Experiencing the Dark Night of I AM in Peru

Part III

By Lorraine Michaels

July 16, 2006

The Bus ride to Cuzco

I had felt light in my Being at Chan Chan (see Part II) and later that evening, which I later realized was light given from I AM THAT I AM for our next leg of the trip. Although at the time I didn't know if it was related to Trujillo. But  I remembered feeling the same light in my Being the day we were to leave Bogotá and ended up giving up our seats for the free vouchers that got us here in Peru.  I had felt a lot of light in my Being and after we received the free vouchers, I realized what all that light was about that I had been feeling since I got to the airport. That light was used to bring about the right steps to culminate in this gift. So remembering that I was anxious to get to the bus station to see what experience lied ahead in connection with this light and if something would happen with our seats.

Well something did happen, when the bus showed up it was not the one we purchased, but the top of the line bus with the upper deck that has wide comfortable seats and a meal (sandwich only).  But it was fantastic after the other bus from Lima and much appreciated with my illness. We never figured out how this happened, as we had bought round trip tickets and should have had the same type of bus going each way.  So that bus ride we all slept well as it was a very comfortable ride and I actually slept better in the bus than in many of the hard beds and extremely hard pillows that were in some of the hostels.  

Upon arrival in Lima, we had a several hour lay over waiting for an afternoon bus to Cuzco. We chose to switch bus lines as it was recommended another line that was the safest and most comfortable. As this was a long ride we knew we needed the best to be comfortable after 9 hours on the other bus only a few hours earlier.

We purchased both sets of tickets with a travel agency at the same time, and we asked for the best seats on the Cuzco trip.  But there must have been a mix up as we did not receive the same upper deck bus and seats as the night before, but instead a regular bus with little leg room and short seats made for short Peruvians! Kim and I are both much taller than the average Peruvian male at 5'1".

This leg of the trip was a long, grueling 20-hour ride through winding mountain roads and that is why we were warned to get the best bus.  So this cost us greatly in rest and comfortability.  Most people fly to Cuzco from Lima, but that was not for us as the inner direction I received was to travel by bus. But it was too late to correct the problem as it could have delayed our stay at the bus station another half a day, and with our limited Spanish, you never knew how well we could correct the problem! So although our tickets said Imperial Class, there was yet a higher Superior Class that we were pleasantly spoiled with the night before on the other line.  So although the seats from the night before were a gift in one sense, the knowledge of what we were missing in this long haul was disappointing after experiencing how comfortable they were.

My memory of this trip was like a living nightmare.  It is possible that even with the better seats it would still have been most uncomfortable and hard to endure the sharp pass turns because over half of the trip was up the pass, about 14 hours worth.  

The road looked like this diagram!

And the bus driver was not taking it slow! If he did the hours would have stretched much longer. So to stay upright in your seats you needed to hold on to something. Since this was an overnight trip it was expected you could sleep, but sleep was almost impossible in the isle seat I had.  Kim managed a little sleep leaning against the window.  My daughter and I had to deal with nausea from the turns, and finding a comfortable position to sleep or even sit upright was difficult with the short seats and little leg room. And the bus was packed full so you could not spread out on any empty seats.

The first couple of hours were endurable, as we were heading along the coast and going straight. After the first few hours we turned up into the mountains heading east for Cuzco And then night descended, the movies were turned off and the long night of trying to sleep began. My fever returned as it seemed to do each night and coupled with a headache and later nausea from the turns, I felt like dying.
 
I stayed in this mental state of not asleep yet not fully awake most of the night, praying for the long night to end.  Morning brought some spectacular scenery, but the every enduring winding up towards Cuzco at 11,500 feet continued.

Rejecting my God Flame
I must say that on this 20 hour trip I went through some states of consciousness I could not believe I could feel.  I felt like I wanted to die at one point, and did not care if this bus went over the cliff or what happened to my future.  It was like total detachment to anything physical. I also experienced something interesting with my God flame of Divine Direction.  I felt most of the night I was working with three possible directives.  It was like I had a choice to teach them or to do something with them.  But I wanted nothing to do with them at all.  I wanted nothing to do with Divine Direction at all!  Nothing to do with my God flame at all!  I felt like I never wanted to be my God flame again and ever have to give direction to anyone or choose any direction again.  These states of consciousness I don’t remember experiencing before in my life.  It was most unpleasant.

I later asked I AM THAT I AM and the Master El Morya to help me understand what had happened.  We know that every thought and feeling we experience doesn’t always have to be our own, but can sometimes be the mass consciousness’ thoughts and feelings we can take on.  Also we can experience illness in our bodies that is not our own creation as well.  So I wanted to know where these thoughts came from and where this illness came from. Were they my own? And if so, where did they come from?

To experience not wanting to be Divine Direction was quite remarkable. It felt like it really started the moment I got ill in Trujillo and it climaxed on the bus to Cuzco where I felt the total rejection of my core being.  Why?
A sadness comes over me as I write this, that one could reject their inner being.  But yet in this process of experiencing the total rejection of who I am in God I discovered it is a necessary process we all can go through to the total acceptance of who we are as we move into certain stages of Being.  This process is much like the Dark Night of the Spirit or soul and I discovered that it is yet another Dark Night that I will explain further on.

The Great Divine Director spoke of the Omega aspect of my God flame during his dictation in Machu Picchu.  So it was after this dictation that I put the pieces of the puzzle together with these body symptoms and what happened on that bus.  He spoke about my Omega flame of joyful, peaceful ecstasy and in connection with Divine Direction.  There at that top of the mountains in Machu Picchu I had the experience of connecting to my God flame at a new level, coming into oneness with who I am and accepting that oneness.
 
I have written about the Seven stages of Being to Oneness with I AM THAT I AM where I give the understanding of the path we all must walk to oneness with I AM THAT I AM. Each step is described with the tests that we must face in order to transcend to the next step and at which stages the Dark Night tests come to us.  Prior to this oneness with I AM THAT I AM, we must go through another of these dark nights which is not outlined in this article.

I realized after this dictation that I had been going through the experience of being in the sixth stage of Being I AM THAT I AM, trying to move into oneness with I AM THAT I AM. I have shared some of the realization in writings on the Jesus forum recently on this process and stage. This has been a painful process because I believe we all experience to greater and lesser degrees the non acceptance of who we are.  Some of us like ourselves more than others can like themselves.  Some of us are fulfilling our divine plan and are happy doing what we love to do.   But some of our God flames are harder to express or be accepted.   But I believe it is relative to the God flame and divine plan we have taken on.

In this forum post I expressed the difference between my God flame and Kim’s and how people reacted differently to them, often easily expressing love and gratitude to Kim’s mission and flame.  And in my sharing I experienced a vision and understanding of how our different flames invoke different responses from people and this was the way it is with certain God flames and missions.  His mission is in many ways much easier than mine as my flame of Divine Direction often makes me the trailblazer, forging ahead and receiving the cuts and bruises on the body as I do.  Those who follow will have an easier time. Any flame out of the first ray or God Power will inevitably be a trailblazer if they are true to their flame.  Whereas those God flames that are comprised of love have a bit more easier time depending on how balanced they give love and what combination their God flames are.

But for Kim and I — in our mission together in this life — my flame is that trailblazer and as I receive the backlash I must maintain the Omega aspect of my flame in being this peaceful, joyful ecstasy.  And it has been sadly disappointing to me that I have not been able to maintain that Omega quality 100% of the time.  Generally I can maintain a high ratio of peace.  But you see the closer you come to oneness with I AM the more stark the contrast of that out of alignment state with your God flame and the sadness you experience when you see yourself out of that alignment.

 

Understanding what is Joyful Ecstatic Peace
The Great Divine Director’s Machu Picchu dictation was a revelation in understanding something about our Omega flames.  A number of years ago I was led to understand that my flame is peace, although I could not believe it at the time. I had never seen myself as peaceful, as we so often don't see ourselves as we truly are, but as others project upon us. Others often try to discourage you from being who you are and being your God flame and we also may take on the opposition to our God flames which further discourages us from being that flame.

In recent years I was given two more words that describe this flame of peace: joyful and ecstasy.  But I never understood what it really meant. How can one be a joyful, ecstatic peace? I knew I was a quiet person and could be very joyful inside myself in an ecstatic way, but only on occasion, such as when I would attend spiritual conferences or witness a beautiful sunset. So I just accepted that this was my Omega flame and however I expressed my peace, that must be this joyful ecstasy. That is until the Great Divine Director’s description of it at Machu Picchu.  He said:

"This is a flame of peace but it is not the kind of peace that you normally think of, for it is an active flame of peace, a joyful, ecstatic, bubbling, overwhelming sense of peace that truly, when unleashed, can wash away all sense of conflict, all contradictions, all of the squabbles that are so common among human beings."

And all I could think about and feel for several days afterward was, “Oh my God, I have not been this flame of active, joyful ecstatic peace as the Great Divine Director described!  How could he say I had anchored a portion of that flame in my heart? So I asked, “Why, if this is my flame that I have been tested on greatly for several lives, am I not manifesting it?”

I have carried a sadness all my life and worked on it with my healing tools over a decade ago, trying to heal the issue.  I felt like no matter how wonderful life was, or what blessings and good things were happening to me, that I could not express joy. It was like some pall that sat over me keeping me from expressing who I am. I have written on this in the past, coming to the realization that this sadness was connected with separation from my twin flame.  But it was more.  In order to fulfill our divine mission, we must anchor our God flames within this matter plane. But it is not that simple. First you must take on the opposition to that God flame and choose to embody your flame, rather than allow the opposition to manifest through you. In this way, the I AM may raise the energies of the entire planet through your choosing to love your God flame.

I realized profoundly that I have not been this Omega aspect completely — of joyful ecstasy.  I have only been the peace aspect and I know to maintain that peace I have been severely tested.  What I received from within was that this was as it was meant to be because I was carrying the opposing sadness and lack of joy in my temple as part of my divine mission.  In one sense it was a relief that the reason I was not expressing joyful ecstasy along with this peace was because I was carrying the opposition to it, not because I was at fault and could not express this divine quality of God.

My love for God is not lessened because of carrying this opposition, as this sadness does not affect my love for God or His creation. It only effects my ability to express joy and feel it. Knowing now the cause of my sadness, I would wish that I could feel this joyful ecstatic peace all the time and share this flame with everyone. But I know someone must carry the opposition so that others may feel what I can't always feel. But I do know how it feels and when I am able to be in this ecstatic, joyful peace, it is the most glorious feeling I have ever felt. You feel like you are on top of a mountain, above anything that could possibly take you away from the pure love of God and absolutely everyone and everything in God. There is so much love flowing through you, but it is not just love, it is love that is joy, but more, it is a bubbling over joy that cannot possibly see or feel anything but love. Words cannot capture what this feels like. It is like as soon as you try to put words on it — it is always more. That more is the ecstatic part of this joyful peace, the ever-expanding, transcending feeling of pure joyful peace.

I also understood why I always loved music so much.  I have often said to God, “God please don’t make me live on this earth without your music.  I don’t think I can live here without it as it allows me to experience heaven on earth.”  Because it is the one thing that can easily lift me into my God flame of peaceful, joyful ecstasy.  And so I have carried the opposition to the joyful bubbling ecstasy through all seven rays, which means it permeates my life and everything I could possibly experience as bubbling joyful peace. But I am able to serve in this way, as long as I maintain peace.  No wonder people have often accused me of being so serious!

In this understanding I hope to show how we can carry world karma and why not to judge ourselves or others for manifesting certain ungodly qualities, or why some of us might not be manifesting the fullness of God attributes like joy, love, peace, hope, etc.   So when we see another suffering or not in the fullness of God, we may then choose to love another unconditionally, no matter what they are manifesting in their outer being. For who is to say that another is not manifesting the fullness of God because they are serving God in the inner closet of Being and yet outer appearances might show otherwise? Yet no one knows the inner heart of God’s own except through love. And when we entertain love instead of judgment, we may be one with another and loving our neighbor as our self.

This is Christhood in action, seeing beyond the outer manifestations displayed and holding the immaculate concept for those who may be suffering.  And in the fullness of oneness with I AM it is right to start with love and allow Being I AM  through you to judge whether another is right or mistaken in their actions and then how best to help that one out of their state of consciousness. This is a gift of love we can bring to every part of life on this planet. No matter what our God flame is or whether you are carrying the opposition to it in your Being, we may always choose to express love first by holding the immaculate concept.

"I AM" Retrieval
We learned in the Seven Stages of Being to Oneness with I AM THAT I AM that there are seven levels to oneness.  We learned how at the lower levels we have the process of soul retrieval and later we go through the initiation of Being Retrieval.  Soul retrieval is a Shamanic term that Shaman's used to describe the returning of fragmented pieces of the soul to the body through the work of the Shaman. The Shaman acts as a medium between the visible world and the invisible spirit world.

Soul Retrieval work may now be done with or without an outside healer. Mother Mary has given us the East West Rosary, which will assist one to retrieve lost soul parts. The understanding of Being Retrieval was given to me after I experienced my own return to "Being in I AM". It is a coined word I created to describe this experience that occurs on the fourth and fifth level of the Seven Stages of Being. Being retrieval can be facilitated through hypnotherapy with a trained Integrated Kinesiologist or done on your own using kinesiology.

There is yet one more retrieval which I have also coined “I AM Retrieval”, but is not covered in the Seven Stages article because I had not yet experienced it.  This retrieval occurs at the sixth stage going into the seventh. During the sixth stage you develop a relationship with the I AM THAT I AM twin flame as you see yourself as a twin to the I AM THAT I AM. This is prerequisite to oneness with I AM THAT I AM.

Since I have been going through this stage for about nine months now, I have often used the expression that my I AM THAT I AM twin flame let me know this or that. That is because on this level I am developing the sixth stage of "Being that I AM THAT I AM". And so El Morya told us in Columbia to see him as your I AM THAT I AM twin flame. And this was to teach us this next step on the path to oneness with I AM THAT I AM. Maitreya spoke about this in Columbia, he said:

"I then come to announce to you the inauguration of what I will call Maitreya’s Sphere of Oneness. This is a new platform, where we endeavor to give teachings that have not been released on planet Earth before because the consciousness of humankind had not reached the critical level. This is indeed the teachings about the Path of Oneness that we desire to release, and that we have desired to release for a very long time."

Thus we created a website dedicated to this oneness and the higher teachings the Masters and the Great White Brotherhood desire to bring through us on this oneness.

In the earlier levels of this Seven Stages to Being we would look to communicate with outer priests or representatives of God on earth, such as a Messenger, for our guidance. But when you get up in the stages such as in the fourth level it would be Jesus or the Christ self. On the fifth level it would be the I AM Presence and the Ascended Masters. And then in the sixth level we would communicate with I AM THAT I AM twin flame for our guidance. And on the seventh level the I AM THAT I AM.

For me it most often was I AM THAT I AM twin flame El Morya. And it has always been easy for me to love El Morya, and more so as I love him as I AM. And so during our Columbia conference he directed me to ask the large group there "who saw El Morya as love?" And only about 20 people did. And then this small group was directed to give a rosary together. And that experience was a very moving experience of profound love for most of us giving that rosary with El Morya. Until we see the stern and sometimes strict Father as love, we cannot move into this sixth stage of Being, for Father is love, and whatever he does for us is done in love.

So this process in the sixth stage for me has been ongoing for nine months and culminated in the total rejection of my God flame and Being. And it was at the top of Machu Picchu that I found my total peace and acceptance with Being Divine Direction and my connection as twin flame to the Cosmic Being who is also the Alpha flame of Being - the Great Divine Director.

Being a Twin Flame to I AM THAT I AM
When I first heard that I was the Great Divine Director’s twin flame I immediately rejected it as impossible.  I did not understand what this meant.  But although I did not, I opened myself up to accept that which my outer mind could not believe.  And in the process I bonded with my God flame of Divine Direction and later understood the Omega aspect of peace, and then later the joyful ecstasy.  There were many steps in this process of bonding and many levels of “right” that I had to go through and process.  And after some time I began to understand that I was not the only twin flame of the Great Divine Director, and that others could be as well.

What it really means to be a twin flame of an ascended master is being one with their God flame!  It is as simple as that.  The Great Divine Director’s flame is more than my God flame.  But yet everything my God flame is, he has as well.  He is much more.

So I serve as his twin in embodiment because I carry his flame and the twin to it.  Again, we must be careful not to judge another for what they receive in the inner and are asked to express to the world.  There was much condemnation and scorn towards me when I released publicly what I was told to release.  But that is the flame of direction, and the flame that breaks the ice and paves the way to understand new levels of twin flames and what is our God flames.  And I am truly grateful for the Living Word and the truth that has been understood as the years progressed.  Hopefully, this understanding will help many others bond with their I AM THAT I AM twin flame and expand their God consciousness into greater God awareness in joy and peace.
 
So returning to the earlier prayer to God on the second day in Peru, that which I prayed for was “How can I help the people here in Peru?”  

How can any of us help another?  By Being who we are.  Which means Being our God flames.  If we truly want to Be who we are then we must want to Be that which is the core of our Being - no matter the rejection of that Being by any on earth. As I processed through this sixth stage of Being, I continually felt like there was something wrong with my God flame and my Being that flame. Coincidentally, through this stage I was extensively teaching and working with many people helping them discern their own God flames.

This gave me much opportunity to see others as they truly are in I AM and how wonderful each person's God flame is, but it also brought to home how much my God flame is not as easily accepted as some of these God flames of the people I worked with. Why would I want to be something unlovable that many people rejected or avoided when I saw how loved many other God flames were?

I have found that the core flame that I am is the core of the Fall.  It was leaving off of Divine Direction from I AM that Eve is said to have fallen—instead she followed the serpentine logic.  Therefore the very thing most people of the Light deny or refuse in their Being is Divine Direction.  Yet in that Divine Direction is everything we need! Because if we just follow that direction, everything we need will eventually come into our lives.

In the previous months I have had to come to terms with the love people express to other God flames and the ignoring of my flame and Being. And then I had to find the peaceful, joyful, ecstasy in that Being outside of this realm and bring it here and maintain it through my free will choice to Be that I AM and love that I AM.  It is not hard at all to love El Morya and the Great Divine Director—that is not the hard part.  The hard part is to love them so much that everything you need is and can be fulfilled through this love.  And nothing on earth can take  you from that love—even when your spouse rejects your God flame and that Divine Direction through you.  

Kim has many times been the greater opposition to Divine Direction through me.  The pain this caused me was great at times not knowing how I could fulfill my inner direction and Be and allow him to Be and process this direction.  But the experience I hopefully can pass on and teach so that we all can be that Divine Direction—regardless of it Being our main God flame.

Some of us are meant to outpicture Divine Direction so that we can show that life truly is wonderful when we follow that inner direction.  First we must start by following outer direction, but then we must transcend into following direction that we receive internally, be it from our Higher Self, an Ascended Master or Cosmic Being.  And we must follow that direction regardless of the outer opposition.  And that opposition will come, it is part of the lesson of our falling away from that Divine Direction to begin with.  So it will carry some pain in the process of learning to trust and return to fully following that inner direction.
 
Then the process is to go even further within, where you transcend mental telepathy and the way direction from the Cosmic Beings comes through it, and you go to a place deep within that transcends the mental and comes from the oneness in Spirit with I AM.  It is the place of knowing and such oneness that there is no direction—you just are one and know everything you need to know and say everything you need to say because you are one. From this place, it is a process of will and love of the Self to want to Be that God Being I AM.

Dark Night of "Being I AM"
Through this process it can be a big adjustment as you let go of former intuitive or outer means of understanding truth and Being.  You can only go further into oneness with who you really are as you let go of the old. This new Dark Night that I experienced and will be a part of this sixth stage of Being (to a greater or lesser degree depending on your God flame) I have called the Dark Night of “Being I AM”. It is the process where you throw out even that which you have been told is your God flame because you received it from some outer source, even maybe through mental telepathy.  But did you really accept it as your inner Being, your I AM Being?  

And so on that bus to Trujillo started the taking on of the illness of the rejection of Divine Direction in myself.  The fever represented the burning off of this divine direction rejection.  And on the winding bus to Cuzco I experienced the inner nightmare of being in this fever and the total rejection of my inner Being.  Something I would not have thought possible at this stage of oneness with I AM.  Yet we all must go through this process before entering oneness with I AM THAT AM.  We must accept that we are truly the twin flame of the I AM THAT I AM. 

For me, being one with the twin flame Great Divine Director, was what I had been rejecting and what I returned to just moments prior to his dictation on the top of that mountain. As I was pulling out of this nightmare on the bus,  I was prompted from the I AM THAT I AM and my Inner Being to focus on loving I AM THAT I AM and so I did. A And in that process of love, the currents of the will to Be I AM flowed back into me, giving me the desire to Be I AM..  We are never left comfortless if we truly are willing to follow Divine Direction.

So after this prompting I felt myself over the rest of the day and the next saying affirmations to myself like “I AM able to be Divine Direction." And I started contemplating how I could give to the world this I AM Being and how could I teach this different from what Kim has been teaching. And I would think positive thoughts in that direction of how I could be unique and not look to copy anyone and how they are directed to be.

And so like through the Dark Night of the Spirit, you throw out all outer rules or beliefs that came from a place outside of I AM within you.  And you slowly begin to pick up and restore that which has meaning for you from within. From that place you begin the inner path of Being I AM.  But it is not complete until you throw off even that which you think you are but you have not internalized and truly believed and accepted as you—your God flame.

Interestingly Kim had dreamt the night on the bus to Cuzco that I needed to give Divine Direction in peace, and that is why people have rejected me and the divine direction through me. He revealed this to me like it was a new divine revelation when I had been teaching this as part of my classes all along!  When we understand our flames we know we must qualify our Alpha flame (for me Divine Direction) with our Omega flames (for me peaceful, joyful ecstasy).
 
This was not a new revelation to me, yet I know for Kim to dream this on this particular night and have the need to tell me must be relevant to this experience and Dark Night.  The key to accept who I am as the flame of Divine Direction is in Being that Omega of peaceful, joyful ecstasy no matter the reception to that direction, but especially in giving it.

So simple, yet such an important internalization.  Each and every one of us has to experience not expressing our God flame in wholeness and not being liked when we don’t.  We finally learn through trial and error that one way works better to have people accept our Being.  Not that it is a guarantee that they will, but a guarantee that you will remain in harmony, love and peace no matter the reception to your Being.

Throughout this entire experience for me I received no direction from within, much like the experiences of the Dark Night of the Soul and Spirit.  We have to go through these Dark Nights alone as that is the test, and likewise is this Dark Night of "Being I AM" where we seem to stand alone in that rejection of who we are and then come into the free will choice to Be that which we are.

The Great Divine Director was asking all who felt akin to his flame of Peace to be a part of this anchoring a portion of this flame in your heart. Besides the great need of accepting Divine Direction on earth, I feel the great need on this planet is peace, for what takes us out of oneness with I AM but anti-peace within ourselves.  And if you feel a calling to give Mother Mary’s rosary of Peace, this will assist the fanning of this flame that the Great Divine Director is calling to be rekindled.  When you do, if you attune to the Elohim of Peace, you will have a most joyful and ecstatic experience.  But only if you surrender all into his Being and allow him to Be through you, directing the rosary. You can also surrender into the flame of Being I AM Divine Direction with the Great Divine Director.  For to surrender into the flame of Peace can only be done by following Divine Direction within on how you may do this.  I have done this in the past with such bliss, you could barely contain it.  But this bliss does not have to be only for one who has this God flame, but can be experienced through the Cosmic Beings simply through oneness in Being I AM.

So this Dark Night was completely unexpected.  We as a collective consciousness on earth have rarely experienced this before. We are coming higher in consciousness now to experience oneness like we have not had outside of Golden Ages of the past.  So this is the sixth stage of Being and preparatory for coming into the seventh stage.

In that recess of my subconscious was lodged this non-will to manifest the flame of who I AM.  This must be purged from us, where we have sought to Be outside of God Reserve.  And so in that half asleep-half awake state is the place where you can meet your subconscious.  But you can also access that place through hypnotherapy and deal with this state of consciousness when you reach this stage of Being, so you do not have to go through the painful process as I did while under a fever.

The important thing is that you face this unwillingness to be your God flame and toss it out of your consciousness.  You first must go through the earlier stages of Being obviously, where you learn what your God flame is and you work on Being that I AM.  And so this Dark Night can be experienced quickly and with far less pain than I did experience for the past nine months.  

Hopefully, by my sharing this experience with you, you can choose better choices and seek to look at yourself and life with love and understanding that we are all unique and there is merit in being who you are, not in trying to Be someone else because you think their God flame is better than yours!

Lack of Divine Direction in Peruvians
And so how could I help the Peruvians who seemed to be lacking God direction and that joy and ecstatic peace?  By Being who I AM of course! To experience these people in action for someone with the flame of Divine Direction is amazing.  But I must also say that they have always been courteous and kind and they do not lack God Love—but God Power is another story.

We have now flown on the South heads Lan airlines six times around South America and to and from the United States. And most every flight we experience some lack of God Power.  I must say that they lack God Direction in the most appalling way.  To experience their fluttering around like birds with their heads cut off sometimes is most appalling for a national corporation. And it is not for lack of employees, as they are the most over staffed airlines I have seen.  Yet with all these employees it takes twice as long to accomplish what can be done on other airlines in half the time. But this seems to be reflective of the state of consciousness in this country and throughout South America. How does this manifest in practical reality? And how can this be rectified?

Our first flight to South America in December did not stop in Miami to pick up passengers because it was full, a few were told. Meaning that they overbooked the flight and decided not to try and pick up passengers where so many would have to be given compensation. Passengers started lining up at 3 a.m. to check in. While waiting in line wondering why no one was called forward to check in, a passenger in line received a phone call from a relative that they had just received a call from the airline that their flight was cancelled and rescheduled! I had already known this as I called the airline in the middle of the night receiving this inner prompting that something was wrong and that we would not get on the flight. I thought maybe the booking agency was bogus and we really didn't have tickets. But when I received a recording I discovered there was no flight scheduled for 7 a.m. as our tickets said! I approached an airline representative as soon as they opened and they said yes, there was a flight at 7 a.m. But of course she didn't know what the main office knew and told no one, although they could have hours earlier.

Since we are supposed to be there three hours before the flight leaves, no one would have received this call before they left for the airport. And a look at the long line verified that no one had. They then gave us three meal vouchers a piece so that we could hang around the airport all day eating and pick up a newly scheduled flight when they could get a plane back to us, which was 10 hours later.  The reason we had free seats to Peru was because they always overbook, which is not that untraditional in the airline industry, but it is the way they handle this overbooking, not working to eliminate the cause of missed flights, like with our time mishap.

On our return to Miami, the emergency lights were not working and so we sat for hours at the loading gate until they could arrange another airplane to transport us.  That was not the problem, but the way they handled it. First they came around and talked with us individually saying we would be boarding soon and did we have our passes? But soon turned into an hour and long past when we should have boarded, but no word was given to why we were still sitting there. There looked to be about eight airline personnel standing around at the gate and you kept thinking surely they would not be all standing around if they were not going to call us soon.

Finally a announcement was made that there were problems with the lights and they were working on it and if it could not be corrected soon, they would put us on the next booked flight out. But there were no other flights scheduled out! They had to bring in an older plane out of storage that was not their usual plane, as it had older equipment inside and things did not work properly, as they could not get the second class compartment to play through the earphones for the onboard movie for example.

After someone made the decision to move us to the next gate and plane, they called everyone to the front to reissue boarding passes, although I am not sure why our older passes would not work, maybe it is a airline industry policy.  Unfortunately, now they were so discombobulated, that they only made the announcement in Spanish and Kim and I watched everyone get up and get in line and we did not know why. Finally we asked someone who spoke English what we were to wait in line for.

Then 10 minutes later they sent everyone back to their seats to figure out a different way of getting us the passes, as that way was not working.  They again made an announcement only in Spanish and continued that until we boarded! They then started calling people up to collect their new passes. But all the South Americans waiting for this plane gathered around the desk to get their passes, even though they weren’t called.  Consequently, those who were called couldn’t get their passes!  It was utter chaos and there were about six airline employees doing this with no direction among them and all looking stressed and confused as they tried to look for your passes and take your old tickets in this large crowd surrounding them.

Upon boarding the plane, several people would not take their seats because they were not happy with their assigned seats separating them from friends or relatives. So they argued with the stewardesses, blocking others from getting through and sitting down.  Eventually, everyone was seated and they all seemed happy, but how much time did the airline lose by trying to accommodate all these people at this point in time when the seats should have been arranged prior to boarding? Thus the plane was delayed even further by this disorganization.

Another example is that they always put us through a fifteen or twenty minute process to get our tickets.  You cannot figure out what takes them so long. Consequently they must have at least ten employees checking in passengers where other airlines usually only have three or four. And some airlines have the option of checking in via self-serve machines where it takes five minutes, all done with only swiping in a credit card to verify who you are and then weighing your luggage.

Whereas Lan several times couldn't find our ticket because they don't seem to have cross references on their system to find a passenger by name. After much typing on screen and speaking in Spanish to each other we would ask what the problem was. Usually it was Kim's ticket! His always seemed to be the problem! When we tried to check in for our morning flight to Lima the day before leaving Peru, we discovered that although we had asked for and bought a morning flight, and our e-ticket said so, we were scheduled on the late afternoon flight! By God's grace we managed to rebook on the spot and correct the situation, but it must have taken a half hour to work through this. Evidentially, this was an error through the Cuzco travel agency. I am not sure how they could have done that.

Another example is that they will take away your tweezers from your carryon bag for security reasons, while they hand you a stainless steel knife to eat your meal with!  There seems to be no direction from employees, or anyone that takes leadership.  They are not allowed to make any decisions from the level of workers, but refer you to the corporate office in Chili to handle any decision making processes.
 
This state of consciousness is seen everywhere we have been in South America so far.  Someone sweeping the dirt off their front yard of dirt makes no sense to me.  Why not plant the beautiful eucalyptus trees that grow well in the desert clime, bring beautiful shade and beauty to the area? These trees were imported from Australia and took off in Peru.  But yet they are not prevalent and neither is much other foliage.  Yet there is an option when you see something grow in this climate.  The stark scenery around Peru is to be expected with so little rain for six months, but you can work with nature and improve your surroundings with a little vision and hope and desire to improve your surroundings.

As it became so clear in Columbia, South American's need God Power. And as we clearly saw from our Peruvian experience, they need Divine Direction as well. And they did so lack that joy and the peace that comes with knowing you have everything you need from God Power.

There are still eight more days of travel in Peru to share. Part IV will share the most beautiful parts of Peru. And contrary to the terrible conditions described around Lima and the coastal region, there are very few places in the world that have such diverse beauty and as many spectacular places as Peru. So in Part VI I will share the wonders we saw in the next week we spent in Peru and the glorious experience of taking dictations in those places.

South American Main Directory

Copyright © 2007 Shangra-la Mission, Inc