Six criteria for offering new ideas to others:
1. Understand the stage of consciousness evolution others are at right now. Few materialistic or fundamentalist groups of individuals, for example, are ready to open to concepts which smack of the “psychic”, or which suggest there’s anything else to soul evolution than mainstream dogma. They must already be Seekers__ maybe not knowing what they want, but feeling that their present belief system or lifestyle is no longer working for them, and they need something else. Persons or groups still heavily invested in following or being a leader, in being part of an elite group, in imposing their personal agendas on group members, or playing victim-rescuer are not ready to take responsibility for their own, let alone, community life.
2. Introduce only what is true for you; what you can make happen. What we’ve read in a book or heard in a class may or may not be true, but unless we ourselves have tried it and found it really works for us, it may not be beneficial to others. In fact, it may serve to discredit any other useful information we can later offer.
3. Introduce new ideas gradually. We cannot present too much new information to people too quickly; it tends to confuse, even frighten them. Instead of bombarding an ill person with theories of Vibrational Medicine, for example, simply give them the little bottle of “Relax” essential oils, perhaps, and say it helps you with stress and overcomes some side effects of medicines. Add more details when and if they ask for it.
4. Be prepared to accept any results. Detach from any “new information bit” introduced and allow others to ignore, discard, or even misunderstand and misuse it if they so desire. Plant a seed. Give them time to adapt it to their personal belief systems. Dan Brown’s recent book, The Da Vinci Code, created quite a stir in religious circles. Although it was a work of fiction__ a "what if" idea__ embracing a very different view of Jesus’ life, it was a “wake-up call” to many people, causing them to more closely examine the roots of their own belief systems. It turned many Sleepers into Seekers.
5. Learn from the results, whether positive or negative, and make the necessary adjustments for future communications. The next new “data bit” we offer may get farther. If we don’t push the issue, often the individual will relate the same information back to us at a later time, as if it were all their own idea. This is true teaching.
6. Live It. By our own actions, thoughts and feelings, we must be the change we wish to see in the society around us. If we want Peace, we must be Peace. If we want Abundance, we must be Abundance. If we want Appreciation, we must be Appreciation. If we want Joy, we must be Joy.
The group's consciousness can serve as a support that helps members break through blocks formerly resistant to solo efforts. The Idaho study group first sought to expand its own members’ consciousness and later tried to integrate local residents, but achieved instead, a cleansing of current members whose motives for attending did not harmonize with the group’s larger purposes.
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