"Fellowship of Friends Videos" YouTube channel

[ed. - The "Fellowship of Friends Videos" project appears to have gone on hiatus after posting the lone video below. For more information, consult Google before visiting the Fellowship of Friends recruiting websites mentioned below.]

"Welcome to Fellowship of Friends Videos! We are beginning a project of uploading short videos based on content from our websites RobertEarlBurton.net, LivingPresence.com, BeingPresent.org, and more. [ed. - Indeed, many more!]

"We are a group of men and women, who have gathered together to share a lifetime pursuit of being present. Based in Northern California, with centers located worldwide, our school provides a place for aspiring souls to live and work together in an atmosphere of beauty and effort, under the guidance of a conscious teacher.

"We were founded fifty years ago on the Fourth Way teachings of George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky. Today, we embrace the practical wisdom of all great spiritual traditions, recognizing that all esoteric schools teach the same thing: how to be present to your own life.

"To learn more about our school and living in the present—working with a precise method, a teacher, and the help of other dedicated people—we invite you to visit our pages or find the center nearest you."
[ed. - The original introduction to the channel continued:]

Robert Earl Burton bases his teaching on George Gurdjieff [ed. - Though Burton claims he never read Gurdjieff's works] and the Fourth Way writings of Peter Ouspensky. Over the years, he has focused relentlessly on “self-remembering,” the effort to increase consciousness by a direct effort to be present within this moment. The Fellowship of Friends channel is focused on selected themes and thoughts from Robert Earl Burton. Robert Earl Burton founded the Fellowship of Friends on New Year’s Day, 1970.

Robert Earl Burton's Fifty Years with Angels: September 5, 1967 - September 5, 2017 is published

[ed. - Robert Earl Burton's, Fifty Years with Angels: September 5, 1967 - September 5, 2017 (not to be confused with My Fifty Years with the Angels) is published. It is compiled and edited by Judith Grace, a Burton acolyte for over 42 years. To date, it is the most autobiographical, and self-congratulatory, of Burton's publications.]

 "Very early on I wondered who was helping me, and they ["C Influence" or "Influence C"] started signaling Leonardo [da Vinci]. Leonardo and I are very different, but we are also very similar from the point of view of presence. What a great founder for a civilization! We can see why Apollo is already so beautiful in its small way. Leonardo was probably the most aesthetically sensitive human in the history of the earth. His role was intended to represent the Absolute on earth. Once, when I began to work, as I was laboring, Leonardo said to me, "Trust no 'I's; be present." Then everything stabilized.

At one point when I was younger, I was receiving many shocks from Leonardo. Finally I snapped and spoke back. He whispered, "Shhhh." And I never did it again after that! I am actually Leonardo's only offspring. Like myself, he never had children in his life, and I am his only child five hundred years later. He is behind every word I speak, even though I take responsibility for it, and I am grateful. Who would not be grateful for such a mind guiding us."  - Robert Earl Burton, from Fifty Years with Angels

[ed. - The following excerpt from the Fellowship of Friends Wikipedia page appears under the heading "Doctrines of the Fellowship of Friends":]

A recently published book "Fifty Years with Angels" (first edition, December 2017), summarizes the history of the organization and expounds the current thinking as of that date. Robert Burton considers one of his roles is as a conduit for teaching communicated to him by beings he calls angels, who are the immortal spirits of men who have achieved awakening and specifically assist the Fellowship of Friends in its mission. This mission is twofold: to create the seed of a new civilization after the catastrophic doom that Burton has predicted since the early days of the organization, though the dates have been changed as each prediction has not been fulfilled, and to create consciousness in the members of the organization. At the end of "Fifty years with Angels" Burton makes the claim that he has been visited on three occasions by a being he calls the Absolute, which equates with God in other religions. Here is a quote from "Fifty years with Angels": "On June 27, 2014 we had a visit with the Absolute, a direct visit with Him Himself, but I did not feel quite ready to speak about that at the time. I spoke about it only to Dorian. It occurred right in front of the Gallery at the beginning of the rose arbor, after you walk past the four cypress trees and turn left. I knelt down and bowed, kissing the ground. Then we walked straight ahead, beyond the path on the right, where our dog Apollo was doing his business - number two - on the lawn near a tree that had died in the drought. It was the third state. Nicky Johnson was with Him. He was two meters away and he came up behind me putting his hand in my hand, saying 'Hello,darling' in a very sweet voice". He describes the second visit, on September 2, 2016, which happened during a dinner when other members were present: "In the visit, which was not a dream or a vision, He appeared in child form - World 1 with Nicky and World 3 with Deniris. The first visit was in a male form and the second visit was in a female form - World 1 and World 3 in conscious form. How much has changed from that dream to 'Hello,darling!'. On the Sunday after that second visit, on September 5, 2016, the Absolute Himself, a host of His angels, and all of His youngest conscious beings - a conscious field of presence - were with us in the Grand Pavilion. When the Absolute appeared, we focused our third eye directly on His, where He was. We focused our third eye directly on presence and the problem was solved. We were all conscious. That is why He came - because there were conscious beings here who could relate to and understand His visit."^[8]

Presumed self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci
Wikimedia Commons