The Johnny Flavored God (JFG) personal practice represents a thirty-four-year quest to know myself, this idea we call ultimate reality, and why I’ve had this incessant need to continue on no matter how much I’ve wanted to quit. This hasn’t been a straight line: quite the opposite. Nor has it been fun: I’m numb when I look back and see the number of friendships that have passed through my life. I’ve also been afraid: times where I’ve lacked faith and wondered if maybe the adage that he who dies with the most toys wins, is right, and I don’t realize it until the end having wasted a lifetime following some foolish idea of higher purpose. But regardless, for some reason I have to go forward: that to quit is to die, and in a much more real sense than my mortal father hammered into me. And as hard as I or any others have tried to explain these phenomena we experience, we can’t: the best I can figure out is that we’re trying to explain God, the Ultimate, That that can be sense-known but not explained. At least not by us, yet. But each day – even if it was spent wandering lost in the wilds – added just a little more wisdom from which to start the next day even if unsure of the path ahead.
At some point in this journey, the knowing, which I see as my personal experiential truth that can only be validated by others with similar experience, came to me that this quest continues long after we pass through the portal of death. To be clear, before I believed (maybe disguised as hope?) in eternal life; now I know this to be true.
And with that knowing came the realization that this gift must be used or it’ll be lost: that while sonship with God is freely given, only those who pass on from this life with the burning desire to better know our Father in heaven will decide to keep their divine gift and continue forward. I now know how fragile life is, how confused people are, and how many people won’t choose to listen to God resident in their minds and hearts simply because of the planetary chaos in which we’ve been born.
Greed, materialism, and selfishness have taken their toll: our world needs hope, faith, and guidance to stem this continual loss of potential eternal souls until help arrives. In the greatest of schemes, nothing is more important than increasing the harvest God reaps at the end. The JFG practice is part of my tool-box for surviving our mutual duty/honor in service to humanity for the sake of God, and hopefully help me to acquire some much needed grace in the process.
As a practitioner of integral theory, I’m responsible for engaging continuous personal development across multiple perspectives, because we, and what we are able to produce, is predicated on the sum total of who we are at any point in time. In other words, the quality and complexity of our thought when melded with our capacity across many lines of endeavor dictates who we are – it is the sum total of the quality of our being and conditions the work we’re able to produce. The JFG practice integrates my current level of development in context with my daily life, gives me a private way to serve humanity for the sake of God, and because it recognizes the partiality of my thought and the impermanence of my beliefs it augments the continual evolution of my soul.
My introduction into meditation was via raja yoga, and then over time I studied theosophy; Buddhism, Hinduism, and other eastern practices; classical western philosophy; new-age Christianity; the Urantia Book (UB); various ancient mystery cults; and Baird Spalding’s classic, The Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East. The greatest influence on me and my motivation for higher education was the Urantia revelation. To better make sense of that document, I entered college in my mid-forties and earned undergraduate degrees in religious studies and international studies, before engaging three years of intense personal practice, self-reflection, and academic study to earn my Master’s degree in integral theory. For my doctorate in transformative studies and integral theory, I reframed the idea of civil resistance against violent oppression[1]. My hope was to find support for the ideas contained in the Urantia Book that relate to ending war on Earth.
Integral theory: The AQAL model
The All Quadrants All Levels (AQAL) model of integral theory modeled by American philosopher Ken Wilber[2]contains five elements, the first of which is known as the four quadrants. These four quadrants frame the AQAL model, house the other four elements, and represent the inner and outer aspects of the individual and collective in an attempt to represent all valid lines of truth in the context of any situation. To diagram this, simply divide a sheet of paper into four quadrants. The two quadrants across the top represent the individual (upper left (UL) and upper right (UR) quadrants, and the two across the bottom, the collective (the lower left (UL) and lower right (LR) quadrants), while the two vertical quadrants on the left side relate to the interior of the individual or group, and the two on the right side to the exterior actions of that person or group.
The interior quadrants relate to the internal phenomenological activity happening in either the individual, the “I” coming forth from the UL quadrant, or within the collective group mind, the “we” housed in the LL quadrant. For example, the former would represent a person’s worldview, and in the latter a shared group understanding of a religion. The exterior quadrants refer to the “it” and the “it’s” side of life, for example the physical actions of the individual in the UR quadrat, like delivering a speech, or group activities in the LR quadrant like participating in religious ceremonies.
The other four other elements in the AQAL model define the dynamics happening inside the quadrants. First are the developmental lines arising across the four quadrants, and from the disciplines defining the validated truths found in each perspective. For example, in the UL quadrant, psychology investigates the inner space of the person, and in the LL quadrant cultural anthropology looks at the inner group zeitgeist of a people. In the external side of reality, the UR quadrant houses the natural sciences that explain our material world, while in the LR quadrant we have things like the external aspects of religions, institutions, systems theories, etc.
Another element in the AQAL model are types, or variations on a theme. For example, there are many disciplines in the field of psychology in the UL quadrant, or types of religious systems in the LR quadrant, etc. Next, we have States, which represent the many temporary states of being occurring in each quadrant. For example, in the LL quadrant representing inner group dynamics, a gathering of people may share a temporary state of joy at one moment, and then enter a state of mob rage at another. In the UR quadrant, temporary states can be seen in things like water being solid, liquid, or gaseous, or the state of a person’s physical health at any point in time, etc.
The final element of the AQAL model are levels of development, continuums that try to determine the level of complexity along any line of development. For example, in the UL interior space of the individual, a person’s world-view will be expressed along a continuum moving from ego, to ethno, to world, to kosmo-centric levels of thought (spelled kosmos, a spiritual/materialistic view of creation, as opposed to cosmos, the strictly materialistic science based view of creation). It seems these stages of development all require greater age to achieve, although age is and of itself no guarantee of that development happening. In another example, in the LR external group space we can see a culture’s level of development moving through the stages from tribe, to city-state, to nation-state, etc.
Practitioners of integral theory use forms of integral life practice to engage in continuous personal development across all four quadrants. In Wilber speak, this relates to showing-up, i.e., recognizing the multiple truths arising across all four perspectives of reality. The process of continual evolution across these multiple lines of development relates to Wilber’s concept of growing-up, which is our responsibility to recognize and commit to daily improvement in our work and lives.
The Urantia Book
The Urantia revelation supports our need to continually reach for higher truths, approaching it from a spiritual basis: until we reach perfection all is temporary and partial. We can’t allow anything, including our ideas, to stay static or entrenched in dogma because eventually it’ll become outdated, and hence contain an increasing amount of error. In integral theory, this continual evolution across all four quadrants is known as tetra-arising, and demonstrates the need for balance as we evolve. If not, chaos can ensue. For example, cultures still based in eye-for-an-eye religious dogma of the 8th century (LL quadrant group thought) who now possess weapons of mass destruction (LR quadrant 21st Century technology).
According to the UB, error and evil are the same thing – the absence of perfection compared to that perfect, or God. Error and evil are gaps in the tapestry of the kosmos as it evolves to perfection. Critical to our growth to perfection, is our responsibility to choose God’s will, i.e., to make the effort to be God-like. But since we’re not yet perfect, we’ll make mistakes in that process. Crucial to our becoming God-like is recognizing the errors, or evil, that we commit and then deciding not to do so again because the deliberate choosing of evil is sin.
The Urantia revelation states that Jesus didn’t live his life on Earth for us, or any other mortals in the universe, to copy. He lived as a man of his times, and each of us is to do the same wherever and whenever we find ourselves.
Jesus’ example for us was how he improved communication with his Thought Adjuster, which the revelation claims is the spirit of God inside most human minds, and then worked to follow that guidance from God. In this way he achieved in one lifetime what takes us hundreds of lives: perfect oneness with God as a unique eternal soul.
Components of the JFG practice
The JFG practice is my attempt to learn from Jesus’ life as described in the UB. It’s my effort to improve communication with my Thought Adjuster, and to better follow the guidance I receive. The JFG practice as presented here is personalized to me. It’s based on my understanding of reality; my personal commitment to oneness with Spirit; my levels of development across yoga, meditation, pranayama, and integral theory; my knowledge of the Urantia revelation and the world’s religions, my private practice of helping others through Tonglen, and my commitment to serve humanity for the sake of God. Hence, those who wish to use JFG need to personalize the content for themselves.
Johnny Flavored God integrates activity from each of the four quadrants. Taking place in my mind, the UL quadrant, I use prayer, mindfulness, and gratitude (both offering gratitude and basking in the light of receiving gratitude from others) throughout the practice. Thousands of studies have shown that mindfulness practices offer many psychological and physiological benefits[3]. But possibly the greatest benefit results from improving the ability to clear our mind of thoughts. The UB claims that our Thought Adjuster is continually trying to impress on our finite brain ideas of the eternity, infinity, and universality of God, but that the chemical-emotional chaos in our minds, known in Buddhism as monkey-mind, almost completely blocks our reception of these spiritual impulses. In my experience, one of the best meditations to help our Thought Adjuster get through our mental chaos is Father Thomas Keating’s idea of Centering Prayer[4]. While Judeo-Christian theology portrays God as distant from us rather than actually resident in our minds, Keating’s meditation perfectly addresses the Thought Adjuster’s dilemma. In centering prayer, Keating suggests that instead of us entering meditation with any idea of doing something, we’re instead to just sit in quiet, clear our mind, and let God meditate on us, i.e., exactly what our Thought Adjuster needs us to do.
Activity in the UR quadrant of the JFG practice includes using a seated meditation posture, and pranayama, or breath work, to leverage my internal efforts. Over the years I’ve found that the seated posture for meditation, sitting erect with knees and hips at right-angles, provides the most stable and comfortable position to maintain for extended periods. The research on breath work now confirms the physiological benefits of structured breathing patterns[5]. My personal belief is that breathing is the interface between the material and the spiritual realms, and I use intentional breathing as my constant background meditation, moment by moment, throughout the day. I also use the physical activity of breathing to complement, and at times catalyze, some of the inner mental activities of my meditation. For example, one of the affirmations in the JFG practice that stays with me throughout the day is the knowing that with every breath I take I’m healed, rebuilt, revitalized and informed in every cell of my body with all I need to know. The breathing pattern I use is known more-or-less as the yogi complete breath. Both the inhalation and the exhalation phases begin from low in the lungs. The exhalation phase is roughly half again as long as the inhalation, and at times is accompanied by either an internal long thought-vibration, almost like a sigh, of the word God, or the actual vocalization of a long drawn out “God.”
The structure of the JFG practice and its spiritual-philosophical components arising in the LR quadrant come from Buddhism, Hinduism, Christian Centering Prayer, the Urantia revelation, yoga philosophy, and Wilber’s articulation of integral theory, among others. The Urantia revelation speaks of seven levels of mind acquirement we undergo on our progression to God; Hinduism and yoga philosophy include the seven chakras, from base to crown, representing the eternal progression and pattern of our being; and integral theory relies on continuums from developmental psychology to differentiate the complexity of a person, idea, culture, etc., at any point in time. I see these as all similar ways of expressing our progression from the mortal and material, too the eternal and spiritual. When I visualize breathing into each of these chakras, I’m using breath work to assist my mental efforts, cleanse my body’s energy centers, and enhance my physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
The lower left quadrant is the group space holding the inner workings of the collective. For the JFG practice, I’ve adapted this collective space to represent my belief that we each host God inside us, and hence we each have the ability, at some level, to communicate with one another via that universal spirit. The Urantia revelation supports the idea that our consciousness, the sum of our human personality joined with our eternal Thought Adjuster, doesn’t require a physical brain to exist and that it can transcend time and space. Accordingly, when I bring the person into my mental space I’m doing so believing that at some level we are, in fact, communicating.
Tonglen
Tonglen is a type of Buddhist meditation combining loving-kindness and compassion in what could be called an effort to put one’s self in the other’s shoes. But since the Buddhist traditions are absent of a universal, much less personal, God, this practice is often engaged to enhance and benefit the practitioner’s personal development along those lines, rather than being done with the intention of in fact helping the other person.
In the JFG practice, the intention of Tonglen is two-fold. The first is to engage in an activity that, in my belief, benefits the person or group it’s directed too, even if they’re not consciously aware I’m doing it. This is a process of breathing into my energetic body the other person’s pain, anger, physical sickness, animosities against me, etc., transforming it with God’s infinite love, and then sending it back to the person as I see them radiate clear brilliant light from each of their seven chakras.
Gratitude
The second purpose for Tonglen is for my own mental health. This is a recent addition, and it stems from the studies showing that the greatest benefit derived from gratitude comes from us receiving it, not from us giving it[6]. In other words, it’s the feeling we get when another person gives us sincere gratitude that brings us the greatest health benefits. Knowing this, I now place more effort in the quality of the gratitude I offer others so that it more benefits the other person at the time, and then each time in the future that they remember the experience. This is a powerful incentive for a person to look for ways to help others, knowing the benefits they’ll receive in return.
Johnny Flavored God
For me, the joining of our human personality with our Thought Adjuster means that we’re each apprentice Gods learning to bring forth greater truth, beauty, and goodness into the kosmos. In other words, we’re each Johnny Flavored God - or Jane Flavored God, or Marianne Flavored God, etc. As we grow in our understanding that we’re a God in the making, we’re further released from the confines of time and space. As we become more God-like, we act more God-like. But it takes courage to thank (ask) God for bringing to us that in our highest good and that that moves us forward as a soul because that’s an open request to help us grow in character, and as we know, those life/growth events are seldom comforting. Furthermore, increased awareness brings with it added responsibility: as we come to realize our spiritual existence, we assume greater responsibility to use those talents to serve God.
The most recent evolution to JFG came from the recent studies on gratitude, mentioned above. I’ve also recently begun to use the word “God” as both an internal thought vibration for some activities, and an external vocalized mantra for others. Other advancements to the JFG practice have been the acceptance that God knows, and provides, what we need before we ask for it. This means to me that if God already knows what we need before we ask for it, then we have no need to actually petition God because it’s already known/done. Instead, I give thanks for what I would have normally asked for, and then I accept that it’ll happen according to God’s timing, not mine. This matures the Christian idea of ask and you shall receive. In a similar fashion, when I practice Tonglen I no longer thank God for blessing the person, I do so myself knowing that God inside me is guiding the process. Just like a parent holds our hand when we learn to walk, God uplifts us as we strive to be God-like ourselves in accordance with the degree of truth, beauty, and goodness we exhibit.
JFG: Engagement
I enter a seated meditation posture.
Closing my eyes, I exhale completely while concentrating on my base chakra. I slowly start to fill my lungs from the bottom to the top as I visualize the clear brilliant clear light of God entering my base chakra and causing it to grow in size and intensity. During the inhalation phase I affirm that with every breath I am healed, rebuilt, revitalized; inspired, and informed with the divine love of God in every cell of my being.
At the top of my inhalation I pause for a second before tightening my base chakra and starting an even longer exhalation as I visualize it radiating out clear love to the kosmos. I know this to be divine energy manifesting truth, beauty, and goodness. This exhalation is accompanied with the thought, which feels to me more like a subtle vibration, of sounding a long drawn out “God….”. If the space is appropriate, I sometimes vocalize the word God out-loud in this portion of the practice.
I continue this cycle of breathing in, knowing, visualizing, pausing, and then vibrating forth the word God, through each of the seven chakras in turn, ending this portion of the practice with the exhalation cleansing my crown chakra.
At this point I’m fully absorbed in my mental construct the outer world having fallen away. I’m in the space of my Father, paired with the Thought Adjuster resident in my mind, transcending time and space to taste the eternal. While I’m still maintaining the full breathing pattern, it’s now with less intensity in the background instead of catalyzing my internal activity.
“Thank you, Father, for this gift of eternal life, this gift of eternal sonship. Thank you for spiritualizing our minds with the infinity , universality, and eternity of your being. Thank you, Father, for blessing us, comforting us, guiding us, bringing into our lives all of that in our highest good, all that that that moves us forward as souls.”
“I am one with the Original Source, one with all sentience across the vast kosmos, one with every atom in the universe, yet I’m unique. I am Bobby flavored God, co-creator with my Father in manifesting truth, beauty and goodness. I’m in God; God is in me. I’m a portal for the divine love of God to flow into the kosmos; I am a focal point for our Father to experience creation. I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams. I feel like the luckiest person on Earth.”
Following Jesus’ lead, here I have just a little talk with my Father in heaven expressing my joys, struggles, and questions.
Afterwards, still with focus in my crown chakra, I affirm, “I rest in the bosom of my Father, I am open and receptive to all of that that comes to me in divine love, in my highest good, moving me forward as a soul. Thank you, Father, for guiding me into higher character, a sweeter personality, a more intricate mind, and a greater commitment to doing your will. Thank you Father for guiding me into greater purpose, greater potential, and greater influence. I commit to becoming my highest perfect self in service to humanity for the sake of your will. I am so blessed. Thank you, Father.” I end this portion with an internalized thought vibration of God as I exhale.
At this point, I enter into Centering Prayer. I maintain the full breathing pattern, but it’s in the background, and keep my concentration in my crown chakra as noise fades off. I clear my mind of thoughts. After a time when I’m aware of a thought, I gently move it aside, regain a clear mind, and repeat the process throughout the practice. This is the actual meditation portion of the JFG practice, and lasts between ten and sixty minutes.
Coming out of Centering Prayer, I bring my breathing back to the front of my consciousness. I vocalize the word, “God,” on exhalation, and move into Tonglen.
For Tonglen, I again use breath work to catalyze my internal process. I affirm that I’m Bobby flavored God, one with God in the creation of truth, beauty, and goodness across the kosmos.
To begin, I visualize a member of my family and as I inhale I’m telling them to give me all of their pain or anger or burdens as I see dark energy coming out of them, and flowing into me. At the top of my inhalation I pause, and then as I exhale vocalizing the word, “God,” I see the person beaming with gratitude, brilliant clear light emanating from each of their seven chakras surrounded by a beautiful, healthy body.
This process is then repeated one person after the other. At the end of family and friends, if there is anyone from the past or present that I’ve had problems with that I’m having difficulty resolving, I may include those people also.
After Tonglen, still centered in my crown chakra, I again have an informal talk with my Father, offering gratitude, expressing my joy and excitement, and feelings of being so blessed with all in my life.
Then I move into my personal care. I visualize myself in perfect form, running naked on the beach, doing my calisthenics, radiating health, strength, and fitness as I affirm, “I am fit, strong, and muscular. Healthy, happy, and free of disease. Thank you, Father, for guiding me into spaces of greater joy, love, and friendships, thank you for guiding me to higher purpose, greater potential, and greater influence. I am one with the Original Source, one with all sentience across the vast kosmos, one with every atom in the universe, yet I’m unique. I’m Bobby flavored God, co-creator with my Father in manifesting truth, beauty and goodness. I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams.
I end my meditation with the following vision and affirmation bringing forth the predictions in the Urantia Book.
“I see our world coming to peace, I see us getting rid of the weapons of mass destruction, I see the greening of our world, the bluing of our seas, the Earth radiating the clear brilliant light of God across our solar system as we heal our planet and assume our rights and responsibility as a member of the kosmos.”
As I’m affirming this, I visualize that I’m in space looking down on the Earth, I see humanity hugging in brotherhood, I see a huge hydraulic press (where California would be!) being filled with tanks, ships, planes, and weapons of war to be crushed as a plow share, bright and shiny, arises from the flames. I see the Earth becoming green again, fish jumping from clear clean sparkly water, and our planet radiating brilliant white light illuminating our entire solar system.
To end, I affirm our world is healed and we take our rightful place in the greater family of God. I then vocalize a final long “God,” open my eyes, and return to Earth (or so it feels like, because sometimes it takes a moment to regain when and where I’m at).
Robert A. Kezer, PhD
15 February 2023
[1] Kezer, R. A. (2014). Integral nonviolent conflict: reframing the idea of civil resistance against violent oppression. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest LLC. UMI Dissertation Publishing.
[2] Wilber, K. (1996). A brief history of everything. Boston, MA: Shambhala.
[3] See, How Meditation Works & Science Based Effective Meditations, at https://hubermanlab.com for further information on the science behind, and effects of, mindfulness practices.
[4] Keating, T. Intimacy with god: an introduction to centering prayer. (2009). New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing Co.
[5] See, Dr. Jack Feldman: Breathing for Mental and Physical Health & Performance, at https://hubermanlab.com for further information on the science behind, and effects of, breath work.
[6] See, The Science of Gratitude and How to Build a Gratitude Practice, at https://hubermanlab.com for further information on the science behind, and effects of, gratitude.