It’s like the story we like to tell about a farmer who lived out in the country–he and his son and his wife. They had one valuable piece of property, a lovely Arabian mare. So they were very proud of their mare and all their neighbors more or less envied them for having the pretty mare. One morning when he got up and went out to feed his little mare, she was long gone. There was a hole in the fence and she was gone. So all his neighbors gathered around to say how sad it is, how bad it is that you lost your beautiful mare. The old gent said, “Well, I don’t know whether it’s good or bad, all I know is the mare’s gone.”

Well, this went on for a little while. The mare was still gone and their lives went on about the same as usual. But one morning when he got up and went out, the mare had returned, and she had with her seven beautiful wild Arabian stallions she had gathered up in the field. No doubt, she got lonely and went out looking for a boyfriend and came back with seven of them. So the farmer and his son put the stallions in the corral. The neighbors all came by and said, “What wonderful fortune it is that you’ve got your mare back and all these beautiful stallions with her.” The farmer said, “I don’t know, all I know is the mare’s back and has seven stallions with her.”

So his son decided he would break one of the stallions to ride. So he got it out and put a halter, bridle, and finally the saddle on it. He was attempting to ride it and get it calmed down to be what you call a broken horse, and the horse threw him and broke his leg. So then the neighbors came and told him how unfortunate it is that your son has a broken leg. The old man said, “I don’t know, I just know the boy has a broken leg.” “I don’t know whether it’s bad or good or how terrible it is or anything.” “The boy’s got a broken leg.” “That’s alright; he’s laying there with his leg growing together.”

So in a few days after the son got his leg broken, the king’s men came through the country to get all able-bodied men for the army. His son couldn’t go. He was laid up in the sack. So the army went on by him. They didn’t want any guy with a broken leg. The neighbor’s sons all had to go for the army; and so the neighbors came over and said, “How lucky you are, you son didn’t have to go to the army. The farmer again said,
“I don’t know, all I know is my son had a broken leg and didn’t have to go in the army.”
Now we could go on with this for several hours, but I guess that’s reasonable limited amount of time, so we’ll quit. But the story could go on and on. The point is, the old man was being free to experience what was going on and things worked around for him pretty well. All the other people were not free to experience what was going on. They were judging every situation as “good or bad.”

AUDIBLE LIFE STREAM —Dr. Bob

Question: What about the loud ringing and noises in my head?

Answer? That’s called bells in the belfry. The noises we hear has as many meanings, I suppose, you can get as many explanations as you like. It’s called ‘audible life stream,’ which means that all life is highly vibrating and you begin to catch on. But sometimes you need a little understanding before you understand the vibrations. You go down and ask some people and they’ll tell you its blood running through your capillaries and some tell you it’s because you’ve been taking quinine. Some tell you it’s because you’ve been drinking caffeine and various and sundry other things.

I listen to it every now and then to see if I can make sense out of it. I find if you’re just listening to it without trying to get it to talk to you it gives you certain rhythms. And if you understand rhythms it tells you that everything is pretty well balanced in the rhythmic interchange. It is the very symbol of all life vibrates and it does change vibration rates quite frequently. And we can change vibration rates by our mood. Now in case you’re sometime are interested whoever is listening to the bells, if you will change your mood, you will see there is a decided change in this vibration noise, or whatever you want to call it. It will change when you change your mood. And if you have a very decidedly pleasant mood it is music. And if you (unintelligible) there’s about four lines coming in at the same time, it sounds awful noisy.

THANKSGIVING
(Dr. Bob Gibson School Talk #32)

Inasmuch as Thanksgiving is coming up, I thought it might be appropriate that we talk about Thanksgiving, or giving of thanks which is possibly the idea of gratitude, being thankful or full of thanks or gratitude or appreciation for everything that is around us. I think what is required in order to experience being thankful is to be aware of our four questions that we frequently run through with: What am I? Where am I? What’s going on here? What can I do? I don’t think we ever outgrow these four questions, so I think it’s well to be reminded of them frequently because they’re the way to inner states of being that are here to surpass.

So if we see: What am I? I am obviously a privileged invited guest by Life to this place. So that’s something to be very thankful for, and I’m here and I was invited to be here and share in this thing called Life at this beautiful planet called earth.

The next question is: Where am I? I’m at the beautiful planet earth where there are beautiful things that you could do. Life is the host here… There is life and what all it produces that we are free to use every day of the week.

So, what’s going on here? There’s obviously a big party going on. There are jillions of people out here playing games. Now that’s something to be very thankful for that we can play whatever game we want to and we usually never have to play any game we don’t want to.

And then comes down to What can I do? Well, here is where you have, seems to me, the greatest thing to be thankful every day of the world, every day of the week, every day of the month, every hour of the day and everything else is. What can I do?

Well, if you stop to think of all the things you are privileged to do by the mere fact of being alive, you could never be thankful enough. Now what have we got to be thankful for, and how can we go around with not having a constant feeling of being very, very thankful, which is another word, I think, for being happy. How can you keep from being thankful? So think of all the things that Life is and is expressing, and we’re getting to go along for the ride with the greatest of ease. Now if you’re there all the time, you live in what a person would almost have to say a paradise, is that right? Because that’s what they gave you as a description of paradise was that it was a place where you would be eternally delighted, is that right? And if you were totally thankful all the time at all the joys around you, you are in paradise.

A STORY: We’ve all heard the phrase, “I buy things I don’t need with money I don’t have to impress people I don’t like.” Hmmmm.
I’ve been watching how much of my behavior is controlled by “what will people think”. So I came up with a list of questions I ask myself.
1. Do I pretend to agree with someone, even though I don’t?
2. Do I worry about what I wear to avoid being disapproved of?
3. Do I say “yes” when I mean “no”?
4. Do I leave a bigger tip when someone may be watching?
5. What am I doing?
6. Do I stretch the story to put myself in a good light?
7. Do I drop impressive names or places for effect?
8. Do I shift my position in a conversation to gain approval?
9. Am I thoroughly honest or am I kidding myself and others?
10. Is my behavior based on what I ‘should’ do or ‘ought to do’?

I want to be free of the Not-I “what will people think”. The reality is that other people are thinking about what I’m thinking about them! I wouldn’t be so concerned about what other people think of me if I realized how seldom they did! What a joke! There are many, many more. All I can do is to be consciously aware of what I am doing. X will take the axe to them.

I will continue to add to the list as I walk through the days. I’d better take lots of paper with me.

I want to be free.

MIND TICS:
Your reasoning is excellent—It’s only your basic assumptions that are wrong.
Bring me a dictionary: I want to know the meaning of LIFE.

There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about.

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