Michael Bernard Beckwith
Agape is the covenant love of God for humans and the reciprocal love for God; the term necessarily extends to the love of one’s fellow human beings. This definition sums up the ethos of Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith.
He is the founder and spiritual director of the Agape International Spiritual Center, a trans-denominational community. He is the author of several books, including Spiritual Liberation, Forty-Day Mind Fast Soul Feast, A Manifesto of Peace, and TranscenDance Expanded, a book and collection of remixed lectures set to electronic dance music. His seminal book, Life Visioning, was listed as one of the “15 Books to Help Solve 15 Life Problems” on Oprah.
Interview by Alexia Melocchi
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Everybody discovered you when the movie The Secret came out. However, Agape has been around since 1986. How did Rhonda Byrne find you?
Yes, Agape has been going on for some time since 1986. And The Secret just put it over the top. I was invited to go to Aspen with other thought leaders to film The Secret, but I couldn’t. Rhonda Burns was flying to Australia, where she is from, but she had a layover in Los Angeles, and she went to Agape International. After I finished speaking, she came running up to me and said: “Everything you said is just so magnificent. Will you be in my movie?” After a few moments, she put up a green screen and asked me to talk. And that’s what I did. And the rest is history: The Secret still has legs today. People are still discovering it. It was just a fantastic, serendipitous moment that she had to have a layover in Los Angeles.
I recall that before The Secret, when people spoke about spirituality, they associated it with New Age woo-woo stuff. Now, everybody says I’m a spiritual person, but how do you define spirituality and its practice?
When you use the word spiritual, that word is synonymous with eternal and forever. We say that we are a spiritual being, and in substance, that is who we really are, in our essence, as we have emerged from the eternal presence. It’s beyond religiosity or religion. It’s our real nature. When someone says, “I’m a spiritual being,” everyone is a spiritual being, whether they know it or not. Some think that they were created by their parents, imprinted by society, or imprinted by the schools they went to and the experiences they had. Those are temporary imprints, but your parents didn’t create you. We have emerged from the eternal presence of intelligence and love. And we have a lifetime that has infinite chapters. We are here to expand our awareness of what is real and then express it, reveal it, and manifest it according to our unique pattern. And so, to answer your question, this is not a new age woo-woo. To have a spiritual practice means having a certain intentionality to expand your awareness so you begin to see, be, and live differently. You live according to love, beauty, intelligence, and divine order. These qualities are intrinsic to every spiritual being but often hidden because people have been imprinted. And they’re blinded by time.
We tend to think that if we are a spiritual person, we must be perfect, but it’s sometimes difficult to consider ourselves unique when we feel we’re flawed because we are the biggest and worst judges of ourselves. It is common for us to associate spirituality with perfectionism. When we feel flawed, how do we embrace the shortcomings and still be connected to our God’s self?
We are perfect, but we’re not perfectionists, meaning there’s something about our spiritual nature that’s perfect. There’s something about what we have emerged from that is perfect, and that perfection is constantly unfolding. When you see a seed of a rose, within that seed is the rose bush, and ultimately, the rose, which is the perfection of the rose bush. So, within us is the germ of the seed of the Christ or the Buddha mind, and we are unfolding to reveal that. It’s not about being perfect according to societal standards. It’s about doing what is necessary to eliminate that which is covering our mind from seeing who we are. People are often harsh and very judgmental of themselves because they compare themselves to others. They have some standards from society that they’re placing themselves against. We can never compare ourselves to anyone else. But this presence, you can call it the God Presence, or love presence, or life itself, never does do-overs. It gets right the first time, and it never repeats itself. We are one of one; we’re not one of a billion. Just like there are no leaves on the tree like another leaf, there’s no snowflake like another snowflake. When we understand that we’re already unique, then we begin to ask ourselves: what is it within me that I am to give that I am to contribute that I am to share? What is my artistry? What is my element of creativity that I’m to share with the world? As I begin to ask that question, I hear the still, small voice; I begin to hear the rumbling of my soul as to my own uniqueness and what I’m to give. Then, I begin to discover imprints, the way the world has imprinted me that has hindered me, as what the world may call a flaw or a mistake. Well, a mistake is a miss-take, like an actor will have a take, but what it is, inside us, is a gift. It’s not that we’re evil or bad. Something within us needs a little watering, a tiny little tending to, and then we grow. If we look back on our life, we can see some of the mistakes, some of the seeming flaws, were precisely what is necessary for us to learn more about ourselves so that we could take better steps better takes the next time.
And so, after, as we grow, we realize those imprints are not who I am. Those are things, the dust in the world’s dirt that’s gotten on me. So, I begin to meditate. I begin to pray affirmatively, and I begin to practice Life visioning. I begin to practice affirmation, study, and spiritual practices that dissolve the imprints so I can see who I am. It’s called a homecoming. I come back to my real nature. There’s nothing wrong with what God has created. We must rediscover it. And we must activate it and grow into it.
At Agape, you always have amazing artists performing, and you started a movement called Dance with the Rev. Why do music and dance contribute to going into a feeling state of joy and gratitude?
Even before I established Agape, I had something called Agape Transformational, which were seminars with different transformational exercises. But I always began those with music to help people get into their heart space and out of their head, and music and lyrics, particularly the music, but the lyrics are also very important. Through that sound, there is a vibration, and since we’re mainly water, that vibration goes into the body. It changes the body’s chemistry so that not only are you receptive on a heart level, but your immune system becomes balanced and amplified. You start to produce tonic chemicals, rather than toxic chemicals, in the body, which is a chemistry set that can produce everything that you need for health. It slows down the aging process and eliminates the condition of disease. So, music is not just entertainment. It tunes you into a higher frequency. When you come to Agape, you come to get free from the constraints of the limited mind and toxicity that you’re bombarded with from the world news, which I call the old.
Your streaming services during the pandemic kept me sane and hopeful. I remember you were talking about the fear. Fear is the virus and the mental health issues that whatever happened in these past three years has created. How can we challenge fear with all the war and conflict happening today?
The last three years have been a challenge to humanity with the lockdown of Healthy People. So, when you have fear, you begin to hurt or hinder your immune system. Fear is not a friend to your immune system. Faith is joy. Love assists your immune system, but fear hinders the immune system. So, if an individual is addicted to the fearmongering that emanates from our news, you’re hindering yourself. I get so many letters from people saying, you got me through the pandemic. You got me through COVID. “You got me through Coronavirus because I was so caught up in fear that I forgot who I was.” But you brought me back to myself. So, this is why we put an emphasis on Joy. Joy is the evidence of God. The emphasis is on asking the right questions and not becoming addicted to the news. Fear stands for either facing everything and running or facing everything and rising. Many people take the fear they face everything and run away from it. Or you can rise. You don’t try to get rid of fear. That’s impossible. Many people have what I call a fear phobia. They are afraid of fear. So, they drink, eat a lot of sugar, overeat, and watch too much television rather than watching their own thinking. Instead of running away from fear, you ask what I am to do in the world right now. What gift am I to give? How am I to share right now? If you ask that question, the universe will answer you. And maybe call a friend. Maybe feed the homeless. Maybe write a poem. Maybe listen to my podcast, Take Back Your Mind. When you start to walk in the direction of that vision or dream, fear then becomes excitement, and everything is energy. Don’t get rid of the fear. It transmutes itself just as ice. When it becomes heated, it transmutes itself into water, and it becomes heated and transmutes itself into gas. Fear becomes excitement. Excitement becomes enthusiasm. If you walk in the direction of a bigger dream, a higher vision, fear will change, and now your immune system is stronger. Your blood pressure is better. You’re becoming healthier. You’re slowing down your aging process. And you become more available to insights and sweet whisperings from the universal presence guiding you, always guiding you. Let your walk in the direction of your dream and your vision transmute fear.
What is blisscipline?
Blisscipine is a word that I coined many years ago. It’s in my book Spiritual Liberation. If you have a discipline, such as I tell people to wake up every day and to read their vision, read something they want to manifest, and just read it before you go to bed. When you wake up in the morning, read an affirmation, read something inspirational, or practice meditation or affirmative prayer, what happens is you practice blisscipline- and that comes from the awareness that one is doing something they love. If a person loves music, they can learn how to play the piano or the guitar. It’s not an obligation. When you really love it, you want to read your affirmation in the morning. You want to stop and have a moment of meditation. Instead of getting to the hustle and bustle of life, stop, have a moment of silence, stillness, and solitude, and feel your way back to yourself. It’s a blessing. It’s bliss.
Most people don’t get bliss. Say you come to a fork in the road. One side of the fork is pleasure, the other side of the fork is bliss. Some simply choose pleasure, which is temporary. And you can become addicted to pleasure. But if you choose bliss, which comes from Awakening, you get pleasure and freedom. But if you come to yourself, you get bliss and pleasure. But the bliss is more permanent. And the pleasure is more permanent. You don’t become addicted to bliss. You can only become addicted to pleasure.
You spoke about being in a meditative state and being on your own. You hold regular retreats for that. And we are looking at the sanctity and the preciousness of Mother Earth. Do you feel that being in nature is helping us? How can we protect the sanctity of this planet?
When you enter nature, a tree is a living being, so when you breathe out, the tree is breathing in the forest is our second set of lungs. We breathe out carbon dioxide. It breathes in carbon dioxide and gives us oxygen.
Additionally, as the tree is alive, when you walk through the forest, the tree vibrationally bows at your divinity. The tree recognizes your divine nature. Therefore, when you’re basking in nature, you’re getting all this vibrational feedback about who you are as a spiritual being, which you may have forgotten because you have shoes on and are walking on cement. You’re in an office, or you’re in a car, cutting you off from nature. You are depleting yourself from a natural source. Some people call it a resource. But it’s a natural source of inspiration.
When men don’t feel connected to Mother Earth, they strip mine the Earth. They bomb Mother
Nature’s nature, they bomb other nations, scorching the Earth with napalm and phosphorus and neutron bombs, and not only killing human beings, but they also don’t have any reverence for the Earth. They strip mine it, and they cut down the rainforest because they’re not in touch with themselves. They’ve drifted so far from who they are. But as we grow more in our spiritual nature, we love the Earth. We start to realize that I’m one with Mother Earth. I am an Earthling. I’m a spiritual being that has emerged from the Earth. I want to be a good steward of the Earth. I don’t want to pollute it or bomb it. I’m going to take care of it. As I would take care of myself
And I think Love will also have a ripple effect on one another, right?
Well, you also start to have reverence for each other. It doesn’t matter what color skin they are, and it doesn’t matter where they were born. It doesn’t matter what language they speak, and it doesn’t matter what their nationality is or what their religion means. You start to realize, “Oh, my God, we’re all sacred beings.” We’ve emerged from the eternal as unique expressions of God. How boring would the world be if every single being looked exactly alike? God doesn’t do that. God creates diversity but does not eliminate unity.
I know I’m an amazing Empath, as are our readers. What happens when you are so connected and empathetic towards whatever is happening in the world that you feel all the pain that comes through the negative stuff? How do you keep your boundaries? How do you keep yourself sane so that you do not feel helpless?
I’ll tell you a personal story. I was visiting someone in the hospital. They were experiencing a condition called cancer. I was visiting the woman, and I prayed for her, and my heart was open. I was empathetic. And many people in that part of the hospital were experiencing cancer. So, as I was leaving the hospital, and when I got to Sunset Boulevard, I just felt overcome. With everything that I experienced in the cancer ward, I could feel the sadness. I could feel people wanting to die. They were ready to leave the body temple. And I started having suicidal thoughts. And I’ll never forget this. I was standing on Sunset Boulevard, and I looked to my left, and there was a bus coming down the street. And I said I could throw myself in front of this bus. And I could end it all. And then I caught myself. I said, what, what am I thinking?
I don’t want to commit suicide! And I realized as an empath, I picked up all the emotions from the people in the cancer ward. I quickly came back to myself, took some real deep breaths, and felt my connection to God’s Presence. Now, I have started practicing something called radiation. Instead of picking up whatever was happening in a room, I would feel my way into love, joy, or peace. And I would bring that into the room. I will radiate that so that if I’m about to walk into a meeting, I will feel how I want that meeting to go. And I’ll bring peace to the room when I want us to be at peace. And so, instead of picking up vibrations, I radiate vibrations. That way, I’m not just a vacuum cleaner sucking up the vibrations of the world. And I don’t pick up everything. I’m not trying to pick up the vibration of people. I don’t want to pick up the room’s vibration. I don’t want to pick up the vibration of the news I radiate. Now, when I meditate in the morning and go out into the world, I’m really at peace and radiating joy. So that creates an armor. I call that this luminosity. It’s all around you. And you start to practice being surrounded by this bright luminosity before you leave the house. And that gives you a kind of protection. And you combine that with remembering a moment when you’re at peace and feel total love. Breathe into it. You exhale it, radiate it out, and walk into the world radiating it. And it gives you a lot of protection.
I know you have many artists, celebrities, and luminaries whom you call friends, such as Oprah, but you also know a lot of actors and filmmakers who come to Agape services. What do you think is the reason that draws so many Hollywood creatives to Agape and to your teachings?
I feel privileged and honored that many of them are my friends, like Sterling Brown, Hillary Swank, and Christina Applegate. I could go on and on. And they don’t consider themselves exceptional people. But a true artist lives on the edge of creativity. There’s a creative urgency. They put themselves into a zone when they perform at Agape, and they feel me being on the edge of being available to the spirit at that moment.
They see a common a commonality between us. I’m a spiritual artist, an artist at the moment. I’m just on the edge of being available to what needs to be said at that moment. Stevie Wonder was there. And he says I feel like I want to sing. Right now. There’s so much war going on in the world. It wasn’t a part of the program, but he just felt like he had to sing for the world because of the distress that was being caused by war and killing. I think they see it, and they feel a kinship with Agape International; it’s a camaraderie in creativity, and we’re influencing in a beautiful, magnificent, and inspirational way.
Given your journey, I will never forget the Oprah interview where you told the audience of your unfolding process.
We have all made mistakes. You don’t measure yourself by what you have done. That’s not who you are. The mistakes you’ve made in life are not who you are. Those are the stepping stones along the way to what you’re becoming. I was with a young boy, he was 20, and Gandhi came up in the conversation. And he said, “Oh, I don’t like Gandhi. He hit his wife.” And I said, “Whoa, hold on, you’re a man. Gandhi admitted that when he was a young man, he was a chauvinist. He was raised by the British Empire and influenced by that hypermasculinity. But he grew into the Gandhi we know when he attributed his nonviolence to his wife and women. Do you want to be known for the worst thing you’ve ever done?”
How would you sum up the process of human evolution?
One of my favorite statements is that every Saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. We have to give each other a break. We’re all unfolding. No one comes out of the womb, a hater. No little infant sitting in their crib hates people because of the color of their skin or where they were born. That’s all I learned. It’s all brainwashed learning. Love is the strongest power on the planet. Where we can be strong enough to love, we can shift the trajectory of the world to a golden age because there’s one thing I know for sure. Justice without love is called revenge. And revenge will never build a world of kindness and compassion. We have to learn to love.
Special Thank you to:
Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith
Editing: Dina Morrone
Photography: Nick Onken
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