The Prosperos Community Update

 

Community Update February 2026

** Class, Meetings, & Activities  save the dates! **
(see below feature article)



 –The Truth Behind Appearances–

by Mara Pennell, H.W.,m.

…the text of Mara’s Sunday Meeting talk of January 25, 2026 

This morning I wanted to address some things I have come to the awareness of in the last few months, that I would like to share in this talk. What is going on? I mean in my own life. I have noticed changes that I want to share. I am not necessarily directing this at any of you. I am talking to myself. (But, aren’t we always?) However, I invite you to see if this applies to you at any level. If it does, you are welcome to share in any of my conclusions. Please help yourself!


Mara Pennell, H.W.,m.        

Additionally, I am submitting this as a report as President of the High Watch, reflecting on my top priorities for the year. What is going on in some of the different aspects of the Prosperos, which I am either responsible for or involved with? And, frankly, I am excited about what is going on.

Let me start at the beginning, or at least what was the beginning for this presentation — where I have been, and what has been going on internally.       First, I want to report that I am very aware of my thinking processes, which, due to chemo therapy, are improving daily. I can see that my mind is clearing from the poison of chemo, and that my thinking processes are more clear every day. This makes me really happy.

What I really want to discuss is Truth. Recently, I had an idea for something to write for Vesper Flights, but as sometimes happens with ideas, on closer inspection they turn out to be ego driven. I found that, on second glance or third, my article began to fall apart. I recently asked a friend to look at the piece I was going to submit to Vesper Flights. But the longer I worked on it, the more my ideas began to fall apart. By the end, I found was talking to myself, because no one was going to be listening. My original purpose was gone, and I found myself with nothing to say.       

I can fool myself with “bright ideas,” and the longer I work on them, the less they hold up under my own scrutiny. What looks on the surface like a good idea, is suddenly full of holes. Who I am talking to, and what I am trying to say, disappear, and what I find myself left with is garbage; I can try to pretty it up with some kind of decoration, but it still looks like a piece of you-know-what.

I find there are holes in what I am saying, and trying to pass off as a bright idea. It’s not that I am interested in fooling anyone; it’s that I have been fooling myself.

My bright idea may even have been meaningful at one time, but it did not pass the test of time. This is a good gauge to measure where an idea rates. I am aware that, when I listen to vintage recordings from The Prosperos, I can see that a talk given in 1971 is still valid today. That is what I mean by the test of time.       

Ideas we had in our youth may have been helpful in our youth, but they do not apply to what is going on in our life now. Real Truth stands the test of Time, and we must make room for the Unpredictable Good to show itself. So, I turn back to the immortal words — you might have heard them:

           Truth is that which is so.
           That which is not Truth, is not so.
           Therefore, Truth is all there is.

They seem like simple words, but I maintain they are what defines our clarity.

It’s sort of like this. I am not going to wear a micro-mini or hot pants today. No one wants to see that! While there is nothing inherently wrong with either of the garments I mentioned, they are simply no longer in style. Nor do they work in today’s world. That is most important.       

The same can apply to ideas. You know, toward the end of his teaching on chiropractic and getting and managing new patients, my Dad found that some things no longer worked, because the times have changed. Which is funny, because he used to joke, “Hold on to your Confederate money, boys; the South will rise again!” Knowing that it would not was part of the joke.

Some things change with the times. But What Is True is always true. There are no exceptions. When we look at absolutes, these absolutes are always True. Like LOVE. Love is always Love. If it isn’t, we are not talking about Love anymore, and just because we call it what it is not, doesn’t make it so. Besides which, that would be attempting magic.       I recently realized I have come to the point where I no longer enjoy many of the things I once enjoyed. Maybe that means I am growing up? I’m not certain. Things that were once used as a distraction no longer hold any meaning for me, the way they once did.

I discovered this on my trip to France, and the cruise I took to the Caribbean. I found myself unsatisfied. Something I came seeking was not to be found where I was looking. Oh, I had momentary feelings of pleasure and inspiration as I visited places. Yet, it was all temporary. The feelings of joy, or en-joy-ment, were fleeting.

What makes me happy or what makes me satisfied are new questions for me to look at. I think this is all due to a change within myself. I suspect I realized some of this while going through recent cancer treatment. I wondered at first if there was something wrong with me, but I came to realize I had changed. That was all. I was no longer amused by what I used to think was pleasure or entertainment. I discovered that they had been a hiding place.        

It is now my place to discover what I really care about. Not what I am supposed to care about or find enjoyment in. This is very similar to Truth. Truth does not change. It does not stop being Truth. There are some things that are still true for me. I know I love to share in the exchange of ideas. I still find great joy in my examination of nature.

These things have not changed, so I know that they are True within me and not a distraction. Because I am looking for my Unpredictable Good.       Do you want to know what I really care about? I care about the future of the Prosperos. I took a look at what my top pieces are for the coming year, and I want to share what I find exciting about them.

1.The Prosperos Central West Group — I am excited about our group. We started eight months ago and are still going strong! We are exploring the Find Yourself and Live series together, as well as planning for field trips locally. We are looking at people we can invite to join us and also become Prosperos members. I love our dinners; there is so much excitement in getting together in person and having conversations! None of this just happened. There has been a great deal of energy put into this by both me and Pam Rodolph. We talk to people and invite them. We get to know them, and we are open about who we are. We often find people are excited about what we are talking about. Our first class will be given live in Tulsa in May — Calvin Harris, H.W.,M. will be teaching Releasing The Hidden Splendour™.  I will confirm the date, so if any of you want to come, you can plan. Come and meet our group!

2.    The High Watch Translation® Service. I am learning about this every day. I did learn one very important thing, while on my trip. One of the requests which came through was overlooked, and I apologize for this. My backup became very ill, and between us, something was lost. I now have a plan for backup when I leave again; this will involve several people, so we do not overlook another request. That request was ultimately taken care of, because I do Translation® on every request that comes through. I want everyone to know that I don’t plan to be gone for a very long time at his point. I also want to thank Calvin Harris and Mike Zonta, H.W.,M. for their assistance in covering this.

3. My other High Watch obligations are related to our Assembly committee, now planning for 2026 and 2027. We have a new member for our group, Jennifer Allsman, who is my stepdaughter as well as being part of the Central West group. She is very interested in being a part of this, and I welcome her to our planning group. Because of doctor appointments and other obligations, we will not meet until next Friday. However, I did send out questions that I want us to look at before we start planning, and we will be discussing them as a group on Friday this week. Planning Assembly is fun!

4. I’m also looking at my position as a Trustee. We are the directors of the School, and I want to upgrade my leadership skills, improve our communication with students, and assist in making what is going on clear for everyone. We all need to know what is happening.       

There is a lot to consider for this year, and I find that perhaps I no longer need distraction in my life. I looked this up in the dictionary and did some word tracking to see what the dictionary said, and I was glad I did. “Distraction: A thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else.” This is important to me. What am I distracting myself from????

I find I have to ask myself, what is it that I have avoided giving my full attention to? I think this might be something I need to continue to look at, because when I first ask myself this question, my answer is, “I don’t know.” Which is likely not true. Because I have found that whatever I categorize that way is not something I don’t know, but is likely something I don’t want to look at. Great word search!       

Part of what I realize is going on is that I am reaching a deeper phase of accountability to everything in my life. I have awakened enough that when I say I don’t know the answer, it is always a lie. I am lying to myself. There is always something that I have I pushed behind the curtain, that I don’t want to look at. One of my goals for this year is to look clearly at what I have been hiding from myself. Really search my motives. Seek what I need to look at and at least acknowledge.

I also know that I am able to do this because of The Prosperos teachings I have had the privilege of being a part of. Whatever I am hiding from myself needs to be brought into the light of day, so I can examine it and see what is True about it. I often find that when I do this, it looks nothing like what I feared, or at the very least it wasn’t what I thought it was.

What I find amusing is that when I find myself pissed off by what I see going on somewhere in the world, I eventually come to the awareness that it isn’t the thing itself. It is always something that points back to me, that makes me look in the mirror — or the hall of mirrors — to see what I really need to see. I can no longer blame what is outside of myself, because everything going on in my life is about Me!       

I had a bad three days on my cruise. None of it was unfolding as I had planned. Part of our group had an emergency and could not come at the last minute, and many of my plans fell through because of that. What was really going on was that I was working through some things. It wasn’t due to anything outside of me. I Translated it, and then I set some auto-suggestion. Do you know what happened? I woke up the next day with the clouds gone, and have really been enjoying myself since that moment. Once again, it was all about me. No surprise there….

Do you know why I am here in the Prosperos? I truly want to understand myself better. Then I want to be able to assist others in the same endeavor. I know that, little by little, I am finding I can drop the belief systems that cloud my vision and thinking. It is happening. I can see the forward movement. I am excited to see where I am headed! What I know is that I am not the same girl who came to The Prosperos around eight years ago. I can see much that has dropped away, and needed to drop away. I can see much that I have learned. And much that I still need to learn, mostly about myself.       What is it I need to know about my world. what is truly important? At this point in my life, I would say it is LOVE. I don’t mean romantic love, although that is very nice. I mean Agape love, and I think this ties to our purpose: focusing on the wellbeing of others, caring about more than our own backs or what we can get out of it. Agape is not transactional.

When we are self-centered we miss the mark, because it is really about service to humanity. It is where we find ourselves, in our service to others. Could it be that our service to others is what really feeds us? Since there is only ONE, it may be that to truly understand oneself is to be of service to another. Except that there is no other. Have you ever considered that how we treat others is a reflection of our own self-love and acceptance?        I am reminded of some song lyrics I know. I have several friends who are song writers and performers. Here are some lyrics to a song they wrote:

           There is only one of us
           In your eyes it’s me I see
           There is only one of us
           You are my reflection
           There is only love

I think they hit the nail on the head. This is the Truth beyond the Appearance.       

We see our own reflection in the Hall of Mirrors, and it tells us so much about ourselves, about our motives in life.

What I am aware of is that, for perhaps the first time in my life, I am okay with who I am. For much of my life, I have been surrounded by people telling me who I should be. Coming back to The Prosperos has allowed me to dig through all the “should be’s” to discover the real me underneath. AND to realize it is not only okay to be — but that discovering my true nature is a good thing.

When I focus on what I have control over, life is very good indeed. Trying to control the uncontrollable is a one-way ticket to nowhere. It’s like what they tell you when you fly in an airplane. You must put on your own oxygen mask before you can assist anyone else. As a Mentor in training, this is a first-things-first issue.       One of the best things I have learned in The Prosperos is some of what was unhealed inside me. I am certain I have not discovered it all, but I find myself to be in a place safe enough to even take a look, where no one is waiting to call out “Gotcha!” To be clear, after eight years, that our School is a safe place to heal, is everything.

I know I am also surrounded by individuals who are searching for themselves, and who are also ready to hold a hand out to assist me with my oxygen mask. They aren’t there to point a finger, but are ready to help me see a finger pointing at what needs to be seen. My friend Rocco Errico always said that when you point a finger at someone else, there are three pointing back at you. When we help others rather that chastise, we all benefit.       

Self-discovery can sometimes feel painful.  It isn’t for the faint of heart, but it is so-o-o-o-o worth it. It isn’t just what I have learned from The Prosperos that will help me be a better Mentor, it is also what I have released, that likely never served me. It is those glimpses of Truth that are why we are here, and frankly, the biggest gift in our possession is to pass this on to others, so that they too may move through the murky shadows and find themselves in the light of Truth.

Thank you for listening to me today.

Mahalo Nui Loa,
Mara Pennell, H.W.,m.Coming Events

**  Sunday Meetings  **
 
–  “It Is Time Now to Connect with Our Innate Self!” –Part 2
with Heather Williams, H.W.,M.
Sunday, February 15, 2026  –  11:00 AM PT
 In this second part of my two-part series, I will focus on the creativity that is within us. Every human being is born with a creative seed within them. No one can tell you what it is. We each must listen to our heart, and we must find ways to draw out our creativity. I will give some exercises, and explain how the Translation® technique can help us evolve and move forward in our lives.
More information:
https://www.theprosperos.org/prosperos-events/things-or-love-77l23
 
–  “Reflections on My Journey”?  
with Pam Rodolph, H.W.,M.
Sunday, March 1, 2026  –  11:00 AM PT
–Pam shares with us a stimulating exploration of her journey from childhood to The Prosperos, and her search for Mature Innocence. You’ll love to hear her insights!
More information:
https://www.theprosperos.org/prosperos-events/sunday-talk-23-06-2024-mjscy-y7ygl 

**  Class  **
 
–  Translation®
with Heather Williams, H.W.,M.S
Saturday/Sunday, February 21-22, 2026
Translation® provides an easy-to-use method for stripping away false ideas and releasing your Innate Self — that wholeness and integrity which is your birthright!
More information:
https://www.theprosperos.org/prosperos-events/translation202403-kxjpk

**  Ongoing Events  **

–  DreamGroup
with HughJohn Malanaphy, H.W.,M.
Thursday evenings — explore the conscious-unconscious connection 

–  Friday Night Open DiscussionGroup
with Clint Lambert
Friday evenings — Bring your topic, and your Straight Thinking hat! 

–  Translation® Saturday Meeting
with Mike Zonta, H.W.,M.
Saturday mornings (for those who have taken Translation® class only)

More information about these groups: https://www.theprosperos.org/events
How Can We Help You?

High Watch Translation® ServiceThe High Watch Translation® Service is supported by our High Watch members, and all requests made through this link or via our website are confidential. Mara Pennell, H.W., m. is our liaison for all requests. You may add additional information, or inform us of any changes or requests for further Translation® in your situation, at any time through the link below.
Translation® is our form of prayer. It is used to get to the Truth of any situation or dilemma, and access the Unpredictable Good. Did you know that you can request Translation® from the High Watch Translation® Service for any situation going on in your life?           

This is the primary purpose of the High Watch – 
            To hold the High Watch for you and with you.


 For more about the HWTS: https://www.theprosperos.org/hwts

FOR MORE INFORMATION…We invite you to visit our websites for information about the School, as well as for descriptions of our wide selection of printed, recorded, and online resources (many are free; others are available for purchase).General Information – For our calendar, class descriptions and blog, as well as other articles and information, please visit https://TheProsperos.org.

 Audio Center – This site offers free podcasts, talks and lectures, plus a wealth of other recorded material for our students and friends. To see what’s available, please visit https://TheProsperos.com.
A Publication of The Prosperos High Watch
Copyright © 2026 The Prosperos, All rights reserved.


Our mailing address is:
The Prosperos
P.O. Box 4969
Culver City, CA 90231

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