F O R E V E R A L I V E L i t e ------------------------------------------------------------- Issue Number 3 Nov 1995 ------------------------------------------------------------- Forever Alive is the world's premier magazine on the subject of physical immortality. We offer a new vision of humanity, as completely whole, beyond the polarities of life and death, spirit and body, mind and heart, male and female. This pioneering magazine explores the transformative powers of embracing a life without limits. This file is best viewed in a monospaced font, such as Courier. ------------------------------------------------------------- C O N T E N T S * YOUR TEST RESULTS ARE BACK by Herb Bowie * THE CULT OF DEATH by Bernadeane * ANYONE by Shereena Smith * IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN by Charles Paul Brown ------------------------------------------------------------- M A S T H E A D Editor: Herb Bowie Forever Alive Lite is the electronic equivalent to Forever Alive magazine, a periodical printed on actual paper. The paper version is published quarterly, while its electronic "lite" counterpart is published monthly. Both are published by People Forever International. E-MAIL ADDRESS herbbowie@aol.com MAILING ADDRESS PO Box 12305, Scottsdale, AZ 85267-2305 TELEPHONES 1 (602) 922-0300 Voice 1 (602) 922-0800 FAX 1 (800) 2B4-EVER Toll-Free Forever Alive Lite is copyright (c) 1995 by People Forever International. You may freely distribute this file electronically on a non-commercial, nonprofit basis to anyone, and print one copy for your personal use, but you may not alter or excerpt this file in any way without direct permission from People Forever International. ------------------------------------------------------------- YOUR TEST RESULTS ARE BACK by Herb Bowie Some time ago I read a newspaper article that made some telling points about the consequences of the belief systems we choose. To me, at least, it speaks volumes about the massive contradictions our society contains when it approaches the subjects of life and death. Let me start by saying I've noticed two common reactions to news of the possibility of physical immortality. One is disbelief: a doomed resignation to the death sentence seemingly imposed upon us. Another is bewilderment: a confusion about what the prospect of eventual immortality might have to do with the way we live our lives today. I think that the story I'm about to tell shows the lie in both reactions. The tale begins with a woman worrying that she might have been infected with AIDS by a blood transfusion received ten years earlier. She decides to relieve her anxiety by having herself tested. But when her results come back, the diagnosis confirms her worst fears: she is HIV-positive. Her life now takes a turn for the worst. Afraid of passing the infection on, she no longer allows her three children to hug her. Her dirty dishes are washed with bleach after every meal, to prevent passing the contagion to the rest of her family. She begins taking a medication that leaves her feeling nauseous and weak. Sure that she has little time left, she transfers legal custody for her children to her mother. Finally, after two years of this living hell, she returns to her home town, prepared to take her own life when her illness becomes too much to bear. So far, you might be thinking, this story is fairly unremarkable, similar in general outline, if not in detail, to thousands of others. But wait--a remarkable twist follows, one worthy of a short story by O. Henry. Perhaps growing suspicious after displaying a remarkable lack of symptoms (the account I read is vague on this point), the woman decides to have herself tested again. This test comes back negative. It turns out that her original test results had been misdiagnosed. She is not now, nor was she ever, HIV-positive. Outraged over her needless suffering, she sues everyone involved with the original test, and is eventually awarded over half a million dollars by a jury. So what does this story have to do with physical immortality? Let me reduce the story to its bare bones. Supposedly knowledgeable authorities tell a person that she is dying. Believing them without question, her life is subsequently ruined--not by the disease she supposedly has, but by her unquestioning belief that she is doomed. Finally, it becomes clear to everyone that the authorities were simply and collectively wrong. The pain and suffering she has endured are so real that a jury of her peers awards her a huge sum of money in compensation. What I find most remarkable about this story is that, when reduced to its simplest elements, it could be told by almost everyone. The authorities inform all of us that we are suffering from a terminal illness: life. As a result, people separate themselves from their loved ones, anticipating the eventual separation of death. People make preparations for their supposedly inevitable demise. As a result, they live lives dominated more by death than by life. And yet, even though most people will believe the story I have told without question, they will still refuse to believe that our common human diagnosis might be in error, and will find it difficult to understand what a belief in their own eventual demise could have to do with their life today. Forever Alive magazine is your personal wake-up call. Your new test results are back. We're here to tell you that you have been misdiagnosed. Forget what the experts told you. We have a new prognosis for you: endless life. Welcome to the land of the living. You're in good company, as you will find when you read the rest of this remarkable issue. Enjoy! - - - Originally published in Forever Alive magazine, Issue no. 22. Copyright (c) 1994 by People Forever International. ------------------------------------------------------------- THE CULT OF DEATH by Bernadeane There are many cults on this planet, but the largest one is the cult of death. It's composed of human beings who have made an agreement to die. All down through history, this agreement has been the strongest force at work on the planet. Let me give you an example of how this cult works. I remember a lady we met in Los Angeles a couple of years ago. She was in her eighties, and she was saying that all her friends were telling her to slow down, because it wasn't right for her to be so alive at that age. You see, she was making her friends very uncomfortable, because she had so much more energy than they did. So they were telling her she needed to slow down and get ready to die. This lady needed to be around people who would encourage her to really live! There is something wonderful about finding people who really want to live. Find as many as you can--create a world around you, and an atmosphere and environment that is unto your living. You see, most of the world today is in total opposition to staying alive. So it's very easy to become intimidated if you are not willing to break that agreement with death in your own body. This agreement has made it easy to die, and hard to live. I want us to turn this around. I want such an agreement to live that we make it hard to die, and easy to live. I am here to cause people to question their belief in death. I am here to bring about a feeling in human beings that will make them uncomfortable with dying. I can't understand why so many human beings want to remain in an agreement to die. Death is so awful. There is nothing beautiful about the body aging and dying. It is absolutely horrible to see people get sick and experience pain and disease. There is nothing wonderful about it. Oh, let's raise up a standard within flesh to agree to live, to really be healthy! This is my agreement--to see an earth filled with people who are so alive, so healthy, so loving, so giving unto one another that there will be no more wars, no more taking of another's life. I am so thankful I'm here! I'm so thankful I had a hunger in my heart, even before I knew it would be possible for us to outlive that agreement with death, before I knew there would be an agreement to care for one another, to really be together on this planet--an agreement stronger than death. I feel such a fire burning in me. I want to find more people who feel as I do. I want to wake people up, to let them know that there is a new way of life here for all of us. And I want this fire to spread, to cover the globe, until we have created such an agreement to live that we have made it impossible to die, and only possible to live. - - - Originally published in Forever Alive magazine, Issue no. 20. Copyright (c) 1994 by People Forever International. ------------------------------------------------------------- ANYONE by Shereena Smith Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm -- Anyone can live a life of deceit and corruption. Anyone can leave when the going gets too rough -- Anyone can fall into death's seduction. Anyone can go the way man has always gone, And anyone can sing those stupid love songs. But who can stay with me when life looks like hell? Who can break the codes of death and sound that single bell of life the way it's supposed to be...? Wake me up so I can see That you are here and will never leave me. Don't let the images get in the way. Don't let the programming of death take over your life, and make you part of the rest. Fight inside yourself to move, Even when you want to stop and fit into the groove. I want to make this one and only declaration: I will never understand separation. Separation is a way out: A place to hide when you don't want to change, Somewhere to run when you can't stand the rain. This is a call to my own: Find me and you have found your home. - - - Originally published in Forever Alive magazine, Issue no. 23. Copyright (c) 1995 by People Forever International. ------------------------------------------------------------- IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN by Charles Paul Brown Making A Difference Jim and Bernie and I were guests recently on a talk show being broadcast out of Florida. The host was excellent, and all three of us enjoyed our interaction with him. After we had talked for a while, he became very intense in his expression concerning the condition of the world. He wanted to know why there isn't more of a desire to change those conditions. Why are people not more open to really living, and to extending their lives? Why are they not open to changing their habits? The answer seems clear to me. As long as humanity is harboring deep in its soul the belief that we are merely passing through, on our way to some better world, then we are never going to create a real quality of life for ourselves here on earth. You would think that people would want to live. When they hear the possibility of a greater living, you would think they would absolutely rush to make it so. I believe that we have barely scratched the surface of what we can create together. And yet, as long as everything about our lives is seen as merely temporal, as just a stop along the way, then people will not move to make a difference. How did most of the human race come to believe in the existence of this superior dimension on the other side? Some people seem to think that this is a teaching of the Bible. Incredible, isn't it, that people can get so confused? For the Bible clearly says that, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Just think about this for a moment: If death is delivering us from this inferior world to some better one, then why is death such an enemy, and why should it be destroyed? Let me give you another example from the Bible. The Lord's Prayer is common everywhere in the Christian world. It starts like this. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. You see, this familiar prayer doesn't ask that we all die and go to heaven. It implores, "Thy kingdom come." Come where? If there is any question, it is made clear in the next line, "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." What has happened to this notion of creating heaven here on earth? It doesn't seem very popular, does it? Most religious people today seem well content with the idea of dying and going to heaven. Why is there often such a resistance when Bernie and Jim and I speak about bringing a new quality of life on this planet? We speak of a new togetherness, of a true oneness for people to feel. We speak of our desire to end wars, to end death, to end suffering, to end poverty, to end discrimination. You would think the immediate response would be an absolute joy. And yet people often react instead with anger. Why is this? God's Plan Even before I awakened to immortality, my religious studies had prepared me for a time when there would be peace on earth. Yet most people don't want to take any responsibility for bringing this about--they prefer to wait for it to happen all in God's time. Years ago, I remember having a conversation with my mother's minister. He seemed to be progressive, and I couldn't wait to speak to him. I went into his home and I expressed to him everything that I was feeling. After listening to me for about an hour and a half, he finally said, "Charles, I'm so thrilled with what's happening to you. But, son--I have to tell you--you are a few dispensations ahead of God's plan." People have so fallen asleep in their waiting for God to someday move to make a difference. You see, when I woke up, I accepted a responsibility to change. Most individuals don't want this responsibility. They don't want to be responsible to let their light shine on earth. But I believe that we're not to wait for God to come, we're not to wait for a savior, we're not to wait for a messiah. Instead, I believe it is our light that's to shine to make a difference on this planet. God and You People have created such a deep split between themselves and God. I think that's the problem. There's you, and then there's God. And I'm not sure that this God you have imaged really wants you to come into your full inheritance. So there you remain in the you of smallness, the you of nothingness, the mortal you that is subservient to the immortal gods. If we are to have heaven on earth one day, then I want to know what's standing in the way of us having it today. Is it you, or is it your God? If God is so all powerful and knowing and eternal, and you are so little and weak and mortal, then perhaps God should swallow up the little mortal you and begin to do something on this planet. If it's you that's in the way, and God is all powerful, then God should be able to just take you out of the way. And if it's not you that's in the way, but it's your God, then you'd better begin to look at your image of God. Perhaps your God doesn't want you to be immortal. Perhaps he doesn't want you to come into your rightful inheritance. Perhaps he doesn't want you to get too close--he might just want to remain in an eternal mystery. People have aspired for so long to be more like God. To tell the truth, I'm not so sure I want to reach Godhood. I'd rather reach manhood. I don't want to attain God consciousness. I'd rather become human conscious. I'd rather become responsible for bringing about a change on this planet. Let's quit trying to clean this planet up for future generations--let's begin to clean it up for ourselves, and then maybe the future generations will really have something. Sex In Heaven? Some people think that it's our sexuality that keeps us from heaven. After all, heaven is supposed to be populated by angels, and we all know that angels don't have any sexual organs. So this is the image that people have. They think there's something wrong with us because of our sexual equipment. So much of the Christian world seems to think that we're conceived and shaped in iniquity. The feeling you get is that there must be something wrong with the physical body. There's something wrong, and it all relates to sexuality. Adam and Eve and that damned serpent really screwed things up. This is why there's such fear of sexuality being taught in our schools. Here in the US, President Clinton recently accepted the resignation of his Secretary of Education, because she had become too controversial. She had suggested that masturbation is a normal human activity, and that it might not be a bad idea to say as much in our children's courses on sex education. It's astounding to me that we could live in such an enlightened, civilized age, and yet there is still so much fear and shame about normal functions of the human body. I still remember one individual who felt that eventually our sex organs were going to turn into wings. This individual was so intelligent, yet she really believed that our genitals were going to evolve into wings! Can you imagine what this would look like? I still can't quite picture how it would work--and I've been trying for years. Have you noticed how popular angels have become lately? People seem to find it so much easier to believe in angels than in people. I remember hearing, when I was a child, about a man who claimed to have an angel on his shoulder. He said that when he spoke, he was just repeating the words of the angel, who was whispering into his ear. Of course, the hall was packed when he came to town. People would rather hear something from an angel they can't even see, than from an ordinary human being. Come Down From The Clouds That man knew what he was doing--he had a great gimmick. Jim and Bernie and I don't have any gimmick, though. We are human beings: flesh, bone and blood. When we speak, we're signing our own names to what we say. We're not telling you that an angel said it; we're not saying that God has sent us. We're telling you that we have awakened to our own inspiration, and that's the only thing we're speaking from. Come down out of the clouds. Come out of the haze. Begin to unveil the mysteries of our bodies. You're magnificent. Your body is magnificent. You're not some entity inside your body. You formed yourself. You designed yourself to be the way you are. Your body is absolutely phenomenal. It's astounding that the body can so regenerate itself. I feel the day is coming that, if any organs are missing, we will grow them back. We'll regenerate limbs that have been lost. It's possible, because we formed ourselves from one cell, and the total image of what we are is still in every cell. All that's missing is to get in touch with the original program before we learned the consciousness of death and dying, before we ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, before we ate of that knowledge of death, before we became God conscious, before we became conscious of separation, before we became conscious that we were lesser or that we were more. God can no longer remain a mystery. The book of Revelation says, "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets." I don't know of any angel sounding. I don't feel like an angel. I am who I am, but I am sounding the trumpet of my own voice. And I'm saying that the mystery of God is finished, because it is now clear that we are the ones who are responsible for bringing about heaven on earth. Let's create the world that we were taught would someday come. Let us create together the world that we imaged even when we were children. Get in touch with what you felt when you were a child--that was very real. Get in touch with what you questioned, before the program swallowed you up. Get in touch with how you felt life and living should be on this planet. I know that I felt a cry for something different as I was growing up. I'm so glad that my scream and my cry became greater than the program! I'm so glad that my life became more passionate than the system. To the system of death on this planet, you may be no more than a social security number stored in a computer somewhere. You are more than that to me: You are a flesh, bone and blood body. You are a living organ within a total organism. We need one another to come together in one mind, one body, one spirit, to create a life without end, right here on earth. - - - Originally published in Forever Alive magazine, Issue no. 24. Copyright (c) 1995 by People Forever International. ------------------------------------------------------------- FOREVER ALIVE MAGAZINE Forever Alive magazine is the paper-based big brother to this e-zine. It has been published quarterly since 1989. R. Seth Friedman, in Factsheet Five, Issue No. 56, said about Forever Alive: "This publication breaks the mold of fringe immortality zines with informative, rational (and very readable) essays in a bright colorful package." Carol Wright said about us, in the Spring 1994 edition of the NAPRA Trade Journal: "This quarterly publication is probably the only immortalist (as opposed to longevity) magazine around. Forever Alive offers recent information about longevity, bodywork, nutrition and so forth. But their upbeat philosophical essays separate them from other health magazines. They challenge your most deeply seated beliefs about life and death." The Alternative Press Review, in their Spring/Summer 1995 edition, said: "Forever Alive is a nicely-produced, 42-page quarterly magazine devoted to bodily health and human immortality...." Forever Alive has now grown to 52 pages, with no outside advertising, and featuring a full-color cover. The magazine is available at better bookstores, including the Barnes & Noble and Borders chains. The cost is $6 for a single issue and $24 for an annual subscription (4 issues). Subscriptions and single issues may be ordered directly from People Forever. Distributors for Forever Alive include Desert Moon, New Leaf, Armadillo & Co. and Ingram Periodicals. -------------------------------------------------------------