Holy Lance

Monday, August 08, 2011

INDEX:
*GUIDING LIGHT
*VOICE OF COMPASSION
*THE VEGAN ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY
*ANIMAL MESSIAH
*THE TWELVE COMMANDMENTS
*WHAT IS TRUTH?
*A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
*AND YOUR PETS WILL BE THERE TOO
*THE BOTTOM LINE
-
* NATURE'S CURE FOR CANCER

GUIDANCE.

All this talk of religion, but it's how you live your life that is the all-important thing.
If you set out each day, to do all the goodness and kindness that you can, and to do no harm to man or beast, then you are walking the highest path.
And when your time is up, if you can leave the earth a better place than you found it, then yours will have been a life well lived.


A MESSAGE FROM THE STARS.

I stood at eventime. The never-ending plain
All empty looked and void. Yet, as I gazed again
An army bivouacked. Unnumbered points of light
Bespoke a force Supreme - invincible for right.
- Henry Morley


ONE PEOPLE, ONE NATION, ONE CREED.

The Human Family: All people are brothers and sisters, irrespective of colour, race or creed. Therefore, if anyone, anywhere in the world, is suffering or in distress, it concerns you, it concerns me, it concerns us all.

The world is my country.

To do good is my religion.


THE HIGHEST TEACHING.

Sometimes I get very tired with those who want what they call "higher teachings" from the spirit world and do nothing to help their brother men. As people grow, they understand more and more the operation of the laws of the Great Spirit. There is no "high" and there is no "low" teaching.
If all people who clamour for teachings would do something to make the earth a better place, a brighter place, a place where the hungry would be fed and the thirsty would be given drink, where people were allowed to live in houses where the sunshine of the Great Spirit could reach their poor, tired bodies, then they would be putting into operation the highest teaching of all.
- Silver Birch.


WHAT IS SERVICE?

Service is love in action - helping others as an act of pure, selfless, unconditional love.

It is our deeds, the accumulated acts of goodness and kindness, that define us and ultimately are the true measure of our worth.
Service is the coin of the spirit.

Help thy brother's boat across and lo! thine own has reached the shore - Hindu proverb
(Through Service the soul is advanced)


GARDENER OF THE SOUL

Man is the gardener of his own soul. The Great Spirit has provided him with all that is necessary for it to grow in wisdom, grace and beauty. The implements are there, he has but to use them wisely and well - Silver Birch

Help wherever the opportunity arises and know that you are fulfilling yourself, which is the purpose for your being on earth - Silver Birch

The growth of the soul is only increased by Service, for as you forget self in the Service of others so your own soul grows in stature and strength - Silver Birch


ON THE WINGS OF LOVE

It is not the magnitude of our actions, but the amount of love that is put into them that matters - Mother Teresa


STAND UP AND BE COUNTED

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing - Edmund Burke

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented - Elie Wiesel

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest - Elie Wiesel


IF NOT YOU, WHO?

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out of his conscience, thus helping to bring the collective conscience to life - Norman Cousins

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has - Margaret Mead


GOLDEN WISDOM (A)

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile - Albert Einstein


GOLDEN WISDOM (B)

True happiness comes...from making others happy.


THE WISE RABBI

Many years ago I heard a wonderful story about a great Jewish sage. Someone had written him a letter on the following lines. "I am in a state of deep depression. I wake up each morning dreading the day ahead. I find that nothing lifts the clouds of gloom. I try various distractions but nothing seems to work. I pray, but inspiration does not come. I need the rabbi's help and advice."
The rabbi sent him a brilliant reply without using a single word. He simply circled the first word of each sentence of the letter and sent it back. The word was "I". - The Chief Rabbi, Dr. Jonathan Sacks


SOFTLY BLOWS THE BREEZE

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around - Leo Buscaglia


CONSIDER YOUR THOUGHTS

Keep the mind pure, for what a man thinks, that he becomes - The Upanishads


CONSIDER YOUR WORDS

The spoken word is soon forgot
By thee - but it has perished not
In other hearts 'tis living still
And doing work for good or ill
- Proverb

Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that makes flowers grow, not thunder
- Rumi


CONSIDER YOUR DEEDS

The acts of this life are the destiny of the next - Proverb

Every leaf that grows will tell you, what you sow will bear fruit; so if you have any sense my friend, don't plant anything but love
- Rumi


THE SOUND OF SILENCE

The quieter you become, the more you can hear - Baba Ram Dass

Somewhere within the soul there is silence. Attain unto it. It is a pearl of great price - Thomas Dowding

When there is any doubt, withdraw into the silence where the strident noise of the physical world is stilled and your spirit can find more expression. Then as you attune yourself you will find there comes an inner peace, tranquility, repose and resolution that will enable you to be sure that what is best for you will be revealed - Silver Birch

There is a voice that doesn't use words. Listen. - Rumi


BLEMISH ON THE BEAUTIFUL

By hating that person you have lost something very sweet in yourself - Sri Chinmoy

There is something to that old saying that hating injures the hater, not the hated - Peace Pilgrim


PEACE

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer - The Dalai Lama

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Forgiveness sets two souls free

War is not the answer, only love can conquer hate

Let there be peace on earth - and let it begin with me - White Eagle

This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good, and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love - Peace Pilgrim


WHAT YOU ARE INSIDE

People come in a myriad of shapes and sizes and different ethnic groups, but when all is said and done however, it's what you are inside that is the all-important thing.

The most beautiful attribute is a kind and loving heart.

People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within - Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Where mercy, love and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too
- William Blake


THE HIGHEST HURDLE

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion.
People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart
- Nelson Mandela

Never, never hate.
I don't hate the Germans, they are wonderful people, no worse than others.
Evil has always existed and always will. It is part of our life....
I never hate. I will never hate. Hatred brings only hatred.
- Alice Herz-Sommer (Holocaust survivor)

It is no non-violence if we merely love those that love us. It is non-violence only when we love those that hate us. I know how difficult it is to follow this grand law of love. But are not all great and good things difficult to do? Love of the hater is the most difficult of all. But by the grace of God even this most difficult thing becomes easy to accomplish if we want to do it - Mahatma Gandhi

Listen, my friend. He who loves understands - Kabir


BORN TO BE KIND

A simple philosophy for life: Do your best and be kind.

Everything is worthy of kindness. Pain is still pain, suffering is still suffering, regardless of whoever, or whatever, is the victim.

It Makes A Difference (A short story by Loren Eisley) : A well-known author and poet was working and vacationing on the southern coast of Spain. One morning very early, he was walking along the beach; the sun was just rising. While enjoying the beauty about him, he glanced down the beach and saw a lone figure dancing about.
Fascinated by this other person celebrating the day that was about to dawn, he moved closer. As he came nearer, he realized that the young man was not dancing, but in one graceful movement was picking up objects from the beach and was tossing them out into the sea. As he approached the young man, he saw that the objects were starfish.
"Why in the world are you throwing starfish into the water?" he asked.
"If the starfish are still on the beach when the tide goes out and the sun rises higher in the sky, they will die, " replied the young man as he continued tossing them out to the sea.
"That's ridiculous! There are miles of beach and millions of starfish. You can't possibly make a difference!"
The young man picked up another starfish, paused thoughtfully and remarked as he tossed it out into the waves, "It makes a difference to this one."

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. - Aesop


ALL THE WORLD NEEDS

So many gods, so many creeds
So many paths that wind and wind
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox


TEACH THE LITTLE CHILDREN

Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar
- Bradley Miller
[Teach a child compassion and it will stay with them their whole life through ...]

Let them (children) be taught to have pity for the animals that are at our mercy, that cannot protect themselves, that cannot explain their weakness, their pain or their suffering. Soon this will bring to their attention that higher law, the moral obligation of man as a superior being to protect and care for the weak and defenceless. Nor will it stop there, for this in turn will lead them to that highest law - man's duty to man. - Ralph Waldo Trine

Sunday, August 07, 2011

VOICE OF COMPASSION (A)

And Jesus spoke unto them of the law of love and the unity of all life in the one family of God - Gospel of the Holy Twelve

Animals: Verily these are your fellow creatures of the great household of God, yea they are your brothers and sisters, having the same breath of life in the Eternal. And whosoever careth for one of the least of these and giveth it to eat and drink in its need, the same doeth it unto me - Jesus. Gospel of the Holy Twelve

All creatures fear before danger, life is dear to all. When a man considers this, he does not kill or cause to kill - Gautama Buddha

I am in favour of animal rights, as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being - Abraham Lincoln

I wish no living thing to suffer pain - Percy Bysshe Shelley

If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals - Leo Tolstoy

If man is not to stifle his human feelings, he must practise kindness towards animals, for he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals - Immanuel Kant

Man's sacred trust: Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them wherever they require it - St.Francis of Assisi

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages - Thomas Edison

The establishment of the common origin of all species logically involves a readjustment of altruistic morals, by enlarging the application of what has been called the 'golden rule' from the area of mere mankind to that of the whole animal kingdom - Thomas Hardy

The saints are exceedingly kind and gentle to mankind, and even to brute beasts...surely we ought to show them (animals) great kindness and gentleness for many reasons, but, above all, because they are of the same origin as ourselves - St. John Chrysostom

The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another, even the lowliest creature; to do so is to renounce our manhood and shoulder a guilt which nothing justifies - Albert Schweitzer

To derive pleasure in being cruel is a very debasing matter. It shows a person to be unmindful of the sanctity of life and the meaning of life. There is something very foul and evil in the lives of men and women who delight in destroying helpless life, especially in what is known as 'blood sports' - Reverend F. C. Baker

To my mind the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man - Mahatma Gandhi

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened - Anatole France

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace - Albert Schweitzer

Saturday, August 06, 2011

VOICE OF COMPASSION (B)
- A BETTER WORLD

An overwhelming love and compassion for all living creatures, both man and beast, is the highest virtue that could be conceived of. Vegetarian food is intended not only for the cleansing of the body, but also for the purification of the soul. It is a universally accepted principle that vegetarian food is conducive to a healthier and happier life among nations - S. Sankararayara Rao

As long as there are slaughterhouses there will be battlefields. A vegetarian diet is the acid test of humanitarianism - Leo Tolstoy

It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind - Albert Einstein

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet - Albert Einstein

Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind - Albert Einstein

The vegetarian movement ought to fill with gladness the souls of those who have at heart the realisation of God's kingdom upon earth - Leo Tolstoy


VOICE OF COMPASSION (C)

In fact my best year of track competition was the first year I ate a vegan diet. I've found that a person does not need protein from meat to be a successful athlete - Carl Lewis, US athlete and multiple Olympic gold medal winner

(Indisputably the greatest hurdler of all time, double Olympic gold medal winner Edwin Moses, won 122 consecutive races and remained undefeated for a world record breaking 9 years, 9 months and 9 days - and he did it all on an entirely vegetarian diet.)

My strength is my compassion - Patrik Baboumian, world record holding vegan weightlifter


VOICE OF COMPASSION (D)

But for the sake of some small mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy - Plutarch

I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men - Leonardo da Vinci

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we'd all be vegetarian - Albert Einstein

Nightmare in the slaughterhouse: Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight - Albert Schweitzer

"If any one who eats flesh could be taken to a shambles to watch the agonized struggles of the terrified victims as they are dragged to the spot where knife or mallet slays them; if he could be made to stand with the odours of the blood reeking in his nostrils; if there, his astral vision could be opened so that he might see the filthy creatures that flock round to feast on the loathsome exhalations, and see also the fear and horror of the slaughtered creatures as they arrive in the astral world and send back thence currents of dread and hatred that flow between man and animals in continually re-fed streams; if a man could pass through these experiences, he, at least, would be cured of meat-eating for ever. These things ARE, though men do not see them, and they befoul and degrade the world." - Dr. Annie Besant (1847-1933)

(Fish)... Crushed and suffocated to death in a trawlerman's net. It's a horrible way to die.
Nightmare beneath the waves, and all because YOU want fish for your supper - H. Lancre


LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER

In a lunch session in a slaughterhouse, a lamb jumped out of its pen and came unnoticed up to some slaughtermen, who were sitting in a circle eating their sandwiches; the lamb approached and nibbled a small piece of lettuce that a man was holding in his hand. The men gave the lamb some more lettuce and when the lunch period was over they were so affected by the action of the lamb that not one of them was prepared to kill this creature, and it had to be sent away elsewhere - showing that within each human soul there is an element of pity, compassion and love in varying degrees. It is our duty to encourage the higher qualities in each individual to bloom and blossom wherever possible.
If Britain adopted a vegetarian way of life, many of her problems would recede and dissolve...If this way of living were adopted, a great deal of cruelty would cease; compassion, pity and consideration for others would grow and there would be happier and healthier conditions in the world and on this island. It is change not of legislation that is wanted, but a change of heart of the people. - Dr. Gordon Latto (Reproduced by kind permission of The Vegetarian Society.)


THE BULL CALF

Well, sonny! Come along,
Swinging your little tail!
This is the price you have to pay
For being born a male.

Moo, moo old cow!
And start a hunger-strike.
Lots of us have to do
Things that we don't like.

Lots of us have to suffer;
Don't let it spoil your meal.
This is the price you have to pay;
Somebody wants some veal.

Don't take it too hard, old cow;
I'm sorry you've got so wild;
But somebody's got an appetite
And wants to eat your child
- Henry Bailey Stevens


A BROKEN HEART - THE SAME IN ANY LANGUAGE

Separating the calf from its mother shortly after birth undoubtedly inflicts anguish on both. Maternal care for the young is highly developed in cattle, and it is only necessary to observe the behaviour of the cow and the calf when they are separated to appreciate this. - Extract from the Brambell Report.


NO SHAME

The best thing about being a vegan? Being able to look a cow in the eye and not feel ashamed. - H. Lancre


COMPASSION FOR ALL MOTHERS

The whole nation sympathises with the distress of parents when a child goes missing or is abducted. Yet humans regularly cause the same suffering to other mothers - the millions of cows and sheep that are caught up in the cruel livestock farming industry. Dairy cows cry for days when their calves are taken away to be killed at just a day old and beef cows suffer the same anguish when they are parted from their offspring. Ewes stand bleating and looking for their lambs which have been taken away to be slaughtered.
The general public is usually far removed from the heart-wrenching cries of these animals. We hope that once informed, people will think differently about the food they put on their plates and opt for the cruelty-free alternatives that are now readily available - Hillside News, Summer 2009


A FATEFUL MOMENT

This was a horrible proposal ( that the then eight-year-old Albert Schweitzer join a friend in killing birds with a sling)...but I dared not refuse for fear he would laugh at me. So we came to a tree which was still bare, and on which the birds were singing out gaily in the morning, without any fear of us. Then stooping over like an Indian on the hunt, my companion placed a pebble in the leather of his sling and stretched it. Obeying his peremptory glance I did the same, with frightful twinges of conscience, vowing firmly that I would shoot when he did. At that very moment the church bells began to sound, mingling with the song of the birds in the sunshine. It was the warning bell that came a half-hour before the main bell. For me it was a voice from Heaven. I threw the sling down, scaring the birds away, so that they were safe from my companion's sling, and fled home. And ever afterwards when the bells of Holy Week ring out amidst the leafless trees in the sunshine I remember with moving gratitude how they rang into my heart at that time the commandment: Thou shalt not kill.
- Albert Schweitzer


A GIANT AMONGST MEN

I could not have slept tonight, if I had left that helpless little creature to perish on the ground - Abraham Lincoln (Response to friends who rebuked him for delaying them by stopping to return a fallen fledgling to its nest.)


A GOOD DAY'S SPORT

They were shooting pigeons. What an image of our condition, the loud report, the poor flopping bundles upon the ground, trying desperately, helplessly, vainly to rise again. Through tears I saw the stricken birds tumbling over and over down the sloping roofs of warehouses. I saw and heard their sudden weight, their pitiful surrender to gravity. How hardening to the heart it must be to do this thing; to change an innocent, soaring being into a bundle of struggling rags and pain - Iris Murdoch. (Extract from 'The Black Prince', reproduced by kind permission of Ed Victor Ltd.)


ANOTHER GOOD DAY'S SPORT

A perfect roar of guns fills the air; louder tap and yell the beaters, while above the din can be heard the heart-rending cries of wounded hares and rabbits, some of which can be seen dragging themselves away, with legs broken, or turning round and round in their agony before they die! And the pheasants! They are on every side, some rising, some dropping; some lying dead, but the great majority fluttering on the ground wounded; some with both legs broken and a wing; some with both wings broken and a leg; others merely winged, running to hide; others mortally wounded, gasping out their last breath amidst the hellish uproar which surrounds them. And this is called 'sport'! - Lady Florence Dixie


HOOK, LINE AND STINKER

The recent research concerning fish feeling pain verifies the earlier extensive research carried out at the University of Utrecht, which concluded that fish do suffer and feel pain, and also experience fear at the hands of anglers.
This also justifies official RSPCA policy which states: 'The RSPCA believes that current practices in angling do involve the infliction of pain and suffering on fish.'
But we don't need any scientist to tell us that fish feel pain - of course they do! Any species that was immune to pain would be oblivious to life threatening dangers and would soon become extinct. Besides, what does the correspondent think fish have central nervous systems for? Decoration?
What galls me about these angling people is that they are perfectly happy to torment, hurt and kill an unwilling opponent, that is much smaller than they are and is unable to defend itself, and they call it "sport" and they think it is wonderful! But if someone were to impale a barbed metal hook in their mouth, drag them along, reel them up into the air etc. etc., as anglers do to fish, they'd be crying like a baby and begging for help and mercy. And isn't that just the impalatable truth of it!
'Sportsmen'? Huh! Cowardly bullies more like. Ban the lot of them! - H. Lancre (Letter to the Western Morning News)

I often read of people who say that when they retire, they will go fishing. It never occurs to them for a moment that innocent beings will suffer and die from this 'innocent' little sport - Isaac Bashevis


BOILED ALIVE

Reading the letter about crabs feeling pain reminded me of when I was a schoolgirl in Norfolk and had a friend whose dad was a fishmonger. After school, I would play with her at the back of her dad's shop. One day, the man who worked there was washing crabs and then putting them into a copper of cold water. When he had finished, he lit a fire under the copper.
After a while, a noise started which got louder, and then I could hear the crabs running round faster and faster inside until the water got so hot that they died. Then there was silence. So it doesn't seem they were "lulled to sleep".
After leaving school in the Thirties, I went to work at a large hall which had the same fishmonger as a regular supplier. One day, the cook brought three lobsters into the kitchen from the cold room, with their claws tied, and there was a large cauldron of boiling water on the stove. She lifted the lid and dropped the lobsters in. When the last one touched the water, it jumped back and hit her in the face. She swore and threw it back into the water, quickly putting on the lid.
I was so horrified to see and hear what happened to those poor creatures that I have never eaten a crab or lobster - D.C Cochrane (Letter to the Daily Mail)


SAVIOUR FROM THE SEA

Time was running out for the mother whale and her calf as they lay beached on a sandbank. Wildlife volunteers had tried four times to drag them into deeper water but four times they came back. In such circumstances, stricken whales are often humanely killed to end further suffering.
But then up bobbed Moko the dolphin - a playful creature familiar to bathers off the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. In an astonishing display of communication between species, she and the whales were heard to call to one another before she led the 12 ft pygmy sperm whale and her 4 ft male calf out to open sea.
"I never cease to be amazed by some wondrous events in the animal world, but this beats them all", said Malcolm Smith from the New Zealand Conservation Department. "Moko is a real heroine because there is absolutely no doubt she learned of the whales' plight through some kind of telepathy and then got them out of trouble."
Mr Smith and his team had raced to the beach at Mahia, near Gisbourne, after receiving reports about the stranded whales. The group managed to get a sling under the distressed animals and haul them off the sand bar but they became disorientated and kept returning. "It seems they were reluctant to move off shore, fearing they would become trapped on the sand bar, but they were in just as much danger being so close to the beach," said Mr. Smith. "I was starting to get cold and wet and they were becoming tired. I was at the stage where I was thinking it was about time to give up - I'd done as much as I could."
To the disbelief of Mr. Smith and his team, they then heard different sounds from beneath the water and suddenly realised it was the whales returning Moko's contact call.
"There's no other explanation for it. Within no time, we could see Moko turning and then we watched open-mouthed as the whales began following her away from the beach. She escorted them for about 200 metres parallel with the beach to the edge of the sand bar. Then she did a right-angle turn through quite a narrow channel, which the whales would not have found on their own, and led them out to sea. We haven't seen them since. Just what that communication was between them I don't know. In fact, I was not even aware that dolphins could communicate with pgymy sperm whales, but that is obviously what happened today." - Daily Mail 13th March 2008


KINSHIP

I am the voice of the voiceless;
Through me the dumb shall speak,
Till the deaf world's ear be made to hear
The wrongs of the wordless weak.

From street, from cage and from kennel,
From stable, and zoo, the wail
Of my tortured kin proclaims the sin
Of the mighty against the frail.

Oh, shame on the mothers of mortals,
Who have not stooped to teach
Of the sorrow that lies in dear, dumb eyes,
The sorrow that has no speech.

The same force formed the sparrow
That fashioned man the king;
The God of the whole gave a spark of soul
To furred and feathered thing.

And I am my brother's keeper
And I will fight his fight,
And speak the word for beast and bird,
Till the world shall set things right.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 - 1919)


REVERENCE FOR ALL CREATION

It is the fate of every truth to be an object of ridicule when it is first acclaimed. It was once considered foolish to suppose that black men were really human beings and ought to be treated as such. What was once foolish has now become a recognized truth. Today it is considered an exaggeration to proclaim constant respect for every form of life as being the serious demand of a rational ethic. But the time is coming when people will be amazed that the human race existed so long before it recognized that thoughtless injury to life is incompatible with real ethics. Ethics is in its unqualified form extended responsibility to everything that has life - Albert Schweitzer

I want to realise brotherhood or identity, not merely with the beings called human, but with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth - Mahatma Gandhi

Buy captive creatures and set them free. Hold fast to vegetarianism and abstain from taking life.
Whenever taking a step, always watch for ants and insects. Prohibit the building of fires outside, lest insects be killed... - Wen Ch'ang (5th century)

Crush not yonder ant as it draggeth along its grain; for it too liveth, and its life is dear to it.
A shadow there must be, and a stone upon the heart, that could wish to sorrow the heart even of an ant.
Strike not with the hand of violence the head of the feeble; for one day, like the ant, thou mayest fall under the foot thyself - Sadi (13th century)

" I'll not hurt thee", says Uncle Toby, rising with the fly in his hand. "Go", he says, opening the window to let it escape. "Why should I hurt thee? This world is surely wide enough to hold both thee and me" - Laurence Sterne (From 'Tristram Shandy')

Caring about the smallest: A tiny insect, just think of it. A living, breathing, thinking, feeling creature, with a fully functioning digestive and reproductive system etc. A masterpiece in miniature! If a scientist had created such a life form, people would come from all over the world just to see it and to shake the scientist's hand and tell him what a marvellous fellow he was! Insects are a wondrous creation of God. Let us not turn a blind eye to their sufferings, for after all, all life is sacred and pain is still pain, suffering is still suffering, regardless of whoever - or whatever, is the victim.

Kind heart, gentle heart: Rescue the drowning insect; carry the snail on the pavement to safety; return the helpless worm, writhing on concrete, to the sanctuary of Mother Earth.
Render help and kindness, wherever it is needed, to all life, great or small. Suffering has no boundaries, neither should compassion.


THE JUDAS GENERATION

(Re - the gathering environmental crisis.) How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say I knew about this and I did nothing? - Sir David Attenborough

The moral attitude of the Old Testament, which was that the world was there for us to plunder and we could take what we liked from it, has governed our thinking until now. What we need to recognise is that the world is NOT there for plundering. It is a moral issue for us not to waste energy - Sir David Attenborough

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children - Native American proverb

What is man without the beasts? If the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.
This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth.
This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.- Chief Seattle (speaking in 1854)


PERCEIVE THE WONDERFUL

The other day, walking along Westminster Embankment, I picked up a little stone or pebble, that had perhaps fallen from some lorry carrying a load of gravel. It was so smooth and beautiful with its strange markings that I slipped it into my pocket. I have carried it about ever since, bringing it out at odd moments to look at it and meditate upon its mystery - Krishnamurti


ROSES IN YOUR HEART

One does not need to be a psychic to see God in the petal of a rose - Peggy Mason

A flower is beauty itself. You see that it is a lovely colour, that it emanates sweet scent and that it is soft to the touch. It influences you to be gentle. Surround yourself with flowers and watch the results. Flowers are vibratory and give off radiations of a positive kind - Al Koran

Through flowers a state of happiness can be achieved beyond the power of most of us to understand.
When people you know suddenly ignore you or when they try to pick a quarrel, don't tell them off or send a nasty letter. Send flowers. Flowers bring harmony and peace. They have a power all their own and you can 'say it with flowers' - Al Koran

Harry Wheatcroft, probably the most celebrated rose grower, says, "He who would grow good roses, must have roses in his heart".
And he is a pacifist. "I deplore beyond all measure the thousands of millions spent to create implements to destroy mankind. With all that money, everybody in the world could grow roses. The world could be so beautiful, if only people..."
Yes, if only people had roses in their hearts, there would be no more wars, no more misery, just beauty and goodness - Al Koran (Quotes from 'Bring Out The Magic In Your Mind')

Friday, August 05, 2011

ADAM AND EVE

If the biblical account of the creation is literal then the earth is only 6,000 years old and clearly that's absurd.
If Darwin's theory of evolution is wholly correct then all religion is compromised.
Needless to say, the biblical account of the creation is a parable, and is not and was never intended to be a historically and chronologically accurate account of the advent of Adamic man.
Man is spirit in a physical body. The physical body is a vehicle for the spirit and nothing more. The physical body has evolved through the species as Darwin suggested, but the spirit within - man's true self - has come from the Divine and to the Divine, ultimately, it shall return.


THE RISE OF CHURCHIANITY

It is a historical fact that in the aftermath of the Council of Nicaea, in AD 325, the original manuscripts of the New Testament underwent numerous alterations and adulterations. Certain scholars, called Correctors, were appointed by the ecclesiastical authorities and commissioned to 'correct' scripture in the interests of orthodoxy.
The Roman Emperor, Constantine, hit upon the idea of introducing a new super-religion to unify all the peoples of the Empire, and end the ceaseless religious bickering and in-fighting that was threatening to destroy the Empire from within. (The Empire was already under considerable external pressure and the security of its borders was looking increasingly fragile.)
As a result of his 'fiery cross' vision, Constantine decided that Christianity fitted the bill, but because many of the beautiful teachings of true Christianity, as originally taught by Jesus - i.e. boundless love, reverence for all creation, veganism, teetotalism, anti-hunting, the honouring of women etc. - were obnoxious to the degenerate Constantine, and would have been similarly so to the meat-eating, alcohol-drinking, hunt-loving, chauvinistic, pagan masses of the day, they were corrupted.
Not only that, but various of the festivals (Dec. 25th, Eastra, Black Friday etc.) and legends of Mithraism/Paganism were adopted, craftily interwoven into the Christian story and fraudulently passed off as Christian truth.
This corrupted gospel was later 'married' to the teachings of Paul, and thus Churchianity/Roman Catholicism was born.
From the very beginning, Roman Catholicism was accorded equal status with Mithraism - the major religion of Rome at the time - and with considerable State sponsored positive discrimination, took root and flourished.
(Half a century later, in the reign of the Emperor Theodosius, Roman Catholicism was declared to be the only religion allowed.)
In the aftermath of the events at Nicaea - in an attempt to hide the crime from history - Constantine despatched his henchmen to confiscate all copies of the original gospels, and to use whatever means necessary to get them. Mercifully, they didn't get them all. Numerous texts and gospels were hidden, or taken abroad for safe-keeping until such time as the Truth could once again be made known.

Constantine had a hatred of vegetarianism that bordered on the psychopathic. It is recorded that when his henchmen came across anyone who was an adherent of vegetarianism, they would be dragged before the throne of Constantine, who would demand that they ate meat in his presence. If they refused, they suffered savage torture, by having red hot irons rammed down their throat or, a particular favourite punishment of Constantine, having molten lead poured down their throat.

Constantine was indeed a cruel and ruthless man. During his military campaigns in Gaul (AD 306-312) he had thousands of defenceless prisoners of war 'thrown to the beasts' to be torn limb from limb.
In the times following the Council of Nicaea, seized by paranoia, Constantine ordered the murder of his son and his step-mother, and many others, including personal friends, who he deemed as posing a threat to him.

Paul was guilty of leading a meat-eating schism against True Christianity. Though in a classic case of the biter being bit, Paul's teachings themselves were to suffer spurious interpolation. Indeed, numerous of the Pauline Epistles attributed to him, weren't even written by Paul. This is confirmed by no less an authority than the Catholic Encyclopaedia, the Roman Catholic Church's own official recorded history, which states that the original scriptures underwent "years of revision" and that "even the genuine epistles were greatly interpolated."
In any case, it is not what Paul taught that Christians should be concerning themselves with, but rather with what Christ taught.


"After my departure there will arise the ignorant and the crafty, and many things will they ascribe unto Me that I never spake, and many things which I did speak will they withhold, but the day will come when the clouds shall be rolled away, and the Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth with healing in his wings."

"The sign is the Truth - the pure in heart they shall see it."


THE VEGAN ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY

God commanded man to follow a purely vegan diet:

And God said," Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." - Genesis chapter 1, verse 29.
(In ancient terminology 'meat' referred to food in general.)

Up until the cataclysmic flood, from Adam and Eve to Noah, they were all vegetarian. As the vegetarian St. Jerome, in his confutation of Jovinian, confirms:

"As to his argument that in God's Second Blessing permission was given to eat flesh - a permission not given in the First Blessing - let him know that just as permission to put away a wife was, according to the words of the Saviour, not given from the beginning, but was granted to the human race by Moses because of the hardness of our hearts, so also in like manner the eating of flesh was unknown until the Flood, just as quails were given to the people when they murmured in the desert, so have sinews and the offensiveness of flesh been given to our teeth. The Apostle, writing to the Ephesians, teaches us that God had purposed that in the fullness of time he would restore all things, and would draw to their beginning, even to Christ Jesus, all things that are in Heaven or that are on earth. Whence also, the Saviour Himself, in the Apocalypse of John, says," I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." From the beginning of human nature, we neither fed upon flesh, nor did we put away our wives, nor were our foreskins taken away from us for a sign. We kept on this course until we arrived at the Flood. But after the Flood, together with the giving of the Law, which no man could fulfil, the eating of flesh was brought in; and the putting away of wives was conceded to hardness of heart; and the knife of circumcision is brought into use, as if the hand of God had created in us more than is necessary. But now that Christ has come in the end of time, and has turned back Omega to Alpha, and drawn back the end to the beginning, neither is it permitted to us to put away our wives, nor are we circumcised, nor do we eat flesh; hence the Apostolic saying, 'It is a good thing not to drink wine and not to eat flesh.' For wine also, together with flesh, began to be used after the Flood."

In support of this, the Talmud tells us that, 'Adam and many generations that followed were strict flesh-abstainers; flesh-foods were rejected as repulsive for human consumption.'

The later permission to eat flesh was issued solely as a concession to the barbarity of the day; even then it was only intended to be temporary, and was issued with a curse, albeit a self-inflicted one, "the blood of your lives shall I require."
(It is striking to note how the lifespan of vegetarian Noah's meat-eating descendants plummeted.)
As for the Mosaic era, in the Gospel of Peace, which chronicles the very earliest days of Jesus's teachings, we read:

And Jesus continued," God commanded your forefathers,'Thou shalt not kill', but their heart was hardened and they killed. Then Moses desired that at least they should not kill men, and he suffered them to kill beasts. And then the heart of your forefathers was hardened yet more, and they killed men and beasts likewise..."

In Professor Szekely's classic translation, 'The Gospel of the Essenes', which features the Essene Book of Moses, we find that the precursor of the sixth commandment was:

"Thou shalt not take the life away from any living thing; life comes only from God, who giveth it and taketh it away."

During the Exodus, many of the Israelites rejected the vegetarian 'manna from heaven' and lusted for, and ate, flesh (quails) instead. Subsequently, they were consumed by plague and were buried in what the Torah refers to as the 'graves of lust'.
In the first century 'Gospel of the Holy Twelve', the main gospel used by the early Christians, Jesus said, concerning the above:

"Not as your ancestors, who craved for flesh, and God gave them flesh in His wrath, and they ate of corruption till it stank in their nostrils, and their carcasses fell by the thousand in the wilderness by reason of the plague."

Moses, reluctantly, permitted the eating of flesh and animal sacrifice, solely as a concession to hardness of heart, to keep the degenerate Israelites on board, so to speak. After his death the Mosaic teachings concerning these matters were corrupted, spurious interpolations were made and all was fraudulently attributed as being the will of God. To the ignorant, the implication from the Pentateuch is that God must be some sort of bloodthirsty monster, (Animal sacrifices - do not Satanists and devil worshippers do the same?) but the wise man knows that God is a loving God, and that the only sacrifice God has ever required is the sacrifice of self in loving service.
A truer picture of the compassionate nature of the Divine may be found in the Book of Isaiah:

"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats....
When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts?
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil." (Isaiah chapter 1, verses 10 - 11 and 15-16)

And Isaiah's prophecy of the New Kingdom, the promise on which the whole of Christianity (and Judaism) is based, clearly states that in the said New Kingdom there will be no more killing or bloodshed, and all creation, man and beast alike, will live in peace and harmony.

As for the New Testament era, in the Gospel of the Holy Twelve we read:

"For of the fruits of the trees and the seeds of the herbs alone do I partake." - Jesus
(The term 'seeds of the herbs' refers to cereals - wheat, corn etc.)

Now Joseph and Mary, his parents, went up to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover and they observed the feast after the manner of their brethren (the Essenes), who abstained from bloodshed and the eating of flesh, and from strong drink.

John had his raiment of camel's hair and a girdle of the same about his loins, and his meat was the fruit of the locust tree and wild honey.
(The term 'fruit of the locust tree' refers to carob.)

The earliest Christian writer, Hegesippus, says of James, brother of Jesus and first ruler of the Christian church in Jerusalem, that he:

"...drank no wine, nor strong drink, nor ate he any living thing; even his clothes were free from any taint of death, for he wore no woollen, but linen garments only."

St. Augustine says that "Jacob (James) , brother of Jesus, lived of seeds and vegetables and did not accept meat or wine."
[He also recorded that Christians who abstained from both flesh and wine were "without number."]

Clement of Alexandria records that:
"The Apostle Matthew partook of seeds and nuts and vegetables, abstaining from flesh"

The Clementine Homilies quote the Apostle Peter as saying:

"I eat naught but bread and olives, and less often a few vegetables."

(Bear in mind that the one and only rule of discipleship is that the disciple is, in all things, as the master.)

St. John Chrysotom says that:

"Flesh-meats and wine serve as materials for sensuality, and are a source of danger, sorrow and disease."

Whereas the Clementine Homilies make this damning indictment of meat-eating:

"The unnatural eating of flesh-meats is as polluting as the heathen worship of devils, with its sacrifices and its impure feasts, through participation in which a man becomes a dining companion with devils."

They also say, " And the things which are well-pleasing to God are these: to pray to Him, to ask from Him, recognising that He is the giver of all things, and gives with discriminating law; to abstain from the table of devils, not to taste dead flesh, not to touch blood, to be washed from all pollution..."

Even the corrupted Bible , in both the Old Testament (Genesis chapter 9, verse 4; Leviticus chapter 3, verse 17 and chapter 17, verse 10) and the New Testament ( Acts chapter 15, verse 20 and Acts chapter 15, verses 28-29, where, apparently, even the Holy Ghost chips in with a 'no blood' admonition) expressly forbids the partaking of blood.
None of the meat on sale in the local butchers/supermarket is permissible for Bible followers to eat, as it is still with the blood i.e. not kosher. Therefore, meat eating 'believers' are doubly in the wrong.

A purely vegan diet was, is and always will be, a fundamental requisite of true Christianity.

Re John chapter 21. Regardless of any spurious interpolation in the first twenty chapters, Bible scholars mostly agree that chapter 21 of the New Testment Gospel of John is a later addition. The Catholic Encyclopedia states "The sole conclusion that can be deduced from all this is that the 21st chapter was afterwards added and is therefore to be regarded as an appendix."
Interestingly, the ancient philosopher Porphry records that the great sage and mystic Pythagoras performed a very similar feat.
Porphry says, 'Meeting with some fishermen who were drawing in their nets heavily laden with fishes from the deep, he predicted the exact number of fish they had caught. The fishermen said that if his estimate was accurate they would do whatever he recommended. They counted them accurately, and found the number correct, he then bade them to return the fish alive into the sea; and, what is more wonderful, not one of them died, although they had been out of the water a considerable time.'
Porphry fails to mention the number of fish caught - unlike the Bible version which states a precise 153.
The Pythagoreans, who were famed for their knowledge and mastery of mathematics, held 153 to be a sacred number. It forms part of a mathematical ratio, which produces the sacred symbol known as 'vesica piscis', more commonly known as the 'sign of the fish'. It comprises of two intersected circles - symbolic of matter and spirit - which, when the circumference of one touches the centre of the other, produces a fish-like shape. This sacred Pythagorean symbol was adopted by the early Christians and used to represent their faith.


ANIMAL MESSIAH

Now the birth of Jesu-Maria the Christ was in this wise. It came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And all the people of Syria went to be taxed, everyone into his own city, and it was midwinter.
And Joseph with Mary also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem (because they were of the house and lineage of David), to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, who was great with child.
And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn child in a cave, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, which was in the cave; because there was no room for them in the inn. And behold it was filled with many lights, bright as the sun in his glory.
And there were in the same cave, an ox and a horse, and an ass and a sheep, and beneath the manger was a cat with her little ones, and there were doves also, overhead, and each had its mate after its kind, the male with the female.
Thus it came to pass that he was born in the midst of the animals which, through the redemption of man from ignorance and selfishness, he came to redeem from their sufferings, by the manifestation of the sons and the daughters of God.
And there were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And when they came, lo, the angel of God came upon them, and the glory of the highest shone around them, and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them,"Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ, the Holy One of God. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."
And suddenly there was with the angel a mulitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace toward men of goodwill."
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into Heaven, the shepherds said to one another, " Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which our God hath made known unto us."
And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph in the cave, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen these things, they made known abroad the saying which was told unto them concerning the child.
And all they that heard it, wondered at those things told them by the shepherds; but Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen.


Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea, in the days of Herod the king, there came certain Magi from the East to Jerusalem, who had purified themselves and tasted not of flesh nor of strong drink, that they might find the Christ whom they sought. And they said,"Where is he that is born King of the Jews?, for we in the East have seen his Star, and are come to worship him."
When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where the Christ should be born.
And they said unto him,"In Bethlehem of Judaea; for thus it is written by the prophet. 'And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judaea, art not the least among the princes of Judah; for out of thee shall come forth a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.' "
Then Herod, when he had privily called the Magi, enquired of them diligently what time the Star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said,"Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also."
When they had heard the king, they departed; and lo, the Star which the Magi of the East saw, and the angel of the Star, went before them, till it came and shone over the place where the young child was, and the Star had the appearance of six rays.
And as they went on their way with their camels and asses laden with gifts, and were intent on the heavens seeking the child by the Star, they forgot for a little, their weary beasts who had borne the burden and heat of the day, and were thirsty and fainting, and the Star was hidden from their sight.
In vain they stood and gazed, and looked upon the other in their trouble. Then they bethought them of their camels and asses, and hastened to undo their burdens that they might have rest.
Now there was near Bethlehem a well by the way. And as they stooped down to draw water for their beasts, lo, the Star which they had lost appeared to them, being reflected in the stillness of the water. And when they saw it they rejoiced with exceeding joy. And they praised God who had shown His mercy unto them even as they had showed mercy unto their thirsty beasts.
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And they kindled a fire according to their custom and worshipped God in the flame.
And when they were departed, behold the angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying," Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and there remain until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek to destroy him." And when he arose he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt, and was there for about seven years until the death of Herod; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of God by the prophet, saying," Out of Egypt have I called my son."


And on a certain day the child Jesus came to a place where a snare was set for birds, and there were some boys there. And Jesus said unto them," Who hath set this snare for the innocent creatures of God? Behold in a snare shall they in like manner be caught." And he beheld twelve sparrows as it were dead.
And he moved his hands over them and said to them," Go, fly away, and while ye live remember me." And they arose and flew away making a noise. And the Jews, seeing this, were astonished and told it unto the priests.


And the beasts of the field had respect unto him and the birds of the air were in no fear of him, for he made them not afraid; yea, even the wild beasts of the desert perceived the love of God in him, and did him service bearing him from place to place. For the spirit of Divine Humanity filling him, filled all things around him, and made all things subject unto him, and thus shall yet be fulfilled the words of the prophets,' The lion shall lie down with the calf, and the leopard with the kid, and the wolf with the lamb, and the bear with the ass, and the owl with the dove. And a child shall lead them.'


And on a certain day as he was passing by a mountain side nigh unto the desert, there met him a lion and many men were pursuing him with stones and javelins to slay him. But Jesus rebuked them, saying," Why hunt ye these creatures of God, which are more noble that you? By the cruelties of many generations they were made the enemies of man who should have been his friends. If the power of God is shown in them, so also is shown his long suffering and compassion. Cease ye to persecute this creature who desireth not to harm you, see ye not how he fleeth from you, and is terrified by your violence?"
And the lion came and lay at the feet of Jesus, and showed love to him; and the people were astonished, and said," Lo, this man loveth all creatures and has to power to command even these beasts from the desert, and they obey him."


"Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
"Blessed are ye of the inner circle, who hear my words and to whom the mysteries are revealed, who give to no innocent creature the pain of prison or of death, but seek the good of all, for to such is everlasting life.
"Blessed are ye who abstain from all things gotten by bloodshed and death, and fulfil all righteousness. Blessed are ye, for ye shall attain to Beatitude."


And one asked him saying," Master, wilt thou that infants be received into the congregation in like manner as Moses commanded by circumcision?" And Jesus answered," For those who are in Christ there is no cutting of the flesh, nor shedding of blood. Let the infant of eight days be presented unto the Father-Mother, who is in Heaven, with prayer and thanksgiving, and let a name be given to it by its parents and let the presbyter sprinkle pure water upon it, according to that which is written in the prophets, and let its parents see to it that it is brought up in the ways of righteousness, neither eating flesh, nor drinking strong drink, nor hurting the creatures which God hath given into the hands of man to protect."
Again, one said to him," Master, how wilt thou when they grow up?" And Jesus said," After seven years, or when they begin to know the evil from the good, and learn to choose the good, let them come unto me and receive the blessing at the hands of the presbyter or the angel of the church with prayer and thanksgiving, and let them be admonished to keep from flesh-eating and strong drink, and from hunting the innocent creatures of God, for shall they be lower than the horse or the sheep to whom these things are against nature?"
And again he said," If there come to us any that eat flesh and drink strong drink, shall we receive them?" And Jesus , said unto him," Let such abide in the outer court till they cleanse themselves from these grosser evils; for till they perceive and repent of these, they are not fit to receive the higher mysteries."


And some of his disciples came and told him of a certain Egyptian, a son of Belial, who taught that it was lawful to torment animals, if their sufferings brought any profit to men. And Jesus said unto them," Verily I say unto you, they who partake of benefits which are gotten by wronging one of God's creatures, cannot be righteous; nor can they touch holy things, or teach the mysteries of the Kingdom, whose hands are stained with blood, or whose mouths are defiled with flesh. God giveth the grains and fruits of the earth for food, and for righteous man truly there is no other lawful sustenance for the body.
"The robber who breaketh into the house made by man is guilty, but they who break into the house made by God, even the least of these are the greater sinners. Wherefore I say unto all who desire to be my disciples, keep your hands from bloodshed and let no flesh meat enter your mouths, for God is just and bountiful, who ordaineth that man shall live by the fruits and seeds of the earth alone."


"And whatsoever ye do unto the least of these my children, ye do it unto me. For I am in them and they are in me. Yea, I am in all creatures and all creatures are in me. In all their joys I rejoice, in all their afflictions I am afflicted. Wherefore I say unto you: Be ye kind one to another, and to all the creatures of God."


And as Jesus was going to Jericho there met him a man with a cage full of birds, which he had caught, and some young doves. And he saw how they were in misery having lost their liberty, and moreover being tormented with hunger and thirst. And he said unto the man," What doest thou with these?" And the man answered," I go to make my living by selling these birds which I have taken."
And Jesus said," What thinkest thou, if another, stronger than thou or with greater craft, were to catch thee and bind thee, or thy wife or thy children, and cast thee into a prison, in order to sell thee into captivity for his own profit, and to make a living? Are not these thy fellow creatures, only weaker than thou? And doth not the same God, our Father-Mother, care for them as for thee? Let these thy little brethren and sisters go forth into freedom, and see that thou do this thing no more, but provide honestly for thy living."
And the man marvelled at these words and at his authority, and he let the birds go free. So when the birds came forth they flew unto Jesus and stood on his shoulder and sang unto him. And the man enquired further of his doctrine, and he went his way, and learnt the craft of making baskets, and by this craft he earned his bread, and afterwards he broke his cages and his traps, and became a disciple of Jesus.


"Be ye therefore considerate, be tender, be ye pitiful, be ye kind, not to your own kind alone, but to every creature which is within your care, for ye are to them as gods, to whom they look in their need."


And it came to pass that the Lord departed from the city and went over the mountains with his disciples. And they came to a mountain whose ways were steep and there they found a man with a beast of burden. But the horse had fallen down, for it was overladen, and he struck it till the blood flowed. And Jesus went to him and said," Son of cruelty, why strikest thou thy beast? Seest thou not that it is too weak for its burden, and knowest thou not that it suffereth?"
But the man answered and said," What hast thou to do therewith? I may strike it as much as it pleaseth me, for it is mine own, and I bought it with a goodly sum of money. Ask them who are with thee, for they are of mine acquaintance and know thereof."
And some of the disciples answered and said," Yea, Lord, it is as he saith, we have seen when he bought it." And the Lord said again," See ye not then how it bleedeth, and hear ye not how it waileth and lamenteth?" But they answered and said, " Nay, Lord, we hear not that it waileth and lamenteth." And the Lord was sorrowful, and said," Woe unto you because of the dullness of your hearts, ye hear not how it lamenteth and crieth unto the Heavenly Creator for mercy, but thrice woe unto him against whom it crieth and waileth in its pain."
And he went forward and touched it, and the horse stood up, and its wounds were healed. But to the man he said," Go now thy way and strike it henceforth no more, if thou also desireth to find mercy."


(Mercy killings) "It hath been written 'Thou shalt not kill', but I say unto you, if any hate and desire to slay, they are guilty of the law; yea, if they cause hurt or torture to any innocent creature they are guilty. But if they kill to put an end to suffering which cannot be healed, they are not guilty, if they do it quickly and in love."


"And again I say unto you, if any desire and seek to possess the body of any creature for food, or for pleasure, or for profit, they defile themselves thereby."


And the 'Feast of the Passover' drew nigh, and the Apostles and their fellows gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said unto them," Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while," for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and out went them and came together unto him. And Jesus, when he came forth, saw much people and was moved with compassion towards them, because they were as sheep having not a shepherd.
And the day was far spent, and his disciples came unto him and said," This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed. Send them away, that they may go into the country round about into the villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat."
He answered and said unto them," Give ye them to eat." and they said unto him," Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?" He saith unto them," How many loaves have ye? Go and see." And when they knew, they said," Six loaves and seven clusters of grapes." And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies of fifty upon the grass. And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties. And when he had taken the six loaves and the seven clusters of grapes, he looked up to Heaven, and blessed and brake the loaves, and the grapes also, and gave them unto his disciples to set before them, and they divided them among them all.
And they did all eat and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that were left. And they that did eat of the loaves and of the fruit were about five thousand men, woman and children, and he taught them many things.
And when the people had seen and heard, they were filled with gladness and said," Truly this is that prophet that should come into the world." And when he perceived that they would take him by force to make him a king, he straightaway constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and go to the other side before him unto Bethsaida, while he sent the people away.
(N.B. The event is laden with spiritual symbolism and gematrical significance.
One should seek to understand the hidden mystical allegory, which is the real meaning of  the story.)

And Jesus was travelling to Jerusalem, and there came a camel heavy laden with wood, and the camel could not drag it up the hill whither he went for the weight thereof, and the driver beat him and cruelly ill-treated him, but he could make him go no further. And Jesus seeing this, said unto him," Wherefore beatest thou thy brother?" And the man answered," I wot not that he is my brother, is he not a beast of burden and made to serve me?"
And Jesus said, " Hath not the same God made, of the same substance, the camel and thy children who serve thee? And have ye not one breath of life which ye have received from God?" And the man marvelled much at this saying, and he ceased from beating the camel and took off some of the burden, and the camel walked up the hill as Jesus went before him, and it stopped no more till he ended his journey. And the camel knew Jesus, having felt of the love of God in him.
And the man inquired further of the doctrine, and Jesus taught him gladly, and the man became his disciple.


And as Jesus was going with some of his disciples he met with a certain man who trained dogs to hunt other creatures. And he said to the man," Why doest thou thus?" and the man said," By this I live, and what profit is there to any in these creatures? These creatures are weak, but the dogs they are strong." And Jesus said," Thou lackest wisdom and love. Lo, every creature which God hath made hath its end and purpose, and who can say what good there is in it, or what profit to thyself, or mankind? And for thy living , behold the fields yielding their increase, and the fruit bearing trees, and the herbs; what needest thou more than these which honest work of thy hands will not give to thee? Woe to the strong who misuse their strength. Woe to the crafty who hurt the creatures of God. Woe to the hunters for they shall be hunted."


It came to pass one day as Jesus had finished his discourse, in a place near Tiberias, where there are seven wells, a certain young man brought live rabbits and pigeons, that he might have to eat with his disciples.
And Jesus looked on the young man with love and said to him," Thou hast a good heart and God shall give thee light, but knowest thou not that God in the beginning gave to man the fruits of the earth for food, and did not make him lower than the ape, or the ox, or the horse, or the sheep, that he should kill and eat the flesh and blood of his fellow creatures. Ye believe that Moses indeed commanded such creatures to be slain and offered in sacrifice and eaten, and so do ye in the temple, but behold a greater than Moses is here, and he cometh to put away the bloody sacrifices of the law, and the feasts on them, and to restore to you the pure oblation and unbloody sacrifices as in the beginning, even the grains and fruits of the earth. Of that which ye offer unto God in purity shall ye eat, but of that kind which ye offer not in purity shall ye not eat, for the hour cometh when your sacrifices and feasts of blood shall cease, and ye shall worship God with a holy worship and a pure oblation.
"Let these creatures therefore go free, that they may rejoice in God and bring no guilt to man." And the young man set them free, and Jesus broke their cages and their bonds. But lo, they feared lest they should again be taken captive, and they went not away from him, but he spake unto them and dismissed them, and they obeyed his word and departed in gladness.


And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up again from Bethany into Jerusalem. And he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting.
And when he had made a scourge of seven cords, he drove them all out of the temple and loosed the sheep and the oxen and the doves, and poured out the changer's money, and overthrew the tables.
And said unto them," Take these things hence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise. Is it not written,'My house is a house of prayer, for all nations'? but ye have made it a den of thieves, and filled it with all manner of abominations."
And he would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel of blood through the temple, or that any animals should be slain. And the disciples remembered that it was written," Zeal for thine house hath eaten me up.'
Then answered the Jews, and said unto him," What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?" Jesus answered, and said unto them," Again I say unto you, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
Then said the Jews, " Forty and six years was this temple in the building and wilt thou rear it up in three days?" But he spake of the temple of his body.
When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
But the scribes and the priests saw and heard, and were astonished and sought how they might destroy him, for they feared him, seeing that all the people were attentive to his doctrines.


And at evening the Master cometh into the house, and there are gathered with him the Twelve and their fellows; Peter and Jacob and Thomas and John and Simon and Matthew and Andrew and Nathanael and James and Thaddeus and Jude and Philip, and their companions (and there was also Judas Iscariot, who by men was numbered with the twelve, till the time when he should be manifested.)
And they were all clad in garments of white linen, pure and clean, for linen is the righteousness of the saints, and each had the colour of his tribe. But the Master was clad in his pure white robe, over all, without seam or spot.
And there arose contention among them as to which of them should be esteemed the greatest, wherefore he said unto them, " He that is greatest among you let him be as he that doth serve."
And Jesus said," With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, and to institute the memorial of my oblation for the service and salvation of all. For behold the hour cometh when the Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners."
And one of the twelve said unto him," Lord, is it I?" And he answered," He to whom I give the sop, the same is he."
And Iscariot said, unto him," Master, behold the unleaven bread, the mingled wine and the oil and the herbs, but where is the lamb that Moses commanded?" (for Judas had bought the lamb, but Jesus had forbidden that it should be killed)
And John spake in the Spirit, saying," Behold the Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd which giveth his life for the sheep." And Judas was troubled at these words for he knew that he should betray him. But again Judas said," Master, is it not written that a lamb must be slain for the Passover within the gates?"
And Jesus answered," If I am lifted up on the cross, then indeed shall the lamb be slain; but woe unto him by whom it is delivered into the hands of the slayers; it were better for him had he not been born."
"Verily I say unto you, for this end I have come into the world, that I may put away all blood offerings and the eating of the flesh of the beasts and the birds that are slain by men."
"In the beginning, God gave to all the fruits of the trees and the seeds of the herbs for food, but those who loved themselves more than God, or their fellows, corrupted their ways, and brought diseases into their bodies, and filled the earth with lust and violence."
"Not by shedding innocent blood therefore, but by living a righteous life shall ye find the peace of God. Ye call me the Christ of God, and ye say well, for I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."
" Walk ye in the Way and ye shall find God. Seek ye the Truth and the Truth shall make you free. Live in the Life and ye shall see no death. All things are alive in God and the Spirit of God filleth all things."


"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another and all the creatures of God. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is of God, and God is love. Whoso loveth not, knoweth not God.
"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another, and shew mercy and love to all creatures of God, especially to those that are weak and oppressed and suffer wrong. For the whole earth is filled with dark places of cruelty, with pain and sorrow, by the selfishness and ignorance of man.
"I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you and give them light for their darkness, and let the spirit of love dwell within your hearts and abound unto all. And again I say unto you, love one another and all the creation of God."


And it came to pass as he sat at supper with his disciples one of them said unto him," Master, how sayest thou that thou wilt give thy flesh to eat and thy blood to drink, for it is a hard saying unto many?"
And Jesus answered and said," The words which I speak unto you are Spirit and they are Life. To the ignorant and the carnally-minded they savour of bloodshed and death, but blessed are they who understand.
"Behold the corn which groweth up into ripeness and is cut down, and ground in the mill, and baked with fire into bread! of this bread is my body made, which ye see; and lo the grapes which grow on the vine into ripeness, and are plucked and crushed in the winepress and yield the fruit of the vine! of this fruit of the vine and of water is made my blood.
"For of the fruits of the trees and the seeds of the herbs alone do I partake, and these are changed by the Spirit into my flesh and my blood. Of these alone and their like shall ye eat who believe in me, and are my disciples, for of these, in the Spirit, come life and health and healing unto man.
"Verily shall my presence be with you in the substance and life of God, manifested in this body, and this blood; and of these shall ye eat and drink who believe in me.
"For in all places I shall be lifted up for the life of the world, as it is written in the prophets, 'From the rising up of the sun unto the going down of the same, in every place a pure oblation with incense shall be offered unto My name.'
"As in the natural so in the spiritual. My doctrine and my life shall be meat and drink unto you - the 'Bread of Life' and the 'Wine of Salvation.'
"As the corn and the grapes are transmuted into flesh and blood, so must your natural minds be changed into spiritual. Seek ye the Transmutation of the natural into the spiritual.
"Verily I say unto you, in the beginning , all creatures of God did find their sustenance in the herbs and the fruits of the earth alone, till the ignorance and the selfishness of man turned many of them from the use which God had given them, to that which was contrary to their original use, but even these shall yet return to their natural food, as it is written in the prophets, and their words shall not fail.
"Verily God ever giveth of the eternal life and substance to renew the forms of the universe. It is therefore of the flesh and blood, even the substance and life of the Eternal, that ye are partakers unto life, and my words are spirit and they are life.
"And if ye keep my commandments and live the life of the righteous, happy shall ye be in this life, and in that which is to come. Marvel not therefore that I said unto you,'Except ye eat of the flesh and drink of the blood of God, ye have no life in you.'"
And the disciples answered saying, "Lord, evermore give us to eat of this bread, and to drink of this cup, for thy words are meat and drink indeed. By thy Life and by thy Substance may we live for ever."
(Extracts from the 'Gospel of the Holy Twelve.' The 'Gospel of the Holy Twelve' may be viewed in full at
http://www.thenazareneway.com/ght_table_of_contents.htm )


THE TWELVE COMMANDMENTS
(As given by Jesus at the Transfiguration)

And Jesus said unto them," Behold, a new law I give unto you, which is not new but old. Even as Moses gave the Ten Commandments to Israel after the flesh, so also I give unto you the Twelve for the Kingdom of Israel after the Spirit.
"For who are the Israel of God? Even they of every nation and tribe who work righteousness, love mercy and keep my commandments, these are the true Israel of God. And standing on his feet, Jesus spake, saying:
"Hear O Israel, Jova, thy God is One; many are My seers and My prophets. In Me all live and move, and have subsistence.
"Ye shall not take away the life of any creature for your pleasure, nor for your profit, nor yet torment it.
"Ye shall not steal the goods of any, nor gather lands and riches to yourselves, beyond your need or use.
"Ye shall not eat the flesh, nor drink the blood of any slaughtered creature, nor yet anything which bringeth disorder to your health or senses.
"Ye shall not make impure marriages, where love and health are not, nor yet corrupt yourselves, or any creature made pure by the Holy.
"Ye shall not bear false witness against any, nor wilfully deceive any by a lie to hurt them.
"Ye shall not do unto others, as ye would not that others should do unto you.
"Ye shall worship One Eternal, the Father-Mother in Heaven, of whom are all things, and reverence the Holy Name.
"Ye shall revere your fathers and your mothers on earth, whose care is for you, and all the teachers of righteousness.
"Ye shall cherish and protect the weak, and those who are oppressed, and all creatures that suffer wrong.
"Ye shall work with your hands the things that are good and seemly; so shalt ye eat the fruits of the earth, and live long in the land.
"Ye shall purify yourselves daily and rest the seventh day from labour, keeping holy the sabbaths and the festivals of your God.
"Ye shall do unto others, as ye would that others should do unto you."


WHAT IS TRUTH?

Again the twelve were gathered together in the circle of palm trees, and one of them, even Thomas, said to the others," What is Truth?, for the same things appear different to different minds, and even to the same mind at different times. What, then, is Truth?"
And as they were speaking Jesus appeared in their midst and said," Truth, one and absolute, is in God alone, for no man, neither any body of men, knoweth that which God alone knoweth, who is the All in All. To men is Truth revealed, according to their capacity to understand and receive.
"The one Truth hath many sides, and one seeth one side only, another another, and some see more than others, according as it is given to them.
"Behold this crystal; how the one light is manifest in twelve faces, yea four times twelve, and each face reflecteth one ray of light, and one regardeth one face, and another another, but it is the one crystal, and the one light that shineth in all.
"Behold again, when one climbeth a mountain and attaining one height, he saith,'This is the top of the mountain, let us reach it', and when they have reached that height, lo, they see another beyond it until they come to that height from which no other height is to be seen, if so they can attain it.
"So it is with Truth. I am the Truth and the Way and the Life, and have given to you the Truth I have received from above. And that which is seen and received by one, is not seen and received by another. That which appeareth true to some, seemeth not true to others. They who are in the valley see not as they who are on the hill top.
"But to each, it is the Truth as the one mind seeth it, and for that time, till a higher Truth shall be revealed unto the same; and to the soul which receiveth higher light shall be given more light. Wherefore condemn not others, that ye be not condemned.
"As ye keep the holy Law of Love, which I have given unto you, so shall the Truth be revealed more and more unto you, and the Spirit of Truth which cometh from above shall guide you, albeit through many wanderings, into all Truth, even as the fiery cloud guided the children of Israel through the wilderness.
"Be faithful to the light ye have, till a higher light is given to you. Seek more light, and ye shall have abundantly; rest not, till ye find.
"God giveth you all Truth, as a ladder with many steps, for the salvation and perfection of the soul, and the truth which seemeth to-day, ye will abandon for the higher truth of the morrow. Press ye unto Perfection."
( Extract from the 'Gospel of the Holy Twelve.' )

Thursday, August 04, 2011

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

After 'death', we shall regret the bad things that we did, but we shall also regret the good things, the opportunities for Service, that we didn't do, but could - and should have done.
Life is a great and wonderful gift, make the most of it, make your life beautiful and worthwhile.

I have no desire to move mountains, construct monuments or leave behind in my wake material evidence of my existence. But in the final recollection, if the essence of my being has caused a smile to have appeared upon your face or a touch of joy within your heart, then in living I have made my mark - Thomas L. Odem Jr

Having a NDE awakened and changed me in many ways. It also brought me to full understanding that nobody is here on earth 'by accident', that we each have a  purpose, something we came here to do in this lifetime before we return 'home'....
When I look at the world, it seems that more and more, people are living out their lives as if their sole purpose is to 'get', rather than concentrating on living their soul purpose ... which is to give - Jules Lyons

You cannot redeem yourself by fruitless regret. If you have brought harm to some part of the creation, you can help to set things right by giving a greater amount of good or helpful action to that part of the creation so harmed. (From 'The Wisdom of Ramadahn')

Life is a school. Through hardship and struggle, striving and difficulty, adverse circumstance, storms and tempests, the spirit finds itself - Silver Birch

Near-death experiences: Many of the patients have spoken of the peace they experienced; beautiful, indescribable peace - no pain, no anxiety. They tell us that all that matters is how much you have loved, how much you have cared and if you know these things then you cannot possibly be afraid of death - Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Why have most of those who went through a near-death experience lost their fear of death? Reflect upon this - Eckhart Tolle

My mother's face lit up with joy. She smiled the most marvellous smile. She seemed to come alive. She suddenly sat up in bed, her arms out towards someone with a great look of happiness and then after a pause sank back down on the pillow and died not long after - From 'The Art of Dying' by Dr Peter Fenwick and Elizabeth Fenwick

Sunset, sunrise: There is no death, life is a continuum.

There is no death, life goes on in the spiritual realms. Fear not, you'll meet your loved ones (both people and pets) again. Love cannot be separated from its beloved.

There is nothing to fear in death...There is weeping when people die in your world, but there is rejoicing in ours. Death means that the life has served its purpose, or should have done, and the individual is ready to enjoy all the tremendous richness and beauty that the spirit life has to offer - Silver Birch

When I come to your world I am like a bird that is imprisoned within a cage, and when I leave it I am like a bird joyfully released to wing its way through boundless space. What you call death is the opening of the cage and the release of the bird from its prison - Silver Birch

Do not mourn because the caterpillar has become a beauteous butterfly. Do not weep because the cage has been opened and the bird has been set free. Rejoice and know that the enfranchised soul has found liberty and that, if you would but unfold the powers that the Great Spirit has given you, you could share some of the new beauty and joy which is theirs. You could understand the plan of death and realise that death is but a stepping stone, a door through which you enter into the larger freedom of the realms of the spirit - Silver Birch

Never be afraid of death, it is the gift of life. Never grieve for us, we are not dead. We live a life of beauty and happiness.
Life on earth is like living in a valley; life over here is like being transported to the mountain top where the great vision of life is laid before one - Percy Welsford ('The Golden Key')

To die will be an awfully big adventure. - J. M . Barrie


AND YOUR PETS WILL BE THERE TOO

A beautiful NDE as experienced by an American called Bryce Bond after having been taken seriously ill.
He remembered passing through a long tunnel towards a bright light and then...
"I hear a bark and racing toward me is a dog I once had, a black poodle named Pepe.
When I see him, I feel an emotional floodgate open. Tears fill my eyes. He jumps into my arms, licking my face. As I hold him, he is real, more real than I had ever experienced him. I can smell him, feel him, hear his breathing and sense his great joy at being with me again"
(Then his stepfather appeared).
"I put my dog on the ground and step forward to embrace my stepfather, when  a strong voice is heard in my consciousness. 'Not yet' it says. I scream out "Why?" Then this inner voice says "What have you learned? And who have you helped?" I am dumbfounded. The voice seems to be from without as well as from within. Everything stops for a moment. I have to think of what was asked of me. I cannot answer what I have learned, but I can answer who I have helped.
I feel the presence of my dog about me as I ponder these two questions.
Then I hear barking and other dogs appear, dogs I once had.
As I stand there in what seems to be an eternity, I want to embrace and be absorbed and merge. I want to stay. The sensation of not wanting to come back is overwhelming".
Bryce was also greeted by all of his relatives who had passed on before him. He experienced these loved ones as somewhat younger in form and face than when he had last seen them, healthier and happier.
He remembered racing backward through the same tunnel he had entered  when it was time to leave and reviving in time to witness a hypodermic needle being plunged into his arm.
"I heard a voice say 'Welcome back.' I never asked who said that and nor did I care.
I was told I had been 'dead' for over ten minutes."

Horses and dogs were playing together and when they stopped they seemed to stare a  hole right through me. I was told they were checking to see if  I was the person they were waiting for that they had loved while on earth - An extract from a NDE account given by a lady called Mary


THE BOTTOM LINE

You came into the world with nothing and you'll leave it with nothing - except the indelible record of your conduct in this life, for good or ill.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

ESSIAC: NATURE'S CURE FOR CANCER -
AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. GARY GLUM BY ELISABETH ROBINSON

Introduction: Rene Caisse was a nurse living in Canada who for a period of almost sixty years treated hundreds of people with a herbal remedy she called Essiac.(NB: Essiac is Caisse spelt backwards.) She discovered this remedy through a patient in the hospital where she worked who had been cured of cancer. The patient had used a herbal remedy given her by an Objiway herbalist.
Rene left the hospital in 1922, at age 33, and went to Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada where she began administering Essiac to all who came to her. The majority of those whom she treated came on referral from their physicians certifying they had incurable or terminal forms of cancer and that they had been given up by the medical profession as untreatable.
Rene began gathering the plants and preparing the herbal remedy herself in her own kitchen, in a building lent her for her patients. She administered Essiac both orally and by injection. In cases where there was severe damage to life support organs, her patients died - but they lived far longer than the medical profession had predicted, and, more significantly, they lived free of pain. Still others, listed as hopeless and terminal, but without severe damage to life support organs, were cured and lived 35-45 years (many are still living) .
So startling was the effectiveness of this simple herbal remedy, it could not be ignored, and the Canadian Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Parliament became involved. Friends, former patients and grateful families petitioned Canadian officialdom for Rene Caisse's right to administer the remedy to anyone who asked for it, without the threat of interference from authorities. Fifty-five thousand signatures were collected on the petition. In 1938, Essiac came within three votes of being legalized by the Ontario government as a remedy for terminal cancer patients.
The story of Rene Caisse, her life, her work, and the effectiveness of the remedy she named Essiac, is told in a book Sun Bear received, 'Calling of an Angel' by Dr. Gary L. Glum of Los Angeles. After reading the book and finding it to be informative, well documented and moving, I decided to interview Dr. Glum. I verified the basic information in his book through Canadian sources, one a herbalist who knows of Rene Caisse and her work and who has personally made and successfully used Essiac.

Interview with Dr. Glum

Elisabeth Robinson: To begin with, Dr. Glum, can you tell us a little about how you became interested in the story you tell in 'Calling of an Angel', and how you learned about Rene Caisse and her work?

Dr. Gary Glum: A personal friend of mine knew this woman, whose name I have promised not to reveal, who was living in Detroit, Michigan. Twenty years ago she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer in a Detroit hospital, where she was eventually given up as incurable and terminal. She was given about ten days to live.
She convinced her husband to make a trip to Bracebridge, Canada where she went to see Rene Caisse. She was treated with the herbal remedy developed by Rene - Essiac - and in a short time she didn't have a cancer cell in her body. So after that this woman began dedicating her life to disseminating information about Essiac in the United States. When I met her, she was the only person in possession of the original formula who would relinquish it. I got the formula for Essiac from her.
That's how it began. When I started, all I had was a piece of paper. I thought, what am I going to do with this? I decided the best way to go would be to find the information behind Essiac and put it in book form and bring it to the world.
I learned about Rene Caisse from Mary McPherson, who was a very close personal friend of Rene's.....not only a friend but also a patient. Mary's mother and her husband were also patients. They were all treated for cancer and cured by Rene.
Mary worked with Rene beginning in the 1930s and she had in her possession all these documents that had to do with Essiac over the 40 years Rene administered it. All the documents Rene had were destroyed by the Canadian Ministry of Health and Welfare at the time of her death in 1978. They burned all that information in fifty-five gallon drums behind her home.

ER: Why?

GG: Because they don't want this information in the hands of the public or the press or anybody else. They indeed found out what Essiac was in 1937. The Royal Cancer Commission hearings had then come to the same conclusions that Rene had - that Essiac was a cure for cancer.

ER: What is Essiac exactly?

GG: Essiac is a non-toxic herbal cure that's been with us since 1922. It's a formula made from four very common herbs.

ER: I would guess that virtually every person in the US today has been touched by cancer, either personally or through a loved one. If this information is true, and the effectiveness of this remedy is actually medically documented, many lives could be saved. Why do you think the information on Essiac is not more widely known?

GG: The information is withheld because cancer is the second largest revenue producing business in the world, next to the petrochemical business. Money and power suppress this truth. (NB: Between 1970 and 1990, in the USA alone, the cancer industry was worth an estimated one trillion dollars. Source - the Guardian newspaper.)
No one has ever sought to cure cancer - only to control it. I mean, the research institutes, federal governments, pharmaceutical companies, anybody that has a vested interest in the health care of cancer, including the American Cancer Society, the Canadian Cancer Society, any of these so-called benefactors to those who have contracted this disease - all of these institutions are involved in the money and power around cancer.
These institutions have influence over government and regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA recommends only allopathic treatments for cancer and other life threatening diseases. It does not approve nor make legal alternative treatments of any kind.

ER: You're saying that Essiac is in a position similar to, for example, laetrile?

GG: Yes, the only reason laetrile was stopped - and it couldn't be stopped any other way - was through the insurance companies. The insurance companies sent down a directive to all allopathic physicians stating that they could not cover them in any malpractice suit in the event they were treating people with any substance not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

ER: In your book you mention that the Brusch Clinic in Massachusetts worked with Rene Caisse and with Essiac, during the early 1960's. Is this clinic still doing research with Essiac?

GG: Dr. Charles A. Brusch is not practising at this time. He was a personal physician to President John F. Kennedy. Dr. Brusch worked with Rene Caisse from 1959 to 1962. He worked with thousands of cancer patients. He also worked with the Presidential Cancer Commission, with others like Dr. Armand Hammer, the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Brusch presented his findings after ten years of research. He had come to the conclusion that, in his own words, "Essiac is a cure for cancer, period. All studies done at laboratories in the United States and Canada support this conclusion."
Whereupon the federal government issued a gagging order and said, "You've got one of two choices, either you keep quiet about this or we'll haul you off to military prison and you'll never be heard of again." So we never heard another word out of him.
Brusch's Essiac patients included Ted Kennedy's son who had a sarcoma in his leg, and who had his leg amputated. He was being treated at that time by the Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Farber didn't know how to save him, because no one had ever lived with this type of sarcoma. So what he did was go to Dr. Brusch and say, "How are we going to save Ted Kennedy's son?" And Dr. Brusch made the suggestion to put him on Essiac, and after they did, he didn't have a cancer cell in his body. But all this information has been hidden from the general public.

ER: Why?

GG: As I said, money and power.

ER: Do you know wheter the remedy is being used or tested anywhere today in the U.S. or Canada?

GG: Right now Essiac is being used in every state in the United States, it's throughout Canada, into Mexico, it's in Australia, Europe, Asia and recently, also in Africa. So the message is beginning to make it's way worldwide. But it's still known only on a very limited basis.
Of course now you also have the problem of herbal distributing companies throughout the world that are substituting yellow dock and curly dock for sheep's sorrel, which is one of the critical ingredients in Essiac.
The sheep's sorrel is the herbal ingredient in Essiac that was found to be responsible for the destruction of cancer cells in the body, or their amalgamation where metatasized cancer cells actually return to the original tumour site.
That research was done by Dr. Chester Stock at Sloan-Kettering in New York for over a three year period. But when they gathered that information, they withheld it from the general public - yet they gave it to the Canadian Ministry of Health and Welfare. The Canadian government then immediately banned that herb for sale and distribution.

ER: Banned a common weed like sheep's sorrel?

GG: Yes, sheep's sorrel is just a common weed that grows in abundance throughout North America and into Canada. Just a common weed.

ER: Well, it seems that banning sheep's sorrel would not be very effective if you could identify it for yourself.

GG: Yes, it's just a question of identifying the plant and then harvesting it correctly and drying it properly and then putting it together with the other herbs.
Rene would harvest the sheep's sorrel - Rumex acetosella - when it was four to six inches high. She cut it back and it would grow up again, and she'd cut it back again. She would do that about three times and then she would let it go to seed. It will grow to 14 or 18 inches.
She would take the herb cuttings home and lay them out at room temperature to dry them. She'd let the cuttings sit there for three or four days before she'd begin turning the herbs. Then she'd turn them every two days until they were properly dry, which took about ten days to two weeks. It takes about a bushel of sheep's sorrel to produce one pound of the dried powdered herb which is used in the formula.

ER: Do you have the formula? It's not in your book. You do mention a video in the book.

GG: Yes, I have it. Anyone can get it from me, free of charge. We don't sell the video anymore. We simply mail the formula to anyone who asks for it.

ER: Sun Bear told me you had problems getting the book published and distributed. What kind of problems?

GG: There wasn't a publishing company that would publish it. No one wanted to run the risk of a wrongful death suit. So I published the book myself. And as soon as I did, the IRS came in and slapped a half million dollars in tax liens against me and said," You know this has got nothing to do with taxes. It's all about cancer." They actually started hauling the pallets of books out of my medical practice offices and confiscating them. I also had thousands of books that were confiscated by the Canadian government at customs. I have never received any of those books back. The only ones I have now are hidden in storage facilities.

ER: That's incredible - why do you think they are so interested in keeping this book out of circulation?

GG: Money and power, as I've said. Cancer is the largest revenue producing business in the world next to the petrochemical business. In Canada the book is being held up by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, because they say it is advertising.

ER: Advertising what? The video you don't sell anymore?

GG: No, a cure for cancer.

ER: Can you explain what you mean by the publishers fearing a wrongful death suit?

GG: What you're dealing with is giving people a formula that they can make and use in the privacy of their own homes without the approval of the AMA or FDA or anybody else. If any attorney or any family member should decide, for whatever reason, that the reason someone expired was from the use of Essiac, then you'd be putting yourself up for a wrongful death suit. The convention is that if it isn't approved by the Food and Drug Administration, there's no legality in using it when you're dealing with a life threatening disease.
When Rene Caisse set up her clinical trials in Canada to test Essiac, she was given permission to treat terminally ill cancer patients who had been given up for hopeless by the medical profession. That was one criteria. Secondly, this was all to be certified by a pathology report. And third, she could not charge anything for her services. She agreed to all these criteria and proceeded to treat people with Essiac. Many she treated were still there 35 years later to bury her when she died at age 90.
The best that anyone can do is just try and disseminate this information to the public and let people make their own choices. That's all you can do. And just say, look, if you feel that Essiac has value in your life and the lives of your loved ones, you have the right to make this remedy and use it in the privacy of your own home and without anyone's approval.
You know, in 1938 Essiac came within three votes of being legalized as a treatment for cancer. People had garnered fifty-five thousand signatures on a petition to allow Rene to continue to use Essiac. The only reason the vote fell short, she found out years later, was that the College of Physicians and Surgeons met and said to Parliament, if you don't respond to the political pressure and legalize Essiac, then we'll take a sincere look and give this woman a fair hearing. So Parliament didn't legalize Essiac.
So following the Royal Cancer Commission hearings, Rene was allowed to continue her practice, but only within the criteria I mentioned before, which allowed the Ministry of Health and Welfare to restrict people's access to Essiac treatments.
I know this because I have a copy of the hearing transcripts which I got from Mary McPherson, which is some of the information that did not get burned when Rene died.

ER: You mentioned that earlier. What exactly was burned?

GG: All her research for that 40 year period of time. All the names, all her clinical data that she had collected. Her files and records.

ER: What about the records of the Brusch Clinic? It seems these would be convincing evidence.

GG: As far as I know all that material has been destroyed also. I knew that Rene had worked with Dr. Brusch from 1959 to 1962, so I went to Dr. Brusch's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts whereupon he delivered to me the only material he had left in his files on Essiac. One of those files was his own personal file where he had treated and cured his own cancer with Essiac. I have his personal records.
All the information in my book is verified by a sheet of paper with a signature and a date on it, and those sheets and signatures are all originals. They are not copies.

ER: Have you had any personal experiences with Essiac?

GG: Yes, I can give you an example. He was a twelve year old boy named Toby Wood. He had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is one of the most virulent of all leukaemias. He had been on chemotherapy for four years and radiation for three. His mother's only hope in life was to find a cure for him. She went everywhere. She tried every alternative treatment.
Her last stop was Dr. Alvazados in Athens, Greece where her son's white cell count was 186,000. He had no red blood cells and no platelets. He was haemorrhaging to death. So they transfused Toby in Greece and put him on a plane to Alaska where he was given less than five days to live.
I met his mother's sister in Los Angeles while I was putting the book together and she asked if there was any credibility here. We sat down and talked. She then borrowed the money for a flight to Anchorage, and delivered a bottle of Essiac. By the time she got there Toby was given three days to live. He was in a state of complete deteriation. He was given Essiac and all the haemorrhaging stopped within 24 hours. Within three months all his blood tests were normal. I arrived in Alaska later that year and met him.
Toby Wood did die, and we finally found a pathologist who would do an exhausative autopsy. We knew that he didn't have leukaemia any more. We wanted to find out what was the cause of death. It took four months to get the report back. The pathologist autopsied the brain, testicles, and all life support organs, including the bone marrow. No blast cells were found in any life support organ. No blast cells were found in the bone marrow. There were a few stray cells in the testicles and in the brain. Cause of death was damage to the myocardial sac of the heart, a result of the chemotherapy.
This was the first report anywhere in medical history of anyone surviving lymphoblastic leukaemia. That information was taken to AP and UPI but they said it was not newsworthy.
Our information on Essiac has been sent around the world twice through Publisher's Weekly magazine in a huge two-page ad. We received no responses at all from any publishing company worldwide, no producers or directors, throughout the United States, no talk show programmes, none of that. We can't access the media.
In fact, we talked to Philip Schleffler, producer of 60 Minutes. He read the book and we called him to ask what he was going to do about it. He said, nothing. I said, all the information in the book is verifiable. In other words, it's the truth. I said, if you're 60 Minutes why don't you expose me and Essiac as a fraud. He said, nope, can't do it.
We took it to Joe Donally who's the executive producer for ABC in New York. We said why not give it to Peter Jennings, Geraldo Rivera, Ted Koppel, one of those. He said, nope. We asked why not. He said because his phone lines would be invaded with 65,000 phone calls. We said, how sympathetic do you think a parent whose child is dying of leukaemia, would be to your 65,000 phone calls. He went on to say he's got a mortgage on his house and he's looking toward retirement.
So that's the problem. No one wants this information disseminated. And it's not just the media either. It includes the herbal companies who are now substituting curly dock for sheep's sorrel. So people are getting the wrong ingredients for Essiac, not to mention the five or six other formulas that are circulating which are different from the one I send out. These false formulas are being dissemminated. There is a disinformation campaign going on here, somehow.

ER: Has this disinformation campaign started since your book has been out?

GG: Previous to my book, none of this information was available to the public at all. The public had no information outside of a few assorted articles. Certainly the Essiac formula was not available to the general public at all. All that information was held by the Resperin Corporation in Toronto, Canada, which supposedly is a private institution.
However, they work hand in glove with the Canadian Ministry of Health and Welfare, who work directly with the American Food and Drug Administration and the National Cancer Institute in Bethseda, Maryland. The Essiac formula was never given to anyone by Resperin.

ER: Did the Resperin Corporation do any research on Essiac?

GG: They've done research since 1978 when the formula was relinquished to them by Rene for the purchase price of one dollar. As soon as they got the formula, they told Rene they had no further use for her. She had been under the impression from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Resperin Corporation that she was to lead the research activities that they so desperately wanted to put together.
But Rene had already done clinical trials. She had names and records. She thought the Resperin Corporation was politically powerful and had money enough to get Essiac into the public sector without compromising her values. Then she found out the Corporation was working closely with the government and administration and the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
So now many people who were terminally ill and given up as hopeless had to go through a federal bureaucratic maze to get the remedy. By then, for most of those people, it was too late. But even when people were cured, that information was not released to the public.
Resperin ran research tests on Essiac. One test was conducted in Northern Canada and the documents were falsified. For example, one man was listed as dead who a few months later knocked on Rene's door and said, I want to thank you for the Essiac and being part of this experimental programme. Yet he was listed as dead in the research project findings!

ER: It's beginning to seem amazing to me that any information at all about this remedy has survived the 'conspiracy of silence' or outright destruction of records and so on.

GG: The only reason Essiac is known today is by word of mouth and because Essiac is what it is.
What will keep Essiac known is it's effectiveness. Rene said it years ago. She said, look, if Essiac doesn't have any merit let me put it out there. If it doesn't have merit, it will kill itself. Of course, she knew full well if people had the correct herbs, the remedy would stand on its own. And that is exactly what Essiac has done over this period of time that we've been disseminating the information.
Rene also found that Essiac was a strong preventive. These findings were substantiated by Dr. Albert Schatz at Temple University who discovered the cure for tuberculosis.
Rene also found that Essiac would normalize the thyroid gland. My wife was on two grains of thyroid since the sixth grade. After I met her, she started taking Essiac, and she hasn't taken a grain of thyroid since.
Rene also found that Essiac would heal stomach ulcers within three or four weeks. She felt that ulcers were a precursor to cancer.
Sir Frederick Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin, wanted to work with Rene. She had clinical cases where a person on insulin discontinued it with the Essiac - since no one knew how Essiac would interact with the insulin. Apparently Essiac regulated the pancreas in cases of diabetes mellitus. So these people then became insulin-free.
Another thing I've found with Essiac is that I've experienced almost perfect health. As you get older you think, well, I'm forty now, these things happen. Well, these things don't have to happen! Since I've taken Essiac, I've experienced almost perfect health. It's amazing. I sleep like a baby, have all kinds of energy, and no sickness, not even a cold or flu.
I also worked with the AIDS Project Los Angeles through their Long Beach and San Pedro districts. They had sent 179 patients home to die. They all had pneumocystis carinii and histoplasmosis. Their weight was down to about 100 pounds. Their T-4 cell counts were less than ten. The Project gave me five of these patients. I took them off the AZT and the DDI and put them on Essiac three times a day. Those are the only ones alive today. The other 174 are dead.

ER: That is incredible - but what kind of lives are they leading today?

GG: They're exercising three times a day. Their weight is back to normal. For all intents and purposes you wouldn't know they were sick a day in their lives. But this information is not being disseminated either, because AIDS is on the horizon as another big money-maker. The chairman of the AIDS Project in Los Angeles makes over $100,000 a year. (NB: This was in 1992)
Even the alternative health care professionals are out there to control, not to cure. Alternative medical practice is just as mercenary and deceptive as the allopathic. No one wants a cure for cancer or AIDS.
The alternative people are also into it for the money. What you're finding with Essiac is that it is not even allowed into the arenas of alternative health care. So really, what you've got out here is people continually perpetrating these lies against mankind. For money. For money and power. It's that simple.
Really once you think about it, the only reason we don't have solar power is that no one's figured out a way to sell EXXON the sun! It's true. If they could, you'd have solar power. You know you'd have it.

ER: So, in your personal experience, this herbal remedy works to - I'm going to quote you here and say "cure" - cancer, thyroid conditions, diabetes,AIDS, ulcers...

GG: It also cures the common cold. Essiac elevates the immune system. I've been taking one ounce a day for seven years, and in seven years I haven't had a cold, flu or virus.

ER: And all of this from a simple native herbal remedy?

GG: Yes. Although Rene did alter it. She altered it with Turkish rhubarb root (Rheum palmatum). Turkish rhubarb has a 5,000 year history. It actually came up from India into China and then was taken by the British.

ER: Turkish rhubarb root certainly is not native in this country, nor available here. Herbals from foreign countries are fumigated and irradiated, so is it a good idea to use the Turkish rhubarb?

GG: You can substitute ordinary rhubarb root. The other two ingredients are burdock root (Arctium lappa) and the inner bark of slippery elm (Ulmus fulva). They are easy to obtain, usually. Sheep's sorrel (Rumex acetosella) is what destroys the cancer cells. The other three herbs are blood purifiers.
Essiac elevates the enzyme system and gives all cancer patients and all AIDS patients the enzymes that have been destroyed. Essiac elevates the enzyme system; it elevates the hormone system, which elevates the immune system, so the body can cure its own disease.

ER: What about quantities? Some herbals are toxic.

GG: Even its worst enemy could never lay claim that Essiac had any deleterious side efffects whatever. You can take Essiac safely, through all the clinical trials that have been done, up to six ounces a day. That's two ounces in the evening, two in the morning and two around noontime. That's a high dosage. Rene had the correct herbs and she used as little as one ounce a week.
But look at the difference between then and now. The food didn't have carcinogens in it, and neither did the water, nor the air. So what have we done? We've killed the air, killed the water, killed the food. So what's left?
Nationwide in the water we drink over 2,100 organic and inorganic chemicals have been identified, and 156 of them are pure carcinogens. Of those, if you have a tumour, 26 are tumour promoting, so they make the tumour larger. But of course this information is not available to the public either. Those figures are from tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency which have never been distributed to the public.

ER: How did you get the information?

GG: From a Ralph Nader organisation out of Washnigton D.C. The media has not disseminated this information. Another problem is that very few people read books any more. We can only hope they'll read 'Calling of an Angel'. Of course, the problem is getting the right herbs.

ER: Anything else you'd like to add before we close this interview?

GG: I would like to say that I didn't do all this research because I feel I have a responsibility to other people. I did it because I have a responsibility to myself. I know that I've done all I can to disseminate this information and bring it to the people.
I was the first person to release this information on Essiac, and how to make it, to the general public and say, here it is, here's the formula, here's the story. So now the story is out there and look what's happening - it's getting killed through a disinformation campaign. I mean Harvard, Temple, Tufts, Northwestern University, Chicago - all of these institutions have tested Essiac with the right stuff, and they all came to the same conclusion as Rene Caisse. But all that information has been buried.

ER: Gary, it's been very interesting to speak to you.

GG: It's been a pleasure. You're opening a Pandora's Box, you know, publishing this interview.

ER: I think you're the one who's done that.

(This interview first appeared in 'Wildfire' magazine, volume 6, number 1. Published by The Bear Tribe, PO Box 9167, Spokane, WA 99209, USA.)

Essiac formula:
* 6.5 cups of burdock root - cut. (Arctium Lappa)
* 16 oz. sheep sorrel herb - powdered. (Rumex Acetocella)
* 1 oz. Turkey rhubarb root - powdered. (Rheum Palmatum)
* 4 oz. slippery elm bark - powdered. (Ulmus Fulve)

"These herbs stimulate the body to throw off toxins and therefore it is important that you drink plenty of clean spring water and have regular bowel movements" - Herbal Healer Academy

* For more information on Essiac and the other natural 'cancer remedies' see our other website at http://naturaltreatmentsforcancer.blogspot.com/

[Disclaimer: This information is being made available as an act of service. We cannot and do not make any claims. If you have cancer, or think you have, you should consult a qualified medical practitioner.]