Audio version read by Rev. Steven Lane Taylor, B.Msc.
“Two Christianities — The Known and the Unknown”

For more than 2,000 years, there have been two Christianities: the exoteric, or generally accepted one that most people who identify themselves as Christians believe in; and the other one, the one that the Christ Mind in Jesus taught only to the disciples. The teaching that was taught to the disciples, or the esoteric teaching, was the mystical teaching.

In the Infinite Wisdom of the Christ Mind or Universal Consciousness was the recognition that the broad masses of people who incarnate onto this physical earth plane are young souls with a limited capacity of spiritual awareness. Such souls can only assimilate what is said or experienced up to a certain level of spiritual awareness. As everyone lives in Eternity, these souls will, through many incarnations, grow in awareness until they awaken to a higher Universal Consciousness of Reality and Universal Selfhood. Until that time, they have the exoteric or outer Christianity to give them a belief in God and the continuance of life beyond the physical.

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Audio version read by Rev. Steven Lane Taylor, B.Msc.
“The Jesus Complex—or Claims to Be Jesus—Mystically Understood”

Uncertainty, war, fear, confusion, ill health, loneliness—these are just a few of the reasons people often welcome someone who might claim to be Jesus in the physical flesh.  The Christ Mind that was in Jesus warned that there would be those who would appear in his name.  And certainly, there have been.  For reasons already stated, people who are particularly hurting are open and vulnerable to someone handing them a business card with the single name of Jesus on it.

Of course, it takes more than a business card.  It takes giving the outer appearance of what people would believe Jesus should look like.  If you have ever seen any movie about the life of Jesus, you know that the actor who gets the role looks like what people have—from childhood’s conditioning—believed him to look like.  If there were a casting call by a movie producer for an actor to play Jesus, the requirements might be as follows:

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Audio version read by Rev. Steven Lane Taylor, B.Msc.
“Yin and Yang—Its Mystical Power and Presence in and beyond Physical Life”

Yin and yang is you—it’s me—it’s everyone.  It is one of the most profound communication symbols of mystical reality upon which the whole of existence exists: it can demonstrate a healing goal sought after in oriental medicine, a philosophical concept to be contemplated, or a mystical symbol on which to meditate.

Yin and yang can indeed be a symbol of many things to many people.  Visual symbols have been with mankind since the beginning of recorded history, yet the symbol of yin and yang has held people’s attention in a far greater way than other symbols—and for good reason.  Most symbols communicate lesser truths, while the symbol of yin and yang communicates life itself. 

For life, it symbolizes the manifest and the un-manifest—the un-manifesting darkness living within the manifesting white, or conversely, the manifesting white existing within the un-manifesting darkness.  From a mystical point of view, it can be thought of as the manifesting light, or physical creation’s foundation, living within the un-manifesting darkness or Spirit.

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Audio version read by Rev. Steven Lane Taylor, B.Msc.
“Why Life? The Purpose of It All”

What’s the meaning . . . the purpose to it all?

With the exception of philosophers, theologians, and a few deep thinkers, most people live their lives without questioning—why?  Be it ever so briefly, why does tend to surface in most people’s lives at the time of some life-changing event which greatly impacts their emotions, such as a transition (that is, death), a painful or crippling illness or accident, the tragedies of war, and similar experiences which shake the foundations of an otherwise structured life.

When things are going right, a person gets caught up in the positive quality of life and feels no need to question.  However, when things go painfully wrong, a person questions.  If life contains so many experiences that are filled with pain and sorrow, why live at all?

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Audio version read by Rev. Steven Lane Taylor, B.Msc.
“The Effectiveness and Non-Effectiveness of Spiritual Practices”

Do prayers, visualizations, affirmations or other spiritual practices really work, or if they only work sometimes, why?

This question is repeatedly asked by many—by those who ask for prayer, and by those who pray or use some other spiritual practice for themselves or others.  With the progression in spiritual awakening, the answers change.

As an example, in the old-time, basic fundamentalist religion, prayer for most people is a pleading, begging, or hoping for some desired result.  As a person moves in spiritual awareness to a higher plane of consciousness or understanding—such as that of New Thought or basic metaphysics—the pleading and begging cease, and prayer becomes an affirming that, through God’s Power, the desired effect is already so.

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Audio version read by Rev. Steven Lane Taylor, B.Msc.
“Living in and by Mystical Grace”

Every day that we awaken from sleep, it is by Grace. To take a breath and to be alive is not by an act of personal ego will, but because of Grace. Some people may argue that the will of their personal egos caused them to survive some difficult time in their lives, but it was not—that was only the illusion. In truth we survive by Grace; it was not yet our cosmic time to surrender our physical existence in the Ultimate Cosmic Scheme of Things, where nothing is by chance or coincidence, and where all is perfectly orchestrated in a harmonious cosmic melody.

So often the phrase, “by the Grace of God,” is used by people, but what is its meaning? Its obvious meaning is that something has happened or will happen because Universal Presence or God allowed it to happen or will allow it to happen. Grace then could be thought of as the Will of God—not the personal ego’s will—having supreme or ultimate power over all things and human existence, and even life itself.

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Audio version read by Rev. Steven Lane Taylor, B.Msc.
“Union with God — in Each Other”

There is only peace in Oneness, and it can rightly be said, there is only Love in such Oneness.  Extending still further—in the peace and love that is Oneness is Allness, and Allness can only be described as God.

On this earthly plane of existence, there has always been conflict—if not between nations, then certainly between other groups or individuals.  Except for a few awake, mystically enlightened souls, this is the way it has been on the Earthly plane throughout history.  Certainly, there have been periods of peace, but just as certainly, those periods of peace have fallen prey to conflict.

For souls who pray for peace on earth—take comfort, for there is peace to be found in this universe, but not for the mass majority on Earth.  Mystically understood, there are countless numbers of soul-groupings throughout the universe—both on the physical plane of existence, as well as in many other dimensions of existence.  Each grouping of souls is at a certain level of awareness spiritually.  Each grouping sees and understands each other and God at a certain level of spiritual awareness.  Every grouping of souls incarnates into dimensions of energy consciousness with which they are in harmonic energy attunement.  There are planes of existence for baby souls, old souls, and for those who are in between.

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