It must have been the evening of the day we
registered for AMU (which I believe was a Monday) that we were bussed back from
the dorms to the Motherhouse for a welcoming address from Mrs. Prophet.
She stressed how seventy of us had shown up for AMU. She referenced the
"other seventy" from the New Testament as those originally trained to take
Jesus’ message to the world. She said that she had asked the masters to
send her seventy for the first quarter.
Of course, several among us took it to mean we
were the reincarnation of the original "other seventy." (Personally, I was
not delighted to contemplate the idea of having been one of the original other
seventy because it brought up the minister issue for me again.)
I still remember some of these "other seventy."
There was a cross-section of the population represented in the group--young,
old, middle- and perhaps some upper-class. A couple of blacks and Jewish
people. For the most part, though, we were young (in early 20's) and
white.
Although MLP had held a two-week session of AMU
some years earlier, September 18, 1973 marked the official opening of the
12-week sessions. Mrs. Prophet held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the front
steps of the Motherhouse that morning. It was a BIG DEAL. It was SO
cosmic and I was there!
AMU was wonderful. I thrived on our daily
schedule. We rose at six a.m. for a 45-minute rosary at our dorm.
Then we had breakfast at the dorm cafeteria and boarded the bus to the
Motherhouse. We had morning decrees, a short break and the first class of
the day. We were bussed back to the dorms to eat lunch and then back to
the Motherhouse for a short decree session that preceded afternoon classes.
Then it was home to dinner and homework.
On service nights, we were bussed back to the
Motherhouse after dinner for the service and then home again. We always
decreed and sang songs the whole time in transit on the bus.
The classes in the curriculum at AMU were placed
on the seven rays. I don’t remember the exact order of classes.
There was instruction on Climb the Highest Mountain, the Corona Class Pearls by
the World Teachers, Jesus and Kuthumi, Keepers of the Flame lesson number one,
and a set of Pearls by Mother Mary. There also was teaching on the
classical music piece Dance of the Hours. It included a chart of how each
of the seven rays is released throughout the twenty-four hours of each day in a
threefold pattern. Mrs. Prophet taught all these classes herself.
AMU was different from a conference. Mrs.
Prophet showed up on time and wore civies, not saris. She taught the
classes live because there were not any tapes to play to us from previous
quarters. We got it all first-hand and live. I couldn’t get enough.
Each day’s instruction topped the day’s before. It was marvelous. I
was perpetually on top of the world and the edge of my seat.
We had classes Monday through Friday. Mrs.
Prophet did not teach on Friday. Instead, we had exams on the instruction
given that week. The first exam, I think most, if not all, of us flunked.
It was very difficult and detailed. Everyone had a great sense of
injustice because with all the classes, services and travel time, we had
virtually no time to study.
Being a good student, I used every spare minute
to study. I began to stay at the Motherhouse during lunch time instead of
going on the bus back to the dorm for lunch. One day, a staff member saw
me and told me I couldn’t do that. So every day after that I made the trip
on the bus and lost all that valuable study time.
In addition to Mrs. Prophet, there were other
instructors at AMU.
Annice Booth taught a class on the ascension from Serapis Bey’s Dossier Pearls.
Our assignment for that class was to keep an ongoing notebook of inspiring
quotes/thoughts entitled "Little Keys Open the Biggest Doors."
Annice was…abrupt. She was…Annice. You all know Annice. She
was very loyal and dedicated to Mark and Elizabeth Prophet.
Monroe Shearer also taught a class on El Morya’s
Pearls on the will of God. Monroe was tall, handsome and polite but
impersonal. He was very serious. He was not what I would call
approachable. I loved his classes, though, because of the depth and
content. Monroe had a profound understanding of the teachings and brought
it out in his classes. His instruction was often over the head of some
students but I relished it. Monroe frequently led services and he used to
give instruction to us between decrees. He always made it so interesting.
J. A. taught Bible 101 straight out of theology
school. For instance, we had to memorize the books of the Bible in order.
I liked J.A. Rumor had it that he was the reincarnation of Charles Darwin
and St. Jerome. He was squeaky-clean cut, smart, cute, impish and fun.
He was a refreshing contrast to Monroe.
Barbara Armstrong taught us a study skills class.
She was nice enough but impersonal like most of the other staff.
Susan Moldenhaur Francis was our TA. Mrs.
Prophet was very stern and at times harsh with her. It was my first
glimpse of staff life around Mrs. Prophet. I would find out years later
why Susan was treated so harshly.
Al Ladd did some AV at AMU. He was a thin,
nerdy-type of genius. He led decrees sometimes and gave great instruction
between decrees.
A.K. also did AV. He was a tall, impersonal
and intense young man. I remembered seeing him do AV at the conference.
I don’t think he led decrees much, if at all.
Staff members captured Mrs. Prophet’s lectures on
a dinky video camera that recorded in black and white.
[Aside: One day, Mrs. Prophet was ready to teach
but there was no staff member there to run the camera. She called J.A.
into the room and told him in very stern terms that it was a huge black mark
against the staff for not being prepared to record when the master was ready to
teach. She spoke of some book the offense would be noted in. It was
really intense and scared me.]
A. H. taught us hatha yoga on Saturday mornings
at the dorm. I wasn’t crazy about it. In all fairness to A.H., we
had to fast on water all day on Saturday and by the time our yoga class was over
about noon I was already a space cadet and not equipped to fully appreciate her
yoga class.
Other AMU personnel included Judith and Jeffery
Simon who were our resident dorm mom and dad. Jeffrey shared bus driving
duties with D.T. I remember D.T.'s shaved head that grew out during the
quarter. He was like a monk and had the trademark impersonal
intensity of staff.
By this time, I had gained a bit of an
understanding as to why the staff were impersonal. It had to do with the
human personality. The idea was to keep one’s attention on the higher self
and not the lower, human personality of oneself or others. The human
personality was unreal and temporary. The higher self was real and
eternal.
Even though it was contrary to my natural
personality (I am shy but not impersonal), I emulated the staff’s
impersonal attitude. I refrained from most interpersonal interactions at
AMU. I took on the impersonal intensity of staff.
In the Code of Conduct it had stated that
conversation was to be kept to a minimum. One was not allowed to talk to a
person of the opposite sex for more than ten minutes at a time. Any longer
was considered a date and taboo. Sharing one’s background was not
encouraged because one’s attention was supposed to be focused on one’s God Self
and studies as much as possible.
When someone asked me where I was from, I usually
answered, "The Great Central Sun." (Today, I can hardly believe I actually
said that.) We were cautioned about family mesmerism. It was
expected that we would ask permission to write or phone our family while at AMU.
Our Sundays were also very full. We broke
our water fast with fruit at the dorm on Sunday morning. Then it was off
to the Motherhouse for the Sunday service. We decreed hour upon hour.
I would get hungrier and hungrier as my blood
sugar dropped with each passing hour. By the time the messenger arrived I
was famished. But being the fanatic I was, I endured and kept my full
attention on the lecture and dictation. I was hungry for food but I was
hungrier for the truth.
Finally, Mrs. Prophet would appear and give a lecture and dictation. The
service concluded about 3 or 4 p.m.
The messenger did not interact with us outside of
class, but in those days, the messenger did shake everyone’s hand as we exited
the chapel after a Sunday service. I was always buzzed after having the
privilege of shaking hands with the messenger.
When everyone had shaken Mrs. Prophet’s hand and
was on the bus, we returned to the dorm for dinner and study time. We were
off most Sunday evenings although there was at least one occasion when we were
bussed back to the Motherhouse on Sunday evening for another dictation.
About a month into the quarter, the October
conference rolled around. It was held at the Motherhouse which was
woefully inadequate to accommodate a conference. People were stuffed into
every nook and cranny of the buildings and grounds of the property.
The admiring eyes of conferees were upon us AMU
students. Surely, we must have a lot of attainment to be the first to
attend AMU. A lot was made of AMU during the conference. I
tried to be the best role model I could and kept on the lookout for my own
spiritual pride. <G>
We received some extraordinary dispensations at
the conference. Cyclopea removed all the records of death of the physical
bodies we had worn in all of our previous embodiments. These decaying
bodies were a burden to our souls. Cyclopea said the dispensation was only
for those present and that we would not fully appreciate the tremendous benefit
this was to us until the hour of our ascension. When I heard that, I vowed
to myself that I would never miss a conference. I must be there for every
dictation that would ever be given.
I should mention here that my mom flew to Santa
Barbara and attended the conference. She loved the songs but did not take
to the teaching like I had and hoped she would.
In a receiving line with Mrs. Prophet, my mom
had asked her if she was taking good care of me. When my mom told me she
had asked Mrs. Prophet that question, I was embarrassed. It wasn’t about
me. My mom did not understand the immensity of it all. It seemed we
had come to the parting of the way in our mutual search for truth. She
went home to Denver after the conference and never said much about anything
after that. As I write about it now, it makes me a little sad. At
the time, I was too intense and fanatical to look back.
After the conference, our life got back to normal
except Mrs. Prophet disappeared for several days while we listened to replays of
the whole conference and took notes. When she returned, she was the wife
of Randall Kosp who had been renamed Randall King. Not much was said
to us about the marriage. There was an article in the next Summit Beacon
that reported she and Randall had been married by Tom Miller at the
property in Idaho right after the October conference. At the time I had a
barely conscious thought that it was strange the wedding wasn’t more public and
that more wasn’t made of it.
At some time during that quarter we were all
bussed to San Francisco for a weekend. Our purpose was to de-magnetize the
city. Mrs. Prophet had mapped the city on the cosmic clock. We started at
the white fire core and traveled to various locations around the city to decree
and clear records on all lines of the clock. It took all day. It was
exhausting but exciting to be a pioneer on a mission for the Great White
Brotherhood.
At our first stop during the demagnetization,
there was a biker with his girlfriend who overheard Mrs. Prophet explaining our
mission. He used some profanity and left. Mrs. Prophet told us that
he had been sent by Lucifer or Satan. I don’t remember which one. I was in
awe. It just underscored for me the cosmic importance of what we were
doing.
During the trip to San Francisco, we had an
intense dictation from Archangel Gabriel announcing that the messenger would
have a fifth child. It was so cosmic! Now I understood why Mrs.
Prophet had remarried. Randall was evidently the representative of the
Holy Spirit and of course it was assumed he would be the father of the child.
Mrs. Prophet’s mother attended the service.
She sat in the front row for the dictation and was in the reception line at the
end of the service. She was an elderly, stocky little woman. I
wondered if she really comprehended just who her daughter was.
We returned home to Santa Barbara to finish the
quarter. At one point, I longed to go to communion. Communion had
not been established as a ritual in The Summit Lighthouse as yet. We only
had it once a month. I forget what the occasion was for serving communion
in the Summit.
I wanted to go to a Catholic Church for communion
but it felt like something I should get permission for, so I called the
Motherhouse one Saturday afternoon to ask permission. I was referred to
Annice Booth.
I don’t remember if she asked the messenger, but
Annice told me that it was something I could not do during AMU. I would
have to wait until the quarter ended. The following week in class, Mrs.
Prophet gave a teaching from Mother Mary about the Catholic Church. The
gist of it had to do with the nostalgia one might feel for past religious
experiences but one had to move on in the new age. I was sure my request
to go to a Catholic Church for communion had prompted that instruction.
Finally, the end of the quarter was upon us.
I don’t remember any special reception. I do remember Mrs. Prophet telling
us she felt like she was throwing us to the wolves. She cautioned us
to guard the light we had received and to not cast pearls before swine i.e.
don’t tell everything you have learned here to everyone you meet.
I blazed home to Denver bursting with wonderful knowledge and magnificent truths
that I wanted to share with everyone who would listen.
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Part Four