Impression Friday, you guys! We're finally, I think, through the Big Four releases for summer, although I didn't see one from Vogue now that I think about it. But either way, we are going to be taking a look at Fiber Mood's latest collection, which at this point has come out, what was it, two or three weeks ago. So it's not new new, but I did not review them yet for First Impression Friday, so we're going to look at them today. Okay, so first things first. Here are all the line drawings. Again, we're only going to look at the women's patterns, not the little kids' patterns. And okay, starting with the Bloom skirt. Okay, a bloom for every day of the week. Why ever not? Really, you can never get enough of this paperback skirt. Straight skirt features an elastic waist with adjustable ties, so you know it fits perfectly. I actually really like an elastic waist with ties because you can make the elastic like fitted but not snug and then tie the drawstring to make it snug.  It makes it a little more adjustable without being constructing. Okay, so no need to get tight. Okay, with Bloom, your dream skirt is ready in one, two, three, consists of two pattern pieces, no time to trace, cut out, and sew together ready to go. Okay, structured fabrics, poplin and linen, and fabrics with fluid drape like rayon, rayon crepe, satin, tin cell are equally good options, but you don't have to limit yourself to woven, you can also use knits. Okay, so basically any fabric on the sun is what they are telling us here. So as always, they have the really cool like artsy pictures. I just wanted to get a good look at the waistband. So it's actually like a pretty skimpy elastic, am I right? I don't know, I was expecting something a little bit more substantial. This is like quarter inch elastic or something, but the ties are on both sides. So that's kind of an interesting little twist. There's one that's like a set. Yeah, I don't know about this. It seems a little dinky, but I mean, I guess that's easy enough to adjust. So there's that, here's the sizing, you don't need any notions other than the elastic, and then US sizing. So the elastic that you need zero to 26 is the size range. And here's your fabric requirements. Their size chart is somewhere in here. I remember it being pretty inclusive last time. I also remember, yeah, I was having to go to plenty of different other links in order to get all of the information. So if you're looking for more information on any of these patterns, I think you have to download the instructions to get the size chart. It was something really funky about it, but I remember it being pretty, pretty inclusive. Okay, so that's the Bloom skirt. It also doesn't have the pricing here. Does it have it here? No. So you just have to, you know, keep clicking through to all these different, all these different things in order to find the information that you need. Well, this one has actually a lot more pictures. Am I right? Yeah, this one does have a lot more pictures. Does this not have, hold on, makes a much sewing patterns. So shop sewing patterns, PDF patterns. Let's see what's in here in this folder. Does it have it sorted by release? No, it doesn't. So that's why that makes this a little bit more difficult. I think these are alphabetic. Yeah, so that's really annoying. But either way, we can get a good enough idea about the patterns just from looking through the magazine portion of their site. Okay, this is the Dana. Dana makes you long for summer, but the great thing is you don't have to, if it's still chilly out, just throw on a card again. This romantic button-down dress with a lovely square neckline can also be short-node, comfy top, and long-lived ruffles. You can find them at the top and bottom of the bracelet sleeves and at the front and back, ruffles add an extra degree of comfort while retaining a lot of charm. Do they mean gathers? Where Dana tightened up the waist with a belt or loose and easy? Fabrics are your kind of like mid-weight or lightweight, but stable woven. All right, here are the photos. So we've got like a little yoke here. I think this is a square neckline, which is really pretty. Two little buttons here. Then it's sewn into gathers, and this just creates, you know, an A-line dress. Buttons down the front, and then I'm guessing we're going to have some sleeves. Sleeve options? No, just the one sleeve maybe? The square neckline is really pretty. So they've made a self-belt for this one to give some definition at the waist, and that's it for photos. I always want the line drawings on this page too. I just can see so much more within a line drawing. Okay, so thread, interfacing, 12 buttons, and then three-ish yards for fashion fabric, three and a half. Yeah, this one just has, does this one have line drawings on it? Yes. All right, I guess we should just click through to this site every time. Okay, so like I said, kind of square neckline, yoke, there's facings in there, and then what does this double line mean? Is that a length and shorten line? Okay. Bust, waist, yeah, kind of a lot of undescribed lines there. If you don't know what you're looking at, you're like, uh, what? And then here are some more of the pictures. That's the top version. Here's the back, another view of the front. It is a really cute dress. It's hard to see, and I always say this about their photos, but when they're not just kind of standing straight, it's hard to see just how like wide the hem of the dress is. This sort of gives us an idea, but this is a much draperier fabric, like a lot draperier. So hers is going to fall closer to her body than this chambray would, but this chambray, I can't really tell just how wide it is. I mean, every photo is, you know, hands on hips or the fabric turned in a certain way or her body turned in a certain way. So it kind of, you know, hides, not hides, but you just can't really see the full, full view of the, of the dress. But I'm guessing it's, it's pretty voluminous if you don't pull it in. All right. So now let's go to Fiona. All right. A good workhorse jumpsuit is hard to find. Thankfully, Fiona guarantees you oodles of comfort as well as a gorgeous cut where a casual dressy tighten at the waist of the tie belt or leave it off. The back features an asymmetrical closure for a hint of playfulness and asymmetrical closure. What is that? We went for Kulot link trousers, but they can be lengthened into a longer version, round neckline, raglan sleeves, XS to 3XL. So all you can really tell from this photo is that they are like just above ankle length. I wouldn't even call this Kulots personally, but you can see here they're just barely skimming her ankle. This version is, so they added the tie belt. So the tie belt is not separate. It's just optional. I like that a separate tie belt that like comes off completely. I don't know. I feel like I'm always losing those. They're always coming untied as I'm wearing them. It's kind of really annoying. So that's nice. This is supposed to be the asymmetrical closure. I don't really understand what that means, but here's the raglan sleeve. Very blousey. Very blousey. Let's go back. Yeah, I can't really see much about the crotch or anything about how it fits either. So rounded neckline. It looks like it's either finished with bias binding or just maybe even turned under. Raglan sleeve. The waistband or waist casing.  It's pretty straightforward. I wish they would have shown us one without the waistband. This looks really long to me. Although this, if that is the waist scene, it's just too hard to tell, but it looks like that might be the waist seam. And if that's the case, the bodice is very, very long, which also is in line with this. You can see how blousey this is. So if you don't install the drawstring and there's nothing to hold the pants up on your body, the whole thing is going to fall down. And then you're going to have a drop crotch, which is why this design, as it is on her, and where else did I see, I guess that was the only one, which is why this doesn't make sense to me. Like either it is blousey like this, and you have to have the drawstring to keep the crotch line where it needs to be, or it's like this where there's no blousing at all. And that's the way that you would be able to wear it with or without the drawstring. So yeah, this one's giving me a lot of red flags on the Fiona. Oh, this is the picture I was talking about. I'm just trying to look and see if I can see, because her natural waist is way up here. And this is where the casing is falling because it's such a long, a long torso. I mean, look at this. That's wild, right? And then we already saw that one. Yeah, so I don't know, I guess decide do I want the drawstring or not, and then make the necessary adjustments. But that back draping like that, that's just kind of insane. I was also trying to see, yeah, I mean, look how much it's drooping down. Is that the way they want it to be? I don't know about that either. I was looking for the front raglan, but you can't really see it. But that's like, kind of a low scoopy back. So yeah, I'd be a little leery about Fiona. All right, next we have the grace top. Okay, funky grace. Let's look at this one first. Looking for a graceful addition to your wardrobe, meet grace.  On the front, you'll find lovely pleats that extend the full length of the garment. Okay, so we've got the raglan sleeve into kind of like a almost like a woven turtleneck. Really beautiful sleeve into that cuff. And there's also some pleat details. It's almost like a pleat that opens up over the bust, which is really, really pretty. There's the bow in the back. There it is untucked. Thank you for showing that. That's another thing I look for in these photos. That's a very like interesting style. Here it is in an eyelet with kind of like a pleated skirt. Again, very distinct sort of styles the way that these are all paired up with other garments and accessories and everything like that. It's pretty, I don't know how wearable it is. This seems like the most wearable, but even that for me, I mean it's a lot of coverage all the way up to the neck. Maybe it's because like my mind is in like summertime and so it's just hard to imagine being this covered up. But I guess it is pretty. XS to 3XL. Let's see these photos. Untucked again. I mean that is so, so pretty. The sewing and construction on that is pretty amazing. Here's your stand collar. Yeah, I can't really tell. Is this like feminine? Is it not? Do you know what I mean? It kind of really toes the line there, which is kind of cool. All right, that's grace. All right, now we have the Eila? Eila blouse? Eila? Eila? A slightly oversized blouse with a collar and collar band, yolk and gathers at the back. Eila, I'm going to call it, is a wonderful addition to your wardrobe. The shaped sleeves make this a simple project and give the blouse a playful, relaxed fit, where Eila with jeans, trousers, skirt tucked in or comfortably out is oversized. Not really your thing. Just make Eila a size or two smaller. Be sure to check the size chart first to make sure there's enough wiggle room. XS to 3XL. And then here are our photos. I mean, does it button up? Are we looking at this? Okay. So it looks like it has grown on sleeves and it's like a button down with like a true collar stand and collar. Here's that first skirt. So if you wanted to make the low matching set like this, here it is unbuttoned. But it's like, first of all, I don't know that I think this is very oversized, especially not two sizes too big. I don't know that I would follow that instruction. It's just a boxy cropped top. This is a pretty photo. You can see the hem, how it's like curved a little bit. That's kind of nice. Yeah, I would wear it untucked for sure. Sleeve might be a little bit long. It makes sense that it kind of goes up like this. That's what grown on sleeves do. Here's the line drawing. Oh, it also has a back yoke, which I missed. Well, because there's not really any photos of the back and a little bit of gathering there. Yeah, it's kind of cool. I could see myself wearing this, especially let's see, is this the, where am I? Here I am. Especially the fabrics are draper. Yeah. Over the shoulders and look less of a luminous. Right, it'll fall closer to your body if something's draper, like a rayon or crepe, tinsel, or if you want a boyfriend look, choose structured fabric, like chambray, poplin, linen and cotton twill are all great options. All right, we'll look through these photos really quickly. There's this one again, or some version of that one. All buttoned up. Okay, that's Ayla. Now we have the joy dress. It looks to be like a little knit, casual, comfy, and still classy. The joy t-shirt dress has got us jumping for joy. It has a clean look with a handful of choice details, such as the crew neck with neck binding in trim fabric, a cord and cord stopper at the waistline, and wide raglan sleeves that you can alter to be more fitted if you prefer. Extra small to three X. Oh, I see they did use the actual cord stoppers. That's interesting. Gives it a more like athletic, sporty kind of vibe. Again, with this super long bodice though, like what does this show us about the garment? Her one raglan sleeve. See how they use the cord stoppers? That's really interesting. Cute. Here's the neck band that really isn't fitting very well. Also, did they even press it? They do have this little detail, which is on a lot of like sweatshirts and stuff. Again, just kind of like a little more like athletic-y. And then on this one is their line drawing gap. So you can see the neck band, but they didn't include the neck band on this illustration. But you've got the little v-thing here. You've got your raglan. You've got your waist elastic, which is supposed to sit at your natural waist. That's what they're telling us here. They're also not showing a lot of blousing. So I don't know. I don't understand what's happening with these. I mean, that's not her natural waist. And like that's closer to hers, but it's just so baggy up top and big. Like, I don't think you need this much ease up here. It's a cool look, but again, I don't know. I just get nervous when I see that there is this much work that needs to be done to something, you know? So now we're on to Maya so far. This is like not looking good. Well, I guess depending on how you look at it, it looks great for my wallet and my patterns stash. Not so good for fiber mood though. All right. This one is Maya. Let me clean out some of these. All right. Maya is a super feminine A-line dress with round neckline that hugs your body. Short sleeves and their pleat design creates volume and interest, but there are so many possibilities with these sleeves. Leave the pleat allowance on the inside for subtle volume. Feature pleat allowance on the outside for a statement sleeve. Go for a combination for a playful effect. Maya has an invisible zip at the back lengthening and shortening this dress as a breeze. So this is a woven, I'm assuming. We've got like a set in sleeve. This is the pleats that they're talking about up here. We've also got some kind of darting or shaping happening here and then it flares out. It's quite long, nitty length. I want to see closer up of how that is finished. I guess it's just turned under maybe. So this is kind of cool. I don't know. I can't see anything in that picture. It's got the neckband, which is really nice. Oh, here's a really good picture. Well, I thought so. Is there also a waist seam? Let's get to that line drawing already. Oh, here's a close-up of the sleeve. More fish eye dart to the back, which, you know, I do like that a lot. I just think that maybe it's a little too fitted through there. Here's some more of the sleeve. And you can see how the sleeve is finished. The sleeve is super cool. I love the sleeve. I don't know about the rest of it. This just felt a little too, maybe it was that just that one version because how does, I mean, hers looks okay. Maybe they're also too high. Is that, I'm trying to remember, if fish eye darts, look how high they go. They go up to the bust, like bust line. Is that normal? I don't know. Maybe if you lowered them, it would be a little bit better. But you guys know I love a fish eye dart. Like, don't get me wrong. Like, super cool fish eye darts. But and the sleeve is cool. Yeah, I don't know. I guess just none of the little versions here.  I don't know what it is. But yeah, you can see here how they are coming up to her bust line. It all feels a little bit like, like busty. Like the whole time I'd just be like pulling on it or something. The concept is really cool though. And that, see now that version looks pretty good. Nice and comfortable and like I wouldn't be tugging on it too much. I also like it in a stripe. I don't know. It's, it's okay. Okay, so kids, kids, this is the last one? No, there's a couple more. Okay, this is the Harmony top. Harmony top looks pretty cute so far. Let's take a look at it here. Ahoy mateys, inspired by sailor shirts.  All right. Sailor collar button flap on the shoulder and short sleeves with gathers above the fitted cup. Pimp Harmony your way? What? Cup no cup ruffles or none in a mix of different fabrics. Maybe even with a lace insert. Anything goes. I don't know about pimping things. Um, I, I know why I like this. It's, I do like a front yoke into a gather that I like that kind of style. Um, what's the rest of the sleeve look like? It just kind of goes down into this like button cuff. Oh, and there's buttons here. Oh, look, they did two different sleeves. These pictures are just so hard to see what's going on. So what were they saying about pimping out all these different options? I only see one option. I'm so confused. Let me read that again. Button flap on the shoulder and short sleeves with gathers above the fitted cuff. Okay, got that. Pimp Harmony your way? Okay. Cuff, which we saw. You can leave the cuff off. Ruffles. I, I don't know where the ruffles would go. Where, where would the ruffles go? Or none? Oh, ruffles or no ruffles. And they mix in different fabrics. Maybe even with a lace insert. Okay. Well, okay. The thing is about this is I have patterns like this. I mean, this one's a little bit different because this is kind of like a bib, which is certainly a lot more salary. But I do like how it fits. I do like a lot of these details that are there. So it does have a lot of good things going for it. Oh, loose thread. Oh, this is a whole different vibe. Yeah, the lace insets pretty, but again, I have patterns like this. So it's not really anything new. And I guess this is how you get in, which that's kind of cool because you just unbutton these instead of having anything in the back. So that's kind of interesting and different. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Harmony. Now we have Vera, the Vera top. That lady knows how to model her hair. Am I right? I'll show you whenever we get back to the other link or the other tab. Good basic high cozy factor is a must in every wardrobe. Vera has a lovely fit in neck binding and rib trim fabric. The sleeve and hemline seams are finished with two parallel lines of top stitching. Roll up the sleeves for a casual look. Okay. This whole thing is rib knit. Okay. So interesting. So it's kind of sort of like a cowl sort of, but it's big. I was not expecting that. There are so many rib nits that have like, I don't know, like stripes going through them or they're metallic. I don't know. They have something special. They're just kind of really pretty on their own. This might be a great way to highlight that. And then they rolled up her cuffs and this might just be, I just can't look away from this, but what is happening? What is that? So we're going to move on from that photo. It's just ill-fitting bands, I guess. Lord, I don't know. Okay. So here's the back. That's kind of cool. You're like me mugging at us. You can see that side eye. Miss bang. Yeah. So here it is. Here's the rib knit. Wrap string to the back. The rest of it is pretty straightforward. Again, I see something like this and I think, well, I could just hack a sweatshirt pattern that I have and I know that I like. I mean, it's drop shoulder. You know, there's nothing really spectacular about it. Cropped length. This is the only really new and interesting thing and I don't know that that detail is worth $8.50. But that's harmony. What I was saying about this lady and her hair, does she not know how to, she needs to be like Pantene model, the way that she juices her hair like that. It's cool. I like the tone on tone thing that they did. I don't know if this is intended to go up this high to be like almost like a cowl, but I mean, it's kind of cool. Hey, look, she has one of those cool ponytail. Oh, no, no, never mind. Those other ones.  They're really cool. Anyways. All right, there. Oh, there's that awful picture again. Okay. Finally, we have Noelle. Noelle is the jacket. So once you're wearing this blazer, you won't want to take it off again. We adore Noelle's strong yet gentle look. Noelle, it has a loose cut, three quarter length sleeves, sophisticated welt pockets, and it's double breasted. For the seam finish, we keep it simple. That way, it won't be long before you're wearing your own Noelle and making the most out of spring. Extra small to three X. This is also $8.50 and like, I don't know, but sweatshirt before compared to the details of this with this notch collar and welt pockets and everything. It just feels like that other one is not really worth the money. Yeah, this is like an oversized, super cool, super chic. You can see how it's double breasted here and like where it hits whenever you button it up. Oh, that's an even better picture. Can't you just get, yeah, that just looks like a little bit of 80s in there, you know, how they had all those like drapey blazers. It's just, yeah, relaxed, but cool, cool, relaxed, sophisticated chic. I'm getting all those vibes from this. All right, Noelle, Noelle might just save this release. Yeah, I can just see this being like a really great layering piece, like especially not so much now because our temperatures are pretty consistent, but when the temperatures are like transitioning and it's cool in the morning and kind of like hotter in the afternoon, this will be a great piece to have. Definitely read up on the fabrication notes that they have on this too, because that is going to make a roll of difference. But it looks like you have like a true set in sleeve, this notched collar, some kind of facing in here. Obviously, there's a facing through here somewhere. Your double breasted buttons and buttonholes, welt pockets, they don't have a flap. They're just like regular welt pockets.  That's not true. So this is a bust line. And I assumed that this was a waistline, but that's not right. This is your, gosh, your hip. I don't even know. This makes no sense, because it's way longer than that. You know, I don't understand that. So that illustration is just really confusing. Here are some more photos. Super cute like this with a little crop top and a skirt. I love that.   It's like, oh my God, I can't wait to make this. Or it's just kind of like, this is not helping. You know, it's one or the other extreme. It's never really like in the middle. Okay. And that is it. That is the fiber mood issue 14. Is that what we said? Here is, oh, I really wanted to open those line drawings. Here is the actual magazine. I'm eager to hear what you guys think of the patterns. This makes me feel like it's not supposed to be that high up on your neck. I don't know. I think that there are, unfortunately for me, just too many fit issues on the models that just makes me, I mean, certainly, you know, shortening the bodice length is not that big of a deal.  If something is just that egregious out of the gate, you know what I mean? And just, yeah, sort of nothing really new and different to add to my wardrobe. So I don't think I'll be adding any of these. Some of them are pretty cool, though. Maybe like in the future, if I'm looking for something specific, I'll come back to this, but it wasn't like the last collection where I was like, Oh my God, I have to have that. The jackets, the coolest thing that they have going. So I was really glad to see that and see it styled in such a fresh way. So, but I'm eager to hear what you guys think. Let me know in the comment section below. Oh my gosh, that is a really cute picture. Let me know in the comment section below what you guys think. Otherwise, I will see you all back here. First impression Friday in two weeks because next week's first impression Friday is being replaced by one of the days on the sew along. So see you back here in two weeks for our next first impression Friday. Bye, you guys.


Okay, welcome everyone, we're just going to keep filtering in here, and it's beautiful to have this beautiful home that we can all gather in today, in this very majestic setting, to weave our way through the trees to come back to this beautiful home, and Pam and her husband have been so gracious to let us use it today, and so spacious we've got extra seats, so welcome. There's plenty of room here. Well it's so great for me to be back in Sydney. I'm just so glad to come here and have this time together, and I think it will be a very profound time together, and I came to Australia for seven consecutive years from this 19, 2005, 2006 to all the way through 2011, I think was the last time I was here, and we would do tours through Australia, stop in here at Sydney and my mother places up to Nusa and all the way to the coast down to Melbourne, and very, very profound experiences here that I had, and so a friend of mine, Kate Greaves, is working on putting a Course in Miracles conference together down in Melbourne for later this year. Oh, you came all the way over from her. You came a long way today. Just arrived. I know.  It's so great. It's like these are reunions too of sorts, and the beat goes on, but there's going to be that conference down, I think it's going to be October 28, 29 and 30th in Melbourne. So, and I'll be speaking on Sunday, and Gary Renard will be speaking on Saturday, and then Friday will be a big gathering get-together for people to meet and maybe from all over Australia, I think, just to come together in this mighty purpose that we have. So, we're very grateful, and we really enjoyed our time here too. We've had some wonderful discussions about the Danta and oneness last night, and then this morning we just have eased into the day, and this is just a time for us all to come together and go much, much deeper into the experience of this beautiful presence that we are. We were created as love, and we've had some veils and some dark thoughts and beliefs that have covered over our identity, but we are waking up, and it's like a wave of love coming across this. We're starting to really see who we are, and we see that the illusions of the ego cannot hide our true identity from us. And it's also a time of, you might say, dismantling and disorientation as we loosen from the familiarity of the world that we're all kind of like swimming through consciousness and coming into new awarenesses. And there's always a bit of disorientation when it happens, but as I've been calling it, the Course in Miracles calls them, the mighty companions appear down here in Australia.  We are mighty mates for each other as we're waking up, and we're kind of arm in arm side by side so that when we have our wobbles, we don't fall down. We keep marching toward the light, keep going inward. And that's important, because I think a friend of mine who lives down in Melbourne, he told me that he listened to a gathering that I just did in Frankston, and that for him, he's heard so many different American teachers of the Course, but he just heard all these Aussie accents for like two hours and twenty minutes, and he said his heart was just up, because he thought like, oh my gosh, there are people around me that are going through these same struggles and same awakening experiences, and it really warmed his heart to hear that. He said, I can't tell you, David, I just read him briefly before I came up here, he said, but I cannot tell you how important that is to me, because it gives me confidence that I can handle this, I can make it through, because it's been so intense. He's been pretty much on his own, he hasn't been going to course groups or meetup groups or anything like that, so for him just hearing the Aussie accents was just a profound experience for him, and I think that's what we're talking about, that's a reminder that we need symbols of help along the way, because if we feel like we're in this all alone individually, then it gets to be overwhelming and very, very difficult. So for me, I feel the Course is a very direct path to God, and I do feel that the more you get into the teachings, the simpler it becomes. It's when you have a foot in both worlds and you still believe in the lack and the scarcity and the reciprocity and trying to get things from the world or get things from people, that that's when the Course seems difficult. When you're working with the Course it seems like it's the undoing of everything you believe, absolutely everything in your mind, and that could be overwhelming, but I feel like as soon as you give yourself over and you have that kind of yes to spirit in your heart, then you've kind of crossed over the hump and you're going to be downhill from there. It's almost like being told you have to empty your mind of everything you think you think and you think you know. You have to come to live in the I don't know mind in terms of this world every day. So you wake up in the morning and you just say, here I am, spirits guide me, direct me. I have no clue of what anything means, and yet I know you are with me and you're going to be guiding me and I know I'm going to go through the day, make it through the day, and things may fall apart, things may fall away, things may get turned upside down, that we're already upside down, they're actually getting turned right side up, but the ego doesn't believe that. It thinks everything's getting tossed around like a tossed salad, but actually it's like our mind is coming around right. Like that old Quaker song, you know, it is a gift to be simple, it is a gift to be free, and at the end we do, we turn, we turn, and we come around right. We come into our right mind, we come into sanity, we come into happiness, we come into joy. All of the programming that has taught us that we have to first rule is survive. A lot of us have gone through that route and we have survived. You know, we can say that physically we seem to have survived, but emotionally and spiritually it can feel like that we were like Zen beginner's mind or like we're just in the very baby, infantile stages of a very profound awakening. And it's very humbling too when you still think you know something and then you go through the day and you go at the end of the day, well, I thought I knew that, and that's not even true. I know a lot of us have had those experiences, like that's not even true. My gosh, how can I even believe that there's a solid ground under my feet with all that I've been shown today?  So these gatherings and these joinings we have, I think our time savers, we're here to invite the Spirit to come, call upon the Spirit to clarify things for us, to illuminate our minds, to strengthen our trust that there is a Spirit guiding us and that we don't have to try to figure out the world. We don't have to figure out the steps or how this is going to go. We can actually keep following and listening and following and we will come into a stabilized, peaceful state of mind. A joyful state of mind where we may be clueless about the world, but we're joyful. And if it's really that's what it all comes down to, wouldn't you rather trade trying to understand the world for joy, for the simple joys of a state of mind that is fairly given, fairly experienced. So I'm here to join with you and I'm open to all kinds of topics or questions or curiosities. About how do you seem to still live in the world? It's one thing to have these real high ideals and all of us can resonate with the idea of oneness, that we're all completely connected. Whether we come through a religion or through spirituality or through quantum physics or consciousness studies, it doesn't really matter, but we know there's something that's there that connects us all and we're onto it. We're getting closer and closer to it in our awareness. And we also know that there seem to be these blocks and these resistances. And I think the most we can do as we join together and share our miracles and share our helpful advances in the spiritual journey is it builds our confidence that we can actually make it through. We can make it through the keyhole and back into that oneness. And we need that confidence. We need that confidence to go on in this journey. So yeah, I just want to open it up for any types of topics, questions, anything that comes to your mind. And I'm happy to join with you and join in coming to clarity on whatever is going on in consciousness. So we can come to that smooth sailing, easy going, free flowing state of mind that's our natural inheritance. If I can open up. Yes, please. One of the things I've been reading in the ACIM is special relationships and holy relationships. If I see the world around, most of us in a special relationship, when we get married, there's a special relationship husband and wife, there's a special relationship with children, there's a special relationship with a boss at work. We see that as special relationship and then this comes holy relationship. I'm still not 100% clear how to go from one to another. There's always a bit of a, I guess, a fuzziness around those two. We want to go with holy relationship and then because we have been with a person for such a long time in history, the special jumps in that holy, so you kind of flip-flop between the two. And I'm kind of, I just would like the more clarity around those relationships because I think at the end of the world it is all about relationships.  But since I'm meeting most of them for the first time, it's a good holy gathering. But then I also have my wife, my brother-in-law who I have been with for the last 20 or 30 years. It's a special relationship. You know what I'm saying? So if you can enlighten me a bit more about those. Yeah. Well, let's talk about that because those are terms that the Course Miracles uses. And we want to try to symbolify it, keep it as simple as possible because complexity is of the ego. So we could say that, I mean, I have had people say to me who worked with the Course for quite a few years, they said, they said, that's it. I'm through a special relationship. I'm going cold turkey on special relationships. And it's almost like a fish swimming in the ocean saying, I'm going cold turkey on water. It's that silly to say I'm going cold turkey on special relationships because the context, the very fabric of what everything of the whole cosmos is built about, the building block of the cosmos, which is projected from the ego, all the fragmentation and separation, the building block is that guilt and that specialness. So it's a much better question to ask. And Jesus does tell us that we can safely ask this question. He gives us a question that we can safely ask with anything at all in this world. What is it for?  There's a relationship. You feed happy, you let happy in and out, and there's definitely a relationship going on there. And then the helpful question is what is it for? So let's be a little more explicit about that. What is it for? Because of course, the miracles is teaching us that our mind is falling asleep, we forgot heaven and nirvana, and we're sleeping and dreaming of fragmentation. That's what the whole cosmos is. And so we need healing of our mind, we need healing of our consciousness. So if you took a look at happy, and instead of just seeing all the past ideas of happy, of food and in and out and barking and all the things that make up happy, that experience, and you said, what is this relationship for? And then you look at how does this relationship help the healing of my mind? How practically does this relationship help me forgive or unify or heal? And that's a very good question. In fact, that's a question that we could ask with our jobs, with our relationships, even a gathering like this, you know, what's the purpose? How does this help me with the healing of my mind? And it's maybe with this gathering, it's almost like a quantum gathering where our mind is just projected it out like a house with all these bodies, but this can be a very strong symbol of waking up, of healing my mind, because we've come together with that purpose in mind, to clarify, to bless, to heal, and that's very, very important. In fact, that purpose belongs out in front. Otherwise, we just keep looking back at our history of our life and going, what was I thinking? What was I thinking doing this and doing that? All of the possibilities. What was I thinking? You know, there's really not a lot of hope in turning our gaze around to the past. We have to have new questions. We have to have questions that feel uplifted us, that literally will feel a swirl at going to a lecture to hear the Swami speak and you're excited to go and you're anticipating what he's going to say and you're feeling like you will be blessed by going to that lecture with the Swami. We want to learn to transfer that to all of our relationships. So to put it very directly, that whether you call it spirit or whether you call it God or whether you call it source or whatever word that you're comfortable with, the Creator, it could be anything, that the essence of that source, that Creator is giving, that basically God is giving. A synonym for God would be giving and God gives eternally. There's no waiting on anything. There's no waiting to see if something's going to come back. There's no, okay, I'm offering you love. Now what are you going to do for me? What were you accustomed to in this world? Or what have you done for me lately? Like you haven't called me and heard from you. You haven't been around. And now, what do you want from me now? So there's a motive that, you might say has poisoned our mind that has put our mind to sleep. And that poison that has had us forget eternity, forget that eternal state of love and giving we're consumers now. We've turned into consumers. Not only consumers of products, consumers of food, of air, of clothing, houses, consumers of products. And with the television, it's like an explosion of commercialism. Clearly, we are living in an age of commercialism. And yet, if we went to ancient times, even with the cavemen, it was important for them to catch an animal and crush its skull and roast it maybe to have something to eat or to gather some fruits and some nuts to get something to survive. That once we get into the getting motive, which has nothing really to do with spirit or source. Spirit doesn't even know what getting is. Spirit is just pure giving. Pure like a love song that goes on forever and ever and ever and there's no getting in it. That that getting has poisoned us. And most of this can relate to that, where we sometimes we do ask ourselves the question, do I have the possessions or do the possessions have me? Am I working to support the possessions? Am I working to support the house, the car, the things, the stuff? Going around doing maybe meaningless, senseless things to get more stuff or to maintain and support the stuff and wondering, is this really what life is about? Am I going on the wrong turn somewhere? Because I don't know if the creator of love is really intended this for me. Maybe I'm off on a different tangent and I'm kind of slip-sliding away like the Paul Simon Garfunkel song, and I'm trying to convince myself that maybe I've got more than the next person so I don't have it so bad off but there's still this getting mechanism. So the spirit does not want to take away the little that the mind seems to be clinging to. It's more that the spirit wants to show us miracles so that we can feel so filled up, so whole, so complete that we can come into an appreciation for everyone and everything without exception. And when we come into that sense of gratitude we're back into that giving. Even, hey Frank, hey, what's your son? All right, all the way from Kangaroo Valley. That's good. So we want to turn it around from this getting mechanism and come back to the pure sense of giving. Even in this world, those that have dedicated their life to a life of service and giving, whether it's charity work or it's social services or it's just being a happy, friendly human being that wants to help their neighbor out. You know, can I help you? At the grocery store, can I carry that bag for you? Can I help you do this? Can I paint something for you? We know that even in this world when there's flickers of wanting to give and extend and be helpful we feel better than when we're expecting something to come to us and we're trying to get something. We're trying to get ahead. Get something just purely for our personality self that doesn't really rest, touch anybody else. Which is an illusion because we're all connected. So everything that we try to take away we're imprisoning our mind and every time we're in a giving mode then we actually are feeling more like our true selves, our true spiritual selves. I was recently reading lesson number 133 from the workbook of A Course in Miracles and the lesson is I will not value the valueless. And in that lesson Jesus says sometimes it's helpful to bring the student back to the practical from high, lofty ideas. He said, today we will not speak of lofty ideals and we will come down to the practical. That's how Jesus leads into lesson 133 by saying I'm going to be very practical with you today. And he's going to be so practical because he's going to tell us how to tell the difference between the valuable and the valueless. And it's just like a key idea that if you can tell in your mind the difference between the valuable and the valueless you will embrace the valuable and you will release the valueless. Imagine the spirit coming to you and saying I'm going to make it real simple for you. Not complicated at all. And so his first criteria for what is valuable is he says if it does not last forever it has no value whatsoever. That's his first criteria. So you can see from the first criteria that if you want to know peace of mind if you want to know eternal joy and eternal happiness you will have to turn your mind into the direction of eternity because eternity means forever. Everything, even our love songs I'll love you forever as long as the stars shine in the heavens I will love you. These are burning guesses. They're going to burn out. That's not a really good proposition. It sounds kind of romantic but there's nothing in the cosmos that lasts forever. We know that. It's been expanding and they're predicting at some point it will reach a point of equilibrium and then it will start contracting and instead of a big bang we'll have a big implosion. Not that any of us plan to stay around for that we would rather wake up to eternity and let the whole maya disappear which is really what we're looking at. And then the second thing that Jesus mentions in that lesson 133 is if you take something away from someone you will have nothing left. So he's basically saying that this taking motives to take or to get is the poison and you will never know who you are like the Greeks said know thyself you will never know who you really are as long as you're in a taking mentality as long as you think what can I take away from this situation what can I take away from this relationship you know that part in the mind that's kind of calculating a bit okay what's it going to get me and often times people do leave jobs, situations, relationships when they think I don't think it's worth what it's going to cost me I need to get more than I'm giving otherwise the balance is not good and I can go somewhere else where the getting is good this is how the ego works so the definition of specialness is any relationship and any thought in the mind where the primary motive is to get to get to take to collect to accumulate those are all forms of possess to possess is to get and miracles are washing those away from our mind so that imagine how your life would be if you simply showed up in every scenario of the dream in every situation and your only purpose was to give you had no other purpose but to show up and to give you would then find that you would have a blessing and receive a blessing with everything because the motive has been changed to giving and when I say giving I do not mean giving in order to get because that would be the same kind of reciprocity you know it would still have the same hook on the end of it I'll give this to you but you promise to give that to me that's still a bargain and God is not the God of bargains God is just the God of pure giving so to me that's been the most helpful thing as I've moved through this experience of planet earth has been I have a very strong motive to give I remember that part of the Bible where Jesus said freely you have received now freely give and I took that as an example as a way-shower of this is the way to come back to eternal life also think about it if your motive is just to give you can never be upset because if your motive is purely giving you will never have expectations you are extending the giving from your heart and nothing in this world can block you from giving the love and the light that you are nothing can stop you from being the living demonstration of that love and light somebody could say whatever they want to say they can do whatever they want to do you could literally be put into a prison in this world like Gandhi was like Mandela was but that still wouldn't block you from radiating your light I was telling somebody recently when I was here in Australia when Gandhi spent I think over a third of his years of life on this planet in prison and when they would take him away to prison he would exchange vegetarian recipes he was doing a lot of his journaling and writing well this is great my needs are cared for I can write now I work on my vegetarian recipes you know it's like he actually saw it as a plus this is a golden opportunity I'm not going to waste it and Mandela didn't waste it either he basically decided I was just in the tour of South Africa recently and I saw a little ashram that Gandhi had started there in South Africa when I was down there in Moorfield and also Mandela I met many people who knew Nelson Mandela and met him and talked with him and basically he used his time in prison to forgive and basically tell himself listen when they opened those jailed doors and let me out I've got to leave the hate back in the prison prison will have done me no good if I walk through those doors carrying any hate or animosity and when Nelson Mandela left he was a great agent for healing and love and light he walked through those doors because he made a decision in his mind that the hate stops here he got together with the clerk he met with everybody no more enemies we're not going to go at this with the view we have opponents and enemies because his hatred is still going to be bred in that idea of an enemy so really that's what we're here for this every day with that with the circumstances in our life and it just lists us higher and higher it's really about us changing our perception of our brother and sister and saying what I know of them, of their body and of the history is not who they really are that I have to be willing to let go and see them anew with a new purpose and we can do that we are doing that you can feel it just on those lines about releasing your script how do you communicate with people if you go out and let them know because it's just such a common thing to ask where you grew up where you went to school what happens to communication in those instances well as Jesus says in the work of the Course you smile more frequently and that's definitely non-verbal communication it's like this when you're smiling the whole world smiles with you that's very metaphysically correct because really the whole world is a reflection of your mind and when you're smiling you've got that inner smile then the whole world smiles with you and you know that even if you've got a laundry or to the park if you're having a real good happy day you start to see the smiles you notice you're smiling and you notice there's a lot of smiles around you also Jesus says your forehead is serene interesting your forehead is serene in other words you don't have a furrow like a frown or the stressful lines going through your forehead of what am I going to do how am I going to get this done almost like you've got a list in your mind of all your to-do lists and somehow you've convinced yourself in a crazy way that you better get a lot of checks on the to-do list or it's not going to be a happy day it's a crazy thing that you've forgotten that you're a human being and now you've become a human doing and you better get the list done or it turns to a frown and your forehead isn't serene so I like that when Jesus says miracles are in voluntary they should not be under conscious control the thing was when I first started studying the Course and I read it for eight hours a day in the first two and a half years I went to a Course conference and I was introduced to John Mundy and Robert Perry I was introduced as a walking Course encyclopedia all you need to do is get introduced as an encyclopedia there's something inside you that goes I want to be an encyclopedia nobody wants to be an encyclopedia not even a Course in Miracles encyclopedia nobody has that as their goal in life and so what I found is the more I began to travel most of the people that I met when I traveled around were not Course students they didn't know anything about the Course and they really weren't into metaphysics either most of them had their own philosophies and belief systems or religions and they really weren't interested in anything else this is what I believe and that's me and so I found that I had to start to really relax so that the Spirit could come through me in a voluntary way sometimes we may start off talking about the other or what a beautiful day it was it wasn't trying to you know be metaphysically correct like people try to be politically correct it's just as hazardous if you try to be metaphysically correct with your words you can't say to somebody oh isn't it a beautiful day if you realize that God didn't create days imagine going up to somebody and go this is totally imaginary and there was no such thing as a day and there's no such thing as beautiful the conversation is not going to go anywhere you probably just get a weird look and a little bit of so I learned to relax and I would have these beautiful conversations that would start off like a lot of typical conversations start when you're on a plane or a train or a bus or you're in a grocery store or in a park or whatever there's some kind of initial greeting it's a very loving welcoming friendly type of thing it's non-threatening and it's very typical the way humans communicate underneath sometimes they do want to express a lot more but they don't want to just jump right into it it has to kind of ease its way in there and then as I would relax the spirit would come through me with whatever the spirit would say sometimes their eyes would light up or oh my gosh I was just thinking of that or the spirit knows how to direct the conversation and that's the most important thing is you become so relaxed and so friendly you're in that friendly friendly vibe that the words just come through you and they just flow out like water just flowing water and the conversation goes in a very easy way there's nothing forced I've even been on plane flights where you may fly and just have a few small things to each other for most of the flight and then just as the plane is descending the spirit decides that's the time and you mention a book by an author or something and they go oh my god I think I love that author and then you have a really deep discussion and you give a nice hug and then you're off and you never see the person again there's a flow to it of not trying to push anything not trying to force anything and just being in that friendliness that general friendliness with everyone around you really as you move through the day you just exude friendliness and then people come and reflect that and sometimes you don't have to have deep metaphysical discussions a lot of my trips to countries I don't even speak the language I don't even know the language there but a smile is a universal symbol laughter is universal I find that's kind of fun for me to communicate with people where neither of us speak the same language and yet we can have a recognition and a gaze in our eyes and there's a friendliness and a likeness going on and you feel the blessing there even though we're really not going to be going into much of a conversation we're actually laughing at some of the words that I say something they don't know what it means they say something I don't know what it means and yet we laugh and we feel connected even though there's not a typical conversation going on yes well I can give a little bit of history of the expressions of wisdom and revelatory light on the planet most people are familiar with the Bible because it's the Judeo-Christian world aside from Islam and parts of the world the Judeo-Christian world is all based the cultures and everything are embedded with the Bible and then I've heard that there's been like four revelatory kind of scriptures and my list would probably be a lot bigger because I I'm telling a lot of the Indian scriptures I would put right in there too but the Bible there was a book that was called Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures it was actually by Mary Baker Eddy and that was the second magnificent revelation of God's love and truth on earth some people remember her as saying there's no mind in matter there's no life, truth, substance or intelligence in matter she was really experiencing the divine mind and that's why she could heal the sick you know there was many healings that happened around her life and then the third one that came across some of you might have heard of is called the Orantia Book and the last section of the Orantia Book is the life and teachings of Jesus and this book I just cried all the way through the last section of this because from the Bible we basically we hear about Joseph and Mary and we hear about the stable and Jesus the birth of Jesus and we jump to he's like 12 years old and he's in the temple don't you know I have to be about my father's business when Joseph and Mary are a bit upset that he's not with them he's back with the rabbis and then he jumps into his early 30's and he says follow me he's calling apostles he's calling his 12 apostles and then we follow him through his public teaching and his miracles raising the dead healing the sick many many miracles and then we follow him through the crucifixion and then we follow him through the resurrection the whole story and that's what we know of the basics of Jesus I had one kind of a prayer to God which was like could I have a little more fuller picture of Jesus I would really like to know if it was 35, 36 years please give me the full 35 I'm grateful for what I got from the Bible I'm grateful for those red words and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John which I've been raised Christian so I've lit up from that but I want to know more of a full picture your answer book will guide you the full picture and the book that I'm referring to now when I say in his workbook you smile more frequently your forehead is serene that book is A Course in Miracles which is the fourth of these great revelations on earth this is a book that has come to us from Jesus and most of the book is in first person so it's speaking I, I, I it's basically Jesus giving us the mechanics and the practice of practicing the forgiveness that he taught 2,000 years ago forgive and you shall be forgiven because Christians have been trying to forgive for the last 2,000 years the Bible said forgive 70 times 7 well I've tried that that's 490 times and it didn't work you know I know that I'm 70 times 7 and so I'm interested in what that's going to be I'm interested in coming to live a Christ inspired life I'm interested in living as the way-shower did the way the truth in life led the way I'm interested in finding out anything I can so A Course in Miracles is a book that was written down from 1965 to 1972 it has a text it has a workbook and it has a manual for teachers and it changed my life forever I, when I came across this book my heart was like exploding with love I felt like I got hit with a tsunami of of love I felt like like I had received an answer to a prayer and as soon as I dove into the Course and pouring my heart and soul in it I had this feeling wash over me like now I've got no excuses before I was always saying to God can't you make it a little bit clearer can't you be more specific can't you be more helpful and be more specific in my life and basically the book was saying the connection with the Holy Spirit and Jesus the most important thing that once you reestablish your connection with Christ the guidance of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit will direct you very specifically what to do, where to go, what to say you know it's not going to be a guesswork thing that you've been accustomed to you're going to get very specific guidance that will clear the debris of judgment from your mind it will clear the human condition it will clear your mind and will prepare you to know the Kingdom of Heaven within which is what Jesus was clearly pointing to in the Bible, in the Scriptures so for me that experience that I had with a wave of love coming over me occurred in 1986 so that's 30 years ago and then after five years of immersing myself in the teachings of this book then I was I was sent on a teaching mission that has involved 40 some odd countries and gatherings like this where there's just an open welcome in many many countries and many places many of which I don't speak the language so I've had many translators that have followed and it's been a very intimate experience of opening to that presence and listening and following there are other pathways to God including prayer and meditation and I think meditation is is very traditional pathway back to oneness but it's also very time consuming it can seem like the progress in meditation is so slow that most people find it very difficult to quiet their mind or to even sit still for any period of time and I would say that working with Jesus it's been there's been prayer there's been meditation stillness but there's been mostly listen and follow like okay Lord I'm yours now and I will do whatever you tell me to do because you know the way back to eternity and I don't so I will be the listener and you will be the guide and so that's been the process and that's the book it's available online for free it's available probably kindle you can get it in audiobook I mean it's available in many different ways and I particularly have enjoyed letting the spirit and Jesus re-translate movies metaphysical movies some of you know The Matrix Groundhog Day and so forth the spirit started with me on these metaphysical movies many years ago and so I've had so much fun with the spirit and tuning into the spirit that now we have almost like a movie pathway to God where you can instead of going to the temple you watch movies and you get spiritual inspiration like these are the modern day parables that are guiding us home and of course music and there's been many different experiential things that have come and so for those of you that follow along there's been an enormous amount of resources and tools and materials that have come through from this joy because once you get into the joy thank you that's very good and what would you have me do now and it's extend the joy make it understandable put it in simple language that people can take in that they can dress put it in forms and symbols that people can find helpful that it's not sailing over their heads it's actually something that they can actually engage in so that's been my journey I'm having a party here I've been having a party for the last quarter of a century and I'm glad you've turned your way into my party it's very profound too I take this as when I talk about those books I talk about when people say the Bible they'll use a synonym and they'll call it scripture and I feel scripture is very important extremely important so the Bible was extremely important to me so was Mary Baker Eddie's book so was the Life and Teachings of Jesus and So has been A Course in Miracles it's been like an extension of scripture that has brought me into a peaceful state of mind it doesn't waver I do tell groups as I travel around that people say what about the ego and I say well I haven't had a bad day in so many years that I've actually forgotten my last bad day which is so it's literally I've got amnesia going on around this bad day now because the joy becomes consistent it becomes stable you feel it's your life it's your very identity it's everything there's nothing more important than the peace of God yes I just wish what you've said I've been practicing Christian meditation for 13 years and as a day it's not easy I must say but it has been a healing process for me I had cancer six times and I see if I've gone through all the trauma and the difficulties it was largely due to the good doctors but also to the meditative process so I'm all for saying that meditation is really something spiritually to consider as well even though it's hard to do daily but for me I can witness to the huge influence in my life and thank you it's a beautiful testimony I just wanted to ask when you were seeing the guidance from Jesus more so at the beginning was there any doubt or that this could be the wrong rather than the right mind speaking to me or you just knew the second marriage is coming from the spirit well at the very very very beginning I was not clear enough to to hear this voice it's not like an audible voice but it's like this stream of thought and so like so many I kept praying I was very devoted and sincere in my prayers but I would get signs and symbols it's like Jesus would use different scriptures or bumper speakers, billboards my mother speaking to me and I'd be like oh god that's good it came in a lot of ways but it didn't feel like it was like a guidance that was totally within me I was just getting it through lots of signs and symbols and then after I studied the course for about eight hours a day for about two and a half years then suddenly it was just like this presence just came over me and I just knew beyond the shadow of the doubt that I was being guided by Jesus where to go, what to do it was very specific it wasn't I will love you always I will love you even until the end of time the stuff from the Bible this was like you forgot your keys extremely practical so that was like a first phase and then Jesus said I want to speak through you which I was very shy so that was kind of frightening as well because parents that never speak about God or politics in public and you're going out and I wasn't I didn't have the confidence I wasn't aligned with Christ so much that I was like talking about speaking purely from I am this woe to you scribes and Pharisees of course in miracles no it was none of that none of that it was really like learning to immerse and let that come through more and more but because my state of mind radically shifted from years of shyness embarrassment some sadness depression insecurities worries anxieties into this booming flowing confidence in which you all say down here no worries mate you know when you go from that into no worries mate state of mind you're like something's different something's majorly different when you can mean no worries mate really from your heart you're in that carefree state of mind then you know something major and from that point on no I have never doubted I have been able to discern when the ego is shrieking and trying to convince me otherwise the ego speaks first so it would give me a earful and then the spirit waits and then this gentle you know it is not so I love you my beloved which is so clear and so crystal clear there never has been a doubt fact it was so clear that suddenly I had people coming in the 1990s just saying I have found you you are my teacher I am your student and I thought oh that's what's in the manual for teachers and also I remembered from my Indian literature that that happens you know there comes a point where people start showing up and claiming that they're students and you shouldn't push it away you should go oh this is my opportunity to deepen in the presence the students are bringing a gift every student brings a gift of an opportunity to deepen in the presence so there was one of my students at one point who looked me in the eye and she said what if the course is like the biggest hoax that ever was and I just looked her in the eye and I said you really think that surely you must have had that thought at least once just at least once David and I said oh no no I have never the experience has been so strong from the very first giant wave of love and I have never had a doubt thought about the course or about Jesus or about the presence in fact it's been those times when I was doing the course like lesson 136 sicknesses where I seem to have flu symptoms and diarrhea or whatever that I went down deep enough into my mind to a point in my mind that I thought either Jesus everything Jesus told me in the Bible and the course is true or Jesus is the biggest liar of all time and I had such a love for Jesus that I went right smack into that love and the symptoms just were gone in an instant I had an instantaneous healing it wasn't even a matter of two seconds it just happened instantly when I was clear of my love and where the source was coming from there was no way the sickness could even seem to exist it just vanished instantly like Jesus when they would touch the hem of his garment truth was so strong that error and illusions had no power and that's what I experienced so no actually in 30 years since the course came into my life no I've never had one doubt thought about the course or Jesus now as far as my identity that's been a purification of first letting the Holy Spirit Jesus work through me and then opening to emerge to start to feel have one with the Christ that that's natural to feel that much love, that much glory, that much strength so it's been a trust it's been a walk of trust and it's just grown stronger and stronger and stronger to the point where it's like I don't have an internal battle going on anymore the light has won and therefore the struggle is over and in Course in Miracles that's a happy dream it's when we don't judge the dream anymore we don't judge it positively or negatively we just behold it we appreciate it we have gratitude for everything that's happening there's still things that seem to go on with the body, with the world just coming from mudgy I was up in mudgy and I was having a very crunchy piece of toast and I felt something snap in my mouth and it took me about a day to finally stick my finger back and realize that I had cracked tooth and I was like oh so I'm just getting ready to hop on the plane to come down here and I could crack tooth and I've got all kinds of flights coming up like days of flights back over to the United States back over to North America and so yeah and I call I called Mel and the Skype no answer then you called me back and then Mel ends up googling Good Friday Emergency Dentist Sydney and amazingly that really worked out I had a fun encounter with on Good Friday with a Muslim doctor on Good Friday that's so all inclusive you see Jesus he doesn't he's equal opportunity employer he brings in a Good Friday everyone's everything's shut down here in Sydney everyone's in Good Friday I'll get a Muslim from you I don't care about the Good Friday stuff we'll go outside to another religion but it was a wonderful encounter and you put a band a metal band around the tooth and got me patched up for my long days of flights until whatever's next but see to me that's just I had a delightful time with him and to me that's just another way to meet yourself to meet a brother to meet a sister everything gets handled you go along shining your life and expressing your love and we had a wonderful time together we can even hear you all laughing out in the the waiting room while we were in there he was doing the procedure I heard his fellows have left her from everyone out in the waiting room which I'm sure he just opened up for us he probably just came in he was probably at home and it was beautiful so you can continue on joy and happiness and then whatever needs to be taken care of with the body or whatever you just see that that's part of it and I've had that happen many times on many travels because I'm so focused on my purpose and my sharing and teaching that things have just they just kind of come in they're orchestrated in all kinds of different ways depending on what country you're whenever I'm in so you know you can actually listen to the voice for God all day without interrupting your regular activities in any way you don't have to be off in a closet chanting or you know doing isn't it wonderful to know that you can flow through what seems to be your life experiences Frank Barker I watched you on Facebook I guess you see out there in the farm with the animals and your family growing up and see you know I've been here in five years we've got Facebook and you stroll right in here from Kangaroo Valley it's so beautiful that the love the connections there and you see the symbols and it's like you know it's as if you're there you know living with somebody being with them and you know I think Facebook only allows me 5,000 friends but if I could pull them out I'd have like 500,000 but it works it all works Frank so I guess I'm sort of setting you up if you like in the sense of helping others my great experience is that most of the time I'm in resistance for each great discovery that a lot of the time we don't want to do we don't want to join we have so many prejudices or hesitations or blocks and of course the wonderful course when the very introduction tells us that it's not here to teach the meaning of love it's here to help us remove the blocks of the awareness of love's eternal presence so I guess my question in a way of a setup for our friends to where you you know so obviously in spirit that many of us really may not be ready for that devotion or that decision to say okay I'll jump so many of us we suggest to somebody be giving and of course there's a hint maybe where we will translate it but we should so we then go off and guilt saying well I should be giving but damn it if it's safe I can't so I'd like you to maybe just share with you your experience of dealing with the resistance these blocks to the awareness of love's presence the way if we're in that mode that says no I'm not ready or I can't or I don't want to or I'm afraid to in your experience imagine before that that message what was your experience with dealing with the resistance and how did spirit help you to do that yeah that's a beautiful question I think one part of the course that kind of I'll use this as a precursor is when Jesus says trust I would sell every problem now and I could really see when I first opened the course I actually opened to the manual for teachers first out of the whole course and I opened to those stages and the development of trust and those 10 characteristics of a teacher or God that's what caught my attention first starting off with trust and honesty and rolling on those stages in other words it helped me to see those stages like trust is something that's going to take time to develop there are a few people we could say throughout history that actually have such a deep impactful significant revelatory experience like Eckhart Tolle had on the park bench in England and those do come along and so we can't dismiss them most people are given a much more slowly evolving curriculum that's washing away that enormous fear and resistance almost like a stagnation the fear is set in so thick that the mind is like infected with fear and guilt and trust seems like this little flicker of light a little spark that's there we're aware of it but it seems very distant on a daily basis it's a flicker so for me I think what was it that helped wash away the resistance is really your question what did you do to face the resistance I studied the course because I could see that it was three books and it was over 1200 pages in the English version I thought well there's clearly some study involved in this so I didn't want to skip over that and just try to get it through osmosis or put it under my pillow and just say transmit as I dreamed tonight transmit all of your light I didn't even try that I didn't even try sticking it under the pillow or touching it I just felt like this is a big book because it's meant to be studied but then I had resistance initially to how much time can I give to this when there's so many practical concerns most human beings have a whole array of practicality they've wound themselves into quite a lot it can be debt it can be duties, responsibilities very thick like a thick veil of shoulds and nots each sleep work and should work out to and better get to this I'll have to do it tomorrow I just couldn't fit it into the day that's pretty typical for most human beings and so I actually did give myself some what I call hermitage experiences where in modern terms it might be to give yourself a retreat occasionally to go off either by yourself or go to a vipassana retreat or to a buddhist center or something I started giving myself retreats and I sensed that there was a great benefit to the meditation and stillness so that I wanted to give myself more and more as much as I could but this voice was pretty strong in my mind what about your student loans what about all the practicalities and you can't ignore the practicalities spirits not just going to beam you up beam me up scotty just to get this thing over with right away if you've wound yourself in with the ego tightly into things the spirit will unwind you very carefully and very graciously with great gentleness out of whatever was wound into so those early years there was a lot of miracles I would pray like instead of like David hunting for jobs to pay off loans student loans I actually asked for help and guidance like show me the job that would be most helpful to me and to the whole universe instead of me trying to figure it out for my past learning I just started to trust because there was decisions to be made around money and debts and whole kinds of things and around relationships and that and then after a while when the debt got paid off and I even had a little money to buy a little trailer I bought a little hermitage a little trailer in the woods in Kentucky and I would go down there periodically with the course to study, pray, meditate I started to have lots of holding counters with people and I started to trust that like there was a farmer down there and he was always giving me stuff that he had grown and I started to have to allow that things could come to me in ways that I wasn't used to because I was a Protestant work ethic and you work for things you don't take handouts I had to start realizing that my prayer time my meditation time, my study with the course was actually important and that Jesus could provide for me in ways that David couldn't even conceive of and so that was a key to start to loosen from the resistance like to allow the Spirit to reach me with the dream symbols in a way that I could see it was a gift from Jesus and I resisted I was so stubborn I turned so many people down at the beginning oh no thank you, no I couldn't oh no I was at my modesty oh my, no I couldn't, I can't no no and then Jesus is finally going to stop that I'm asking you to do something important for me, I'm providing for you and you're turning down the offers and he said it's me I'm behind that farmer I'm behind that that jar of jam that you're getting, that was me I'm helping you and you're fighting it with your pride so there's a lot of washing away of pride with resistance so it's when like three different times I just got so relaxed in my mind that I went into revelatory experiences where the world disappeared I went into, I went through the disappearance of the universe and I went directly into the great rays and in the great rays they're so condensing no matter what history I had built up over who knows how many lifetimes and whatever in the cosmos the great rays were like an unspeakable experience and they were so confidence building that when I would come back from the revelation I almost felt like I'd been picked up and carried somehow like thousands of years ahead even though I was back in the same environment my mind felt expanded and more confident and less resistant every time so the revelatory experiences were those mystical experiences were I can't even begin to estimate how how valuable they were and then after the revelatory experiences I was guided to hit the road well that was a definite experiment from 1991 to 1996 to not have a house to not have a place to call my own I didn't even have a tent I just thought Jesus was like saying no trust me I'm going to go before you and I'm like this is Earth this is Earth you don't know you need motel rooms you've got to have food and that's why we have jobs down here and mortgages you know it's like I really was giving it to him and he was like I've been there you're like you're not telling me anything new I've been there I was like you should see how it was 2000 years ago people hanging people upside down on crosses to believe upside down you know he's been there I've been through that you know it's like you're not telling me anything new and yet it was like do you trust me he was like he was saying I'm calling you and you have answered now do you trust me so this is where the convincing goes on because back and forth with Jesus you know it's like I'm saying money doesn't grow on trees I can't just go back and harvest $100 bills and $50 bills and $20 bills off the tree me being as practical as I could and him coming back with yes you I know that's what you believe it's always what you believe like he was just saying you're limited by your beliefs and your thoughts anything's possible you know if God is with us who can be against us anything's possible all that stuff from the Bible he was coming back with and so those years of traveling from like 1991 to 1996 without a home and whatever if somebody told me you're going to take off walking like a Sinyasi and we do thankfully we have India here because we can read about these characters that have been doing it for centuries even though maybe not in Australia we have the Aboriginals over here and every place has their own witnesses you know the Aboriginals they did walk about the Sinyasis were basically doing walk about in India so I'm glad I got to read about the Sinyasis because if Jesus had said just go out and start walking and I'd say what is this a suicide mission just like walk the streets of Sydney walk the streets of New York City or whatever I'd be like you gotta be kidding me but actually I did have some witnesses I was reading Eastern Boston I had read enough to know that this was not an actually unusual request there was a context for it I wasn't like the first person I knew peace program in the United States and the difference in the outside so I was quite amazed at those five years because I didn't know day by day where I would be sleeping I didn't know where the food would be coming from I didn't have like CDs and money market and I didn't have a portfolio of sitting in the bank so it would have been scary enough to even have a portfolio and not know what you're doing from day to day that would be nerve wracking enough but then without the portfolio then it was like a double and who's going to pay for that you know, where am I going to sleep and Jesus just said trust me trust me so those first days in 1991 when I went out and I had enough money to get a little three cylinder car and scoot off and I went on like a five and a half week trip that was an amazing five and a half week trip because at no point during those five and a half weeks did I ever had a big stay it's like every day things were provided and that was very convincing even that first five and a half weeks it just it overthrew all my conditioning almost 30 years of conditioning on planet earth and those five and a half weeks were like it was like a fairy tale or like a magic carpet ride it felt like I was in a land or in some kind of movie where people were hey come here hey come here sleep on my boat sleep here you need some food you need this you need that it just was it was like a fairy tale I'm sure the Sunyasis had the same experience as I loved reading their lives how they just took off walking sometimes the teenager leave their Indian families and go walking and amazing experiences and end up these mystics that just were spectacular that's kind of what was happening for me was even though it was a different context in India because sometimes Sinyasis are actually respected and there are people that build an extra room on their house for the traveling Sinyasis not in America no it's a dead it's a TV wreck room to watch the big football game we're not having any Sinyasis over today what are those Sinyasis I don't like to sound with a Sinyasis you bring me my neighbor we'll root for them the Super Bowl we're not going to what those are just vagrants out there we're homeless I'm not inviting any homeless in we're going to use it for a wreck room you know or something like this it's a different mentality over here although in Australia Marlon Morgan mutant message down under you guys have it you've got your own Sinyasis of originals you can't say you haven't had the witnesses here because you have they're very telepathic very trusting amazing now there's your there's your advanced civilization everybody say they came over took over no the advanced civilization was still here is still here and we could choose to listen to them and learn from them or not or think that we're superior you know when actually strong so those five years were very convincing those five years I think did more in terms of working with the course and Jesus than anything else because I started to get this feeling more of like a quantum feeling like everything in my day was completely arranged for me that I wasn't going against the world or against society or things were happening to me everything was happening for me if I needed a place to stay something happened for me so I have a place to stay something to eat for me someone to talk to for me for me for me for me you see how that turns the mentality around of what am I going to get from this and even the world has the formula where if you become a successful getter and an absolute getter then you can retire you build a giant nest egg giant savings and you become such a good getter that I got the world on a string sitting on a rain but I got the string around my finger what a world what a life I got investments I got CDs money market I got gold bars precious metals I got a portfolio got the world on a string that's the ego trying to convince you that if you become such a good getter and such a good possessor and such a good accumulator that somehow then you'll be able to enjoy some lives of with your nest egg on the world and then die you know and that was actually in the bible eat drink and be married for one and we shall die it's very pessimistic if that's your philosophy of life you might listen to Jesus tell you you don't ask for too much in life you ask for far too little if you're planning to just get while the getting's good get plenty build up a big nest egg big savings enjoy a few years hopefully a retirement that should teeth fall out cancer and heart disease and all these other things but if you happen to avoid all that then you have a few years to enjoy and then you're dead and that at some point in my life I said that's not good enough I'm worth more than that and I'm willing to go on this whole new journey of throw caution to the wind and trust the spirit to provide and I would rather put my eggs in that basket I would rather put my eggs in trusting the divine than from trying to follow the well beaten down worn path ways of the world because nobody's really so happy with that nobody's exceedingly happy the Sanyasis were happy to me they were very happy but they weren't into any of that stuff all I need is the air that I breathe and to love you don't you love the songs Rowan that's the spirit the spirit says you don't even need air ultimately imagine that you're finally there you're taking your last breath on planet earth the last gasp of air and you're thinking well done and goodbye going back home to heaven wouldn't you rather have breathed your last breath with a welcoming of the light of heaven of God who knows what comes next after this roller coaster you know so those convinced me and then at the tail end of those five years I was guided to this little house that I ended up through donations I was able eventually to purchase it called the peace house which is still in Cincinnati, Ohio and this was the bedroom house that I got for $40,000 and the spirit dropped that one in even after the Sanyasi period because I thought well that was fun but what's next and the peace house came in as base to do like worldwide internet ministry and to launch out of under trips like Australia South Africa, China all the different six different continents that was like a little launching pad to kind of go out and then have that was my cave instead of coming back and the cave regular cave that was like a little cave where I would launch from and go out and it all worked and I still have that house and still use that house as kind of a launch pad so that's the short answer to it that we have to build the trust and build the big we all have a very powerful mind so we all have faith we all have trust what are we trusting in are we trusting into the ego and the ways of the world for our safety, security happiness, peace or are we trusting in our intuitive guidance because we have a powerful mind and we're going to invest it in something and when we aim it at the ego it just seems like a stressful life and when we aim it at the spirit it just gets less and less stressful and more flowing like things are just showing up things are being provided it seems more magical yesterday when we were coming Dennis picked us up and we were coming back from the airport and we're driving and now it's like look ahead of us it's Paul and we saw Paul and Paul pulled over and we pulled over got out of the car and we went out and look at this out of all of Sydney we're just running from the airport and it was Paul out of all the millions of people and cars and we just and we just hugged on the sidewalk and what was the name of the sign that was behind us living in sync big letters right where we're hugging on the sidewalk we're like living in commentary it's like cosmic humor that's what I want you to do living in sync synchronicity don't we like synchronicities when everything flows so happy and easy and we go oh my gosh that's wonderful and wouldn't it be nice if our whole life was one big series of synchronicities and our life can be a series of synchronicities only our fear and doubt only our doubting mentality we're getting closer to our we're about we've had time for one more question or a comment or a miracle because then we're at our tea break that's what we do in Australia we have tea breaks can I just ask a question in the sense of continuing on from what you were just saying earlier about trusting and following spares this has just been a nagging thought in my mind and I really would like to clear it if it wasn't for the people who were in the world earning money and what people such as yourself wouldn't have a place to sleep wouldn't be given food so are you saying then that there's a process there's people who have accumulated in life have the wherewithal to provide accommodation and all that sort of thing and have a beautiful house like this for you to come and speak to us that's all part of everything yeah it's a good question because there's a part of the mind that can think well unless you have things that are established and working then there would be no way to be provided for because people have said that people have listened to me speak for a number of hours and they'd say well what about those mechanics and those builders that built the planes that you fly in that do all the things there's a lot of work there is a movie in my movie collection that starts to show more an accurate picture of things that we actually think buildings are built by carpenters, bricklayers, architects, designers Hollywood movies and Bollywood movies are made by filmmakers and cameramen and cinematographers and actors and actresses we tend to think on the linear plane as if there's causes and things that are actually needed, they're practical in the world when actually the entire built environment and the natural environment the mountains, the seas, the rivers the stars, the black holes everything we would call the built environment of cities and everything is all part of a giant projection so in other words there's really no real characters and real things going on it's a screen of images that the Holy Spirit can use as symbols while you still believe you're human to reach the mind which still seems to have needs and things, practicalities to convince the mind that it's not this real so in other words the Spirit is orchestrating everything for example if we go back to Jesus even the story of Jesus everybody knows the story of his public ministry for three years and then he was crucified and then he rose again and he appeared to the apostles that's kind of an out of pattern thing it's the first one I think in history that now we've got a dead man dead man walking he's back and the Rancher book gives us a clear picture of that that basically it says the angels made a body for him and he did make 23 appearances and it didn't have a heart pumping blood it wasn't an apparition like a ghost you can put your hand through it looked it felt like a real body but it was a composite a synthetic model that was just used for him to speak when he seemed to return similarly when we travel I start to see that like if we look at the Aborigines for example when they're on their walkabout they're not relying on homes like this for their travels or teachings they're relying on their guidance and their telepathy for an animal that's chosen to give itself up for them to eat they're so aware of things that it's not like going out even to kill the animal the animal is choosing to provide itself for them if we go deeper into it you start to realize there's a way to go for it that all the symbols will be arranged in a way that will help the awakening of the mind and I think in my life the Parable of David probably one of the most extreme examples of that actually happened here in Australia I told this parable over and over and people will listen to it and they'll say surely surely you're not saying what I think you're saying on the tape I came down to Australia and it was Captain Leves it was this captain in Qantas Airlines and he came to Nusa spent a week with me and everything but I think even when he came to spend like a week with me he had to get off of Qantas airlines and they would say is your daughter getting married did somebody die in the family and everything it's not one of the things you can tell Qantas you're a mystic speak I need a week off somebody died nobody's died this is about everlasting life it just doesn't work but anyway he actually got a doctor's note he went into a doctor and said I have to come to this retreat and I need a note from you as a gift to my employers then when I came back I was coming down here to Sydney and everything and him and his wife was wondering how he was going to pull like 23 days off of work from Qantas because he didn't have 23 days off of work and all he could say is I've given it to the Holy Spirit Frank remembers Leves I've given it to the Holy Spirit confidently she's like listen there's no way you got a doctor's excuse to get on a week but you're not getting off from a major employer for 23 days or whatever because you need to go spend time a day but it's just not going to work I've given it to the Holy Spirit in the end he confidently waited until I was coming over and right before I was coming over and he wanted to spend all his time with me something happened that allowed him to get 23 days off with me a strike an industrial pilot strike the whole globe went into global recession the entire globe took a nose dive I mean a major nose dive panicked the whole globe went into global recession so that he could spend 23 days with me not too much because his wife kept saying there's no way the Holy Spirit is arranging this now in the course of miracles Jesus actually says if you will be a miracle worker for me if you will do miracles for me Jesus says I will arrange time and space for you woo getting a little fairy tale there arranging time and space our parents never told us there was any characters that could not even Jesus that didn't say eat your food you deserve to follow Jesus because he'll arrange time and space for you what about your career don't worry about your career what about your education don't worry about your education education means nothing career means nothing eat all the candy you want it doesn't matter just follow Jesus and he'll arrange time and space for us imagine if we were little children we were told that at dinner table not the future Jesus will arrange time and space for you actually that's what's happening that when you give yourself over to it the characters you meet the things that you experience and everything are all part of an arrangement when you do those workbook lessons if you give yourself over to those workbook lessons and you truly believe Jesus will literally arrange all of your day and space just for one reason that you will experience what he's talking about in the workbook lesson now some of you have studied science and everybody knows Newtonian science it's all very linear it's empirical you study the world that's the scientific method you run it through vigorous double blind experiments and all kinds of things to make sure that you don't influence it it's an empirical model that we learn about the world by studying the world it's a projection it's coming from the mind and it's entirely subjective that no two people of the 7 billion actually see the same world every person is seeing a different world there's 7 billion different versions we leave the animals out of it just for now we have nants and bugs in it too but you could bring those in too there's trillions of different versions even every mosquito has a different view of the world than the humans even there's trillions of versions and it's just showing that it's my guy because there aren't trillions of versions of reality it's all one we're all unified it's all unified consciousness and energy so as we give ourselves over the physics now is discovering that the entire world that you perceive is subjective it's not apart from your consciousness Paul Davies Australian quantum physicist from years ago said there isn't a world he said the same thing that Jesus says in the Course there's no outside world there's no world apart from your mind and everything that you perceive is coming from consciousness and there's nothing apart from that consciousness it's all unified consciousness but the ego makes it seem like there's billions of different angles and it's those angles that are the problem they don't have any reality so in answer to your question when you give yourself over to this you can count on it being fairy tale-ish you can count on things just showing up as if by magic you can count on being provided for things like the things that the human originals did and you don't even need a society to do this it's almost like it's not societies there all along you're kind of dealing with it but the more you go into this the more you see that the symbols are provided in amazing, miraculous ways and you don't need to think that there are these external ones that are essential that are doing their part so a friend of mine came to me one time and I was in hermitage in the woods and we always love movies and he said I'm thinking of doing this book of all these great movies and everything and becoming something to help inspire and bless people in the world and I said well you did it if you could think of it it's already been done quantum in a quantum way that you think of is already been done so it's not so much trying to figure it out from a people perspective because those people are actually thoughts that are representing your thoughts and you don't really need the people you need the presence in your mind that shows you beyond the veil of the people that shows you the unification that shows you the joined singular mind that's what is really needed and until you reach that point it will seem as if you're flowing along effortlessly where things are part of your fairy tale you need something it's there it comes again the Holy Spirit will give you whatever you seem to need for as long as you needed it but the Holy Spirit will not have you linger in time so we never get out on the manifesting on the idea that we can find, solve the equation on earth because it goes way beyond earth I used to have these thoughts when I would go to movies and then I'd be watching a movie and the ego would say there's all those people working hard working people out there and you're like this movie in the middle of the afternoon and Jesus would say the benefit of everyone that you may call them out of the world and into the stillness of the kingdom of heaven so you see the contrast of those two voices is if you're getting away with something and then Jesus says oh no this is important very important okay I think we have hot past what do we call it hot past buns and cookies all kinds of things and when will we resume let's try for 20 minutes 20 minutes around around 1 o'clock we'll be back