Q. Do you think people really need to be told things like, "Spiritual Revolutionaries shouldn't desecrate churches or beat up Fundamentalists?"

 

I hope the whole tone of this book makes it obvious that neither the author nor the Invisible College think in these terms at all.

A. That's true, but as we said before, we think it's a good idea to say these things in so many words, to minimize the effects of any possible actions by Theocratic agents.

 

We can't prevent either fools or enemies from doing things we disapprove of and trying to attach the name of the Spiritual Revolution to them; but if we make a list of don'ts, at least we can reduce such people's credibility.

 

The Invisible College does not authorize any living people on Earth to act as our permanent or official representatives.

 

We will send telepathic messages to anyone we consider capable of receiving them accurately and whose general personality structure and conduct are acceptable to us, and we will plainly label these as coming from the Invisible College.

 

However, this does not mean we give a general endorsement to the opinions and actions of the people who receive and pass on such messages.

Even more important, when anything purporting to be such a message is published, Spiritual Revolutionaries should never accept it as authoritative, unless their own best judgment tells them it is a valid message from us and unless they agree with it ethically.

 

Readers of War in Heaven have already been instructed to react to the book in this way, and the sane principle should be applied to this Code of Conduct as well. We hope you will accept it and abide by it, but you have to make up your own mind.

And remember this: the Theocrats are going to send some very subtle and sophisticated deceptions to fool Spiritual Revolutionaries. Analyze everything you hear, read, and receive telepathically on the subject of Spiritual Revolution very carefully before you accept it as true.

 

Although the war between the Theocrats and the Invisible College is a deadly and bitter one, Spiritual Revolutionaries gain absolutely nothing by feeling negative emotions toward people who serve the interests of the Theocrats on Earth.

 

Even more important, the Invisible College does not want people who have made the breakthrough to debate spiritual issues with believers in Theocratic religion, nor to make direct, in-person contact with them under any circumstances.

 

You shouldn't hate them or attack them in any way, but you shouldn't try to convert them either. Confine your proselytizing activities to people who appear friendly, or at least neutral, to the general cause of Spiritual Revolution.

 

Spiritual Revolutionaries should not write or teach general attacks on organized religion similar to those that organized atheists have traditionally done. Our enemy is Theocracy, not religion in general.

The Invisible College is now making a major effort to take control individual congregations of religious believers away from the Theocrats. In most cases, the external trappings of the religious group don't change enough for outside observers to tell it is no longer Theocratic, nor are the people involved consciously aware of what has happened.

For this reason, critiques of organized religion by Spiritual Revolutionaries should be specific, not general. It is best to limit yourselves to pointing out how a specific element of doctrine or ritual practice advances the cause of Theocracy.

 

The long-term goal of the Invisible College is to assist Earth people in building an advanced civilization on this planet. Our methods for doing so are basically humanistic, pragmatic, and experimental, rather than idealistic or ideological.

We believe that the only way to design social institutions of all kinds to meet human needs is to try a wide variety of possible solutions to specific problems, and allow a process of natural selection to operate through competition, compromise, and Hegelian synthesis.

 

Every power structure should contain checks and balances; this can only be done by deliberately encouraging internal conflicts, which reduce the over-all efficiency of the power structure to a certain extent. Even social justice has a price.

Strong, creative leadership is important, but so is consent of the governed. Achieving the greatest good for the greatest number is a valid ethical goal, but so is respecting individual rights. Spiritual Revolutionaries should try to apply these principles as much as possible in all their specific activities, as the Invisible College does.

 

The emotional tone of the overt Spiritual Revolutionary movement is intended to be positive, constructive, and optimistic.

 

The very fact that people are making the breakthrough and becoming aware of the essential facts about the Theocrats means that the principal Theocratic mechanism for controlling the human race has already been broken.

 

Finding out about the Invisible College and the existence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations means that concepts like "progress" and "human perfectibility" can now be considered concrete, achievable goals rather than wild utopian dreams.

Most important of all, learning to deal with spiritual phenomena as part of the natural universe, and with spiritual beings as human rather than superhuman, removes a major source of fear of the unknown. As soon as you make the breakthrough, most of the previously unanswerable questions about spiritual reality suddenly have answers.

 

These answers can be supported with empirical evidence, and they advance the general conclusion that human beings have the potential to control their own destiny.

 

This gives concrete reason to be hopeful about the future.