We the People Are the Messiah
Deborah and Jack Bartello
ContentsAcknowledgments
A Note from the Authors
An Invitation from Jesus
1. Restoration to Love
2. Mount Shasta Beckons
3. Our Personal Journeys
4. Project Lighthouse
5. Participants' Stories
6. Through Jesus' Eyes
7. Project Lightstar
8. The Christ Heart
9. Moving Through Interference
10. Living the Christ Heart
11. The Earth Speaks
12. Jesus Speaks
Our Closing Message
In the following pages you will read about our experiences with Jesus personally, professionally and with our extended family of workshop participants. We are not born-again Christians and are not affiliated with any religious organization. We are simply two people who had extraordinary experiences with Jesus that were unsolicited, and yet profound. We found in sharing them with others that they were greatly affected as well.
Fifteen years ago we began doing healing and facilitation work with other people on a professional basis. We had both traveled far on our own spiritual journeys and the next step after coming together as a couple was to join our love for spirit and put it forth in our spiritual teaching and private work, assisting others on their journeys. This we knew would deepen our own connection with ourselves and each other as well as enable us to live what we truly believed and felt was meaningful.
We started out by teaching people about energy, pure and simple. We taught them how to feel energy, read energy and move energy. It was obvious that without this base of sensitivity well established and activated within, there was no way people were going to be able to interpret and understand their emerging spiritual experiences. Learning about energy was the way to begin the discourse between self and spirit, and strengthening these skills would be an ongoing requirement as each person matured in his or her own self-awareness. Through this language of energy we knew from our own experience that the spiritual worlds would open quickly and effortlessly.
The second phase of our work focused on clearing and healing. Just as the language of energy was essential to one's spiritual movement, it was also obvious that cleansing and clearing the way inside for these higher frequencies was also essential. Without attention paid to this part of the equation, the incoming spiritual energies would have no room within which to engage, integrate and flow. It would be like trying to pour fresh, clear, clean water into a cup already full with old, stagnant water. We recognized the benefits of "flushing out" the spiritual and emotional pipes.
After many years of doing clearing work, both on ourselves and others, we were spent. We knew this work had been extremely important and beneficial, but we also knew there was more for us to discover. "What," we asked ourselves, "was the purpose of all this preparation?" Asking this question prompted a leap into a level of refined energy with which we had not previously been connected. We found ourselves letting go of our business of healing people so that we could make room for this new energy to enter more fully.
Our emphasis shifted from healing and clearing to empowering others to heal and transform themselves. Our message to them was that they needed to take full responsibility for their own healing journey. It seemed as though we were blasting open a world within us that had been quietly contained. Our work became much deeper, more challenging and more exciting. Ironically, with this shift into these new depths, our audiences became smaller. With this decrease in numbers, we flourished with even greater depth and intimacy. We knew we were taking risks by leaping into the unknown and by following this more refined and demanding path of spirit but there was no other choice we would have ever considered.
It was at this time in our development that Jesus came sweeping into our lives. As you will read throughout the pages of this book, his entry into our field changed us forever. There was no denying the intensity of his purpose with us and there was no hesitation on our part about embracing him and whatever he wanted. It was brand new territory for us, and yet we came to find out it was "as old as the hills."
We offer you this book because we have seen in ourselves and others that there is now a place and need for it. Whenever someone asks us what this book is about, we tell them it is about Jesus. The reactions that we get are usually one of two: a hushed and reverent, "tell me more," or a frigid cold-shoulder, a turning away as if we had never spoken. The subject of Jesus has very little grey area for most of us who have been raised in a Christian ethic. As you will read, it is a loaded subject and one about which much more will be written in these next ensuing years. The "Jesus box" has been opened and it is here for all of us to look into. What concepts, baggage, projections, feelings, assumptions do you have lingering in the attics of your mind about him? Shall you look or not look? What is to be gained by "covering old ground?" This book offers you some answers to these questions.
Many of us are hungry for this material. We are hungry to reevaluate ourselves and base our lives on what is meaningful. We are hungry to revise our belief systems to reflect what we have always known inside-that we are all God-Beings, Free-Beings and love-centered Beings. Jesus is a catalyst through which we can all see and know ourselves more deeply.
Our book is a simply a message of love. What propelled us to write it was the belief that we, as a western civilization, need to "come clean" with this subject matter. Our intention is to bring it all back home to Self so that we can have and embrace our own unique experience of Jesus without any of the external man-made limitations and dogma attached to him. In doing so, we can once again open our hearts to the depth of love that he so richly represents.
To those who want to realize their true dreams, to those who "walk their talk," to the courageous and fiery individuals who wish to live more fully-this book is for you. Some of you may already feel fulfilled and complete-more power to you! This book will simply add extra fire to that gusto and glory you already know.
Throughout this book, we make reference to God and to each of us as God. We are not speaking here of God as the judge, the scorekeeper and the task master, but rather as our divine energy, our life force, the spirit that moves in all things, the pulse of Creation. We are sourced by God, therefore we are God also. Knowing ourselves as God is not our egos talking. It is the truth of our Being-plain and simple. Jesus showed us this so beautifully.
This book is about breaking old ground and birthing new. It speaks to the pioneering spirit in each of us that has heard the call to forge new paths of freedom for ourselves and others. It concerns itself with joyously paving a new way of love for generations to come. We invite you to bring an open mind and an open heart to this material. If you do, we feel it will nourish and support you in ways that will truly astound you. This is our hope and our prayer for you. Enjoy!
Blessings Be.
I come to be with you now, Beloved.
Our love of long ago was never over,
Never torn, nor forsaken.
I come to you now because you know who I am.
I am your Brother.
I am your Friend.
I am your Soul.
Will you take a quiet walk with me now?
Will you share this journey of remembrance with me?
Let us be together, once again, in love.
In love where nothing else exists.
Quiet oneness. Gentle family.
Holy union.
Joy of heart.
Freedom of spirit.
Ours.
Yours and mine.
I come to you because you know who I am.
I Am You.
"It has become a play through which individuals have sought to gain power for themselves and keep the masses in a blind state. It has been a play through which many have inadvertently diminished themselves. They have taken on guilt and repression in my name.
"Let it be understood now, the entire sequence of events was my own responsibility. I was the star on stage and everyone involved was in agreement with the play. I was not the victim. Let me say this one more time. I WAS NOT THE VICTIM.
"How many of you have held me in this position? How many of you have been angry and resentful and unforgiving of those who "did it" to me? How many of you have blamed yourselves for not doing something to stop it? How many of you have hardened your hearts so you wouldn't feel the pain? How many of you have blamed and resented me for leaving you?
"How many of you have shut off your own light and freedom because you felt and still feel that you will undergo the same punishment? How many of you would welcome the opportunity to return to that play of events so that you could understand them correctly this time and therefore unlock your own stored fear and misgivings?
"How many of you are ready to come out into the sunshine with me so that we can do it right this time? How many of you are ready to declare to yourselves the truth of your Christ within you? How many of you are willing to live this openly, proudly and joyously?
"If you have any response inside of you to any or all of these questions, then join me in the following pages so that we may get on with this revelation. Your time has come and so has mine.
Restoration to Love
It was May, 1991, and we had decided to go into spiritual retreat for one month. As you may know, Mount Shasta is an "illuminated mountain," considered by many spiritual seekers to be a holy, sacred vortex similar to the Himalayas in Tibet. We had been drawn here. We knew we needed to let the world go for a while, and this was the perfect place to do it.
Soon into our retreat, we had an unexpected visit from several Ascended Masters, Jesus among them. We had felt these Masters before but had never experienced them with such presence. They told us we had some very important work to do during this month and that they were here to guide and support us. We welcomed them all with open hearts and felt blessed to have them with us.
It soon became obvious that they had some serious plans for us. Jesus, in particular, was leading the way and it wasn't long before we found out why.
One day, as we were sitting in meditation, we suddenly found ourselves lifted back in time two thousand years. We had had no previous warning about this and it had been the furthest thing from our minds. But, suddenly, we were reliving our lifetime with Jesus. It was so real and intense. Out of this experience came the most dynamic clearing of energy and emotions either one of us has ever known. With the clearing came an opening of our hearts and a blossoming of our love that was indescribable. It changed our lives forever.
For several days afterwards, we just looked at each other, stunned. What had happened here? Who would have thought that we would be traveling back two thousand years to clear up some old and frozen pain that we didn't even know we had in us! Jesus explained that many people on our planet have pain frozen inside themselves about him. He spoke to us of the antiquated belief systems we have held from long ago about being suffering, sinning and unworthy people. He showed us that we have been conditioned to deny and hide our "Christedness" and that this has caused us to live in repression of our true power.
He showed us many things that day and many more in the days to follow. He was intent upon clearing out old energy, old and encrusted misconceptions. And we agreed with him on all of it because we knew that he was right. We could feel it inside ourselves. We knew that if we didn't honor this energy that so desperately needed clearing, we were going to be hampered by it. And we didn't want this. We wanted to move forward-with all our hearts and souls.
Since our time with Jesus in that little cabin on the mountain, we have explored what we experienced and what he said in great depth. We have looked inside ourselves, we have facilitated other people, we have explored the energy thoroughly. And we have reached some startling conclusions. We have concluded that many of us are stuck in exactly the same behavior and thought patterns that were established in us two thousand years ago!
We, as a western civilization, cannot move forward until we explore, unravel and heal our pain about Jesus. Until we do this we are frozen in place, living by thought patterns that are outdated and inappropriate. Until we identify and clear these patterns, we cannot establish new ones that are in alignment with our true natures. We need to transform these old patterns so we can be free.
The freedom of our expression of goodness and God-ness has been thwarted by our ancient belief systems. True, there is value in what we have learned from our past, but there is little value in being stuck there. Our past was our present teaching us, not trying to hold us back. As we live in these times of greater spiritual awareness, the need to reevaluate ourselves becomes critical.
Jesus was an extraordinary man. He has been by far the most influential figure upon western civilization in the past two thousand years. There have been many other great teachers, but none have left such a wide and blazing trail of love and tears in their wake. All that is carried out in his name, both positive and negative, was born out of his lifetime. He rocked this Earth in so many ways.
Think about it for a moment. How has his life affected you? Even if you are not Christian, do you feel his impact upon your life? We believe that everyone has felt the impact of this man, directly or indirectly, for his life was instrumental in shaping the subsequent spiritual, social, moral and political structures of our western world. It has molded us on many levels.
The intention of this book is not to address the issues surrounding Jesus, but to delve directly into the heart of what this man meant to us inside-person to person, soul to soul. His teachings inspired us to see God in ourselves. In retrieving what he symbolizes and represents to us, we can better understand our dance with our spirit-our relationship to our God-Being. But before we do this, we must clear all the confusion that stands in the way.
Jesus was considered a revolutionary. He was a God-directed, outspoken, passionate and compassionate man. He was a great visionary. He saw the power of love in each of us, and this was his focus. He set our hearts aflame by loving us and believing in us. He told us that we needed to change how we think of ourselves, that we needed to know ourselves as empowered, conscious Beings, responsible for shaping our lives and the lives of our children. He told us that we were Beings of love and compassion, and that we were worthy and divine.
How is this any different from what we are saying to ourselves two thousand years later? He knew it to be true. The question is, do we? And if we do, are we living it fully?
Many of us find ourselves governed by messages and conditioning that run counter to what Jesus taught. Ironically, all of this conditioning has been done in his name. This is one of the primary reasons why there is so much conflict and confusion associated with him.
Think about it for a moment. In the name of Jesus, what patterns run you? What are some of the messages that come instantly to your mind when you think of religion, of worthiness, of freedom? Here are some examples that illustrate how powerful the destructive messages can be. We realize there are also many constructive messages, but here we wish to emphasize those that have blocked our spiritual freedom.
I am a sinner. I am unworthy. I am guilty. I must pay for my sins. I must never think of myself as being Masterful-it is sacrilegious. Poverty is noble. I must give but not receive. Suffering is a sign of Godliness. I am a sinner, therefore I will never be good enough. Just by virtue of being born, I am a sinner. I am condemned for life. I must judge myself harshly because I am such a sinner. God will punish me. I must punish myself. Self-flagellation is good. It is a sign of holiness and purity. It makes me worthy. The more I beat myself, the better I am. Sex is shameful. I will never be worthy of heaven. Jesus died because I was so bad. I am reminded of this every time I see a cross. I have to pay for this. I am so bad that Jesus was inhumanely tortured on account of my badness. It's my fault that he died. I am to blame. He died so that I could live-so that I could keep on being a suffering sinner. I am unforgivable. I am going to hell unless I'm really good and beat myself really hard. I have to pay, one way or another, to get into heaven. I must prove that I am worthy, that I am good enough. God loved Jesus so much that he put him on the cross, tortured and killed him. He was his son and this was a loving thing to do because of my sins. Jesus was God's ONLY son! He was the one and only son that God killed because he loved him so much. God is a man who sits on a throne watching me. Watching all of us. God is to be feared. If I am not good, He will decree that I will burn in hell forever. I am beyond redemption.
The list goes on and on. Think about it for a minute. Do any of these statements ring a bell inside of you? Have they influenced you? Do any of them leave you feeling confused, conflicted, angry, intimidated, untrusting? How many of these messages have been a part of your conditioning? You may have thought you had moved beyond this, but how much of it is still affecting you and how you feel about yourself?
Examining this is important for it reveals how we have held ourselves back in his name. What a paradox! No wonder there is so much separation, confusion, pain and resentment around Jesus. It's completely understandable that we would want to disassociate ourselves from him.
Many of us have thrown out the thought of wanting a connection with him. Unfortunately, we have "thrown out the baby with the bath water!" Truth be told, we have a deep, deep love and connection with this Master Jesus and all the goodness he represents. In opening to this connection, we open ourselves to the depths of our own goodness. Those dusty, cobweb-filled corners within us are brought to light, and we find the spark of passion for life that we have missed since he left us two thousand years ago.
His original words, his original sacredness, his original inspiration lives on inside of us all. It lives on, safe and intact, in the core of our hearts. We have protected it well, as it is most precious to us.
We are his brothers and sisters of heart who have come here to re-ignite these beautiful and sacred energies. We are ourselves revolutionaries. Because times are different now, we can express ourselves differently and more openly. The truth is this: we are here to make change; we are here to express light; we are here to live consciously and with reverence for ourselves, each other and our planet. We are here to make a difference.
Who was this man Jesus? He represented everything good in the world. He represented truth, love, peace, healing, harmony, compassion, gentleness, strength-God embodied in man. He was a common man, living among the common people. His teachings addressed the fundamental issues that were, and remain, important to us and our well-being. His message was a message of love.
What we have seen, both in ourselves and through our clearing work with others, is that it is necessary to return to the original space of two thousand years ago to literally reconstruct the events within our psyches and resurrect ourselves. This is a cleansing that is all about restoring ourselves to LOVE. Without it, we remain fragmented, with parts of ourselves deeply entrenched in self- denial, resentment and conflict. We are buried under the persisting weight of old baggage. This weight greatly affects our hearts and our capacity to know our own "Christedness."
As you will see, people of varying belief systems are in need of this clearing. It does not seem to matter whether or not one is raised Christian. There is an etheric energy that has affected most everyone. The events surrounding Jesus and his seeding were far-reaching and have influenced all of humanity.
A surge of material has been written about Mary in the past five years. Much of this contains magnificent pearls of wisdom brought through various gifted seers. People have been hungry to re-connect deeply with Mary's vibration within themselves, and this has proven to be very heart-opening. Embracing Mary-and the feminine power-has been critically important. But let us remember that Mary was the Mother of Jesus, and so naturally, Jesus cannot be ignored. He is a vital part of Mary's message. To ignore Jesus and simply devote oneself to Mary, void of Jesus, is like loving your own body but neglecting your arms. Mary and Jesus are deeply intertwined. For wholeness to happen within each of us, both energies need to be restored in a balanced and loving way. This is also part of that for which Mary has been paving the way. The time for this has now come.
Our purpose in writing this book is to bring us together as a family of humanity. Our message is a message of love. It is not our intent to condemn or judge anything about religion or anyone's preferred path of worship or spirituality. Our intention is not to divide, but to unite us at our core. It is to restore the glorious depth of love within our hearts. In our experience, Jesus provides a most valuable "missing link."
As we move into our depth of love for him, we will encounter our pain of loss and separation from him. We will encounter the patterns of persecution and suffering that we took on from witnessing his crucifixion. In moving through that pain, we will find we misunderstood the events that took place at that time. As we explore it all from our present level of consciousness, we will be able to see the perfection of it this time and bring it to a place of peace within ourselves.
Through this restoration, we come back to our Self. We re-ignite our Christ Consciousness and enable the magnificent expression of this creative force to flourish passionately through us all. Then we can create new patterns based on love, joy and mastery.
This book is a journey. The first half is a clearing process of the old, and the second half is a birthing of the new. We encourage you to see it through to the end.
Sit back...close your eyes...take a deep breath...and imagine.
Imagine yourself in a time two thousand years ago. Imagine that you have just heard of a man named Jesus. What you have heard has piqued your interest and curiosity.
You hear that he is coming to your village. You await his arrival with great anticipation. You feel an inner stirring that you can't completely explain.
He arrives. You see him and he sees you. He looks at you and you feel as if he has opened the gates in your heart. You feel that he knows you throughout. You are rocked inside with his love, compassion and God-presence. You are touched to your core.
The gentleness in his eyes and his peaceful demeanor envelope you. They move you so because you also see and feel his amazing strength-his complete dedication and clarity of purpose. Being with him is like finally coming home.
You cannot get enough of this man-his energy as well as his teachings. Life has taken on a whole new meaning for you. You join with him and his extended family. It is a joyous reunion. Your passion is ignited and you feel alive-more alive than ever before.
Life moves along in a fluid, joy-filled manner. It seems too good to be true, but you know it is real. You feel free inside.
And then imagine that one day, this man Jesus is suddenly taken out of your life. He is taken prisoner by the governing authorities. He is tried. He is convicted. He is crucified. He is gone.
Jesus is gone from your life forever.
Or so it seems.
How do you feel now? Where are you now? Who are you now?
Imagine...