When I lived in Las Vegas, one of my favorite people, was Dr. Paul Leon Masters, the founder of the University of Metaphysics.
My kids and I used to head out to his place on Sundays.
At that time his University Church Institute was in a free-standing building on the south side of East Desert Inn Road in Las Vegas.
His address was:
925 E Desert Inn Rd. Las Vegas 89109
Now, there is no hint of it.
There is just an empty parking lot there.
And looking at the empty lot, nobody would have ever known that it was once a place of dreams.
Table of Contents
What It Was Like Attending Dr. Paul Leon Masters’ Church In Las Vegas.
Back in the day, my kids and I would jump on the Maryland Parkway bus near UNLV, and head north to the Boulevard Mall, jump off, and then walk West on Desert Inn Road past the package store bar on the left, with its adorning drunk, the olive trees, robins, and dive-bombing mocking birds.
After walking for about 10 minutes, we’d arrive, and head right to the refreshments.
There was a circle of chairs out back, on the south side of the building, under a covered parking lot area that adjoined the back door to the building, the door through which most people entered.
It was a lot of fun to sit out back under the overhang, drink punch, eat donuts and cookies, and listen to people talk.
Some people would show up covered in mystical macrame and metaphysical beads like they were trying to be gypsies or something.
Dr. Paul Leon Masters welcomed them all.
When Dr. Paul Leon Masters and Dr. Sandra Masters pulled up in their light-colored Cadillac type of luxury car it was a sight to see.
They really looked like a dream couple.
A match made in heaven.
They had it together.
They would park their car close to the building in the parking place just east of the refreshments area.
And there they were.
Out stepped “Hyonkers”, an elk of a man, majestic, and his beautiful younger-looking wife, Dr. Sandra. (We called Dr. Paul Leon Masters “Hyonkers” because of his unforgettable “Hyonk, Hyonk, Hyonk” sounding laugh).
Dr. Paul Leon Masters’ suits fit well, and blond-haired Sandra was magnetic, beautiful, spiritual, and an absolute knockout.
They both shook each of our hands and warmly greeted us as we all entered from the south side of the building, past the refreshments, into the meeting area.
If there was ever a crossroads of people with good vibes, Dr. Masters’ Sunday meeting had it all.
Yogis, Christians, Taoists, Buddhists, Mystics, and everyone all converged on the University Church Institute.
Some folks that showed up would sometimes wish they hadn’t though.
Dr. Paul Leon Masters Was Majestic.
Those that only saw Dr. Masters in his later years have no idea how majestic Dr. Paul Leon Masters was.
Sure, if anything, he became more radiant with each passing year, but he was once a literal Adonis of Metaphysics.
I kid you not.
Those oversized suits that he struggled to fill out later in life were not from a thrift store.
They were the very same suits he wore when he shone like an athlete on the stage.
The photo which I have placed above, and which I obtained from the University Of Metaphysics, comes closest to showing how Dr. Paul Leon Masters looked in the early, to mid-’90s.
My kids and I, all covered in metaphysical cookies and metaphysical donuts, usually sat in the audience, on the right-hand side, about halfway back so we could watch the metaphysical action without too many people staring at the backs of our heads.
There were two white chairs on the stage, one for Dr. Paul Leon Masters, and one for Dr. Sandra Masters.
It was for sure reminiscent of a Jim and Tammy Baker type of thing, but not in a dumb way.
Even when she was no longer there, he kept both the chairs.
There were two triangular mirrored candles, one on each side, and in the center was a white podium that had some sort of a mystical looped design on it.
There were deep blue, velvety black-out curtains along the back wall.
Nancy Abercrombie would be upfront, singing with her beautiful voice.
And looking across the room, it was like a sea of good people and God-loving souls, peppered by the occasional specimen of every variety of space person, hippy, alien, and mystic that could crawl out from under any rock.
All descended on the one place, and we were all sitting there looking around the room to see who was spiritual. Who was who by the way we looked.
I figured that the more zoned out someone looked, the more enlightened they were.
I had read a statement once from a famous Yogi, that said that someone with God-realization and someone that is totally insane will sometimes look about the same from the outside.
So when I looked in the mirror, I both liked what I saw, and didn’t like what I saw.
Some people were going for the mysterious look, being all dressed in black like a metaphysical Johnny Cash.
I didn’t want to look too clueless sitting there, so tried to look kind of half-nuts, as if I was gazing beyond the veil, into the great beyond.
I’m sure Dr. Paul Leon Masters was looking out into the audience seeing me, and just cracking up.
Trying not to pee his pants with laughter.
But to Dr. Master’s credit, he attracted a mostly good crowd.
A lot of positive thinking, good-hearted, loving people.
So I sat there trying to look all spaced out.
Hahaha. What an idiot.
There is a full range of brands and ideas in this world.
Some of them are pretty dumb to follow.
A diploma can make crazy ideas seem legitimate. It can lend credence to something imagined or made up by the misguided, the fakers, the con artists, or the insane.
Disclaimer: This article is not referring to, and not directed at any particular person, persons, groups, companies, or interests. Any similarity between you, your group, company or interest, to any person, persons, group, company, or interest mentioned in this article, is coincidental, and not intended.
There is a whole world of tricks and cons that have already been explained and debunked by others on video, so I’m not gonna get into that here.
Even so, a legitimate diploma, with a good background, and real information, can help set you straight.
Dr. Paul Leon Masters Tried To Help People.
Dr. Masters had several great on-track courses that he offered by mail to those that would like to learn the wisdom of the ages and receive a degree or certification that they can use professionally to help people.
Most of Dr. Masters’s students in my experience really were pretty great people.
Dr. Masters tried to help redirect those that were confused, away from many of the misconceptions and crazy ideas floating around out there in the new age and metaphysical world.
Most of those ideas were just collections of B.S. made up through the years. Someone wrote down their imaginings in books, and people figured that since it was in a book, it must be true. They sent away for the book, memorized and parroted out the silly nonsense from the book, and it became the reference for just another of the 10,000 topics of nonsense that you see in the New Age/metaphysical circles.
Yes, it is in a book, but the first person could have been wrong, messing with you, or just made it up. 10,000 trails of nonsense all leading outward, away from the one that is real.
But that is what they all have in common. Location, location, location. They all come from middle management, outside of you.
Too many people are seduced by all those sparkly external things, a whole variety of sidetracking attention-stealing, substitutes, that at their best are nothing more than spiritual middle management.
Every one of those suckers that a person could go to for spiritual advice, has their own set of filters that they see the world through.
If your spiritual advisor was a screw-up, their misguided ways could color or influence any information you could possibly get through them.
They’re still hungover from the night before?
No problem. Let’s rush right out and get advice from them.
Genius!
Once again I repeat, the greatest mistake seekers make is trusting in middle management, and externals, rather than going directly to the source.
The source, the first cause is your answer, it won’t mislead you.
My Las Vegas Tai Chi Teacher, Master Alwin Sit Sun Leung taught essentially the same thing.
He’d say, “You will never cheat yourself”.
Everything else is unreal, impermanent, not lasting, it comes and goes.
Remember, as Dr. Masters said, “You don’t even need me”. Go directly to the source within.
Dr. Paul Leon Masters Could Make People Squirm.
One day Dr. Paul Leon Masters walked in, and on the front row were a couple of the local characters that were spiritually advising people, using methods that had been debunked.
Apparently, they didn’t know that Dr. Paul Leon Masters was big on people avoiding not just them, but pretty much about any spiritual middle management, and taught instead, that each should go right to the source.
Dr. Masters even welcomed them, and always tried to help all with his Sunday talks.
So he was really kind-hearted, but he also didn’t hold back.
Well, the fake spiritual advisors were sitting there feeling the heat.
Some of their clients were probably in the room, and were looking at the back of their advisors’ heads as they sat there on the front row.
They were waiting to see if Dr. Masters would call out the exact kind of debunked methods that they were using to trick and con people.
When he started, it was a crack-up.
They were just sitting there like pigs in a sauna, sweating and squirming all over the place.
You could tell they knew he was right though.
Then Dr. Masters said, “No truly spiritual person would EVER present themselves as (a person that does that)”.
When the lecture was over, it was like someone opened the barnyard door, they got out of there as fast as they could.
So, Dr. Masters worked to guide people away from those debunked paths and inadvisable methods, and didn’t hold back.
And that might have been the best blessing that those folks could have received.
But it really was pure entertainment to watch this elk of a man march back and forth across the stage and make a lot of people squirm.
They’d start out just sitting there as if on some kind of vacation, but as soon as Dr. Masters started talking about their favorite illusions, they’d want to run for the door.
He was an absolute spiritual maverick.
Dr. Paul Leon Masters Had The Best Voice And The Best Laugh.
For years, Dr. Paul Leon Masters was also known as The Voice Of Meditation.
He had the best voice ever for guided meditations.
And it was largely content free. He wasn’t trying to throw a bunch of unnecessary fluff in there, or direct your thoughts into some imagined building, or a workshop, or a spaceship, or some other random place out of the blue, that had nothing to do with anything.
His teaching was really great and super entertaining too. Of course, it didn’t exactly match mine, but was still valuable to listen to. Especially the importance of going directly to the source, and avoiding middle management.
Sometimes he’d make the dumbest faces, stand there and quote old-time commercials, that only he was old enough to remember.
He’d mention them as if we all would have heard them before, and would know the memory.
If Dr. Paul Leon Masters started laughing, forget it.
My kids and I gave Dr. Paul Leon Masters the nickname “Hyonkers”, because of the “Hyonk, hyonk, hyonk…” sound that he made when he laughed.
We’d say, “Let’s go see Hyonkers” today, and then we’d head on out.
Dr. Paul Leon Masters’ Main Teaching: “You Are It. You Come Fully Equipped From The Universal Factory”.
After years of studying with Dr. Paul Leon Masters, and listening, and re-listening to his lectures, if I had to sum up all the most important teachings of Dr. Paul Leon Masters, it would be with these words:
“You are it. You come fully equipped from the universal factory. You don’t need me, or anyone else. Tell all middle management to go to the blazes. You have the CEO of the universe. Don’t listen to me, or to anyone else, go directly to the source, to the CEO of the Universe.”
It was the perennial philosophy, that which wise men, sages, and seers down through the ages have known.
Dr. Paul Leon Masters taught that we don’t need to sit around and wait for someone to pretend to communicate with some 5000-year-old accountant, that even when that accountant was alive on earth, no one would listen to him anyway.
Now, just because the accountant is dead and floating around and someone plays pretend to communicate with him, now his ideas are suddenly great?
I think not.
So that is about the best of the teachings of Dr. Paul Leon Masters.
Just Because Something Appears, Doesn’t Make It Real.
A stupid idea is a stupid idea, even if it comes with a lot of theater, appears all glittery, or comes and goes in a flash of light. It’s just more B.S.
If it can newly arrive, it can also newly depart, and that means that it isn’t lasting, and therefore, not the ultimate.
Only You are steadily here.
The misguided spiritual showperson is gonna eventually jump on a plane and get smaller and smaller as they fly off with your money into the distance.
They will become just a dot on the horizon.
Then they will be gone.
They will be here one moment and gone the next.
They will fly off into the sunset.
That isn’t lasting.
That which isn’t lasting is temporary, impermanent, and therefore not real.
If something comes and goes in a flash, you might say, “It must not have been real”.
But even if that instant or that flash could be extended over a longer period of time, it still would be no more real than it was.
If it was extended to the full length of an entire day’s seminar, if it can end, it will.
It will still end.
And then when it goes, lots of people will still tend to think it was real.
But it wasn’t.
It was just a temporary and fleeting flash that was extended out over time.
Like that cosmic accountant that died sitting on the toilet 5,000 years earlier, and might now be floating around looking for toilet paper.
But the fleeting appearance, that came and went in a flash, did appear to somebody.
It appeared to You.
You were the one that was there before the flash, you were the one that was there during the flash, and you were the one that was there after the flash.
You are even still here now, reading or listening to this.
Therefore You Are It.
You come fully equipped from the Universal Factory.
Final Thoughts:
Dr. Paul Leon Masters founded both the University of Metaphysics and the University of Sedona.
I like to think it was a sense of mission and service to the lost that brought him to Las Vegas.
I also think that part of what drew him to the Las Vegas of the time was that it was a pretty great and interesting place to live.
Even though Dr. Masters’ teachings didn’t exactly match mine, I still give thanks for knowing him to this day.
Dr. Paul Leon Masters was a spiritual maverick, and what better place than Las Vegas.
There was nothing boring about living there.
Eventually, though, he went to the mecca of the people that really needed him.
The people in Sedona.