About Gary's Material

So what's Gary's stuff all about and why do I love it so much?

Gary's Material:
The Disappearance of the Universe - Straight Talk about Illusions, Past Lives, Religion, Sex, Politics, and the Miracles of Forgiveness
Your Immortal Reality - How to Break the Cycle of Birth and Death
Secrets of the Immortal - Advanced Teachings from A Course in Miracles (Six disc audio series)
The End of Reincarnation - Breaking the Cycle of Birth and Death (Two disc audio series)

To be released - September 2008
Love has Forgotten No One - The Answer to Life

Back in the early 1990s, Gary, who made a living as a musician, had moved from the fast paced, sophisticated society of the Boston metro area (although from my personal experience of Beantown, sophisticated was sometimes debatable) to the peaceful, simple state of Maine. This is where he started having visitations from two ascended masters who called themselves Arten and Pursah. They said that in a prior incarnation they were two of Jesus' disciples, Thaddeus and Thomas, respectively. They came to Gary to help him on his spiritual path, with the intention of having him write a book based on the conversations that the three of them had.

So Gary is actually the student in his books, with Arten and Pursah being his teachers. Gary always wanted to know what it would be like to learn from Jesus firsthand, well, J couldn't make this gig so two of his disciples came on his behalf. The conversations get into what the non-Christianity version of Jesus was like, and how his original message has been drastically changed by organized religion. They also cover the topics mentioned in the sub title of DU - illusions, past lives, religion, sex, politics, and the miracles of forgiveness. They also discuss spiritual healing, money, 911, baseball, as well as future events. Also, in the IR book, they make it very clear that what they are teaching is much different than a lot of what is out there, and compare their teachings to that of some other well known authors of spirituality. A & P also introduce Gary to the spiritual text called A Course in Miracles, which was often quoted from in Gary's books. We'll get more into ACIM in a future post.

So what's so great about Gary's books? Well as far as I'm concerned, they speak the absolute truth about God, our existence, and why we appear to be here; nothing else I've ever read on spirituality over the last thirteen years has been so consistent and uncompromising in its message. What I also love about Gary's stuff is that the material is presented in very down to earth, human language, and you'll laugh your ass off with reading some of this stuff. As Pursah says in DU, "....it's fun to know the truth, you don't have to take everything so damn seriously!'

Gary's material has been very motivating for me. After 'goofing around' for a couple of years and establishing some roots here in Ashland, Gary's books came to me in good time, when I was need of something new to get me refocused on my spiritual path. When I read DU for the first time last year, it was if I was reading my own thoughts and feelings of what true spirituality is all about. And Gary's stuff just simplified it all for me, while tying up some loose ends. Gary's material makes many references to A Course in Miracles, which is J's message on how you can be like him, and it is all about removing the blocks to the awareness of who we truly are, immortal spirit, rather than who we subconsciously think we are, the body. Gary's material goes heavily into the subconscious mind, and how to go about removing those blocks through a process called true forgiveness. The application of true forgiveness will gradually undo the blocks (the ego) and will eventually result in the experience of permanent peace and happiness, which is our natural inheritance. Yes it is this simple, but it is far from easy.

But I absolutely love it! I was fortunate that when I read it for the first time, that I realized that I already knew this stuff. And iit didn't come with all the 'new agey' and 'airy fairy' terminology I had grown accustomed to reading on the topics of ascension and enlightenment for the past several years. The stuff I was into previously on this topic, particularly Joshua David Stone's books, really seemed to complicate the hell out of it all!

Gary's stuff isn't for everyone, it's not intended for the squeamish nor the faint of heart, as the material is by no means sugarcoated. The teachings presented in Gary's books, as well as The Course, are what Jesus practiced in his lifetime where he achieved enlightenment. One's fears and illusions will not go away on their own, they must be looked at, examined, and eventually forgiven, in order to be free of them. This stuff is very threatening to one's ego, because practicing true forgiveness will eventually lead to the ego's demise. And it takes courage and much vigiliance to move forward on this spiritual path. You have to be wiiling to look at everything, and eventually forgive it. For me personally, I know that I would not have been able to handle this stuff ten years ago that's for certain. Fortunately, I have come to a place in my life where I just want the peace of God, and wanting to be happy is now more important to me than wanting to be right.

The ego is not natural, not real, and it is a symptom of incorrect thinking, and only love, peace and happiness are real. But in order to experience that on a permanent basis, the ego must be undone. Jesus did it, and he'd be the first to tell you he's not special. As he states in The Course '....be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world,' meaning that we can all do that too. You may be ready to do it during your current incarnation, or your next, for others it will come after many more lifetimes. The message of The Course is that if you work at undoing your own ego by forgiving everything, and start thinking like J, then you can be like him; fearless, peaceful, and unconditionally loving.

Anyway, if you're looking for something with a strong spiritual message that comes with a healthy dose of humor, these books may be for you. Gary is right up there with Wayne Dyer aka 'The Wayner' as far as spiritual comedy is concerned. Gary comes out with some wicked funny shit! I mean, how many speakers or writers of spirituality would say that they would rather stick pieces of broken glass up their but than to speak in public? Or would admit to driving down the highway with his middle finger pointing up in the air aimed at the tailgater behind him. And he seems to love using terms such as "guilty little bastards' and 'crap a brick!' Gary's just a regular, guy who digs hot women, music, movies, sports, and beer (and not necessarily in that order!) But none of that distorts the message of what Gary's stuff is all about, the practice of true forgiveness.

We'll get more into what true forgiveness is all about in my next post, and how you can apply it into your everyday life, and why it is so important. Giddy up!

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Gary Renard Announcements

Gary Renard will be here in Ashland, OR August 16-17, 2008. Time and place to be announced.

Gary's new book, Love has Forgotten No One - The Answer to Life, will be released on September 9, 2008. Here's the Editorial Review:

In this fascinating book, Gary R. Renard and his Ascended Master teachers, Arten and Pursah, guide you through a way of dissolving the illusions of time and space and returning to Reality, which is Perfect Love. This is not love in the way the world commonly thinks of it. It’s an all-encompassing kind of love that is perfect spirit: innocent, unflawed, immortal, invulnerable, and forever fearless.

Real love, which is Divine in nature, must be experienced, for it is beyond words. Yet words and practice are needed to help lead you to that experience. The knowledge of what it’s like to be one with your Source is the awesome mystical experience that’s been described by Masters throughout the ages. It’s the greatest sense of awareness anyone can have while still appearing to be in this world. This book will teach you exactly how to get to that experience, which upon the end of your physical existence will become your permanent reality. You will find that, indeed, love has forgotten no one.

About Gary, from his website, with my two cents inserted:

Gary Renard, the best-selling author of The Disappearance of the Universe and Your Immortal Reality, was born on the historic North Shore of Massachusetts (he's a former Masshole just like me!) He became a successful professional guitar player, but during the harmonic convergence of 1987, he heard a Calling and began to take his life in a different direction. At the beginning of the 1990’s, he moved to Maine, where he underwent a powerful spiritual awakening. As instructed, he slowly and carefully wrote Disappearance over a period of nine years. In the fall of 2003, after much encouragement from other speakers and students, Gary began to present talks and workshops in public. His speaking career took off remarkably fast, and today he lectures internationally.

Combining a disarming sense of humor with radical, cutting-edge metaphysical information and experiential exercises, Gary has been described as one of the most interesting and courageous spiritual speakers in the world. He has spoken in 40 states, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal and Costa Rica; and was the keynote speaker at the International A Course in Miracles Conferences in Salt Lake City and San Francisco (Gary's the freakin' man!)

My next post should be out this week. It'll be about why I love Gary's stuff so much. Future posts include What True Forgiveness is All About, and My Catholic School Days. Stay Tuned!!!

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What's Missing?

There is an audio version of The Disappearance of The Universe with Doreen Virtue playing the role of Pursah, Gene Bogart playing the role of Arten, and Gary playing himself. However, this audio series is abridged so there is a lot of good material from the book that is not included on the CD series. A few months ago, I went through all six CDs to find out what was missing. So here it is case you'd like to know:

Chapter 2 - p 33 - 36; p 41 - 53; p 57 - 71
Chapter 3 - ALL of it p 87 - 118
Chapter 4 - p 119 - 121 p 136 - 137; p 145 - 151
Chapter 5 - p 153 - 162; p 165 - 202
Chapter 6 - ALL of it p 205 - 225
Chapter 7 - p 227 - 232; p 257 - 258
Chapter 8 - p 259 - p 264
Chapter 9 - p 275 - 280; p 283 - 290; p 297 - 298
Chapter 10 - p 306 - p 313
Chapter 11 - ALL of it p 315 - 332
Chapter 12 - ALL of it p 333 - 344
Chapter 13 - p 345 - 350
Chapter 15 - ALL of it p 367 - 379
Chapter 16 - ALL of it p 381 - 392
Chapter 17 - p 400

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Abbreviations

Here are some abbreveations that will be used throughout my blog:

DU - The Disappearance of the Universe
IR - Your Immortal Reality
SI - Secrets of the Immortal (audio series)
LF - Love Has Forgotten No One
ACIM - A Course in Miracles
The Course - A Course in Miracles
J - Jesus or Jeshua
A&P - Arten & Pursah
The G Man - Gary Renard

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Intro to Mikey - Relocating to the West Coast - A Leap of Faith

So, it has been just about one year since a friend of mine told me about the books of Gary Renard. When she told me what they were all about, I knew immediately they were for me. That in itself was very odd, as no one outside of my mom had presented me with something in spirituality that I would feel drawn to explore. And it turns out, this is the best stuff I've ever come across in my thirteen years of studying spirituality and metaphysics, and is the path I will be following until I'm fully awakened.

I have been on a spiritual path since the mid 90s, feasting in what Gary's books refer to as 'the spiritual buffet line.' You know what I'm talking about, reading the books of all those well known spiritual authors, Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer, Neale Donald Walsch, James Redfield, Shirley MacLaine etc. They were all very helpful to me at the time, as they got me to break free from some of my old ways of thinking. However, in the summer of 2002, my life had come to a cross roads, that coupled with seeing signs of '11:11' that really freaked me out, while doing some soul-searching away from home down on the Florida gulf coast, going through what some may call 'the dark night of the soul.' I had come to a realization that it was time for me to 'grow up' in the spiritual sense; and my life hasn't been the same since.

From that time on, my life has been all about achieving ascension, enlightenment, mastery, (whatever you want to call it) though I didn't realize it right away. I started furthering my studies of spirituality by reading the Life and Teachings of the Masters of Far East books by Baird T Spalding, as well as the "I AM" aka Saint Germain Series of books by Godfre Ray King.

By the end of 2002, I started working with an audio series called Pathways to Mastership by Jonathan Parker. My mom had loaned the tape series to me back in 1997. Every once in a while I would play the first tape and just found I couldn't get into it. Little did I know at the time I was subconsciously resisting it, as the message was very threatening to my ego. Jonathan's stuff is pretty heavy, it's all about looking at the things within one's self that nobody wants to look at; or what A Course in Miracles refers to as 'the secret sins and hidden hates' we all have about ourselves and are usually in total denial of. Yes, we all have them, we wouldn't appear to be here in a body otherwise. But much more about that in a future post.

So anyway, in 2003 I attended several of Jonathan's workshops in Sedona, Arizona. Much like Mount Shasta, Sedona is a great place for meditating and doing inner work. The vortex energy in these places amplifies everything, which makes your subtle feelings about everything feel much stronger. So much so that when you leave these areas, you feel a great sense of relief, at least that has been my experience. It brings out the stuff buried in the subconscious mind; all the guilt, fear, anger, resentment, insecurities etc. that we all have, but most are oblivious to. Jonathan's guided meditations are designed to bring that stuff to the surface to be healed once and for all, rather than continuing to suppress it. And from my experience, it works. It's just a matter of taking the time to do the work. But I'm certainly not an enlightened being at this time (far from it) but I know I have less ego than I used to have.

Also in 2003, I started reading the spiritual psychology and ascension series of books by Joshua David Stone. My mom had started reading them, and shortly thereafter told me about them. Once I started reading them, I knew there was no going back, and also knew I would not be doing some things in a 'normal' fashion from this time on. This, combined with the work I was doing with Jonathan's guided meditations, totally turned my world upside down. I knew I had I much work ahead of me, and still do to this day.

For some time, Joshua, who passed away in August of 2005, had held an annual event in Mount Shasta, California called
Wesak. The event was held every spring. I purchased tickets for the following spring event in July of 2003, and surprised my mom with them. I even half-kiddingly told her that maybe I would move there too. Well, one week later, not only I was committed to moving there within one year's time, but my mom was coming with me, and we were going to be 'roomies.' There was no doubt in my mind that this was the right thing to do. It was as if Jesus himself was giving me these thoughts, they sure as hell felt like they were coming from someplace else that's for damn sure!

So in January of 2004, we visited Shasta for the first time for a couple of weeks. And then came back in May for the Wesak event - which turned out to be the final one hosted by Joshua - as well as to find a place to live. Well, the Wesak event is a three day event, going from Friday afternoon into Sunday evening. I would say that the event ran for a grand total of thirty hours. Well, we spent maybe an hour or two there at most. Without getting into details, we just lost interest. But we knew it served a purpose in getting us out there.

So, Friday, June 18, 2004, we left our hometown, New Bedford, Massachusetts (and haven't been back since.) Our stuff was scheduled to arrive anywhere between June 26th and July 3rd, so we had to get there in about a week's time in order to make sure we got there before the movers did. We drove cross country in my Jeep Wrangler, not a comfortable ride for my mom. It was pretty cool to drive cross country, however, it was a bit tiring spending at least 8 hours a day on the road. But we got to see some cool places we've never seen before, Wyoming and Utah come to mind, while seeing some sites we could have done without, particularly the endless amount of corn fields from Indiana through Nebraska. Anyway, we arrived in Mt Shasta (in one piece, barely - long story) on the following Friday and checked into a suite at the Econo Lodge.

After settling into our duplex in the first week of July, and pretty much for the next 6 months after that, I would be saying to myself 'what the hell am I doing here?!' I gave up a pretty good salaried position, working for a bank doing money laundering investigations, with five weeks of vacation time and eleven paid holidays, as well as a pretty nice apartment that came with a very generous rent deal since my grandmother was my land-lady back east. Not to mention I had a reasonable amount of freedom on my job since I worked in Providence, RI my last year and a half there, while the department I worked for was located in Boston and I would only see those folks once every other month or so. And here I am in the small town of Mt Shasta, CA, population less than 4000 people, with no 'real' plan!

So, since my spiritual path and listening to that inner voice led me away from my aforementioned old life to this world of 'the unknown', I was pretty much expecting the following two things to take place: The first being that an ascended master would come knocking at my door and take me to the mountain, or better yet inside the mountain, for some wicked cool healings or something, and tell me how freakin' awesome I am for giving up everything to come out to Mt Shasta, and that I passed a test of faith by coming out here. I had read books about ascended masters appearing to people in Mt Shasta so I figured, 'why not me?' And the other thing I was expecting was a check from God in the mail so I wouldn't have to work and I could just focus on my spiritual path while having some fun too. Those weren't unreasonable expectations, were they?!?!

Well, I pretty much felt hung out to dry. Needless to say, no masters came knocking on my door, while no check from God arrived in the mail either. I had been tricked! Furthermore, all of my intuitions, gut feelings, and inner voices I was getting for several years prior, seemingly disappeared, so I didn't know what the hell to do! Well, after a while, I realized that the 'test', or initiation if you will, was just starting. Fortunately, I did have money to live off of, from stock options I cashed when I left the bank along with a pension. But living off of your savings is not necessarily healthy for one's nerves. And I had not a freakin' idea what I was going to do for work. I just woke up every morning not knowing what the hell I was doing, but making sure to catch my daily fix of The Price is Right, as well as Happy Days on TV Land! Yes, those were weird and perhaps even pathetic times.........and you don't know even know the half of it! Of which, I don't particularly care to admit to at this time.

Also, almost immediately upon settling into Shasta, my mom came across these brand spanking new books called Telos by local author Aurelia Louise Jones. She channels an ascended master named Adama. Her books are all about the Lemurians, people that came over from the lost continent Lemuria prior to its demise, and settled here. Except, that according to the books, they live in what is called the 5th dimension, as opposed to the everyday 3rd dimension we experience, and reside underneath Mount Shasta. One can not see them unless you match their level of vibration. Whether you believe all that or not is up to you, I for one believe anything is possible so what does that leave out? But the important message in these books for the serious spiritual seeker, is that you need to face all of your fears and learn to live from the inside-out. If you want to achieve enlightenment, you have to look at all your fears. Not looking at them, or being in denial of them, will just keep them in place. So I was into Aurelia's stuff for some time, and even attended a few of her channeling sessions in her home in Mount Shasta (in the town, not the mountain) in 2006 and 2007.

In January of 2005, I had a personal channeling session with Aurelia and had a conversation over the phone with the ascended master Adama. I figured, 'what the hell, why not?' It was pretty weird because it was still Aurelia's voice, but supposedly not her talking to me, but the ascended master Adama talking to me through Aurelia. So I let it all out there regarding my fears and all the things that I was feeling very unsettled about in my life, particularly about bringing in money. It was suggested that Ashland, OR would be a better fit for me, as they were more employment opportunities in the area. I had pretty much knew already that I wanted to be in Ashland, but hadn't acted on it since I thought I was supposed to be in Shasta, that's where I was guided to go after all. Anyway, I was told that I could still get the benefits of the Mount Shasta vortex energy, but that it's gentler in Ashland. I remember thinking why the hell am I paying money, as well as wasting my time, for advice on something I already knew the answer to, and that was hardly the first time I had done such a thing. "Tell me something I don't know!!!" was always my motto after such a session with somebody, whether it be a psychic, astrologer, channeler or what have you. A lesson in learning to trust my inner guidance, indeed.

Anyway, I was in love with Ashland before I even stepped foot in Oregon. Ashland is located eighty miles north of the town of Mount Shasta, just over the California border. I had picked up a copy of Ashland's annual publication, The Green Book Directory at a health food store upon my arrival in Mt Shasta. With all of the spiritual and holistic type services being offered there, I knew it would be a wonderful, open-minded community to be a part of. So since I wasn't working, I found myself taking day trips to Ashland over the next few months, and decided that when the one year lease I was in ran out, I would move there. I even started doing volunteer work as a librarian at the metaphysical library in town several months before moving here. The town just felt like a home that I never previously experienced in this lifetime. So on June 23, 2005, I got the keys to my new place here in the south end of Ashland, with a job starting in two weeks at Harry and David in nearby Medford.

So what does all this have to do with Gary Renard's books? Well, nothing really. I just felt a need give some background information before I get heavily into his stuff, to hopefully give you an idea as to where I'm coming from. More to come soon!

p.s. A lot of the semantics and verbiage I use in this post I wouldn't necessarily use now, but was using them here because that is where I was at, at the time....
Also, I know the opening of my blog leaves some unanswered questions so I hope to get into some of that in future posts.

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