Q33: Over the years we have seen many people who appear to get right to the crux of their blocks, and then they stop. After, they will pull away. And sometimes there can be projection, the forming of “glee clubs,” and even outright attack. Could you speak to what’s occurring there, as well as the best way to deal with it?

A: Well, indeed, beloved friend, I never experienced this when I was on the planet! Hmm.

Remember, always, that the world is the attempt of mind to create a substitute for the Kingdom of Heaven, to create a substitute for Reality. It is the misuse of power. It is a waste of the very gift that the Creator gives to the Created. It is extremely important to remember that as you walk the Earth, in the world … And there’s a distinction between the world and the Earth. The world is what mankind has made in error. As you literally walk down your street, you are walking through a field of illusion in which fear seems to dominate. When everyone is fearful, everyone will believe that everyone is sane and normal. It is just taken to be the norm. And yet, the world is the opposite of the Kingdom. Why is this important? Where fear has made a home in the mind, where any mind has become entranced with fear and doesn’t even know it, it will cling to the foundational structure of belief upon which it is based: I am guilty. I am separate from God. This is why I have to manipulate you, because I can’t trust God. I won’t find my security unless I figure out how to shape the world to give me what I think I need.

Fear has many stepchildren. They are all vicious. And in the world you will encounter viciousness. You encounter it right now a thousand times every day. The store clerk who seems to be absent or not present with you as you put your groceries on the counter. The driver who honks at you because you are going three miles-an-hour slower than he or she wants you to. All of these are expressions of the insanity of fear. For where there is Love, there is a willingness to show up and be wholly present in the body-mind. Where Love is present, there is patience, trust, allowance, graciousness. The world you live in is permeated by fear. It’s what made the world in the first place. Never deny this.

What then happens is this. The first part of the mind which engages the spiritual journey is the ego. It is the ego that first decides to listen to a tape of Jeshua ben Joseph. It is the ego that first opens to my presence. It is the ego that first picks up A Course In Miracles. Why? Because the ego is what is in charge. It has tried everything else. It’s coming close to the time of its death and dissolution. And therefore, it looks upon spirituality as the one last-gasp attempt to gain power and control.

The ego always speaks first. So, you’ll read a paragraph in A Course In Miracles, and immediately start thinking about it, immediately start pontificating about it. That’s nothing but the ego! Those that would puff themselves up with many words about the Course are usually those least interested in living the Course. Do you see?

Therefore, what occurs is this. As any mind begins its “grand spiritual journey,” what it’s really being run by is the seeking for experiences that it has decided will feel good. Now, it will begin to have some experiences. It will go to workshops. It will read the Course. And guess what? The Holy Spirit seduces it. It does have moments of dissolution, little deaths, “Oh!” Spirit breaks through the ego. So the ego is attempting to use something for its own good, not even realizing that it’s the very thing the Holy Spirit will eventually succeed at using in destroying the ego, the grip the ego has on the mind.

However, imagine that you are the defender of a castle. And around the castle you have five thousand acres. Now, out there in the fringes of your dominion, your kingdom, there are a few small hamlets. When the enemy comes to attack your castle, and you first hear that the enemy is amassing at your borders, there’s a little fear: Well, okay. So we’ll give it a few hamlets. Big deal. We’ll let Genghis Khan have the hamlet at the furthest edge. But the closer Genghis Khan comes to the castle, the more ferocious Genghis Khan seems to be, the more the ramparts are pulled up, the more the soldiers come to line the fortress, the more you prepare yourself with your cannons, machine guns, and what have you. You’ll do anything to defend the heart of the castle.

Now, in Truth, there was never a Genghis Khan. There were merely angels on white horses coming to bring the petals of Love and healing, coming to teach you that you need not build fortresses at all, that you can let the castle go and live in the meadows in the Father’s Kingdom. However, those angels are turned into ferocious monsters that look like Genghis Khan and, Surely, they’re out to destroy me.

Never underestimate the viciousness of the ego. This will happen time, and time, and time, again. As, on the one hand, the egoic mind that says it’s on a spiritual path will engage its practices and, Oh my! It will just talk and talk and talk and talk, and read and study, and travel, and do workshops. It will do all of these things, never realizing that it is really about trying to defend its inner castle – the place where the ego is still in authority.

And as Love begins to penetrate and take over the hamlets, it gets closer and closer. And sometimes, the heat is too much. The power of the ego is still too strong and it pushes Love away. Now, how do you push Love away? By calling it something else. By seeing it as Genghis Khan: How dare you ask me to question my own views on sexuality! Why, I know the truth! This is the way it must be!

And then, that very mind will go to a workshop and hear about denial, projection, attack. It will hear all these nice theories and it will go, Yes, yes. Ha, ha, ha, ha! Oh, yes. Well, hmm, hmm, hmm. But boy! When its own inner castle is threatened, and reactivity rears its head, and it sends its soldiers to the wall to keep Genghis Khan out .

It takes much, much experience in the pathway of purification to come to recognize that where there is reaction, there is fear. What is not Love is fear, and nothing else. At any time, when you have enmity with a brother or sister, that is, you’re getting your buttons pushed, you’ve got a problem or an issue, when you do not go to them directly, but rather seek out others to talk to, you will seek an accomplice – what you have called a “glee club”: Let’s get together and sing the chorus of what’s wrong with that person over there. This way, we both get to be right.

At any time that you think you have an issue with someone, and you do not go to them directly to discuss it with openness, to discuss it with the goal being growth and learning, you may rest assured that you have rushed into your castle and sent your soldiers to the wall. And you are delaying your healing and awakening. Any time you seek an accomplice, you have lost and the ego has won. Because why? Because fear has won! Oh, gee. I’ve really had this issue. Gosh, what you did is really pushing my buttons. But I’m not going to talk to you about it. I’ll go find somebody else who’s also had their buttons pushed. We’ll get together and discuss what’s wrong with you, so we get to be safe. Where? Inside the castle of illusion.

So, as Love penetrates the veils, the hamlets of the kingdom of the ego, it gets closer to the castle. The ego seeks to fortify its boundaries. Why? Because the ego is fear itself.

It takes much experience – much maturity – at truly owning that what’s occurring under your skin is yours. Are you committed to Love and healing and growth? Or are you committed to keeping the status quo in place? Fear grips you [snaps fingers] that fast! It causes all manner of reactivity, projection, attack. That’s just the viciousness of the insane ego.

Now this has occurred, as you know, in the nature of your journey with me, for the two of you, specifically, over the last nine years, many times. Why? Because your work, both within yourselves, and therefore within the outer work, the service that you give to others, is about dissolving the castle. That is what the essence of Shanti Christo is: dissolving the deepest, innermost bastion of strength in which the ego is running the show.

This work that I engage with you in is the deepest work possible. It is only about the Atonement. The Atonement is not to make you feel good. It is literally to purify the mind of the grip of the ego, so that God can possess, if you will, your mind, your life, your being – so that you can return to being a creator of the good, the holy, and the beautiful.

This means, first of all, that this work attracts those who are at various stages of their desire to awaken. Many of them are at the egoic stage. What is the egoic stage of spirituality? It is that stage in which the ego knows it’s tried everything else. It’s tried to make money. It’s had relationships. It’s done its drugs in your culture. It’s had too many hours of TV. It’s tried everything to stay in power, and it perceives that perhaps in the “spiritual life”, it will finally gain the power it seeks over what it perceives to be Genghis Khan on the borders of its dominion.

Therefore, many will first be attracted to my message, through this, my beloved brother – through the various forms of the work that I have guided you to learn, to become skillful in. But the first level of attraction is always the seeking of a new power. The rattles will come when the hamlets begin to be attacked. And depending on the strength that the ego has – no matter how much so-called spiritual journeying one has done – the strength of the ego within the castle will be perceived by those who pull away, by those who need to project and attack, those that need to form glee clubs – these are signs. They can merely teach you to learn more deeply the subtle nuances of how egoic consciousness works. This, in turn, improves your ability to teach.

This is why whenever you feel attacked, what matters first of all is to recognize the mechanics that are at play. Oh! If someone’s attacking me, they must be in fear, since there is only Love or fear. If there is an issue that I know they have, and they’re not coming to talk to me about it, this only shows how deeply fear is actually running their life.

Now, the first thing, then, is compassion and prayer. Hmm? Seeing them as healed, seeing them as whole, asking for guidance, “Should I go speak to them?” Yes. No. The Holy Spirit will let you know.

The second thing is, if I’m feeling attacked, let me drop them, bring attention back to myself,” What’s feeling attacked in me?” For only egoic consciousness can be attacked. Christ cannot be attacked. It’s impossible. Christ just laughs. Christ may choose to take the body-mind away from those who are dangerous to the body-mind, but Christ never feels attacked. So it’s a great offering, and in this sense they’ve become your savior – not because they’re enlightened, but because you can use the situation to more deeply see what you may yet be afraid of.

Now what’s the crux of all this? Anyone who truly wants God will seek out situations of teaching and learning that literally create a context for the greatest fire, the greatest purification, the greatest heat. Why? Because they want to get the gold melted down so it can be reshaped by the Hand of God.

If you are not experiencing other minds saying that you’re wrong, if you’re not experiencing other minds being activated by the life you’re living, you better take another look. What’s really running you? Are you afraid to speak and live your truth? Are you afraid to choose Love over fear? Are you afraid to look different to other minds? True meekness stands out like a sore thumb, for the meek know that they do not know. The meek trust the Holy Spirit. The ego is out to get others to like it. The soul wants only God.

Therefore, remember that when you are being attacked, you have, in the palm of your hand, a great gem that is totally priceless. For you can deepen your own embodiment of Christ Consciousness. You can learn more deeply the subtle nuances of how egoic consciousness dominates the mind, whether yours or another’s. You can learn and learn and learn, and thereby become a greater teacher, capable of serving the Atonement.

Now, to come back to our analogy of Genghis Khan attacking the kingdom, think of all things as a vibration of energy. When two people come together in relationship, or when ten thousand come together, they come together because there’s a certain level of accord or resonance. Now Genghis Khan can come so far into the kingdom and everybody in the kingdom and in the castle is relatively okay: “Yes, yes. Well, the war is out there on the farthest reaches of our kingdom. We can still party. Isn’t this great? Oh, yes. Ha, ha, ha!” Genghis Khan comes closer. And now, every mind must make a choice: “What am I committed to?”

If, for example, there is a conflict in a relationship, if one mind in the relationship refuses to go to the other and say: “Gosh, I’m really having this issue. We need to go into this because I recognize that if I have an issue, there’s something here that I need to learn.” If they’re not willing to do that, they’ve reached their edge, what you have called the “crux of their obstacle.” They’ve looked within, the situation has flushed something up, but now, they make a choice – without even knowing that they’ve made it. Their choice is to defend their castle. They will then spin out and leave you. They’ll spin out and form glee clubs, they’ll project, they’ll attack, whatever it is. It’s all harmless insanity. It only means that they’ve missed an opportunity and will have to come back around at another time, through more painful experiences, to look at the very issue that they aren’t willing to go through. They’ve come to their edge of their ring of fear. And fear has won the day.

That’s their loss. But it need not be yours. For anyone, at anytime, is free to learn more deeply about forgiveness and Love, about patience, about allowing, about transcending, about growing in the maturity of embodying Christ. The mind that reaches a certain stage of maturity is really no longer concerned with projection and attack – in fact, begins to relish it. For that mind knows that greater power must be coming through it if it is activating other minds. Do you see? The ego seeks safety. The Christ Mind serves the Atonement and has fun doing it.

Now this means that in the stages of Shanti Christo, as we began this work some nine years ago, going on ten years ago, from the day that I first came to this, my beloved brother, the goal has always been to fulfill my agreement with him to bring him fully into God Consciousness, to journey with him until my obligation as his teacher had ended. Now, within that, the secondary effect is to create a work that allows a context in which others also can join with me, can enjoin the process of awakening. That’s what Shanti Christo is, the creation of a context that can invite the entire humanity, the entire family of humanity, into the process of dissolving the times. This means that the more powerfully you are doing that, rest assured, it means the more you will probably find people coming and going, find yourself being projected on. It’s always been that way in the world, where any Ray of Light gets too strong and too clear. Do you see?

So in the future, those of you – and there will be more and more playing with you at deeper and deeper, more mature levels of commitment . . . when you find yourself attacked by others in the world, remember this must mean you’re on the right track! It doesn’t mean you’re going to be destroyed. No one will destroy this work. It doesn’t mean you’re going to be hurt. You can’t be hurt. You’re going to succeed. It simply means that that’s the way it is when Light penetrates darkness. Each mind must be given freedom to protect its castle, to wait for another day, or to choose to step into deeper maturity, deeper commitment to the great dissolution and death of egoic control that growth in Christ Mind requires.

So when people come and go, give it no thought. Merely love and keep growing yourselves in Christ. The only reason you’ve achieved the level of miracle-mindedness and success that has been achieved is because you have matured enough to recognize that this journey must first be your own. Let each one who comes to join with you remember that the growing success of Shanti Christo requires their commitment to penetrate their own castles, whether they be your employees, whether they be your Board of Directors, whether they be your members. Those who say they want to see the success of this venture must be fully committed to the ongoing process of birthing Christ in themselves.