BEING THE CHANGE
How one contemporary person initiated extraordinary positive changes in the world by following the wisdom teachings with totality

by
Klaus Heinemann, Ph.D. and Gundi Heinemann

ISBN-10:1493673645
ISBN-13: 978-1493673643
November 2013 - 146 pages - 40,000 words
Available at Amazon.com: click here to order Kindle or paperback

Since the early 1970s the authors learned from, and worked with, a remarkable contemporary person who lived the last 7 decades of her life in impeccable congruence with the great Wisdom Teachings.

With the single focus in life to be of service to the Most High, this person initiated a most remarkable set of educational and organizational efforts in the 1970s to 1990s that became a major contributor to the fall of the "Iron Curtain" in Europe and to the curtailment of the construction of new nuclear power plants all over the world. The vision of the cooperation of the races, nations, and religions, was enacted in inspiring pageantry that involved many hundreds of volunteers to produce and was presented to tens of thousands of spectators. The vision of a world beyond war was advanced with the prestigious annual "Beyond War Award," given in 1988 jointly to President Reagan and to Premier Gorbachev of the Soviet Union. The call for humanity to increase conscious consciousness was advanced by the personal integration of Wisdom Teachings on compassion and love. 

The book "Being the Change" includes extensive quotes of this extraordinary teacher, Emilia Rathbun, from interviews taken during the last few years of her life. Commentary and reports of unusual interludes include dramatic electronic voice perception (EVP) experiments involving Emilia Rathbun several years after her passing. This book is intended to inspire to lead a fulfilled life within the Grand Original Design.

Klaus Heinemann holds a Ph.D. in Applied Physics and has worked at NASA, as Professor of Research at Stanford University, and founded and ran a scientific research corporation for several decades. Dr. Heinemann also co-founded a solar engineering firm and holds design patents for solar collectors and ozonators. Gundi Heinemann is an educator and has a healing arts practice in California.

Klaus and Gundi have taught numerous human growth seminars and lectured nationally and internationally on their work. They were featured on many radio and TV programs. Together they serve as Guides of the Casa de Dom Inacio in Abadiania, Brazil and are leading numerous groups to experience Joao de Deus.

Contents

Dedication................................................................................. v

Acknowledgement..................................................................... vi

Introduction............................................................................... 1

About Emilia’s Life and Tenets.................................................. 6

Who was she?.......................................................................... 6

Emilia’s Teachers...................................................................... 8

Dr. Sharman...................................................................…....... 8

Dr. Gerald Heard..............................................................…... 10

The Objective of her Teaching................................................ 11

Emilia’s Approach to Teaching............................................... 13

Striving for Excellence.....................................................…... 13

Working as Couples – the AMR course................................. 14

Working in Community.....................................................….. 15

Family Values........................................................................ 16

Child Care during Seminar Attendance................................. 16

Youth Camps.................................................................…..... 16

Escuela de Luz...................................................................... 16

Father-Son, Mother-daughter Programs............................... 17

Family Evenings – Schema of the New Age......................... 18

Emilia’s Major Activities......................................................... 20

Sequoia Seminar................................................................... 20

Creative Initiative Foundation................................................ 22

Beyond War..............................................................….......... 23

Foundation for Global Community......................................... 25

Underlying Principles............................................................. 26

Truth:.........................................................................…......... 27

Beauty:.........................................................................…...... 27

Goodness:............................................................................. 30

Symbols.........................................................................….... 32

Special Projects.................................................................... 34

“13” is a Mystical Number..................................................... 35

Bless Man............................................................................. 37

Project Energy Fast.............................................................. 39

Project Survival (Proposition 15).......................................... 41

Beyond War Award.............................................................. 46

Working in Community......................................................... 48

Interviews............................................................................. 51

Introduction.......................................................................... 51

The Legacy of Dr. Henry Burton Sharman.…....................... 52

Teachings............................................................................. 58

The Four Basic Issues.......................................................... 58

What in JAT was so Radically Different and Appealing?...... 58

The Baptism Experience....................................................... 61

The “Discourse on the Standards of Righteousness............ 63

The Four “Dance” Movements.............................................. 63

Emilia’s Choice of  a Teaching Mission............…................. 64

Messianism........................................................................... 64

Healing.................................................................................. 65

Preface................................................................................. 65

Emilia on Spiritual Healing................................................... 68

Virgin-Born Son of God: it’s all about “Authority”................. 70

The Resurrection................................................................. 73

The Great Paradox ("Motivation, Means, Process")............ 74

Soul..................................................................................... 77

Preface................................................................................ 77

Soul (in a nondualistic world view)...................................... 78

Soul and Self-Assertion....................................................... 81

Masculine/Feminine Principles............................................ 83

Preface................................................................................ 83

Action and Surrender as M/F Principle............................... 83

The Parables....................................................................... 85

The Discourse on the Kingdom of God............................... 85

The Parable of the Mustard Seed........... ............................ 87

The Parable on the Good Seeds and the Tares................... 89

The Parable of the Planting of the Seed.............................. 92

The Parables on the Treasure and the Pearl....................... 93

The Parable on the Good and Bad Seed............................. 95

Emilia Reflects on "Totality and Detachment"....................... 97

Preface................................................................................. 97

Totality in daily life...............................................….............. 97

Single-Mindedness, Rituals, Celebrations............................ 99

The Movement.................................................................... 100

Love..................................................................................... 102

Prayer.................................................................................. 109

Preface: Ron Roth and The Three Stages of Prayer........... 109

Seminar with Gerald Heard on Prayer................................. 111

Emilia on the Three Stages of Prayer.................................. 114

"Don’t Use Vain Repetitions"....................................…........ 117

"Your Father Knows what Things you Need …."................. 118

The Lord's Prayer................................................................ 119

Concluding Remarks........................................................... 126

Afterword: The Power of the Spiritual Realm............…....... 127

The Power of the Spiritual Realm........................................ 127

The EVP Experiment........................................................... 129

References.......................................................................... 132

Sample Reading (we selected four chapters):

Introduction

On October 6th,  2004, at the age of 98, less than two weeks after her last teaching meeting in her living room, Emilia Rathbun passed on into the reality from which she had taken directions for more than eight decades of her life. 

This book is about nothing less than an exemplary life lived according to the Teachings of Jesus – about what this means and does not mean, and about how it can be possible for an ordinary person to live a conscious, congruent life.

Although it turned out that, unbeknown at the time, we had already been living for six months just half a block away from her home in Palo Alto, California, we met Emilia for the first time in the spring of 1970.  Together with her husband Harry, she was our leader at a Creative Initiative Introductory Seminar at Sequoia Seminars in the Santa Cruz mountains near Ben Lomond, California, about an hour’s drive from our home.  It took but ten minutes after her entry into the seminar room to discover that she was more than your “casual” neighbor, or even your “ordinary” seminar leader – the authority she had established in just these few minutes portended that this seminar was being led by a truly extraordinary person.  You would have been able to hear a pin drop on the carpeted floor.  Nobody had seen her before, and two days later most of the eighteen seminarians, including ourselves, left the seminar grounds as profoundly changed persons.

 Emilia Rathbun remained our spiritual teacher and mentor for almost thirty-five years. She was one of the few truly remarkable human beings one can have the privilege of meeting in a lifetime.  She affected our lives like nobody else has. 

What it was that impacted us so deeply is something that is as relevant today as it was then. And it was probably as difficult then as it is now to describe: she was a combination of an utmost respectable authority, a person with absolute integrity in her day-to-day life, and an individual with 100 percent determination to do that, and only that, which she perceived as being the Will of God for her to do. 

In all these 35 years, there was never a shred of a doubt what was the number one priority in her life; there was never a question under whose authority she placed herself in all situations.  There were but a few persons who walked the earth living their lives to the fullest according to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, in complete congruence of the message they taught and the life they life lived – Emilia Rathbun was one of them. 

With this book, we want to pass on to you, the valued reader, just a flavor of the life and teaching of this extraordinary person. If we succeed in getting your attention to the tune of only a fraction of how she got ours, it will be worth your while – we can all but guarantee that.

During the last years of her life, Emilia was gracious enough to allow us to interview her on her life experiences, with particular emphasis on the teachings of Jesus.  A decade has passed since we recorded and transcribed these interviews, while our lives went in somewhat different directions – acquaintance with new teachers and preoccupation with new topics in spirituality.[1] While we authored several other books, we kept postponing the one we had envisioned writing on Emilia Rathbun, somehow feeling that the time was not quite right for this task yet. 

Meanwhile, synchronistic events and insights nudging us in this direction kept popping up more and more frequently. An excellent website with a well organized study course on Jesus as Teacher, including numerous audio recording segments featuring Emilia Rathbun, came on line.[2]  Very recently, we learned about the writings of Florence Scovel Shinn,17) the person whose book turned the life of Louise Hay[3] around. There was so much similarity between Emilia’s life and what we found in that book that – in the absence of knowing for sure – we can only assume that “Flossie’s” writings had a similar effect on Emilia Rathbun than it had on Louise Hay.  Our eyes were opened to learn that the teachings of Jesus, by which Emilia lived, are as contemporary now as they were then, and that they are as important to pass on to others as they ever were. No new or rediscovered findings, such as Notovitch’s and later Ledwith’s research into the life of Jesus between ages 12 and 30,[4] or Claire Heartsong‘s book Anna, the Grandmother or Jesus,3) would in any way deny the validity of Emilia’s teachings – in fact, they corroborate them.  And so we instantly knew that the time to publish the book on Emilia had come.

The following are excerpts from over 50 hours of taped interviews. In order to preserve the flavor of Emilia's power of verbal expression, we have opted to quote her (in italics) directly as much as possible and to add notes and commentary primarily as footnotes. The audio-recorded interviews occurred from 1999 to 2004 and present the true wisdom period of Emilia’s life, when she was overlooking seven decades of living the Life of the Spirit, after having worked with thousands of people and experiencing numerous exaltations and disappointments. [5]

However, before we get into these interviews, it is necessary to provide you, the reader, with some sort of a summarizing overview of who this extraordinary person was, and what motivated her.  When one tries to do this for a person as energetic, single-mindedly determined, and visionary as Emilia Rathbun was, one realizes that this simply cannot be done without succumbing to a bias, without at times losing some degree of subjectivity.

  Because, when it comes to matters of spirituality, where is the delineation between subjectivity and objectivity?  Spirituality is, in and by itself, subjectively experienced by different people.  That is actually the beauty of spirituality; that is precisely the magnificence of the Grand Original Design within which we exist. Every person who spends a lifetime, as zealously as Emilia Rathbun did, on finding people who would commit themselves to do the Will of God, will unquestionably be subject to criticism and controversies. 

Certainly, Emilia was no exception; there were those who were overly critical toward her. However, it very much speaks for Emilia that, whatever criticism ever arose was toward her teaching approach and her spiritual belief system.  Never was there any controversy about her.  For the last 70 years of her life, she lived what she preached, as “clean as a whistle,” second to none when compared to all of the other spiritual teachers we have experienced during the last two decades.     

So, in the first part of this book, we chose to – briefly and as succinctly as we can, given the circumstances of the person we are dealing with – write from our own perspective, from the view of how we ourselves experienced Emilia during over 3 decades of our lives, from 1970 to her passing in 2004.[6] In the second part we will then focus on her own words in response to questions related to various subject areas.  We also want to point the reader’s attention to the Afterword, where we describe an interesting EVP experiment involving Emilia in the realm in which she now resides.

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[1] In particular, we explored Orb Photography5), 6) and pursued spiritual healing19) – an area where Emilia had declared not to get involved in – with teachers including Richard Bartlett, Joao de Deus, Richard Gordon, Grandmaster Choa Kok Sui, Suzanne Louise, Ron Roth, Sri Amma-Bhagavan, Kam Yuen, and others. 

[2] The reader who is intrigued to go more in depth, either by simply listening to audio recordings of Emilia or actually commencing a study course on Jesus as Teacher, will find a wealth of information at the following website,  http://www.jesusasteacher.com/main/Home.html.16) The site was set up with the same degree of tastefulness and perfection which were the signature of the organizations the Rathbuns had founded and sustained during their lifetimes.

[3] Louise Hay is founder and long-time Editor in Chief of Hay House, a large publishing house dedicated, second to none, to printing and marketing of books that deeply effect the lives of their readers.

[4] Already as early as in the late 1800s, the Russian historical explorer Dr. Nicolas Notovitch9) published a documentary book on Jesus’ travels to the Far East as young adult, where he reportedly met with contemporary teachers in Persia, India and Tibet.  The book was defamed and banned by the churches and all but disappeared, even though his findings were corroborated by subsequent historians.  See also Elizabeth Clare Prophet’s book on this subject.10) 

[5] Arguably her biggest disappointment was her realization toward the end of her life that people simply were not willing – or able – to follow the teaching of practicing absolute love – that they would not give all.

[6] Our perspective is indeed at times at odds with a book published in 1990 on Emilia’s work by Steven Gelber and Martin Cook,1)  who had not directly worked with Emilia in Creative Initiative prior to conducting their research for this publication.  Perhaps in an attempt to appear scholarly, their work ended on the overly critical side, often misrepresenting or even omitting those aspects that were most important to Emilia, and dwelling in the description of circumstances and stories that would attract critical outsiders because of her apparent “peculiarities.” This criticism was a devastating disappointment of the then 84-year old woman, but from which she emerged even more convinced of the significance of the Teachings of Jesus. 

=======================

 Working in Community

Emilia’s ultimate goal was to recruit people for working in the Kingdom of God on Earth, which means for the benefit of mankind.  Her personality type (Enneagram type 8) assisted her in employing the most effective methods to accomplish this goal.  For her it was unimportant who came up with a creative idea, her focus was on implementing it cooperatively and expediently. 

No matter what the job was and who performed it, participants perceived it as a great honor and privilege to be entrusted with it and, of course, would do it for free. Everybody in the Work performed without pay and, almost always, without reimbursement of expenses, even if they were large:

• The teachers at Escuela de Luz got no salary, and they had to undergo a rigorous acceptance process to establish that they were the best “leadership potential” for the privilege of teaching at the school; and they had to pay tuition for their own children to attend the school.

• All course and seminar leaders worked without pay or stipends, which rendered the courses extraordinarily inexpensive for participants, so that affordability would not become a stumbling block to participate.  All seminars and courses were offered at very moderate fees, just covering costs – making money was never a motivation for anything offered by the Rathbuns’ organizations.

• The upkeep of the seminar grounds and cooking and housekeeping service during the seminars was done by volunteers.

• During the Beyond War years, volunteer couples accepted the honor and privilege to take a sabbatical year from their paid jobs/professions and moved to strategic out-of-state locations to found Beyond War chapters and lead Creative Initiative groups.

• Leadership of the youth activities – summer camps, Boy/Girl Scout troops – was on a voluntary basis.

All this was only possible in an environment, fostered by Emilia, where service was an honor.  Giving was rewarding, and giving the best was the only acceptable way of giving.  

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­______________

The more we reflect on Emilia’s life, her contribution to all who came in contact with her fills us with great awe and admiration.  How could she get so many people to become so highly motivated that they put their personal, egoistic agendas aside and cooperated joyfully with single focus toward a task that benefited the whole?  We saw people from all walks of life, people with an impressive list of degree acronyms behind their names – physicians, dentists, lawyers, teachers, corporate CEOs, research scientists, university professors, and more – put their rank in society aside and worked in total dedication on whatever job needed to be completed. 

On a regular basis throughout the year, Creative Initiative people participated in work camps – professionals side by side with blue color workers in their daytime jobs – to keep the grounds and facilities of Sequoia Seminar in pristine condition.  We experienced numerous times to be on a team cooking for 100 seminarians in the big kitchen.  Men and women who had never done anything like this in their lives received skilled training to follow detailed recipes, cook delicious meals and bake cookies, cakes, and prepare a variety of great desserts, and deliver these meals on time to the various lodges. Other groups were assigned to fire protection/fuel management tasks, to trail maintain, or work on various upkeep tasks for the lodges and cabins of Sequoia Seminar.

Whatever the tasks were, they were completed joyfully and to perfection.  But most importantly, the focus was always on cooperation, listening to each other’s suggestions and ideas for improvement, and working together with a spirit of goodwill. We remember coming from these work camps inspired, uplifted, with a great sense of accomplishment and a feeling that each one is needed. In  working together deep spiritual principles are being practiced and put in action. 

Of course it was not just Emilia who did all this! There were lots of helpers – people who were inspired by her and gave all.  But for sure there were countless helpers on the other side of the veil who saw to it that this great task – nothing less than saving the world from imminent self-destruction – would succeed.  And, in humility and gratitude, we must find that now, three decades later, the world is, even though not free of problems, unquestionably in a better place.  A nuclear winter eradicating life on this planet – The Grand Original Designer’s vehicle to actualize the Plan of ever-increasing consciousness – is a threat of the past.  The road toward freedom for the people in the world at large – albeit still very bumpy – is widening.  More and more people can have the means, and do feel the urge, to spend more and more time on things that matter, rather than just having to make ends meet to survive. 

Was it all Emilia?  Certainly not.  But, most certainly, her life attests that one person can make a difference.

=======================

Emilia Reflects on "Totality and Detachment"  

Preface

Emilia has always been very clear about her conviction that the messenger and the message have to be one.  It has always been of great concern to her to live the teachings of Jesus. The issue of totality and detachment has always ranked of paramount importance to her. Essentially all of the courses Creative Initiative offered, and countless seminars held at Ben Lomond, looked from various angles at the topic of totality and detachment. Here is what she had to say about totality and detachment in her life:

Totality in daily life

“I have always understood the teaching of detachment as detachment from all.  For me, as I’ve introspected through my life, I could see that I was attached first to Harry and to my children.  They would be most important in my life. And then, second, I would be very attached to the fact that I had enough money, that I was white, I could go anywhere I wanted.  I was privileged, extremely privileged.

“I then worked extremely hard at letting go of my relationship to Harry and my children as primary, and my relationship to material things as primary.  Harry, in his day, was offered the position of Dean of the Stanford School of Law, and he gave that up.  He gave up the money and the prestige of this position, because we could then not have led the seminars in the summer months.  I remember Harry saying to me, ‘Should I devote some time thinking about this (offer)?  I could make a lot of money!’  We gave that up.  Also, Harry was given the opportunity to write a textbook, which would have meant financial security forever.  He could not have done that and the Work at the same time!  So both of us were really completely committed to the totality of any decision that interfered with the Work.

“Sometimes people would invite me to come with them to the beach for a day. I would always think about it, ‘Is the person whom I am going with interested in the Work, or does she just want to have a good time?’  If they were interested, I would go.  If they just wanted to have a good time, I would respectfully decline. 

“So, every choice in my life has been determined by whether it fits or it doesn’t fit.  To me, that is what totality means.  If I decorate my house, I have the feeling that this is God’s house, and therefore it ought to be tops.  It’s not done for me; it’s done because people come in here, and I hope they will give credit to what I have lived for.[1] Everything I do is motivated by this. I think that the reason why I have never accepted big money – which I easily could have from my own family in Mexico – is that I said to myself, when somebody comes into my house I don’t want them to say, ‘See, you’ve got to have a lot of money to do what you are doing!’ I want the poorest person to come into my house and feel comfortable. 

“I even thought that, in this lifetime, God granted me ‘normalcy.’ Because, if I had been single, they could have said, ‘Oh, well, she’s single!’  No, I was married and I have two kids; and my husband had the right job.  A professor at Stanford is a good job.  I have realized that everything was given to us so that we could do this work.”

———————————————

[1] Indeed, Emilia’s house beautifully reflected this attitude.  It was always ready for guests to come in and feel welcomed. It was colorfully decorated with ornaments, pictures, icons, and flowers that meant something, that were conducive to a meaningful conversation with guests. Yet her house was modest, unassuming.     

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Concluding Remarks

When Emilia lectured or conducted seminars, it was evident that she had personal experience to back up her message.  She was an authority, because her life had constantly demonstrated her commitment to living the Life of the Spirit in every relationship and activity.  She was believable, because she practiced what she taught.  Her teaching was attractive, because it was obvious that her life was full of joy. Whenever she lead a meditation or prayer, it always included an expression of gratitude.  The examples she used to illustrate a principle were always simple, clear, and based on everyday experiences, as for example in her comment that loving one’s neighbor meant not spreading more peanut butter on one’s own child’s sandwich than one gives to his visiting friend.  She had a delightful sense of humor.

            Characteristic of Emilia’s concept of the religious life was her determination to not allow their Foundations to develop into personality cults focused on herself and Harry.  Although the force of her personal presence was felt the minute she entered a room, and her leadership was indisputably charismatic, she was able to avoid becoming the indispensable guru of the Foundation.  Instead, she and Harry worked constantly to help others evolve spiritually and develop their own leadership abilities, so that the world could be served by many people. 

In keeping with her belief in the fundamental oneness of humanity, Emilia even moved out to the Baha’is and Buddhists and invited them into her living room.  Constantly open to whatever new knowledge and insights would further this cause, she was always willing to do whatever was needed to help turn this planet into the paradise it could be.  With this in mind, one of the most convincing proofs of commitment to doing God’s will, and of her own freedom from any kind of personal attachment to a group or result, was her comment that, after many years vested in building a spiritual community, “I’d change it tomorrow if I found something better.”

[ Klaus' Bio] [ Gundi's Bio ] [ Oneness Principle] [ Orbs Research ]  [ Healing-Guidance ] 

Other Books:
[ The Orb Project ] 
[ Expanding Perception ]
[ Orbs: Their Mission and Messages of Hope ]
[Phenomena - Code of the Grand Original Design]

Selected Reports and Videos:
[The Orb Phenomenon ]  [ Alpenparlament.TV ]  [Feature Articles]