Aspects Of The Divine Influx: Communication, Group Consciousness, Exposure

By The Pathwork Guide

Blessings, my dearly beloved friends. God's light envelops you all. This light contains all you need. Try to perceive it, try to feel its reality. It is always there for you; and to the degree that you refine your inner being through the purification process, you cannot help being aware of this light that flows through all the universe, through all of creation. Those of God's children who have chosen to make the best of their lives through such a Path, which gives them the opportunity to purify themselves and therefore enables them to serve God, are especially blessed. For they fulfill a great need in the plan of Salvation.

In this lecture I would like to speak about some significant aspects of the New Age. This word has been used a lot recently by certain groups of people. Some use it in right understanding, some manage to make it a cliche. This, however, happens with all concepts of truth. This is quite unavoidable, as there is a tendency for glibness in man's mind. It comes from laziness and from a tendency to label so as to avoid feeling the reality of a specific truth. But this abuse must not influence those who do not fall into this trap to give up altogether a word that conveys a true concept.

In the past I have warned time and time again against this tendency and I have sometimes suggested new words, different expressions for the same truth. At other times I have repeated the true meaning of a specific word in order to keep its true concept alive. This may account for much of the repetition that you find in these lectures.

As far as the New Age is concerned, at certain intervals in history a new influx streams into your world because humanity has grown in general terms. We talked about the consciousness of the Christ Spirit that permeates this world and that is trying to penetrate the consciousness of individuals to an ever greater degree.

It is fairly obvious that such a powerful influx must be accompanied by certain manifestations that are not always pleasant, welcome, agreeable, or even constructive. Many events on your earth are outright undesirable, but they are, nevertheless, direct results of this influx. In fact, without them the growth and the expansion of consciousness inherent in this New Age could not take place. Your mind is still very much geared to the immediate. In other words, you believe that what is good and right at this moment will also be good and right ultimately. You also believe that what may appear evil to you now is also evil ultimately. This is hardly the case. Sometimes an outright negative manifestation may be necessary for a total development to take place. This applies to the individual, as well as to mankind as a whole; or, to put it differently, to the entity earth.

In this lecture I should like to discuss some specifics that accompany the new influx. One is communication. Communication is a byproduct of a highly developed consciousness. To the degree that the development of the spirit exists, to that degree the ability to communicate -- that is, to listen and to express oneself adequately and appropriately -- also exists. To the degree that spiritual development is still impaired, to that degree the ability to communicate is limited. So you see innumerable people who cannot -- and who will not even try to -- put into words what they really feel and what they really think. They are either too proud, or they demand from others to be understood without having to labor to make themselves understood. For it does require some labor. Communication is an art that can and must be learned by everyone. It requires good will, positive intentionality, and a desire to cooperate.

Let us start by examining the outermost level. It is no coincidence that one of the byproducts of modern technology is communication. Even though this level of communication applies to outer events only, it has a tremendous impact on the inner levels of humanity. In the first place, it brings people much closer together. In former times there was a greater sense of separateness because the distance between people and their lack of communication created the illusion that others were intrinsically different, alien, and therefore enemies to be distrusted. Experiencing others to be similar when it comes to the basics of living, of dying, of suffering, and of longing eliminates much illusion, fear, and enmity. It contributes to the ever growing unity of mankind.

Knowing what is going on in the world has a definite impact on spiritual growth. The isolation and the separateness between people in the past made the world appear too vast to be encompassed. One's own tragedies seemed unique. Hence, the sense of brotherhood and sisterhood was totally lacking. Today even the least spiritually inclined individuals experience your entire planet in a very different way: things no longer appear as strange and foreign. There is a greater overall awareness. Because knowing the events that happen right now in a different corner of the earth has an impact on the soul's development.

So you see, my friends, technology is not in opposition to spiritual development and to spiritual life, as is often falsely believed. But it is often abused and misdirected, and therefore it is seen as an obstacle to spirituality.

This shows once again how everything in the universe and on this earth is intrinsically an expression of the divine will and of creation, and therefore can and should serve the Great Plan. Nothing can be created that does not have its roots in the world of spirit. All demonic manifestations can only be distortions and misuses of divine creation. They can never have been self-creative.

Your present ability to witness, and thus to experience, events with your brothers and sisters elsewhere has a significant impact on your soul. Your ability to move relatively fast from one corner of your earth to the other brings you closer to the laws of the spirit world, where movement is instantaneous: it is one with the thought.

Communication is a most important byproduct of advanced spiritual states. The ability to communicate on more subtle and personal levels has also greatly improved over the last decades. Psychological approaches have created a greater awareness of self, and therefore a greater capacity to understand oneself, to express oneself to others, and thereby to communicate. Before the influx of psychology most human beings were completely in the dark about themselves. In other words, about their feelings, about their true reactions, let alone those of others. It was therefore impossible to create a bridge with another person in a significant way. It is similar to a childish state of development. A child does not really know that it is hurt, that it is lonely, or that it needs more love, more attention, or more understanding. If this awareness were articulate in the child, then it would be a relatively small step to convey these feelings to another person. Without communication, you live in the dark, you live alone, you live in a fog of confusion. Therefore, you are isolated from others. The Christ Spirit represents exactly the opposite. It brings the great light of awareness, of communication, and of brotherhood.

True communication presupposes communication with the self. That is, with the inner levels of being that were inaccessible before. Understanding the self is the groundwork, the foundation. For you cannot convey, explain, and communicate something which you do not know. So a path such as the one I guide you on must always be primarily concerned with self-exploration and with self-knowledge. However, it must never stop there. Self-knowledge is only the preliminary phase. The next organic step is learning the great art of communication. This requires intention, thought, practice, and self-observation. It means giving up the state of being only half awake, in which you unthinkingly assume that others "should" know. It means making the effort to explain, to reach out, to search through the mazes of misunderstanding -- and to do so patiently and lovingly. Here, as in everything else, practice leads to an increasingly spontaneous and automatic ability to be outwardly what previously you have been only inwardly -- and therefore secretly -- and then to communicate this state to others.

Use your imagination and think about the enormous difference which this makes in human communication. How often do you believe that someone is mean to you when, in reality, this other person actually fears you and erroneously uses a coldness, a rejecting attitude as a defense? Knowing this removes your fear, your false pride, your anger, and it may enable you to meet this person in an entirely different way that, in turn, will dissolve his or her negative defense that is alienating to you. So you see how communication brings souls together, instead of creating fearful and therefore hating walls between humans. Communication is an intrinsic part of the good life.

However, the fact that you may attempt to explain yourself is not enough. The way in which you reveal yourself is what makes communication an art. If you explain yourself in a way that implies blame and accusation, then you only create a bigger wall. But if you attempt to explain yourself by simply conveying your feelings, your needs, your impressions, and your assumptions -- but without insisting that they be the truth -- in a questioning, open spirit, then a true understanding can be reached. Clarity, light, and truth will be established. Love and brotherhood are being fostered through your learning the skill of communication, and practicing it as an art.

Your loneliness can never be assuaged unless you establish bridges with others. But you can never lose your fear of other people -- which is the basic cause of your loneliness -- unless you expose the misconception that others want to be your enemy. Then you must oust this false belief from your psyche. The only way to do this is by going to the trouble of exploring yourself in order to know what it is that you really feel. In this case, your fear of others. Often you think that you feel in a certain way. Yet this is not what is really going on in you. You need to take the apparent risk of explaining yourself, even if this can rarely be done in one simple stroke. You need to enter into an ongoing dialogue, full of good will, of the increasing willingness to shed your pride, and to give up your stake in blaming. This is what communication entails on an emotional level. This is how the great oneness among all human beings will be established and this is how fear and hate -- hence war on all scales -- will increasingly disappear. In other words, true communication will contribute to bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth.

There is a deeper level of communication which you ignore. This level is still obscure to most people. But once you focus your attention and your awareness on it, then it will reveal itself just as clearly as those other levels I discussed. All interaction between human beings ultimately contributes to the final aim: reconciliation, oneness, brotherhood, understanding, and truth. Thus, even the most negative interaction between individuals somehow serves this purpose in the final analysis.

When two entities -- either individual or collective ones -- are involved in a negative interaction, then a deeper purpose is being fulfilled, even if this interaction has a most undesirable result at the moment. The higher selves of both entities are always at work. The higher self has not created the negative interaction per se, but uses what already exists -- the negativity -- for the purpose of dissolving it. This dissolution and the transformation of negative material cannot possibly take place unless there is an outright manifestation. Even if the entities involved are totally in the dark about the part which they play in this interaction -- and therefore still find themselves on the level of self-righteous one-sidedness -- a higher purpose is being served nevertheless. When the respective entities involved in a negative interaction, such as war, are willing to recognize the total truth of an interaction -- a truth that may be hidden from their immediate view -- by going deeper than the surface (see No 253), then this happens much more.

Underneath the lower self exchange there simultaneously also exists a higher self exchange between the entities in conflict. This is a very important new thought for you to contemplate. Let us say that two people -- or two groups of people -- are at war on the surface. They hate and accuse each other; they wish each other the worst and they want to harm each other. At the same time, on a deeper level these entities agree. They know that what occurs on the surface serves the common good, that it serves truth and love, that it serves their unity, even though their surface levels know nothing of this.

When two of you who are on this Path are at odds with each other and you work hard to come to the truth of the issue, then you experience a wonderful conciliation in which love unites the same two individuals who before had hated and accused each other. In other words, two enemies. Then you witness what I just explained. On your earth sphere, in this dimension, the manifestation of conciliation happens in sequential time. First the hate, then the search for truth, and finally love and unity. On the deeper level of being, these sequences do not exist. Truth, love, and unity exist all the while.

It is important for you to take this new vision into account. It will help you to perceive that every situation, no matter how hopelessly confused and negative it may appear, simultaneously harbors inner truth, love, and unity. Your understanding of this principle will accelerate the conciliation on the level of sequential time, so that enmity, the search for truth, love, and unity follow each other in ever quicker succession.

The influx of the Christ consciousness is bringing more spiritual values and more spiritual laws to your plane. Many spiritual values are known through the religions, but few are truly understood and experienced in depth, let alone lived on the innermost level. Often humanity either confuses or distorts these laws. Then he either disregards them altogether because distorted they make no sense, or he hypocritically obeys them on a surface level that fails to reach the inner person. The more humanity grows, the greater the influx of the Christ light can be. Thus the more it will be possible to make spiritual values part of the human consciousness.

In this lecture we are dealing with the law of brotherhood. Without brotherhood there is no love. Without love there is no brotherhood. Love is union. Hate is split. Hate is dissension. Hate is isolation. Love means mutual understanding. Yet in order for such understanding to grow, effort and good will are necessary. In other words, love is not something that just happens, like a miracle, nor is the experience of union something that happens by itself. Union with God cannot be experienced unless you are able to experience union with your brothers and sisters, even with those who you think are your enemies. Friendship with your so-called enemy is impossible to achieve unless both parties desire truth and union. But it is important for you to realize that on the inner level you may be already connected with the higher self of that person.

Never forget that love, just as union with God and union with other people, is the result of communication. And communication is the result of serious effort, with a commitment to use your attention and your energies both to make yourself understood in the best possible way and to understand the other. For both purposes you need to empty your mind of all the preconceived ideas which your lower self has a stake in retaining. You need to put aside your enmity and your distrust. You need to listen deeply and openly. You need to convince the other of your good will for the truth. You need to summon the maturity to realize that others do not know what you mean, that they do not know what you feel, that they do not know what you think, that they do not know what you want unless you tell them. You need to explain yourself in the deepest, the most sincere way possible. If you proceed in that way, then there is no problem between you and others that cannot be resolved. Great strength and self-esteem will grow from this, my friends.

But first you need to sacrifice your pride, to sacrifice your stubbornness, to sacrifice your pleasure in having a case, to sacrifice your fear of finding out that you are wrong, to sacrifice your fear of finding out that you are bad. All this must be put aside. In that way you will contribute to the ever growing flow of communication in your era that is unprecedented. In that way you will help to herald an important aspect of the Christ consciousness -- both within yourself and within others. Then you truly become a servant to God's plan. Therefore, desist from the temptation to keep yourself locked up in your isolation and in your resentment. Desist from the temptation to accuse and to blame others for your unhappiness. Rather, make yourself neutral, at least temporarily, until you have the chance to find out what the truth is. Do not fear this truth, for it will be so liberating. It will let you off the hook of your own secret self-accusation. It will also free others from your accusations. In this process you may find imperfections both in yourself and in others. But now these imperfections will have a new connotation that will free you of hurt and shame, as well as of the need to put hurt and shame on others.

My friends, this is what has been taking place in your world all along. I am not telling you about a new process. But I want to shed light on this process from a new angle, so that you can deepen your commitment to follow it through. There are still many occasions when such follow-up can be increased.

The new influx sweeps through your world with tremendous force. Yet its manifestations are not always recognized. At first, the influx reaches man's inner consciousness. When there is the slightest potential, then the consciousness begins to change -- gradually and subtly. It may change through new ways of thinking about life, or through a desire to find a way to understand the self and to understand life more profoundly.

But even those who are less developed -- and therefore are less ready -- may, often unwittingly, lend a hand to the Great Plan that is unfolding. They, too, become instruments, even though their instrumentality may appear entirely negative. Through their sphere of influence and their activity they affect events, which then conspire to bring about new conditions. As I explained before, it is the higher self of such a person that is working in conjunction with the Plan. It is using the negative outer will to contribute positively to the whole picture.

The new influx -- called the New Age -- also affects outer events, often in a most obscure way. What may appear to be an entirely undesirable, negative occurrence is, in reality, a necessity for establishing new values and for re-establishing life based on spiritual premises -- on truth and love. In other words, destructiveness that has advanced so far that it can no longer be changed, molded, or transformed needs to be destroyed before a new and better structure can be erected.

Many destructive events on your earth sphere are of this kind. You need to learn to distinguish between those events that are unnecessary because they are directly opposed to life -- being expressions of evil -- and those that fall into the category I just described. The distinction is not always immediately clear. But as you train your inner vision and you become more aware of these processes of creation, then your perception will become more accurate.

Many of you already see that new values are springing up all over. They are working their way through the thicket of the old weeds of obsolete values, of negative attitudes, and of destructive behavior toward life. The new values are still small and delicate plants. They need nurturing with courage, with commitment to the larger cause of life, and with the necessary self-honesty that fosters the development and the expansion of the individual consciousness. The more people follow this road, this Path, the stronger these new plants will become on your planet.

This process is always based on a cellular structure. It begins with the single cell -- with the individual consciousness that needs to change. Such individual change cannot take place in isolation, but always in conjunction with others. For the individual consciousness is part of the collective consciousness, of the Great Whole. Therefore, individual values and individual development can be measured only through interaction with others. Communication is one aspect that improves this interaction, until there is no separation. The more the individual cells of consciousness -- the personalities -- purify themselves and align themselves with the divine will, then the more the totality of the earth entity will be affected. Then all the cells will meld into one structure, although each will have its own individual life.

There is a great deal of ambivalence in regard to this melding with the Whole. On the one hand, man fears giving up what he calls his individuality. He believes that his uniqueness -- his particular divine manifestation -- is dependent on his separation. He falsely assumes that by oneness with the Whole he loses what is uniquely his. In reality it is just the other way around. Thus he struggles against the innate fate of all created beings -- the striving toward oneness with God. He resists it and he fights it, to his own chagrin. For, the longing for oneness with the Whole can be assuaged only by oneness taking place. This longing is desperate in the soul because the pain of not experiencing this oneness is excruciating. Not knowing of this longing, and therefore not feeling this pain, is the worst state of apathy, of unaliveness, of confusion. The secondary pain that you often feel can never be understood because you do not know that it is the result of a long chain reaction whose origin is the excruciating pain that results from denying oneness with God.

It has often been said that the New Age -- or the Aquarian Age -- brings about the formation of groups. In other words, group consciousness. Such a process has not existed in the same way before. Of course, mankind as a whole is a group on a larger scale. Society could not exist unless group consciousness were cultivated to some degree. But until now most individuals were concerned mainly with themselves and with their own interests, regardless of the effects of such self-concern on the rest of the world. Not that this attitude has now disappeared. Far from it. But a new awareness is growing in which man begins to see that if he pursues nothing but his self-interest to the detriment of others, then he goes beyond violating moral and spiritual laws and values. He begins to see that he himself must eventually suffer from this attitude just as much -- if not more -- as those whom he disregards with his shortsighted selfishness.

The human family could not exist without a group spirit. But most societies do not put sufficient weight on spiritual values. They are unaware of the new influx. Therefore, they proceed by the old standards and by the old values that are often based on expediency only and on the most shortsighted of goals. It is no coincidence that in your time new groups, new communities of all sorts are springing up all over the world. Many of them are misguided. Others succumb to the influence of destructive forces and of evil spirits. But this can never be different on your plane of consciousness. When there is a divine influx, then the demonic forces send out their emissaries to corrupt those who are still not purified. First they try to tempt them and then they seek to destroy them. But this does not change the fact that new communities which represent the new values and which become models for the new ways of life are spreading. The important thing is to be always wakeful and to never neglect the work of self-purification. This is the only key to safety. If you do this inner work painstakingly -- in the spirit of service to fulfill God's will -- then the evil forces cannot confuse you. You will always know what you need to know, you will always find the answers to your questions, and you will ultimately remain clean, even if some temporary manifestations of your lower self are inevitable.

Now I wish to discuss another manifestation of the new influx, namely exposure. Again, you can see this aspect both individually and collectively. It is so obvious that it can hardly be missed. Through psychology, and recently through profound spiritual work, the exposure of the self has reached depths unknown before in your history, with the exception of the initiates, of the small minorities in different cultures. Today the exposure of the deeper levels of the self has reached unprecedented degrees. Even the least knowledgeable people have attained a certain degree of awareness of the fact that there are deeper levels of being which determine their lives. This may be taken for granted now. But it was not always so. The ability to explore the self is a combination of communication and of exposure, two of the subjects of this lecture. The willingness to expose the self leads to communication. Communication leads to oneness and to alignment with the Christ Spirit that sweeps through your world with a great force.

The resistance to expose is always present. Therefore, the denial of exposure makes for isolation. When exposure is denied, then it means that there must be a stake in maintaining a structure that needs to be renewed. In other words, the denial of exposure of the self -- of self-exposure -- implies the wish to continue living a lie. Dedication or commitment to the truth must bring the willingness and the courage first to expose and then to change.

If exposure is not undertaken willingly, then it will come from outside -- by force, as it were -- through crises that always throw secret matter to the surface. Once the force of the new influx has been set in motion, then it cannot be halted. The more it is opposed, the more painful are the crises that it will bring.

This has also become obvious in your public life. Recently, much hidden destructiveness has been exposed and communicated to the public. This has never been the case before in the same way and to the same degree. And it will continue, for something new has been set in motion. Through communication and through exposure the whole world now knows of political misdeeds that previously would have remained secret. Through the evolving group consciousness a great interplay and interaction takes place so that all of mankind can participate in the drama of development.

It is important to view world events with this understanding. This is the process that you follow on this Path. First you expose your lower self to yourself and then you share it with others. In other words, you communicate it to them. There is no better way to establish love, trust, and closeness.

Often I show you the parallel between the development of the individual and the development of the planet (Lecture No 120). All the processes that you learn to apply to yourselves also apply, in some form, to the collective level. Exposure has never existed in the way it does now. Masks are beginning to fall, lower self aspects begin to show clearly -- with less concealment than ever before. Thus both events and intentions can be recognized for what they really are, without the camouflages that bring so much lying, so much suffering, and so much confusion.

Exposure is very much a part of the new influx, of the New Age. It is a direct expression of the Christ consciousness that is sweeping through both the inner plane and the outer plane of the planet at this time. Without exposure then spiritual development can be only a half measure at best, and it will eventually lead to a stalemate. But exposure must be infused with love, otherwise it becomes self-defeating. It must bear respect for the person who has the courage to do it willingly. Those who refuse to do it willingly must not be allowed to destroy their environment and to negatively influence events through their concealment. The courage and the strength necessary to bring about exposure where appropriate and when necessary stem from the inner conviction that it is done in the service of a larger cause. In other words, in love. The more you expose yourself first to yourself and then to others, the more you will discover your true worth, your intrinsic worth. You will know that the part that makes your exposure possible is your higher self.

It is the same with the planetary entity. All the exposure that is occurring at this time on the political front is being conducted by the planet's higher self.

When you think of the New Age, then it is necessary that you think of it not only as a general, vague force. Specific aspects of the Christ Consciousness manifest in various parts of your earth as the need arises. In other words, the New Age is not a vague thing, it is a consciousness. As all consciousness, it consists of many aspects that form a harmonious whole. In this lecture I discussed three particular aspects of this consciousness: (1) communication, (2) group consciousness, (3) exposure. Perhaps the sequence could be changed or reversed, but that does not matter. We also discussed the parallel of all these aspects inevitably taking place both on the individual level and on the collective level.

You are well-versed on the individual level, since this has been the emphasis of your pathwork all along. Although there are still some obstructions and resistances in this regard, you are reconciled to this practice and you comprehend both its intrinsic necessity and its value. If you can observe how the same process happens on the collective level, then this will help your expansion as an individual. By seeing the same principle repeated both in the microcosm and in the macrocosm, deeper understanding grows. Through this understanding and through your ever intensified efforts toward your self-exposure and your communication to your smaller group -- the immediate circle of dear ones with whom you share the process of your development -- of what you have discovered about yourself through the exposure of yourself to yourself, you contribute to the development of your planet, although it may not be possible for you to see this influence directly and immediately. But you will sense it gradually in an ever-growing realization.

Where you need to apply more awareness and greater attention is in seeing how these aspects may be better utilized in your community life. There still exists a stubborn blindness to self-exposure and to the exposure of others that fails to bring the truth to the surface. The result is that communication -- and hence love and union -- are being undermined. Communication would be enhanced if a more profound effort were being made to explain yourself and then to help others -- through a non-threatening attitude -- to do likewise. In addition, communication could improve vastly if you helped others to be more receptive to what you know and to what you have to teach. Similarly, if you were more open to -- and therefore more receptive to and more willing to learn from -- what others know and what they have to teach you. Often a bland, dull numbness encases you in a vague, opinionated, incomplete secretive state of holding on to false assumptions that close all the doors.

This is where your spirit friends wish you to improve so as to make your beautiful, golden, ever growing community a greater glory, one that expresses the Christ and that serves the Highest.

I also want to call your attention to a specific observation. Watch the parallel between outer growth and inner growth in your expressions to the group. A certain balance should be maintained, though it can never be completely even. It is not necessary. One part may always limp behind. But if this leg is not extended too far and the distance is not too great, then it can be adjusted easily. No crisis will accrue from it, for it is all in the scheme of things. Until now your inner development has exceeded your outer development. And this is the more important, the more solidly grounded way. But the time has now come when you can consciously and deliberately help your outer development to catch up with your inner growth, so as to make it more of an expression of your inner reality.

Look at this beautiful world with eyes that see the whole and that comprehend the Lord's workings behind all that is. Let your hearts be filled with the freshness of life's healing power that flows from the Source that encompasses all that was ever created and all that will be ever created. This Source resides right in your own center, even when you are either unable to connect with it or unable to experience its reality because of your confusions and your momentary suffering. Nevertheless, it is always there.

You are all surrounded by the great force that flows with renewed vigor through your universe. Be blessed, my beloved ones. Pursue your commitment to the end. Never let up in your devotion to serve God.

January 10, 1979