Hope Johnson

I was born into a family of Christian missionaries. Most of society would have called them cult members, but I choose to view them as Christian missionaries, because they traveled around the world and preached the gospel. I learned to give people a sense of hope by communicating to them something that made them more at ease with life and death. I can’t remember the feeling of actually believing what I was saying, but I said it with conviction, and I realized that by preaching Jesus, people felt more at ease. I imagine that I also felt more at ease knowing that I was helping others to feel better.

Being a missionary has taught me that most people are going through life with the burden of fear, whether they know it or not, and that fear tends to transmute into doubt, negativity, irritability, impatience, anger, dread, etc. Our message was powerful enough that it helped people to release fearful thoughts, and therefore make their lives more joyful.

While I loved helping people to feel better, I knew very deeply that there had to be more to me than living here on Earth, dying, and then going to another place where I will experience heaven. Besides, my parents were quite a bit radical in that they believed our purpose here on Earth was to preach the gospel, period. They did this by traveling around with little money, living in trailers, tents, etc., and they were willing to “forsake” everything, even their very own children to accomplish this.

Well, my parents’ version of the missionary lifestyle was just not appealing to me, and I really wanted to become part of the “system” that our group always seemed to be battling. I wanted to have a regular family that didn’t move constantly, an education, a job, money, and all the things life had to offer.

Upon reaching adulthood, I decided that I no longer believed that there was a God. This was quite a step to take because I was always taught that God would deal with me if I turned my back on “him”. However, I knew that I would have already been punished for this belief because I could not even remember a time when I really did believe in God or Jesus.

Praying to someone outside of me felt uncomfortable and superstitious. I felt like I came here to create my own reality, to be my own God.

During the next 15 years, I started out completely agnostic – not knowing for sure if there was a God, while making a very good living especially according to missionary standards and raising a healthy, happy family with my husband. Over time, as I absorbed many books – mostly nutritional and scientific – I came to realize that there is an unspeakable intelligence working through our physical bodies.

Then I began pouring through metaphysical books and college textbooks on consciousness, and everything really started to make sense to me. Now I realize that our beings or spirit are being expressed through our physical bodies (our cells), and that we are here to experience joy and love.

This is obvious to me because when I am fully aware of my being, I am in a state of love and joy. From this perspective, I can affect everyone and everything around me in a positive way, and I feel no conflict in my mind or in my body. Just by consistently modifying my thoughts toward experience a better feeling, the tension in my body releases, and I am able to raise the vibration of others just by being near them.

Now, from a perspective of actual knowledge, I have a powerful desire to help others find the peace of mind that comes with being connected with true depth of their being. I know that when people change their minds, they change their lives; and if the majority of people realize the power within them, we will come to know peace/heaven on Earth.

So, with that in mind, here’s my mission statement: to inspire people toward understanding the true nature of their being in order to bring more love, joy, peace and heaven into our shared experience here on Earth.