Introduction

Background

The book you’re holding in your hands, or your robotic arms managed by your AI brain (depending on the year you read this), contains the transcripts from a seven-day, 30-hour, 400+ question interview with Carla L. Rueckert and Jim McCarty. This book is intended to be secondary and supplementary to their channeled and written work, but in the event you’ve started here we'll begin with a brief explanation regarding who these two are.

Carla L. Rueckert and James McCarty are two of the original three founders of the non-profit organization L/L Research. L/L Research was officially formed in 1970, but was an outgrowth of the research efforts begun in 1955 by Donald Tully Elkins. Over the course of five decades, eleven published books, fifteen hundred transcripts, and one cassette labeled “Best Jams Mixtape Vol. 1,” L/L Research has produced a considerable library of information on matters of spirituality, philosophy, and metaphysics, the heart of which was informed by experiments in channeling. As an ethical choice and matter of policy, L/L Research has, from the beginning, even before the internet, made its work available for free as a resource for the interested spiritual seeker. You can access this material at the archive website www.llresearch.org.

Purpose of the Interview

The interview is largely an investigation into the story of L/L Research’s birth, growth, and journey, along with the personal journeys of Carla, Jim, and Don. The organization’s biography and the personal journeys are two categories which overlap, intertwine, and merge in so many places that extricating one from the other is challenging. Better it is to take in the scope of both, for to understand their story is to better understand the story of L/L Research.

Some of this book explores philosophy, metaphysics, and channeling. Other parts examine spiritual principles, emphasizing how they manifest both in an organization and in one’s personal life. Much of it simply documents events that happened, decisions that were made, emotions that were felt, people who participated, and other biographical information.

This story and material will certainly be interesting to some, but not ob-jectively interesting to all. Neither here nor at any point do I attempt to convey that You Should Pay Attention to These People and Their Work. This book is intended neither to persuade nor to entertain the reader; it was written as a simple record built from the available evidence.^* The book also presupposes that you, the reader, are already familiar with the work of L/L Research. Though it can be picked up, read, and understood by anyone, the first 15 chapters are less a pure biography and more biographical context, or backstory, for the reader who has first read the material and wants to understand what happened and how it came to be. For the new reader, the backstory in the first 19 chapters does not necessarily convey the elegant, profound, and beautiful heart of the philosophy. This can only be discovered by going directly to the material itself.

A good deal of the ground this book covers has already been addressed quite well elsewhere in the L/L Research library, beginning with the Commentary of the original Book V and the Introduction to the original Book I of The Law of One material. Various other writings, interviews, and speeches by Carla and Jim have spoken to different portions of this book’s subject matter as well. The goal of this project is to collect the story of L/L Research and their work in a single, streamlined place. Therefore, though there is much new ground that is broken, a bit of overlap is likely.

The work has been divided into four categories, plus appendices:

• Chapters 1–19: the biography of L/L Research, with twelve chapters focusing upon the Ra contact. • Chapters 20–22: reflections and hopes for the future. • Chapters 23–25: the theory and practice of both spiritual principles and channeling. • Chapters 26–30: investigations into their personal journey(s). • Appendices: investigation into sacred sexuality, discussion of Carla’s passing and Jim’s transformation, an essay on the book’s title,

* This historical record was made, as well, for those who may carry the L/L Research torch when we are dust, or cryogenically frozen meat bags. Those future torch-bearers, and interested readers, can look back and see: This is what they intended; this is who they felt they were; this is what they were trying to do. And subsequently choose either to honor, amend, or deviate from the principles that motivated their lives.

and L/L Research’s first timeline.

This book places special focus upon what you might call the magnum opus of Don, Carla, Jim’s, and outer service: the Ra contact. The transcripts of which became the original five The Law of One volumes as well as a forthcoming book titled The Ra Contact: Teaching the Law of One.

My Relationship with Jim and Carla

I met Carla and Jim fourteen years ago in 2002, relocated to Louisville to participate in spiritual community in their home in 2003, became Administrative Assistant to Carla at her invitation and insistence in 2005, transitioned to Administrator of L/L Research (more or less running the organization) at some point in there, and became Director of L/L Research in 2015. I’ve spent some of those years living with them, and all of those years knowing them, learning from them, and working alongside them in a spirit of shared mission and service.

Carla and Jim are many things to me, of which I could write a great deal. Most significantly, they are friends and fellow travelers of importance along the dusty path of spiritual seeking. They are two people I genuinely love. This does not mean I never disagree with them, rather that I see and cherish Carla and Jim for who they are. This is stated up front so that you, the reader, understand wherefrom I, the interviewer, come. On one hand my personal familiarity is a great strength—no one else has stood for so long at the very point where L/L Research, the Law of One philosophy, their work, and their personal lives intersect. On the other hand an interviewer with a more detached journalistic approach may have questioned more insightfully, or critically, or in directions I didn’t think to pursue.

Further, I did not ask questions from the position of a skeptic. Though I feel the heart of L/L Research’s information is exquisitely congruent with the message of oneness or non-duality that all mystics have unanimously and consistently reported throughout the ages, I understand that some of the claims within this body of work about the way the universe works simply cannot be proven by present means of verification.

My aim, therefore, was not to ask with an intent to challenge Carla and Jim to prove anything, nor to convince anyone of the veracity of the content or the truth of what transpired in their lives. I interviewed two people in order that they might share the stories of the lives they actually lived and the work they actually undertook for the benefit of the already inter-ested reader, both new and old, and myself as I find their work of great personal significance on my spiritual journey.

Their Replies

Any who have read Carla’s writing or heard her talk will know almost immediately what a powerful and eloquent thinker, writer, and speaker she was. Carla seemed to sit atop a bottomless well of inspiration that took only the slightest provocation for its clear waters to stream forth through her communication, written or spoken. Though that clarity still shines in this interview, these transcripts do not represent Carla at the height of her powers. By this point she had been bound to a hospital bed for three years with a painful open wound on her lower back from a spinal fusion surgery that refused to heal. In a different time I think some of Carla’s replies might have been stronger than they are in this interview. But if you don’t notice any diminishment then this speaks to just how good she really was.

Generally speaking Carla and Jim gave outstanding replies in spite of any obstacles. Not always complete, or always the most precise, or always the deepest possible answer, or always, by whatever your criteria of measurement, the “best.” But I was nevertheless blown away and humbled by their replies. I’m grateful beyond words that they were able to offer something so substantive and insightful to questions that were often, by my measure, lackluster. Their output was so much greater than my input. It’s as if I gave them a few dehydrated beans and they returned a succulent stew steaming with aromas that excite the senses and warm the belly with life-giving properties.

Mechanics of the Interview and Editing Notes

The interview was one long conversation that took place in one take. No redo’s, no mulligans, no scripting of any replies; just an organized Q&A. Jim did a quick read through of the questions before I asked them. Carla, on the other hand, had no advanced knowledge of the questions. This was both a strength and a weakness. Her spontaneity sometimes soared. At other times I wished she had considered the question prior to its being vocalized.

Beginning on Monday, July 21, 2014, we met in Carla’s and Jim’s bedroom—Carla in her hospital bed, Jim sitting alongside her in the same hardback wooden chair he sat in for the Ra contact. With the summer sun streaming through the windows we progressed through the questions over the course of seven consecutive days. Most of the questions were devised in the couple of weeks leading up to the interview, but many times questions were asked impromptu. The entire thing was captured with a digital audio recorder and was filmed by our good friend and videographer, Ken Wendt.

Afterward the audio was sent to a few volunteer transcribers. After the transcripts were returned they went through a several rounds of re-listening and editing to ensure accuracy as well as to make the text more legible for the reader.^† Some sentences have been slightly altered to increase readability (especially my own sometimes bumbling questions) while retaining the meaning and intent of what was said. For instance, the following sentence from Carla:

He pursued any and all angles, and the Mantell case was that which focused him more on UFOs, and he really was triggered into a lot more UFO research because of the Mantell case.

Became:

He pursued any and all angles. The Mantell case was that which trig-gered and focused his research into UFOs.

And a final note about laughter. Everyone knows, at least intuitively if not always consciously, that laughter plays an important role in human communication. Whether one is producing or hearing the guffaw it signals any number of different things, from that was funny, to I approve of you, to I will now destroy your city (in the diabolical variety).

Carla and Jim laugh easily. Their belly rumbles were frequent visitors to the conversation. That laughter conveyed a great deal about the light heart with which Carla and Jim take these serious matters, along with their own spirit of play and joy in their very disciplined lives. The one listening to the interview would obviously gain the benefit of experiencing this whereas the reader would not; unless, that is, we included indications of laughter.

Laughter, however, does not translate into print very well. Some people fervently reject any inclusion of representations of laughter in their written communication while others heap it on like three helpings of gravy

† See Acknowledgements for debts of gratitude paid in words too poor to do justice to the volunteers who made this possible.

over one helping of mashed potatoes. I attempted to include most moments of laughter in the text as judiciously as possible. Rest assured that I did not use “LOL” to denote this. Though I am sorely tempted to do so now . . .

Experience of the interview

When the interview was over I sat in wonder that the seven days even happened. Personally it was one of the greatest things I've ever had the honor of doing. Not great in scale—as it is of secondary/supplementary interest to L/L's primary work, and will be read by very few—but great in terms of depth of meaning for me and a fulfillment of a portion of my incarnational mission. Though it often seems such as an abstract concept in the Law of One philosophy, I felt the positive polarity acutely and vividly during this process. Being with other open-hearted people in so intensive and focused a way: fully present, no distractions, no dissipation of energy, attention placed completely upon the other, all friction and most barriers absent—that alone is a profound heart opener into the experience of the Creator. Though often exhausting (as I was conducting this interview while performing my normal workday duties), I left a few of the sessions, especially the final one, wanting jubilantly to embrace the world.^‡

I wasn't sure that Jim and Carla would accept the project given its scope and the time/energy necessary to complete it, much less that, upon accepting, getting through it would be daunting. But everything seemed to come together perfectly, and we moved forward question by question. I'm so excited by it all, especially that these two people (who have been the most significant influences upon my spiritual and adult life) can be shared with the world in a light which approaches something of the perspective I've been privileged to know.

No, this isn't to glorify. It is not to direct attention to personality but to the love shining through the eyes, the light in the wisdom of their reflections, the unity underlying the path they have walked, and the desire to serve which motivates Carla and Jim's efforts to be as instruments for that particular vibration or wavelength of love and light known as the Law of One. And it is to tell the story of their work and organization, L/L Research. It is good history, good supplementary info, good probing of

‡ Carla and Jim also liked it too. They said it was the best seven-day, 30-hour, 400+ question interview they had ever done in their lives.

spiritual principles, and good reminders of who we are and what we're all doing here. And it looks good on a book shelf, quite frankly. I am so happy with all of it. But, its “goodness” is something for you to determine. And about that . . .

L/L Disclaimer: Your Relationship with the Material

Though this book can stand independent in its own right, it is designed to fulfill the need for context for readers already familiar with the philosophy. More importantly, throughout the course of this interview we ask you to please be mindful that this interview does not intend to uphold Carla, Jim, or Don as perfect beings who should be placed upon a pedestal and emulated. Where we move into their personal interpretation and application of the material during this discussion remember that what is shared is opinion only and is not to be construed as infallible or the final word on the subject.

It is not to their personalities that they would direct your attention but rather to the principles contained within the Law of One philosophy. Those principles encourage the authentic discovery of who you really are, as Eckhart Tolle would say, beyond name and form.

The fundamental tenet of the Law of One is that “self” and “Creator” are two ways of saying the same thing. In other words, and in accordance with the vision disclosed to mystics, all is one.

But words and intellectual formulations can never—no matter how precise, profound, or perfect—capture or contain the truth. That is the case whether from Confederation sources, Jesus, Buddha, or other enlightened beings. Why? Because you are the living truth that you seek. You are beingness itself. You are the mystery. You are the Creator; you always have been. Consequently L/L Research’s desire is not that the information in this or any of its books become dogma. It is only offered that it may be of some small aid to you as a resource on your own journey of seeking.

The dispassionate spirit with which they have always offered this information is one of non-coercion and non-proselytism. Carla, Jim, Don, and the Confederation sources have always encouraged the seeker’s own discrimination. Naturally they would be delighted if the information was of any help to you but suggest leaving it behind without a second thought if there is no resonance. They emphasize the relative unimportance of this interview in light of the grand mystery which beckons each of us onward in the seeking of truth.