Spiritual information often suggests that our spiritual growth is a consequence of the suffering we go through and that we should not avoid it by running away, but rather it should be embraced, and we should always try to bolster our faith and patience as a catalyst runs its course, especially as much catalyst as pre-incarnationally chosen. Another school of thought states that our experiences are due to our thinking and feeling and that it is our duty to create better conditions for ourselves. The implication is that if we don’t like an experience, say, poverty, sickness, etc. we can change it by concentrated and focused thinking and feeling. We figure that both positions are probably accurate but there seems to be something of a contradiction between the two, and we would like Q’uo to shed some light on the subject. 1

(Jim channeling)

I am Q’uo and am grateful to be able to speak through this instrument and greet you all in love and in light this day. It is our great privilege to be called to your group for by this means, speaking to entities such as yourselves, are we able to provide our service to the One Creator. We would ask you, as always, to use your own discrimination as you listen to our words, and use those words which ring of truth to you, and leave behind any that do not, for in this way we will feel free to be able to offer our opinions without feeling the possibility of infringing upon your free will, for we are not what you would call the ultimate authority upon any matter but share that which has been our experience as we have moved along this same spiritual path upon which you find yourselves this day and all days. Though we may have moved a bit further than have you, still we walk the same dusty path with, what you may call “the clay feet.” 2 We can make mistakes and have done so.

To begin you have asked us whether or not it is more appropriate to embrace the traumas that come your way upon this spiritual path and to attempt to learn from them, rejoicing in them, and moving on from them having learned what they have to teach. Or if, perhaps, it is your obligation as a seeker of truth to bring more harmony into your life, to let your life exemplify those qualities of the truth, the peace, the love, and the power of the One Creator. Or if perhaps there is a third path which is a blending of the two. My friends, we can tell you that there is a certain kind of emphasis or primary quality to the learning of lessons through what you call “the difficulties,” and indeed many have programmed these into their lives for this very purpose. You can find that there are abilities that are brought forth from you, [from] the very depths of your being, that quality of your soul which is so valuable yet inestimately and seemingly distant from you. These can be called forth by the necessity of meeting the challenges that are yours as you move through each day’s round of activities, and perhaps discover that there is a certain loss that you must bear, a certain problem you must solve, a certain wound that you must heal; all of these are the stuff, shall we say, of your third-density illusion.

You see all about you the opportunity to witness not only the One Creator who is actively offering you these opportunities for learning, yet you also see that there is, perhaps, that which is required of you, that you do not know whether or not you have within you to put forth as a means by which to bring healing where healing is needed, to bring understanding where difficulty and hurt feelings are in existence, to do that which seems to make one uncomfortable. For the disharmonies can be great within one’s mind and heart and even into the soul of one’s own being as you wrestle with the various means by which difficulties may be offered within your third-density illusion; and these, as you know, my friends, are many. Each of you has suffered greatly at one point or another or perhaps at many points within your life pattern. Perhaps it has often seemed to you that there is an abundance of suffering, and why should there be more suffering? Why should you have to endure once again what you felt was completed?

When these patterns move around in the spiral of endlessness that is your incarnation, into and through and beyond the third-density illusion, you may rest assured, my friends, that you have found a pattern that was put in place previous to the incarnation and that this pattern has within it the opportunity for you to be more than you thought you were; to exhibit those qualities that you were not that sure you had; to find love where there seems to be none; to find harmony where there is disharmony; to find healing of wounds that are deep; to make clear the communication which has been stifled and muffled and distorted. Yes, my friends, there is much to recommend the learning by the traumatic experience in confronting that experience, shall we say in your colloquialism, head-on—not running from it at all, not attempting to avoid it at all, welcoming it as a precious treasure that you will be able to learn from, and to, as you may say, blossom as the seed that is cracked open rather violently by the expanding of its own inner nature, but brings forth the flower that is of great beauty, the scent that is sweet, giving pleasure to the eye, purpose to the mind, and a means by which one may see that there is growth possible in the most difficult of circumstances.

However, my friends, this is not the only path to growth, and not the only means by which you may approach a situation which seems difficult beyond measure.

At this time we shall transfer this contact to the one known as Steve. We are those of Q’uo.

(Steve channeling)

I am Q’uo and am with this instrument. We greet you in the love and in the light of the One Infinite Creator upon a day that has special meaning to those in this part of the country 3, and upon a time of year when there is abroad in the land a rebirthing of all of the forces of life, finding new ways to express the old ways of the Infinite Creator.

We would like, at this time, to call your attention to the character of the experience which you currently enjoy, which is that it is an opportunity; it is an occasion for engaging in creative activities that permit mind, body, and spirit complexes such as yourselves to recreate themselves and to enter upon that great adventure that is the creation itself. This entails an active doing, and doing is essential to the nature of the kind of experience which you now enjoy, and in that regard it is to be seen as distinct from the kind of experience which you enjoy between incarnations. We have expressed this difference as the difference between space/time and time/space. And in time/space which is that portion of your experience you undergo when you are not incarnate, you are given ample opportunity to reflect upon who you are, what you have become, and to discover intimations of what you wish to be. There are, in time/space, few limitations upon these processes of contemplation and self-reflection, but there are also few opportunities for the realization of the plan, shall we say, or the preferences that are beginning to take root in the depths of your being. For these changes to take place, space/time, which is what you experience while you are in the incarnate space, is a useful set of conditions for undergoing the transformations to which you have learned to aspire.

Now, as a portion of the experience which you now appreciate, there is a kind of programming in place. And that programming, we would say, has primarily to do with the set of limitations which you have set yourself and which, coming into this experience, begins from the moment you are born to attract a certain kind of experience which you will then have the honor and the duty to process. We would suggest to you that it is a significant portion of the character of the experience which you enjoy while incarnate to actively engage in the catalyst, in the response to catalyst, and in the circumstances which permit you to change the parameters in which catalyst may be received. So we would commend you to the activity of engaging with the world around in such a way that you may transform the world for the better, even as you seek to transform your response to the world for the better, and thereby to transform yourself and that little portion of the being of others which has joined you in your experience of your selfhood in this life.

So, to the extent that transformation is the order of the day, it is not fully and entirely a question merely of acceptance of the status quo, acceptance of the catalyst as given. However, there will inevitably be the need for such acceptance, at least insofar as the catalyst which you are given is indeed that which you face. And we find that it is a significant portion of the failure to process catalyst that the catalyst is deemed inaccessible from the start, and so that it can be the case that one resists what is given and this, we may say, is catalyst gone awry. And yet one may and does well to, as the poet says, “take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them.” 4 For we can assure you that the point of the catalyst as given is never simply to suffer it, but rather to engage with it so that the suffering is, to the extent that it is necessary, seen not as part of the intent of the catalyst, but as by-product of the difficult process of self-transformation that the catalyst is there to promote. The sense of destiny that arises when you begin to recognize a kind of pattern in the catalyst that you experience is an indication of the progress that you are beginning to make in learning that there is secret intent impressed within the very fiber of the catalyst you receive. And this intent can, when you reflect upon it in your meditative state, be a clue for how the catalyst might be successfully processed and how the catalyst might find its way to future catalyst that continues your growth upon a desired trajectory.

The more you are able to discover within even those situations which give difficulty, even those situations which tend to elicit from you a rejection—a feeling of being hurt, a feeling of anger, a feeling of hate—even these we say, can, if allowed to develop into a deeper sense of love which one does achieve through acceptance, suggest that the catalyst that has been on offer is indeed serving its function well. We would say to you that catalyst that is allowed its play in such a way that it inspires you to response is catalyst that is properly received, and you should not despise your inspiration in the response that you come to in relation to your catalyst, which can often take the form of seeking to improve the circumstances of your life, in seeking to improve the circumstances of the lives around you, and in seeking to improve the conditions of the social complex of which you are a part. All of those activities which reflect the inspiration to betterment, the inspiration to expression of love, the inspiration to a resolve to heal—all of these are indications of a good and proper use of catalyst.

Now, it is true that catalyst comes very often in forms that are harsh. It is true that catalyst comes very often in forms that do not suggest an immediate way forward, and that for all the world looks as if it simply is something about which one can do nothing, about which there is nothing to do but to accept what is given and suffer through its given-ness. And we will not deny that there are days and days upon days which will have this aspect in which the Creation shows a somber face to the seeker, and that the intrepid seeker can but put one foot in front of the other, day after laborious day in the quiet faith that at the end of this day—and if not this day, then the next, or the next—there will come a time in which the sun again will shine, in which the birds again will sing, in which the heart again will leap up in joy. In the meantime, there can be the memory of these experiences; there can be a slowly forming resolve to allow this memory, this inextinguishable joy, this ineluctable aspiration, to have a place, even in those experiences which reflect catalyst at its most harsh, at its most difficult, at its most confusing.

If you are confused, that, too, is something upon which you may reflect, and as surely as the day follows the night, there is significance lurking even in the most scattered and confusing kinds of experience. You might reflect upon the elements at play within the confusion and you might ask yourself how each individual element feels to you, how each individual element feels in relation to other individual elements, and how the totality of the experience which you undergo as confusion feels to you. And even confusion, if that is the feeling with which you come away, has to it a kind of unity, has to it a kind of intelligibility. For it is, after all, this confusion and not another; it is after all, this pain and not another.

What is it about this pain, you might ask yourself? What is it about this circumstance in which I have felt myself to be torn out of my zone of comfort, to be thrust into a world that seems unwelcoming, to be faced with other faces glaring back at me in hostility or judgment or disappointed expectation? And I, who have few resources apparently at the ready seem asked to respond in a way that is appropriate and yet without having a sense of where that appropriation would lie. Even this situation has to it an integrity. Even a situation such as this is the bearer of a secret message. A situation such as this is catalyst in a form most raw and calls for a response. One cannot be simply passive in the face of catalyst but must take it up actively in some way. It is this catalyst one must decide, or it is that catalyst one decides. It has this meaning for my life going forward; it has that meaning for the service I may offer. That is an active process—that is a process of taking in, interpreting, and accepting what is given, but doing so actively. Doing so in such a way that one feels thereby actuated, that one feels thereby that one has agency in the process of transformation one is undergoing.

And so, there is, indeed, a difference between acceptance and self-activation in relation to catalyst. But we would suggest they are two sides of a single process, and that process is the very process you have incarnated to see through. You have incarnated to carry forth and you have incarnated to participate in the furtherance of that process. The more consciously you are able to participate in relating yourself to your catalyst, the more that catalyst begins to resonant to the inner harmonics of your being, and thereby the more you become author of your own catalyst. But catalyst is a subtle thing, my friends, more subtle than a faint aroma on a summer breeze. Now you see it, now you feel it, now you get its scent, and now you don’t. And so it is of such a nature that just when you think you are the master of that catalyst which is yours to process, you find that once again you are not; once again, it has left you bereft of your sense of authority, bereft of your sense of being in control of your situation, bereft of your very sense of who you are. And there you are again, confronting the mystery of the Creation in the moment, but you are doing so in possession of the greatest gift the Creation has to offer, which is the gift of your capacity to be a portion of its self-transformation, its creative happening. And if you allow that creativity into your process of activating your own innermost resources, you are closest to the catalyst that you can possibly become. And so we find that this is a paradox that does have a resolution. This paradox of catalyst which seems to come from outside, but in such a way that it resonates with something within. It has, as we say, a resolution, but it is a resolution which ever and anon will once again unresolve itself and appear to you in the form of a paradox.

That is the nature of catalyst, my friends, and it is a very significant portion of the reason you have incarnated: to undergo catalyst in the strongest possible sense and to have, as a portion of your inner resources for dealing with this catalyst, a mere fraction of your whole being—and a distorted fraction at that—so that what you are working upon at any given point in time is something of your being which you have determined is perhaps not quite yet in balance. And while it may seem that you are overbalanced in your reaction to individual events that catalyze you into response, this too is greatly informative when you are able to step back from it and to reflect upon it and to begin a process of assimilating both the event and your response to that event into a sense of the wholeness of your life experience. That wholeness of life experience is something in which you may dwell in the meditative state, in which you may dwell when you gather together in events such as this with others and co-mingle your meditative states in a way that provides healing catalyst for all here present. You offer us similar catalyst, though this may not be known to you, and it is a great gift to us when you invite us to participate in this meditation, in this practice of group seeking, for it catalyzes our growth as well as your own. We are grateful to you, my friends.

We are those of Q’uo, and we would at this time leave this instrument in the love and in the light of the One Infinite Creator and return to the one known as Jim to ask if there are further questions upon your minds. I am Q’uo. Adonai, adonai, adonai.

(Jim channeling)

I am Q’uo and am once again with this instrument. We are happy to be able to offer ourselves in the attempt to speak to any further queries which those present may have for us. Is there a query at this time?

Q’uo, Todd asks: “When loved ones of ours have passed on, is it possible for them to hear our thoughts and sense our feelings for them? For example, if we visit the grave of a grandparent or parent and we focus our thoughts and feelings upon them, if we then ‘talk’ to them in our mind, is there any chance they will receive our messages of love?”

I am Q’uo and am aware of your query, my brother. It is indeed so that those who have made their transition from the third-density illusion into the world of the spirit remain in contact with those they have left behind, for those times which, as you have said, there is a concern, a worry, a sense of love wishing to be communicated, or the like, for their ties are with entities of their own kind, not only within the world of the third-density illusion, but within the world of the spirit where there are also families and grouping of entities that move in harmony together, learning the various lessons of this density in which the choice is made to serve others or the self. If one is concerned to make such a contact, simply speaking from the heart, perhaps in a place familiar to both, or significant to both, is a good means by which to establish this contact.

Is there another query, my brother?

George asks: “Can Q’uo comment on the topic of addiction to pornography. It is a problem that I and many others of my generation struggle with.

I am Q’uo and am aware of your query, my brother. Within your society there is what might be called a mass of mixed messages concerning this very basic level of experience. The red ray energy center is that which is concerned with both the survival of the entity and with the sexual activities of the entity—the reproduction and the raising of the young, shall we say. Within your culture the sexual activities are also used most frequently in the advertising realms, seeking to sell whatever the product might be by the expression and experience of the sexual activities. The entities that are aware of such experiences, observing the programming of the parents, shall we say, that activity of a sexual nature is to be avoided, is to be put off, is to be ignored because it has a certain stigma attached to it, shall we say, often causes those who have a natural curiosity to be distorted in their own view of this activity. For the opportunity to work with this distortion we would recommend the meditative state and also the, shall we say, gaining of information of a healthy nature from those sources who provide such information, for there are many within your culture who have a very healthy view of such activities and who have shared them in the form of videos, in the form of books, in the form of lectures. We would suggest the informing of the mind, and the informing of the heart and soul of the healthy nature of such activities so that there is no need to engage in the secret viewing of sordid representations of these very healthy and necessary experiences.

Is there a further query, my brother?

Not from me, thank you Q’uo.

I am Q’uo. Is there a further query from anyone within this circle of seeking today?

[Long pause]

I am Q’uo and we would again offer the chance for a final query at this time.

I have a question. A number of the individuals that I work with are labeled in our culture as “anti-social personalities,” are called “sociopaths,” and they’re often regarded as having no conscience and that there isn’t much to be done with them as far as rehabilitation and making them productive members of our society. And I wonder if you could comment at all on this classification of people, and if it reflects any spiritual principle, if it’s service-to-self individuals, or anything else?

I am Q’uo and am aware of your query, my sister. The situation which you describe is one quite difficult to respond to in a sense which might bring clarity to a situation that is most muddled within the mind/body/spirit complex of such an entity as that which you describe as the sociopath. We are aware that there are entities who have this separation of self all about them in the sense of the negatively oriented entity, and in many cases this is the situation for such a sociopathic entity. There is the desire to be of dominance and control of those about one. However, we find in most instances, there is, shall we say, a mental configuration that is constructed in order that a certain opportunity be presented to the entity to deal with the reactions of those about one, in a sense which would be, shall we say, supported in a nature which is strong in its reliance upon discipline, the acceptance of certain boundaries, and the expression of the self in a manner which does not infringe upon the free will of others. There is the difficulty with such an entity in, shall we say, observing these requirements for its own treatment, as you may call it.

We find that it is most often helpful for such an entity to have a relationship with one other entity that is of a bonded nature, that kind of nature which such entities usually are not able to experience in the earlier years, or indeed throughout the entire incarnation. The ability to reveal oneself in full to another in the honest representation of the emotions, the thoughts, and the desires, is what is often helpful to such an entity. And yet when this entity is in the situation in which an other-self approaches it in this manner, without the ability to observe the previous necessity of boundaries, of clarity, and so forth, we find that oftentimes the entity described as a sociopath will take advantage of the situation and further express its own sociopathic nature upon the one seeking to serve it. Thus we find that the entity expressing these qualities is oftentimes looking for the overall, shall we say, corralling or dividing itself from others so that it must be in the institution and experience the treatment of the self as being so far out of bounds that it must be able to redefine itself, or exist within the narrow boundaries of the institutionalized situation. We are sorry not to be able to offer more concrete examples or how such an entity may be approached in a loving manner, but entities program such experiences in order to see how they may exist without that quality which you would call love, and how they will be able to bring forth other qualities within themselves that may perhaps compensate in such a manner [as] to offer them a substitute.

Is there a further query, my sister, upon this topic?

No, that is very, very helpful. Thank you so much.

We are those of Q’uo and we are grateful to you as well, my sister. We shall offer a final-final query to those who may be hesitant to query.

Thank you Q’uo, thank you.

We are those of Q’uo and we are most grateful to each of you my friends. As we mentioned at the outset of this meeting, we are able to provide our services only because you invite us to do so. Without your invitation, we would have no beingness within this circle of seeking and no opportunity to serve the One Creator. We are aware that each within the circle has a great many concerns that are heavy upon the mind, perhaps heavy as well upon the heart. We would remind each of you that you are much more than you believe you are, that when you call upon the spirit of the Holy Spirit, the One Creator, upon that entity known as the Son, Jesus the Christ, whatever your preference might be, there is aid available, that sustenance may be given within your meditative state, within your contemplative state, within your prayer-filled state. Ask for this assistance; ask and ye shall receive. Again, we thank you, my friends. We are known to you as those of Q’uo. At this time we shall take our leave of this instrument and of this group, leaving all as we have found you in love and in light, for there is nothing but love and light, my friends, in truth. We are those of Q’uo, Adonai, adonai vasu borragus.

  1. Thanks to Scott T. for sending in this question. ↩

  2. From Wikipedia: “Feet of clay is an expression now commonly used to refer to a weakness or character flaw, especially in people of prominence.” ↩

  3. The date of this channeling coincided with the 2016 Kentucky Derby horse race, a festive event which is generally treated as a true holiday by those local to Louisville. ↩

  4. From Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act III, Scene i:

    To be or not to be-that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And, by opposing, end them.

     ↩