Author: J Douglas Bottorff

Doug is minister of Independent Unity, author of 8 books, musician and photography enthusiast. He lives with his wife and cat in western Colorado.

Let There Be Light

Watch YouTube Presentation: Let There Be Light

When our space program took us to the moon, we were enthralled when we saw for the first time our gorgeous gem of a planet rising through the black backdrop of space to a place just above the horizon of the moon. We’d never seen an earthrise. Taken by the beauty and wonder of this image, we may not have quickly gleaned all the implications that it so clearly demonstrated.

We see the earth in this photo because it reflects the sun’s light. What this tells us is that the sun’s light is just as present in the apparent blackness as it is on earth’s surface. In this sense, sunlight is omnipresent, but it is only apparent to us when an object capable of reflecting light is present.

In the Genesis account of creation, God says, “Let there be light.” This first step can be accomplished and still appear only as the black of space. Place an object in this stream of light, however, and you see that the light was present before the introduction of the object.

The Big Bang theory contradicted this order of creation, suggesting that matter came first and then life (thanks to something like a perfect combination of chemicals and an extraordinarily lucky lightning strike). This would be a little like saying that the earth in our photo produces the light that enables us to see it.

I can more easily grasp the idea that the energy we know as life, the light of every living creature, permeated the otherwise formless universe. The biological objects that were capable of reflecting or expressing this life then came along. All that makes up the life, love, power and intelligence that we know as God was present long before the biological reflecting agents appeared. God does not evolve; the biological reflecting agents do, but probably not in the way we imagine.

When we refer to ourselves as spiritual beings, we are, by analogy, referring to an aspect of ourselves that is equivalent to the primordial light. The light that we are does not evolve. It is already complete. Nor does our ability to reflect this light evolve. As with any object placed in the path of sunlight, our ability to reflect this divine field of energy is inherent in our makeup. The light actually made us for this single purpose of reflecting itself. It did not start with an inferior product that it would eventually perfect. It started with that perfection.

That we are capable of believing God is absent or in any way separate from us is like the earth saying, “I’m surrounded by blackness. When will the light dawn?” The whole time the light is present, powering all the many systems of earth, asking nothing more from the earth in terms of its awareness or deserving. Nor does the sun ever say to the earth, “You owe me big time for giving you all this free light.”

Although we are capable of capturing and reflecting the unseen light, our senses-based, intellectual orientation has prompted us to invent the illusion that something more must happen prior to our immersion in the light. Many have accepted the false belief that if enough of the race evolves, the rest will be carried in on its coattails. This superstition stands like a great shield blocking the ever-present light. We abide in the shadows of ignorance, passing on from one generation to the next that this shadow is a thing with which we must contend, that there is more than one presence and one power in the universe, and that in some near or distant future we will all know only the one. The metaphysician, in this regard, is as prone to superstition as the Christian fundamentalist awaiting the second coming.

The groping in darkness we see currently in our world perpetuates the myth of spiritual evolution. The presence of strife, however, is no measure of the presence of Truth.

Emerson observed, “We sell the thrones of angels for a short and turbulent pleasure.” Those who strive only for the short and turbulent pleasure provided by the shiny objects of material gain overlook the deeper, all-sustaining truth of that divine, infinite sea of light forever shining in the darkness, a light without which nothing else would exist.

The Prospering Power of Love

YouTube: The Prospering Power of Love

For our loved ones, we want to know that love is drawing to them that which is for their highest good and dissolving that which is not. If we hold this principle as the action of love, we can apply it to virtually every area of our life.

When we think of prosperity, we tend to think of finances. While a prosperous life certainly includes finances, we should not confine prosperity to just one area. Freedom from fear and worry, for example, is a prosperity demonstration. If we want to resolve a fear, we affirm love draws to us that which lifts us above our fear and dissolves all negative emotion that feeds the fear.

Our faculty of imagination is a wonderful tool that allows us to see beyond appearances, to dream our dreams, and accept that greater good is unfolding even when we do not see it. The imagination can also blow things way out of proportion and create imagined problems that, in reality, exist only in our own mind. A prosperous life is one that is free of the terrors generated by our negative imagery. We apply the principle of love by bringing our imagination under control. Regardless of what seems to be going on, we affirm that love is now drawing to us that which is for our highest good, and dissolving that which is not. What greater prosperity affirmation could we make?

To add a bit of intrigue to our prayer, we imagine the all-knowing mind of God as love is doing this perfect work. Solutions we have not even considered are set in motion. We not only visualize greater good unfolding, we do it with the anticipation of pleasant surprise. My imagined solution may be good, but what if I let God do the choosing? As Jesus said, it will come back,

“…good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” Luke 6:38

Though we use the month of February to focus on love, we know the principle is working through us at all times. This moment is the time to tap the prospering power of love.

The God Perspective

In the New Testament letter of James, we find this reference to God as the, “Father of lights with whom there is no shadow or variation due to change” (James 1:17). Presenting God as changeless is a significant departure from the traditional view of a Deity bearing human emotions of likes and dislikes, moods and changing attitudes. We so routinely and casually ask for God’s special blessings or favors that we may not stop to realize we are indeed addressing a perception of a Creator whose attitudes and behavior are quite subject to change. Could James’ changeless Father of lights bless and not bless, or pass out serpents and stones when we really need fish and bread?

It is certainly easiest to think of God in terms of our human relationships. There are times when we feel close to those around us, and times when others or we seem more distant, depending on prevailing moods. For some we would grant favors without question. For others, our favors would come with conditions.

Many think of their relationship to God in much the same way we might think of our relationship to the sun. We have full sunny days and we have cloudy days. We have daytime when the sun is out and nighttime when the sun is not. We experience the sunrise and the sunset, the skin-burning summer sun and an icy cold winter sun. The sun, we might conclude, has many moods.

All of these variations, however, have less to do with the nature of the sun and more to do with our relationship to it. When you think from the perspective of the sun itself, you see a very different picture. How many days has the sun seen, for example? We say this closest star is something in the neighborhood of fifteen billion years old. How do we measure a year? That would be 365 sunrises and sunsets. Multiply that by fifteen billion and you have more days than most of us can wrap our minds around.

The sun itself has seen but a single day, and that day has stretched throughout the duration of its life. The sun has never risen, never set, never known the cold of winter or the dark of night. It has never seen a shadow or experienced the dark corner of a cellar. If the sun peers into the corner of a cellar, it sees its own light. Nor can the sun see the long shadows cast over the evening landscape. There is no variation due to change.

Like the sun, we cannot understand God from the ever-changing human perspective. Impossible as it may seem, we have to think of God from God’s perspective. From the sun’s perspective we can understand how it can never see a shadow, how there is only one condition and that condition is light. It is only as we think of God from God’s perspective that we can begin to grasp the truth that there is only one Presence and one Power. There is not good and evil, not light and shadows, but absolute good, as in absolute light.

Using this familiar example of the sun, the abstraction of a changeless God of absolute good does not seem so abstract. And the abstraction lessens even more when we consider that eternally shining light at the center of our being. We sift through our ever-changing moods, our senses-based definitions of God to find that true core where there is no shadow or variation due to change. As the sun sees only light, so we see only light when we view our lives from our own radiating center of light.

It is a comfort to me in my darker moments to think of God from God’s perspective. There are no darkened moments in God. Why should I succumb to shadows I see only because I have lowered my vision to the spinning earth and the affairs of the human condition and turned my back on the life that is the “… light of men”, the light that “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn. 1:4-5).

The light that you and I seek is here now, has always been here, and will always be here. As we commit to opening our minds and hearts to the God perspective, every shadow dissolves into the nothingness from which it came.

What Is Truth?

YouTube: What is Truth?

In Unity, we refer to our teachings as Truth. What is interesting is that another religious organization might look at us and question this. They have their own version of Truth. Of course, we’ve all heard people refer to my truth and your truth. So, I raised this question some months ago: With approximately 7.9 billion people on this planet, are there also 7.9 billion truths?

Referring to our teachings, we arrive at our understanding of Truth using three points. How we view the nature of God, how we view the nature of the individual, and how we view the nature of the relationship between God and the individual. The sum of how we address these three areas is Truth, as we understand it. Because other religious organizations will address them differently, they will have a different understanding of Truth.

Our foundation statement simplified is this: There is but one presence and one power in the universe; God, the good, omnipotent. This covers our understanding of God. Each individual is an expression of this one presence and one power, the image and likeness of God. As such, the relationship between God and the individual is oneness.

Over the last several weeks, we’ve been exploring the truth about prayer, that prayer doesn’t change God, it changes us. The reasoning behind this is reflected in our understanding of God as the one presence and one power in the universe. Changeless. Prayer, therefore, becomes an inside/out proposition. We make an adjustment in our thinking and feeling. When we pray for healing, for example, we affirm that we are already whole, that the one presence and one power is now expressing this wholeness through us. That we are in a relationship of oneness with this presence of wholeness allows us to accept we have already received what we ask for in prayer. Asking, in this sense, is affirming wholeness is ours already.

What we call Truth teachings are all based on this trinity of ideas. If we get this firmly in our mind, we have the Truth that will set us free.

Be Ye Transformed

YouTube: Be Ye Transformed

Myrtle Fillmore’s Healing Journey

The Unity Movement was founded on prayer. Myrtle Fillmore, one of our co-founders, was a frail child who suffered from tuberculosis and was not expected to live a long life. She grew up hearing that her disease was inherited and there was nothing she could do about it. As an adult, she attended a lecture by Dr. E. B. Weeks, who was a student of Emma Curtis Hopkins, a noteworthy name in early New Thought. Dr. Weeks made a statement that changed Myrtle’s life. He said, “You are a child of God and you cannot inherit sickness.” This captured Myrtle’s attention. She spent the next several years in designated prayer time speaking affirmative healing statements to her body. She kept an empty chair in front of her and imagined Jesus sitting in it, offering healing guidance.

Her healing was not instant. She devoted herself to changing her mind. Imagining healing energy directed by her own words was a powerful change of thinking. Envisioning Jesus as a great healing presence became a strong aid in her healing process.

It is also worth noting that prior to her spiritual approach, she tried every medication available, but to no avail. Her healing journey supports our basic understanding that prayer changes us, not God. Her change of mind, her healing affirmations, and her powerful visualizations brought her complete healing and the ability to live a very full life to age 86. At the end, she told her fellow workers at Unity that she felt it was time for her to move on, that she could be more effective working from the other side.

Myrtle has been an inspiration to millions of people. She was very down to earth, very practical, and totally committed to the spiritual truth taught through Unity. In terms of her writings, I’ve always considered her more accessible than Charles, who did most of the writing. Before Unity became a movement, she conducted healing services from her home, we’re told, with marvelous results.

Paul said, “Be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Myrtle Fillmore truly exemplified this principle.   

Praying For Others

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Last Sunday’s talk on The Prayer Principle sparked the very good question about praying for others. If prayer changes us, not God, how does praying for others work?

In the ministry of Jesus, we see many examples of healing. On several of these occasions he would tell people that their faith made them whole. This illustrates the importance of individual expectation. We can apply this to prayer, a visit to the doctor, a drug intended to accommodate healing, or even a placebo. Many improvements in health have been attributed to the placebo effect. When we say prayer changes us, not God, we are really saying that we are opening our mind and heart to the healing, prospering, balancing presence of God.

When you call or write to a prayer service like Silent Unity, something significant happens within you. Knowing others join you in your quest for a solution to a problem increases your expectation, or faith. You set in motion an energy level that bolsters your faith in a favorable outcome. In all likelihood, this has a direct and favorable impact on your body. If your prayer request involves unfavorable conditions in finances or relationships, your increased expectation also increases your awareness of opportunities you may otherwise miss.

Knowing others are praying for you and with you boosts your faith. Letting others know you are praying with them boosts their faith as well. I sometimes tell people that I will hold them in prayer at a specific time, and I’ll encourage them to join me at that time. This, I believe, is a good way to boost faith. Jesus said where two or more are gathered in my name, I will be there in the midst of them. He obviously understood the power of people praying for one another.

The important point is to remove all feelings of supernatural connections and communications with God. We are expressions of God and prayer is one way of affirming this truth. When you pray for another, release the negative energy you may hold and affirm the truth of who they are and what they are capable of expressing. We are not, in any way, praying to overcome God’s reluctance. We are affirming God’s presence. Simply telling someone you are holding them in the highest light is one of the most powerful prayers you can offer. Expressing your belief in them will bolster their belief in themselves. This is the faith that makes us whole.   

The Prayer Principle

YouTube: The Prayer Principle

Someone has said, and I believe rightfully, that prayer does not change God, it changes us. This seems to agree with the statement of James, who referred to God as the “ … Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). If we accept this, then we want to know how we are to change if our prayer is to be effective.

In Matthew 5:37, Jesus emphasized the importance of simplicity in our words by saying, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.” This principle holds true with prayer. Saying “yes” affirms a truth, while saying “no” denotes denial. In our prayer, we acknowledge the truth and release any negative energy we may have attached to a certain situation. Fear, as the most prevalent form of negative energy, often requires our attention and release during prayer.

The way we perceive things and think about them affects how we engage with the creative life force that we refer to as God. When we seek healing through prayer, for instance, we begin by acknowledging that deep down, our soul is already complete. We embrace our inherent wholeness and reject any conflicting appearances. Rejecting these appearances does not imply that we deny or disregard them. Rather, it signifies that we let go of any uncertainty surrounding our healing, and instead, we fully trust that it is already manifesting. There are no barriers or hindrances. Just like a river, God’s energy flows in a single direction: from within ourselves outward. This same principle applies to any other need we may have.

Whenever we notice any sign of lack, we take it as a reminder to embrace the power of prayer. As we live in a physical form, our prayer practice might also require us to make adjustments in areas such as our diet or overall lifestyle. I noticed my car was leaking oil, for example. My prayer for healing involved taking it to a mechanic. As much as I would like such an issue to self-heal, such things usually involve participation at the physical level.

If we think of the prayer principle as the act of putting everything in motion, beginning with our state of mind, then we are open to the perfect outworking of our need at all levels.  

The Perfection Trap

YouTube: The Perfection Trap: Five Ways to Get Out

When Jesus said we should be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect, we may think he was setting a pretty high bar. Sometimes just being good is a tough job. Being perfect? Living through one day without making a single mistake may be asking a bit much.

While we should all strive to be the best we can be, there are some areas where we strive for perfection, at least conceptually, that we would do well to revisit. I’ve listed five.

1. Spiritual Perfection: The trap is the belief that we are supposed to reach a place where no more growth is possible, we’re at the top. We do not reach spiritual perfection; we realize that we are already spiritually perfect.

2. Earth is a school: This is a common model held by many. The trap here is the possibility of feeling like you are perpetually stuck in the fifth grade. The way to avoid this trap is to release this model.

3. The condition of your body reflects the condition of your soul. The trap is believing that if your body is aging or ill, your soul is flunking its tests.

4. Your thinking can impact the health of your soul. The trap is the belief that your thinking is powerful enough to alter the nature of your soul. Thinking affects the quality of your experience, but it has no impact whatsoever on the makeup of your soul.

5. Your spiritual imperfection interferes with your relationship to God. The trap is the belief that God responds to your states of consciousness like a human being would. Nothing you think, say, or do can change your relationship of oneness with God.

These, of course, are not hard and fast rules, but it never hurts to take a fresh look at the basic ideas that guide our spiritual thinking. We may have latched onto ideas that made sense in our early, exploratory years, but no longer do. Earth as a school was a big one for me. Laboratory might be a more stimulating metaphor. The point is, we want to make the most of our life in the body. Finding ways to free ourselves from false or limiting beliefs will go a long way in this direction.

Let’s Begin

YouTube: Let’s Begin

Another new year is upon us, so we naturally turn our thoughts to new beginnings. This idea takes on various meanings depending on where we are in life. The one principle that applies to all, however, has to do with recognizing each moment as a new beginning.

As I write this message, for example, it is easy to allow distractions to divert my attention away from the task at hand. Working with a computer means that I have access to a lot of interesting information. For example, as I wrote this line, I thought about the lost library of Alexandria, and what ancient knowledge we may have lost because of the fire that destroyed it. With a few keystrokes, I could have pursued that topic, and many others that would undoubtedly pop up along the way. Then, I was notified that we have a new subscriber. A friend emailed and I was alerted of that. And Facebook presented yet another friend suggestion, which I no longer take. So, what about the task at hand?

To illustrate my point, I did not pursue research on the ancient library, check out our new subscriber, respond to my friend’s email, or check out the new friend suggestion. I’ll do those things at another moment. When I sat down to complete this task, I was saying let’s begin. I was immediately confronted with temptations that would detract from my intended goal. Then I recalled this saying of Jesus:  

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

 Even as I pulled this passage from an online bible, I was tempted to pursue a couple of other links that came up in my search. Yet they were not in the field I intended to plow. You get the point.

While this sounds like a trivial example, it illustrates exactly why it is so challenging to give our full attention to the only place we can ever be: here and now. In the past, I have said we do not have to achieve success for our whole life. We only need to achieve success now. Our mind is like the computer that keeps throwing up interesting links that would distract us from being present. Let’s begin to get in the habit of putting our hand to the plow and staying with it until the field is ready to plant.