There have always been examples of great individuals throughout history, but this growth of the phenomenon of a group of people unknown to each other, not in outer contact with each other and yet sharing similar values and similar goals for humanity, is an extraordinary development in the evolution of humanity.
Robert: Welcome to Inner Sight. Our show today is about the New Group of World Servers and I think you’ll enjoy this theme because it also captures a trend that’s going on today. There are more and more people who are finding joy in serving other people. There has never been a period in our planetary history in which opportunity has loomed so large, or when so much spiritual light and force could be contacted and used by humanity. The first indication of this energy produced coordination of the New Group of World Servers upon the physical plane, and that’s what we’re going to speak about today. What would you say are the main characteristics of the New Group of World Servers and how can we identify them?
Sarah: I think the most important thing to start with is to say that this group is not an organization. It’s not a society to which one belongs in the sense of a club. It’s an affiliation of like minds and maybe some examples that are parallel to this kind of affiliation would bring the concept a little clearer to people’s minds. We can speak of men and women of goodwill and know that we’re not talking about an organization that you join or we can speak about. The intelligentsia, the people who are intelligent and educated and know that that term includes many members who may or may not be aware that they are affiliated with such a grouping, but nevertheless it does set up a fairly clear idea of similarity of quality and such is the case with the New Group of World Servers. Maybe the most important thing you could say is that they represent an attitude of mind and heart. They are found in all classes, in all races, in all nations. They can range from professions such as scientists and politicians to teachers, to homemakers, to people active in labour, so they have no borders on the fields in which they’re found, but they are characterized, all of them, by certain qualities, like a sense of synthesis, a sense of the wholeness of the world, and they usually have a broad inclusiveness of outlook. They aren’t people who have prejudices or narrow views or bias of any kind and they are people whose minds are very clear and well developed. They’re people who can think and not just feel.
Dale: They’re primarily known by the work they do. They’re not out there making claims about their status or their being members of this group called the New Group of World Servers. They are just simply following their soul impulse to form the kind of work and profession that they came into the world to do, and they do it very well with a sense of goodwill, inclusiveness and caring. It’s not about themselves so much as it is about the work, whatever their profession may be and they are found in all walks of life. This is maybe why it’s kind of difficult to know who these people are and what this group is, because it is so dispersed among people of the whole world.
Sarah: But there are certain values that help you to define them, and perhaps to think of people in your own circle that might be affiliated with such a grouping. One major characteristic is that these are people who can think in terms of the one humanity, who are very comfortable with that idea. They are good citizens of their own countries and are loyal, contributing members of their communities and their families, but at the same time, they have a kind of an allegiance in their mind and heart to the one humanity. They don’t see people who are very different from themselves as really separate. They feel a kinship with all human beings. You can see how having that view of human beings, that sense of the one humanity, how it colours and it qualifies the way you approach every person that crosses your path.
Robert: In the literature of Alice Bailey, the founder of Lucis Trust, there’s so much written about the New Group of World Servers, but from what I understand they don’t necessarily have to be affiliated with Lucis Trust or be reading the literature even; is that correct?
Sarah: Yes, I’m sure the huge majority of them have never heard of Alice Bailey or the books that we publish and that doesn’t matter. They’re busy engaged in whatever their environment, their field of service is, and their energy goes into that. But we can still recognize them whether they see themselves as part of this group or not. One key factor is the way they handle conflict and differences of opinion. I often think that’s one of the major identifying markers of a member of the New Group of World Servers. We all experience conflict and we all come up against differences of opinion, different values, sometimes on quite a serious level. The recent election certainly revealed a kind of a polarization in society, and we can see this throughout the world now. It’s as if the lines are being drawn, and if you’re not careful, you can find yourself starting to think of “us and them,” of putting people on the side of one’s own beliefs, which is of course the right side and the good side, and then the people who believe differently on the other side, and they of course are wrong and bad. But that’s a very mistaken way of viewing humanity. The members of the New Group of World Servers don’t operate with that kind of vision. They can perceive differences and not approach them by attack or confrontation because they always work in a constructive manner. They work for the common good, they work for goodwill and they look for whatever common ground there might be in any kind of situation where there’s a division of opinion. They try to foster whatever will unite people, rather than attacking those who they believe have wrong ideas.
Robert: So, tell me if I understand it correctly. Let’s use teaching as an example. We might have a teacher who is part of the New Group of World Servers, they have goodwill in their heart and they may go about teaching with a very deep interest in the welfare of mankind, putting a lot of love into their teaching. Is that how we could define a person who might be in a profession and be a part of that New Group of World Servers.
Dale: Yes, that’s the beginning, because they would be teaching from the heart and evoking the love, respect and caring from their students. The teacher would have a sense of caring for the students and for their welfare and for bringing out the best in them. The teacher’s concern would not be with themselves so much, with their status as a teacher or how many degrees they have, but rather would be there for the children. In that particular profession the teacher would stand out as one who truly cares, who loves and has a sense of goodwill in their heart. That would be a mark of a servant.
Robert: Actually, it’s the attitude then. Whatever job we have, it depends on the goodwill and love that’s in the heart and how that’s conveyed to humanity.
Dale: One of the groups that is emerging now, perhaps in the last 100 years or so, is philanthropists. There’s been quite an explosion of philanthropic individuals and groups throughout the world, and particularly here in the United States. It started way back at the turn of the century with the Rockefellers, the Ford Foundation and Andrew Carnegie, who built libraries for cities. It’s grown from that and today, with so many of the wealthy young entrepreneurs coming into millions of dollars, they’re exploring ways to disperse their money that they’ve earned, so there is a great expansion of philanthropy and that’s very good to see. It’s spontaneous.
Sarah: So, you’re saying that the New Group of World Servers can be found on Wall Street? (laughter)
Dale: Wall Street, Main Street and every other street! (More laughter)
Sarah: Let’s hope they are located there, and in fact they are, because you bring to mind the example of the young people that work at Salomon Smith Barney, who have raised a great deal of money for charities. They’ve been written up in the newspaper. So, of course the New Group of World Servers are found in the field of financial work. They should be there; they should be everywhere. To come back to this idea of how the New Group of World Servers handle confrontation and differences, the example of Martin Luther King comes to mind because he was such a powerful example of how a great soul can approach the need for change and can approach hatred, real hatred, and he did face up to it and yet not respond in kind. If I recall at the time that he was doing his work, he was often criticized by people in the civil rights movement who thought he should be stronger and harder hitting against the forces of racism, to take a more confrontational stand. He did in his way, but on the plane of the mind with ideas. The ideas that he presented constantly were those which evoked the best and the highest good in all Americans. He had a gift of speaking that brought forth the recognition on the part of anybody who was listening to him, who had any good will in them at all, that it was right and timely that the needs of the Black people be met, and that changes be brought about in our society. He often spoke of the expulsive power of love, that love is more powerful than hate, meaning that it can drive out evil. So, I think of Martin Luther King as an excellent example. Another one is Nelson Mandela. He spent 28 years in prison in South Africa and he really suffered, but he seems to bear no bitterness toward his captors and in fact, he became friends with some of them. There was a story in the paper that I read when he had become president of South Africa and wanted to support the soccer team. South Africa’s soccer team was winning and engaged in a very important match and he wanted to go to the match and his advisers said, “But that sport is full of white people who hate you, who have vilified you.” I guess a lot of Afrikaners were fans of the sport and he said he had to go and “root for our boys,” as he called them. He went to the stadium wearing a shirt of the team colours, and he walked into the stadium and there was this low roar that came up from the crowd, and then they began chanting “Nelson, Nelson, Nelson.” It’s an example of the fact that love is more powerful than hate, and rather than attack the wrong views of those people, he gave them an example of the inclusiveness of love.
Robert: So, in regard to the New Group of World Servers, is it correct to say that their major task is to work for right human relations?
Dale: Essentially, that’s what they’re doing, yes. They may not even put it in those terms, but they do this very spontaneously, very naturally because it comes from the soul. It’s a soul impulse. Building relationships of all kinds is just part of what they do.
Sarah: They foster concord, they look for agreement, they look for lines of understanding and common ground, so naturally, they would work for right human relations. Without being Pollyannaish about it.
Robert: And they’re doing it for the intrinsic joy that they find in service, not as a means to another end, not for what they will get in return.
Sarah: Yes, and I think that’s something that President Kennedy understood and what made his vision so great when he became president. He presented the idea of service, especially to the young people. He came up with the idea of the Peace Corps and in his inaugural address he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” So yes, there are people that understand the joy of service.
Robert: Has the New Group of Worlds Servers always existed?
Sarah: No, not really. In fact, the writings of Alice Bailey say that the depiction of the existence of this subjective group worldwide was one of the two most important aspects of the teaching contained in all 24 of her books, because until the last century, there hadn’t really been this phenomenon worldwide, spanning all cultures and groups of people, who were unified in their commitment to the one humanity. There have always been examples of great individuals throughout history, but this growth of the phenomenon of a group of people unknown to each other, not in outer contact with each other and yet sharing similar values and similar goals for humanity, is an extraordinary development in the evolution of humanity. It indicates that human beings have reached a certain stage in their planetary evolution that enables them to come together. I think we can see that today in the constant emphasis on networking and the fact that the Internet brings people together who have never meet and yet they feel a kinship. That’s an objective example of this more spiritual linking that binds the New Group of World Servers.
Dale: Yes, I think group work is something we take for granted today. If you want to get something done, you form a commission! (laughter) That isn’t always the best, but nevertheless, the impulse is there because the demands of the world are so great that it requires a group effort to resolve the issues that we are faced with today. No one person can do it. This is a phenomenon that’s just begun in the 20th century. For example, Thomas Edison was one of the first scientists to set up a group lab, for scientists and technicians to all come together to work, to produce and invent these great products that we enjoy now, such as the electric light and the phonograph. He was a forerunner for this kind of group work.
Sarah: You could even extend that example of Edison a bit further to the more subjective level of the group, in that he was working in a way very similar to that of Nikola Tesla, the great scientist who paralleled Edison’s work. They knew of each other and I suppose they were slightly competitive as human beings are, because the New Group of World Servers are not saints. They are human beings with flaws, but that also is an example of group work, where people are at work on the same problem in different parts of the world. Right now, we have the phenomenon of fusion being developed both by the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, and at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
Dale: And also in the Fermilab in Illinois. If you think about it, there was a tremendous group effort in the founding of the United Nations. That could not have been established by one person or even by one or two people. It was the coming together of world leaders at a time of world need to form this fantastic new idea of a world government, of a world forum. That’s something that humanity had never done before.
Sarah: It’s an important recognition, the fact that people are forming groups because the soul, as we’ve said before, is group conscious. The soul is not anchored in a sense of individualism, of being separative, independent or isolated. The soul is naturally inclusive, and group conscious in its view. The fact that human beings are coming together as groups indicates the fact that the soul is becoming more powerful and influencing human thinking and planning. It’s not only the great examples, like the United Nations and the inventions of scientists like Edison. There are smaller examples, for instance, people who come together to help each other solve a problem like alcoholism. The AA groups that exist all over the world that give such reinforcement to the individual who might not be able to overcome his problem on his own, but in the group, he finds the strength and at the same time he can help others.
Robert: To sum up, what would you say is the major responsibility of the New Group of World Servers?
Sarah: Well, there are several, but one might be that, as I understand from the writings of Alice Bailey, they are serving to balance the forces at work in the world today. I think we would all agree a certain strength is given over to separatism, to fostering cleavages, to hatred and prejudice. On the other hand, the New Group of World Servers are engaged in offsetting that very dark tendency that exists in the world. They are not required to completely overcome such darkness, but to offset it by counterbalancing it. Another aspect of their responsibility is to be a receptor or a receiver of ideas concerning the Plan, which is the blueprint or the outline of God’s intention for our world. The greatest members of the New Group of World Servers have minds that respond to those ideas that represent the next step for humanity to take; for example, the people who developed or who founded the United Nations worked on that level.
Dale: Right. And there’s also the larger aspect of the Plan, which is the manifesting of the Kingdom of God on Earth. In the Alice Bailey writings, it is said that the New Group of World Servers acts as forerunners or as the vanguard for the reappearance of the World Teacher, of the Coming One, and as the forerunner for the emergence of the Kingdom of God on Earth.
Robert: I think there was no one who was more profound as a member of the New Group of World Servers than Alice Bailey. I remember reading her autobiography, and any conflict that she was involved in, before she would act, she would always put her ego behind her and ask herself, what would Jesus Christ do in this situation? That would be a book that I’d recommend for new listeners, the autobiography of Alice Bailey. In closing, we invite you to ponder on this thought; Goodwill is the touchstone that will transform the world. Goodwill is love in action and is the energy that draws us together in right relationship. There is a world prayer called the Great Invocation. It is a call for light and love and goodwill to flow into the world and into our hearts. Let’s listen for a moment to these powerful words.
Sarah: closes the program with the adapted version of the Great Invocation.
(This is an edited transcript of a recorded radio program called “Inner Sight”. This conversation was recorded between the host, Robert Anderson, and the then President and Vice-President of Lucis Trust, Sarah and Dale McKechnie.)
(Transcribed and edited by Carla McLeod)
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