Spirituality Course

Spirituality Course I didn't want to just go in to an essay of what I was supposed to learn, or information to which I could relate too. I want to begin at the beginning for me of spirit and communication. Which was many years before I had ever heard of spiritualism, mediumship, or spirit communication. I come from an ordinary family, in fact no body in my family is even the slightest bit religious. The only time we ever entered a church was for a family christening, wedding, or a funeral. As I grew up, I always new and felt different, but as I was only around the age of 9 when I started thinking about things, I really didn't understand as to why. I remember the first time I had an experience, we had just moved home, so that would make me 7yrs of age. I was standing outside the front door of our new house for the very first time. My father opened the door, and as I looked up the stairs I saw a dark shadow go up the stairs and round towards the bedrooms. I didn't know what to make of this, but as no one else saw it I thought it best not to say anything about it. Many people would read this and say, are you sure of what you saw, It probably was just a shadow, and I can understand them saying this, but as a spiritual person I try to be open to every type of persons belief, but i know what i saw. After that I didn't have any spiritual experiences until the age of 22yrs. Now this seems like a long time between spirit communications, but from that first sighting at the age of 7yrs my life would never be the same again. I always found myself asking who is god, what are we here for, and why do I have such love for this man I didn't know, called Jesus. It would take fifteen years of life filling lessons to understand. As a young boy, I always had to walk passed a church whilst I was on my way to and from junior school. I never entered the church, as I was to scared, but it didn't stop me standing outside, and letting my little mind wander every time I walked by. Jesus was knocking on my door and asking me to trust him. The funny thing was it felt so right. I felt as though he had been in my life forever. As I was growing up, I didn't make many friends as I was a very shy young boy. Even if I was with my friends, I would feel as though my friends were all enjoying themselves in a room and I was looking at them through the window from outside. Mostly I preferred my own company. I would take the dogs for a walk up the fields every day. The strange thing was I never felt alone. It seemed so right. It gave me time to ask questions in my mind. I would even walk to the cemetery at the end of our street, and sit by my grandad's grave and talk to him, even though he had passed away when I was just 4yrs or age. Like i said though, my real spiritual experiences started at the age of 22yrs. I believe that spirit train you through our lives and depending on how well we do, they will consider using us to do spiritual work. This could be in many different fields, healing, mediumship, teaching, ministering, etc. You say that there are basically two types of people, those who are driven by the heart and those who are driven by the mind. This I agree with in part. I do believe there is a third option, because sometimes I am driven by my heart and sometimes by my head. Depending on the situation, and the person that I'm dealing with. I believe as ministers, mediums, or healers we have to wear many hats. You asked for our first homework to practice our powers of observation. I really found this enjoyable as it was something that I have always done. For me observation comes in many different forms. I love to watch people living their everyday lives. This has served me very well throughout my spiritual development. As spirit now allow me to feel when something is wrong with people before they say anything or before their body language shows it. It was one of my hardest lessons to learn, feeling other people's emotions and learning to separate myself from them. This course opened my eyes to many different aspects of how spiritualism has evolved throughout the ages. The church has had a fundamental control over what everyday people were allowed to openly believe. There seemed to be an immense fear from the church of losing its control over the people. So spiritual people had to hide inside behind locked doors but luckily we have moved passed those times. They say to know the future we need to understand the past. I disagree. I believe that even though all the scholars of the past were very wise, many of their ideas were grounded by lack of knowledge or understanding. Just like society today, we only know what god wants us to understand. If you put the universe 1000yrs in the future people will have a greater understanding of god and the world. Weather that be spiritually or scientifically. Hopefully the two beliefs will be closer together, because really is there any difference between the two? I don't believe there is. Jason Dawson ******************************************** To ordain yourself with the Universal Life Church, for free, for life, right now, click on the Free Online Ordination link. Rev. Long created the ULC seminary site to help ministers learn and grow their ministries. The Seminary offers a huge catalog of materials for ministers of the Universal Life Church, as well as an online seminary program and a chaplaincy program.

Metaphysics Course

Universal Life Church

I've been working on the Affirmation techniques in Lesson 16. Rather then being about telling yourself what you want to hear it is about what our instructor mentions, a change in habit and intention. You are literally changing your intent vocabulary. I find I am thinking the changes first almost subconsciously. Then they seem to move up to the front of my mind. This interestingly enough is happening in off times. In other words this is outside of conversation or communication. An example was the other night. Verbiage change scenarios began wandering through my head in my half sleep, before I was out for the night. No thought of the subject was consciously there as I prepared to go to bed. Very unexpected. This as all of us are learning will be continual process.

Another way to make affirmative change is to pose a question that leads to a positive presentation of what you want to say. For example, if we were to be really unhappy with someone s actions, before this lesson we might say something like

I am not happy with you.

You can ask

Are you aware that I am unhappy about what you did?

This does not change the fact that you are unhappy. What it does do is convey more clearly what is going on so that the other person can begin to absorb and use the information instead of only feeling bad or even attacked.

Granted this also extends the subject past ones self out to others. This would seem to be a natural progression however. I am looking forward to reading others experiences with this. 

*******************************

The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more.

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Spirit Quest

Greetings!

I used to use affirmations every day, especially in more difficult times in my life. At first, I really wondered if the affirmations were of any value at all: it seemed almost "silly". But then, almost imperceptibly, I began to look forward to the affirmations and I found that slowly but surely, they were manifesting themselves in my life - I began to believe them! Moreover, the affirmations made me feel good physically and good about myself.

Affirmations are a powerful tool to use in everyday life. Often times, especially in the mundane, work-a-day world, we find ourselves under-appreciated or invalidated by those around us. Affirmations allow us to feel good from the person that really matters most in this case - ourselves!

For those who are skeptical - try it and give it time. Believe and be amazed - you can be even more than you are today!

Yours in the Way,

JP

********************

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Spirituality Course

Spirituality Course
As a Christian, I believe that prayer should be a complete drawing close to God. The prayer visualization demonstrates the need for a complete reliance on God, giving up oneself to Him in love and peace, letting His Spirit flow into us. We are told in the New Testament that if we ask, we shall receive; seek and we shall find; knock, and it will be opened.If we truly believe then we shall receive all these things and more, because we shall be in full communion with Him. Only then shall we know that we have received what we really need. The Course mentions that 'true prayer is a time of listening and loving' resting in God's peace and thanking God for what we have already received.

I have found that the words of Christ in the New Testament have gained new meaning through the reinterpretation in the light of this lesson. One begins to see beyond the literal meaning to a deeper lasting meaning that connects us with God in a different but more spiritual and lasting way.It is difficult at first to accept that perhaps I have been praying in the wrong way and even more difficult to change established thoughts and attitudes, but seeing things from a different angle is very stimulating and thought-provoking.

D H Kemp

********************************************

To ordain yourself with the Universal Life Church, for free, for life, right now, click on the Free Online Ordination link.

Rev. Long created the ULC seminary site to help ministers learn and grow their ministries. The Seminary offers a huge catalog of materials for ministers of the Universal Life Church, as well as an online seminary program and a chaplaincy program.

Spirituality Course

Lesson 5 I am finding this course very challenging, both as regards content and my current beliefs, although there is much that is still found in traditional Christianity. I have always accepted the Holy Spirit as the third person of the holy Trinity providing a Guide and Helper to all who believe. The Holy Spirit came down on the disciples after Jesus' ascension, not so much to remind them of the truths that Jesus had told them, but to give them power and support  to preach this new Gospel. The disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost and fearlessly went out immediately to start their preaching.. The Holy Spirit fills us all as we believe and provides us with the way to come closer to God. He is always there whether we realize it or not, to give us help in whatever way He sees best for us when we ask. The prayer included in this lesson is valuable to teach us to trust in Him and accept his guidance on all matters. The more we use the prayer, the more the Holy Spirit will fill our hearts and minds and souls to become truer disciples and therefore closer to God. By showing the 'little willingness' to accept His guidance, we can develop a 'big willingness' to serve God in whatever way we are called. By surrendering ourselves completely to Him, all our problems, doubts, fears etc will be swept away and we shall find the true way where we should be heading. I find the concept of the Holy Spirit shown in the 'Course' fascinating in its interpretation and going further than I have considered before. I am learning much that is new on a number of different aspects of Christian thinking, and believe that the Holy Spirit is indeed the 'bridge to God'. The Holy Spirit has been with us since the beginning of time when 'the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters' at the creation of the world (Genesis 1 v 2) and is therefore nothing new in biblical terms. Derek Kemp ******************************* The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have various classes in Christianity, one on Wicca, along with several Pagan courses, more than a few courses about Metaphysics with more being added regularly. Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free, legal and lasts for life, so please take advantage of our Free Online Ordination. The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of minister supplies.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and am proud to have started the Seminary. Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Metaphysics

Universal Life Church
Setting Spiritual Goal's

Moving in and out of love that is something we as human's need to work on, it's not impossible that we can fix any problem even this. People in that time of life has to turn to God for his leadership and guidance. Now one of my goals has come to be and that is to do a funeral for a friend who was a young man 37 years old in body in mind maybe 5 at best, I thought that I couldn't do it but, we can do anything through Christ if we only trust and believe in his teaching. Now that brings me to the thing at hand which is my word. To me a man is only as good as his word and that was the way it was before I am talking about years past. Now today there is too much going the wrong way and seems like no one care's anymore or is it just me that feels that way?

Forgiveness

What if we can't forgive others do we think that God should forgive us any way. I don't believe it works like that with God in his word, and his guidance, for us and forgiveness is for the one that is asking as it should be for the one he is asking to forgiveness. That is to say Christ is forgiveness so are we better than him? I think not. Let us be more like Christ and less like the world we are in, but we shouldn't be part of that world.

Grounding and center of the Head

This is a funny thing to be doing, but it does work if we learn to just think about what we are doing and why we are doing it. To think is a short word for meditation, but simple people like me have simple minds that is me. Now I would say that I have learn a lot from the few lesson's than I thought I would so that make's me one step closer to my main goal that is to be a help to my pastor, my friend and my brother and maybe not in that order. Now for the grounding part we could and do have a lot of fun with it, but that is how I think it should be.

I have made a few changes in this time and some are good for helping me learn that when we start to feel the thing's our world puts in our way. We can stop and go to that chair in the middle of that room at any time and any place if or when we need to. I know that it work's real good. When I go to that chair to meditate or as I said before to think about any problem like the way our country has been and still doing to us. This thing with the oil today, I think we need to meditate on this and see if we can help and what has happened to our country this is my thoughts.

Meditation Golden Sun

I have a shop that I clean all the time, but it stays in a mess and I don't let it make my day a mess I agree that all Neutral Energy and Positive Energy comes from God and Negative Energy from the world as this lesson say's. The world as we know it now is different than it was when I was small as I grew so did my small town, now it is not a small town any more. I can only hope that it grows spiritually and not bringing the crime like the bigger town. I spend more time trying to get the thing's as it was when I was small out of the way and try to grow as my small town grows I stop to look back at some of the things that was growing some are not good for us I hope that we know the difference I pray that it gets better and we know our country would come back to God before it is too late. Now the energy that I replaced is the negative energy with positive energy and not just that I put my faith in my Lord and Savior JESUS CHRIST, if right or wrong can't help that. One thing that I have not used as to now, but this is something that I need to say if you have a problem you can't fix, give it to the Lord. He is the one that made us, so how can he not be the better to fix us that is my question? The protection rose is a way of getting rid of negative thing that are not good for us, but if these thing aren't faced it can make a mess of one's life. We need to take care of that problem as soon as possible. Now to neglect anything that can become a problem is a good way of letting it become a down fall to us. The protection rose is also a good way of getting it taken care of by getting rid of negativity is to create a rose of protection and take it and blow it up.  If you need to create as many as you need. I get more out of mine though by using this Rose of Protection and my Meditation. I know that to think about something to a point of knowing how to make it work. Now to make it to strengthen the effectiveness of our tool's by imagining large amounts of details. Using the mind's eye or the third person wouldn't that be about the something? Give yourself time to think about the other's that is in the center of your head then you can invite them to leave.

Good people create good thing's creating is about bring new thing's into the world that was not there before. Creating is good. Women create babies, women create and that is a good thing. Destroying has a negative concept to it. Hurricanes destroy, tornadoes destroy. Destroying is as needed to life as creating is, what if there was no destruction? What would the world look like I can't imagine what house's would be like if we create and not destroy? On the positive side nobody would ever get divorced. If you want to buy new clothes you have to make room in your closet for them or in time space would go away, get the picture? Creating and destroying something can do two thing. First thing it does is to bring what you have created into present time. This means that as we become more capable we are bringing our tool's with us. Second thing that creating and destroying does is to move energy. The last time you were angry and you could not let it go , it may have been something big or small, but you just could not let it go, most of these thing was stuck energy. One kind of energy is called Earth Energy, this is the energy that comes from the plant. I am sure that the earth is, and has its own energy. As for it being and having a consciousness or an awareness well I don't know too much to say about that.

********************

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials and courses in Metaphysics, Paganism, Spiritual Development and Christian Studies. 

Metaphysics

[SPIRIT QUEST ESSAY] by Rev. C.Vickers Master of Metaphysics Beginning this quest brought about more than an opportunity to read impressions of experiences on the exercises in the assignments. It literally created very interesting synchronicity in my life. The inner work on spirit saw a result in my world experiences. It is great to heal the self through enriching assignments and to cultivate a life experience that rewards reflection. One of the first reflection exercises was, "Start with the idea that God (Supreme Being, Higher Power, Lord of All Creation, etc) WANTS you to succeed. " You were created to succeed." The blueprint of your life and your goal as a being is all geared towards success. Failure is a lie." This became a powerful premise for thoughtful deliberate consideration of the self. It led to a great weeks and evaluation of what I really do want. My contemplation and meditation assisted in what I would like to envision my successes. Again, great food for thought. As mentioned in the beginning of the essay the assignments do take you on a journey to support personal experiences and interactions, and the exercises create stirrings of memories and dreams you seek to create. Then you start noticing that the work is bringing together other pieces of your life. It is easy to accept this once acknowledged you become aware of responding to cues from others and have changed responses because of having done the exercises. In numerous little ways, something was shifting. This spirit work often reflected in my work for my show, sometimes as themes for the week, it provided links into the connections with the guests as well as be reading further studies in the area of my weekly assignment. I really enjoyed these connections because the conversations were often in depth discoveries of the topics. It was such a pleasure to be able to fully engage in this project, see the benefits immediately, and understand that all work chosen can be part of the passion for success and positive outcomes. Spirit Quest helped me keep on track of my personal journey as well as my professional image and relationships. ******************** Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button. As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials and courses in Metaphysics, Paganism, Spiritual Development and Christian Studies.

Spirituality Course

Comments on Lessons 1 and 2 of Dr of Spirituality course I have found this course to require some deep study and to be honest, it was not what I was expecting. However, I have found the first two lessons very interesting, if a little unusual. It seems strange to look at God from this angle but it does tie in with traditional Christianity. At least so far. We are told in the Bible that 'God is Love, and he that loves God is born of God' and that 'God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth'. To regard this world as an illusion is rather strange when we see it all around us so solid and safe, but I can see how different our world would be if all-encompassing Love (ie God) was filling everybody. We must learn to live in a more loving society, however small may be our beginnings. We cannot do this overnight but each one us in a small way can start the process, and I am trying to look at things in a different and more loving way. I look forward to future lessons to see how they can help me to help others see the Light of Christ in and around them. The key to this course is Belief, particularly belief in the presence of total Love. We may be far from this total presence but if we belief that it is there, then this a good start in bringing it more and more into our lives and those whom we meet, whether known or unknown. The prayer visualizations produce a deep sense of calm and enable one to look at prayer in a different way to what one normally does. Instead of prayer being just an asking for something that we need, it becomes deeper as we look at it from a different perspective. Derek Kemp ******************************************** To ordain yourself with the Universal Life Church, for free, for life, right now, click on the Free Online Ordination link. Rev. Long created the ULC seminary site to help ministers learn and grow their ministries. The Seminary offers a huge catalog of materials for ministers of the Universal Life Church, as well as an online seminary program and a chaplaincy program.

UNIVERSAL LIFE CHURCH

Top 10 unanswerable questions of the last decade Amy, On the ULC Seminary web site was a link to the following. I gave it a shot and am now forwarding the answers I came up with to you. :) Top 10 unanswerable questions of the last decade: 1 What is the meaning of life? In my view the meaning of life is a simple question to answer it is to have a meaningful life based upon what you find meaningful. Note how I did not say what others find or what others say your life should be... 2 Is there a God? That depends a great deal on one's personal choices. The God debate is an age old battle of personal perceptions and beliefs. I prefer to view the concept of God as a God Archetype, as a state of being that many individuals strive to achieve by way of many paths. This question can really only be answered by the individual asking the question for it is heavily dependent on their individual choices and perceptions of what they consider to be a God archetype or as an archetype worthy of their particular form of worship. 3 Do blondes have more fun? That would depend on one's perception of fun as what is fun for one person may not be for another person. The blonde hair stereotype is full of assumptions and projections. Hair color has no bearing on what is commonly viewed as "fun" as the concept of "fun" is different for each person. 4 What is the best way to lose weight? Through a system that works. It is statistically and scientifically proven that a combination of eating right and exercise is the best overall method.  If a dieting method contributes to you losing a pound or ten pounds then that method that helped you lose ten pounds is the best method. 5 Is there anybody out there? Sorry this question is too vague to attempt a response to.  Anybody-  as in human or something else; out there – as in ... being in the next house, country, or solar system? This particular type of question is of an open ended manner, so the open ended answer would be "maybe" 6 Who is the most famous person in the world? The individual who has the most attention of the masses. If one expands their boundaries of "person" to include "archetypes" then I would have to answer that with the God Archetype as every culture has a name for their particular God head. 7 What is love? The emotion of love is a chemical reaction in the mind, which enables an individual to experience the sensation of what is considered to be the emotion of love. In the field of Human bonding it is often associated with romantic relationships. The word love has reached a state of oversaturation in is use as an adjective. 8 What is the secret to happiness? There really is no secret, as happiness is perceived differently by each individual. If you want more happiness in your life experience then find and do things that you perceive as bringing happiness to your particular level of wants and desires. Be mindful of the mental trap that many fall into where "if this or that happens I will then be happy" 9 Did Tony Soprano die? Who is Tony Soprano? A real person or a TV character. If Tony is a TV character then it is possible that Tony's death will be left as a cliff hanger as a form of drawing attention to the TV show. The human mind likes answers and conclusions, so when something is left open and no answer is given a vast amount of time is then dedicated to finding answers. 10 How long will I live? You will live till you die. You are born, you live for a while, then your body ceases to function and you die.  What you do with that period of time for some is more important whereas for others, the type of death experience they have is more important. To attempt to specify the exact length of time you will be alive is also dependent on what an individual perceives as being alive. Is the question meant to ask about physically being alive, if yes, then that question in that manner cannot be answered. If one means being alive as in being remembered for doing something to the benefit of mankind then that person will be remembered for a long time. Travis Richardson ******************** Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button. As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials and courses in Metaphysics, Paganism, Spiritual Development and Christian Studies.

Spirit Quest

Final Essay

Universal Life Church

Spirit-Quest written by Rev. Amy Long

Essay by Mary McGar

This course was fascinating. The aspect I liked most about this course was the continued use of personal examples. They triggered thoughts of my own related experiences that, most likely, I would not have recognized as easily without them. I also felt a deep one-on-one relationship with Rev. Long during this course, rather than just studying impersonal material.

The tools I found of most relevance to me were creating and destroying roses and bringing in golden suns. I have been going through trying health and financial difficulties lately and they brought on much stress. Most of the financial stress was not of my making and I was helpless to correct it through my own efforts. I found the reminders to ground myself useful because that is something I sometimes forget. Creating a rose and stuffing it with a specific problem was very effective for me. The constant reminder to then bring in an immense golden sun was so very calming. While nothing has, of yet, truly improved with either my health or finances I find that I can deal with the pain and the concern much better and I am more at peace from applying those tools.

Since I found those tools so useful to me I decided to try them on my friends who come to me for Reiki treatments. I took a few minutes to guide each client through an induction with the intent of not only relaxing her/him before the treatment but to help her/him with her/his current problems in another way. Before starting our session I would ask, if I didn't already know, what issues were of most concern to her/him. Then during the induction, after advising each to ground himself/herself, I would ask each one to imagine the rose as specifically as I was taught to do in this course and use it for both protection and as a tool to destroy his/her problems. Then I instructed each one to bring in a large golden sun and let its warmth, energy and healing power engulf her/him. Without exception, everyone benefited from this exercise. Each person was able to immediately feel better destroying whatever was bothering her/him and felt comforted by the energy of the sun. It is far easier to see improvement in someone else than it is in oneself; at least it is for me. Each client was able to derive more benefit from the Reiki treatment and experience more during it than previously. Each client improved more dramatically than during previous treatments. So, as a result I will continue to use these tools before all my Reiki treatments.

Thank you, Reverend Long, for an enlightening and marvelous learning experience.

Mary McGar

********************

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar