Dave - I am the God of Love, Peace, and Joy. All that smiting, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth that you speak of is created by beings trapped in a separation consciousness. The belief in separation causes fear. The fear causes various forms of defensive or aggressive acting out, leading to weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, but it's all essentially illusory. It's like a stage play within which the actors and actresses have lost sight that it is just a play, and have started imagining that it is their real life! Imagine how awful that could be. Assume that one was in the play "Hamlet", for example, portraying the Prince of Denmark and completely forgot that it was just a play. That would be a pretty dreadful experience, wouldn't it?

The "God" of traditional religions that is associated with such negative situations was made up by people in their own image. They saw God as a bigger, meaner, more powerful version of themselves. That is not my nature. I do not suffer from the fear that would drive such behaviour, as I am not separate from anyone or anything. Therefore I lack nothing. Therefore I have no fear.

Steve - You could say that I have a navel if you want...or you could say that I have 6 billion or more navels, since I am intimately contained within every living being that has a navel! You could also say that I am a tree or a rainbow. All these statements would be true as far as they go, and yet would not be the whole truth about me. I am not separate from you, Steve. You can't put all of me over there somewhere, look at me and say, "Oh, look, he has a navel!" But if you were enlightened you would see me within each other human being around you, and you will note that they all have navels.

Bill D - How did I start all this? Well, I became aware of Self. You can symbolize the dawning of that awareness by saying: "And God said, 'Let there be Light!'" Light symbolizes the dawning of awareness, since awareness illuminates things and makes them clear. I became aware of Self as an undifferentiated Unity that was eternal and formless and indescribable. It was experiencable but not describable in what you would call "normal terms". It was also timeless. It embodied paradoxes such as: ever changing, yet changeless. I began to wonder, naturally, what the possibilities of my Self were, as does any sentient being.    Now, I began to wonder not only what was I, but what was I not? (This is what every being wonders!) Since I am everything it was difficult to create anything that I am not! Impossible, in fact. But...I could create worlds of illusion, and use them to test out theories about what I am and what I am not. Presto! Out of light (conscious awareness and thought) I created manifested Universes of illusion. I slowed the light down in order to form substances, energies, and objects. I then peopled those objects with extensions of my own consciousness in the form of many living beings, such as yourself or the sparrow on your lawn. I let those living beings imagine themselves to be separate so that they could act out all the possibilities inherent in those created realities. Each and every possibility. That is what you see happening all around you.

That's just what you would call a "thumbnail sketch".

It's playacting, Bill D. In a play one needs an issue or problem or challenge of some kind and characters to play out the various roles. One needs heros and villains...or strong characters and weak characters. I am quite gratified by how seriously you all take your various roles (which you have yourselves chosen and determined through your own best judgement). It is indeed a marvelous play! When it ends, you will realize that it was just a play, and you will be quite astounded, I'm sure.

Eric - You are a classic example of the pre-enlightened man. You are still using the basic means of physical survival mechanisms which any animal uses, but you have allied them with the complex mind of a human being. This works fine as far as it goes and can secure you what you think of as "a good life" in society. It just doesn't go very far on the spiritual level, that's all. Can you see, touch, smell, hear, or taste Love? No, but you can experience it. You can observe it in action. I am the Love that you experience and observe in action. I am also the very substance and defining matrix of everything that you see, touch, smell, hear, and taste...to put it on another level.

It is the fact that I am already everywhere which gives you the impression that I am nowhere.

And you know what nowhere means? It means: Now Here. I am closer to you, Eric, than you could possibly imagine at this point in your awareness.