From 2026 Fall/Winter Newsletter

I was listening to a Vernon Howard talk entitled Truth Never Condemns You (from the MP3 CD The Secret of Spiritual Awakening). In this talk, Vernon implores us to “STOP CRINGING! You will stop cringing!” We fail to see how afraid we have been and still are. Recently a forest fire started as a result of a lightning strike near where we live. It was about 5 miles away. The residents in the immediate area of the fire were told they needed to evacuate. We were far enough away that there was no need to leave. News of the fire spread faster than the wildfire itself. Both of our neighbors came by within minutes to tell us the news. You could feel the panic in their voices.
These days there are all these apps you can download onto your smart phone to warn you of any impending danger such as really bad weather or a fire or some other “frightful” event. There’s one to warn you about hurricanes and they even have one for “himicanes” as well. You see the world wants you to be afraid, because then you are easily manipulated by lost and evil human beings. This does not mean you aren’t aware of physical dangers, but you don’t go into panic or utter terror because of the possible threat of something bad happening.
When I reacted to the news of the fire calmly, the neighbors made the assumption there is something wrong with me. There is a higher way to handle news like this without going into fear and anxiety, but most human beings live for the vibration of reacting negatively to a situation. Truth is trying to get us to keep our wits about us and remain calm. God says there is no need for me to suffer psychologically for any reason.
People and authorities tend to overreact to everything. The slightest hint or excuse to go into worry gives us a false feeling of life. In the talk Truth Never Condemns You, Vernon instructs us, “Disassociate your entire life from being afraid.” It doesn’t mean you don’t take appropriate action when in physical danger. I have had a close encounter with a bear and was able to diffuse the situation without going into panic mode.
I wonder how many incidents or close encounters with bad things that have happened over the course of our life could have been avoided if we hadn’t been afraid or had some sort of negative reaction come up inside us. These principles teach us that our level attracts these things to us. If we are constantly afraid that ill health is going to beset us in some way as we grow older, we will attract illness into our lives. Fear of something bad happening to us invites that thing to happen to us.
In Your Power of Natural Knowing, Chapter 18, Vernon states, “For good or bad you attract what you really are, not what you say you are.” The conditioning is so deep it is extremely difficult to see what we are really like. If someone observes and points out to us that we love to worry for instance, how likely are we to see it and use it to begin to get free of it? Or are we going to get defensive? A much more common response is to deny it. I might say, “I’m not like that,” or “I don’t worry that much,” rather than do some closer self-examination and consider the possibility that maybe I worry a lot more than I realize. If I worry then it seems to affirm my ‘existence.’ In that same chapter, Vernon explains, “Worry is a useless state caused by believing in your unreal self.”
There are so many things we don’t see about ourselves. I was observing a young receptionist who I see a couple of times a month. One time she is friendly and bubbly and the next time she is in a really bad state. She’s very agitated and snippy. Another time she’s soft spoken and reticent and the next time she appears to be more or less normal. We fail to see that these are acquired inner states and attitudes. It’s like one day we wear a bright colorful shirt or blouse and the next day we wear something dull, drab and dreary.
Of course I’ve never been like that. I’m always bright, upbeat and cheery!
I was watching part of a talk show where the host was pointing out how someone in their writing uses way too many commas. It was interesting because it was a perfect example of how we have been programmed or trained or brainwashed to do something which is completely mechanical and unnecessary. Instead of changing or correcting ourselves we keep doing it. Why waste time and energy doing something which is excessive and pointless?
I noticed that even AI wants you to use unnecessary punctuation. Where did AI get its knowledge or programming from? It could only be from a human. AI wanted me to use its for it in a sentence that I was composing all the while knowing it was correct. So the human who programmed this form of software took it from some data somewhere. What if that human being is flawed, which almost every human being is, and only has limited understanding. AI is trapped within the framework of the mental/thought world.
Within the last year someone showed me a writing created by AI. I could immediately tell that it had all been copied from text that someone had previously written or lectured on. Ideas from another source were then mixed in because certain thoughts were similar in nature. It was not one thing coming from a single source or a higher consciousness or an awakened human being. There was no essence behind it. It was lifeless. It was simply words and ideas cobbled together.
Any attempt to recreate something natural from an artificial source will always fail. An example is the Biosphere experiment that was a complete failure. An artificial ecosystem was created to try and mimic earth’s living conditions in the hope that it might be duplicated for space colonization. Even if man colonizes Mars or the Moon he is going to take his nature with him or her. It isn’t going to change anything.
AI might be a useful tool in everyday living on earth, but it can’t lead you to Truth. AI is of this world. It is earthbound. Only something which is above this earthly level can lead us to the higher. We have to connect with something which is not mental. In Your Power of Natural Knowing, Chapter 18, Vernon puts it this way, “You heal past mistakes by living today in the Secret World of your essence-self. Achieve this by letting Spirit replace thought as the Inner Director.”
All of this can be proved by you. If we watch carefully we can see that thought is typically running our life and we can also observe that something else can stand apart and see clearly what is going on. You can tell when someone is afraid, not necessarily by what they are saying but by observing the state they are in and the tone of their voice. We have been given an inner detector which can feel the other person’s state and whether they are lying or not.
We fail to see the obvious, both with other people and ourselves. If it sounds like a grump and looks and feels like a grump, it is a grump. We tend to fall for a person’s surface personality. Someone smiles at you or acts friendly and we think they are genuine. Usually they want something from you. It could be your money, approval, friendship, acceptance, your complicity, etc. It could be a thousand things.
These teachings are not an idea. They originate in the stars. These teachings are not about memorizing things. It’s about making an inner connection with your recovered essence by shedding your negative nature. We need to fall in love with the only thing that can truly love us, the Truth. There is something above the mind that can direct your life for you. This is not conjecture or belief or opinion. It is an absolute fact.