INSTITUTE OF
APPLIED METAPHYSICS Where One Comes to Know
Where OneComes to Know
A brief history of how the Institute came to
exist.
The idea for the creation of the
Institute ofApplied Metaphysics developed from the suggestions and contributions of many who
read the Renford Books when they were still in manuscript form. While my studies had been going on for years
and in a number of countries, there was only a single body of written material to which I had given no title.
This work constituted my understanding on a wide range of subjects, each related to the Universal
Laws. As a student of the Institute ofApplied Metaphysics you will learn that one of the Universal Laws is the Law
Relativity. One of its meanings is “Everything
is connected and every action has a reaction”.
In other words, you cannot adequately explain and understand one Law without understanding its connection to
the others. This led me down many paths of
research.
The single manuscript, of necessity, covered
three main areas that eventually became the three sections and three degrees of study. As early as 1985, the basics of what was to become
The Laws of Material Wealth had been written in England. In 1989, the
first draft of The House That Namuh Built was
written. It was many years later before it
reached its final form. In fact, it was
completed in layers as better understanding was gained with regard to the connection between the Universal
Laws.In Search of Self is a collection of poems and free verse pertaining
to the Universal Laws. The collection contains
verse that spans my career from as early as 1966. It was not until 1996 that the main body of research
material was divided into four books.What Now? Essays by Renford contains work that also dates back to
the sixties.
It was during the war years, as a missionary
in South Viet Nam, that I began to study Eastern religions. In the mission program, my wife and I worked with the Chinese
community in Cholon, adjacent to Saigon. I studied Mandarin Chinese at the Saigon School of Living
Languages (A part of SaigonUniversity). We studied at home with a tutor. I was very interested in
Chinese culture, even learning how to write with the “Mao Bi”, the hair pen for Chinese
calligraphy. We established a school there
where we taught English using a bible study course.
I had been trained first to establish common
ground with my students by showing how we were alike in our thinking, and then to show how we had the only “real
truth”, the revelation of God’s word in the Bible.
My students were Taoist and Buddhist or simply adhered to traditional Confucian thought. The only way to establish common ground was to strip away the
doctrines and dogma and establish the basic principles of our respective religions.
What I found was that the root principles,
though expressed in stories of very different cultures, were the same. What developed was a life long study of how all religions may
be different as to doctrines and creeds, but at the core, the Universal Principles are invariant. I began then
to study how they were alike as opposed to how they were different. The Great Masters taught the same principles and in a similar
manner. They told little stories, and the
Universal Laws are the basis of each. The
differences came when those who followed them began developing their organizations, their rules and their
interpretations of the Masters’ words. Their
embellished stories about their Masters created mystical or supernatural characters. There are many examples of this. They created doctrines and
dogmas that were never a part of the pristine principles of the Great Masters.
During the 20 years of my travels in the Far
East, the Middle East and Europe, I studied and absorbed the religions and
cultures of the countries in which we lived. I
continued to record my understanding of the Great Masters’ teachings with no intention of
publishing. It was a process of personal
understanding. My wife and I wanted to teach
our children how to think for themselves and be
in harmony with the Universal Laws. It was important to us that they come toknowas opposed to simply believing what others
accepted on faith or based upon tradition. We
wanted them toknowthe “Laws of Life”, which are the
Universal Laws.
My rejection of organized religion and
acceptance of certain practices such as meditation and maintaining a vegetarian diet came from my
studies. It had nothing to do with adhering to any
particular religious law or creed. By recording my
understanding, I wanted to provide for our children, and anyone else, a guide toknowing. We all have the ability toknow, however, most people do not recognize this
and, instead, accept what they have been taught from birth.
The basis of the Renford Books is the study
of the Universal Laws, and yet this is the material that, if it comes out clearly at all, comes very late in
many esoteric schools. I have placed this at the
beginning because without understanding of the Universal Laws, there is no foundation for understanding Levels
Two and Three. The reasons are addressed in the section pertaining to the degree program but they are painfully
obvious when you find books that cover the subject matter of Sections Two and Three in
isolation.
There are some very good books on the
Sumerian cuneiform Texts, the Tao, the Bible, the Koran and the Vedas. There are some good books on alien intervention, but what
have all these subjects to do with each other and why are things the way they are in the world? When taken as a whole, we find answers, which hitherto have
evaded us. We need to understand the world and our
purpose for being here. We need to know who we
are, the one within, our true Self. While it is
necessary for us to learn and experience in small increments, there must be an eventual connecting of the
dots.We have to see
the whole picture to have complete understanding and this is the heart of the program created by the
Institute.