Past New Life News

Vernon Howard’s Higher World — MP3 CDs
By Doug Stewart
     In that wonderful old Warner Bros. classic film, “The Treasure of Sierra Madre”, Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt and Walter Huston play prospectors who climb the rugged mountains of Mexico looking for gold. Bogart and Holt know nothing about prospecting but grizzled old Huston does. In a famous scene, Bogart and Holt argue about what gold looks like. Huston bursts out laughing and dances a jig. He tells his partners they’re so dumb they can’t see the riches they’re standing on.
     Only a trained eye could see that what looked like dry and worthless soil was really unrefined gold. Huston explains that to get to the real source of wealth, they’re going to have to climb up the mountain. The same story might apply to the new series of “Dated Talks” released by New Life in the MP3 CD format. They’re called “Vernon Howard’s Higher World.”
     Here is an opportunity to own all of the talks Vernon Howard gave from 1986 through 1992. Nothing new about that, you might say, because those talks have been available on audiocassettes for years. This new series in the MP3 format, however, provides students with all 638 listening hours of genuine spiritual gold, but now in a manageable and more convenient form. There are prayers, higher instructions, spiritual laws and a treasure trove of tough truths all given by Vernon for your lasting benefit. He explains how Truth solves all of the difficulties you may have with business, male-female relations, money, family and more. You’ll also come across all of the priceless stories told by Vernon as only he could. Here, indeed, are the authentic answers to life, showing you what real gold is so that you can drop the useless, false gold you’ve been carrying around all your life.
     New Life Director Richard Wooldridge spent months converting old analog tapes to digital files. “It was important,” he said, “to move these wonderful recordings to a more lasting format because cassettes and cassette tape players are being phased out in the technological world. The MP3 CD format makes them much more accessible for people to use today.” This collection is the equivalent of 437 previously issued audiocassettes plus a special bonus talk, The Writer’s Class. This lecture hasn’t been available since Vernon Howard’s passing in 1992.
     New Life has heard from many people who are grateful for all of the hours of instruction now available in this convenient and up-to-date format. A lot of students listen to this new series of MP3 CDs in their cars, enjoying the ease of having about 25 or more talks on each disk in their player. This is a big change from having numerous audiocassettes tumbling around in your vehicle, getting lost or damaged. One student who recently traveled by car from California to the New Life Colorado banquet said that it was a most pleasant and relaxing trip because of being able to listen to these marvelous talks nonstop. The new MP3 CDs are economical too, with an average cost per talk of $1 instead of $4 as was the case in the cassette versions. There are even greater savings if you purchase the entire collection of all 35 disks. Check with the bookstore at any class for more details. MP3s also load easily on to your personal digital device giving you even more of an opportunity to take Vernon Howard wherever you go. Get one or more of these new MP3 CDs and start digging for your spiritual gold today!
     Doug Stewart has been attending New Life classes in Southern California for the past nine years. He has been in the entertainment industry for over 35 years. He has worked as a producer, director and editor and has had a long affiliation with television shows like the Oscars, the Emmys and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. “As glamorous and exciting as having a career in show business appears to be,” he says, “I was still confused about life and was not very happy. I started searching for the reasons why and found that nobody had any answers that made sense. One day I picked up a Vernon Howard book and later started going to the classes. I had found the answer to all of my questions! Now my life is so much more rewarding because of the authentic truths Vernon Howard reveals.”
     Technical data on MP3 Compact Discs:
863 talks — 21.35 GB — 638 listening hours; mp3 Pro® (FhG) (*.mp3); 80 kbps, 44100 Hz, Stereo (17:6:1), CBR (Constant Bitrate)

Pagosa Springs Banquet Report July 2010
By Regina Netherton & Judith Anderson
     On the weekend of July 9, 10 & 11, New Life held its annual summer Southwestern Banquet in natural settings surrounded by flowers, birds and views of Pagosa’s peaks.
     We’re not going to tell you about the speakers or the entertainment or the fabulous food this time or even of our Sunday morning meeting in the New Life pergola nestled against the mountains. We follow the same schedule Vernon Howard set up years ago to provide plentiful opportunities available nowhere else to study our esoteric lessons. And though the activities are familiar, Truth is experienced only in the present moment, which makes it fresh and new.
     One new addition after the break of Friday evening’s class was a duet by Lynne and Bruce (a pair a’ docs) of one of Vernon’s favorite songs, “Let the Rest of the World Go By,” with strong, pure harmony in sharp contrast to the screeching and screaming that the world now calls music. And something else brand new at the book tables were all 35 volumes of the recently recorded dated talks (from l986 thru l992) on MP3 Compact Disc. Listening to these make the talks seem very fresh and alive. You feel as if you’re hearing them for the first time; even if we were there personally, we missed so much! Talks for the weekend were based on the MP3 CD “Let a Higher Spirit Guide You.”
     We’d like to convey something much more than just the facts or words, difficult to describe unless you were there and open to the higher energies, which came thru especially in some of the talks. We were being lifted out of our usual mundane, pretentious and heavy lives to experience new and higher levels of being.
     As one student said, “The banquet atmosphere is so energizing. This is the first place I’ve been where people are honest with me. It makes you realize that it is possible to actually do what truth talks about — to begin to see things as they actually are.”
     So these teachings are not about believing anything but a means for finding our True Self, our essence. Banquets help most of all to value what Vernon Howard left us by applying it to our lives. Work with what we’ve been given, and find a way to attend banquets, where we can really discover true spiritual wisdom, not to believe or to parrot the words, but to experience the higher life for ourselves.

What is a New Life banquet?
      New Life has been having banquets for over 30 years. Our current schedule has banquets in March, May, July, September, Thanksgiving and Christmas. These special weekends were established by Vernon Howard for the purpose of teaching unique spiritual lessons.
     So many  elements of  both the spiritual and  physical are brought together in one congenial  setting at one time: inspiring classes, lavish banquet with tables laden with delicious food, a wholesome atmosphere with delightful music and bright, refreshing entertainment.
     At a New Life banquet you can relax and enjoy yourself, but at the same time do the inner work of being aware of all that is going on around you.
     These gatherings offer a right combination and balance of both serious and lighthearted spiritual work. It is pleasant being with like-minded people who want to grow spiritually and are beginning to discover what life  is really all about.
     People come to New Life classes and banquets from all over the world and all agree that they leave renewed and refreshed.
     Plan a visit whenever you can. We’ll be glad to make you welcome and you’ll be happy you attended!

Pagosa Springs Banquet Report July 2009
By Regina Netherton & Judith Anderson
     Refreshing! That’s what it was. Where else can you go to truly refresh the spirit and sense the presence of something higher penetrating one’s being while enjoying powerful spiritual talks, good food and fun entertainment?
     We’re talking about the New Life July 2009 banquet weekend in beautiful Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where a group of us from all over the west gathered for our annual Colorado banquet. One newcomer hailed from the Pacific Northwest while another was originally from as far away as Iran.
     On Friday night talks and snacks were provided at the Pagosa Lakes Clubhouse, where Moe Janosec began the class by noting that every banquet weekend is a celebration of Truth. He reminded us that God is trying to get through every second, but we of ourselves are blocking the healing message. Moe reminded us that New Life is “a safe place to reveal myself to myself.” He said, as Vernon before him, “Take the leap and God goes with you.” Dave Hearst mentioned that he had no idea what people were talking about when first coming to these classes, but with persistence, things gradually became clearer. This is the actual state of everyone when first meeting with truth teachings, so persistence is essential.
     On Saturday, New Life director Richard Wooldridge asserted in his talk that our most important task in life is to wake up. There is another world above the level of thought, but we are asleep to it. You could have heard a pin drop when Richard forcefully told everyone to fight to wake up. Disturbing to our dream state? Of course, but absolutely necessary as an urgent reminder of our true purpose here on earth. He said to fight to drop thought and to just know where we are all day long. It is crucial that we fight to stay awake where God, Truth, Reality can reach us. Genuine contact with the higher cannot occur as long as we are immersed in the prison of our own mental movies and daydreams.
     An enlightening Vernon Howard tidbit from Richard’s talk was made available at the book table on Sunday morning, which in part said:  Q: What determines the intensity of my desire to get out? A: Your intensity of desire to get out is determined by how much you reject the false pleasure of pain.
     The barbeque meal, the lighthearted dancing and the fun entertainment that followed the Saturday class fulfilled their purpose of helping us to defy any psychological heaviness and to fully enjoy the energized atmosphere.
     Sunday greeted us as a beautiful and perfect morning, and after a welcome breakfast in the New Life house out in the country, old and young alike climbed up the Happy Trail to a brand new garden pergola, built by local New Life students, amid the blue spruce and fresh mountain air. Class was held in the pergola, an attractive wooden arbor with a roof of trellis work which filters the sun. The beauty of the setting in itself was worth the climb up there, but more importantly by this time in the weekend, everyone felt and sensed beyond a doubt that he/she was in a right place spiritually, far away from the clamor and demands of daily life. And the old mechanical self had been corralled to one degree or another, if only temporarily, making room for higher impressions, which with a welcoming spirit can truly begin to heal our souls. Even nature itself seemed attuned to the unique atmosphere as we were serenaded with a delightful chorus of birdsong all during Sunday’s talks.
     Continuing to use the MP3 The Secret of Spiritual Awakening as a basis for talks, Bill Brown likened everyone to being a spiritual teenager, a rebel without a ‘pause’. He said that’s because our attitude (mostly unconscious) is this: “Don’t tell me anything. I already know everything.” One theme of the morning’s talks was that “God will take care of you. Why don’t you let him?”
     Other weekend speakers also helped to motivate and inspire our aim to wake up. In his Saturday talk, Dr. Bruce Tracy mentioned he was a ‘recovering fundamentalist’; then in a more serious vein, Bruce too affirmed that God will live our lives for us if we will let him.
     Altogether the weekend left us with the increased urge of wanting more of these healing vibrations and to reach a higher place within ourselves and within the universe. Vernon Howard set these banquet weekends up many years ago to help us to grow spiritually. Dr. Bruce Tracy goes into this in detail in his article starting on page 2.
(The photo to the right is of Craig Martz speaking to the class in the pergola on Sunday at the New Life property. It seats about 30 people comfortably.)

July 2008 Pagosa Springs Banquet Report
By Judith Anderson & Regina Netherton
     Powerful Techniques for Self-Rescue was the unifying theme of this July weekend celebration of truth in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The energized atmosphere of the banquet again provided an undeniable sensing of the presence of Something Else, with a glimpse of a higher world that becomes stronger and more uplifting with each get-together.
     As is the normal high standard at New Life banquets, the food was delectable and abundant all weekend long, “the best in the Four Corners,” according to the much-traveled Moe Janosec. Delightful wholesome entertainment also provided much good humor.
     Friday night Bruce Tracy guided the class speakers in a discussion of the first talk on MP3 (#82) entitled ‘How to Escape Your Noisy Mind’. Simple, clear instructions were given to watch our thoughts and to remain unconnected to them. Then Bruce asked us to simply and quietly notice how often all of those crazy thoughts just ‘happen’ to be about one person in particular. Instead of living from that mad mind, he pointed out, we can experience “the Kingdom of Heaven located in the space between two thoughts.”
     New Life Director Richard Wooldridge led the class on Saturday with an examination of the topic ‘How to be Happy with Yourself’. He referred to us being attacked by marauding thoughts like the tiny “No-see-um” bugs that deliver an annoying bite. In his talk Moe Janosec also likened human beings to the lost and wandering ant who crawled around the banquet floor without direction, unaware of being in danger underfoot. Moe added, “It’s going to take more conscious effort if we’re ever going to wake up. Just now we’re fakers. We’re all pretending.” Yet another such comparison was made Sunday by “Tall David,” who likened the lives of lost human beings to the disoriented bees now in the news. Talks provided many clues on how to solve our problems, which are caused by an inflated but imaginary ego, though we’re hoaxed into believing the cause is outer rather than inner.
     Some very meaningful and rightly emotional statements came from Richard on male-female relationships. He emphasized to “just be a nice man.” About marriage, he said, “You’re looking for something or someone to complete yourself. Instead, look inside. The answer lies within. I didn’t say you shouldn’t get married. But do the right thing. Be a good man, be a good woman.” Bruce also echoed something from one of Vernon’s talks that “when my heart is right, my mind and body will follow.”
     Sunday’s moderator Bill Brown opened with the reminder that we were in a sacred place. Now traditionally held outdoors above the New Life Foundation property, Sunday’s class found us reviewing our weekend lessons. A comment was made that a tremendous amount of effort was put forth to carry out this incredible celebration. Originally designed by Vernon Howard to provide us with opportunities to go beyond ourselves, banquets give us a choice between going higher at the expense of the old nature, or of holding on to the ego self and perhaps even leaving, never knowing what one could have had. Sally Forrest mentioned that we are able to do a lot more than our minds tells us we can do.
     ‘How to Own Your Own Life’, instead of being buffeted this way and that by dark moods and negativities, was Sunday morning’s subject. Bill discussed the science fiction movies whose aliens come down, take over the planet, and create illusions which convince the humans that they are real.  (Lynne later recalled that in these movies, many of the humans stupidly believe in the good intentions of the aliens to their own destruction). Bill asked us to right now face a painful past memory, allow its full intensity to wash over us and then be astounded by what the dark forces have been doing with our lives. Speaker Craig Martz quoted Vernon’s injunction that you must go straight through hell to get to heaven, by staying with the pain in order to be free of it.
     As we laughed and learned, Jon Johannsen acknowledged, “The Truth is here. It’s in these classes. It’s such a special thing to see and feel and we’re very grateful for it.” As Vernon once said, “Gratitude towards Truth can take you all the way out.”
     During Sunday’s class, we were visited by a doe lightly moving behind the speakers, and all the while the soft background music of birds singing seemed to call that a higher world is waiting if we will only listen. At New Life, we’re going higher. Want to come? Let these teachings show you how. Join Truth.

March 2008 Irish Banquet Report
     Howard Hall was filled with green this March weekend for New Life’s St. Patty’s Day celebration. Seekers of Truth came from coast to coast to celebrate the New Life banquet together, including a couple from Vermont. He had heard Vernon Howard speak many years ago in Boulder City, while visiting Las Vegas, NV, evidence of the lasting impression Mr. Howard made on the thousands who heard him.
     Saturday and Sunday each began with a welcome breakfast featuring favorite oven-baked cheese omelets with Hatch green chilies, and a variety of fruits, thanks especially to the efforts of Jodi and Katherine. We owe a special thanks to the ladies who worked so hard to provide not only the breakfasts but also the banquet meal. The traditional St. Patrick’s menu consisted of corned beef and cabbage, Irish potatoes, a special chicken dish, green salad, and an abundant display of desserts, as well as an extra lunch following the Sunday talks. This preparation provides ladies with a built-in opportunity to apply the principles taught in these classes.
     Bill Brown’s talk on Wednesday evening exposed evil in the world, which is plunging more rapidly downhill; that was counterbalanced by our determination throughout the banquet to instead “go higher.” On both Saturday and Sunday mornings, the talks were presented by other longtime Vernon Howard students. The talks were all inspiring and provided guiding-lights for deeper understanding.
     Highlights from the talks included Saturday’s keynote speaker, director Richard Wooldridge, who cautioned, “We vibrate to the world’s bad news. We don’t have to go into fear over it but just see it as a fact …. We set limitations on ourselves but if we put Truth first, everything in our lives is taken care of.” He added that we are rewarded through being aware of our actions. “You have to exhaust yourself in many ways (make super-efforts), then something outside this world can come to you — then God can help you.”
     Sunday’s keynote speaker Dr. Bruce Tracy repeated the necessity and benefits of effort: “We can do far more than we are doing.  Tremendous effort is required. You’re not getting worse since you started working on yourself; it’s just that you’ve just become more aware of what’s going on inside.” Bruce encouraged us that we were “not put here to be at the mercy of this world.” Self-responsibility requires that we “go into immediate action. Who is responsible for the chaos in your life? Never spare yourself.” In a mini-talk Lynne Wooldridge echoed this arousal to action: “We show our gratitude for these teachings by actually changing our nature.”
     David Netherton reminded the class of Vernon’s instruction to get outside of our comfort zone. He told a great story about an invitation that he received to a professional basketball game on the weekend of the banquet. He chose to attend the banquet weekend rather than the game, understanding that the game might provide temporary excitement but that attendance at the banquet could provide an impetus for uplifting and permanent life-change. He explained that we should try to do things we don’t want to do, like talking to someone we don’t usually talk with. Then it is necessary to turn your attention back on yourself in order to see your reactions.
     Banquets really do offer many opportunities for getting out of one’s comfort-zone in order to grow. The more we understand this, the more we see the beauty of participating in all the activities provided there, even those which make us uncomfortable. Those who do this are rewarded with a new kind of energy.
     The banquet took on a festive tone as participants, adorned with Irish green top hats and green or orange accessories, sang Irish songs during the formal entertainment, while the “Pretties” danced to a lively Irish tune. Other acts included a spirited western solo dance by Steve, and an act by Roy and Katherine based on a skit written years ago by Vernon Howard. Judith delighted us with a rendition of an old Irish poem which ended: “… May you be half an hour in heaven a’ fore the devil knows you’re dead.”
     Kyle perhaps best summed it all up when she said, “Coming to a banquet is like when your car battery runs down and has to be recharged; while attending the banquet your own batteries get recharged and renewed.”

Thanksgiving 2007 Banquet Report by Judith Anderson
     The 2007 New Life Thanksgiving Banquet, held in Westminster, California, was yet another celebration of our good fortune in having found the teachings of Truth so generously given to us by Vernon Howard.
     Lest we forget our gratitude and go back to a comfortable sleep, the festivities began with rousing talks on Wednesday evening. Introducing the uncompromising topic “Spirituality is All or Nothing,” Bill Brown began with the rhetorical question “Why are you here?” which stimulated self-investigation and student comments. Bruce Tracy cautioned that every day of our lives the intensity of our choice is being measured, which calls for a mental resolve to come back to ourselves 24 hours a day. Yet as Jon Johannsen reminded us, “You’re not stuck.  You don’t have to be like you are!” While something inside us lies and says don’t give up your old life, Bill assured us that we’re trying to make someone real that is not real — “me.” We heard again Vernon Howard’s words of supreme inspiration, “If you still try to take care of yourself, then God can’t do it!”
On Thursday morning speakers explored how to “Live Your Own Free Life.” Dr. Terry Roche said quite simply to let God make your decisions. Paul Wolfe echoed the biblical injunction that if you put Truth and God first, no matter what the “negative” occurrences, you’ll come out right.
     New Life director Richard Wooldridge emphasized too that we must place rightness above all else. Then we can learn to ignore the wrongness of others and walk away. Richard filled our spirits with right courage when saying that we have the whole universe on our side, admonishing “NO, you are NOT helpless!” Speakers sent us home with renewed determination to deeply investigate our inner lives and to listen to Truth when it speaks to us.
     A bountiful, delicious dinner with turkey and trimmings was served by the ladies, amplified by the table of limitless desserts. After cooking, carving and consuming our free range birds, we laughed our cares away at the jokes and songs of entertainment. Our hearts sang too, hearing the sweet harmony of our old favorites, such as Bruce and Lynne’s “Let the Rest of the World Go By” and “Till We Meet Again.” The New Life Pretties swelled our hearts anew with their lively dance to the “Orange Blossom Special” (appropriately performed in Orange County). As usual, nutty puns were sprinkled throughout, such as “I’ll take the lesser of two easels.” (You had to be there ….)
     And as we made efforts to ignore the old self’s fears and walk away from our resistance to dancing or social congeniality, we sensed the inner liberation of “freedom from me.” What a blessing we were given.