Founders' Story

Written by Rev. Dr. Barbara Selwa, ADL Founder

My dear readers beginning your Alliance of Divine Love (ADL) studies, the history of ADL begins with me. I have always been spiritually oriented and psychic, much to the chagrin of my parents. (Who wants their kid finding her lost jump rope by closing her eyes and letting God lead her to it, or screaming in a dime store because her parents won’t buy her a crucifix for sale on the counter, when she’s not even Catholic?!)

Religious concepts always came to me out of the blue, and I wrote down many beautiful messages from God from age 10 on, and I am still continuing today. During the 1950s and 1960s I began studying religious approaches around the world, but none seemed to fully connect to my inner leanings. I briefly studied with Unity ministry but I moved on when my ESP seemed to explode, alarmingly, providing much correct information and contact with the so-called dead. I was at a loss as to how I could cope with such eerie phenomena. I found a slew of people just like me, however, when I attended Spiritualist Churches. This time, I completed my Spiritualist ministerial ordination. There I met Barb Hanshaw (later Rev. Dr. Barbara Hanshaw), and we became lifetime friends and coworkers in our ministries. Soon though, it became evident to us that we still didn’t have what we needed. In fact, what we needed wasn’t on Earth. People around the world tended to embrace one set of ideas and considered those in any other orientation to be infidels. Barb and I knew that God/Love was everywhere, in everyone, and that Deity didn’t care how we prayed, how we dressed, or what we called our religion. Why couldn’t everyone have the understanding we had?

So, Barb and I began laying plans to form our own collective spiritual search. We found other people who welcomed the same objective. There were (and are) so many, many beautiful spiritual people who threw their efforts in our direction. It began to emerge that a larger Force than we were was spurring us on to birth our new organization. We called our new creation The Alliance of Divine Love, Inc. On Earth, the ADL was incorporated to be a legally formed nonprofit corporation in accordance with IRS laws in the United States. I incorporated it in Iowa in 1971, and Barb Hanshaw incorporated it in Florida in 1974. I incorporated it in Georgia after moving there in 1976. Many other state incorporations followed, as well as creation of legal operating papers in Australia, England and Canada. The ADL grew and grew and grew. It continues today.

The above sketch is only a shadow of that which exists within ADL. A second aspect is the real ADL, which has its origin beyond Earth, beyond the atomic realm in a spaceless, timeless Divine Multiverse. It extends into all of creation, all universes, all planets, states and realities. The ADL Oversoul is the only reality. It is unlimited and is not bound by cause and effect. The ADL Oversoul simply IS.

Scientists tell us that there are billions and billions of alternate realities operating around us. Some are very like our own, while others are unrecognizable by our standards. Permeating these alternate realities in, around, and through, without beginning or end, is The ADL Oversoul. Its Alliance is the glue that holds the stars in the sky, the astral realms in place, our lives in progress. Divine Love binds us to all beings within these and other states. When you meditate, pray or make a decision, you are thus connected to these souls. There is no separation. All is One. Divine Love is life, Divine Love is intelligence, Divine Love is God.

Neither you, nor the greatest psychopath on Earth, can escape Divine Love. For you see, all is like beauty—within the eye of beholder. The Multiverse Oversoul is within each soul, and its attributes, such as good, peace, happiness, and success, are within your eye. The Multiverse containing all of the quantitative structures (the atoms, particles and energies) that scientists deal with are not its entirety. The Multiverse Oversoul is primarily qualitative. The meat of It is felt. Divine Love (a sentient Being as well as Divine Love) provides you with the power to choose how you will feel and operate. In everyday life, it is our job to operate using the Greatest Degree of Love. The Finger of Love will draw you along your path.

As you live, you will progress to higher and higher degrees of Love. As you study your ministerial lessons, you will accelerate, and by the time you have completed your program you may be very different than when you began. The above descriptions of The ADL Oversoul will be more than "good abstract concepts"; they will live within you and govern your life.

As you begin your ministerial study, you become part of ADL history. You are special―did you know that? It may have seemed that you chose to be a Love Uplifter on Earth, but this is not the case. The real ADL Oversoul has chosen you; It has found what It needs in you.

We who are already in the Earth-level ADL feel so blessed with you! We welcome you with open arms and will help you with anything we can.

We love you and are so glad that you came to us.

Reverend Doctor Barbara Selwa (Barb)

and SAOR, your loving lady saint