September 24, 2001

• Spiritual unity

• How guides develop

• Guides' experience of God

• The way human lives resonate

• Finding blessings in the midst of tragedy

[Note: This is the second message received since September 11, 2001 and contains more thoughts about the tragic events of that day.]

You are a community of souls. Your community is not in any significant way separated or different from ours. We have spoken so often in the past about the unity of creation, but we wish to focus more specifically upon the reality of the unity of spirit.

Your spirit and our spirit are one and the same. There is virtually no separation. Your spirit is housed in a physical body and ours is not. What is different is merely this housing, this wrapping of the soul. But the core, the true soul, the true spirit is a single continuous, unbroken circle or sphere of spiritual energy.

You seek to understand God. You seek to find God, to hear God, to somehow see that presence. We on our side of the divide also grow and seek. We seek greater knowledge, we seek greater love, we seek to be a greater brilliance, a light of incredible power and warmth characterized in your terms as “absolute love.” We are all seekers. Your guides seek; you seek.

In our place of life we are fully aware of the brilliance of God in our lives. You try to perceive what that brilliance might be. You imagine at times what it might be like to be in the presence of such unconditional and powerful and all-consuming love. For us, it is a reality. It is not something we can only imagine. But we seek a total unity with the perfection of love that is God.

We are learning just as you learn. We grow as your soul grows. As you grow, we become strengthened. Our development spiritually is greatly dependent upon your growth. That is the gift that we all share with human life. It may seem strange to believe that our growth depends on your growth as human beings, but we are completely connected to you as we are to the love of God. Since we are all really one entity, each component is dependent upon the other. You grow through our assistance. You grow through our instruction. You grow through our guidance. You grow through your awareness of our presence as a reflection of God. But we, in turn, are strengthened. We grow because of your advancement. You depend upon us; we in turn depend upon you. We are absolutely inseparably connected.

It is difficult for human beings to fully connect with their sense of their eternal self, for you are in the business of living human lives, and you have been given those lives because of what you may learn from the experience. That is to be welcomed, of course. But in your preoccupation with being human and all that is involved, you must keep an eye on the ultimate reality that there is nothing that separates us. You cannot see us, but you can know that we are with you.

You may wonder whether we see God. God is not an entity to be seen, but rather one to be felt. In the presence of God, there is an overwhelming sense of peace, of calmness, of serenity, of an unquenchable love for everything. There is no denying this feeling. There is a light, there is a light that bathes all of which we are aware—a brilliant light. That light is evidence of God’s presence. The center of that light, for us, is the actual God. The center of that light is the center of everything, all that exists. It is the center of all forms of love. We see that. We know it to exist. Human beings are required to believe through faith that it exists. For us, there is no need for faith for we know it to be true, for that is the only form of existence we have—light, love, warmth, peace. For you, it is important merely to be faithful. But your connection to us, although different in vision, is identical in substance.

We have learned through the experience of human life. We know what it means to be alive in physical terms. We know what it means to be in pain. We know what it means to be filled with fear, agony, frustration, and anger. None of those feelings are the will of God, but they provide a way toward God. They form the road which all must travel upon to reach the peace and light and love which is God.

Each of you has experienced the exercise of compassion, empathy, a love that is supportive and giving and unselfish, a love that is caring, a love that exudes warmth and great light. These experiences since the terrible tragedy that is a part of every one of you, difficult as they may be, have provided each of you an opportunity to reexamine what is important in your own lives. These experiences have provided you with a very different view of the potential good that can be a part of all human life. You are drawn together through your shared agonies and worries and concerns, and in many ways you are closer to one another than if all you shared were merely events of rejoicing. Certainly rejoicing is important because it is reaffirming of life. It is reaffirming of positive direction in life, but it is the frustration, the fear, the compassionate empathy, the unselfish giving of oneself to help another that really deepen your lives and ultimately provide a more secure sense of purpose and direction.

Your lives are like a string that vibrates. It vibrates in sympathy with that which surrounds it—whether a sound or an object, the string vibrates. If you think for a moment of a stringed instrument and you hold the instrument close and speak, the strings resonate without your touching. They resonate according to the nature of what surrounds them. Your lives also resonate according to what surrounds you, even if that which causes the vibration is not in direct contact with you. You did not have to be in Washington or New York to be deeply affected by what you have learned. You resonate just the same, and it is this resonance that brings you together. It is this resonance that helps human beings work cooperatively toward worthy goals.

You are joined permanently with all human beings because of your capacity to resonate. It is part of what binds you to another. If you love someone who is deeply upset and disturbed, you cannot be fully joyful. If you love someone who experiences and expresses enormous joy, you cannot be completely destitute in your spirit. There is something in you that resonates by the sheer proximity you have with another through your love.

Each of you is concerned about how best to achieve a wider peace, a peace that is characterized by compassion as well as justice, a peace that is surrounded by attitudes that reflect your understanding of God. These are indeed difficult moments in your lives. We refer to them as “moments” because in God’s timeless presence and in your own timeless spiritual lives, the tragedies that occupy your thoughts are but a moment. They are not insignificant, indeed they are most important, but they cannot be viewed as long-lasting when you recognize the continuity of your spiritual lives.

Such tragedy provides infinite opportunities for finding love where you least expect it. You will find love, true love, from absolute strangers. You will find love from those with whom you have never felt great kinship. You will find love from those you love dearly. The events of such enormous tragedy do indeed hold within them the magnificent potential for God’s presence to be intensely a part of your daily lives.

There is no joy in suffering and such suffering is not the will of God, but there is joy in being drawn together in your awareness of that common spiritual bond each of you shares with all others. The love you experience anew and in such meaningful manner is akin to the love that each of us experiences constantly within the plane of spiritual life. You must exercise patience, patience with yourselves as well as with others. If you find yourselves grieving on some level, that is as it should be for you. You will grow in your grief, you will be strengthened in your grief, you will be given vision in your grief, you will be empowered in your capacity to love in your grief. Indeed, you are blessed in that grief. Do not wish that it were not so. Do not wish that all life was pure happiness. That is so unrealistic, that is impossible within the human form of life.

Allow yourselves to feel as you happen to feel. If there is anger, accept that anger. You do not have to act on it, but you certainly must accept those feelings. And with prayer, feelings of anger are transformed into compassion and love. The process is a long one. There are no time restrictions. Individuals must be allowed to feel as they happen to feel at this place in their lives. Accept your anger, accept your sadness, accept your frustration, accept those feelings of helplessness. They are all part of the growth that will come to your souls. Your lives as a result will take on greater significance, a greater sense of purpose, a greater direction, a commitment to what is godly, to what reflects God within the world, independent of specific religious doctrine.

God is God. Love is Love. That Love is God. Love has so many expressions—all of them positive. Allow those expressions to be a part of your lives. Patience, as we have said, is essential here. Do not rush through the process. Be willing to accept where you are. Be willing to accept what you can do. Be willing to accept what is beyond your abilities. Be willing to accept the process of personal growth that enhances the spirit. There is no room for impatience. Be compassionate. There is no timeframe for compassion—there is only the need. Respond to that need and you are reflecting God in the world. Be strengthened by hope, hope that peace can be achieved. Be strengthened by the commitment to do what you can do to encourage the growth of hope in the hearts of others. It does not mean you ignore what is happening, but rather your vision leads you beyond the present so the present may be overcome.

We thank you for your prayers for us. We are strengthened as you become strengthened, and you become strengthened as you increase your awareness of God in your daily lives. You are blessed by your strength, you are blessed by your vision, and we pray that you may be blessed by your patience—the patience that leads to compassion and unconditional, nonjudgmental love for all.

Amen.