Receiving Steps to Knowledge – Doing What You Know You Need to Do

In the interim, I had to go through a major life change. And that sign about the future was kind of an orientation point, like what pilots use when they fixate on a mountaintop or some kind of feature on the landscape to coordinate their navigation. 

And so indeed, I—after teaching inner guidance training for six or seven years—I had my first initiation experience, which I will not try to describe, except to say that it was the most powerful experience I’ve ever had. And the most terrifying. But as a result of that, something was set in motion within me and I began to unravel my commitments, my life—undo my life at that time, give up all my students, leave my relationships. And I wandered for about nine months; ended up in a desert retreat. And then the second initiation, which was much easier than the first, said, “Good, now return to the city and begin to record,” which I did. And that was the beginning in January of 1983 when the very first teachings were recorded, very early on. I didn’t know even what this was yet. 

And so I had to do that for six years: to receive and to receive and to receive. And then I began to do presentations around the country, receiving these in front of audiences and then taking their questions. The Voice, the Voice would take their questions. But it was all training for me, really. It was all preparing me to be able to receive the flood of Revelation that would come with Steps to Knowledge. 

And it required a relocation to a whole other part of the country. I met my wife, Patricia. Soon after my initiation within the following year, we conceived Reed; we had Reed. And Darlene Mitchell, who is still with us today, wonderfully, joined with us. We took a journey searching for a home somewhere else, put everything in storage and took off—adventure, mystery. “You’ll know it’s the right place when you get there.” 

And so that brought me to this little house in Albany, New York, on the edge of a municipal golf course where Steps to Knowledge and many other books would be received. I had to break from the old life really completely, and be continuing, venturing into a new life, or early parts of a new life, before Steps to Knowledge could be given. 

Sometimes the biggest messages we receive will be kind of vague and foggy, but they’re an indicator out in the future. But to find that and to have it come into full view, requires a real journey. So I took a great journey. And so did Patricia, Darlene and Reed at that time. 

After being there for about a year, which I was involved in a lot of study, Steps…I knew Steps was coming, was about to happen. And it did happen. And I was ready for it. But I remember the first evening that I received this—and we’ll go over the Steps that were received, the first 35 steps of Steps to Knowledge—I was so worried I would screw this up. I was so worried that I would shut down or get in the way or do something to interfere with what was about to happen because it was becoming more clear to me as I approached this that I really had to be ready to receive something from beyond myself that would be a Message and a training for the world. So it had a lot of significance, right, to come all this way, through all this change for this moment. But it happened. And we’ll tell the rest of the story as we go through our Vigil together about what transpired. 

As the first student of Steps to Knowledge, I took it upon myself to study it as earnestly as possible, practicing every day for 15 months. And I did it again for another 15 months. Never have I seen anything like this before, anywhere, from anyone. 

And given what I’d had to go through—the relinquishment, the many changes without explanation, the mystery—I could see in Steps to Knowledge was both its immense practicality and the power of that Mystery working to move us in a direction we need to go to fulfill our personal destiny for being in the world, not our wants and wishes or how things…we just may end up somewhere, but really our destiny. In the end, destiny is all that matters. 

But we can’t invent that destiny. We can’t construct it. We can’t figure it out. It has to be revealed to us step by step. I had to take all those steps to get to that little ranch house, Albany, New York—many, many, many steps to have that happen. 

And Steps to Knowledge, for me, was a real turning point because it was really the beginning of a committed and determined life for me because I knew that I would have to take care of these Steps to Knowledge. I would have to represent them. I would have to become their first student, their instructor. It’s a lifelong commitment. It’s not like, “Well, I’ll do this for a while and do something else”. No. No, this was like my son, my wife, this was a lifelong experience. 

And then following that, of course, other teachings were given, some of which have never been published, including Relationships and Higher Purpose, which is now available; Greater Community Prophecy, that has never been revealed; New Knowledge for a New World—all in that little house, obscure little house, at the edge of Albany, New York. 

But then I had the challenge of finding a home for the New Message. So we set out to do that, not knowing where it was going to be. But we had already traveled across the country a couple of times, looking. And we had passed through where we are now. And that was to be the place, which was instructive because it’s not like you were told where to go. It’s like you had to go find it and see it and know it because you would have to take, or in this case me, would have to take full responsibility for being here. Do you see the wisdom of that? Not like, “Marshall, go to this place and something will happen.” No. You just go. And if you pass through it or by it or near it, it’s Knowledge—points you in a direction, it says, “Go that way, see what happens”. So to really be able to experience Steps to Knowledge and all of what Knowledge had me do prior to receiving it was certainly a massive demonstration for me. 

So in the next decade that would follow, we would put together Wisdom 1, which was from the many teachings…all those teachings came from public events that I did during the 1980s, part of my training for Steps to Knowledge. That was compiled into Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume 1. Then I received Wisdom Volume 2. I received Living the Way of Knowledge, Greater Community Spirituality, Allies of Humanity: First Briefing and so forth…Preparing for the Greater Community, which is about to be published finally. The flood didn’t stop after Steps to Knowledge. The floodgates were open. And night or day, I had to be available to receive them, sometimes given in massive doses. Those were the early parts of the Revelation for me.

But at the center of this is Steps to Knowledge—still. Always. How do I find my way to Knowledge? Steps to Knowledge. How can I find…to really know who I am and what I’m here to do in the world? Steps to Knowledge. There are other pathways, and some of them are very good. But this is a pathway from God. So it’s better than good. It’s better than better. 

So I respect the gravity and the importance of this. I mean, I had to really begin a whole new life to receive Steps to Knowledge, which would give me new life from then on. May the Blessing be with you. It is with you. And thank you for being here. 

 I can only imagine where I might have gone, otherwise. There’s just nowhere else to go, for me. And to not go where you need to go in life is just a real tragedy that most people in the world are living, either by choice or by circumstance. So, yeah, I had to climb this mountain for sure, and others with me, too, and we climb together now, you and me. And there are Greater Forces pulling us that we may never see until we’re done with this life. “Oh, it was you all along!” It’s a story that Patricia can tell about that of a woman on her deathbed, and she’ll tell that story perhaps during the Vigil. But we don’t realize what this is yet. 

So the lesser part of us questions and worries and wonders and what it’s gonna mean and how do I do it and how can I get what I need and what’s gonna happen and when’s the pandemic going to be over and everything, you know. And the other part of it is: “I know I need to do this.” You get the difference? So the more you can be with that upper executive part of yourself, you could say…and that’s what Knowledge connects you with is that part of you that can function without explanations, validation or outcomes. But it’s a learning process for sure. So you don’t have to jump off a cliff like I did, but you do have to venture out beyond your comfort zone and the boundaries of your life to begin to engage with the mystery moving you.

Because you have a destiny doesn’t mean you’re gonna make it. I mean, I had to prove myself to those who set me on this track. I had to prove my consistency, my determination. I had to prove that I wouldn’t fail. I wouldn’t give up. I wouldn’t be subdued by someone else. I wouldn’t be talked out of it. I had to face real difficult, even painful, kinds of changes. I had to drag my very young family—my infant son and my newlywed wife—through some very strange adventures in very strange places. I had to do things without being able to account for anybody about why I was doing them. “No reasonable person would be doing what you’re doing. Why are you doing this?” And you can look a little crazy to yourself and other people in this regard.

And I had my doubts. I can never say it didn’t have doubts. But I will say, we have to prove ourselves to those who are trying to take us somewhere important for an important purpose, and you really won’t know that purpose until you get down that road and you find those landing places that you need to be. So we have to prove our own fidelity. Otherwise, we’re not going to be entrusted with greater things. Makes sense, doesn’t it? 

The Greater Powers can’t control what we decide to do. We could just drop off and go off on a side journey or fall back into the shadows or go out and marry some person for some reason. So they have to wait and see what we do. In time, you have to do that. Even they have to do that. 

But there is a certain confidence I think—and Patricia can speak to this, too, and Reed, and many of you, probably—I think they know that you’re not going to fail. You’re not going to give up. You may stumble, you may do foolish things, you may really get stalled, but you’re not going to stop. So I think they had faith in that in me. And that’s staying power. But we have to prove that to ourselves, I mean…

But it takes you somewhere you never could have imagined going before. And that’s the miracle that is in the mysterious gift. And the gift has to give you strength and wisdom and determination. It’s not just you’re just gonna follow blindly some invisible light. You have to become the strong person, the discerning person, the careful person, the trustworthy person.

It has to be a real conviction. It can’t just be, you’re gonna get yourself together and you’re gonna make a commitment. It’s like, “I guess I really have to do this, don’t I?” It’s more like that. It’s more humble. It isn’t self-assertive. It isn’t like, “I’m going to overpower myself and do this.” It’s like, “Well, I guess I have to do this. I got to do this.” You see the difference?  It’s coming from a very different place than ambition or, you know, personal power and all those kinds of things. That’s not what I’m talking about here. That doesn’t…you’re not chosen if that’s going to be your mode of operation. 

So on the other hand, you can’t just be a kind of a weak follower who just goes here, goes there. “I had a dream, so I’ll go there. I got an idea, so I’ll go there.” No. You’ve got to be someone who really can walk the path, carry the burden, make the decisions and be responsible for them.

So it’s not passivity. It’s not aggression and it’s also not passivity. It’s somewhere…it’s in the middle, somewhere, a more authentic place. And I think you’re all in training, various stages of training, to allow Knowledge to reshape your life, to free you from things that are burdening you unnecessarily, also cultivating your skills, your determination, your self-trust, your discernment, self-evaluation. These are all really important things that just really have to be built along the way. It’s not just, “We’re just gonna take you to the promised land and there you are.” That’s not how this works. And if people can’t make that journey, they’ll just have to entertain the idea that, you know, in a fantasy way, thinking that they’re a god or a goddess or an avatar or a saint or whatever they might think. But they never even got up the mountain at all, really. So it’s a different kind of journeying. And it’s they, not you, who decide that you’ve arrived.

They’ve been a little better the later years not calling upon me at such early hours. But some of that the greatest parts of…greatest revelations I received were really in the middle of night. And when we are traveling in Iran, we did all of our recordings in the middle of the night. We’re more reachable in the middle of the night.

I just want to say the blessing has brought us into this gathering, this Sacred gathering. And I want you to feel that though Knowledge moves sometimes very mysteriously. If you look at where you used to be and where you are today, if you look at what you used to think about and what you think about today, you can see the real change has happened. And the Mystery and the blessing has given us this change and will continue to give us more of this that we yearn for and that we need.

It’s a blessing that we can share this together and with others, and that we know we’re not alone, and there are people in the world now who can really understand the Mystery that moves our lives individually. Whereas before it might be so hard to find anyone who could understand, now we’re reaching people everywhere who can understand, who themselves are on this mountain with us finding their way. 

Thank you…makes me very happy.