CHAPTER 1

The Beginning

"You cannot teach a man anything; you canonly help him discover it himself." Galileo

Who are we and what on earth are we doing here? This is themillion dollar question for many. "Universal Awareness" waswritten to enlighten our thoughts with some possibilities thatwill provide insights for us to consider. To bring awareness,not force beliefs or viewpoints on others.

We all have definite mindsets. Our very thoughts originatefrom things we've seen, been taught or have read. We developour beliefs based on this. We create mental pictures andformulate them into what we choose to believe whether theyare true or false. The same thing occurs when groups ofpeople see, read or are taught something. Hence Religionsare born.

Organizations of various interests as well as countriesthat form united fronts all build their foundations on certainbelief systems that have been shaped by images and ideasfrom these sources. Any kind of institution can be birthedfrom mindsets that have a common thread. The problemsenter when these structures are established and then bindothers by creating creeds, promises, oaths, pledges and a hostof others things.

Unfortunately when religions function with certainprejudices and beliefs everyone is to adhere to, they arefunctioning as God for everyone else. We especially do thiswhen we dictate the destiny of others that do not conform toour doctrines of belief. When someone does not agree with ourdogmas we simply tell others the person teaching differentconcepts is deceived, never considering we may be the one indeception.

This is a manipulative way of getting others to trust whatwe teach is truth and any opposing view should be rejected.It is a form of fear on many different levels. The degree ofhostility and anger will expose the amount of fear we possessand the lack of trust we have in a Divine Intelligence greaterthan our minds to lead others into truth.

Whenever an individual is impacted by fear or control,those implementing this have not yet realized our mentalimages and die-hard beliefs can be inaccurate or mistakenwhen it comes to factual evidence. We must humble ourselvesby allowing each individual to seek explicit direction fromour Divine Source rather than assuming to be the superiorsource receiving communication from God's mouth to our ear.No human is the direct channel possessing all explanationsand understanding for everyone. A finite intelligence cannotcompete with infinite intelligence.

Enlightenment from God is in the awareness of thebeholder. Usually what we are aware of is what we havebeen taught to believe. The only problem with this is that itcauses us to only go in one direction and we leave no roomfor our understanding to expand or consider the possibilitythat God doesn't see things the way we do. His observationis far greater and higher than ours. When I see things thirtythousand feet in the air, it is very different from the way I seethings on the ground.

We must be very careful when it comes to closed-mindednessbecause Divine Intelligence may be trying to reveal greaterknowledge and understanding to us but we refuse to open ourminds because they are already made up. They are filled withthose things we have seen, read or been taught.

We need to allow God to be God and let each individualdiscover their own direction and assignments in life. Godis very capable of guiding everyone on an individual basis.It is there for the asking. We do not have to be fearful whenconsulting Divine Wisdom because I trust fear is not God'sM.O. (modus operandi) as some may want us to believe, that'sa man-made mode of operation.

I do realize there are many people who do not embracea belief in God and I would hope those individuals wouldnot base that decision on certain mindsets from others orconcepts that I believe have misrepresented a Source withDivine Intelligence. If anyone believes that God created us,then we must know a Divine Intelligence does not makejunk. If we originated from a Divine Being we certainly wouldacknowledge we came from a Source of Excellence. When werealize this, it will revolutionize our life.

It is my strong impression that anyone who states weare less has not yet realized the depth of Divine Love thisSource of Spirit encompasses. We must be careful of theimage created for us when man makes God in his imagebecause that blemishes everything else.

Once we are awakened to the understanding that we werecreated in the image of God, we begin to realize and awakento who we really are. I sincerely believe when we do not graspthe magnitude of this wonderful revelation, we become adysfunctional society. We need to be extremely cautious andavoid using God as a punishing stick. That image has causeduntold damage on our planet and is born out of fear anddepictions without understanding.

These impaired images or mindsets create all sorts ofdysfunctional behavior on earth. Once they are imbedded in amind it can cause individuals to create all types of erroneousconcepts. The problem is many of these notions are seriouslydangerous and harmful to others.

One of the worst experiences I feel anyone goes throughwhile living in this world is losing a loved one through violence.This is an area most difficult for me personally when helpingthose who feel they cannot find understanding regarding thereasons people commit violent acts. I only know that love hastruly evaded these individuals. It saddens me to realize theynever reached or understood a true "God Connection".

I believe many people have no desire to make a "GodConnection" because they have been given some ungodlyimage of a Being who punishes us every time we make amistake or poor choice. This is one of the worst descriptionsof God I have ever heard.

I was taught that "God is Love" but He is also a God ofjustice and that is why we must be punished. I do not agreewith that concept because unconditional love is not basedon behavior, conditional love is. Our chastisement comesfrom the "sowing and reaping" of our own decisions. It is abuilt-in system in our universe. Unfortunately many timesthe innocent are victims of those who made very harmfuldecisions. This is why we are not robots on this planet andby an act of our own will must learn to choose love over hate,otherwise the harm continues. For this reason we cannotblame God.

I believe we were all instructed in the beginning but decidedwe wanted things our way. You can instruct a child not to playwith matches and warn them of the consequences, but theystill want to test it themselves. We seem to love testing thewaters ourselves and sometimes it entails learning things thehard way. It appears we do that well.

Faith is the confidence that there are much greater thingsbeyond and we will indeed discover the full and clear reasonsthings happened as they did. I can almost hear that voice say,"How did that work for you? Did you learn anything?" This isthe words of a Father who really knows unconditional love.

I believe with all my heart we have a Spiritual Father/Creator who loves us beyond our wildest comprehension, wejust do not fully understand how Perfect Unconditional Lovefully operates and in our finite minds things seem to appearso awful in areas on Planet Earth, but the truth is, we do notknow the whole story ... yet!

From a great deal of digging down deep I discovered thoseharsh impressions of God stems from superstitious roots thathave been passed down for centuries. I once embraced thoseperceptions until the love for truth became greater than fear. Ialso would think these harsh impressions would be an insultto a Divine Intelligence who is Perfect Unconditional Love.

Negative images imprinted within our minds createthoughts that can become very damaging to us. For instance,anyone being teased, bullied or told they are worthless,unlovable, or otherwise, is a serious offense because it istremendously damaging.

I strongly feel this is one of the main causes of individualsgoing on a rampage. Negative, degrading words and actionstoward others are not only harmful to individuals, but toxicand dangerous to the innocent ones that become victims ofthose people whose energy has been channeled into the lowervibrations where negative actions become detrimental and insome cases extremely destructive.

It is important to be sensitive and kind toward othersbecause we never know when a word or action will plant aseed in the mind of a person causing poisonous effects. TrueDivine Love does not lead or speak to a person to do evil deedsto another.

Man may have said or written violent acts were inspired byGod, but I strongly believe that is an erroneous interpretation.Man is capable of a very fertile imagination with the abilityto lead others into fear which in turn can gain control overthem, and what better validation than to say, "God told me totell you this." Test the spirit, if the root is fear-based then weknow it's man-based. If the root is unconditional love-basedwe know it's God-based.

The unconditional love-base does not include thoseinstances when people use words associated with love tolure others into sexual activities against their will or anyform of deception. This is not from the root of God's love, itis a counterfeit to deceive and manipulate others. We mustbe very careful when someone says, "If you love me you'll dowhat I ask." Perhaps we should reply, "If you love me, youwon't ask."

Seek Divine Wisdom and discernment in all things. Ifunconditional love is the root, we will do the right thing byothers. To realize we are made in the image of God means weknow how to act and treat others. When we awaken to thistruth, there will be no striving. We simply live in a way thatwill reflect who we are, the sons and daughters of God.

When Christ said, "He who has seen me has seen theFather" this gives us the perfect key to the character ofGod. He professed to emulate this Divine Being. His messageconcerning this Divine Source was always one of love towardeveryone, not hatred, condemnation nor violence. Turningover a few tables to make a point by no means harmed anyoneor defined violence.

It is imperative for us to take the time and ask God toreveal these things that have been hidden from us. We mustfirst release any fears that bind us along with a desire toallow Divine Wisdom to guide us toward truths that we mayhave been unwilling to consider because we were taughtotherwise.

We must be very careful to check out the real truth of howold or ancient writings were composed and gathered as wellas the motive of man when writing and putting them together.Divine Source allows man the "free will" to say and do thingswhether their motives are pure or not. It is up to us to searchand be guided toward the facts.

The facts we know are many of these Spiritual Leadersor what some call Masters were indeed historical figures andit is up to us to discern what they taught verses what mansaid they were teaching. If I only knew one thing that wasimparted, it would be the phrase "He who doesn't love doesn'tknow God, for God is Love." Understanding this insight alongwith discovering the meaning of unconditional love will provideus with one of the greatest keys to transform the world welive in. Anything less than this kind of love is where I believeeverything else originates such as hate, greed, jealousy, deceit,and all manner of harmful destruction and influences.

Could it be possible we are here on this planet to see thecontrast and choose which energy we want to continue in.Love is the highest vibration. Hate and fear are the lowest.Perhaps the very vibrational levels we choose to function inwill determine where our spirit or energy exists from here. Itis something to think about. After all, how can light and darkor love and hate reside together and exist in peace.

We may want to explore man-made systems attributedto God which teach that certain phrases or obligations willsecure eternal existence. I find it very important to measurethese teachings alongside unconditional love, and ask if God'slove fits certain actions, judgments or mindsets within thesedoctrines. It saddens me when I meet people who tell me theyattended fellowships advocating God's love and acceptanceonly to find some of the meanest unforgiving people onearth.

This certainly makes one think when our body dies andwe are left with spirit or energy, does it have a magic wandfollowing us replying, "poof! I am extracting those characteristicsof being mean, judgmental, unforgiving, and all other negativetraits." Otherwise, we consist of who we really are retainingour "free will." Is it a belief system that transforms us or is itputting on and living in the Christ Mind (consciousness) thattransforms us?

We may also ask ourselves if a Divine Intelligence wouldcreate beings in its image and then inspire them to destroythose images because of different races, beliefs or countriesthey live in. If we believe God operates from unconditional loveand profess we too function from this center, our actions willreflect God's image otherwise we reflect the image of a manmadeGod and perform in that likeness.

This brings us back to those individuals affected by violence.I do feel there is a Divine Intelligence with the knowledge andunderstanding of "why" all these things happen in our lifewhile being here on earth. I don't know all the answers tothe "whys" and "wherefores", but something deep within mybeing perceives it is for a greater purpose. I believe we are allmade in the image of God to learn unconditional love in orderto prepare us for boundless things beyond. What this involvescan lead us to a self-discovery that is beyond what we see andfeel with these physical eyes and body.

My inquisitive nature of trying to understand this placewe live has led me to a life-long search since I was a littlegirl. I also had a deep desire to love others as God did, theunconditional way. Suffice it to say that ambition can causeus to face a good deal of diverse types of suffering, pain orsorrow. I must state if I did not experience these things, I wouldnever have been capable of writing this book. It has been alifetime journey learning and understanding a considerableamount of life on earth.

I would like to take a moment and share a bit of humor alongmy life lessons. During one period in my life I experienced agreat deal of suffering through a situation involving a personwho was doing things that were very harmful and hurtful toour family. This made me so angry I could not see straight. Atthe time I was working in the film industry and met someonewho has since become a lifelong friend.

During this occasion we were on a film together and Iwould arrive on the set with a fiery Italian fury (which Iam still working on). My friend Tory would say to me, "nowsurround this person with God's Light and bless them in God'sLove." This really did put things in a different perspective forme and I found I had great peace of mind whenever I wouldfollow his suggestion.

This advice helped me a great deal until the day I came onthe set after this individual had done something appalling.Tory saw the fire in my eyes and began his speech regarding"God's Light." I was so angry that I told him to "Take his Lightand shove it where the sun don't shine" (well, I may have saidit stronger than that, but this is the nicer version). To this daywe still laugh about it every time we think of it.

When we get that angry, we are not very rational andwhen we are in that state it is extremely important, and I domean important, to draw from Divine Wisdom or call a friendand vent, because it is at those times we are capable of doingsomething we may deeply regret. Trust me, my thoughts ofwhat I wanted to do was anything but godly.

Thanks to Tory and friends like Midge and Nancy(sometimes it takes three friends), I calmed down and letreason come back to me. It was then that I learned howdangerous and harmful emotions can be if we do not takecontrol over them. I am thrilled to be able to say I now lookat that individual as one of the best teachers I have ever hadon the planet. I truly learned the lesson about unconditionallove from this person.

Christ gave us all the tools we would ever need to turn thisworld around for peace and harmony. He imparted principlesin living a way of life that all could embrace. He never starteda religion from them, man did that. This is why religioncan kill, but the spirit can bring life. He stressed the "GodConnection". He never stressed the religious connection. As amatter of fact, the religious ones wanted him destroyed.

Man's ego is a very serious matter to consider. The teachingsof the Masters were never meant to be a religion, they weremeant to be a way of life. How many religions and religiouspeople have started wars and destroyed people on so manydifferent levels in the name of God? I find many "blame" Godfor everything, but we seem to forget that we have "free will"to do as we please or we would be robots. Unfortunately thewill of some do not have the best intentions toward others.This is one of the reasons why we have suffering on earth. Noone seems to be exempt from it.

None of us experience every kind of pain or suffering thereis, but no matter what an individual's pain may be, pain ispain. How can we measure someone's pain and say my pain isworse than yours? We may feel that our personal experienceis far more tragic than another and believe others are cluelessto the depth of suffering we experience, but that belief doesnot make it a fact.

When we are in pain from losing a pet verses someonewho lost a loved one, we feel there is no comparison. Whatwe need to be understanding about regarding others is thatsome people have pets in their lives that they deeply loveand feel loved by. In these cases we cannot minimalize theirexperience verses ours because we cannot measure pain ina person.