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The following podcast is part of the Mind, Body, Spirit
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dot fm podcast network.
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Welcome to Truth Transforms.
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Join in for spiritually enlightening discussion and the practical application
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of New Thought principles. Here's your host, Reverend Galen McDowell.
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Welcome to Truth Transformers of Reveren Galen McDowell. I'm your host,
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Reverend Gale McDowell, and I am the Executive Minister, Senior
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Sister Minister, and the director of the Johnny Coleman Institute
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at Christ Universal Temple in Chicago, Illinois. Today I'm doing
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an episode I'm titling how do I determine what is true?
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How do I determine what is true? And the reason
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why I'm teaching this is because as a theologian, one
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of the things that I'm always pondering is how do
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you determine the truth. And basically, from a theological point
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of view, we look at four different lenses, and I
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want to cover these lenses briefly today. This won't be
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a long podcast, but I want you to think about
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these different lenses and then determine how you use these
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lenses to determine truth. And when I'm talking about truth,
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obviously in an absolute sense from the standpoint of a
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religious or spiritual perspective, or just in general in the world,
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your everyday life. But obviously, since this show is about
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metaphysics and spirituality and religion and consciousness transformation, that's what
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I'm leaning on, all right, So the four lenses are
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from again, we're talking about religion, scripture logic slash reason,
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tradition and experience. Scripture logic slash reason, tradition and experience.
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Now let's start with the process. For some people, especially fundamentalists,
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in whether it's Christianity, Islam, Judaism, for instance, they believe
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that if it's not written in their scripture, based upon
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how they interpret it, then it's not real. They don't
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care about your logic, they don't care about your experience,
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they don't care about tradition. From a Christian perspective, did
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the Bible say it? Where's that in the Bible? Where's
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that in the Qur'an, Where's that in the Torah? And
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for some folks, this is their absolute bottom line. Where
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is it in the scripture? For them, that is the
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tale of absolute truth. They're not really trying to have spiritual, religious,
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or ultimate reality the conversations, but often how we should
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behave in the modern twenty twenty six world without viewing
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it through the lens of scripture, because part of the
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Protestant movement when the church broke away Martin Luther broke
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away from the Roman Catholic Church, part of it was
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scripture and scripture alone, because the Catholic Church leans heavily
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on tradition.
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So I want you just to be mindful of the
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fact that.
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If you are practiced or come from a fundamentalist background,
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whether that's again Christian Islam or Judaism or some of
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the other religions that are very structural around their sacred writings,
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their scriptures, it is what it is.
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They're not really trying to have conversations.
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So when you try to come up with a logical
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conversation or this doesn't match up the science, the history,
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the date, the archaeology, or whatever, it doesn't make a
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difference of the Book of Mormon is an example of that.
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People who will say, well, you know, these dates and
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this history doesn't necessarily match up historically, that's very difficult
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climb to heal the client, you know, And there are
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other groups that have their books that are like that,
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where this is.
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What it is.
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This is what we believe, and that's that when you
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look at it from a new Thought perspective. Because I'm
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a new Thought minister, we look at scripture not literally
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but metaphysically because we're seeking to get the principles, the
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universal laws. How is this teaching us about myself as
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a spirit, soul, body, threefold being.
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And for us, as we relate.
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The narratives and the teachings of scripture over to how
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consciousness works, how spirit works, it changes the scripture. So so,
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depending on the New Thought brand, they can emphasize scripture
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more than others. For instance, at christ Universal Temple and
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in the Universal Foundation for Better Living, we identify as
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New Thought Christians because the Bible is our primary text,
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but it's the our primary text metaphysically interpreted.
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And that's the difference.
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So if you read something in scripture and you don't
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try to evaluate it, put it in its context, try
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to recognize if it's still culturally relative, et cetera. You
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might be a person who determines truth based upon scripture
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and scripture alone. The next step is logical reason. In
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other words, you know where are the facts and where's
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the you know, how do we look at this from
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a reasonable modern standpoint where you start looking at and
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logic and reason.
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It can show up different ways.
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It can show up very intellectually, but it could also
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show up intellectually structurally. And this is key because sometimes
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in religion, scripture and logic bump heads because like, this
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doesn't make sense. Well, the Bible says this, and then
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we're looking at everyday life and we're saying, well, logically,
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this is where we should go. Where's the cause and effect?
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Where is the structure, where is the line of thought?
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Where what are the principles behind this thing that we're
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saying is true or not truth? Where's the proof? Can
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it be proven? So when you start talking to some people,
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you know, they're not really trying to have the conversation
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around the logic, I mean the scripture and scripture alone
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conversation because of the fact that they're looking at the logic,
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like make this make sense to me? You know. Again,
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as a new thought minister, one of the things that
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I'm mindful of is that new thought is built a
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lot on logic. But Charles Fillmore, the co founder of Unity,
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he called it honest logic and pure reason. And what
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he meant by that is, there's a spiritual logic based
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upon understanding God, Humanity, and the universe from a standpoint
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of universal principles, universal spiritual principles versus a giant personality
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God upstairs in the sky, up there in heaven, somewhere
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somebody up there likes me, the big man upstairs, all
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those type of terms, or whatever your term might be. Instead,
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can we view God as principle, the underlying plan. Can
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we look at God as divine mind? Can we look
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at God as universal law? Can we look at God
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as infinite love? Now you're starting to put principles together.
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Now you're starting to put ideas together. Now you're starting
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to put cause and effect together. So from a new
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thought perspective, we lean heavily on what I would call
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pure reason, principal centered thinking, principle centered thinking. Again, as
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Johnny Callman, you society say, I am the thinker that thinks,
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the thought that makes the thing. Principal centered thinking. So
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you'll read a lot about universal law. You'll read a
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lot about how thoughts, feelings, and beliefs work. The power
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of the spoken word, prayer, treatment, meditation, visualization, visioning, all
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these different mental techniques. Why, because it's structurally we're trying
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to build some type of mental structure that allows spirit
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to work easily through the human consciousness to show up
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as everyday life in our everyday life in the world
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and affairs. In other words, so we can get some
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calls and effects where the effects. So we want to
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see if I do these things, will these things happen?
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That's the basis of new Thought. Matter of fact, Charles
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Filmore the paraphrasem said that we don't believe. We don't
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ask you to believe anything that you can't practically demonstrate
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in your life. A matter of fact, Charles and Myrtall
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Filmore called the Unity Teachings the Unity brand of New
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Thought practical Christianity. That was the original name practical Christianity
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because he was basic it on what he considered honest
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logic and pure reason, understanding truth with a capital T,
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from a spiritual perspective, not based upon the whims of
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a God in the sky by and by, but based
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upon immutable.
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Laws that govern everything.
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All right, we're going to take a quick break here,
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then we're going to come back and knock our tradition
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and experience just reminding you that this show has a
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Facebook page True Transforms a Reverend Gale mcdowe, quickest and
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easiest way to get in contact with me. Also have
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Instagram page at Gale mcdowe makes that easy to find,
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and I want to make sure that you give yourself
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the best opportunity to reach out to me if you
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have questions or you want to you have comments. I
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would love to hear how this podcast is helping you.
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I would greatly appreciate it. So with that, we're going
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to take this quick break. Will be right back where
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Truth Transforms the Reverend Gae MacDowell. H h m hm.
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Hm.
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Welcome back to Truth Transformed to Reven Gueler MacDowell. I'm
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teaching how to how to determine what is true. The
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next step is tradition, and tradition is a big deal
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and a lot of religions the things that you do,
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you know, like, for instance, there's some brands of religion
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that are very ritualistic. What do you do, when do
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you do it, how do you do it? Do you
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wear in other words, your dress daily or on special occasions?
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You know, certain things that you say at certain times
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or during their religious services, etc. Very ritualistic, special holidays, special,
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this special that. So when you understand tradition that has
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been passed out for some people, the truth is found
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in the ritual, in the tradition and the practices of
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the religion. In other words, what is the collective wisdom
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and ritualistic practices that have been passed down through the ages.
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So if you go to a for the church, obviously
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they're going to have masks at every service, they'll have
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certain things that they read, like the Apostles, Creed, et cetera,
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and other things that they do. And it don't make
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it and it makes any difference if you go to
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a Pentecostal church. If you go to you know, Islamic
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and I don't want to say the wrong word, but
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I believe it's temple, they're going to have certain things
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that they do, how the men work. In some places
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the men and the women don't worship together, or they
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don't sit together.
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For instance. There are certain things far as you know,
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for instance.
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Praying five times a day that's passed down tradition, wearing
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certain clothes that's passed down tradition. They do the same thing,
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and talism and then Buddhism, Christianity in general. You know
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a lot of Sunday churches have communion Sunday, for instance,
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water baptism. These are traditions that have been passed down
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through the ages, and for some people, the truth is
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found in the tradition, and we need to be aware
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of that because when we're going to a place where
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we're trying to understand the culture. To understand the culture,
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you have to understand the tradition. We just don't go
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up in there and you're like, Oh, we're just gonna
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make sweeping changes on how we do things culturally. What
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I respecting and understanding the tradition. I'm not saying things
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have to stay the same. What I am saying is
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you have to be mindful of the tradition. Just going
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and watching a different type of funeral. You know, I've
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officiated many military funerals. The military has a tradition for
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their funeral the honor of the people who I've served
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the United States government in the military, that's the tradition.
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I've had people who have been a part of various
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fraternities and sororities. When I officiate those services, I give
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the capitals, although O megas or the aka's their time
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to do their tradition. For those who are Freemasons or
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Eastern Stars, they have their traditions and so on and
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so on and so on. Everybody has their tradition, and
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when you look at it within the context of the
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religious world, for some people, they find that the collective
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wisdom that is passed down through the tradition is how
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they discover and understand truth. So you're not going to
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talk to somebody that's Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Christians for instance,
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and not be able to communicate with and try to
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communicate with them outside of the context of the traditions
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that have been passed down for almost two thousand years
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than those individual churches. They're big on tradition. They're big
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on tradition and New Thought. We have our traditions as well.
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We say we don't, but Thought was built to be
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non traditional. You know, we're not doing water baptisms, for instance.
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There's some New Thought churches I'm sure that do it,
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but normally that's not done we do. If they do them,
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it's more of a spiritual baptism, you know, prayer and
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things of that nature. The Holy Spirit activity.
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You know we're not. You know, communion is a mental thing.
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So what new thought seeks to do is, whatever is
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the tradition, for instance, Christian tradition, we look at the
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idea behind it. What is the idea behind baptism? What
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is the idea behind communion? Hopefully y'all get the point,
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what's the idea behind it? But that does to mean
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we don't end up having our own traditions. Something as
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simple as wearing a wedding ring is a tradition that
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most new thought people wouldn't even say, oh, that's a tradition.
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It is.
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It really is at christ Universal Temple and many new
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Thought circles start the year off with the burning bowl
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where we write the list and burn up paper. That
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write on paper where we don't want we burn it
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up is symbolic. Tradition is deep in symbolism. New thought
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has it, but we have a lot less of it
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because we're trying to deal with the ideas, thoughts, feelings,
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and beliefs behind what is this thing that we're out
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really doing representing? And if we understand what it's representing,
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we can get to the core idea of it and
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understand it to express it.
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That's what I'm trying to get across to you.
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So new Thought has its traditions too, but it was
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created to be less traditional because new Thought leans heavily
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on this last piece, experience.
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For some people, it's all about the experience.
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Okay, Yeah, the scripture says this, logic and reason says that.
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Tradition says that, but I want to be able to
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experience it myself. So this is WHYT has a heavy
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emphasis on prayer, affirmative prayer, and meditation because we want
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people to experience the presence of God. And you do
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that by learning how to get still and centering yourself
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and going into the silence, going into that meditative state,
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going into that consciousness where you cultivate your spiritual nature.
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And I wish I could logically explain it, but I can't.
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See that's the thing. I can give you the information,
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but you have to have the experience yourself. It's like
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me trying to explain to you what swimming is like
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until you actually get in the water. I can give
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you all the explanations in the world, but the experience
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of swimming or being in the water is different than
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being in a shower.
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It's still water, but it's not the.
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Same thing, all right, And when you understand that, the
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experience you know. Bruce Lee would say that basically, to paraphrase,
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learning martial arts without sparring is trying to swim on
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dry land. In other words, if you're martial arts, sooner
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or later you gotta fight, You gotta test your stuff. Well,
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new thought emphasizes testing your stuff. Okay, So if I
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was to put out of these fours scripture, logic, tradition,
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and excuse scripture logic slash reason, tradition, and experience, I
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would say new Thought lies heavily on the logic, reason
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and experience heavily because we want to teach you these
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spiritual principles.
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Yes we use scripture, Yes we use tradition.
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We want to teach you these principles that make sense
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to your mind. And then we're going to teach you
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the techniques necessary to experience what you've only grasped intellectually.
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So we want you to feel, wants you to experience.
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We want you to demonstrate, or the catchword today is
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manifest the truth that you're studying, that you're hearing about.
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So when Emmy Fox wrote there's no such thing as
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undemonstrated understanding. He was talking about experience. You should experience
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what you understand, no more, no less. You should demonstrate
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what you understand. Jesus said, judge a tree by the
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fruit it bears. That's experienced. You should demonstrate what you understand.
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That's experience. So we don't want this to be a
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purely logical teaching. Excuse me. We want you to understand
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how to experience God in you. Because until God in
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you is real, then it's all just talk. It's all
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just words in a book, it's all just things you've
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heard on a video or on a podcast.
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No different than this.
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I can impart my information and I can share my consciousness,
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but you have to experience it yourself. And when you experience,
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and as the scripture says, touch the him of his garment,
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touch to him of the presence of God and you,
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it changes everything. I know when I'm out of alignment
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because I don't feel as though I'm experiencing the present.
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So I do what I need to do to get
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myself back in alignment so I can be in the experience.
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Again. New Thought focuses on the demonstration.
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It's a practical spirituality for better living. Therefore, the experience counts,
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the experience matters. The experience. So yes, we have scripture.
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And for some New Thought brands, some of our books
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focused function like scripture with the centers of spiritual living.
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They used to be known as religious science or the
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Science of Mind group. The nineteen thirty eight version of
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the Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes is a form
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of scripture for the Unity brand, and in UFBL, the
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book Lessons in Truth by h Emily Katy It's almost
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functions as a form of scripture because it's our secondary text.
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In UFBL it functions almost like a scripture. And Divine
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Science some of the writers of Melinda Kramer or Known
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the Books, they may or may not function the scripture.
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In Christian science, Mary Baker Eddy wrote The Science and
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Health and the Key to the Scriptures. That book is
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considered scripture along with the Holy Bible. In Christian science
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ministers the book is the minister. So even in New
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Thought we have those things, you know, I you know,
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my base line is the old school Unity metaphysics that
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I learned at christ Universal Temple, which was originally Unity
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Church before Reverend Comber went independent and started the Universal
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foundation for better living. But she didn't change what she
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learned in unity in the nineteen fifties. So that old
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school unity is my foundation. That Charles Myrtle, Fillmore, him Lykdi,
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johnny Combe, all from the same tree of thought.
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That's my base.
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We call that now Fillmore in theology, I like the
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term unity metaphysics, but that's just me. However, that's my foundation.
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That allows me to play in a lot of other places,
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but it's still my foundation. Somebody else's that foundation might
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be the works of Earnest Homes. For somebody else that works,
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their foundation might be the work some with Linda Kramer.
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For somebody else, that might be Nevil. For somebody else,
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that might be Joe Goldsmith. For somebody else, that might
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be Emma Curtis Hopkins. The community determines what is sacred
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or not not the material, and that includes the Bible,
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the Torah, the Koran, and anything else. The culture. The
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community determines what is sacred and what is not sacred,
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what is value and what is not value. And that's
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the same for tradition, and that's the same for the
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logic slash reason. Where new thought Lasers had on is
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that you can experience this truth that we talk about.
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People get healed, people get prosperity breakthroughs, people get opportunities
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and doors open, people get spiritual insight. I'm not saying
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you only get that in New Thought, by the way,
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I'm just saying that we laser being focused on it.
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It's about the experience. Why, Because life is consciousness. Consciousness
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is what I am. So I would love to hear
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from you and find out how you view it, how
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it works with you. I'm gonna leave this here because
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I think I've taught it well enough. I would love
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to see how you tackle these subjects. I would love
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to reach out to me on the platform. As I
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mentioned earlier, God bless you, and I'll be with you
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next week with true transform.
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Take care,
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The following podcast is part of the Mind, Body, Spirit
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dot fm podcast network.
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Welcome to Truth Transforms.
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Join in for spiritually enlightening discussion and the practical application
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of New Thought principles. Here's your host, Reverend Galen McDowell.
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Welcome to Truth Transformers of Reveren Galen McDowell. I'm your host,
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Reverend Gale McDowell, and I am the Executive Minister, Senior
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Sister Minister, and the director of the Johnny Coleman Institute
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at Christ Universal Temple in Chicago, Illinois. Today I'm doing
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an episode I'm titling how do I determine what is true?
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How do I determine what is true? And the reason
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why I'm teaching this is because as a theologian, one
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of the things that I'm always pondering is how do
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you determine the truth. And basically, from a theological point
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of view, we look at four different lenses, and I
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want to cover these lenses briefly today. This won't be
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a long podcast, but I want you to think about
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these different lenses and then determine how you use these
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lenses to determine truth. And when I'm talking about truth,
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obviously in an absolute sense from the standpoint of a
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religious or spiritual perspective, or just in general in the world,
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your everyday life. But obviously, since this show is about
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metaphysics and spirituality and religion and consciousness transformation, that's what
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I'm leaning on, all right, So the four lenses are
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from again, we're talking about religion, scripture logic slash reason,
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tradition and experience. Scripture logic slash reason, tradition and experience.
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Now let's start with the process. For some people, especially fundamentalists,
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in whether it's Christianity, Islam, Judaism, for instance, they believe
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that if it's not written in their scripture, based upon
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how they interpret it, then it's not real. They don't
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care about your logic, they don't care about your experience,
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they don't care about tradition. From a Christian perspective, did
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the Bible say it? Where's that in the Bible? Where's
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that in the Qur'an, Where's that in the Torah? And
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for some folks, this is their absolute bottom line. Where
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is it in the scripture? For them, that is the
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tale of absolute truth. They're not really trying to have spiritual, religious,
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or ultimate reality the conversations, but often how we should
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behave in the modern twenty twenty six world without viewing
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it through the lens of scripture, because part of the
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Protestant movement when the church broke away Martin Luther broke
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away from the Roman Catholic Church, part of it was
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scripture and scripture alone, because the Catholic Church leans heavily
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on tradition.
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So I want you just to be mindful of the
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fact that.
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If you are practiced or come from a fundamentalist background,
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whether that's again Christian Islam or Judaism or some of
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the other religions that are very structural around their sacred writings,
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their scriptures, it is what it is.
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They're not really trying to have conversations.
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So when you try to come up with a logical
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conversation or this doesn't match up the science, the history,
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the date, the archaeology, or whatever, it doesn't make a
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difference of the Book of Mormon is an example of that.
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People who will say, well, you know, these dates and
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this history doesn't necessarily match up historically, that's very difficult
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climb to heal the client, you know, And there are
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other groups that have their books that are like that,
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where this is.
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What it is.
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This is what we believe, and that's that when you
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look at it from a new Thought perspective. Because I'm
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a new Thought minister, we look at scripture not literally
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but metaphysically because we're seeking to get the principles, the
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universal laws. How is this teaching us about myself as
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a spirit, soul, body, threefold being.
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And for us, as we relate.
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The narratives and the teachings of scripture over to how
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consciousness works, how spirit works, it changes the scripture. So so,
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depending on the New Thought brand, they can emphasize scripture
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more than others. For instance, at christ Universal Temple and
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in the Universal Foundation for Better Living, we identify as
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New Thought Christians because the Bible is our primary text,
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but it's the our primary text metaphysically interpreted.
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And that's the difference.
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So if you read something in scripture and you don't
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try to evaluate it, put it in its context, try
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to recognize if it's still culturally relative, et cetera. You
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might be a person who determines truth based upon scripture
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and scripture alone. The next step is logical reason. In
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other words, you know where are the facts and where's
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the you know, how do we look at this from
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a reasonable modern standpoint where you start looking at and
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logic and reason.
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It can show up different ways.
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It can show up very intellectually, but it could also
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show up intellectually structurally. And this is key because sometimes
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in religion, scripture and logic bump heads because like, this
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doesn't make sense. Well, the Bible says this, and then
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we're looking at everyday life and we're saying, well, logically,
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this is where we should go. Where's the cause and effect?
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Where is the structure, where is the line of thought?
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Where what are the principles behind this thing that we're
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saying is true or not truth? Where's the proof? Can
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it be proven? So when you start talking to some people,
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you know, they're not really trying to have the conversation
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around the logic, I mean the scripture and scripture alone
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conversation because of the fact that they're looking at the logic,
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like make this make sense to me? You know. Again,
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as a new thought minister, one of the things that
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I'm mindful of is that new thought is built a
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lot on logic. But Charles Fillmore, the co founder of Unity,
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he called it honest logic and pure reason. And what
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he meant by that is, there's a spiritual logic based
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upon understanding God, Humanity, and the universe from a standpoint
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of universal principles, universal spiritual principles versus a giant personality
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God upstairs in the sky, up there in heaven, somewhere
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somebody up there likes me, the big man upstairs, all
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those type of terms, or whatever your term might be. Instead,
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can we view God as principle, the underlying plan. Can
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we look at God as divine mind? Can we look
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at God as universal law? Can we look at God
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as infinite love? Now you're starting to put principles together.
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Now you're starting to put ideas together. Now you're starting
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to put cause and effect together. So from a new
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thought perspective, we lean heavily on what I would call
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pure reason, principal centered thinking, principle centered thinking. Again, as
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Johnny Callman, you society say, I am the thinker that thinks,
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the thought that makes the thing. Principal centered thinking. So
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you'll read a lot about universal law. You'll read a
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lot about how thoughts, feelings, and beliefs work. The power
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of the spoken word, prayer, treatment, meditation, visualization, visioning, all
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these different mental techniques. Why, because it's structurally we're trying
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to build some type of mental structure that allows spirit
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to work easily through the human consciousness to show up
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as everyday life in our everyday life in the world
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and affairs. In other words, so we can get some
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calls and effects where the effects. So we want to
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see if I do these things, will these things happen?
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That's the basis of new Thought. Matter of fact, Charles
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Filmore the paraphrasem said that we don't believe. We don't
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ask you to believe anything that you can't practically demonstrate
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in your life. A matter of fact, Charles and Myrtall
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Filmore called the Unity Teachings the Unity brand of New
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Thought practical Christianity. That was the original name practical Christianity
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because he was basic it on what he considered honest
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logic and pure reason, understanding truth with a capital T,
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from a spiritual perspective, not based upon the whims of
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a God in the sky by and by, but based
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upon immutable.
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Laws that govern everything.
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All right, we're going to take a quick break here,
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then we're going to come back and knock our tradition
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and experience just reminding you that this show has a
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Facebook page True Transforms a Reverend Gale mcdowe, quickest and
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easiest way to get in contact with me. Also have
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Instagram page at Gale mcdowe makes that easy to find,
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and I want to make sure that you give yourself
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the best opportunity to reach out to me if you
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have questions or you want to you have comments. I
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would love to hear how this podcast is helping you.
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I would greatly appreciate it. So with that, we're going
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to take this quick break. Will be right back where
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Truth Transforms the Reverend Gae MacDowell. H h m hm.
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Hm.
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Welcome back to Truth Transformed to Reven Gueler MacDowell. I'm
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teaching how to how to determine what is true. The
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next step is tradition, and tradition is a big deal
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and a lot of religions the things that you do,
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you know, like, for instance, there's some brands of religion
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that are very ritualistic. What do you do, when do
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you do it, how do you do it? Do you
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wear in other words, your dress daily or on special occasions?
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You know, certain things that you say at certain times
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or during their religious services, etc. Very ritualistic, special holidays, special,
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this special that. So when you understand tradition that has
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been passed out for some people, the truth is found
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in the ritual, in the tradition and the practices of
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the religion. In other words, what is the collective wisdom
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and ritualistic practices that have been passed down through the ages.
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So if you go to a for the church, obviously
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they're going to have masks at every service, they'll have
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certain things that they read, like the Apostles, Creed, et cetera,
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and other things that they do. And it don't make
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it and it makes any difference if you go to
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a Pentecostal church. If you go to you know, Islamic
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and I don't want to say the wrong word, but
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I believe it's temple, they're going to have certain things
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that they do, how the men work. In some places
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the men and the women don't worship together, or they
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don't sit together.
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For instance. There are certain things far as you know,
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for instance.
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Praying five times a day that's passed down tradition, wearing
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certain clothes that's passed down tradition. They do the same thing,
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and talism and then Buddhism, Christianity in general. You know
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a lot of Sunday churches have communion Sunday, for instance,
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water baptism. These are traditions that have been passed down
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through the ages, and for some people, the truth is
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found in the tradition, and we need to be aware
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of that because when we're going to a place where
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we're trying to understand the culture. To understand the culture,
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you have to understand the tradition. We just don't go
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up in there and you're like, Oh, we're just gonna
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make sweeping changes on how we do things culturally. What
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I respecting and understanding the tradition. I'm not saying things
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have to stay the same. What I am saying is
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you have to be mindful of the tradition. Just going
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and watching a different type of funeral. You know, I've
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officiated many military funerals. The military has a tradition for
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their funeral the honor of the people who I've served
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the United States government in the military, that's the tradition.
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I've had people who have been a part of various
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fraternities and sororities. When I officiate those services, I give
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the capitals, although O megas or the aka's their time
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to do their tradition. For those who are Freemasons or
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Eastern Stars, they have their traditions and so on and
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so on and so on. Everybody has their tradition, and
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when you look at it within the context of the
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religious world, for some people, they find that the collective
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wisdom that is passed down through the tradition is how
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they discover and understand truth. So you're not going to
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talk to somebody that's Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Christians for instance,
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and not be able to communicate with and try to
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communicate with them outside of the context of the traditions
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that have been passed down for almost two thousand years
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than those individual churches. They're big on tradition. They're big
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on tradition and New Thought. We have our traditions as well.
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We say we don't, but Thought was built to be
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non traditional. You know, we're not doing water baptisms, for instance.
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There's some New Thought churches I'm sure that do it,
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but normally that's not done we do. If they do them,
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it's more of a spiritual baptism, you know, prayer and
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things of that nature. The Holy Spirit activity.
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You know we're not. You know, communion is a mental thing.
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So what new thought seeks to do is, whatever is
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the tradition, for instance, Christian tradition, we look at the
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idea behind it. What is the idea behind baptism? What
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is the idea behind communion? Hopefully y'all get the point,
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what's the idea behind it? But that does to mean
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we don't end up having our own traditions. Something as
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simple as wearing a wedding ring is a tradition that
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most new thought people wouldn't even say, oh, that's a tradition.
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It is.
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It really is at christ Universal Temple and many new
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Thought circles start the year off with the burning bowl
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where we write the list and burn up paper. That
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write on paper where we don't want we burn it
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up is symbolic. Tradition is deep in symbolism. New thought
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has it, but we have a lot less of it
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because we're trying to deal with the ideas, thoughts, feelings,
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and beliefs behind what is this thing that we're out
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really doing representing? And if we understand what it's representing,
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we can get to the core idea of it and
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understand it to express it.
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That's what I'm trying to get across to you.
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So new Thought has its traditions too, but it was
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created to be less traditional because new Thought leans heavily
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on this last piece, experience.
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For some people, it's all about the experience.
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Okay, Yeah, the scripture says this, logic and reason says that.
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Tradition says that, but I want to be able to
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experience it myself. So this is WHYT has a heavy
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emphasis on prayer, affirmative prayer, and meditation because we want
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people to experience the presence of God. And you do
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that by learning how to get still and centering yourself
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and going into the silence, going into that meditative state,
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going into that consciousness where you cultivate your spiritual nature.
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And I wish I could logically explain it, but I can't.
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See that's the thing. I can give you the information,
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but you have to have the experience yourself. It's like
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me trying to explain to you what swimming is like
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until you actually get in the water. I can give
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you all the explanations in the world, but the experience
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of swimming or being in the water is different than
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being in a shower.
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It's still water, but it's not the.
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Same thing, all right, And when you understand that, the
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experience you know. Bruce Lee would say that basically, to paraphrase,
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learning martial arts without sparring is trying to swim on
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dry land. In other words, if you're martial arts, sooner
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or later you gotta fight, You gotta test your stuff. Well,
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new thought emphasizes testing your stuff. Okay, So if I
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was to put out of these fours scripture, logic, tradition,
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and excuse scripture logic slash reason, tradition, and experience, I
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would say new Thought lies heavily on the logic, reason
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and experience heavily because we want to teach you these
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spiritual principles.
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Yes we use scripture, Yes we use tradition.
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We want to teach you these principles that make sense
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to your mind. And then we're going to teach you
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the techniques necessary to experience what you've only grasped intellectually.
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So we want you to feel, wants you to experience.
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We want you to demonstrate, or the catchword today is
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manifest the truth that you're studying, that you're hearing about.
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So when Emmy Fox wrote there's no such thing as
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undemonstrated understanding. He was talking about experience. You should experience
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what you understand, no more, no less. You should demonstrate
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what you understand. Jesus said, judge a tree by the
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fruit it bears. That's experienced. You should demonstrate what you understand.
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That's experience. So we don't want this to be a
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purely logical teaching. Excuse me. We want you to understand
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how to experience God in you. Because until God in
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you is real, then it's all just talk. It's all
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just words in a book, it's all just things you've
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heard on a video or on a podcast.
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No different than this.
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I can impart my information and I can share my consciousness,
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but you have to experience it yourself. And when you experience,
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and as the scripture says, touch the him of his garment,
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touch to him of the presence of God and you,
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it changes everything. I know when I'm out of alignment
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because I don't feel as though I'm experiencing the present.
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So I do what I need to do to get
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myself back in alignment so I can be in the experience.
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Again. New Thought focuses on the demonstration.
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It's a practical spirituality for better living. Therefore, the experience counts,
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the experience matters. The experience. So yes, we have scripture.
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And for some New Thought brands, some of our books
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focused function like scripture with the centers of spiritual living.
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They used to be known as religious science or the
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Science of Mind group. The nineteen thirty eight version of
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the Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes is a form
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of scripture for the Unity brand, and in UFBL, the
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book Lessons in Truth by h Emily Katy It's almost
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functions as a form of scripture because it's our secondary text.
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In UFBL it functions almost like a scripture. And Divine
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Science some of the writers of Melinda Kramer or Known
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the Books, they may or may not function the scripture.
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In Christian science, Mary Baker Eddy wrote The Science and
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Health and the Key to the Scriptures. That book is
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considered scripture along with the Holy Bible. In Christian science
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ministers the book is the minister. So even in New
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Thought we have those things, you know, I you know,
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my base line is the old school Unity metaphysics that
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I learned at christ Universal Temple, which was originally Unity
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Church before Reverend Comber went independent and started the Universal
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foundation for better living. But she didn't change what she
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learned in unity in the nineteen fifties. So that old
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school unity is my foundation. That Charles Myrtle, Fillmore, him Lykdi,
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johnny Combe, all from the same tree of thought.
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That's my base.
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We call that now Fillmore in theology, I like the
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term unity metaphysics, but that's just me. However, that's my foundation.
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That allows me to play in a lot of other places,
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but it's still my foundation. Somebody else's that foundation might
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be the works of Earnest Homes. For somebody else that works,
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their foundation might be the work some with Linda Kramer.
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For somebody else, that might be Nevil. For somebody else,
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that might be Joe Goldsmith. For somebody else, that might
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be Emma Curtis Hopkins. The community determines what is sacred
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or not not the material, and that includes the Bible,
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the Torah, the Koran, and anything else. The culture. The
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community determines what is sacred and what is not sacred,
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what is value and what is not value. And that's
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the same for tradition, and that's the same for the
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logic slash reason. Where new thought Lasers had on is
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that you can experience this truth that we talk about.
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People get healed, people get prosperity breakthroughs, people get opportunities
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and doors open, people get spiritual insight. I'm not saying
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you only get that in New Thought, by the way,
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I'm just saying that we laser being focused on it.
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It's about the experience. Why, Because life is consciousness. Consciousness
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is what I am. So I would love to hear
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from you and find out how you view it, how
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it works with you. I'm gonna leave this here because
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I think I've taught it well enough. I would love
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to see how you tackle these subjects. I would love
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to reach out to me on the platform. As I
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mentioned earlier, God bless you, and I'll be with you
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next week with true transform.
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Take care,
