The Universe Loves You

By John Martin

The Universe Loves You: My personal history and your guide to making positive and meaningful contact with our Star Family.

 

Have you ever wondered if there is intelligent life beyond Earth? Do you want to communicate with beings from other realms and dimensions? Do you believe that the universe is a friendly and loving place that wants to help you grow and evolve?

 

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this book is for you.

 

You will learn:

How to prepare yourself mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for contact with beings and energies beyond this realm.

How to use your own unique skills, gifts, and intuition, to tune into the cosmic frequency.

How to recognize and interpret the signs and messages from our Star Family.

How to find your place among a world of contactees and experiencers who share your vision and passion.

The universe loves you and wants you to know that you are not alone. You are part of a vast and diverse cosmic family that is waiting for you to reach out. This book will show you how to take the crucial first steps while embarking on your own amazing journey of discovery and transformation.

 

John Martin is a classically trained guitarist living in Sandy Springs, GA. From a lifetime of playing music, while making his way through this challenging world, he has performed for many thousands of people from all walks of life, while also sharing the great gift of music, positive thought, and love into the cosmos.

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Martin
• Release date: Jul 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223029953

Book preview

Chapter 1 – My inspirations in first making contact

We all have the innate ability to share what is important to us with each other. These same skills that we have honed over our entire lives can also be effectively used to reach out and establish deep and meaningful contact with our Star Family.

But why would you listen to me concerning such a seemingly impossible endeavor?

It all began in Toledo, Spain, back in 2007, with a great hero of mine, President Jimmy Carter, whom I, and many others, consider to be a gift to humanity. Over a lovely dinner, along with his family, after we had just spent much of the day together touring my friends’ guitar shop nearby, the impetus for my journey was established.

I am a classically trained guitarist and have been playing guitar for over fifty years. Life is a journey and music has been a vital element for me as I have trodden this path, while slowly garnering a deeper understanding of myself and the larger world around us. I have been given (and I could say, perhaps earned) the great privilege of sharing the intimate beauty of this instrument with this world (and beyond).

This realization of recognizing and finely developing your own unique gifts and skills will be the key to your own burgeoning connection with the universe, as we proceed together on this path of discovery. If enough of us do this work, I strongly feel that we can elevate humanity, while fully healing our beleaguered Earth and all its inhabitants.

My friends at the Rodriguez guitar company have been making guitars for over one hundred years, only second in Spain to the great Ramirez dynasty of guitar building. They knew of my friendship with the Carters and built three very special guitars. I presented one of the guitars to President Carter.

The Manuel Rodriguez Guitar website:

https://www.mrclassicalguitar.com/

They also made one for me, which I was very honored to accept, and we had a third one that we were not sure what to do with. The Carter Center has a yearly Winter Auction that has many items donated with the proceeds used to further the work of The Carter Center. I suggested that we donate the third guitar to the auction. Everyone agreed, and it surprisingly brought in $35,000 at the auction.

I originally met the Carters at an event around the time of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. I was asked to play an important event at the World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta. I was only told that it would be a large event, so I had my guitar and equipment for large events on a flat, hand truck and entered the building. Almost immediately, I was approached by a very serious person and was asked my business there. He had a pigtail earpiece in his ear, so I surmised it must have been the Secret Service.

We were nose to nose as he sized me up. I simply replied that I was the guitarist contracted for the evening. He then escorted me to the large convention hall where the event was to take place in about two hours. I always try to arrive in plenty of time so that I can deal with any unforeseen challenges that might crop up.

As I was unloading, this same agent asked to look through all my equipment and guitar case. I stated that he could, of course. After a thorough inspection that seemed to satisfy him that I was, indeed, just a guitar player, he softened towards me and afterward was quite helpful and seemed almost cheerful when I assured him that I would stow my guitar case far from where I was performing. He said that he would take care of it, and it was one less thing for me to think about.

I still had no idea who I was to play for that evening. I had two locations to play and had made sure to bring the extra equipment necessary to perform in two distinct areas in close time proximity to each other. The first was for a reception before the main event and I spotted some celebrities and heard Portuguese and Spanish spoken in the crowd. Jane Fonda was struggling to make her way around some potted plants and security ropes behind me as I was playing. It seemed rather humorous to me at the time. My performance went quite well, and I was then advised to move onto the main stage as the crowd started assembling at their tables.

Over the intercom they began introducing the main speakers for the evening as they arrived at their seats: President Gerald Ford, President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter, sitting Vice President Albert Gore, Jane Fonda and a few others.

My equipment is also designed to be sent through the mixing board and fed through the house speakers. Having arrived early that day to make sure I had a good, clean signal, I was relieved to discover that it truly sounded wonderful, in my opinion.

During the main performance, I was playing pieces from my classical repertoire when I noticed that the sound person seemed to have turned me down quite markedly. I had just completed performing Caprichio Árabe, a beautiful Romantic piece by the great 19th Century Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega and was feeling a bit dejected with the thought that no one could hear me. As I looked up from my guitar, and to my great surprise, there were two sets of shoes in front of me. They belonged to President and Mrs. Carter!

President Carter stated that Andrés Segovia, the great Spanish guitarist, was a friend of theirs and had played that same piece for them in a tavern in Madrid. He had also played a command performance at the White House during the Carter administration, which gets high marks from me.

Segovia was a great hero of mine, and I have played many of his transcriptions over the years. One of my concert guitars was built in the same atelier in Madrid as the maestro’s, the renowned Ramírez dynasty of classical and flamenco guitars.

Regrettably, I was never able to study directly under the maestro, but my teacher John Sutherland had performed in a master class for him. These high-profile performances are what justify many guitarists adding this connection to their resumes, and for good reason. The experience can be very stressful and if the maestro is not pleased with your work, he will be quick to tell you so. Lyster Bass was another one of my teachers and I learned much about guitar and life under his tutelage.

I performed in master classes for José Tomás, who was Segovia’s teaching partner in Alicante, Spain. It was a joy to perform and learn from José. Unlike other masterclasses that I performed in and attended, he made everyone feel quite at ease and was as kind as he was incredibly talented, creating an environment where everyone played at their very best. I also performed in master classes with Christopher Parkening, John Marshall, and other notable musicians in the specific discipline of classical guitar.

I was also the managing editor of a classical guitar magazine out of Italy called GuitArt International for several years and have many friends and colleagues from around the world in this lovely world of art music.

Manuel Rodriguez Sr. worked in the Ramírez shop in the early sixties before branching out on his own, as many of the luthiers there have done. They would begin as apprentices, often as teenagers, and would be required to pass rigorous tests by José Ramírez III to attain their full luthier positions there. Historic Ramírez guitars built by his father and uncle are highly prized, with some dating back as far as 125 years.

https://www.ramirezguitars.co.za/guitars/

Another great luthier who began in this way at the Ramirez shop is my dear friend, José Romero. I am proud to have his guitar that he built at the Ramírez atelier in 1976, only a few years after he attained his full luthier status and a flamenco negro guitar that he built many years later under his own name.

http://www.joseromeroluthier.com/

There are now many hundreds of luthiers worldwide who work in their own shops and rightfully credit the legacy of these great traditional ateliers in Spain as inspiration for their own creative works.

As the Carters and I spoke for a few moments at the event in Atlanta, he noticed a stack of CDs next to me. He picked them up and brought me over to his table. I can still recall the moment as I was standing with two presidents, a sitting vice president, and Barbarella with my CD in their hands. It was truly a surreal moment for your friendly, neighborhood guitar player.

Standing, while handing out the CDs, President Carter said, Here Gerald, take this CD, you’ll like it. Here Al, here Jane, this is for you. He distributed all my CDs, including one for the President of a major international banking concern in Washington, DC. (I was reimbursed for all these CDs, which I thought was lovely, but was not necessary, in any way).

I have performed countless times over the years for friends and family, school children, the athletes in the Olympic Village during the summer games in Atlanta, politicians, Civil Rights icons here in Atlanta, celebrities, Nobel laureates of literature, among many others, and have now expanded my work to include the beautiful entities and intelligences throughout the cosmos. It is always an honor for me to share this great music that is so personal and important to me.

In 1997, I was asked by Enrique Iglesias, the president of the IDB Bank, to give a concert for their international concert series in Washington, DC, representing the United States for that year.

This is at the concert in Washington, DC on the IDB stage performing for their annual global series, representing the US.

I had also played at the inauguration of the second Clinton administration at the Naval Observatory where the vice president resides and for Mrs. Gore’s birthday a few years earlier, but I did not expect Vice President Gore to recall that.

I mentioned to President Carter about my friend Stuart Pennington and his father, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution reporter John Pennington, who was instrumental in his ultimately securing his first election win by exposing the real voter corruption in Plains, GA at that time, when actual voter fraud had taken place.

This clear violation of the public trust was revealed by John Pennington through his tireless investigations. He would write in his impactful article for the AJC that the dead were voting alphabetically.

I would later receive in the mail a signed copy of President Carter’s book Turning Point that recounting those critical days in his early political career, with a wonderful dedication from President Carter. I have a rather large collection of books, letters and correspondence from both President and Mrs. Carter that I treasure.

When I returned to the stage and began playing again, to finish my set, President Carter came up and asked if I happened to know Recuerdos de la Alhambra, again, from Tárrega. It is a beautiful piece that utilizes a tremolo technique. He said that it was his favorite guitar piece. It was my mom’s favorite, also.

I said that I did. He then asked me my name, again, and to hold on for one moment. He went to the lectern and immediately got everyone’s attention. There were over five hundred dignitaries from South America in attendance.

He asked everyone to stop what they were doing and listen to this incredible music, and he would like me turned up, and he would like me turned up right now. I later finished by playing Asturias (Leyenda) by Isaac Albeniz.

It was truly a magical evening that I will never forget.

The following day I had a gig at a local country club and was directed to set up next to the salad bar. I, of course, felt that I was above this sort of thing considering the glorious command performance I had just performed the previous evening.

A little girl was walking by as I was playing and dropped an entire plate of food on my shoe. She was about to start crying when she looked at me and we both burst into laughter.

I felt much better after that.

In the next few days, I received a letter inviting me to see a sculpture of the maestro’s hands that he had given the Carters and is kept in their private quarters at the Carter Center. It was a rare honor and a great privilege to share that experience with President and Mrs. Carter.

I brought my Ramírez guitar and performed Recuerdos, again. I also brought him a slab of spalted walnut (sitting on his desk), the same wood used for the base of the statue behind us showing a little boy leading a blind man by holding a stick. I bought the piece from Carlton’s Rare Woods and Veneers in Atlanta where the base for the statue was also secured. It was given as a thank you for his work in the pursuit of the cure for River Blindness. He is a woodworker, and I am sure it went to fine use.

I had a small camera that I stuck in the pocket of my guitar case. President Carter noticed the camera, took it out of the pocket and called one of his assistants in to capture the moment. He is so generous and considerate in that way.

It is always such a great honor and pleasure when I can share my art with dear friends.

In President Carter’s private office at the Carter Center, 1996.

In the following years, I have had many private meetings with the Carters, as well as performed at their church in Plains, and they once even came to hear me play at a local restaurant.

That was an amazing event in many ways. It was also the first time I shared a glass of wine with my friends. Additionally, just to see how the Secret Service are so inconspicuous but are ever vigilant when the Carters are out in public was awe inspiring to witness. President Carter took pictures with many people there and made sure to shake hands with all the employees at the restaurant, before they were whisked off in their SUVs.

The point of this rather long narrative is that if we are prepared and ready when opportunities arise, wonderful things can and will occur, and hopefully, great friendships are often born. This rings true for so many of our efforts, and further applies to our ability to have a deep and meaningful relationship with the intelligences beyond this realm.

When the simple techniques that I will share with you are fully ingrained and implemented, while also having a loving and positive attitude, thus allowing your conscious mind and spirit to be amenable to these wholly new experiences, great, important, and previously unimaginable events will unfold for you.

Remaining humble and thankful will also prove to be a critical component as you tread onto this new territory along your journey.

The summer following the first auction of the guitar, it just so happened that the Carters and members of their family had been planning a trip to Spain and they graciously accepted my invitation to tour my friends’ guitar atelier in Toledo, Spain.

When I arrived at their shop in Toledo on the morning of the tour, I noticed that the labels that were prepared for the guitars and destined for the auction in Atlanta had no place for President Carter to sign.

I jumped on a computer, modifying their original label, acknowledging that the guitar was built specifically for the auction and then created spaces for the year of the auction and a place for everyone to sign. We printed the labels, but they needed to be trimmed to their final dimensions.

Manuel Rodriguez, Sr., a great and important luthier, whose skill and history are legend within our community, brought out a well-used wooden block and one of his finest luthier blades. He set down the block and deftly flung the blade into the wood. I quickly went to work and trimmed the last of the dozens of labels just as the entourage was arriving at the atelier.

I can say that I have worked as Manuel’s apprentice, at least for that one day.

I first met Manuel Rodriguez, Sr., along with his sons, at Musikmesse in Frankfurt, Germany, which hosts this world-renowned, yearly music convention. I was there to promote my guitar magazine and to look for new advertisers. I had a small art