A.R.E. Meeting for 7/17/17

Let's welcome Jim, who once lived in Virginia Beach, and finally discovered Cayce after he moved to California, and has studied Cayce independently for 55 years.  He's ready for discussion with us  now.

Our experiment for the coming week is to consciously practice the presence by preparing ourselves to be in the presence with a reverie. And then consciously holding onto the feelings and awareness of truly being a part of the scheme of things attained in the reverie throughout each day.  This can be done before or after our regular meditation period.

Mark Thurston suggested a reverie such as :

Imagine yourself under a high blue sky on vast grassland where all of mankind is actively building a great cathedral. Everyone is working on a place where all could come to worship and know God.  Each person is to cut and place only one stone in this great effort. So there is no competition among workers. 

You walk to a giant quarry, tools in hand, and mark off the stone that you will cut. With the greatest care and precision you mark off and cut your stone. Its sides are polished smooth. It symbolizes the wholeness and love within your soul. With feelings of anticipation and joy, you pick up your stone.  You have super-human strength and carrying it is not difficult.

You begin your walk toward the building site. All around you are others carrying their stones. Tremendous feelings of brotherhood fill your heart and mind. All of the people are working together with cooperation and joy. All sense the beauty of what they are creating together.

"You arrive at the building site and you find the exact spot where your stone is needed. With great care you put it in place. Then you sit down and have a brief period of prayer. You pray that GOD'S WILL shall direct this common effort of all mankind. And you pray that all will come to the full awareness of his presence."

We discussed how our experiment went:  in sharing with others our experiences of God's working in the earth, and our beliefs and our Spiritual experiences.

Scott is going to check out a group dream experiment and get more information in the event we may want to try it at a future time. We discussed the importance of tests, and adversity to keep us strong.

We missed those of you unable to make it.  See you next Monday!

Ever in Divine Presence,

Sylvia

A.R.E. Meeting for 7/10/17

Our leader for July, Cindi, lead our opening meditation by reading "Seven Gates" by John Van Auken. It is selected text from THE COMING FORTH BY LIGHT, published as The Egyptian Book of the Dead, and published this quarter in the ARE member's magazine Venture Inward. He suggested using it ceremoniously in preparation for meditation, adding other aids, such as bells, incense, candles, and music. Some of you missed a good meeting and meditation, but you can try this preparation for meditation for yourselves at home by reading the magazine article yourself (as I am repeating myself today).

We had an interesting discussion on the last experiment, on whether, how much, when, why we should/should not share our personal experiences of being in the presence and our faith journey; a discussion of connections with and presence within animals and personal beliefs and experiences.

We read in the experiments book the entire page 104  to the ending of our experiment on page 105: 

Be willing to share your awareness of GOD's working in the earth, especially with those who don't have this perspective. Express your feelings to others.  Speak of your own experience, as opposed to lecturing to them about what they ought to believe.  Brief statements are usually best.  Don't be attached to some expectation about how they should respond to your words.  Simply be open and honest about your beliefs.  Trust that a seed is planted by what you do.  Record (1) situations in which you do this, and (2) situations which, in looking back, you realize would have been good opportunities for this kind of sharing.

      

Cindi announced a program upcoming in Denver on Oct. 14th. "After we die:  an exploration of Death, Heaven, Ghosts, and the Souls Journey Beyond Death" presented by author, speaker, psychic, trainer Echo Bodine. Greg gave me her book on her psychic experiences, and lent me his video of her teaching us how to do our own reading. We can be thinking about whether we want to attend this exciting program by a quite good speaker.

  

May I add, I, Sylvia, am so very grateful for each of you. I'm so glad when each of you comes to share sacred space, presence, experiences, and loving healing thoughts, in our common search for meaning in life and greater awareness of the presence of God, within, without, everywhere present. Another member expressed gratitude and happiness to those who came and for coming last night. Speaking for all of us, we hope next Monday you can and will join us at Ruth a Holly Library!

Recognizing the presence,

Sylvia 

A.R.E. Meeting for 7/3/17

Happy Independence Day!

Cindi is back, and as agreed back in the spring, is our leader for the month of July.

We read the remainder of our lesson from the heading "Let Us Remember That Our Guard is Ever In His  Presence." We read to the end of the last section in this lesson.

We also read page 103 in our experiments book from "Thought vibrations go out, words are spoken, deeds are done, and all carry to others their influences and their impressions of our understanding of God" down through our experiment for this week.

Experiment:  Whenever you find yourself talking about another person, speak as if God and the soul of that person were present in that place in the moment.

We discussed our results of our experiment for the week past, as well as our experiment for this week.

See you next week!
Briefly absent from your presence,
Sylvia

A.R.E. Meeting for 6/20/17

This week we began "In his Presence," lesson 9.  We covered and discussed the first part of this chapter in the A Search For God book. We read down to the first experiment of chapter ten of the other book on page 100:

In your daily meditations, don't stop at the second level shown in the diagrams.  When you are able to move to the feeling of the affirmation and hold that in silence, allow yourself to move further and hold that in silence, allow yourself to move further to a sense of oneness with it ( i.e., the being level).  If you drift away from the feeling, come back to it immediately, instead of allowing distracting feelings and thoughts to arise.  Certainly this is not simply mastered, it takes practice.  Record your experiences of working with this experiment.

With possibly a new Cayce group to start in Colorado Springs, Sylvia  and Benjamin have been corresponding by e-mail about group work for several weeks. This was his first Monday to attend. Benjamin is employed in the restaurant at the Valley High Golf course.

Sue Breeze was able to attend as well.  She's been to the now disbanded 2nd study group, but last night was her first Monday meeting.

Sue is a Certified Stage Medium and psychic. 

Her email address is psychicsuebreeze@gmail.com

Contact her for further information about her class on intuition on the last Tuesday and Thursday of this month or for a reading. She did a good reading of my three deceased sisters with psychometry, one after another.

Sylvia

A.R.E. Meeting for 6/26/17

We read in the experiments book through the experiment at the top of page 103 and most of us chose to do that one rather than the first on on page 101 about beginning a new project for good.

Experiment:  Each day make an effort to listen and feel God's presence (within and without) in the ordinary and the commonplace of life.  Keep a record of your experiences of recognizing it in these situations.

An interesting story shared was of "turning a quite challenging situation over to God," when he realized it was impossible to figure out how to both sell everything: house, two cars, stove and frig.; and to live in their house,  use appliances and cars being sold in order to to leave for his overseas job.  

The day before departure, closing of the house was expedited by seller asking, "Would it help if I made your first payment for you?" That completed the sale of the house. Then with his car and appliances sold, they stayed in a motel that night, and drove her car to the airport the next day where her car buyer paid her for her car.

We read in ASFG from "Experiencing the Abiding Presence" to, but not including, "Let us Remember That Our Guard Is Ever in His Presence."

Plan to join us next Monday.

Signing off in His presence
(Without and within)

Sylvia Raye

A.R.E. Meeting for 6/12/17

Hello all,
Tonight we finished reading "The Open Door " in both books. Eric also read excerpts about Archangel Michael coming thru as they were about to build the hospital, and how incredible it was, as if a wind came through the house, windows rattling, and his booming voice loud.

Our first choice of experiments is on page 97; "Look at life as essentially good.  Make choices each day for a week that reflect your belief that God is good and has as his deepest desire that good things would come to you.  Record the decisions that you make from this point of view. "

Or on page 98 of the experiments book:  "Each day for at least a week, adopt a prayerful response to the experience of doubt.  These doubts may be in yourself, in others, or in God.  Record those situations in which you felt doubt and then took a moment for prayer."

See you next week.
Sylvia

A.R.E. Meeting for 6/5/17

Your choices of experiments, which also cover the reading done from page 93 during the meeting, are on page 94 and 95 of the Experiments book.

1) Take at least 2 minutes in your meditation period to experience an opening of the door by focusing on the fact that Christ has been and always will be with you.  Notice the times in your daily life you have deliberately returned to "Christ has been and always will be with me " when you have feelings of emptiness, doubt, lack, or self condemnation.  And then record those times.

2) Daily for a week or longer, determine to be aware and act on ways you can serve as an open door to others.

 A considerable amount of our discussion was on "we not only open the door, but as channels, are doors. Let us not forget, as we work, that those we meet along the way are seekers also and are the Israel of the Lord." From 262 #28 a conclusion or inference is ".....we act as open doors for others" specifically in giving whatever he or she needs for growth, with sensitivity, willingness to listen and discern things said and unsaid. (More inclusively, then a perspective of the open door moves from healing an individual to healing our society.)

So acting as an open door for others to know more joy, peace, from needed influences you provide them, write down the name and the specific thing you thought they needed for growth in the moment.

We missed you and prayed for those unable to join us last night.

Your door woman,
Sylvia