A Course in Mastering Alchemy

[usmaak]

I get an email from bookbub each day that lists books Kindle books that are on discount.  Today this book was $1.99.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07693BQG6

It looked interesting, so I bought it.  Then I read this in the Author Biographies section.

The Teachers of Light

Also known as the Elders, the Teachers of Light are a group of Archangels and Ascended Masters working together for the spiritual evolution of all of humanity and Mother Earth. They have orchestrated this course and are the primary authors of this book. The Collective includes Archangels Metatron, Michael, Uriel and Zadkiel, Lord Melchizedek, Yeshua, Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and others. They give you their wisdom, support, powerful tools, energetics and initiations in present-time. Their desire is to create a new pathway into a full state of consciousness and the Living Light Body.

Seems as likely as the Jesus authoring A Course In Miracles.

$1.99 is not a lot of money, but at least I was able to get it back.

[Deb]

 

I was wondering where this was going when I started reading the star-studded list of "guides." I'm glad you got your money back, I guess there's something for everyone and they were trying to cover all the bases. Yet I feel they missed a few big names.

I've returned my share of books to Amazon, electronic or print. It's nice they let people do that, especially the ebooks.

[usmaak]

I was wondering where this was going when I started reading the star-studded list of "guides." I'm glad you got your money back, I guess there's something for everyone and they were trying to cover all the bases. Yet I feel they missed a few big names.

I've returned my share of books to Amazon, electronic or print. It's nice they let people do that, especially the ebooks.

Yeah.  When they came up with this, they were thinking "go big or go home."  I wonder how many channels are actually channeling and how many are either scammers or delusional.  I followed Abraham-Hicks for a while, but I'm pretty sure that it's a scam.  With everything I've read over the years, I could come up with a similar scam, if stealing other people's money was my thing.

I read a few of the Amazon reviews on this book.  Turns out that it seems like a "first taste is free but you're gonna have to pay for all of the rest" type of thing.  Sounds like a real money pit.

[Deb]

Sounds like a real money pit.

It's good marketing. 

I have to agree about Abraham-Hicks. I was into them many years ago, went to a few workshops, even volunteered at one. The material was a new concept to me, it gave me a new way of looking at reality but I felt something was missing. Thanks to Esther and Jerry mentioning Seth in their books, they brought me to Seth so I'm happy about that... right to the source! I think Esther is a very smart woman and is merely regurgitating the Seth materials, "Seth Lite" for those who can't read Seth. I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand she's spreading the concept that we make our reality and are not victims of outside forces, but on the other hand she's not being honest and she's also distorting the Seth materials. Jerry was a great manager/marketer. He kept Esther in line. He would even sit at a table on the stage, taking notes, like he was another Rob. After he died she started doing some really nasty stuff to people. Such as, some people spend a lot of time and money to get to her workshops, even traveling abroad to get to them. And I saw her chase people off the hot seat (not even being tactful about it) because she didn't like their question, such as "We're not talking about dead dogs today, go back to your seat." The people would be crushed. She would tell them they did it to themselves. No victims. It was cruel.

There are a lot of "channelers" out there, a lot we haven't heard of, and I'd say the majority of them are yes, scammers or delusional. And yet they manage to draw loads of believers to them and they make a LOT of money through private sessions, donations, workshops, books and other merchandise. Bashar sells Essassani Contact Crystals for $175 or more plus tax and shipping. For a while they couldn't keep them in stock. https://www.basharstore.com/crystals/ I marvel at people who can fake channel for years and years and not get tired of it, I couldn't do it myself, not being the pro scammer type. But it's a great business model... you can tell people anything and you don't have to come up with any proof that it's true, and get paid a lot to do it. Modern day version of Gypsy fortunetellers and psychics.

Here's one channeler that I came across several years ago who "channeled Jane Roberts." The first few seconds are enough, lol.

[usmaak]

There's nothing wrong with making money with hard work.  There, how's that for a belief?  I've worked hard since I was 16 (the youngest anyone could have a job in MA), and every day since.

I found this thing called "The Michael Teachings."  It's another channeled thing.  It seems to focus a lot on something called "soul age."  The hook here is that they sell charts that talk about someone's soul age and a few other things (more things = more $$).  I looked at it a bit.  I could spend the afternoon writing a program that would generate random soul charts.  Sit back, collect money, click a button, print a chart, and send it out.  I can only imagine how much money that organization takes in each year because it seem to be a popular thing.

Perhaps it is just an internal belief, but I think that any organization making money hand over fist is questionable, or at least deserves to be questioned.  I looked further into the whole Course in Mastering Alchemy, just because I was interested in finding the hook.  They have three levels that take years to accomplish.  The first class is relatively reasonable in price.  The second and third levels are each many times more expensive than the level before.  And then there are other add on classes after "achieving" level 3.  I have to imagine that a lot of work goes into it from their end as well but still...

All of these teachings have large followings.  I think that it shows how much people are looking for answers and not quite finding them.  Religion used to be enough.  People attended church every Sunday and had their trip to heaven all planned out when they die.  I think that people are turning away from religion because maybe they realize that when given any thought, it just doesn't feel right.  I know that I'm on that path.  I tried religion and while I felt like there might be some truth there, it just didn't sit right with me.

Unfortunately this also means that there are a lot of people for scammers to take advantage of.  And setting up a scam like this wouldn't be all that difficult.

[Deb]

Yep, I hear you. It's about morality, and there have been people taking advantage of naive people ever since the beginning of time. The scammer will say they're not forcing anyone to give them money (unlike the church). I used to have a neighbor who was in her 90s who was living on limited income, but she was a regular donor to a prominent Christian evangelist. She was very proud of that, was more than happy to support him. I imagine if someone told her she shouldn't do that, he didn't need her money, she'd fight them over it. She was buying a ticket to heaven.

There's a company who will name a star after someone. I just looked at one website, StarNameRegistry.org  (doesn't .org mean nonprofit?). They got 4.5 out of 5 stars (ha ha) based on 5,808 reviews and are trusted by Trustpilot. There are different level stars, and they are not as expensive as Bashar's crystals, but really?

You can also buy land for about $30/acre on Mars or the moon.

Remember pet rocks?

There are too many people who are willing to part with their money for goofy shit.

[usmaak]

Remember pet rocks?

When I was a kid, somehow I convinced my mom that it was a good idea to get me a pet rock.  Of course I think that it was in lieu of getting a dog.  So she chose the less expensive option.

Somewhere on the books of the First Church of Christ Scientist, I am still a member.  Whenever I move, it takes them years to find me but eventually I start getting requests from them for money.  So far they haven't found me where I'm at...  They will.  That's one organization that I'm pretty sure has more money than God.

[T.M.]

Hi All,

Imo the only really legit source of channeled info to me is Seth and Jane, with Robs help of course 
That's not to say that's all I listen too though. I do enjoy Esther, especially on YouTube.  I have found her messages uplifting for me.  I like the book too. I wouldn't consider paying for one of her gigs though.

I do agree there is way too much room for scammers. Heck I could probably put together a pretty good channeled scam too. While I could use the money, I dont want to get stuck with the karmic bill for that. Plus I also think it's pretty reprehensible to treat other people like that.

I guess hopefully,  eventually everyone finds their own way to the truth,  or truth they need. I think alot of this is fallout from the savior meme.  Until people stop looking for a replacement savior guru, theres going to be plenty of others willing to scam others for money. Sad but true.

I don't see Seth as an outside savior type either. He gives explanations and exercises where everyone is free to develop as much or as little as they like. A teacher can only take any student so far. It's up to the student to become aware of themselves,  and guide their own ship, sos to speak.

[usmaak]

There are a lot of ascension teachings out there.  Some of it says stuff similar to Seth, but considering what the two teachings are, they are different enough that they don't really seem to work together.

[Deb]

Until people stop looking for a replacement savior guru, theres going to be plenty of others willing to scam others for money. Sad but true.

I agree, I think that while they may reject a particular religion, they are so used to being told what to think and do that they end up looking for a replacement because they don't know anything else. Kind of like replacing a bad habit with a different bad habit.

Seth definitely said over and over to not look towards him as a guru, to look inside for the truth. I had a friend who was raised Catholic. She rejected that and went CA to join the Moonies. She went back to NJ after a while and convinced her brother to become a Jehovah's Witness with her, which she stuck with until her death at 50. She had shut herself off from all family and friends at that point and her brother quit the JWs. He then got into Abraham Hicks. He said when he heard Esterham said we are here to be happy, and that's all up to us, he took her at her word, became happy, and stopped reading her books or searching for any other answers.

[usmaak]

So in spite of my intention to return this book, I haven't done it yet.  Mostly I wanted to read it to see if there were any pearls of wisdom that I could find within it.  If I can ignore all of the stuff that screams warning bells in my mind, I can generally find something useful to walk away with.  Even ACIM provided a bit of useful info before I had to quit that.

So, a lot of it read like science fiction.  Dude theoretically channels just about every religious figure ever heard of in Christianity.  It is essentially an ascension book, so it went on and on about how we're working toward leaving this third dimension world to be reunited with source.  There is a lot of talk about the "Fall of Consciousness" and how we've purposefully forgotten who we really are so that we could live in the third dimension and create.  But it is an experiment that apparently went too far because now our goal (as souls, we all voted and 51% agreed) is to be done with it and ascend.  There's a lot of talk about various dates, like 1987 when the vote took place.  I don't remember this, so I wonder if my vote was by proxy.  Then there's 11/11/11.  Something about re-anchoring the return of the Christ to earth.  I honestly didn't understand a lot of it.  The last date they mention is 12/12/12.  And not just the date, but also the time.  12:12pm on 12/12/12.  No specific time zone was mentioned.  Maybe it was GMT?  Anyway, that was the date/time when "many people all over the world believed a great opportunity was going to unfold. The Shift of Consciousness was to begin. On that day a new formation of creation was brought into form. The vibrational configuration of Metatron's Cube, which had held Earth in the restricted configuration of the third dimension, was reconfigured into a fifth-dimensional geometric alignment. The third dimension was eliminated."  That's right.  The earth is no longer in the third dimension at all.  We just think that we still are.  So although the third dimension was eliminated almost ten years ago, we've all been moving along as if it hadn't been because it's what we are used to and what we know.

The book does explain that third dimension does not equate to form and that form exists in the physical dimension.  It seems to equate the various dimensions to states of mind or being.  So 3D, as in physical items, is not the same as the third dimension.

It also mentioned that no child born after 12:12 on 12/12/12 is born into the third dimension.  They came with the intention of living in higher dimensions to assist with the ascension and that these children would experience the world and themselves differently than all of those who came before them.

There's more.  The stuff that I did like from it all had to do with the Law of Attraction.  A lot of it rang true and is material that I've seen in Seth and a couple of others.  It actually did a decent job on explaining that.  It also had a moment point discussion, though it wasn't called that.

I wish that I were a writer.  I could spin a whole sci-fi series off of this book.  All of the angels and their rays of lights (which were apparently different ways that they tried to course correct without interfering with our free will) would make a fantastic series.  Unfortunately, a writer I am not.

Now that I've finished it, I think that I'd feel guilty returning it because I did read it.

Here's the thing.  It really does feel like something different is happening.  It's just a feeling that I get.  Perhaps it is because of all of the books I've been reading lately.  I don't know.  The world feels like it is in turmoil.  It feels like people are reaching their boiling point way too quickly now.  There are a lot more people questioning and abandoning the religions that we were all brought up on.  It feels like a lot of people are searching for something with meaning and something that makes sense.  And religion itself seems like it is becoming a lot more polarizing, extreme, and hypocritical.  I look at Christianity and see a lot of people who in no way act like Christians.  To me, the world feels like it is falling apart, but with purpose.  If that makes any sense at all.  It feels very reactionary, like as a whole, we are reacting to something that is coming.

I don't know.  I'm not saying that I buy into any of what I just read in this book.  I felt like this before even seeing this book.  But it did help me to clarify some of what's going through my mind.

[Deb]

The last date they mention is 12/12/12.  And not just the date, but also the time.  12:12pm on 12/12/12.

So time is not an illusion? And it is talking about 2012, and not 1912 or 3012? Wow 3012 just hurt my brain.

So although the third dimension was eliminated almost ten years ago, we've all been moving along as if it hadn't been because it's what we are used to and what we know.

God I wish I'd known that, so I've been wasting my time?

Unfortunately, a writer I am not.

I'd say you could be a great writer, you have a wonderful snarky sense of humor and way with words. I loved your book review, but I can't believe you put yourself through that.

I too think something different is happening, but then things are always changing, we don't live in a static universe. There may not have been a time where the world was NOT in turmoil. Lately I've a better understanding of people who are at the end of their lives saying they no longer understand or fit in the world.

I have some major personal changes coming my way, I've been sensing it for about a year now, but that would not be the first time. "Passages" comes to mind, a book I read in the 70s by Gail Sheehy. I'd probably enjoy reading it gain, since I was around 20 when I read it.

[Kyle]

Perhaps it is just an internal belief, but I think that any organization making money hand over fist is questionable, or at least deserves to be questioned.  I looked further into the whole Course in Mastering Alchemy, just because I was interested in finding the hook.  They have three levels that take years to accomplish.  The first class is relatively reasonable in price.  The second and third levels are each many times more expensive than the level before.  And then there are other add on classes after "achieving" level 3.  I have to imagine that a lot of work goes into it from their end as well but still...

Sounds like just another game to me, which the players take very seriously and spend lots of money on. Maybe it gives them more faith to spend more money. Is this wrong? I've always been pretty judgmental about TV evangelists but there are so many willing "victims" that I can't help but think, well, is this a victimless crime or what? It's just how ecology works, right? There's always a demand out there to be served boatloads of bat guano, which the evangelist delivers to their waiting hearts and minds. Very sad if I think about it too much, but even though it looks sicko to me, something has to happen sort of like it's supposed to.

[usmaak]

Perhaps it is just an internal belief, but I think that any organization making money hand over fist is questionable, or at least deserves to be questioned.  I looked further into the whole Course in Mastering Alchemy, just because I was interested in finding the hook.  They have three levels that take years to accomplish.  The first class is relatively reasonable in price.  The second and third levels are each many times more expensive than the level before.  And then there are other add on classes after "achieving" level 3.  I have to imagine that a lot of work goes into it from their end as well but still...

Sounds like just another game to me, which the players take very seriously and spend lots of money on. Maybe it gives them more faith to spend more money. Is this wrong? I've always been pretty judgmental about TV evangelists but there are so many willing "victims" that I can't help but think, well, is this a victimless crime or what? It's just how ecology works, right? There's always a demand out there to be served boatloads of bat guano, which the evangelist delivers to their waiting hearts and minds. Very sad if I think about it too much, but even though it looks sicko to me, something has to happen sort of like it's supposed to.

One of the things that's always made me feel a bit more secure about the Seth material is that it was obviously not a huge money making thing for Jane and Rob.  I'm not saying that they didn't make some money for their efforts, but it wasn't boatloads of money.  A lot of work went into the Seth material and it just didn't seem like it matched the return.  Where things like ACIM have exploded and sold millions and millions of copies, the Seth material has faded into relative obscurity, except for those of us who keep it alive.  Setting up a scam like this wouldn't even be particularly difficult.  Write a few regurgitated articles somewhere like on Medium, get a following, write a book or two and self-publish on Amazon.  Profit.  I don't feel like there's a lot of honest material out there exactly because it's just so damned easy to separate people from their money.

I feel like Seth started a revolution in the way people think - they just don't realize it.  The Secret material, Abraham-Hicks, and many other all seem like they came from Seth.  In many ways, I consider Seth to be the source (or at least one of the main sources) of the modern day Law of Attraction fad.

[strangerthings]

Ascended Masters:

Q: Neville, are there masters?

A: No! No masters, elder brothers and all this nonsense. All through the world you have these isms glorifying the little individual who started it. No, you can't meet anyone in this world, not anyone, who potentially is greater than you are. You can't, because you are God. You can't meet anyone that he loved more than he loves you because he chose you. That's what I said tonight of Paul. He rubbed out completely anything between himself and God. It has been my misfortune...and yet in a way I learned from it...but I have had the dubious pleasure of meeting "masters" and "holy people." Had I known then I'd have turned right around and started running. Don't believe in them. Yet there are people who insist on believing in them and are willing to pay for it. If I would tell them I'm a master, yes—I have no credentials to prove it but I'm a master—then you could charge $1,000...he's a master! My friend Abdullah once said to me that this elderly lady...he was an old, old gentleman and he was in Atlantic City...and someone told her that he could do something to a man in her neighborhood and destroy him. So she came and offered Ab $300. Ab said, "My dear, whoever advised you this way is silly. God is love, just love. First of all, if I had that power I wouldn't use it, not in that direction, and secondly, it isn't." Well, he went all the way down in her estimation. She went right next door to a phony of phonies...but this one next door knew Ab, he was a neighbor, and she gave the $300 and he took it. She had to get rid of that $300 to have her neighbor destroyed and Ab was not the one to go to. So, she had to find someone who would take the $300, and she did. Why, there are phonies all over the world and you can't stop them. They thrive like the weeds. Read any Saturday morning's paper advertising their little isms. They come down from heaven on a white horse and they come down on all kinds of things, blowing trumpets. When you read it, and see my little ad which comes out once a month on that same page, I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed to see that my little ad is on the same page with this monstrous thing. But you can't help it; you can't choose where you're going to put it. They put it on that page, so you're stuck. There aren't any masters. You will find yourself one day the recipient of his bounty and the whole thing unfolds in you...and there was no master.

-- "I AM in You" (1968), Neville Goddard Lecture Questions and Answers


There are no ascended masters. Banish this superstition. Your belief in a master in the confession of your slavery. Only slaves have masters. - Neville Goddard.

The gods do not come kneeling. - Seth