing that big grin. When Gladys’ back was turned he threw it at another kid.

Instantly Gladys quit writing on the blackboard, turned around and walked toward Mark. She moved toward him and stopped again a few inches from his head. The class was quiet as a tomb wondering what she was going to do. Mark didn’t seem concerned as he was still grinning, but not so much as before.

Then after about three seconds of ungodly silence Gladys grabbed Mark by his two ears and with great force banged his head on the wall behind him about six times.

Then she stopped, turned around and resumed writing on the blackboard.

We were all absolutely stunned. I checked with Mark to see if he was okay. He said it hurt his ears more than it did his head.

For the rest of the class all the boys were perfect angels. The same went for the next Sunday, but when her father True returned things went back to normal.

Anyway a study of the other boys revealed that they made the best of their time in church as to relieving themselves of the boredom. I wasn’t really into aggravating the teachers even though my constant lateness to everything did manage to do that somewhat. I was not only late to church meetings, but also my school classes.

I remember one day I was so late to Sunday School class that I figured I better sneak in. I went outside the building and found a window to the class and motioned to a friend to open it. When the teacher’s back was turned I climbed through the window and sat in the chair.

The teacher turned around and looked at me and said, “Oh, hi, Joe, I didn’t see you there before. Would you please give the prayer?”

I looked around and then said, “Which do I give? The opening or closing?”

All the kids laughed because I didn’t know if the class was beginning or ending and I was put on the spot.

Anyway I decided that overall I didn’t want to irritate the teachers and authorities any more than necessary and sought for other ways to do my part in relieving the boredom.

One thing I did was to start a contest to see who could bring the most outrageous thing to eat or drink during the Sacrament meeting without getting caught. I took the cake on the eating part when I brought pork chops and ate them without getting caught, but my friend John Cannon won the prize on the drink. He brought a large Coke, sat in the midst of the congregation, and drank the whole thing with no straw without getting caught.

My friend Brent tried to match his record and came to church with a large Coke in his inside jacket pocket. To his surprise the Bishop called him to go up front and give the opening prayer. We all watched him as he walked up the isle. The weight of the Coke made his jacket sway back and forth and we thought the Coke was going to fall out and roll down the isle. We thought that would have been the funniest thing possible, but Brent managed to give the prayer and return to his seat without incident.

Anyway, after the six weeks I assessed the situation and decided that with a little improvisation that I could handle attending church and I decided to keep going. I just hoped that the things I would have to do to entertain myself wouldn’t keep me out of heaven.

I discovered that blending in with the other guys who were as bored of church as I was took the edge off dealing with the problem. I made a number of friends who went to church, usually dragged there by their parents, and enjoyed mingling with them after the service was over.

As we were talking before going home we often had our own theological discussions much more interesting than church services. Some of the questions for speculation were:

Do we still eat after we die?

This was probably the number one mystery to us as all of us enjoyed good food and didn’t want to go without it in the next world.

Then we wondered if we would still maintain our sexual identity and the part it would play in the upper and lower kingdoms.

A lot of people thought Jesus was going to come again before 1970. The elderly Mrs. Jones was always teaching that He would come in 1966. We hoped this was wrong as we all had a lot of fun stuff we wanted to do that it seemed the coming of Jesus would spoil.

We talked about the mystery of how some friends as they got older turned into religious babblers, especially after they went on missions. Whenever someone came back from a mission the question we wanted answered was whether or not “they” got to him.

I remember my friend Brent visiting me after a rebel friend came back from a mission. He entered the door with a somber look on his face.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

He looked at me and said, “They got him!”

“They got who?”

“Nels,” he said. “I never thought Nels would go religious on us but they got him.”

“That’s too bad,” I said. “Maybe he’ll shake out of it after a while.”

“I don’t know,” said Brent. “He’s even got that missionary twang when he speaks.

Nels did partially recover but he and others scared us as to what we could become if we were not careful.

Older people in general concerned us. It was a mystery to us that they liked the big band music and couldn’t relate to rock and roll. It was a mystery as to why devout church goers were about 30 years behind on fashion and always drove so slow. We all hoped that was not going to be our fate as we grew up.

During these discussions I must have told someone I believed in reincarnation as one day the Bishop again called me into his office and said, “I hear you believe in reincarnation.”

“Yes” I said. “It makes sense to me.”

“That’s a false doctrine,” He said. “In fact it is the doctrine of the devil.”

“Is that so?” I asked incredulously. “Is there anything in the scriptures about it?”

“Yes there is,” he said and fetched a Bible and turned to Hebrews 9:27 and read: “It is given to man once to die and after this the judgment.” He put the Bible down and said, “See. This tells us we only die once. That means there is only one life.”

“It does seem to say that,” I said.

The Bishop looked at me again and added, “Furthermore, the Prophet has said there is only one life and we know he is correct because he speaks for God. Now will you accept there is only one life and stop telling people you believe in reincarnation?”

The prophet speaking for God didn’t impress me that much but I did believe the Bible was true and the scripture did seem to indicate one life. Based on that I told the Bishop I would accept the idea of one physical life, though at the time it did not seem a fair system.

While still in my thirteenth year I developed an interest in making homemade rockets. I was a little like the guy in the movie October Sky except my first rockets were completely homemade including the engines.

On the day after Christmas Dec 26, 1958 my friend Larry Larson and I were completing a rocket engine made of a CO2 cartridge fueled match heads from book matches. I was just finishing tamping the last match heads of the 25th book when it exploded in my left hand in the kitchen.

After the smoke cleared I looked at my hand and saw that it was a mangled mess. I thought I was going to lose my whole hand. Then I wondered about my right and was afraid to look at it. I could live with the loss of one hand, but what if both were damaged? Finally I drummed up the courage and pulled my right hand up before my eyes. I was greatly relieved to see that it was OK. My mom wrapped my hand in a towel and got a neighbor to drive me and Larry to the hospital. Larry had a couple pieces of metal strike his hand but he was not hurt badly.

After we got to the hospital they did surgery on me for eight hours. A lot of the work consisted of digging out match heads that were blown up into my wrist and arm. They finally sewed me up with over a hundred stitches.

As I was recovering I received a lot of visitors. There was one thing everyone said and that was how lucky I was. I didn’t feel very lucky, but everyone said I was lucky I wasn’t dead.

Another thing that just about all visiting adults, especially church authorities, said was:

“I bet this taught you a lesson to never make rockets again.”

I enjoyed tweaking them by replying:

“Well, I won’t be making them until I get out of the hospital. I will be more careful next time though.”

This statement always sent a jolt through their consciousness.

Actually, this was a truthful statement. I did plan on making more rockets after I got out of the hospital. In fact someone brought me a book to read on rockets and my interest was much greater than ever.

Reading this book changed my life in two different ways. First it increased my desire to learn scientific principles and secondly it was the first book I had ever read in my life. I read what I had to in school, but had never read a book through on my own. It took the boredom of a hospital room to force me to start reading so there was a silver lining in the accident.

As it turned out I lost three fingers and badly damaged the rest of the hand. Altogether I had six surgeries over a three year time period to make a useable hand.

After I got out of the hospital I built more rockets than ever, but safer ones. Instead of making my own engines I ordered them pre-made from Colorado. After church I often invited a crowd over to my place to watch the launching of a new rocket.

This kind of concerned church authorities as some thought was leading other kids in a dangerous direction. I had difficulty in convincing some adults that the new rocket engines that were pre-made were safe.

As I now look back I am surprised I didn’t get thrown out of the Mormon church earlier than I did.

Feb 23, 2015

Moral Guidance, Part II

It’s about time I finished my comments on the subject of the Lady wanting advice on guiding her children with or without church influence.

I gave some details of my youth because I had an unusual upbringing with no influence from my parents to attend church. Because I wound up finding the spiritual path on my own it is much more a part of my life than many I grew up with who were forced into attending church. Many of them grew up to be like their parents and forced their kids to attend church also.

There was one person in my family who did stimulate my interest in the scriptures and that was my oldest sister who was strong in the Mormon Church at the time. While visiting us she noticed that I had a strong interest in science, particularly astronomy. Always on the lookout to stimulate interest she said something like this to me:

“Did you know that in a revelation to Abraham that God revealed to him the secrets of the universe, the stars and the planets? In his book there are secrets to astronomy that regular science does not know.”

“Really,” I said. “I have never heard such a thing before. I thought the scriptures just had boring stuff in them.”

“Oh, no,” she said. “This is really fascinating. Would you like to read the astronomy part?”

“I suppose I could,” I said.

“I’ll tell you what,” she said. “Next time I go shopping I’ll get you the scriptures containing the Book of Abraham.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I insist,” she said. “You will want your own copy.”

The next day she delivered to me a leather bound copy of a beautiful book containing all the LDS scriptures. Out of about a thousand pages there were only a handful relating the writings of Abraham. I thanked her for it and decided that since she made such an investment in the book that I would at least read the astronomy part.

I read the revelation of Abraham about the heavens and their creation and found it different than I expected, but still quite interesting. Shortly thereafter I read the entire volume so her investment turned out to be well placed.

Even though results that are a part of free will are the most potent most kids need a little help from outer authority. Since each kid is different a wise parent will find that one size does not fit all. With some you can merely gently nudge them toward the good path. With others some strictness and strong discipline may be required.

A lot of kids require structure and influence from friends. For these, attending a church supplies them with friends who also attend and some of the guidance that many need.

Then there are kids like I was that don’t need the church. The more someone tries to influence a kid like I was to go to church the more would be the resistance.

Now many parents just do not have the will or the talent to provide at home what the church provides, but if they do they could set apart a time or two each week where the family gets together and discusses the scriptures or other spiritual writings. If they make this interesting it could be better than church.

Now let us get to the core question. What should a parent do when they realize that many things taught in the churches are either not correct or lead the child in the wrong direction, but still offer some good moral lessons?

This is an awkward situation. I will tell you what I would do, but of course, each parent must make their own decisions.

I would tell each of the kids that the choice is entirely theirs whether or not they want to attend church. If they decide to attend I would then ask them what they learned and discuss each lesson with all the children present. If there is something wrong or incomplete with the lesson I would supply them with more complete and truthful information.

Whether or not they attend church I would set apart at least one time a week to teach them something spiritual. In between I would look for opportunities to teach. Kids resist things that take a lot of time so numerous short sessions is much better than one or two long ones.

The way to instigate a short teaching session is to merely ask a question. The dinner table is a good place to do this. If the kids are interested in movies, like Star Wars, you could ask something like: Do you think God created life on other planets? What do you think they look like? Do you think that maybe they had their own version of Jesus?

If the kids are interested in a certain kind of music you could ask: “Do you think they listen to music like this after we die or do you think we’ll just listen to church music?

Questions are a good way to stimulate anyone’s interest.

One important point is that some kids are a lot smarter than parents think. There are a lot of twelve year olds who would read a book like The Immortal on their own if encouraged and many more who would enjoy having it read to them. Many children can comprehend adult materials better than we think.

There is a need for children’s stories that teach higher metaphysical truths in a easy to understand format. The popularity of the Harry Potter books illustrates that kids imagination can be captivated by mystical story telling. What we need are Harry Potter type books that actually teach higher principles.

I don’t know if I will have time to tackle such a project in this lifetime, but someone should.

Kids are indeed a precious resource. Every time I see my grandkids or think back to when my children were little my heart is touched by the great need to gently push them in the right direction so they can find fulfillment in life.

Feb 25, 2015

Diet, Health and Spirit

I received several questions from Allan’s group and thought the answers may be of interest to both groups so I will post this to both places.

Allan’s group is very interested in the vegetarian diet and considers it to be an important literal (not allegorical) step in spiritual progress. They are repulsed by the idea that I eat meat and do their best to convince me of the error of my ways. From my reading of posts on their forum I would say that they see the vegetarian diet as THE most important step one can take in making spiritual progress. Doing this seems to be more important than how one treats his fellow men, how much he loves, how close he is to the Spirit, the pursuit of knowledge etc. It appears they believe that unless one becomes a vegetarian for all time that he will hit a wall in his spiritual progress.

I’m sure they will disagree with my assessment, (as they do any assessment I make of their thinking) but this is the way they come across to me.

They claim that Jesus was a strict vegetarian and give references from the Gospel of the Nazirenes to back this up. This is a rework of The Gospel of the Holy Twelve produced by the vegetarian activist, Gideon Jasper Ouseley with the editing assistance of Emmanuel Swedenborg. He claimed it is a translation of a manuscript found in Tibet, yet the manuscript has never been produced. He claims the actual translation process was accomplished “in dreams and visions of the night” rather than the normal method used by scholars.

Most scholars who have examined it give it little credibility and believe it to be partially a compilation of fragments, gospels and pure imagination.

It is interesting that the biggest difference between this gospel and all other versions about Jesus is the emphasis on vegetarianism. Anywhere in the regular gospels where there is a mention of meat eating in connection to Jesus has either been changed or deleted. For example, when Jesus fed the 5000, this gospel has him multiplying bread and grapes rather than bread and fishes.

Then it leaves out Jesus showing Peter where to cast his net to catch fish, Peter catching a fish with money therein to pay a ax and Jesus eating fish after the resurrection.

When I read The Gospel of the Nazirenes it reads to me as a synthesis of what Ouseley thought was the best of available material with deliberate changes made to support his vegetarian agenda.
The other gospel that Allan supports as being true is the Gospel of Thomas. Most scholars do not think that the apostle Thomas actually wrote it but was compiled more than a century after his death and attributed to him. At least this one was translated from actual ancient manuscripts, however. This gives no evidence that Jesus had a vegetarian diet, but to the contrary it says:

“…when people take you in, eat what they serve you and heal the sick among them. After all, what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it’s what comes out of your mouth that will defile you.”

Jesus was often invited to dinner and since most people eat meat, this is obviously what he was often served. When he was served meat, did he eat it? If he was not a hypocrite then, yes he did.

Why?

The verse explains that:

“what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it’s what comes out of your mouth that will defile you.”

So the Jesus in Thomas tells us that he is not that concerned about what you eat, as far as defilement goes, but is very concerned about the words you speak, or what goes out of your mouth.

Allan’s group maintains this has to be interpreted allegorically even though they seem to take the rest of it quite literally.

Now let us get to their dialog. One big problem I have with Allan and his group is they seem to have great difficulty in understanding my position on various teachings. For instanced, one posters states my position as follows:

“Basically, my understanding of JJ’s position is that, based upon the Alice Bailey teachings, the ONLY reason why a person would ever need to become a vegetarian is in order to read the Akashic records.”

This is not correct at all. I believe there are numerous reasons for seekers to become vegetarians. Gaining the ability to read the Akashic records is just one of many. Now one can still access the Akashic records on a meat eating diet, but a vegetarian diet will aid in sensitivity so the seeker can read with greater accuracy.

Edgar Cayce was a meat eater and he read some of the records and Alan often quotes him as a reliable source. Just becoming a vegetarian will not make you a more reliable reader of the records than was Edgar Cayce, a meat eater. The ability to accurately read the records is something that has not been attained by any regular mortal that I know. Do we even know of any who can read them better than meat eater Edgar Cayce? If so, let them produce some historical records that are not past life memories.

The ability to accurately read the Akashic records is more of a goal set before us of what is possible for us to accomplish rather than something accomplished by any significant number of seekers, vegetarian or not.

For me to accurately read the Akashic records would require a consecrated dedication toward that end in this life and would force me to take my attention away from other work I came here to do. We can only do so much in each life and the disciple must assess the work to be done and the tools he needs to accomplish it and proceed with wisdom.

Now Keith, our resident prophet in the Keys, may be able to read the records accurately. If you are reading this Keith, could you tell us about your diet? Are you a vegetarian?

I have taught various times that there are a number of advantages to a vegetarian diet. The most important advantage for a seeker is that it reduces the power our appetites and passions have over us and assists the aspirant to achieve the first and second initiations, which involves mastering the physical appetites, passions and the emotions to keep them under control.

BUT…

When a person has sufficiently placed these under his control he can eat meat and still maintain that control. He merely gains the ability to negate the extra carnal pull generated by meat eating.

Are there other advantages to a vegetarian diet?

Yes, if it is done correctly. Many vegetarians go on a badly selected diet that is not as healthy as that of the standard meat eater. If the vegetarian eats too much processed food, doesn’t buy organic, eats too much sugar, starch and cheese and doesn’t get his B12 then he may wind up in worse shape than most meat eaters.

On the other hand, an intelligently selected diet of living foods can do much to enhance the health. About two years ago I was feeling a little sluggish and went on a vegetarian diet consisting only of raw fruits and vegetables with no meat or animal products and nothing that was cooked for about six months. Then I resumed my normal diet and have felt a lot better since.

I am presently 70 years old and in good health and take no prescription or over the counter drugs. I feel like I still have a lot of mileage in me and hope this to be the case as there are still a lot of things I wish to accomplish.

I’ve gone on a vegetarian diet several times in my life and definitely notice the inclination to focus on the inner world and ignore the outer. This would have been fine for me if I didn’t need to give the outer world the attention needed to support my family. If you have work to do in the outer world then the eating of meat grounds you so you can focus better on the work to do. On the other hand, if one has no concerns about making a living or outer work then a vegetarian diet helps one to focus on the inner.

Many advanced souls who have had important outer work to do have eaten meat such as Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Smith, Winston Churchill, H.P. Blavatsky, Edgar Cayce, the apostles Peter and Paul in the New Testament and many more.

I’ve been asked to clarify how the vegetarian diet influences or affects the access to data from the Akashic records, access to principles, the higher or inner worlds etc.

To understand this we must understand the purpose of the body.

The first thing to realize is that we are not our bodies but the various bodies we occupy in different lifetimes are merely vehicles. Just as one person may own many cars at different times, even so do we have different bodies in different lives. But, just as you are still you whether you drive a Porsche or a Prius you are also you whether you are male or female, good looking or plain, strong or weak etc.

Because you are always you does not mean your vehicle does not have an influence on you. Your attitude and confidence may be quite different when driving up in a Porsche than in a Prius. The Porsche is also much more powerful and can get you from A to B much faster than the Prius. But both cars can perform the basic function of getting you where you need to go.

The important thing with out bodies, considering that they are vehicles is to keep them in the shape we need so we can accomplish what we need to do with them. The food, or fuel, we put in them has different effects. The number one priority is to feed ourselves with good ingredients so our vehicles will stay in good condition through our lives.

If your health is good you can accomplish just about anything that anyone can do in a body. Beyond the attainment of good health one can increase sensitivity according to the lightness of heaviness of foods eaten. Live foods grown above the ground are particularly light, those grown in the ground are more dense and meat is more dense still. By concentrating on eating the lighter foods the body as a tool will offer greater sensitivity to some types of contacts in certain grades of matter while dulling contact in the dense matter of the earth plane.

Beyond keeping the body in good shape and healthy one needs to assess how he wants to use his body and give it the materials needed so it will be an aid for him in accomplishing his goals rather than a hindrance.

The type of body we have does not cause us to become more evolved or spiritual any more than a Porsche will make you smarter than a Prius. Your spiritual evolution is not dependant on your body. We only depend on our bodies to help us in accomplishing our life’s goals whatever they may be.

There are certain types of spiritual work that become easier with a body adjusted by lighter foods, such as reading the Akashic records – a very difficult task to do accurately.

As far as one’s spiritual evolution and ability to penetrate higher spheres to ascertain true principles goes our ability is not strongly influenced by the lightness or heaviness of the body. The main way the body can distract here is if it is suffering will ill health or in a painful state.

Stephen King will be a good writer whether he is typing on a Mac or a Dell computer. His ability to come up with ideas and put them into words only depends on having a functioning tool. His will and experience as made him a good writer, not his writing machine.

Even so it is with my body. The main thing I need from it is to function well and not distract me with pain or disease. So far it is doing a good job for me as it doesn’t hinder me from accessing the realm wherein lies true principles. If other work requites a lighter or heavier body I will make changes but will always do what I can to keep it healthy and well.

Feb 27, 2015

Confirming Decisions

Yesterday I posted these words:

Part of my job (and others) is to find these souls and help them find themselves and dispel the negative cloud between them and their souls.

To this a reader responded to me as follows:

I am interested in anything you might elaborate on about how to dispel the cloud between myself and my soul. I am seeking that experience where I finally know without any doubt if I am on the right track. Till then I just keep going forward with my best judgment.

First, let me say this. We learn wisdom through our decisions and the tougher the decision the more we learn. Therefore, with many of the decisions of life the soul, or higher lives that are linked to us, just sit back and let us stumble around so we can learn our needed lessons. There are exceptions to every rule, however, and there are times when we reach an important fork in the road where the decision made is bigger than the individual, but will affect many people. There are times when this situation occurs that the seeker will receive a definite communication affirming the correct path ahead. This may come through an inner voice, a spiritual fire or a vivid dream.

Sometimes, after a disciple has this confirmation happen he may think decision-making will be easy from that point on because his soul will clearly guide him. He may then reach a point of decision which he thinks is important and seeks guidance with all his heart but nothing seems to come. He is again faced with what seems to be an important choice yet this time he is all on his own.

Why is this?

There are two reasons a person may receive confirmation:

(1) The soul sees from a higher angle of vision than yourself and in its eyes the first decision where he received confirmation had more far reaching effects. The alternative choice would have made things much worse for a significant number of people.

(2) Before you were born you planned out your life as much as possible and had certain decision points where the correct choice was essential. When you reach one of these points in your life you may get some type of clear confirmation as to which path to take.

If neither of these two reasons are at play in your life then the chances are that you will just have to reply on the highest you know and use your best judgment. Sometimes you receive no guidance because either choice you make will turn out to be beneficial. Let us say that you are faced with a career choice between being a doctor and a lawyer. You seek guidance as to which would be the better choice but nothing comes.

Why?

Because you will learn much and accomplish much in either profession. The choice may seem crucial to you, but to your soul it may not matter that much.

Now, we not only get confirmation on a positive path but there are times where the disciple will receive a powerful negative impression on a possible disastrous path.

Several times in my life my soul has warned me to keep my distance from certain individuals I have met.

Several times in my single years when I was considering pursuing marriage my soul sent me a definite unmistakable message basically saying, “No. This person may be a good individual, but she is not for you.”

There have been other times where I faced a decision and as I began to proceed upon a path I received a powerful negative feeling that even affected me physically. It made my mouth as dry as cotton and made me feel weak. When this comes I have learned to not ignore it.

Then there were other decisions in my life I personally thought were very important, but it seemed my soul did not for I was left completely on my own. I find that for most of our decisions we are completely on our own, left to our best judgment so we can learn to be as wise as our Higher Self.

An important point to realize is that even if the cloud between you and your soul is removed and you become soul infused you will not receive higher guidance on all things. If you did it would stunt your learning. If you are in close contact with your soul you will, however, find that decision making is easier because you will see more clearly into the future and how your decisions will affect it.

As to how to dispel the barriers between he seeker and the soul goes I have already written volumes on this. Those interested in reading more can go to freeread.com, go to the search feature and type in the words “soul contact” in quotation marks. Lots of reading on the subject will come up.

I will add this one thing. Even if you do not recall getting confirmation on a direction you can tell the value of a path chosen by how you feel inside as you are pursuing it. If you are moving toward a goal that will produce positive results then you will feel energized, your mind will be clear and you will find yourself at peace and happy when working.

If you are on a path that is against your best interests then you will lack energy, your mind will seem darkened and you will have to force yourself to do your work.

If you find yourself in this second situation the best course is to take care of commitments and change course at the first opportunity.

Happiness consists of three things: someone to love, work to do, and a clear conscience. Anonymous

Feb 28, 2015

Ripples in Divine Space

Ruth covered a lot of territory in her post. I’ll give out some information and principles and hope it covers her questions.

First she says: “When we die from our physical death, we have a life review with or from our Soul/Solar Angel/higher self.”

After you die and then make it through the lower astral realms you are reunited with your soul. You as a soul then go to the life review. Because your awareness is much greater after being reunited you already have a pretty good idea how the life review will go for you have done some personal reviewing already. The review is conducted by a small number (usually three) advanced souls out of incarnation. They review your life with you and note the successes and failures and what you can do to prepare for your next incarnation.

Then she wants clarification on who we are and our relationship with our soul, Solar Angel etc.

We covered who we are quite thoroughly in the first two Immortal books. Our essence is the power that makes decisions, making decision a prime key of knowledge. Our first decision in this universe was as a monad, a point of light and intelligence in Divine Space. The decision was whether to be or not to be. that was the question. You and I decided To Be and then To Become.

We then descended into and through the Atmic and Buddhic planes and then we were born as souls in the plane of the mind where form as we know it has its beginnings. As new souls we had difficulty with our progression so we were overshadowed by solar angels, great entities who had mastered form in a previous system. After the overshadowing it seemed as if we were one life with our Solar Angels and this allowed us to be guided by greater wisdom and intelligence as souls than we would have otherwise possessed.

When we incarnate the soul projects part of its essence, a fragment, into the newly created body. The body has a life essence and elementary intelligence of its own. It is something like a computer program compared to a computer operator who could be compared to the fragment of the soul.

The body acts like a veil and creates a barrier between you and the full consciousness of your soul. As you adapt to the body and its attributes you tend to identify with it in many ways and forget who you really are. You thus enter life with great limitations, but the limitations present a great challenge, and overcoming them gives opportunities for a lot of growth and progress.

To understand the linkages let us use the Law of Correspondences. Think of how much life is different and more limited for you when you are in a dream. You are still you, but not the whole you. The mental part of yourself is missing. Your dream self is created mostly from your emotional body. Because the mental part of yourself is on a higher plane you are not aware that you are d reaming and not aware of all the control you could have over your dream.

On the other hand it is possible to have vivid dreams where you tease part of your mind to enter the dream. Then you can become aware that you are dreaming and assume more control.

Even so, this earth life is like a dream of the soul. Just as your dream self is a fragment of your waking self, even so is your waking self a fragment of your soul. In addition the soul is a fragment of the full consciousness of the monad. But then the monad is a fragment of higher group life. This extends up to the One Great Life we call God.

Picture throwing a pebble into a still body of water and watch the ripples. The first layer of ripples are large and after extended they get smaller and smaller until they are no more.

Our monad is the first ripple in the waters of divine space. The next ripple is the soul, the next an incarnation as a human, the next the dream state and the final a dream within a dream that we sometimes have. Here the ripples end.

We incarnate again and again until we become soul infused and, while in the body, we function in the consciousness of the soul rather than be governed by other lower lives and influences. When this happens our Solar Angel realizes it has done its job as our heavenly nurturing mother and returns to its true home.

From that point on the pilgrim is overshadowed by his monad, his personal Father in Heaven.

***

SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. — A husband and wife thought to be Rockland County’s oldest married couple will celebrate their birthdays this weekend — with a combined age of 212.

Duranord Veillard will turn 108 on Saturday while his wife of 82 years, Jeanne, turns 105 in May.

When I read stories about those who have lived to a very advanced age I m always interested to see what kind of diet they have been on. Almost always it includes some type of meat. I read about a lady in Peru 116 or so years old whose main source of protein was goat meat from goats she raised. Then I read another around the same age who ate ham hocks every morning and yet another who ate a large dose of bacon and eggs every morning.

This story gives the diet of the 108 year old guy and I assume the 105 year old wife is on a similar one.

Veillard starts his day at 5 a.m. and does five to seven pushups. For breakfast, he has a cup of tea, oatmeal and fresh fruit. Lunch and dinner consist of fish and fresh vegetables. The centenarians nap early and often.

Sounds like a good testimony for fish.

One thing that most of an advanced age have common in their diet is they eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and many raise them in their own garden.

Here is the link to the story

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/26/husband-108-wife-105-celebrate-82-years-married/24094901/

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