-DAN BOGRAND -

Individuals have played pivotal roles in our mission as was the case with Ken. His energy and consciousness was generously given to hold a place on the Tree of Living Knowledge and we honor his contribution. Because of the dynamic nature of our mission it is time for him to step aside and for someone else to fulfill the final stage. Dan Bogrand fulfills that role as a Close Associate to the I.D.E.A. Foundation and takes his place in furthering the Divine Plan of the Know Thyself Initiative with his administrative experience.

Ken Thomas
“I have always wondered what the purpose of life was all about. I have searched the peaks and valleys for truth and meaning in this world. I knew there was just more to the meaning of life besides the offerings of the status quo. My desire and drive for Truth has at times been misplaced and misguided by my own ego and the will of others. I have experienced trepidation, despair, fear and hopelessness but deep down in the depths of my being I knew that my life was always being guided by God and I would find the destiny I was born to fulfill. After discovering the Know Thyself Initiative sponsored by the I.D.E.A. Foundation I know that I have found my spiritual place and purpose as one of its Close Associates.”    —Dan—
CONTACT DAN



DAN'S
CODES
COLORS:
  • Yellow = Divine Will
  • Green-Yellow =
    Transformed Heart
  • Yellow-Green = Spirit
  • Orange = Super -
    Consciousness
  • Green = Balance
  • Red = Reason
  • Red-Orange =
    Higherself - Intuition
  • Blue = Timelessness
  • Violet = Cycles
CODES:
  • Planet - Sun - Mercury
  • Color - Yellow
  • Number -8
  • Card - Strength
  • Symbol - Lion & Serpent
  • Stone - Peridot
  • Note - E Natural

 

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“I always considered myself a bit of an outsider just because of my drive for understanding and my lack of finding the answers in any traditional spiritual/religious organizations. The time we live in is a time of great change and of great hope for our future but we must be willing recognize, accept, and be active participants in global transformation. As many people are awakening at this time to a feeling of destiny, I feel compelled to share my journey to the Know Thyself Initiative in the hope that anyone reading this that questions their “worthiness” to participate in this great endeavor will see when Jesus said ‘Judge not’, he was not just speaking of judging others.” —Dan

The Story of my hard path to Truth

It has been said before that you should never plan for anything because the only thing constant is change. Nothing could be closer to the truth in relation to my life and my understanding of the spiritual path. As a youth if you were to ask me if I believed in God I would have probably responded yes and left it at that. My narrow view on life’s ultimate purpose was painted for me by what little understanding I had of traditional dogma, but what I couldn’t possibly imagine back then was that I was destined for a roller coaster ride on my journey to self-realization.

When I was a young lad I was focused on the material things in life which consisted of going to school, getting good grades and playing sports. My focus and competitive nature took me all the way through high school graduating with honors and being good enough at basketball to earn a college scholarship. I put a lot of attention on honing my athletic abilities. I went to summer camps; I practiced drills in my backyard and took up weight lifting to stay at the top of my game. I was very driven almost to the point of obsession in fulfilling what I thought was my destiny: play college basketball and earn a degree. Yet sadly after that I lacked personal vision. I just thought at that point I would be fulfilled and happy and at the time I believed this would open the door to endless possibilities.

It’s been 11 years since I graduated high school and now that I look back I can see how God was working in my life and preparing me for what needed to be done in the future, even though I wasn’t even remotely aware of it at the time. Like I said, my only dream was to be good enough to play in college and graduate so I could get a good job and pursue the “normal” American life. It’s ironic how things turned out. Half way through my senior year in high school I was contacted by the only school interested in me as an athlete; the Assemblies of God college. Talk about your traditionalists. What I came to learn about the Assemblies of God denomination was that they are rooted in literal biblical interpretation and they have very strict codes of conduct for their followers. At the time, I was 180 degrees different and I lived a lifestyle completely contrary to most of their beliefs. Even though I considered myself a dedicated student-athlete, I loved exercising personal freedom. At times I went to parties, I cursed a lot, and smoked marijuana occasionally. I believed in God but I definitely didn’t think that I was going to suffer eternal damnation because I was breaking the rules or being a tad bit on the rebellious side. Let me say this, my rebellion as a youth I do believe was innocent, I was just testing the waters but it would soon get out of control and I would need to learn some heavy lessons in balance and temperance.

At the age of 18, I felt more trapped than ever before in my life. On the one hand, I had a college that was extremely interested in giving me a scholarship to play basketball, which was my dream; however it was a Christian college and I knew that I was not a Christian. The last thing I wanted was to pretend to believe in something that was not me, but then again it was a free education. I decided to be pragmatic and accept the scholarship to see where it would lead me. I reasoned that if I couldn’t handle the chapel sessions, the worship, music, or the prayer sessions, then I would just get out. I always had options.

I gave it my best shot. I went to chapel most of the time, studied the bible, and even went to the occasional prayer meetings where we would discuss spiritual matters. Coming from a non-religious blue collar liberal background, it was shock and awe for the first semester. Nonetheless, what I learned about myself was that I can blend in with almost anybody and even though we might not share the exact same beliefs, it didn’t effect how I treated them. I met a lot of very nice caring and loving people and I still have some people that I call friends from my experience at Christian college, but the most important thing I learned from going to school was getting a real taste of a spiritual life that I knew wasn’t the Truth.

I clearly remember approaching my 21st birthday. It was spring and I was glad basketball season was over and I was ready to explore the wild side of personal freedom and adventure. It is said that our lives move in cycles of 7 years and I believe it because I went through some major changes right around the time I was turning 21. Almost all my life it was impossible to separate me from a basketball. Even in the off season I would try to shoot hoops everyday, but all of a sudden out of nowhere, I had absolutely no desire to play competitively and much less even touch a basketball. The thought frightened me because I realized that if I didn’t play basketball then there was no scholarship, and with no scholarship there was no education and with no education there was no “good” job or “good” life. I suddenly realized that I was different than who I was before but I didn’t know exactly who or what that was. Instead of embracing this confusing time to relax and contemplate on myself, I decided to turn my focus on what I thought was my best avenue of choice: alcohol infused with reckless abandonment. I didn’t know where I was going and for a while I kind of liked it. I drank alcohol, smoked marijuana, and occasionally did other “party” drugs almost every weekend, but that did nothing to help me get my head on straight or do some personal soul searching. I was really empty and out of ideas. It was like my whole life hinged on basketball and for some unexplained reason I didn’t want to do that anymore. At my immature age I took my fears and frustrations out on my brain cells by trying to hide from the fact that I was lost.

After about six months of not knowing what to do with my life or what my calling was, I started to get really anxious about what to do. I was having fun but at the same time in the back of my mind I felt an urge to make a move. Then one day I met a guy that was living a couple of doors down from me in my dormitory. We both drank and at our small Christian community that was enough to build a relationship on. I hung out with him every once in a while and he liked to show off his masculinity by drinking gulps of hard alcohol and showing people his military tattoos. He started talking to me about ROTC in the Army and said that I would be perfect for it. I was in shape and had decent wits and it would give me money for college. It didn’t take long for me to be sold. I enlisted about a month after talking to him and after signing my contract in August of 2002 my future was in serving the country, or so I thought.

Even though my decision to enlist was quick, I remember having the same spiritual battle within myself when I decided to accept my athletic scholarship. Now that I look back on it, I can clearly see that God was testing me. Both my decisions were made out of fear. Deep down inside I knew that I didn’t want to join the military, just like I knew that I didn’t want to go to a Christian college. I knew I wouldn’t like the rigidity and the thought of wearing those silly berets scared me more than getting shot at in the Middle East. But I went against my inner voice because money has always scared me. The thought of not having enough of it was terrifying and now that I am older I can see that sacrificing your personal beliefs for money is a violation of spiritual laws. The New Testament along with a number of other faiths has said that the spiritual laws are written on your hearts, or if you meditate on your heart you will find the answer you’re looking for. I whole heartedly agree that our physical bodies are connected to the Divine through our hearts, however you describe it or whatever meaning you apply to divinity. Making those decisions went against my inner voice. My heart wasn’t into it and I paid the price.

After 6 months of basic training with the Army, I came back to my hometown and I felt completely different. It was kind of a refreshing feeling coming home from doing something different with my life. My good spirits were due to that or just the fact that I wasn’t coerced into getting up at 4:30 in the morning, or getting screamed at for no good reason at all. It was probably both. As I was driving down the road one sunny day through Lakewood, Washington I approached a book store on the side of the road. I had always wondered about that small book store. I knew it had to do with spirituality in some way, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was all about. I don’t have a reasonable explanation as to why, other than the fact that I was curious and felt guided to go in on that particular day. I pulled my car into the parking lot and without any hesitation I walked in. The very moment I walked in with the first step that I took I could feel that there was something different. The energy in the air was something that I had never felt before. It was so peaceful and calm. There was a man working at the front desk and I could tell that there was something different about him too. He kindly greeted me and asked if I had been in before. I told him no this was my first time and I guess he could sense my shyness because he just left me alone. I knew that I wasn’t a Christian and that was really the only foundation to my belief system at the time. Without warning or a reasonable explanation I wanted to see what else was out there. The first day there, I was so intrigued by the information I found that I spent at least an hour looking through several books. I quietly and unassumingly left, but came back within a week. This time I started asking the man (Craig) questions about life, about God, and about Truth. I enjoyed our conversations and I felt like my “vibe” was in sync with his. He explained his past and how he and his wife had witnessed the energetic return of the Universal Christ in Jerusalem in 1994 and I remember thinking to myself that I have never heard anybody talk like that before. He also shared with me that Humanity was in a critical time period and active participants in the Divine plan were needed. Again, at first I was taken aback because I had never heard such an idea before, but I was a curious listener.

At the time I was still beginning my own personal search into such topics as God, love, and energy and I was beginning to understand that science and spirit are the same and there was so much out there to learn and know. I could feel my mind and my heart opening over the next 6 months and I began going through a lot of changes really fast. My family and close friends were even making comments about me and talking about how much I was changing, but not always in a good way. Now that I look back and see myself from a higher understanding, I can see that my energy was changing quickly because the Fullness of time is compressed and everyone that is an active soul searcher must adapt very quickly.

Every individual has a vibration or another way of saying it; a certain energy frequency that is formed by their thoughts and emotions. That’s why it’s commonly said that when you walk into a room and meet a stranger: either you guys didn’t “vibe” very well or that you liked someone’s “vibe”. That vibe is what constitutes our being and mine was shifting pretty quickly. I mean I just got out of basic training where I was saying mantras like, “kill, kill, kill with cold hard steal” and who can ever really leave out, “what makes the green grass grow…blood, blood, blood makes the green grass grow".

I don’t bring this to light in order to brag or to scare anybody. Now that I am writing about it I am actually quite ashamed of myself for even saying such horrific things and I don’t care if it was while I was wearing an American Flag on my shoulder or not. There is no place in this world for that kind of thinking anymore. But the point really is that I was changing fast and I was really drawn to explore areas of myself that I had never been to before. But this created a problem as well. As I became immersed into spiritually I grew less and less attached to the military and my desire to fulfill my contractual obligations diminished almost to the point of getting dishonorably discharged. For a time I just stopped showing up because I didn’t want to anymore and “Absent With-Out Leave” is not something that Uncle Sam takes lightly. I was within a finger nail’s length of getting kicked out and I actually had to appear in front of my Brigade Commander and explain my circumstances. Since I didn’t want to get dishonorably discharged, I decided to make the effort to fulfill what I said I was going to do and after six years I finished my contract and left in good standing.

During that time however, I hit a few rough patches. Even while I was growing spiritually my ego still had a firm grip on my behavior. I didn’t completely quit drinking even though I wasn’t going out and getting “smashed” every weekend. I know God was telling me that I needed to change my behavior and eliminate alcohol out of my life because it was obvious that my energy wasn’t meant for it. From what I have read about my charts, Leo’s in my sector incarnate in order to transmute aggressive emotions. When I am sober I am very calm and it’s impossible to detect any aggression whatsoever in my aura; however once I let liquor into my blood stream, it’s a different story. They don’t call it an alter ego for nothing, because when I drink I become a completely different person. They also don’t refer to alcohol as spirits for nothing either, because as I’ve had to learn the hard way, when you inhibit your consciousness your opening an energetic gateway for less than altruistic spirits to inhabit your body. As time went on, bad things began to happen to me when I drank and as I got older the consequences became harder and harder to bear.

For instance, when I was 23 after getting inebriated at a Seahawks game, I decided to try to drive home from Seattle to Tacoma. While on I-5 I fell in and out of consciousness driving 75 miles an hour. My eyes kept getting heavier and heavier and I refused to pull over. Eventually I got so tired that I awoke right in the nick of time to realize that I was going to crash into the car in front of me, or recklessly swerve into other lanes of traffic. I chose to swerve and by missing the car in front of me, I spun out of control and hit a van on my right side. Luckily all parties involved were uninjured except my pride. I walked away that night in hand cuffs for Driving Under the Influence.

In another instance, I was hanging out with a friend of mine who was on leave from the Navy in Seattle. That night we both went out to a bar and as usual I started drinking and didn’t stop until I was blown. After a few too many and then maybe a few more, a live band came on and started playing really loud grunge music. Well, at the state I was in I was really motivated to start a mosh pit and I began aggressively shoving and pushing complete strangers who were watching the show. A few of them didn’t like what I was doing and they started shoving me back. After getting shoved, I collided with a guy behind me causing him to drop his glass of beer. My foot landed right on the broken glass which subsequently lacerated my left Achilles heel. I left that night bleeding profusely and in immense pain. Everyone has a metaphorical “Achilles Heel” or personal weakness if you will and life has an ironic way of pointing it out to you. In retrospect, I know that God was telling me as clearly as He could that my figurative Achilles heel was alcohol and in demonstrating this, my actual Achilles heel was injured; pretty ironic, huh?

You would think that those two events alone would be enough to get me to change my course but I was really stubborn. About 2 years after the Achilles heel incident, I went out to a bar with some co-workers and drank a few too many again. Well, like always calm Dan became aggressive Dan and as I left the bar a friend of mine who was also drunk pulled up in his flatbed truck. Without any hesitation I got into the back of the truck and he started driving. Recklessly I stood up in the back of the truck and kept egging him on to drive faster. The next thing I remember, I woke up from unconsciousness bleeding all over my body in the emergency room at Harborview Medical Center. As soon as I opened my eyes I knew that I had fallen out of the back of my friend’s truck. As I came to find out, my friend had been driving close to 70 MPH on a highway in Bellevue, Washington. I had fallen out of the back of his truck and skidded over 100 feet on the pavement.

After this happened my life changed very quickly, because I didn’t die and I didn’t even break any bones. I knew that somehow Divine forces were at work in my life and I knew that I was here for a reason. My consciousness shifted because this idea really began to sink in and I had more faith in God than I ever had before. I began talking with God and asking why I was here and for what purpose, because obviously my survival wasn’t due to random chance. While I was in the hospital, my older sister went over to my house to grab some items that I needed. She searched through my bedroom for all the things I asked her to retrieve. A few weeks later she told me that she was surprised to see all the books in my room about spirituality, philosophy, and history. She told me that it seems like you’re searching for something. When I heard her say this, I knew that I had a desire for Truth inside but I didn’t have an outlet for it.

After my accident I went back to the status quo of my life. After about a week and half off, I went back to work getting back on my old track, which I knew wasn’t fulfilling me. Looking back at this moment I can understand how the forces were operating in my life. After about a year I became fed up with my job selling insurance and I moved in with my brother who lived in Tacoma. I was living in Snohomish at the time and I just felt the urge to get out of what I was doing and try something else. I was going through a lot of feelings at the time. I was frustrated, confused, and agitated and I didn’t know exactly why. I just knew that something wasn’t right and some close friends and my siblings could sense it.

After going through the personal trials and all the emotions that I had experienced, I knew that something was going on but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I know now that it was all in preparation for things to unfold at the proper time. All of the experiences that I went through were quite painful and the ensuing emotional battles I had were just as enduring, but now that I look back on it I know that it couldn’t have happened any other way for me. In order to get my mind and spirit on track for the fullness of time, those are the things that needed to happen. That’s why when I received an e-mail from Craig and Suzann after more than 5 years of separation I knew that our paths were aligned and I was going to be on board with them. As I have put more and more of my faith and energy into the platform which is the Know Thyself Initiative, I know that I have found my calling by helping to find the 777,000 awakening souls that are here for a mission. Not just for my sake but for the sake of all of Humanity.

—Dan—