Beyond Heaven and Earth

by Steven H. Propp

  Stephen nodded, and said, “The search for the ‘hidden’ teachings of the great wisdom traditions is what Gurdjieff was all about, and he described his own search in his book, Meetings With Remarkable Men. But what was most unique about Gurdjieff was that he took this esoteric teaching, and brought it back to the Western world. In the east, the three traditional paths to study esotericism were the ways of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi, but Gurdjieff created a path for ordinary people, people in the world, and so he founded a number of ‘Fourth Way’ schools. That was how Ouspensky—who was already well-known as the author of The Fourth Dimension and Tertium Organum—met him in Russia in 1915, and studied with him off and on for eight years, ultimately describing the experience in his book, In Search of the Miraculous.”

  Julie spoke up, saying, “But neither Gurdjieff nor Ouspensky really used the teachings of the Ascended Masters. The Masters are the thing that is so exciting to me about the modern movements, because we now have direct teachings from enlightened beings who have already been through this earthly sphere, who can show us how to get along better in life, and provide us with direct information that took them many incarnations to learn.” To Jobran, she asked, “Didn’t you say originally that you were interested in life after death?” Jobran nodded, so she continued, “Well, if the Ascended Masters show us anything, it is that what we call ‘death’ is only an illusion. Our process of learning continues on, through successive lifetimes. El Morya, for example, in previous lifetimes was known as King Arthur, Thomas À Becket, Sir Thomas More, and others. Messenger Guy Ballard became Ascended Master Godfré in 1940, Edna Ballard became Ascended Lady Master Lotus in 1971, and Mark Prophet became Ascended Master Lanello after leaving his body in 1973. That’s why they are still able to dictate teachings and books even now!”

  Both Jobran and Abraham looked lost. With a friendly laugh, Marcus said to the group, “I think we may be losing them.” There were good-natured expressions of sympathy from the group, and Kate squeezed Abraham’s arm again.

  “I know there have been ‘hidden’ religious traditions throughout history,” Jobran said. “For example, the Christian Gnostic groups, the alchemists of Medieval and times, and others. But what person, or what group, was the first to express it in the terms that you do? That is, where ‘Masters’ are reincarnated and then ascended beings who are directly giving their teachings to their earthly representatives?”

  Members of the group looked at each other, as if searching for the answer among themselves. Stephen finally spoke up, and said, “Well, I believe that the Rosicrucians did, as did some of the other secret societies such as the Knights Templar, the Illuminati, the Freemasons, and…”

  “Oh, come on, Stephen,” Rachele said, in a chiding voice. “We all know that the person who really founded the modern movement was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in 1875, when she proclaimed that the Masters of the Wisdom were present on the Earth, and founded the Theosophical Society with Colonel Olcott. Two years later, she published Isis Unveiled, which had been written under the inspiration and guidance of such Masters.”

  “I’m not that familiar with this aspect of the philosophy of Madame Blavatsky,” Jobran said. “I mostly know her as a person responsible for stimulating interest in Buddhism in America and Europe, as well as reviving it in Ceylon. Her Theosophical Society also restored some of the Buddhist shrines in India and the East, as well.”

  Rachele looked pleased, and said, “That’s correct! Madame Blavatsky represented a true quantum leap—or paradigm shift, if you prefer that term—in her teachings, because she had either gotten her information directly from the Ascended Masters while she had been in Tibet earlier in her life, or else through direct revelations to herself or others, such as in the famous ‘Mahatma Letters’ that were delivered to A.P. Sinnett.” Looking quite serious, she added, “Previous teachers had relied too much on their own ideas and speculations, and were not in direct contact with the Masters.”

  “Well, she was certainly influenced by the other currents of thought in the 19th century,” Marcus countered. “Theosophy always had a love/hate relationship with the earlier Spiritualist movement, for example. But Emanuel Swedenborg in the 18th century was probably the true forerunner of Theosophy, because he was the first one who claimed to be able to speak directly with spirits and angels. Mary Baker Eddy’s forming of the Christian Science Church probably provided inspiration for Madame Blavatsky, as well.”

  “The Christian Science Church was formed a couple of years after the Theosophical Society,” Rachele said, curtly. “But H.P.B. didn’t need inspiration from Mary Baker Eddy; she received her information directly from the Masters, as well as some human teachers during her travels in Asia, India, and Tibet, before she came to this country.”

  “That’s true,” Kate interjected, “And that tradition of direct revelation continued after H.P.B.’s death, and was especially carried on by Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater.”

  “Revelation?” Rachele said, sarcastically. “Those two predicted that Krishnamurti—who they personally selected when he was only 14 years old— would become the ‘World Teacher,’ but he ended up rejecting that role, resigning from the Society, and about one-third of the membership left with him!” Kate glared at Rachele.

  Marcus laughed wholeheartedly, and said, “That’s why I am disciple of Rudolph Steiner; he ignored this whole backdrop of direct ‘spiritual guides,’ and such. Steiner had a more diverse and lofty philosophy; he simply carried on his own independent ‘spiritual research,’ elucidating the nature of the cosmos, the human soul and spirit, reincarnation and karma, as well as the evolution of humanity and the earth, and our place in it.”

  “If Steiner was so ‘independent,’” Kate cut in, “Then why is his best-selling book titled Theosophy, and not Anthroposophy? And why did he continue to earn his living writing for and lecturing to Theosophists, until they kicked him out of the Society in Germany because he was expelling members who supported Krishnamurti?” Now, Marcus became part of the group that was staring at each other with hostility.

  Stephen rose from his seated position until he was standing on his knees, and attempted to defuse the situation. “Hey, from my standpoint, all of the Ascended Master traditions, including Anthroposophy, have a lot of wisdom to offer us.” He now stood up, and began to speak to the group as if he were a teacher trying to persuade a recalcitrant group of students. “For example, Alice Bailey’s Arcane School, with its greater emphasis on the Christ than on Buddhism, and its refusal to enter political areas—unlike Theosophy, which especially under Annie Besant became very involved with politics in India—certainly produced a lot of enlightening teachings. So did Geraldine Innocente’s Bridge To Freedom movement, as well as the Roerich’s Agni Yoga Society; heck, I even like Robert and Earlyne Chaney’s Astara movement. To me, though, the next real breakthrough after Theosophy occurred with the ‘Mighty I AM’ movement of Guy and Edna Ballard in the 1930s.” Stephen was obviously talking about his favorite subject, and he continued, “Quite honestly, the I AM group was a lot more interesting than Theosophy, Anthroposophy, or the Arcane School—at least, as these groups were in the 1930s. I mean, the I AM group had music, spectacles in huge auditoriums, as well as fascinating and almost hypnotizing color paintings of the Masters—which were later used in slightly modified form by the Church Universal and Triumphant, and the Temple of the Presence. They also used modern communication methods such as radio, and direct mail.” He stopped for a moment, then continued on a more sober level, “Unfortunately, the I AM movement diminished significantly after the ascension of Guy Ballard in 1940—not to mention their persecution by the United States government—but it still exists today; and, more importantly its influence was carried on by the Church Universal and Triumphant, and more recently by Monroe and Carolyn Shearer’s Temple of the Presence movement.”

  “No!” Julie interjected. “The Church Universal an
d Triumphant was not influenced by the Ballards; I never even heard their names mentioned by anyone on staff during all the years I was living at Camelot and at the Ranch.”

  “They did use the paintings, the ‘I AM’ terminology, and the decrees that the I AM movement used,” Stephen reminded her gently. In a conciliatory tone, he added, “Look, there’s nothing wrong with different groups having similarities; in fact, we should expect this, because the Masters are all the same in all these groups! Naturally, they will lead the groups in the same direction.”

  “Well, if the I AM group’s influence was carried on by CUT, why do modern I AM’ers say that Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet were false messengers?” Marcus asked, with a self-satisfied smile. “That’s the advantage that Anthroposophy has, because it rises above all these petty squabbles, remaining at the objective, scientific level.”

  Jobran had been listening patiently throughout all the preceding discussion and argument, but he finally interrupted and said, “You know, if you don’t mind my saying so as a relative ‘outsider,’ it seems like all of these ‘esoteric’ and ‘Ascended Master’ groups argue with each other a lot.”

  Stephen sat down again, and said, “Unfortunately, Jobran, you’re absolutely right. It’s a scandal and a shame, and it really cuts down on the overall influence of the movement. The Theosophical Society rejected the I AM movement as well as the Bridge to Freedom; Edna Ballard of I AM was a very vocal opponent of the Bridge To Freedom movement, and the current I AM movement is bitterly opposed to CUT; the Bridge To Freedom strongly opposes CUT, and CUT ignores everybody before them except for Christian Science (in which Elizabeth Clare Prophet had been raised) and the Agni Yoga Society. In fact, the Temple of the Presence—the most recent of all these movements, just over ten years old—is the only one that has anything ‘positive’ to say about all the earlier movements.” He paused for a moment, then added, “Well, except for CUT—of which they were formerly members, having left under acrimonious circumstances.”

  Julie spoke up, saying, “I remember when Monroe Shearer was kicked out; Guru Ma—our name for Elizabeth Clare Prophet, besides Mother—said after he left that he was a Nephilim, one of the ‘Dark Ones.’”

  “You were on staff with CUT, didn’t I hear?” Abraham asked Julie, who nodded.

  “In 1978 I became a chela—a student/disciple of Guru Ma and the Masters— and then I was put on staff, where I remained until…well, I started getting disenchanted after 1990, when we finally quit having those daily practice drills in the underground shelters we had built, because Guru Ma had been prophesying that there would be a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union in March or April, so we built the shelters to protect us and allow us to start life up again after the battle. But the disaster didn’t happen.” The disappointment in her voice was genuine, and she continued hoarsely, “I really hated that phase of it; with all the buying of guns, and army vehicles. Mother’s husband at the time even went to jail for a short time because of it. But when the Soviet Union and Communism started falling apart, a lot of people began to doubt Guru Ma; lots of people were getting discouraged and leaving. Then revenues dropped off, and they started downsizing everything in 1996, and most of us on staff had our jobs cut out. We had hoped that Guru Ma’s daughter Erin would be able to take the mantle, but she left for a while, and Mother became ill with epilepsy and Alzheimer’s, and…I finally just left.” Tears in her eyes, she added, “I couldn’t take it any more, watching something that had meant so much to me decline like that…”

  Stephen nodded sympathetically to Julie, and said, “CUT isn’t finished yet; they’ve still got a website and publish books, and the Keepers of the Flame Fraternity is still alive and well.” Brightly, he added, “Have you ever checked out what’s going on with the Temple of the Presence? I’ve heard almost all good things about them, and I went to one of their Conferences, and it was great; there were some very powerful dictations given.”

  Julie shook her head vehemently. “I’m not really ready to get into another of those intense groups again, this soon.”

  Stephen gave a slight smile, and said, “I don’t think TOP is big enough yet to be an ‘intense group’; they’re still pretty small.”

  Wistfully, Julie said, “I do miss life at CUT headquarters; ‘Camelot,’ we used to call the headquarters in California, before they bought the ranch and we all moved to Montana. I liked their patriotic and anti-communist emphasis, as well as the fact that they drew on so many diverse traditions, from Buddhism, to Catholicism, to Theosophy, to Solzhenitsyn, to Montessori schools.” She sighed, and added, “And sometimes, I really miss the intensive spiritual atmosphere that we had in the early days at Camelot. I liked greeting each other by saying ‘Hail’ rather than ‘Hello,’ because ‘Hello’ had the word ‘Hell’ in it; I liked saying ‘Shiva’ instead of ‘shit’ whenever something went wrong. We had the Summit University, our own books, our own magazines, our own schools, our own Conferences; we didn’t have to worry about crime and drugs, conflict and politics. It seemed like we were all geared to healthy, spiritual living and the ‘Coming Revolution in Higher Consciousness.’ Even though things eventually went bad after they moved to Royal Teton Ranch, that early period is still the highlight of my life.”

  For the first time, Byron spoke up, and suddenly said, “Personally, I wish I could have been in Gurdjieff’s school in St. Petersburg in Russia during the ‘glory’ years during the First World War, when Ouspensky was one of the pupils. Gurdjieff provided an intensity and a discipline to his teachings, that Theosophy and these other philosophies lack.” He saw that the whole group was looking intently at him, eager to hear him finally speak. He continued, “To have a Wisdom School where, after working intensively all day on spiritual philosophy in addition to performing manual labor, you can then have a huge feast in the evenings, get drunk and dance all night is my kind of a ‘Wisdom School’!” They all laughed, and the relaxed and friendly atmosphere was restored. “I used to be involved with Scientology, back in its glory days of the 1980s, when L. Ron Hubbard was writing his final series of novels, starting with Battlefield Earth, and ending with the Mission Earth series; the books were on all the best-seller lists, and everything was great. But after Ron died in 1986, it seemed like the Church was taken over by a series of faceless corporate lawyers, more interested in filing lawsuits than in developing and refining Ron’s spiritual technology. All of the books they’ve published since then are just compilations, rehashes, and simplifications of Ron’s ideas, with better graphics—which is a shame, because Ron insisted that his legacy wasn’t primarily him, it was the Tech! So I decided to go back to Hubbard’s roots, when he traveled and studied philosophers and teachers in the Far East, and that’s how I discovered Gurdjieff.”

  Stephen looked over at Jobran and Abraham, who had been passively listening to all these conversations. To the group, he said, “You know, we’ve probably convinced our guests that this ‘Book Club’ does nothing but argue and reminisce all evening, which isn’t true.” He turned to Jobran, and asked, “Tonight, we were supposed to just pick out our next book to study. Do you have any suggestions? Or what would you be interested in studying?”

  “Well, like I said initially,” Jobran replied, “We’re mostly interested in the concept of life after death. Do the ‘Ascended Masters’ have anything to say about that topic?”

  “Lots!” several people replied, almost in unison. Kate added, “Both Annie Besant and Leadbeater have short books on life after death.”

  Marcus said, “Steiner has lectures and books on karma…”

  Cutting off the discussion, Jobran asked pointedly, “In brief, what do they say about it?”

  The group looked at each other, as it trying to decide who should go first. Rachele spoke up, saying, “Well…karma and reincarnation, obviously.”

  “Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet taught that it was absolutely necessa
ry that every soul reincarnate—or ‘reembody,’ as they called it—until they had earned their ascension,” Julie added.

  Rachele continued, “H.P.B. rejected all notions of Heaven, Hell, the resurrection of the body, and those typical Christian notions. She believed in the immortality of the Spiritual thinking Ego, which is our permanent principle, and is what actually reincarnates.”

  “Anthroposophy taught a doctrine of reincarnation where it was integral, and not merely ‘compatible,’ with Christian teachings as well as with the notion of free will,” Marcus said. “Steiner taught that after death we enter a soul-world which serves a purging or purifying function. There, we review our previous lives with spiritual guides, and determine what we need to accomplish in our next life.”

  “Do these reincarnating egos remember their former lives on Earth?” Jobran asked.

  “Definitely not; the Spirit Ego is ‘blinded’ to all earthly affairs,” Rachele replied. “This was the biggest point of disagreement of the Spiritualists with Blavatsky, by the way.”

  “Annie Besant, on the other hand, modified Blavatsky’s teaching, and said that people bound by enduring bonds of love can be drawn back together when they return to Earth; their karmic paths tie them together,” Kate said. “Leadbeater even said that Spiritualism had done a great deal of good work, by allowing people who died suddenly to partially manage their affairs after death.”

  Marcus said, “Steiner said that we might meet some beings in the spiritual world that we were strongly karmically linked to during our earthly life, who we would encounter during later incarnations—although it was unlikely that we would have the same exact relationship with them, since that ‘sameness’ wouldn’t help us grow spiritually.”