This is a magnificent tape - likely one of the richest so far. It covers the spiritual depression that signals genuine seeking, what it truly means to love, the auric field and how lifestyle choices affect it, pre-incarnation planning, karma as joyful opportunity, and includes Bartholomew's urgent call to commitment. This tape, together with 30B and 30C, forms a remarkable trilogy from June 1978. The title barely hints at the depth - it's really a comprehensive teaching on the entire spiritual life.

The Depression of Genuine Seeking: A questioner asked about feeling "too serious, almost depressed" when listening to spiritual teachings. Bartholomew responded that this is actually an encouraging sign - when one truly grasps that there is a reality to be found in the Godhead, an inner yearning often expresses itself as depression. "If someone just floats along on the surface very happy and very carefree... I would seriously doubt that this person was really confronting what they needed to confront." Surface spiritual giddiness is easily deflected by a new romance, a child, a business opportunity. The genuine path requires "an upwelling of desire so much that it is able to cut through all the desire layers" - and this takes courage, power, and continuance.

What It Really Means to Love Your Brother: When someone claims to love all humanity unconditionally yet doubts they love God, Bartholomew gently challengeed this. True love of brotherhood isn't something you "work yourself into" - it is "a force field of dynamic, moving, creative energy that moves through you." If you think you are the one loving, you're trapped. When divine love truly moves through you, "the small self that you have revered for so many incarnations dies... and there is nothing but that love manifested." To say you love all brothers but don't know it's divine "means to me that perhaps you're confused in thinking that it is you who is loving."

The Force Field You Carry and Build: Bartholomew explained why austerities matter - not to "become spiritual" (which just fattens the ego), but because your auric field acts like a radio receiver: "wherever the dial is, is what you bring in." What you take into your body and what your mind is attuned to together determine what enters your being. When you walk down the street, you're not just a body passing other bodies - force fields extend out and touch everyone. "You don't have to say a word. What you are is incredibly dynamically moving and touching everybody." Taking responsibility for your force field means making it "as dynamically creative and as helpful on the earth plane" as possible.

Pre-Incarnation Planning and the Pull to Incarnate: Before taking on a physical body, consciousness is utterly aware - and knows that incarnating into separateness won't bring lasting joy. Yet the pull is too strong, like an alcoholic who knows drinking won't help but cannot stop. Part of the mind says "I've done it a million times, it's not going to work," while another part insists "this time will be blissful." So souls plan carefully, making agreements with others: "It isn't a happenstance that out of all of the people on the earth, two old antagonists find themselves married." Dreams sometimes come as reminders: "We made a bargain. Where are you?" Yet divine beings cannot intrude - free will is sacred, and "the one level of control that the human ego has is the level of choice."

Surrender, Right Action, and the Call to Service: Right action cannot be performed by consulting books, friends, or past experience - it comes through surrender. "When you really turn within and say, help, and mean it... the answer comes." But if you've already decided what you want and go through the "ritual of pretense of asking," nothing will come - your own desire will override any soft voice from the infinite. Bartholomew issued an urgent call: "There is a tremendous need on the earth plane at this time for love, for help. We need help... dark times are coming." He warned those close to awakening: "Once taken up, you're not going to get away... Once you lay it down, we will pick it up. And then your life is gone. It's our life there." The session closed with a tribute to the Socorro group and "two children of the one God in whom we are well pleased" - trustworthy because humble, believable because they speak truth.