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The Brotherhoods
by Richard Kieninger
Who They Are
The Brotherhoods are organizations composed of women and men who, by techniques that are available to every person who has ever been born, have managed to elevate Their awareness to the point where They have discovered quite naturally that there are higher planes of existence. They have discovered some of God's Universal truths. These people have seen fit to organize in order that Their efforts may be more productive as an organization rather than as individuals. A reason that They have stayed underground for so long (the first Brotherhood was organized many thousands of years ago) was that historically whenever any group of intellectual people or scientist or philosophers became too prominent, They were immediately stamped out by the priests or the kings who happened to be in authority at the time. The world seems always to have been under the heel of some tyrant or dictator; so rather than expose Themselves to needless harassment, the Brotherhoods simply withheld Their identity and concealed Their abilities from the world at large.
The Brotherhoods have long had an internal understanding that a Brother must not reveal his or her status to anybody other than to another Brother. People feel pretty safe with saints and people of superior ability once they're dead and buried, but they are nervous when they're around. Clairvoyance, for example, is accepted in some circles but it's just not real to a person who has not experienced those things for themselves.
What They Do
One of the characteristics of a person who has advanced herself to the point of understanding a great deal of what there is to know of human existence is that she finds her greatest pleasure comes from serving the legitimate needs of other human beings, which especially includes teaching them the truths of existence which the Brotherhoods have come to know. So the Brotherhoods provide facilities for the instruction of candidates who look like they could become Initiates, people who aspire to become better and hopefully develop themselves to a higher level of perfection such as has been taught to people who have become aware of the Brotherhoods. It is possible to become humanly perfect, which qualifies one to be a Master.
In addition to helping worthy candidates for Initiation, Brothers are also involved in helping to garner all knowledge of the truths of existence. They have preserved a continuous history of mankind even though civilization hasn't always been continuous. Somebody had to preserve that information so that history wouldn't be lost forever.
One of the things They have been concerned with is trying to gather and analyze the causes of the successes and failures of civilizations throughout the past. They are trying to protect and guide the populations of the world in whatever ways They are permitted, which They may not do by direct control. Mostly, Their guidance is through information that Their spokesmen have revealed, hoping that the people will hear Them. Many of the great philosophers of the past have been spokesmen for the Brotherhoods. And all this is to prepare us for our building a Nation of God on Earth, which women and men have to do for themselves.
One of the advantages that the Brotherhoods have seen in starting to be more open about the reality of Their organizations is that people have something to aim at and can see there are worthwhile things to be done. This can provide inspiration for people to contribute their part to help make mankind, or at least their little corner of the world, somewhat better. Fortunately, there are individuals who, if they see that there is something that can be done, are willing to work on it. And they build themselves in the process.
Most of the great religious leaders of the world have been spokesmen for the Brotherhoods. They weren't trying to establish religions; it just turned out that their truths were so profound and useful that people who heard them institutionalized them so the information wouldn't be lost, so they became new religions. The Brotherhoods are not involved in teaching religion. Rather, They are teaching a philosophy of truth--what the world is really like; what the nature of existence is all about; what our purpose as human beings is (why we were created). These are great things to know about. People have been concerned with such questions from time immemorial.
Initiation
Even now, with the Brotherhoods assisting us via educational uplift, people still have to advance themselves through their own efforts. The Brotherhoods show the way mostly through teachers and philosophers bringing information which a person can test and see that it really works. The Brotherhoods contact an individual when she has accomplished the basic requirements for Initiation into the Brotherhoods--balance, positive karma, controlled clairvoyance, mystic awareness, positive attitude, good health, trade or profession, and a deep yearning. to be a Brother. They inform her (or him) that she is at the point where she has become eligible to be a member of the Brotherhoods. (Not all persons who qualify for initiation choose to join.) To become an Initiate is to actually become a First Degree Brother.
"Loyalty means not that I agree with everything you say or that I believe you are always right. Loyalty means that I share a common ideal with you and that, regardless of minor differences, we fight for it; shoulder to shoulder, confident in one another's good faith, trust, constancy, and affection."
Karl Menninger
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