The original book, in its regular paperback form of 176 pages, was written in the spring of 1977 after I attended a transformational training called est in the fall of 1976. Between the time I finished the manuscript and published it, I had an experience that totally changed my life. So I added Chapter 18, but I could only refer to the transformational experience in general terms because it had to do with my being totally reconverted to the Mormon Church as one of the most profound organizations the Lord is using to prepare the people of the earth for a transformation of the planet. So for my fellow Latter-day Saints, before you read Christianity and est, I want you to read what happened to me just after writing the book. This book prepared me for that experience in a miraculous way.
     Actually, long before taking the est training, I had wanted to write a book which would show how many scriptures are to be understood on a number of different levels, specifically, four levels. However, every time I had tried to write such a book, I was frustrated by the fact that I knew one cannot get the deeper levels of understanding out of a book because they must be experienced rather than merely conceptualized.

     Joseph Smith stressed the importance of this difference between believing and experiencing in a funeral address less than a year before his own death. He said, "Could we read and comprehend ALL that has been written from the days of Adam on the relation of man to God and angels in a future state, we should know very little about it. Reading the experience of others, or the revelation given to them, can never give us a comprehensive view of our condition and true relation to God...Could you gaze into heaven five minutes, you would know more than you would by reading all that ever was written on the subject."(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 324)
     The powerful experience people get in the est training may not be the "five minutes", but it is significant. The est training was started by Werner Erhard, in 1971. It consisted of two full weekends of very intense processes and lectures which were designed to created a major shift in the way one experiences the self. It is called "getting it." What one gets is a direct experience that we are really source in our lives, not the effect, and that as such, life takes on a whole new meaning. The est program included many follow-on courses to flesh out the transformational experience so that one maintains and expands the shift in awareness to more and more aspects of their lives. On the four levels of truth, I realized that est was on the third level, which has to do with shifting from separateness to oneness, from being at the effect of circumstances to being one with the source of all things.
     I took the est training in December of 1976. My own experience was so profound that I was convinced that if an individual were properly prepared with an understanding of the deeper levels of the Christian gospel, particularly the meat level, that the est training could give one a significant preparation for that experience. It certainly did for me. So in the Spring of 1977, I wrote this book. But it was not the book I would have rather written, which would have been a book on Mormonism and the est experience. But I was convinced very few LDS would read it, so I stayed with the Bible references and addressed the book to Christians in general. Actually, most of all, I was writing the book for graduates of the training who did not appreciate the incredible spiritual implications of their "getting it" experienced toward the end of the training.

     After I took the training, I read a talk Werner Erhard had given that previous summer of 1976 called the Transformation of est. I was warned that the talk was very deep, but it turned out to be the most profound material I had ever found on the processes of transformation. As he defines transformation, it is a shift in the way one experiences self, so that the shift is from the self to the Self, which we would call the infinite Spirit of Christ in which Christ is in all things, and all things are by Him and OF HIM. It is to go from fear to perfect love. As John said, "Love casts out fear because fear is torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." The gospel of Christ is all about the gift of that incredible love, meaning His non-judgmental point of view. Without that gift, nothing else counts. When one makes the transformation from separateness to oneness, one no longer comes from "need," which creates greed, the results of fear.

     But Werner made a point in his talk that we could help transform individuals from now until doomsday and we will never transform the planet. Why? Because transformed people are still into relationships with others, and a relationship becomes a vulnerable entity. As an entity, it can have needs, even though the individual doesn't. So Werner says that there is another level of transformation which is on the level of relationships. What I have found is that when one experiences on this second level, one discovers that all relationships are eternal. They really have no beginning nor end, just as we do not, therefore there is no need to fear. In other words, they are all made in heaven. That is the second level of transformation in the gospel, transformation on the level of relationship.

     The third level of transformation deals with the problem which arises when we formalize relationships by making them into an institution. For example, we change a man/woman relationship into an institution when we get married, and a whole new set of stresses can come into the picture. Well, we cannot have a transformed Zion planet, even in the Millennium, without institutions of all kinds being transformed. Institutions are usually created to serve us and, yet, end up, inevitably, being strictly served. They can be overwhelmingly demanding. Institutions function on chain of command, which is the power to reward and punish. As we all know, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Practically all institutions in the history of the world have developed unrighteous dominion because they need, in order to succeed, to require absolute agreement, i.e., if you don't agree, then get out! This stifles initiative and spontaneity. Every institution, whether it is church, school, commerce or government, has been plagued by their power to force agreement. As Joseph Smith pondered in D&C 121:39-40, our people are no exception. "We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. Hence many are called, but few are chosen."
     Werner's talk was a real eye opener to me as he explained how he was trying to bring his own organization of est into the level of transformation, for it too had become evil, meaning that it had given up its purpose to serve in order to survive and prosper in the world by compulsion. So I asked for permission to use his whole talk in the book, Christianity and est. I related his concepts to what had happened to the Christian churches in the last 2,000 years and how they, by experiencing the principles taught in the est training, could start the churches toward a true spiritual awakening on all three levels of transformation. The fourth level is the transformation of the earth, which we call Zion.

     You might ask, can these things be obtained outside the Church? Well, at the time I wrote the book, I was outside the Church, myself. During the late Sixties, in writing a book on the life of Joseph Smith, I began to find some very troubling things. When I learned about the incredible gift of channeling that many people experience these days, and knowing that Joseph received the entire Book of Mormon out of a stone and did not use the plates, according to all the witnesses, I finally concluded that Joseph Smith was not what he thought he was. I don't want to go into further detail as to all the things I found, and how my own little group of faithful LDS had gratefully received revelations, visions and prophecies, many of which also failed, I was sure that I had proven the Church could not be what I had thought it was. So I quietly left the Church in 1970, not bitter, but disillusioned, and happily went on my way.

     After leaving the Church, I continued on my spiritual quest. I had many rich experiences in the years following, particularly doing the est training six years later. After I wrote Christianity and est, my wife Dorothy and I drove to California with the manuscript to attend another est training, called The Communication Workshop. Ted Long, one of the top est trainers, read the manuscript and was jubilant. He told me that in 1975, sixty books had been written on est. Although only nine were published, Ted said he was assigned to read them all and send the authors editorial comments. He told me that he had to write pages and pages to each author explaining what the training was really all about. In contrast, he emphasized that my approach was in direct alignment because I understood that Werner was not about making one's life "better," but a transformation in the way life is experienced.

     I was very impressed with the Communication Workshop because it emphasized, even more than in the basic training, experiencing ourselves as source, rather than effect. One point that was made which turned out to have a profound effect on me was a simple demonstration with a pen. The trainer held a pen in his hand and then dropped it to the floor. He then said, "We all saw what we think happened. The pen traveled from my hand by the force of gravity to the floor. But maybe it didn't. Possibly, every trillionth of a second, the pen was converted back into energy and then was recreated, almost exactly where it was, but just a little different. "So," he said, "we may have had a whole series of newly created pens, just as the whole universe is being recreated, exactly as contemplated in the infinite and eternal now."
     I knew that in Quantum Mechanics, it has been found that inside the atom there is nothing but light, which is wave one moment, then particle the next, alternating between energy and mass. Energy is not manifest in the universe, so in substance, it has disappeared, just like the series of still pictures which make up a notion picture. We think the person moves across the screen, but actually it is a whole series of still pictures. The trainers point was that very possibly the universe is being continually recreated by its Source, and we are an individualization of the Source. As I related his message to gospel principles of the light of Christ being in all things and out of which all things are made, I found the thought intriguing.

     After leaving California to go back to our home in New Mexico, I was driving along on the Arizona desert when, all of a sudden, I was experiencing the pulsating nature of the desert scene before me, as if it were disappearing and being recreated a few times a second. Not only that, but I was experiencing that an infinite aspect of myself was sourcing it. I began describing what I was experiencing to my wife. Then my focus shifted from outside the car to myself. I had the incredible experience of seeing that I, as source, had created this guy called Max, every trillionth of a second, exactly the way the infinite part of me wanted to experience being a human being. Wow! What an incredible realization of the perfection of our imperfection. Then I became aware of my Mormon ancestry and wondered why had I created Max as a Mormon? It was then that I was allowed to see that everything that happened in the establishment of the Church, both fallible and miraculous as it was, were the doings of Christ, just as everything else on the earth is OF HIM and BY HIM. I really gained an appreciation of the statement in the D & C, that "in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in ALL THINGS..."(D&C 59:21)
     I had never understood that principle so clearly. Yes, the Lord uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, i.e., people like me! All of those things are on the tree of knowledge, anyway, and the ultimate purpose of the forbidden tree of knowledge is to get us to forsake it and go to the tree of life, the source of eternal life, for we cannot have both trees at the same time.

     Then the Lord showed me some marvelous things about the Church and Life's intention for its future. Remember, I had just written a book about the four levels of transformation, particularly transformation on the level of institution. What I was shown is that the Church founded by Joseph Smith is intended to be the trailblazer for the entire world in demonstrating transformation on the level of institution. As Werner explained it, a non-transformed institution, and that is about the only kind the world has ever known, functions on agreement, which restricts freedom and creativity, thriving on power and control. A transformed organization functions, not on agreement, but on alignment, in which everyone is coming from the same space of unconditional love, or as we would call it, the pure love of Christ, even Zion, the pure in heart.
     As a people, most of us have not even believed that we could possess such a state permanently in this life. This was because of our vanity and unbelief. What we have given people is "the true Church," which holds the preparatory gospel, but was not allowed to deliver the ultimate, perfecting fruit of the tree of life. All of this is by Christ's perfect design, of course, to hold us back until we had become strong enough to endure the glory, even the glory of Zion. But I saw that the leaders of the Church would soon take the Church through a transformation on the level of institution. They were to lead the way, when it is the time, right on schedule, just exactly as Christ has contemplated it.

     I was shown why the LDS Church is the one prepared and the only one that can make the shift. Why? Because, first of all, it must be a religious institution, but without a paid ministry. It just won't work with personal gain involved. Second, it must be an authoritative Church, so that the program can be orchestrated and inspired from on top. It will not work solely as a grass roots movement. Third, the meat and the milk must be able to coexist in the same organization. Ordinarily meat, the pure love of Christ, which takes away fear, will destroy milk, which is the law of good and evil and is based upon fear. Right now we teach the meat only in the temple, and there we do it allegorically, meaning symbolically. Our people don't usually get the deeper meaning because Christ has not given them eyes to see, for it is not yet time. But I saw the time when people would go into the temple and be "endowed" with their "5 minutes" or so, and actually experience who they really are in their cosmic, infinite and eternal glory. It is then that they will know that they do not NEED the Church. Instead, they will CHOOSE the Church! It is a big difference.

     Meanwhile, the whole preparatory gospel will shift, as it is beginning to do so at this time, from the self improvement level of works to the grace level of being wrought upon more powerfully by the Holy Ghost, which is much higher up on the tree of knowledge. Through all of this, I saw the Church becoming such a source of celebration, joy and love that millions will be joining the Church annually. No longer will we worry about peoples' testimonies of the "truth," for they will have the experience of the perfect love of Christ, the pearl of great price. Sure the Church was flawed in its beginning, just as it is today, just as each of us is and will be while on this earth, but when we start enabling people to, first of all, really experience the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, then send them to the temple where they can be taken through the change of a direct, personal endowment, enabling them to feast upon the fruit of the tree of life, never to hunger or thirst again, we will agree with President Hunter who said that the gospel "is not bound by history, nationality, or culture. It is not the peculiar property of any one people or any one age.(Ensign, November, 1991, p. 19)

     This whole experience lasted several hours as I continued driving across the desert, describing it all to my wife. During that time, I saw that the Church of my birth, purposely flawed as it is, is not only the work of God, it is truly greater than I had ever dreamed. I asked in awe, "Oh, I don't want to miss all of that for that is what my whole life is about. But they won't let me back in because I know too many of the wrong things." Instantly, I was assured, "You wouldn't be allowed back if this was man's Church, but it is My Church. You will be allowed back."

     The next question that came to my mind was this, "I don't see how the Church can be such a glorious, exploding light to the world and not let the blacks have the priesthood. It just won't wash any more. But I know the doctrine, that they must wait until after the millennium, so no Mormon prophet could get a revelation changing eternal doctrine." The answer, "Of course not, if this was man's Church, but it is My Church." This experience happened in the summer of 1977. President Kimball announced the revelation on ALL worthy males being eligible to receive the priesthood the next year, in 1978. Also I have been permitted to regain my membership and the restorations of all blessings. My testimony has never been so strong, that this really is God's greatest work on the face of the earth and the prophet leading the Church is truly His servant, doing exactly what Christ contemplated him doing, right on schedule. Starting with President Benson's calling the Church out from under condemnation, the Church is gradually shifting more and more to grace. Wonderful books, like Believing Christ, are flourishing, teaching the power of grace.

     So that is the story that I could not share in a generic book to Christians, but I wanted to share with my LDS friends. Much of this material will be covered in fuller detail in the last three books of the series on A Blessing Hitherto Unknown, particularly the last book, which is Perfection in Christ. Book IV will have to do with my own understanding of how the Church, as an institution, might experience this transformation. But none of us, individually, need wait to experience personal transformation on all the levels. Our marriages are institutions, so are our businesses. The key is that transformation takes place in the heart of the individual. So I live, today, in a transformed Church. I have chosen, out of my liberty in Christ, to come under the authority of the brethren. I do what they ask me to do, and it is in absolute liberty that I chose to do what I am told. It is not out of need, for need is bondage. It is out of love, love of the marvelous work and a wonder that Christ is bringing to pass in the incredible organization of the kingdom of God we came on earth to function in and be blessed by.

     Now, what about Werner and est? Was he able to pull it off and transform his organization. The answer is no! Try as he would, he could not get rid of the abuse of power. He would try one way and then another. For one thing, his organization was too new. It takes seasoning and the development of a disciplined and dedicated legacy. That is why, I believe, the Church was restored several hundred years before the Lord was ready to put it in high gear. We were given an impossible assignment, that of establishing Zion, the pure in heart, so that we could be put under the restrictions and chastising of the Lord. As Brigham Young revealed, "My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom."(D&C 136:31)

     Yes, Werner put over 600,000 people through est and its successor, The Forum. Twenty four outside studies were made to determine the effects of the training on the lives of the graduates. All were positive. People, in the vast majority, became more empowered in their lives. But the institution floundered and so did Werner. Why? He was a pioneer and out on his own. He had no one to coach him. We, as a Church, were not ready to be there for him as we will be someday. His program was an incredible blessing to me as it has been for many others, but again, power corrupts. That is why the Lord, in my opinion, has been getting His Church prepared to lead the way. That is why we were given the priesthood. One does not need the priesthood to have the power to do miracles through faith. The priesthood is the organizing function, the structure upon which the kingdom of God is built. It is the power to administer the ordinances which are the initiatory rituals of passage, allowing the organization to bind and loose, both on earth and in heaven.
     So it all boils down to this, the Church is not what we think it is. It is much, much more. And we, in turn, are not what we think we are. We are much, much more. So enjoy reading Christianity and est, the Four Levels of Transformation in the Gospel. There may be some thrilling discoveries for you along the way.

Max Skousen