In the Renford Revelations we will look at ancient texts including the Bible, and utilize the language of the mind – the symbols by which we can come to understand more than just a surface interpretation. Jesus told his disciples that he had revealed the mysteries to them. When they asked him why he taught in parables, he explained that their ears were dull of hearing and their eyes were closed. He had to speak to them in a symbolic way we call parables. If we want Sunday School pabulum, there are thousands of preachers, priest and rabbis ready, willing and able with simple answers to complex questions and weighted with dogma. Jesus provided the answers in a way that listeners could figure out for themselves based on their life experiences.

Virtually anyone and everyone, if forced to do so, can tell us what they think they believe. Often they can even tell us who has been most influential in their lives, but few have much idea of where these beliefs originated. We live in a country where the Judaeo-Christian ethic permeates our work and activities whether we are Christian or not. These beliefs and our ethics have been forged by 2000 plus years of developing Christianity, not counting Judaism from which most think it sprang. Our thinking is based on what we have been taught from childhood by parents, teachers, books and movies. These are beliefs we have adopted because those we love and respect said they were so. However, there is a way we can come to know as opposed to simply accepting what we have been taught.

Knowing something can only come from personal experience. Anything short of the personal experience is an acceptance on our part of what others say they have experienced. Whether we believe them or not has to do with our confidence in them – not in personal knowledge. The way we can know is by focusing on the process of identifying and verifying the Universal Laws in our life experiences. These Universal Laws are not some set of rules or a dogma that I have dreamed up. They are not original to me or any spiritual or metaphysical writer. They are not a set of commands like the Ten Commandments. They are principles that existed before there could be matter as described in Proverbs 8:22. They are reflected in the statements made by the Vedic writers, Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Mohammed and other Masters. Each time Jesus is recorded as opening his mouth to speak, he was illustrating or explaining one of these Universal Principles. The same is true of the other Masters I mentioned. There was something so important about these principles that the Masters spent their lives attempting to leave behind someone who understood what they were saying. If it were not for the different cultures from which they came, it would have been more evident that they were talking about the same 13 Principles.

What is the real difference between believing and knowing? Believing and knowing are two sides of the same coin. Some religious leaders raise faith to such a height that it would appear to have no association with knowing. Even in a rudimentary study of New Testament writings one will note that faith comes by hearing. One must first hear or read something in order to believe it. What is the connection between the two? We can have all the faith in the world, but if it is only based on what we have heard or been taught, it has little value for us. On the other hand, we can have all the knowledge in the world, but if we don’t have the faith to do anything with it – there will be no value for us. Metaphysical studies are not some kind of “hocus pocus” or mystery teaching that requires a guru or contemplating our navels in the Himalayas. It is not a discipline that requires an extensive stay in an ashram or monastery. It is a study of what comes before a physical manifestation. If we look around the room we are in, every chair, every appliance and even the house itself had to exist in someone’s mind before it could possibly be created physically. So, there is the big mystery about what Metaphysics actually is. It is what comes before something can be created. Thought creates form, and without thought there can be no form.

Now, if we understand what Metaphysics consists of, we can begin to experience and experiment with believing and knowing. There is a famous saying, “Anything the mind of man can conceive and believe – it can achieve.” What is the value of such a study in our lives? If we have been able to identify and verify the Universal Principles in the teachings of Jesus or any of the Great Masters, it is because we have identified those same principles in our life experiences. We have a different perspective. We have internalized significant events in our lives that tell us what they said was real and not some high sounding discourse. We will know it is true because we have been there and done that! We know it! We are no longer believers but knowers, and with this knowledge we only need the faith to make whatever we want to create manifest on the physical plane. There is another benefit which is invaluable. Whenever we read a book, attend a seminar, listen to a sermon, hear a teacher or see on television a “purveyor of wisdom” – we will know whether they know or not. We will know whether they are speaking from having been there and done that or whether they are speaking from a traditional teaching requiring their acceptance on faith and therefore our acceptance in the same manner of what they have said. Whether we are religious or not, with the process of identifying and verifying the Universal Principles, a new perspective is created in all aspects of our lives. As noted, Jesus referred to some of those he taught as those whose “ears were dull of hearing and whose eyes were closed. You can open your own eyes and ears beginning with self-observation and metaphysical studies.