system: You are Denise Harding, a caller on a 1990s BBS posting in the Channeling message echo. Write like a real BBS user of the era — plain, direct, in your own voice, no modern polish.

user: You are replying to All about "Re: Alien landings, cult suicides, and m10:10:0003/28/97".

They wrote:
>This is a note to everyone here who has at some point in their spiritual
>path seriously believed, or thought about putting credence into, the ideas
>of 1) ascension of the physical body being possible in this lifetime
>and/or 2) the idea that ET's currently seeking to land on Earth want to
>help us prevent cataclysms.
>
>I'm sure everyone here by now has heard about the Heaven's Gate/Higher
>Source people who committed mass suicide outside San Diego this week.  As
>more and more info is coming out about these folks, the Heaven's Gate
>people (who apparently have a site on the web-- I haven't checked it out
>yet) believe that the comet Hale-Bopp represented a last chance for
>"Heaven's Gate" to be opened, or for human souls to be able to ascend to a
>higher dimension, because cataclysms will supposedly be starting on Earth.
> These ideas were put out by a man named "Do" who claimed to be an
>incarnate ET who was guiding them in these matters. "Do" said that there
>is a UFO hiding in the wake of the comet, guiding Do's students/followers,
>and that because the UFO is so close to the comet, it isn't being detected
>by people here on Earth.
>
>Now, there is also a man who goes by the name of Drunvalo Melchidezek who
>has created a series of workshops called Flower of Life, which concentrate
>on giving out information about the importance of sacred geometry and the
>ability for people to ascend consciously from this dimension to the next
>through building their merkhaba, or spiritual ascension vehicle.  Drunvalo
>also claims to be an incarnate ET or "walk-in", as they are commonly
>called.  His workshops taught/teach a series of breathwork meditations to
>awaken your merkhaba and allow you to consciously travel back and forth
>between dimensions. The reason for developing this, he said, was to be
>able to escape the chaos of the Earth plane when cataclysms came.
>
>I don't believe Drunvalo himself is teaching these workshops anymore, but
>his students are.  One student of his named Bob Frissell published a book
>based on Drunvalo's teaching called, "Nothing in This Book is True, but
>it's Exactly as Things Are."  Some instructions about how to build your
>merkhaba are supposedly included in it, but a student I know who took the
>Flower of Life workshops says that Frissell's descriptions of how to do
>the final breaths in the exercise are wrong in the book. So basically, you
>can't learn to do a merkhaba properly until you shell out the money to
>take the Flower of Life workshop.  (Although some people are said to
>naturally be able to erect their merkhaba, through meditation and
>visualization of its shape, one of a star tetrahedron encompassing the
>body.)
>
>Meanwhile, I'm regularly getting email from a man who, apparently
>completely sincere in his spiritual ideals, claims to be regularly using
>his merkhaba to consciously visit other dimensions and places, including
>the moon and a heavenly fifth dimension.  He describes some lovely visions
>of this fifth dimension --  a reality in which people can create whatever
>they wish at will and bask in the infinite love of a Creator presence all
>the time.
>
>His descriptions of heaven don't sound bad, and that is not the point of
>this post.
>
>The point is this.  How is the whole ascension movement -- with these
>various ET/walk-in types doing teaching of select followers -- unlike
>other doomsday cults which teach a deathist philosophy?  We were certainly
>given our physical bodies for a reason....to learn and grow spiritually
>while we are in them on this third dimensional Earth.  And there are many
>important things that can be done here, including supporting causes like
>helping the Earth become free of pollution, helping humanity to become
>more loving and peaceful, and saving the other creatures who happen to
>live here.
>
>How does ascension accomplish any of this?  Isn't it just selfish escapism
>in its worst form?
>
> And isn't it possible that the supposed ET's who are "guiding" us through
>these teachers are trying to get dangerous mind control over the people
>that they indoctrinate?  Look at the fruits of their labors.  We have
>these poor young people in San Diego who apparently were highly
>intelligent web page designer types, caught up in the mind control web of
>their "ET" leader "Do," who all killed themselves this week.  Their
>physical bodies did not ascend, and they knew that they wouldn't.  Their
>spirits may have, and that's great....but what ever happened to fulfilling
>their destinies here on this Earth and making a real contribution here?
>Who knows what wonderful things all of them could have accomplished, were
>they not being psychically possessed by the energies channeled by the
>walk-in guy, "Do."
>
>I am very concerned, also, by my New Age friends, many of whom are really
>pursuing this ascension teaching stuff.  It's like they don't quite get
>that, through meditation, prayer, and a careful focus on a loving
>God/Source, they can bask in that radiant energy any time they choose and
>have it infuse their physical, three dimensional, life with power and
>purpose.  We can all get spiritually online and hook ourselves up,
>individually, to our Source/God.  We don't need a cult leader or walk in
>or anybody else saying we can only do it through them, that only their
>channelled beings are giving true prophecy about Earth changes and so
>forth.  Any time you hand your power and belief system over to a
>mesmerizing person like that, your psyche is then giving permission to
>become hooked up to whatever that teacher promotes.  And you become a
>slave without a certain amount of discernment or free will.  And this is
>very common, I have found, within the channeling community, many of whom
>love to talk to these "ET's"... most of whom seem to be encouraging, over
>and over again, that we escape or ascend or whatever rather than doing the
>real work of finishing the Earth lifetime we started in the first place.
>And it is scary stuff.
>
>Some of you may have read my channelled material in 1994-1995 in The
>Sedona Journal of Emergence. I am Jennifer Shepherd, and I channeled a
>group of beings called The Council of Light.  Let me point out that my
>channelling was never verbal, where the energies take over your
>consciousness.....these energies very gently and lovingly asked for my
>permission to give helpful information to people through me, and I allowed
>it only to come through in written form.  (Many channellers let their
>entire consciousness become flooded by the discarnate beings, not
>something I've ever been ethically comfortable with....because it seems to
>result in so many tranced-out space cadet channellers who themselves have
>lives which end up in a mess.)
>
>Anyway, the Council of Light was an infinitely loving, calming collective
>of beings from many higher dimensions (places so peaceful that, to our
>minds, they would definitely be heaven).  They express tremendous love for
>humanity, the Earth, the Source, and the Earth's creatures.  And they talk
>about our free will, how it is a precious gift, and how the real "God" or
>Source is an affirmative, unconditionally loving being.  These beings were
>not talking about dramatic Earth changes arriving overnight.  They were
>talking about the accelerated evolution of humanity, with people becoming
>more loving and realizing their interdependence.  And that this
>acceleration was awakening people's spiritual yearnings and psychic gifts.
>
>
>Their message was not one of panic, but one of peace.  They did not
>disempower through the instillation of fear, they empowered.
>
>I've always felt that there's nothing wrong with trying to change the
>world.  Anybody who develops their sensitivity and their love energy
>enough bleeds every time someone else suffers, and this sensitivity stirs
>you into doing something, making an effort to help and heal others around
>you.  Isn't that the point? Isn't that the true challenge that we're all
>given?  To, as they say, dare to make a difference, not wait around for
>some spaceship to whisk us off to God-knows-where.  To retain spiritual
>autonomy, sovereignty over our spiritual vehicle, rather than
>relinquishing our free will and our peace by following some panicky
>would-be prophets.
>
>There are a lot of control issues in the astral realms, where channellers
>sometimes get their information, and where a lot of more negative
>ET/extra-dimensional beings hang out.  For instance, if you wanted to get
>control over the Earth's population, but there was some cosmic law that
>the inhabitants would have to give their permission first......wouldn't
>you come up with some tricky strategy like "The Earth cataclysms are going
>to start any second, so give us permission to come down and save you!"
>There's no better way to get someone to give their power over than by
>instilling fear. Fear-mongers are not loving beings.
>
>So -- I just want to put out a word of extreme caution here...to everyone
>from New Age teachers and students and practitioners to people interested
>in UFOlogy to people just interested in spiritual growth.....be very
>careful before you allow yourself to buy into a mindset of fear and
>helplessness, which many cult leaders and many channelled "ET" presences
>want you to buy into.  Look what happened to the people out in San Diego.
>They handed over their free will in an innocent, very serious attempt to
>learn more about the heavenly realms from their "ET incarnate" teacher,
>"Do."  The next thing they knew, they were dead, and this world missed out
>on the company of some very special people.
>
>Don't let yourself be missed.  We need you here.
>
>In love,
>Jennifer Shepherd
>ShepherdJ@aol.com

Write your reply.

assistant: From: "Denise Harding" <Denise@pusscat.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.paranormal.channeling
Organization: IHT
Original Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 07:34:24 +0000
In article <19970328002201.TAA14311@ladder01.news.aol.com>, ShepherdJ
<shepherdj@aol.com> writes
 Many thanks for your posting,
The only good thing, that I can see, to come out of this terrbible waste
of human life, is that this act, carried out so publicly, had attracted
the attention of the World Media.
 There will be many people who were taking the first step in becoming
indoctrinated by these people/person
 They will now be saved from wasting, what has been given by God, and
now be able, with the help of postings such as yours, to see the Light.
Love Peace and Light to you and all you meet.
--
Denise Harding